Category: Social Evolution

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Personal Growth Philosophy Social Evolution Spirituality

The Importance of Knowing Thyself

One truth I have come to realize is the prerequisite for personal fulfillment is to know thyself. As I have immersed in my personal exploration, I find the journey can be expressed as follows:

Who Am I? —> What Am I? —–> Why Am I?

Who Am I?

Who I am is how I and the world see me.

I am a human, biologically male, and descendant of Panamanian & African American lineage.

I was born 58 years ago in the Bronx, NY, which makes me an American.

I am college educated, a military veteran, who built a 25-year career in business banking but now works in Climate Risk Management and Sustainability.

I voted democratic for twenty years, republican for 5 years, and independent ever since.

I could go on but by now I hope you see the pattern.

Who I am shows only the uniforms I wear. 

Who I am is merely the upper layers of my being. To understand more, I must explore how I exist.

To exist, I need oxygen to breathe, water to drink, nutrient food to eat, clothes & shelter to protect my body from extreme weather, and so much more. Yet, I do not produce what I need to exist. Therefore, I exist as part of a greater reality.

How did I come to exist? How do I function as part of this greater reality?

I came to exist because my parents chose to have sex, producing a fertile egg that set off an energetic chain reaction of cell reproduction, which empowers me my whole life until the energy leaves my body at death. 

The thread that connects how I came to exist with how I live my life is Energy.

What Am I?

I am Energy having a human experience.

As a human, I am learning what it feels like to be mortal. 

This is important because Energy is immortal, therefore has no understanding of mortality.

What does Energy do? How does Energy function?

Energy flows until it collides with matter. 

When Energy collides with matter, the matter changes to something else. This change is called Creation.

The power revealed by my human experience is we are capable of directing energy.

I exercise my power through the choices I make. 

Accordingly, the reality of my human experience is defined by the myriad of choices made by all the participants in my life’s journey.

Why Am I?

As an energetic being having a human experience, I am empowered to direct energy to co-create the reality in which I live. 

Therefore, the ultimate Why I Am is to decide what reality do I want to co-create.

Categories
Economics Politics Social Evolution

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words…

Network – Howard Beale…

https://youtu.be/MRuS3dxKK9U
“I’m a human being, goddamnit! My life has value!”

Yet the wrong people got mad and we learned the wrong lesson.

Wall Street – Gordon Gekko

“Greed is Good.”

And so it is…

The Big Short – Jared Vennett explains Wall Street’s mortgage backed securities con.

“It’s all shit.”

Predators eat their own…

Margin Call – John Tuld

“Sell it all. Today.”

And it wasn’t just a movie…

U.S. Senate Hearing – Senator Levin grills Goldman Sachs – 2010

“How Goldman got comfortable (screwing their own clients)”

Then the predators blame the prey…

Rick Santelli Rant – 2/19/2009

“Do we want to subsidize the losers’ mortgages.”

Comedy becomes the last refuge of truth – Jon Stewart exposes Jim Cramer

“F@#k you!”

But the suffering is real…

Up in the Air – You’re Fired

“I think the anger comes from I just wasn’t needed anymore.”

“Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose.”

Joker – 2019

“Everything Must Go!”

Surely a global pandemic will bring us together…

PBS Newshour – Judy Woodruff

“How the pandemic has exposed America’s deep divide.”

And yet we have a much bigger problem…

Natural Disasters from climate change – December 22 to 25, 2021

https://youtu.be/RoJv1IzPBk8
These severe weather events are occuring because global average surface temperature has increased 1.07°C since 1850. (See UN’s 6th IPCC report – 8/2021)

Will we notice the threat of climate change?

Don’t Look Up – Interview: Leonardo DiCaprio

“We have a finite window of 10 years to make this transition.”
Categories
Personal Growth Social Evolution

The Tribe is Gathering

Like minded, peace loving, freedom seeking people are finding each other by filtering out the trolls, liars, manipulators, propagandists, narcissists, and hoarders from our physical and virtual networks.

The problem is the powers that be demand control of everyone and everything. Therefore, gathering in our own social networks is not enough. We must build a critical mass of people willing to stop feeding the beast who lives on the work we produce.

First step to building the critical mass is to reject the labels we have been given that encourages us to hate each other.

All identity based labels obscure our shared humanity.

Marketing labels, sports affiliations, business associations, community/state/national identification, political classifications, religious/gender/racial/pronoun & cultural identifiers all should be set aside so we can finally accept and mutually respect the sovereignty in each of us.

