Being transfixed by the Titanic submersible tragedy, with its mind-blowing nature that includes the absurdity of the 1% having that much money, I even wondered if it could be a wake-up to the billionaire class.
I want to bring something to your attention. Sometimes the obvious is overlooked. Governments (politicians) are for sale. All governments are vertical except in Rojava, Syria (4.5 million people) and Chiapas, Mexico, the Zapatistas. It doesn't matter who gets elected because when governments are vertical it is simple to either bribe, blackmail, or intimidate/murder the head of state and all the other politicians (( John Perkins on How an Economic Hit Man Operates - YouTube). Voting just perpetuates the corrupt system while giving the illusion of democracy and freedom. So, until this is rectified things are only going to get worse.
We need to break through their propaganda machine (msm) to create a groundswell for horizontal governance ((1) Horizontal Government - The Conscious Solution to End Corruption in 2021 - YouTube). Most people have never thought of this idea/strategy/option.
Protests are like group screaming, NO, NO, it's not fair!!! It accomplishes little if anything. Without a clear and effective strategy, it hardly matters if a government should fall, because again, the same thing, vertical government with a new leader. The billionaire/psychopaths/CIA behind the scenes will still control.
Please consider the logic of what I am presenting and if you agree, promote this idea. AI and blockchain are perfect for horizontal governance. It is feasible, government by and for the people with no authority at the top. That means citizen participation with no more politicians and no more political parties. The world needs systemic change and this could be the necessary platform for this. All cities and villages would enjoy autonomy under one agreed upon social contract that includes guarantees of human rights, dignity, and makes all human needs as easily accessible for all citizens equally as possible.
Great that you showed up here. Read more of my posts on your subject: https://suzannetaylor.substack.com/s/changemaking-now. They offer ideas in the category you're talking about -- we-the-people doing an end run around governments that serve funders over constituents. You are just the right person, with the savvy and the passion, to have conversations with. Help me find others. We should be talking to each other. My ideas are simpler to execute than the models out there for horizontal governance. We have a time crunch and we could well change 'greed is good' to 'fast is good.' Strategy for that isn't being talked about.
Well, old friend, I emailed you but I have an old address. It's a little personal for here, but what the hey! I said, " I have no reason to lie, so believe me when I tell you I was thinking about you yesterday – that we hadn’t been in touch for so long and wondered what was up. And I was going to get in touch!!!!! What’s up? "
I am in a senior center residence. I am 91 now, so it is o.k. I could never live like this until now. I am tired honey, I am just tired. One thing I can say, It would be HORRIBLE to live like this and know I never did a dam thing for humanity. But I surely did. So I am going with the flow. People treat me with great respect. They do try to make it comfortable for me. Food is very questionable. Very. My son also beings me sandwiches now and then. I am holding you with the greatest respect and admiration. Please, lets stay in touch. I owe you so much. love and grace, Ilene
We met when I was drawn to you sticking your neck out at some conference and I was so drawn to how bold and beautiful you were. As we aged, I've marveled at how ravishing you stayed, and that you were winking at waiters when others would have been in dotage. Give me email for you!
FAB! just hearing from you! FAB! ilene.m.cummings@gmail. Have had marvelous life and helped so many. It is nice to live with. I am in a senior living facility. After such a busy life, it is fine to let go and do nothing. I am 91 and my son lives nearby. Oh my dear friend,.....oh my friend,...... God bless us all.......
Billionaires ask for higher income taxes and even a wealth tax: is anyone listening? A group of over 250 billionaires and multimillionaires presented an open letter to the attendees of the “Billionaire Woodstock” at Davos, Switzerland this week. Calling for higher taxes on the morbidly rich, these wealthy people wrote:
“Our request is simple: we ask you to tax us, the very richest in society. This will not fundamentally alter our standard of living, nor deprive our children, nor harm our nations’ economic growth. But it will turn extreme and unproductive private wealth into an investment for our common democratic future.”
