Why selfishness oftentimes creates so much misery

There is something to be said about going after our own self-interest, for that certainly seems to make sense for a given individual, to thereby follow their own dreams and to pursue their freely chosen path; and while it probably is a good thing that not everybody has the exact same self-interest in mind -- for that would simply make that particular pathway way too crowded -- it is, though, not a good thing that self-interests from one party to another, have a very strong tendency to inevitably collide against one another, of which, those collisions reflect self-interests that are at variance with one another, and thereby the raison d’etre for why there is so much misery, hate, and violence in this world.

For all those that are hoping and desiring for a better world, of more harmony, justice, opportunity, and fairness, this cannot conceivably come about through the implementation of each individual’s self-interest, above all   Rather, people need to step back, in order to get some proper perspective as to what each one of us should actually be about; and if possible to wrap our heads around the need to see all other people as equally entitled to the very same unalienable rights that we have been so graciously gifted with.  This thus signifies that when we are truly able to see other people as equally valid, and therefore we subsequently treat people the same way that we honestly wish to be treated in return by those people, then the divisions between one party to another, that seem to be so divisive will begin to erode away, for by that respect that we have extended to others, will in return, be the respect that we so receive.

None of the above, has anything to do with us behaving in a robotic fashion or doing this or that in some sort of mechanical fashion, as if our humanity and personality must be suppressed so as to not let our errors and prejudices to get the better of our behavior; but rather has everything to do with extending the courtesy and respect that each individual deserves, basically because they have been created by the exact same Creator that so created us.  So too, treating people the same way that we desire to be treated, probably means that when people do something that is wrong, or stupid, that we are less prone to desire cruelty or harshness in response, but instead we become more inclined to be forgiving and reasonable, to the degree and the perspective of the wrong so done.

The only possible way that each one of us can have the exact same thing, is only if that thing so desired, is eternal, omnipotent, immutable, perfect, and just.  Those that seek for something other than that, are going to be disappointed in one way or another, time and time again; for anytime that we place self, above all, we are going to have to fight tooth and nail, against all those others, that have the exact same mindset and won’t give ground on such. 

While life with conflict, may will make for an interesting drama; and while selfishness might just feel really good -- neither one can ever make us feel complete; those, however, that take that higher road of understanding that we truly are all in this together, are going to find, to their joy, though, the only prize really worth keeping.

That which you will not admit to is not going to correct itself

People commit all sorts of wrongs and sins, each and every day.  While different people react in different ways to that which they have done which is wrong or sinful, the most proactive way to deal with such is to take stock of those wrong actions so taken or made, and to then make it one’s point to correct them, now and in the future.  Of course, because each one of us has free will we don’t have to correct any of our ill-advised actions -- in absence of the law or some other authority forcing us to -- even when we know that we should; but those that will not correct that which needs to be corrected, will find, sooner or later to their dismay, that these wrongs will ultimately have to be addressed in a manner in which they are made right.

The very first step in correcting that which is wrong or sinful, is the personal recognition that they are, in fact, wrong.  If, a given person, doesn’t see the wrong, perhaps because it isn’t really wrong, or perhaps because they are perceived to be nuances or extenuating circumstances involved, that is one thing; but in those situations, in which it is all very cut and dry, then that is an entirely different thing.  Sure, there are going to be people, all day, every day, that are going to give all sorts of excuses and reasons, of why they are innocent of this or of that, but those that spend inordinate amounts of time professing their innocence, are often just delaying the inevitable of having to face that which rightly needs to be faced.

When we are unwilling to admit to a personal wrong, then that wrong, is not going to correct itself.  This signifies that those that at a minimum, admit to their wrongs, are at least on the right pathway to correcting such, but to get to where they really need to go, this is going to take a lot more than mere admittance of such.  For the very next step after admitting to a mistake, is to make good on correcting such a mistake, to the degree so possible to do so.  That means, for instance, when we have done a given individual wrong, we need to address our error directly with that individual, and then do what we can to make up for what we did wrong.  While making good on a wrong so done, will not ever undo what has been done, it will be the next best thing to that very thing.

None of us are ever going to be perfect, yet, each one of us has an implicit obligation to be the best person that we can actually be, and in order to accomplish that, we need to make the time for honest self-reflection as well as to fairly take into consideration the evaluations of our character so made by people that we respect and value.  After all, if we don’t care to correct things that we know for a certainty are wrong, and aren’t willing to listen to those that have our best interests in mind, then the nagging dissatisfaction that we feel in our psyche is our own fault, and none other.

The new American business model: subcontract everything

Long gone are the days when employers felt an ethical business obligation to hire directly employees to work for them; of which, that particular business would do its level best to not ever lay anybody off, and took tremendous pride in adhering to that principle, as well as the company making it their policy to pay their employees a fair salary with fair benefits, along with also promoting from within, and finally providing to those employees some reasonable degree of profit sharing.  It used to be that for many middle-class families that they could really count on their employer providing them with the security of a true living wage, that was good enough, to allow the purchase of a home, and to raise a family, with some reasonable degree of certainty that as long as the employees did their part, that the company would do theirs.

Nowadays, it’s all about money, money, and more money – of which the primary driving force for some of America’s biggest and most powerful corporations is to do what needs to be done to grow, to take market share, to increase profits, and most especially to personally profit those that are in upper management, above all -- as well as keeping satisfied the investors in that company.  When a given company has no real moral compass, except to do what needs to be done in order to increase profits and revenue, it is then very easy for that company to do everything in its power to augment those two very things, at the expense of doing right by their own employees and humanity, in general.

