Suzanne, I think you’re on to something with your proposal to induce Trump to voluntarily leave office using a “carrot” rather than a stick. But I think the incentive needs to be different. I don't think he really cares about money – as we saw recently, he can grift a billion dollars pretty much with the snap of a finger. Money is simply one way to show what a big deal, how important he is. That is what he really cares about — his public image and self-perception. Everything he says and does is done in service of that — the actual consequences don’t factor in. So let’s play to that.
There are two stages to such an effort. He needs to be convinced that leaving now is necessary and in his best interests. Yet the message has to be communicated by those he respects and admires. According to Columbia U prof Jeffery Sachs, this would be a joint message from Puttin, Xi, and Modi (autocrats themselves, with gravitas on the world stage) — the message being that, for the sake of world-stability, things simply cannot continue on their present course.
Then to put this into effect, the message on our end to Trump is: “You’ve *won*. You’ve succeeded. You’ve accomplished everything that history needed you to do". Then in his “honor”, give him a series of “awards” — an elaborate trophy, a portrait, a statue, etc. — identifying him as “The most significant person in modern history”. “The man who changed the course of the modern world”.
Note that these are literally true but morally ambiguous (at one time Genghis Khan was the most significant person). Then people can project whatever meaning that they need to —for good or ill.
Think it would work? Does anyone in your network have connections to the above world leaders?
Wild thinking. The pivotal question for your idea is if God itself asked him, would he do something that wasn't self-serving? That is the sort of conversation I think it would be good to have, to toss ideas around. I wonder how that could happen.
They say there's only 5 degrees of separation between people, but I don't think I could get to those characters in only 5 links.
I wish this could be a serious activity. He is too dangerous.
I like your emphasis on interaction and engagement rather than isolation. Creating spaces where people can actually think together is increasingly important during these fraught times.
I hear the sadness for what we’ve lost, and I agree that it’s important to engage and work together to find our way out of the wilderness. The damage to our civic psyche is real, and your hopes for getting people involved and thinking together are important. I very much appreciate the effort you are putting into encouraging discussion and involvement.
The steps out of this will likely be slow, and sharing ideas will be so important as we work toward recovery.
I like the way you describe yourself: A "paradigm walker," I move among diverse contexts, with a goal of repairing the world." I want membership in that club!
I was curious to see Agriculture being spot-lighted as a spanner in the works for flow. I don’t know, except to say that it was considered to be a massive shift in human evolution about 9,000 years ago. Apparently, its advent coincided with an exceedingly rare planetary alignment not seen since until, well, just a few weeks ago; February 20th if you want the exact date. I’m no astrologer but those who are all seem to conclude that we are in for another seismic shift in our evolution. Whatever it is, let’s hope and trust that it puts us all back in the Cosmic Flow and away from the drain to which we currently appear headed.
A massive shift that advanced civilization doesn't preclude the development of agriculture being on the road to the great downfall. Hunter-gatherers, living day by day, didn't have enough of anything of value to turn us into a trading people, but, with agriculture, things got saved and so had trading value. That astrological dating, if it proves out to have a correspondence where what happens now is as massively change-making as the arrival of agriculture was, could call for a big heads-up to astrology.
I don’t see agriculture as the problem, or any technological advancement, come to that. Money is wonderful as a means of exchange. The problems all arise from our involved understanding of who and what we are, and of our fundamental purpose for being here.
Agriculture sent on a path that would set us against one another, not consistent with our purpose for being here. This isn't my idea, but an established one. Just think how agriculture created a need for defense and standing armies, as a graphic example of how that changed the game. Before that, there was nothing to protect or to defend against. Possessions did it. No evil in that, but a launch on a path that eventually would get us to where a huge course correction is vital.
Surely you’re not advocating that we should all go back to hunter-gathering? Agriculture, like AI, is a sign of human development. The challenge is to match technological development with spiritual evolution and use such tools to everyone’s advantage without danger or threat. That’s the complex bit.