Valerie Rockefeller and Abigail Disney led the charge, with a letter that was both blunt and concerned:
“We are also the people who benefit most from the status quo. But inequality has reached a tipping point, and its cost to our economic, societal and ecological stability risk is severe — and growing every day. In short, we need action now.”
The group Patriotic Millionaires published a new poll of rich people showing that fully 74% are in favor of higher taxes on their own class. An additional 58% supported a 2% wealth tax like Elizabeth Warren has supported for years, and 54% said straight out that extreme wealth is a threat to democracies around the world. Nonetheless, Republicans will go to the mat to protect or pass tax cuts for the morbidly rich, no matter how badly they damage our economy and the American middle class.
"With science giving its seal of approval to the existence of an awareness that puts us in the soup together, as one humanity..."
What a concept...and a perfect way to capsulize the conundrum we're in. You're right...we can all envision a perfect world, and long for it in our purest humanitarian spirits, but how to achieve it as quickly as possible before we hit the gigantic icebergs, or the cliffs, ahead is the hardest part. The expression "herding chickens (or cats)" comes to mind, which brings with it a huge requirement to BE PATIENT, and tolerant with each other.
In that regard, I'm with Leo Buscaglia...what wondrously engaging "Doctor Of Love" that he was, when he said that if we only knew the ripple effect of simple acts of kindness that we can give each other for FREE, "we'd all be heroes." Each one of us who is, or professes to be, awake (not "woke," puh-leeze), can positively impact two or three...and gradually a dozen, perhaps...and each of them can do the same, and eventually the "Hundredth Monkey" principle sets in, and the elusive goal takes shape by example rather than by textbooks, manuals or preaching.
Until we can find a better way...or it finds us...that's the only way I can think of from my seven decades of living on this planet that we can hope to achieve a truly civilized society. BE what you want others to be. Live kindly, mindfully, boldly and compassionately, and set the example...one at a time, day after day and we can bring about the changes that are needed. The new generations will show us their gratitude in the most natural way because we will have moved the worst and hardest obstacles out of their way.
At the same time as we become more and more deranged (I can't get over Adam Schiff's censure by 100% of the House Republicans), there's a positive force which includes more and more people popping through to greater awareness and kindness coming more and more into play. Two steps forward one step back sort of thing in the dance of life. My part isn't to shake us awake but to herd people for the good into stepping it up so that our tribe prevails.
Couldn’t agree more. And I, too,, was shocked at the Schiff Censure (100%?!) Not one GOP lawmaker had the huevos to oppose? Unbelievable…but in hindsight, not really. It’s not even just about the politicians anymore. They’re just playing to their bases. It’s how divided we are as a population. They just fan the flames, and no one dies it more effectively than DJT. 😳😬👺
The wisdom council is such a good idea! It’s crazy to put one person in charge with one set of beliefs. There should be beliefs coming from all different places, and working on a single source of truth..
Endlessly admiring of your passion and enthusiasm and your belief... However, I rather shudder at the thought of a Wisdom Council. Personally, I don't believe we need others telling us what and how to think, such as Robert Thurman describing what Spiritual means even though he may be correct. Yet at the same time, we do need a collective direction and purpose, underpinned with an innate sense that this is the way to go enabling joy and meaning to return to our lives. I'm not so much a pessimist as an optimist when I say that humanity needs to be collectively "awed", and in a cosmic way that leaves no doubt as to our existence, or our place in the universe and connection to spirit. In other words, I believe humanity needs to be humbled, collectively and literally on a planetary scale. From here we can build back up without an external body of talking heads who presume or appear or desire to be wiser and more interesting than the rest of us. We ALL need to be humbled back to God, our DNA, and an embedded remembrance of the Garden of Eden.