For instance, companies don’t need to worry about the negative publicity of layoffs, if they make it their point not to hire directly those that can be utilized instead in a subcontracting capacity. Further to the point, for any business that has a seasonal aspect to it, the parent company doesn’t need to worry about ramping up or ramping down, as long as they have successfully passed that responsibility on to the subcontractor that they have engaged to specifically address what they need to accomplish on behalf of the company, which therefore means that those subcontractors will do whatever that it is that they need to do.  Additionally, fair labor practices and environmental concerns will perpetually take a backseat when that work has been subcontracted to an outside agency, mainly because there are a lot of subcontractors in an increasingly smaller world, that are foreign based, and therefore subject only to their nation’s foreign laws; additionally, even those that are subcontracted domestically, will never be the personal responsibility of the company issuing the subcontract, but rather it is the subcontractor that has the responsibility to honor the terms of a given contract, not the contractor.

Finally, anytime work is subcontracted, the parent company can exert an enormous amount of pressure for that work to be done per the dictates that they so demand, or else that subcontractor is in danger of losing not only that business but also future business.  This ability to boss subcontractors around, signifies that to a very large extent, the hurdles, the problems, and the difficulties that subcontractors have to overcome, are their responsibility and their responsibility, alone; meaning that those employees that are so employed by those subcontractors are obviously going to have to bear the brunt of whatever needs to be done, while typically receiving peanuts in return, while the contractor, on the other hand, essentially ends up living very, very large.

The government should not be a law unto itself

In America, the government is supposed to be of, by, and for the people; but the very things that this government does, presupposes that there is little truth that the government actually performs for the people what it should or ought to be doing.  Rather, governments have a very strong tendency to gravitate to accruing more and more power over time, typically at the expense of the people, and furthermore, utilizing that power for the benefit of those that are the actuators of that government, as well as for those that are the functionaries of that elite for their service to them.

It is well to remember that the reason why governments are formed to begin with, is to protect the unalienable rights that each one of us is born with, to promote the general welfare and happiness of those people, and to join together into one body politic so as to protect the country from enemies, foreign and domestic. In other words, good governance, makes for a society in which the people are justly and fairly treated, provides those people with good opportunity to become something of merit through quality education and gainful employment, while also helping to create the infrastructure that encourages the people to work together to make for the improvement and the enhancement of that society, ultimately, for the greater benefit of those people.  Further, governments are needed in order to assure that some sort of “fair play” is always taken into consideration, so that one faction, of the few and select, does not come to dominate the majority, by essentially “gaming the system” so that these favored few, rule the roost, so to speak, and thereby leaving just the scraps for the general public to fight over.

So then, it is important that the government has the power to enforce the laws, to enforce the rules and regulations, and in general, to see to it that what needs to be done in order to have a vibrant civilized society, is so done.  Not too surprisingly, to accomplish that, does take to a certain extent, the usage of the “big stick,” but such should be done in a manner that does not oppress the people, unduly; for far too many countries are prone to utilizing the policing and military arm of their respective government, to keep the people in their place, which clearly is indicative of an “us vs. them” mentality – as opposed to acknowledging that legitimate complaints and concerns, necessitates the courtesy of that government actually listening to the people and thereby responding to those people in a meaningful and constructive way. 

In today’s world, far too many governments have aggrandized onto themselves incredible powers, both explicit and implicit, as well as gathering reams upon reams of actionable information about the individual people that they ostensibly are supposed to serve.  When that governmental power is further enhanced by their coordination with the biggest multinational corporations that the world has ever known, joined together in their common cause, so as to exploit, to control, and to primarily benefit these specific entities at the expense of the people – we then are living within a construct in which that government does not represent the people, but rather is an agency, which effectively answers to no one, and of which those people, therefore, are not free but are, in effect, servants to that power.

We are so much more than just our five senses

Most everyone is aware that we are born with five senses, which are commonly known as touch, smell, taste, hearing, and sight.  Because we perceive the world through those senses, we have a very strong tendency then to define reality by just those senses.  That is a grave mistake because not everything that exists or that can exist is something that our senses are able to rightly perceive.  In other words, if we don’t perceive something through our five senses, and thereby dismiss such that has not been perceived, we have done ourselves and society a great disservice.

To believe, that somehow that humankind is the measure of all that life or consciousness could possibly be conceived by, is a delusion.  Rather, the fact is that there is far more to the construct of this world than meets the eye or any of our other senses, for that matter; of which, we simply lack the mindful capacity to fully comprehend all that is about us, which should be our very first clue that far more of us, need to spend far more time in the contemplation of, and the humility to, what consciousness and life thereby beyond just this physical form might so represent. 

Again, to get locked into a concept in which we only relate to that which is discovered by our perceptions, and thereby to dismiss all that we cannot comprehend through our five senses and our mind, as of no relevancy is a clear hindrance in our understanding of who and what we really are.  At a minimum, this world proves to us again and again, that there are forces within it, that are relevant, and not all of these forces are we able to measure with our human instruments or to fathom within our mind; yet, they are forces all the same.  So too, there are plenty of concepts and theorems, that the average person has difficulty in comprehending, yet, these are valid in their own right, despite a given person’s lack of understanding.

Additionally, we need to take into serious consideration that when we are just reliant on our five senses, along with the thoughts that come into our mind, and nothing else, then clearly those domains that lay outside of these, are going to be a difficult proposition to even consider or to conceive of, and thereby impossible to fully comprehend, because we are limited in our understanding of such.  This signifies that those that have the audacity to declare that there is no God, and that all that we are is limited to just this physical sphere, along with the brief consciousness that we have here upon it, are really, at best, barking up the wrong tree.

As the inestimable Shakespeare wrote, “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”  It would be well to remember also “what a piece of work is man,” he of the most noble and ignoble thoughts and deeds, of which the more that we learn about ourselves, the more that there is to learn, of which, this is an area that we do not yet have full appreciation of – especially, in regards to all of the respective intricacies about how everything works, or even why it works the way that it does work.  All those that are capable of introspection, have an obligation to, ponder, why it is that we are here, and further, who we are; for that then leads us to enlightenment.

The lure and the comfort of material possessions

As it has been said, we are “living in a material world”.  Of course, not everyone buys into that, but then again, in America, it sure seems like an awful lot of people not only buy into it, but truly live their lives in a manner in which they absolutely believe it.  For those, that see this life as the only life that they will ever have, then for a certainty, for them, having and accumulating material possessions allows them to have some sort of comfort and pleasure, in the here and now, especially as contrasted with the fact that certain death will come, either before its time, or later when one is old and decrepit. 