You need to do some catching up with our developmental story. This isn't my idea, but a historical accounting of evolution. When humanity didn't have possessions, there was nothing to fight over. And indeed, the challenge is for our spiritual understanding to catch up with how good we are at technological development.
Glad you asked. For the very wealthy, money isn’t mainly used to buy things—it’s used to make more deals. It becomes a tool for acquiring assets, securing loans, and structuring investments, rather than something that circulates through everyday exchange.
So instead of money moving through the economy as spending (wages → groceries → services), it often stays inside a loop of asset ownership and financial transactions—buying companies, trading securities, leveraging holdings. The “paper” (or digital money) represents claims on value, and those claims are continuously rearranged in deals that tend to increase wealth rather than distribute it.
Money was supposed to be a token, coupon, or claim-ticket for things of value. But somewhere along the way, the equation got turned inside-out such that these intrinsically valueless coupons are now viewed as THE thing of value — the goods and services being viewed merely as a means to obtain more of the coupons. We are sacrificing real value for fantasy value.
That’s why society and planet are currently going to hell.
Very good. See my answer to Liza. And follow Corbin Trent, whom I've shared before. He's the best on this subject: https://substack.com/@corbintrent "Instead of stock buybacks for shareholders, we need to buy back the productive capacity of this country and put the ownership where it belongs, with the people."
What commonly is missing after the blame, fault, failings of Trump, then comes the “if, could, should, would” words about ridding ourselves of Trump. It leaves the writer and the commentors out of the picture entirely. Trump fills the whole page. But we were there before and when he got elected.
We gave our views, opinions, assessments, our prognostications. But we didn’t take the risks required to stop this from happening. Blame and fault only makes someone else responsible.
Until we take our own responsibility in the matter, until we admit, confess and disclose, that we didn’t take the needed action, until we’re willing to take the risk of being public, don’t expect things to change.
I stay away from giving shoulds and oughts and musts, and I criticize postings that are just that. It's easy to name what's wrong, but coming up with what we can do is the challenge.
Suzanne, I think you’re on to something with your proposal to induce Trump to voluntarily leave office using a “carrot” rather than a stick. But I think the incentive needs to be different. I don't think he really cares about money – as we saw recently, he can grift a billion dollars pretty much with the snap of a finger. Money is simply one way to show what a big deal, how important he is. That is what he really cares about — his public image and self-perception. Everything he says and does is done in service of that — the actual consequences don’t factor in. So let’s play to that.
There are two stages to such an effort. He needs to be convinced that leaving now is necessary and in his best interests. Yet the message has to be communicated by those he respects and admires. According to Columbia U prof Jeffery Sachs, this would be a joint message from Puttin, Xi, and Modi (autocrats themselves, with gravitas on the world stage) — the message being that, for the sake of world-stability, things simply cannot continue on their present course.
Then to put this into effect, the message on our end to Trump is: “You’ve *won*. You’ve succeeded. You’ve accomplished everything that history needed you to do". Then in his “honor”, give him a series of “awards” — an elaborate trophy, a portrait, a statue, etc. — identifying him as “The most significant person in modern history”. “The man who changed the course of the modern world”.
Note that these are literally true but morally ambiguous (at one time Genghis Khan was the most significant person). Then people can project whatever meaning that they need to —for good or ill.
Think it would work? Does anyone in your network have connections to the above world leaders?
Wild thinking. The pivotal question for your idea is if God itself asked him, would he do something that wasn't self-serving? That is the sort of conversation I think it would be good to have, to toss ideas around. I wonder how that could happen.
They say there's only 5 degrees of separation between people, but I don't think I could get to those characters in only 5 links.
I wish this could be a serious activity. He is too dangerous.
“The Internet is soap boxes, and we need conference tables” the visual of that is very powerful and spot on.
I like your emphasis on interaction and engagement rather than isolation. Creating spaces where people can actually think together is increasingly important during these fraught times.
I hear the sadness for what we’ve lost, and I agree that it’s important to engage and work together to find our way out of the wilderness. The damage to our civic psyche is real, and your hopes for getting people involved and thinking together are important. I very much appreciate the effort you are putting into encouraging discussion and involvement.