No argument with what we need. This is an eloquent call -- among the others that proliferate. However, we don't have a voice that the world pays attention to that moves anything. It's all gadflies speaking in the wind. So that's what the Wisdom Council idea came from. It's nobody grabbing power to be on it because it would be as democratic a process as I can imagine, where the only person out-of-the-blue is the volunteer to start it and after that each new person has been invited by the group that came before. If you have ideas for how we can get significant movement to actually happen in any short framework, I am on the prowl for them.
We first connected over crop circles, and interesting you mention humbling us -- that's what I had in mind, where if it we knew we were being visited we would no longer be the big cheese in the universe and that would be the playing field for a new, life-giving understanding.
Compassion is the key. There are many “keys,” of course, but we are nothing without the core ability to FEEL one another, no matter who we are culturally, what age or gender, sexual preference or belief. We must back in our minds and be willing to see and FEEL the essential humanity in each other.
By that I mean we don’t have agree with each other, or condone aberrant behavior, but we must able to embrace common human decency as a fundamental dynamic in our interactions with each. Compassion is not a weak thing. It is a powerful force. It’s fierce love that can bring balance and kindness in the face of the worst darkness.
If you doubt that, see the movie “The Sound Of Freedom,” now showing in theatres everywhere.
I've got this on a computer smart key: "change our worldview to where we care about each other as much as we care about ourselves." Getting there is the task at hand! It's encouraging that there's more and more going on encouraging kindness. Same energy of caring.
It’s truly absurd. How rich are the richest people are and how much money does one need to be happy. I don’t have a lot of money, but nothing makes me happier than giving some to someone else. Hopefully all these billionaires are still people who care.
Decades ago, in an IRS audit, I was threatened with huge back-taxes. I invited the auditor to some consciousness-oriented event at my house, and, after he came to that and to a few more, he said never to tell anyone cause he was breaking the law (mum's the word), but he didn't want to get in the way of what I was up to so he passed me for the business deductions that they weren't. It let me know that when you expect people to be brutal it's always possible to find someone who cares, and now I always hold that hope.
Wonderful mature thoughts and musings
I want to bring something to your attention. Sometimes the obvious is overlooked. Governments (politicians) are for sale. All governments are vertical except in Rojava, Syria (4.5 million people) and Chiapas, Mexico, the Zapatistas. It doesn't matter who gets elected because when governments are vertical it is simple to either bribe, blackmail, or intimidate/murder the head of state and all the other politicians (( John Perkins on How an Economic Hit Man Operates - YouTube). Voting just perpetuates the corrupt system while giving the illusion of democracy and freedom. So, until this is rectified things are only going to get worse.
We need to break through their propaganda machine (msm) to create a groundswell for horizontal governance ((1) Horizontal Government - The Conscious Solution to End Corruption in 2021 - YouTube). Most people have never thought of this idea/strategy/option.
Protests are like group screaming, NO, NO, it's not fair!!! It accomplishes little if anything. Without a clear and effective strategy, it hardly matters if a government should fall, because again, the same thing, vertical government with a new leader. The billionaire/psychopaths/CIA behind the scenes will still control.
Please consider the logic of what I am presenting and if you agree, promote this idea. AI and blockchain are perfect for horizontal governance. It is feasible, government by and for the people with no authority at the top. That means citizen participation with no more politicians and no more political parties. The world needs systemic change and this could be the necessary platform for this. All cities and villages would enjoy autonomy under one agreed upon social contract that includes guarantees of human rights, dignity, and makes all human needs as easily accessible for all citizens equally as possible.
What we are lacking are real strategies. This is one. asambleasecuador.info
Great that you showed up here. Read more of my posts on your subject: https://suzannetaylor.substack.com/s/changemaking-now. They offer ideas in the category you're talking about -- we-the-people doing an end run around governments that serve funders over constituents. You are just the right person, with the savvy and the passion, to have conversations with. Help me find others. We should be talking to each other. My ideas are simpler to execute than the models out there for horizontal governance. We have a time crunch and we could well change 'greed is good' to 'fast is good.' Strategy for that isn't being talked about.