Additionally, when it comes to material possessions, some people are drawn to the accumulation of such, and subsequently the displaying of such, as a form of getting or earning social status.  That is the reason why, some people, whose finances are somewhat suspect, will purchase an expensive purse, or pocketbook, or even a luxury automobile, even when it doesn’t really make any good financial sense to do so; of which, they are drawn to doing exactly that, in order to project themselves to the outside world, as someone that is successful and thereby deserving of a certain respect, that others without such visible accouterments are therefore unable to personally display, implying that these others are not worthy of the equivalency of that status.

So too, material possessions can bring us not only comfort, but also some degree of happiness, because material things often have real utilitarian value.  For instance, those that have good air conditioning, and are using it on an absolutely brutally hot day, have a possession well worth having. Additionally, those that have very useful things, are able to not only derive the benefit of having a really nice phone, for example, but are also able to take in the compliments from those that wish they had the same thing, thereby being essentially twice blessed.

Clearly then, those with a fair amount of material possessions of which these items are providing them with good value and satisfaction, are seemingly in a really good place, that would appear to place them well above all those others that lack those material things, and especially those others, that not only lack such, but really wish that they had such.  Yet, despite it all, hanging over the heads of those that overly appreciate material items, is Damocles’ sword, for what cannot be avoided is the finality of physical death; and while certain material possessions can be passed down from generation to generation, those that were once owners of such, even though they can direct as to where and what so happens with those possessions, cannot conceivably anticipate, after their demise, unanticipated perils or complications, thereof.

So then, it could be said, that one’s lure for material possessions are to a certain degree, for some people, the “comfort food” for those that believe that our physical presence is all that we will ever be, and believing that, they take solace in having things that provide them with some degree of satisfaction and happiness.   That said, the very tricky thing about material possessions, is that often times, the satisfaction and happiness of having such is rather fleeting, and thereby the desire to have more, or to have something else, creates a construct in which the selfishness of a given person, invariably meets the selfishness of another, and that conflict, could be said, to be the salient reason why there is so much misery in this world.

American and European war entanglements

Nowadays, with America getting involved all over the world in foreign entanglements, it could be said that this must be the natural order of things -- of which such is commonly known by society as being an empire.  Yet, it really doesn’t have to be that way and upon the founding of this independent republic, the United States of America really was wholly independent, and made it public policy to be that way.  It would be well to remember, that European nations upon the inception of the United States, had been warring one with another, for centuries, and would continue to do so for decades afterwards.  That fact, that European nations were forever battling against one another, was beneficial for our American revolution, for France and Great Britain were clearly on opposite sides, which is why France came to our aid, for “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” 

Soon thereafter, France suffered through its own bloody revolution, and thereupon with Napoleon coming to power, France along with its allies, soon thereof, sought to expand its domain, and was inevitably met by Great Britain with its allies, so creating a battle royale, one against the other. No doubt, France as well as Great Britain, could have utilized the resources of America on behalf of their respective goals and desires, but America refused to be dragged into this European conflict and thereby remained neutral and disentangled; content instead to concentrate upon the making of America to be a great nation, in its own right. 

To this wise philosophy, America continued to be true, until that time, that it got pulled into World War I, which was thereby subsequently followed by World War II.   Upon the conclusion of World War II, America had a fundamental decision to make, as to whether to claim the European mantle and thereby to take those additional incumbent actions to become an empire, or whether to leave such alone; and like President Washington, at the height of his powers, simply retire to its own domain, and thereby to be relieved of the potential troubles, difficulties, and peculiarities of the burden of international dynastic power.

History tells us, that America decided to become an empire, and further not to just have entanglements in European affairs, but rather to have entanglements all over the entire globe.  No doubt, some people see this as a good thing, but whether it is good or not, is superseded by the fact that the intent of those founding this nation and of its Constitution, was for America to be a land of domestic tranquility, to promote the general welfare of its people, and to secure the blessings of liberty for them.  Instead, America is stuck in all sorts of nasty foreign affairs, and thereby has created enemies and resentments all over the world, thereby impugning its image as a nation of liberty and freedom, by replacing such with the image of a greedy and unjust world domination oppressor.

Those that insist upon sticking their noses into other people’s affairs, and then to act upon such as per their wont, are prone to suffer the blowback of those people that resent being told what to do, how to behave, as well as not appreciating being schooled by a bully.  In foreign affairs, not every door needs to be opened, not every battle enjoined, and all those that still decide to venture in, are those that soon become so entangled that they do not know how to properly extricate themselves from the trouble that they have bought themselves into, but can’t seem to ever un-buy themselves from.

The Congressional War Powers Resolution Act

The power to declare war is one of those very important powers, that those that debated upon our Constitution, were well aware of; in which they well understood the importance and the dangers of such.  Therefore, the fact that the power to declare war as written into our Constitution, clearly stipulates that this power rests specifically in the hands of Congress, as per Article 1, Section 8, of said Constitution, proves unequivocally that this country did not wish to have the power to declare such war solely in the hands of just one person, as in the Executive officer.  Yet, America has been in one war or another, for the entire 21st century, as well as having two undeclared wars, the Korean and the Vietnam war that cost the lives of thousands upon thousands of United States soldiers.

In the waning time of Nixon’s reign, Congress, decided to pass the War Powers Resolution Act, and despite Nixon’s subsequent veto, Congress successfully overrode that veto.  Basically, that Congressional act, though arguably, not necessary as the Constitution already authorized war as being the sole domain of Congress, provided, what appeared to be, some well needed redundancy, so that America would not utilize its military force in foreign conflicts, without the expressed approval for war by that Congress.

