Things I Have Learned

The most valuable lessons in life are usually the ones we learn for ourselves and often the hard way. When they work properly, these are the things we can count on--the rock solid foundations that form the cornerstone of our changing selves and our understanding of the world and societies we live in. In fact, it's my own experience that once we let other people dictate what we see in the world--that's when the trouble starts.

We are something of a flawed species. I'm not original in this thought by any means. The various satirists throughout history--from the ancient writers at the dawn of written communication until media stars like Colbert--have all had a field day with our fallibilities and self-delusions. For a species with the unique abiility to speak and think, we have quite a track record of refusing to use them. In constructive ways, anyway.

Our current policitical mayhem is a case in point. Our candidates for president are not questioning the foundational principles, instead they represent a dismal attempt to be the most bigoted, uncompromising exemplar of a set of principles that are badly in need of being examined.

How long, for example, are we going to allow our lives to be dominated by a set of rules coming out of the sands of the Middle East? All the religions developed there--Islam and Judaism and the latter's offshoot, Christianity--have the same foundational basis. They all need reexamination. If we don't like them ruling our economies through their oil, why on earth are we letting ideas developed by a group of nomads rule our lives and the way we think?

In the spirit (my own) of setting aside two-thousand-year-old agendas and looking directly at the world rather than letting anyone control my mind by telling me what to see, here's my list of the things that I think I know. I may be wrong, but at least they are my own ideas rather than ill-digested pablum, which is what I see all around me.

1. All religions and political ideas sound plausible and idealistic when presented in their most abstract form.

Take Christianity to its fullest implication of sharing with others and you get Communism. Take Capitalism to its extreme and you get the reaction of Marxism. There is a spectrum, a range. Do we understand that? Can we determine how far along a curve we are willing to go? Of course not. Self-promoting demagogues have stolen that discussion by substituting "rules" and "moral laws" supposedly to put us good in god's graces--as if anyone could--and many believe them.

2. All religions and political systems are to be judged not by what they say but by what is done in their name.

Yes, Islam is responsible for violence. Sorry. But so is Christianity. How many times do I hear people say that someone is not really Christian or not really Muslim. But on what basis? The Bible is full of smite this people and destroy that people. People who say Christianity is not a violent religion need to stop cherry-picking the Bible. Politicians who claim to represent god and religion need to be shunned--god does not need Texas politicians speaking for him.

3. Political leaders gain and retain power by telling people what they want to hear and concealing whom they really represent.

There are several well-established ways in which people become leaders. Some as they say are born to leadership; others have it thrust upon them. One would like leadership to be a sacred trust instead of a way to become rich. One of the first questions I now ask about anyone running for office is exactly where their money comes from. It's a given of human nature that we will vote for our own best self-interest. We need leaders who don't pander to us worst impulses by trying to make us feel moral for being selfish. This is a shared planet.

4. Systems created by human beings--religion, political, legal, educational etc.--are suspect because they are created by human beings.

There is no such thing as a perfect or infallible system. Even the founding consitution of the United States is not absolute and is not pefect. The founding fathers knew this because they put in provisions for it to be changed as needed. Much better to look at the consitution as a living document. Many of those using it to hit other people over the head have not read it, let alone understood it.

5. The poor will always be among us and the power struggle between the rich and poor is a given.

Aristotle made the case long ago: the rich will want the power because they have the money; the poor will want the power because they have the numbers. The challenge is to maintain the balance of these competing interests. Wishing the poor were different doesn't make them go away anymore than trying to make them more "deserving." What is the right balance? Ninety-nine to one doesn't sound balanced to me--in fact, it sounds like the firing solution for a civil war.

6. Complaining that the world has changed for the worse because it isn't like the ones we grew up in is a waste of breath.

The world changes, period. In our minds, it may change for the better or the worse, but our opinion is immaterial. The sun shines, the tides rise and fall, and the world changes. In fact, individually we are part of the reason that it does change.

7. Scapegoating others (illegals, gays etc) is one way in which we allow others to manipulate us.

It's high time that we looked at how much self-interest lies behind the current efforts to look for someone to blame for our own economic excesses. While we allow our focus to be on peripherals, we don't look at the underlying issues such as who's benefitting from our distraction?  As many have said before, follow the money. Power is silent and exercised in back rooms. It is not out on the media waves screaming about being reborn.

8. Few people allow themselves to recognize how our lives are now governed and controlled by corporate interests (see above: follow the money).

In the guise of free trade, which is free only for corporations to send jobs abroad, our health, food, poiltics, media, mililtary, entertainment, and energy and so forth are under corporate control or influence. And you can add to this religion (those TV ministers are millionaires). This whole idea of  a nation "under god" is a fraud. It can be traced back to the late nineteenth century when big companies had a PR problem and paid big money to ministers (who else?) to conflate capitalism and Christianity--not that it was hard to do since the Puritans had conflated it before them (if you're rich, it's proof god loves you).

And, finally:

9. It is almost impossible for people to give up money once they have held it in their hands.

I always found it easier to pay my taxes if I had never seen the money to begin with. This is a general principle: it is much easier to give a tax cut than it is to rein it back once given. Tax cuts are a short-term subsitute for hard thinking in the long-term.