great article
You are still fabulous! Keep going darlin". ingrace, Ilene Cummings
Well, old friend, I emailed you but I have an old address. It's a little personal for here, but what the hey! I said, " I have no reason to lie, so believe me when I tell you I was thinking about you yesterday – that we hadn’t been in touch for so long and wondered what was up. And I was going to get in touch!!!!! What’s up? "
:
I am in a senior center residence. I am 91 now, so it is o.k. I could never live like this until now. I am tired honey, I am just tired. One thing I can say, It would be HORRIBLE to live like this and know I never did a dam thing for humanity. But I surely did. So I am going with the flow. People treat me with great respect. They do try to make it comfortable for me. Food is very questionable. Very. My son also beings me sandwiches now and then. I am holding you with the greatest respect and admiration. Please, lets stay in touch. I owe you so much. love and grace, Ilene
We met when I was drawn to you sticking your neck out at some conference and I was so drawn to how bold and beautiful you were. As we aged, I've marveled at how ravishing you stayed, and that you were winking at waiters when others would have been in dotage. Give me email for you!
FAB! just hearing from you! FAB! ilene.m.cummings@gmail. Have had marvelous life and helped so many. It is nice to live with. I am in a senior living facility. After such a busy life, it is fine to let go and do nothing. I am 91 and my son lives nearby. Oh my dear friend,.....oh my friend,...... God bless us all.......
@Thom Hartmann posted this today https://hartmannreport.com/p/saturday-report-crazy-alert-oklahoma:
Billionaires ask for higher income taxes and even a wealth tax: is anyone listening? A group of over 250 billionaires and multimillionaires presented an open letter to the attendees of the “Billionaire Woodstock” at Davos, Switzerland this week. Calling for higher taxes on the morbidly rich, these wealthy people wrote:
“Our request is simple: we ask you to tax us, the very richest in society. This will not fundamentally alter our standard of living, nor deprive our children, nor harm our nations’ economic growth. But it will turn extreme and unproductive private wealth into an investment for our common democratic future.”
Valerie Rockefeller and Abigail Disney led the charge, with a letter that was both blunt and concerned:
“We are also the people who benefit most from the status quo. But inequality has reached a tipping point, and its cost to our economic, societal and ecological stability risk is severe — and growing every day. In short, we need action now.”
The group Patriotic Millionaires published a new poll of rich people showing that fully 74% are in favor of higher taxes on their own class. An additional 58% supported a 2% wealth tax like Elizabeth Warren has supported for years, and 54% said straight out that extreme wealth is a threat to democracies around the world. Nonetheless, Republicans will go to the mat to protect or pass tax cuts for the morbidly rich, no matter how badly they damage our economy and the American middle class.
"With science giving its seal of approval to the existence of an awareness that puts us in the soup together, as one humanity..."
What a concept...and a perfect way to capsulize the conundrum we're in. You're right...we can all envision a perfect world, and long for it in our purest humanitarian spirits, but how to achieve it as quickly as possible before we hit the gigantic icebergs, or the cliffs, ahead is the hardest part. The expression "herding chickens (or cats)" comes to mind, which brings with it a huge requirement to BE PATIENT, and tolerant with each other.
In that regard, I'm with Leo Buscaglia...what wondrously engaging "Doctor Of Love" that he was, when he said that if we only knew the ripple effect of simple acts of kindness that we can give each other for FREE, "we'd all be heroes." Each one of us who is, or professes to be, awake (not "woke," puh-leeze), can positively impact two or three...and gradually a dozen, perhaps...and each of them can do the same, and eventually the "Hundredth Monkey" principle sets in, and the elusive goal takes shape by example rather than by textbooks, manuals or preaching.
Until we can find a better way...or it finds us...that's the only way I can think of from my seven decades of living on this planet that we can hope to achieve a truly civilized society. BE what you want others to be. Live kindly, mindfully, boldly and compassionately, and set the example...one at a time, day after day and we can bring about the changes that are needed. The new generations will show us their gratitude in the most natural way because we will have moved the worst and hardest obstacles out of their way.