Yet, as in most everything, there is the law as written, the legislation as passed, and then there is the reality of the situation as practiced; of which, America continues to engage in war after war, without bothering to consult, let alone receive an actual declaration of war from its Congress.  So too, the Judicial side of our three-branch government, in regards to weighing in on Executive declared wars, finds itself, perpetually just sitting on its hands, doing nothing, adding nothing, and seeing nothing, untoward.  Therefore, it can only be in a construct in which Congress actually decides to show some spine, by standing up as one against the Executive branch, in regards to these undeclared wars, that the Constitution, as well as the War Powers Resolution, would have any relevancy in the real world, and until that is done, absolutely nothing will change.

Of course, for those that are cynical, they might just believe that the real reason why Congress has ceded their power to declare war to that Executive office, has a lot more to do with the fact that their lust for getting elected and thereby getting re-elected, signifies their clear willingness to not stand in the way of what the military-industrial-technology complex so desires, and what they desire, is constant war; which makes for constant growth and good profit.  So then, in a time in which Congress sheepishly steps aside, and with the Judicial branch demonstrating no interest at all, this thus means that only one person, the Executive, needs to greenlight our ever-constant wars; of which, perhaps that Executive wouldn’t even be in office, if it wasn’t an absolute certainty that they would be obedient to that military-industrial-technology complex, which exerts an immense amount of persuasive power, all under the guise that only war will bring lasting peace – though it that was true, profits and growth for that  military-industrial-technology complex would correspondingly go way, way, down.

Either it is world domination or it will be world sharing

There is only one superpower in the world, today, and that superpower has already stated back in 2001, that “Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists.”  Yet, as clear as this statement is, it doesn’t actually say that being with the United States, means sharing in the fair benefits of such an alliance, but rather it would seem to indicate, that there is just one empire, and thereby all other nations have a choice between paying appropriate tribute to that superpower, or to suffer the sad fate, of seeing that fury potentially unleashed against all those that have the temerity to profess their right to their own self-determination or to respectfully disagree with the voice of that superpower.

Regrettably, America relies far too often upon its domination and thereby through exploitation to make its money upon those that do not have the power, resources, or negotiation skills to do much but to humbly kowtow to its demands; thereby providing due benefit for its multinational enterprises, which are dutifully backed up by America’s awesome military force.  There is, of course, more than one way for America as the sole superpower to interact with other nations, and especially those nations that it is allied with, which is a construct in which there is less outright domination and bullying, replaced instead by sharing, respect, and fairness.

All those that insist upon their way, solely because they are the ones with the power to have their way, must recognize that sooner or later, there will come that time, when the power of that nation, will begin to invariably erode, then that nation will stumble and slip, and it so follows that all those that have been oppressed for so long, and thereby have been used, discarded, and exploited, will soon enough find the wherewithal to press their newfound advantage in a way in which because they have received no quarter from that dominant superpower, that they will in return, give none.

It doesn’t have to be that way, for countries, just as in people, have many choices that they can make.  So then, if one nation insists that it is everybody’s superior, and therefore that everybody else is its inferior, this will not have a good result for that nation when the tables are thereby turned.  While it is true, that the battle may not initially go to those that are gracious, kind, considerate, fair, just, and accommodating, it is well to remember, that those that live by the sword, must know for a certainty, that they or their future generations, will certainly die by that very same sword.  On the other hand, those, even those that have been tyrants for generations, but later have consciously made a real sharp turn in the road, to thereby live in a manner in which they see the value of sharing their wealth, their knowledge, and their power with all others, might very well find that the world becomes a safer, better, and saner place.

All those that preach liberty and unalienable rights, have a sacred responsibility to be that very thing, or else they will one day be humbled and then as sure as the night follows the day, they will receive their just deserts.

Multinational companies are taking advantage of labor

Unions have been in steep decline in America for decades.  Perhaps, this might be okay if the incomes of those so working had kept pace with the increase in productivity during those same decades, but clearly that is not the case, as corporate profits are quite strong, but wages so being paid, are not.  It must be remembered that human beings need income in order to live and to support their family obligations, and in absence of any individual labor power, those seeking employment are pretty much in no position to bargain for a fair wage, let alone a living wage, and with the government offering little of substance to help those that labor for a fair wage, the result is the ever-greater disparity between those that have it all, and those that have little or nothing.

The biggest reason for why domestic labor is in such sour shape at the present time, lays at the feet of those multinational companies that this government has continue to permit, almost without restriction, to produce and to manufacture their goods in those countries that are favorable for cheap labor and lax environmental conditions and then to thereby sell those goods all over the world, with a minimum of tariffs, duties, excise taxes, or income taxes, so applied, whatsoever.  Obviously, for those companies so creating goods outside the borders of this nation, in which, the playing field of how much it costs for them to manufacture such a good, is not a level playing field -- they see such manufacturing done under their aegis as both a way to stay competitive, and also clearly as a way to increase profits for the prime benefit of those that are of upper management as well as for those equity investors in said companies.

This thus signifies that in absence of robust unions, that domestic labor will continue to be underpaid, underappreciated, and underutilized in America, for multinationals clearly have alternatives to domestic labor which they have availed themselves of, again and again.  So then, there should be some sort of reasonable rules enforced by the government, applicable to those multinationals that do a significant amount of their manufacturing and production overseas, of which, these companies, for instance, would be taxed accordingly so that we wouldn’t have a construct in which a privileged portion of the private sector reaps all of the benefits, whereas the government ends up stuck socializing all of the costs so as to take care of their own in this country.

No matter how efficient domestic labor is, they cannot compete on a cost basis with third world nations.  So too, appropriate environmental laws and safety concerns so imposed in America, are easily circumvented by the moving of manufacturing overseas to third world nations, that typically do not have the same sort of restrictions and regulations for their environment, let alone their labor, as America does.  At this point the only possible hope for domestic labor to get some sort of fair deal, going forward, is for its government to take a more active role in seeing that labor is considered to be an institution worth defending -- because clearly this is not a fair fight, and in consideration that this is a nation which is of, for, and by the people, our government needs to demonstrate in principle the living truth of those words, or continue to live the lie.

