There are so many myths being exploded at this time. One is, as someone said recently, that rugged individualism was enough to have a person be all they wanted to be in North America (I can’t speak to other cultures).
That myth underpinned economic capitalism. According to it, anyone in America could realize their dreams by working hard. That view was buttressed by being associated with Christianity as “the Protestant work ethic.”
It was used to disparage other systems. The word “socialist” eventually came to be viewed as pointing to traitors, at everything America was not. And anything that actually did benefit the common people, such as universal medicare, was branded socialist.
And the populace, who would have benefited most from a robust system of universal medicare, appeared to have swallowed it.
But gradually we came to see that the people in power and authority had no intention of letting wealth or resources somehow “trickle down” to the middle class and below. After automation turned the labor market into a buyer’s market, we watched as pension plans were dropped, the social safety net was shredded, companies were turned from vertical sources of employment to horizontal users of often contract labor, and jobs and careers were funnelled into the computer or shipped overseas.
Some people have not had raises in years. My pension goes up by .9% a year, while the cost of living goes up by a very great deal more. In fact it seems in general that prices rise quite robustly but wages and salaries remain the same – or for some are even cut.
None of us appeared to suspect that we were being sold a bill of goods. Even when junk-bond mania, the dot.com bubble, and mergers and acquisitions drained value from the economy, even when several foreign economies were scuttled by currency speculators, and even when the banks began to foreclose on mortgages, it seems that we still assumed that those in charge had our best interests at heart.
Revelations about such dark matters as 9/11, media control, weather warfare, interest-rate fixing, the draining of gold from gold reserves, etc., have shown just how extensive the collusion was to center wealth in the one percent.
Now we’re in danger of trusting no one. But that’s where we come in. One of the structures we need to rebuild as we construct Nova Earth is our social philosophy. And it’s my hope that we can see that no social philosophy not based in the divine qualities can last or serve as the foundation for a world that works for everyone.
Those divine qualities include such things as unity, compassion, harmony, non-judgmentalness, love, forgiveness, etc. The predominantly male ethic that buttressed our social views of earlier years, with its accent on assertiveness, competition, and force has little to contribute to us any more, if it ever did.
Now, instead of looking 0ut for number one, we need to look out for each other. Instead of eating their lunch before they eat ours, we need to see that everyone has a lunch. And instead of watching people go to the wall, unable to afford medical services or housing, we need to see that everyone has a guaranteed minimum of services and resources.
I remember feeling immensely proud of my country, Canada, not only for its universal-medicare system but for the array of social services that were available to those who couldn’t afford them. We need to return to those days and see that no one goes homeless or hungry any more, no one is denied health care because they can’t afford it, and no one goes without electricity, heat, or other basic services, for any reason.
Our wealth and resources, if shared, are enough for everyone on the planet. It’s time for us, I think, to take the leadership and direction of society back from those who misused it and to demonstrate that we ourselves have the benefit of the whole planet in mind and intend to see that all resources are shared.