At the same time as we become more and more deranged (I can't get over Adam Schiff's censure by 100% of the House Republicans), there's a positive force which includes more and more people popping through to greater awareness and kindness coming more and more into play. Two steps forward one step back sort of thing in the dance of life. My part isn't to shake us awake but to herd people for the good into stepping it up so that our tribe prevails.
Couldn’t agree more. And I, too,, was shocked at the Schiff Censure (100%?!) Not one GOP lawmaker had the huevos to oppose? Unbelievable…but in hindsight, not really. It’s not even just about the politicians anymore. They’re just playing to their bases. It’s how divided we are as a population. They just fan the flames, and no one dies it more effectively than DJT. 😳😬👺
Not playing to bases but playing to funders.
I meant to write DOES, but I suppose dies works, too. Something’s dying in all this fear, anger and distrust of one another.
The wisdom council is such a good idea! It’s crazy to put one person in charge with one set of beliefs. There should be beliefs coming from all different places, and working on a single source of truth..
Endlessly admiring of your passion and enthusiasm and your belief... However, I rather shudder at the thought of a Wisdom Council. Personally, I don't believe we need others telling us what and how to think, such as Robert Thurman describing what Spiritual means even though he may be correct. Yet at the same time, we do need a collective direction and purpose, underpinned with an innate sense that this is the way to go enabling joy and meaning to return to our lives. I'm not so much a pessimist as an optimist when I say that humanity needs to be collectively "awed", and in a cosmic way that leaves no doubt as to our existence, or our place in the universe and connection to spirit. In other words, I believe humanity needs to be humbled, collectively and literally on a planetary scale. From here we can build back up without an external body of talking heads who presume or appear or desire to be wiser and more interesting than the rest of us. We ALL need to be humbled back to God, our DNA, and an embedded remembrance of the Garden of Eden.
No argument with what we need. This is an eloquent call -- among the others that proliferate. However, we don't have a voice that the world pays attention to that moves anything. It's all gadflies speaking in the wind. So that's what the Wisdom Council idea came from. It's nobody grabbing power to be on it because it would be as democratic a process as I can imagine, where the only person out-of-the-blue is the volunteer to start it and after that each new person has been invited by the group that came before. If you have ideas for how we can get significant movement to actually happen in any short framework, I am on the prowl for them.
We first connected over crop circles, and interesting you mention humbling us -- that's what I had in mind, where if it we knew we were being visited we would no longer be the big cheese in the universe and that would be the playing field for a new, life-giving understanding.
Compassion is the key. There are many “keys,” of course, but we are nothing without the core ability to FEEL one another, no matter who we are culturally, what age or gender, sexual preference or belief. We must back in our minds and be willing to see and FEEL the essential humanity in each other.
By that I mean we don’t have agree with each other, or condone aberrant behavior, but we must able to embrace common human decency as a fundamental dynamic in our interactions with each. Compassion is not a weak thing. It is a powerful force. It’s fierce love that can bring balance and kindness in the face of the worst darkness.
If you doubt that, see the movie “The Sound Of Freedom,” now showing in theatres everywhere.
I've got this on a computer smart key: "change our worldview to where we care about each other as much as we care about ourselves." Getting there is the task at hand! It's encouraging that there's more and more going on encouraging kindness. Same energy of caring.
It’s truly absurd. How rich are the richest people are and how much money does one need to be happy. I don’t have a lot of money, but nothing makes me happier than giving some to someone else. Hopefully all these billionaires are still people who care.
Decades ago, in an IRS audit, I was threatened with huge back-taxes. I invited the auditor to some consciousness-oriented event at my house, and, after he came to that and to a few more, he said never to tell anyone cause he was breaking the law (mum's the word), but he didn't want to get in the way of what I was up to so he passed me for the business deductions that they weren't. It let me know that when you expect people to be brutal it's always possible to find someone who cares, and now I always hold that hope.