Free speech and the workplace

Just about everyone is familiar with the concept of “free speech,” and further believe that it entitles them to say whatever that they want to say, with the exception of speech that is likely to incite “imminent lawless action.”  That certainly seems like a reasonable restriction to have, of which, the value of free speech, though, cannot be overstated, for we each have our own free thoughts and many people have a tendency to desire to express them to others, some with self-censoring and some not so much.

The thing about free speech, is that free speech is subject to being restricted at another place where many of us spend a significant amount of our time at, which is that inside private workplaces, the employer of such, has the right to restrict free speech while those that are so employed are working.  This means that employers can prohibit conversation between employee to employee, and therefore those employees do not have the intrinsic right to speak one to another while they are working.

Those that are used to being able to speak their mind, especially in a nation that prides itself as being the land of the free, would probably be rather dismayed in being restricted in their being ability to talk, especially when they have to devote so many hours in a given day to work.  Yet, that is the law as currently interpreted, which thankfully isn’t of real relevance in most workplaces, especially those workplaces that white collar workers are employed at.  However, in those workplaces, that blue collar workers are employed at, they could well be subject to such a rule; and then as for those workplaces which are known as sweatshops, those so employed there could easily be subject to such a rule.

In consideration that those that have to work under the most trying of conditions, in which they pretty much are dealt with as human machines, is in itself, a very tough construct to deal with -- and then to not be able to talk with a fellow employee that is just a few steps away -- so as to at a minimum, connect one to another as human beings, is a toxic workplace, which dehumanizes people.  That said, regrettably, those that have little or no choice, have little or nothing that they can do about their present bleak situation, except to hope that it can be overcome, in some way or manner, directly or indirectly.

For a certainty, society has a role to play as well, and those products made under conditions in which the employees are not paid a living wage and further are not permitted to have a basic conversation one to another, are perhaps those products that we should not purchase.  After all, those that are privileged enough to have a voice, should use that voice, and if we will not speak up for those things that matter, then we have voluntarily silenced ourselves when we could well have made a meaningful difference.  It is unfortunate, that sometimes we do not appreciate the freedoms that we do have, until such has been sundered from our very hands, and of which, once gone, can be very difficult to get back.

America: Apartheid Nation

Sometimes, indeed, the emperor wears no clothes.  To wit, we are told by the groundbreaking author, Michelle Alexander, that “…there are more Black adults incarcerated and under correctional super­vision than were enslaved in 1850,” and further that “By November 2012, the US held a higher percentage of its black population under lock and key than south Africa did during apartheid.”  These facts cannot and should not be ignored, and while it can be said, that for some blacks, this nation does indeed seemingly provide for opportunity and fairness; this quite obviously is not true for the whole of this nation, in which this country summarily fails to live up to its guiding principles of egalitarianism, hope, and justice.

No nation, can truly live and be successful, half free and half oppressed, for that which is wrong, cannot possibly outlive that which is right.  Further to the point, all children are born innocent, and therefore what they ultimately end up becoming has a great deal to do with the environment and opportunity that surrounds them as they grow up.  Therefore, those communities which are bereft of hope, harassed, disadvantaged, despised, dilapidated, with wretched infrastructure, and poor educational facilities are going to have a strong tendency to produce people that are not going to be beneficiaries of the positive attributes that America has to offer, for that sort of offer to them, is for the most part, null and void.

The deliberate segregation of those of color, and especially those of color that are impoverished, is a disgrace to what this country is supposed to stand for.  Those so born into those ghettos of despair, are disadvantaged from day one, and all those that live there suffer through the indignity of knowing that they, for the most part, do not matter to mainstream America, for if they did matter, this country would be far more proactive in addressing the poverty and hopelessness that these poor segregated communities are filled with.

America’s sick answer to those that are the most hurting, that are the most discriminated against, and therefore the people who are not heard, for they are lacking in substantive power -- is to pick on them, day in and day out, without mercy and without a care, and to add to this disgrace by functionally blaming them for all of the crime and all of the troubles that America so represents.  The prisons therefore are filled with people of color, because they are the easy targets to go after, for the poor and ill-educated cannot conceivably fare well in any court of law in this nation.

While America likes to get up on their high horse when it comes to other countries and their sins, injustices, and troubles; they seemingly are incapable of their own proper self-evaluation, for as bad and as discriminatory as some of these other nations are, America is itself, no shining beacon on a hill.  America likes to say that the reason why so many people of color are incarcerated is because it is those people that commit the crimes.  Yet, the real reason for why this is happening is effectively ignored, for the main crime of those so convicted, is foundationally the crime of being of color and poor.  Those that are responsible for our governance, that will not testify to the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, are destined to keep making the same errors -- and until such a time that this country recognizes that to take away another person’s dignity, their self-respect, and their hope, is a gross error with material consequences, nothing whatsoever will change in this Apartheid Nation.

Income tax returns should be made public

Each year, with very few exceptions, those that have some sort of income are required by law to file a tax return.  As it currently stands, tax returns, for whatever reason, are considered private information and therefore not subject to being publicly disclosed.  Yet, consider this, property taxes, which are a yearly obligation for those that are home owners, are publicly disclosed.  This would presuppose that the need behind income taxes not being disclosed is not nearly as sacrosanct as some might imagined. 

Additionally, the appropriate payment amount for one’s income tax is based upon the calculations so of, and the voluntary compliance by its citizens, of which, because currently the filing of those personal income taxes is private, basically leaves the good enforcement of the accuracy of those calculations and compliance to the understaffed and underbudgeted Internal Revenue Service. 

Consider this, though, if personal income tax returns were public, one would expect to see a significant increase in the whistleblowing from taxpayers in aggregate -- in regards to returns that appeared to them to be suspicious.  Additionally, in consideration, that some companies make it known that they don’t want you to discuss your salary with others, as well as seemingly doing everything in their power to keep the payrate of their employees, secret – we can correctly surmise that secrecy of this sort probably has a lot more to do with management trying to manipulate and to control the payrate of employees to their self-serving benefit, and therefore the public divulgence of that income, would be both fair-play and quite illuminating.