The steps out of this will likely be slow, and sharing ideas will be so important as we work toward recovery.
Thanks for sharing this reflection.
I like the way you describe yourself: A "paradigm walker," I move among diverse contexts, with a goal of repairing the world." I want membership in that club!
Sure! Glad to have company!
I was curious to see Agriculture being spot-lighted as a spanner in the works for flow. I don’t know, except to say that it was considered to be a massive shift in human evolution about 9,000 years ago. Apparently, its advent coincided with an exceedingly rare planetary alignment not seen since until, well, just a few weeks ago; February 20th if you want the exact date. I’m no astrologer but those who are all seem to conclude that we are in for another seismic shift in our evolution. Whatever it is, let’s hope and trust that it puts us all back in the Cosmic Flow and away from the drain to which we currently appear headed.
A massive shift that advanced civilization doesn't preclude the development of agriculture being on the road to the great downfall. Hunter-gatherers, living day by day, didn't have enough of anything of value to turn us into a trading people, but, with agriculture, things got saved and so had trading value. That astrological dating, if it proves out to have a correspondence where what happens now is as massively change-making as the arrival of agriculture was, could call for a big heads-up to astrology.
I don’t see agriculture as the problem, or any technological advancement, come to that. Money is wonderful as a means of exchange. The problems all arise from our involved understanding of who and what we are, and of our fundamental purpose for being here.
Agriculture sent on a path that would set us against one another, not consistent with our purpose for being here. This isn't my idea, but an established one. Just think how agriculture created a need for defense and standing armies, as a graphic example of how that changed the game. Before that, there was nothing to protect or to defend against. Possessions did it. No evil in that, but a launch on a path that eventually would get us to where a huge course correction is vital.
Surely you’re not advocating that we should all go back to hunter-gathering? Agriculture, like AI, is a sign of human development. The challenge is to match technological development with spiritual evolution and use such tools to everyone’s advantage without danger or threat. That’s the complex bit.
You need to do some catching up with our developmental story. This isn't my idea, but a historical accounting of evolution. When humanity didn't have possessions, there was nothing to fight over. And indeed, the challenge is for our spiritual understanding to catch up with how good we are at technological development.
"Money is paper for deals" is such an interesting statement. Curious if you can expand on that?
Glad you asked. For the very wealthy, money isn’t mainly used to buy things—it’s used to make more deals. It becomes a tool for acquiring assets, securing loans, and structuring investments, rather than something that circulates through everyday exchange.
So instead of money moving through the economy as spending (wages → groceries → services), it often stays inside a loop of asset ownership and financial transactions—buying companies, trading securities, leveraging holdings. The “paper” (or digital money) represents claims on value, and those claims are continuously rearranged in deals that tend to increase wealth rather than distribute it.
Money was supposed to be a token, coupon, or claim-ticket for things of value. But somewhere along the way, the equation got turned inside-out such that these intrinsically valueless coupons are now viewed as THE thing of value — the goods and services being viewed merely as a means to obtain more of the coupons. We are sacrificing real value for fantasy value.
That’s why society and planet are currently going to hell.
Very good. See my answer to Liza. And follow Corbin Trent, whom I've shared before. He's the best on this subject: https://substack.com/@corbintrent "Instead of stock buybacks for shareholders, we need to buy back the productive capacity of this country and put the ownership where it belongs, with the people."
What commonly is missing after the blame, fault, failings of Trump, then comes the “if, could, should, would” words about ridding ourselves of Trump. It leaves the writer and the commentors out of the picture entirely. Trump fills the whole page. But we were there before and when he got elected.
We gave our views, opinions, assessments, our prognostications. But we didn’t take the risks required to stop this from happening. Blame and fault only makes someone else responsible.
Until we take our own responsibility in the matter, until we admit, confess and disclose, that we didn’t take the needed action, until we’re willing to take the risk of being public, don’t expect things to change.
I stay away from giving shoulds and oughts and musts, and I criticize postings that are just that. It's easy to name what's wrong, but coming up with what we can do is the challenge.