We set these labels aside not to deny our own personal preferences, but to create solidarity on the basis we each are empowered to make our own choices.

Rejecting our labels reveals who benefits from the divisiveness dominating our societies.

Like the sunrise after a very dark night, each of us will see how completely we have been distracted by manufactured consent.

Nothing in nature lives independently.

Freedom is a virtue because having it supports a life worth living.

As our tribe gathers, we reclaim our sovereignty by networking globally while living and buying as locally as possible.

Categories
Economics Politics Social Evolution

A Path to Sustainability…

COP26 is merely the start of our transformation to a 21st century sustainable economy. As it stands now we have non-binding commitments to cut GHG emissions 50% by 2030.

Here is what we need:

Binding commitments to tie net zero transition to a peak global average surface temperature increase of 1.5°C.

Graduated carbon pricing of $100 per ton by 2025, $125 by 2030, and $150 by 2035 & thereafter.

Acknowledgement of the carbon budget from 1850 to peak temperature increase of 1.5°C.

Retroactive carbon price of $50 per ton charged to the wealthy nations who benefitted most from the 2,400 GtCO2 of carbon pollution emitted since 1850. This $120T will initially capitalize the Global Net Zero Transition Fund. Future carbon pricing proceeds will be injected directly into the Fund.

Establish a fossil fuel stranded assets regime that will tie future subsidies and stranded assets compensation to investment in scaling up sustainable energy power generation including new sources such as green hydrogen, and ammonia.

Establish a Leap Frog power generation program for India, China and the emerging world funded by the Global Net Zero Transition Fund. Leap Frog means increasing energy production from carbon-free, sustainable energy sources.

Require all businesses to disclose a decarbonization transition plan tied to the peak temperature increase of 1.5°C and inclusive of 95% of scope 1, scope 2, and scope 3 emissions by 2025 or face 2030 carbon pricing fees.

Establish a global anti-profiteering regime capping Return on Investment for Net Zero Transition activities. We will not succeed if investors can impose economic rents at every stress point.

Can we do it?

Yes…

If enough of us convince the wealthy elites they will not escape the price of inaction.

Categories
Social Evolution

Where we are…

We are immersed in a perfect storm of transformative events.

A global pandemic,

the climate crisis,

lack of trust in democratic institutions (government, media, experts, corporations, each other…),

severe wealth & income inequality,

technological disruption, and

nuclear proliferation.

Yet I remain hopeful.

Evolutionary metamorphosis involves catastrophic change…

…that begins with the collapse of what was,

…and ends with the birth of what shall be.

When we emerge, we will have evolved to a new paradigm of consciousness where sovereignty and unity are aligned.

Categories
Personal Growth Philosophy Social Evolution

The Matrix Exposed

If you believe you are a stone cold realist who sees truth as it actually is, consider…

Are you free?

Free to choose your life’s vocation unconstrained by how much money you will make?

Free to spend your non-working and sleeping time doing the activities you enjoy most?

Free to invest the time you need to build healthy relationships with family and friends?

Are you independent?

How much of what you do is reliant on what other people have done?

Of all the words you have thought or spoken, which ones did you create?

How much of what you need to survive daily do you (or can you) produce?

Does self-interest really serve you?

Every hurdle you face to all you desire is due to other people advancing their own self-interest.

Is competition really a good thing?

Every person you defeat in the competition for resources is a person you may need to rely on for the goods and services that support you.

The conventional wisdom inherent to each of these bolded questions is the Matrix.

Truth resides in your responses.

Categories
Economics Personal Growth Social Evolution

The Urgency of Now


As Americans, the virtues we are encouraged to use as guideposts for success impede our personal fulfillment because they are at odds with how we exist each day.

Nothing in nature lives independently. By design, we all are interdependent on each other and the natural environment that provides for us.

When the cells in our body compete we call the condition cancer. Humanity is functioning like cancer to the ecology that sustains us.

We can’t experience the luxuries of our modern lives based only on what our family, friends, and people like us produce. Self interest at the expense of the common interest is self defeating.

Once we remember we survive daily based on the contributions of many people we will never know, the well being of all of us becomes as important as our own well being.

Why must we remember now?

We face global challenges beyond the capacity of self interest to mitigate:

1. Climate crisis – we are within 15 years of exceeding average global surface temperature increase since 1850 of 1.5 degrees Celsius.

2. Income & wealth inequality is destroying democratic institutions and destabilizing national governments, which is leading to severe polarization and mass migration of under resourced populations.