It is true that a significant amount of people have a real curiosity about how much other people, especially those that they work with, or are friends with, or live nearby, actually earn in a given year; of which, there is also the inconvenient fact that for some people there is perhaps an unhealthy desire to “keep up with Joneses”; yet, there is also truth in the statement that citizens of this great nation are entitled to know what other people are actually earning, which will thereby help them to get perspective, to negotiate, as well as to perhaps re-evaluate where they are at, and finally it might just inspire them to be more diligent about going after their own goals.

In general, transparency is empowering for those that have little or no power, and a source of annoyance for those that are dishonest, double-talking, double-dealing, and deceptive.  Those that don’t pay their fair share of taxes, pretty much know it; whereas, those that play by the rules and pay their fair share, also know it.  What is unknown, is how many taxpayers are not paying their fair share; of which, the public disclosure of all tax payers’ income tax returns, would go an awful long way to answering that very question. 

There was a time when the government had no national income tax, but relied instead upon tariffs, duties, excise taxes as well as land sales to fund its governmental responsibilities; of which, upon ratification of the 16th Amendment in 1913, the income tax became part and parcel of this county.  Back then, as reported by Wikipedia.org, in 1913, “Approximately three percent of the population was subject to the income tax,” whereas today, that income tax, affects a significant swath of Americans, of which, in fairness to them, they should know for a certainty as to whether or not our progressive income tax system really has those that make more, pay more.

Clearly not the “land of the free”

America prides itself upon being known as the “land of the free”, but this simply cannot be true, because through the court decisions so made at the highest levels of government, along with the way that the policing arm of the state is able to conduct its business upon citizens of this great nation -- freedom, has seemingly taken a permanent handcuffed back seat.  Despite, the fact that our 4th Amendment clearly states, that “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses… shall not be violated,” literally thousands of times each year, through no-knock police raids, people’s houses and persons are not secure from the long arm of the law, doing whatever it so desires, with minimal oversight by those that are in a position to uphold Constitutional law, but choose not to.  Further to the point, in this country, people that are out in public square, are susceptible to being stopped by the police for absolutely no reason, providing the police with the opportunity to then engage them in a conversation or search, in which, though citizens are entitled to ask as to whether they are under arrest or free to go -- many of those citizens are quite reluctant to ask those very questions to a police officer, because they know that the officer has the imminent power to detain them, to arrest them, and regrettably, to use physical force against them, if those officers are not content with their compliance.

So then, when citizens are neither free when they are out in the public, nor when they are at home, then the people are not free and clearly have no safe place of sanctuary.  Yet, a person’s home really should be their castle, and therefore the entry of police officers into anybody’s home, should rightly be the highest of hurdles to overcome, of which, citizens at a minimum, are entitled to see the warrant, authorizing such a search, and of which, no-knock raids should be banned as inimical to that Constitution of, by, and for the people.

What a given person does behind closed doors should be to a very large extent their own private business.  After all, the fact that what is or is not occurring in the privacy of one’s home is not being done out in the purview of the public eye, is indicative that the government, should not tread within those areas that are the private spaces of those that they are supposed to be servants of.  Of course, there are lots of things that people do, that other people and even governments, for that matter, do not care for, but virtually nobody likes a busybody, and there isn’t any good and sound reason of why the Constitution should be forsaken for governmental curiosity, for intimidation, for monitoring, or for control.  Rather, people need to have the freedom to be about their business, and to live their lives in a manner of which they are not obligated to being forced to conform to societal or governmental norms, or of always having to look over their shoulder to worry about what the government may or may not do to them; for each of us should be fairly entitled to pursue whatever that it is, that brings us peace and contentment.    

Do not discount the value of older buildings and homes

In today’s world, of often deliberately designed obsolescence, people are always replacing what is seemingly pretty darn good, for what they have been told will be better, and therefore are paying again and again for goods, that apparently offer some incremental improvement in performance and reliability.   When it comes to buildings and homes, though, that which is old, isn’t necessarily of no and little value; for, in fact, a fair amount of old buildings and old homes are structurally sound, made of good materials, as well as competent craftsmanship, of which, quality and care of this sort is seemingly harder to find today; for we live in an era in which profit, above all, as well as the substituting of materials of lesser quality, are the shortcuts that often trump, good value and longevity.

The above signifies that therefore buildings and homes which are old, aren’t necessarily structures that necessitate always the removal or destruction of, especially if those structures have had periodic maintenance and upkeep throughout their life to date.  After all, in many cases, repair and rehabilitation, is a far more cost-effective decision to make in regards to our older structures, rather than some simplistic reasoning that all buildings of a certain age, have no or little utility, at all.  Additionally, older homes and buildings bring historic value to communities, of which, some of these structures are a form of beautiful architecture in their own right, as well as typically being materially different in their look than what is being so built in the present day.

Further to the point, the destruction of older structures and thereby the wholesale replacement of such, typically costs a lot of money, and of which, that which thereby replaces such, is going to have to recover its expensive cost of construction, through correspondingly higher pricing and the like, of that which was so replaced.  This so indicates, that those that insist upon the wisdom of the new forcing out the old, need to be more cognizant, that not everyone or every community can prudently afford the new, and that the outright removal of older structures, actually serves to therefore take away opportunities and housing for those of lesser income and wealth, as well as limiting the choices for those that are more conservative in their expenditures so being made.

So then, a significant number of older buildings and homes have value and good purpose, of which, it should be part and parcel of communities that are considering redevelopment and the like, to take into fair account, that not everything that is old, has little or no utility; for the contrary view tells us, that they most definitely do, and further we know that a dollar saved, is the same as a dollar earned.  So too, that which is new and valued today, will at some point, be considered old and of lesser value in the future, of which, the money, materials, and labor spent on these various infrastructures so having been built, needs to be fully acknowledged, so that rather than taking the position that something is always considered to be obsolete because it is old, we recognize instead the sensibility that we should not necessarily judge a book by its cover.

Separate and clearly unequal

The United States is not an integrated country, for in virtually every community of size, there is a distinct separation of the races.  That is not to say, that there isn’t any integration at all, but rather to say, that the amount of segregation that currently exists between the favored race and minorities is so prevalent, that it can only be by design, and not happenstance.

So too, laws and civil rights so passed to specifically address such issues, while no doubt, having brought some progress and opportunity to those previously denied a fair shot, has still disappointingly got an incredibly long way to travel yet.  For instance, those that are white, live longer than those that are black; white people also have a much higher percentage of Bachelor’s degrees and advanced degrees than so achieved than blacks; in addition, white people earn a higher income on average than blacks, and finally in the accumulation of wealth, white people absolutely dominate black people’s accumulated wealth.  In all of these things of substance so measured, which has a fair amount to do with the quality of a given person’s life, the favored race, still is in the command position, which demonstrates in principle, that much more needs to be done in order to help uplift those that have been unjustly oppressed for so long.

After all, in a construct in which money and wealth equates to power, those that have more, are going to typically control the direction of where this country goes, unless held firmly in check by its Constitution and fair judicial decisions, so of.  That is to say, the unfairness that America so represents in circumventing egalitarianism, is in actuality clear to even the most uneducated eye, thereby signifying that whatever means that have been taken to date to deal with systemic racism, redlining of housing, gerrymandering of districts, and prejudicial police and corrupt jurisprudence has not been dealt with forthrightly or effectively.

If this country will not live up to its guiding principles, then this country and its governance is a counterfeit to that Constitution and its Declaration of Independence.  As long as there is breath in this country, though, there is the opportunity to take what has historically been wrong and to make it right.  None of this is really all that difficult, for the necessary words have already been written that there will be no discrimination based upon race, color, religion, sex or national origin; yet clearly there is still that discrimination.

Here stands today, though, the historic opportunity, to prove to the world, which has its own troubles and difficulties, that America, first amongst all nations, demonstrated the wherewithal to successfully take peoples from different national origins, different creeds, and different races, and through the process of a dedicated and determined governance truly lived the proposition that all of humankind is created equally by the very hand of God, in which, each was afforded a fair opportunity of good housing, good healthcare, good education, and good employment, and of which each of us was thereupon fairly judged by the content of one’s character, no more and no less.

America: Incarceration country

The Bureau of Justice Statistics tells us that: “46% of people incarcerated in state prisons in 2015 were convicted of nonviolent drug, property or public order crime.”  So then, without even taking into fair consideration the fact that not every violent criminal act signifies that the perpetrator is an actual menace or a direct danger to society at large, we still have the salient fact that nearly 50% of those so incarcerated are not violent, which basically means that they are not a physical danger to the general public.

It would be one thing if incarceration was the only available means to deal effectively with those that commit crimes, but in actuality, there are a multitude of ways to constructively deal with those that have broken the law.  For instance, not every crime committed demands punishment, but rather a fair number of criminal laws so being broken could be dealt with more constructively by appropriate education or rehabilitation.  Further, there are crimes that could be resolved by strict monetary penalties in lieu of incarceration, and others by some degree of community service.  Additionally, there should be more flexibility on the punishment so being imposed, in which then, some so convicted, for instance, would be permitted to work their normal schedule in the outside world and then at the end of the day, would spend their time in a halfway house.  So too, more crimes should be addressed through the punishment of restitution to those that were victims of it.  Additionally, in this hi-tech world, GPS ankle bracelets and things of this ilk, should be sufficient to track those that have broken the law, but aren’t deserving of the expense of incarceration.

It must be taken into fair account, that carceral institutions are not free in cost, but are actually quite expensive, in regards to the amount of money so being spent for each inmate to be housed in a secured facility; so that, from a cost effectiveness standpoint, if nothing else, some crimes are not worth the expense of going through the criminal process system, at all, but would be better dealt with by the issuing of an infraction, monetary penalty, or something equivalent to that.  Additionally, it is a complete waste of human resources to have convicts, especially young adults, be incarcerated in which within that facility, the means to rehabilitate that prisoner such as through education, or via the training of a particular trade, doesn’t exist, which essentially means locking those people up and throwing away the key.

As the land of the free, America should be embarrassed that it locks up so many of its own, apparently under the general belief, that American jurisprudence gets more satisfaction from incarcerating hundreds of thousands of its own citizens, without taking into meaningful consideration that there has to be a better way to deal with the consequences of crime – in addition, America apparently doesn’t care enough to thoroughly investigate the incipient reasons for why crime is bred in the first place and then through that research, doing something constructive so as to ameliorate such. 

America has law upon law upon law, and clearly does not hesitate a moment in incarcerating as many of its own that it possibly can, but that doesn’t make it right, and it certainly doesn’t make it just -- but rather this serves to be a demonstration that those that are at the seats of power, have no interest in reformation, fairness, or equality, but are pretty much of the cynical mind, to exploit them or to incarcerate them, or both.

Evil is best defined as the absence of good

As much as Hollywood would like us to believe that life is a constant battle between the forces of evil v. the forces of good, which perhaps makes for an engrossing drama, the truth of the matter of what evil really is, is actually far more pedestrian.  In actual fact, though evil may give the appearance of being a great and powerful force, it really is not; for that which is evil, is what which has walked away from the Light, that which has walked away from the good, in order to embrace instead that which is dark and destructive, and therein lies its ultimate dilemma; for evil lacks the necessary fuel to sustain itself perpetually, and therefore try as it might, evil, has to, at least, periodically, come up for air, or it simply will not be able to sustain itself.  

Further to the point, because evil is the absence of good, those that are evil and are doing bad acts, can become good, simply by changing their mindset and thereby performing instead, good acts.  This signifies that a far more constructive way to look upon evil is that because evil exists, we are thereby able to see the contrast between those that perform selfish and diabolical acts as compared to those that are selfless and caring for others.  In other words, the fact that there is evil being committed, should embolden us to want to be virtuous, ourselves; because we see the harm and hurt that evil does and therefore do not desire to follow such by our own conscious volition.

God has provided each one of us with free will, and by virtue of that free will we are entitled to try out different things, of which, not all those decisions subsequently so made are going to work out all that well.  The fact that we do make errors, mistakes, and commit wrongs, does not make us evil; rather, what makes us evil is the knowing that what we are doing isn’t right, as well as deliberately overriding our own good common sense, by insisting upon our right to keep on doing what we shouldn’t be doing, thereby bringing harm to others as well as harm to our own being.

We are each provided with choices, and each one of us has a given role to play in life, of which, what we actually do and say, defines us as a person, and reflects fairly our true character.  All those that stand on the side of right and good, though they may well be cheated, treated unjustly, or physically vanquished by those evil acts so made against them, will, if they keep the faith, receive their just dues for having stood true.  All those, on the other hand, that do wrong, more times than not, will have to face the music, of a tune that they have played and written by their own wicked deeds in this life, and until they can take that which has been created in disharmony and make it thus harmonious, they will suffer the pangs of a life that is wrong, for not having done right.

“Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?”

We read in Holy Scripture the answer to the above question so asked by Jesus: “For whoever does the will of my Father who is in heaven, he is my brother, and sister, and mother.” (Matthew 12: 50).  It is well to remember, that Jesus the Christ, was the bearer of truth, and therefore it is to our eternal benefit to contemplate and to meditate upon these invaluable words.

Most people are quite cognizant as to who their mother is, as well as their siblings, and even in the most dysfunctional of families, we usually find that blood truly is thicker than water.  As good as that may well be, for familial love, duty, and obligation most definitely has its place; we must, in order to grow and to mature, rise above the narrow belief that it is always our family first, and therefore society or others, being seen as the lesser.

The bottom line is this, that God has no favorites, plays no favorites, and thereby equally values each one of us, good or bad, sinful or saintly, the same.  That is how it should be, for we are all equally created by the loving hand of God, and if we were to find out to our dismay, that God actually had those special souls that He valued more, then that God could not conceivably be just, and we would not be at peace.  So then, it follows, that the human family that we are born into, as well as the family we typically create later in our personal life, should best be seen as our loving tribute to our Father in Heaven, of which we are, at our best, trying to emulate the familial love that God so freely and unconditionally provides to all of us.

Further to the point, many people are most forgiving of their own blood, of which, there are also plenty of people that will do just about anything for those that they are intimately connected to.  But why should these positive attributes be restricted to just our immediate family?   In reality, we need to broaden our horizon, and to recognize that the good that we are so willing to do, for example, for our parents, for our spouse, for our children, and for our siblings, should not be the be-all and end-all of our existence, but rather should be the impetus to desire to connect with those others that are in harmony with Godly virtues.

So too, for those brothers of ours, that are stumbling, that are confused, lost, misguided, abused, and forsaken, we should demonstrate by our compassion, by our patience, and by our wisdom, that we have a sacred obligation to lend that helping hand and to be that good Samaritan for those others in need, especially in the understanding and the knowledge that but for the grace of God, that could very well be us.

This world is meant to demonstrate to us, that we are all interconnected, and because we are all of the same equal substance, that we should wish to do right one to another, so that together, we can all get to that special place of eternal sanctuary of which there is no more sorrow and no more pain.

How the Civil War was lost

Of course, history teaches us that the Civil War was won by the North, of which, the subjugation of those Southern States, that had wrongfully abandoned their perpetual duty of unity with these United States, to which they had seceded from that union, in order to form their own nation, was built upon the notion that “no …law denying or impairing the right of property in negro slaves shall be passed.”  The defeat of those Southern States, meant that through the passage of the 13th-15th Amendments to the Constitution, that slavery was thereby abolished, as well as that all those born or naturalized within the United States were citizens of it, and that all men, irrespective of former servitude, had the right to vote.  Yet, as good and as valuable as those Amendments were, what the North had failed to do was to listen to the voice of Congressmen Thaddeus Stevens who in September of 1865, in his reconstruction speech, stated “…we propose to confiscate all the estate of every rebel belligerent whose estate was worth $10,000, or whose land exceeded two hundred acres in quantity.”

That is to say, it is well to remember, that those Southern States, having illegally seceded from that perpetual union of States and further to the point, having established their own nation, were thereby after their defeat -- which cost this nation hundreds of millions upon millions of dollars, as well as the loss of blood, life, and infrastructure, throughout this storied land, and of which that confederacy received no quarter by that union, but the unconditional surrender of their arms, were in no position, moral or otherwise, other than to accept whatsoever conditions were so demanded by that union.

Additionally, and to the point, the uprising of the Southern cause, was primarily caused by its aristocracy, the pride and the honor of those that were the actuators of that movement – of which, it specifically was those people, the richest and the most powerful of southerners, that duly deserved upon their defeat to sacrifice all of their material assets to that united nation which had conquered them -- in lieu of their physical life.  Regrettably, this was not done, neither were these ignoble rebels executed, or even incarcerated, but basically, with very few exceptions, those that had had the audacity to take up arms against the United States, on behalf of defending their peculiar institution of the enslavement of human beings of a darker complexion, were permitted to keep, for the most part, the land, the possessions, and the power, that they previously had, with the sole exception of the ownership of their former slaves.

This thus meant that as the Northern side lost interest in the South, and thereby took a more laissez-faire attitude, that the Southern powers that be, began their inevitable rise to re-take power, and by virtue, that the land that they owned was still theirs, they were able to effectuate all that they could ever want, and pretty much re-structure a lifestyle that permitted them to utilize their land for good profit, own the law, and to dominate those that were formally slaves, by the conjunction of having those very things.

The time to make that change and thereby to provide a fair opportunity to those that were formerly enslaved was at the point of the defeat of those Southern rebels, and subsequently with the re-distribution of that Southern land this would have provided the way and the means for those with no material assets and of little education to become something of earned merit.  This did not happen and that is why this country is not just, and has no peace.