3. Nuclear weapons proliferation – Iran will be the next nation to obtain nuclear weapons because their most powerful enemies (Israel and U.S.A) have nuclear weapons. This is not new. India responded similarly to Pakistan obtaining nuclear weapons.

4. Technological disruption due to automation and artificial intelligence is displacing low skilled labor and ultimately highly skilled labor. Since technology is owned by the wealthy elites through control of multi-national corporations, income & wealth inequality is exacerbated because income from automated productivity goes to the owners of technology. Masses of people are becoming economically irrelevant.

While our Earth is abundant, self-interest has rendered humanity impotent in the face of extinction level challenges. 

Yet we still have a choice, if only we remember who we are.

Categories
COVID-19 Personal Growth Social Evolution

The Elephant in the Room

We are all victims of cognitive dissonance, inspired by a society based on lies that our souls know aren’t true. Time to call a spade a spade so we can all find peace.

We are not free. If we were, we would spend our time doing what brings us joy.

We are not independent. If we were, we would produce our own air, water, food, shelter, atmospheric pressure, biodiversity, language, and everything else we need to survive.

Competition is toxic when you must compete to eat. Currently, 12% of American households report food shortages. COVID-19 revealed in the competition for resources to take care of ourselves and our families, we are defeating the essential workers of our society…who are amongst the lowest earners in America.

Self-Interest is self-defeating. How long would any of us survive if we had to rely only on what our family and friends produce?

What is true is humanity grew to dominate our planet by working together against our predators. And now that our predators are defeated, we are defeating each other and the natural ecology that sustains us.

To wake up from the nightmare we are living, all we need to do is remember who we are and how we survive each day.

Had enough of this nightmare? Time to wake up and participate in co-creating a world worth living in.

Categories
COVID-19 Economics Social Evolution

Thoughtlessness…Our Persistent Pandemic

How do we get to a place where we fear/hate/harm the hands that serve us?

Democrats hating Republicans…
MAGA hating the establishment political parties…
Rural people hating City Slickers…
Wall Street hating Main Street…
Rich hating Poor…
Capitalists hating Environmentalists…
Us hating Them…
Everyone hating Anyone who hates them first…

Thoughtlessness.

How do we come to accept popular virtues as truth when they are disproved by our actual experience?

Independence…None of us live independently.

Freedom…Financial freedom only buys what other people produce.

Competition…When our bodies produce cells that compete we call it cancer. As such, humanity is a growing cancer in the ecology that sustains us.

Self interest…produced the richest family in America, who employs hundreds of thousands of people that qualify for food stamps.

Thoughtlessness.

When we consider America’s response to the COVID-19 Pandemic…

We exercised our freedom to wear a mask or not;

We asserted our independence by socially distancing or not;

We demonstrated our insatiable competitive spirit by reopening local economies far too early;

We revealed the dominant self interest by directing trillions of dollars to Wall Street while a third of all small businesses failed, working class employment plummeted 20%, and 12% of American households report food shortages;

And the culmination is 600,000 pandemic related deaths and counting, 33% of US households expecting eviction or foreclosure due to unemployment, while Wall Street booms (Nasdaq Composite up 43.6% in 2020 vs. 2019) and the billionaire class gained a trillion dollars in new net worth.

Thoughtlessness.

Can we find our way out of the swamp of thoughtlessness?

Absolutely.

Our persistent thoughtlessness pandemic will end the moment a critical mass of us remember who we are…

One human family, interdependently reliant on each other and the natural environment that sustains us.

Categories
Personal Growth Social Evolution

The Life We Seek

When you strip away all the labels and quiet the noise of our toxic society, you create space to remember who we are and how we survive each day.

We have food to eat because many people we will never know produced it and brought it to market so we can buy it.

We have shelter today because many people designed it, constructed it, and maintained it so we can buy or lease it.

We have clothes to wear…You get my point.

If you are grateful to be alive, and appreciate the lifestyle you enjoy, steep on the fact that none of it is possible if you had to rely only on what your family and friends and people just like you produce.

If you find yourself fearing, hating, or hurting people who appear different than you, take this moment to acknowledge you are harming the hands that support you.

For those of us who have pets, we realize our pets bless us with unconditional love. Ever wonder why? They know very clearly who takes care of them every day.

Nothing in nature lives independently.

If you really want to change this toxic society, start by loving unconditionally the hands that feed you, clothe you, and produce every thing you need that you are unable to produce for yourself.

The life we seek begins the moment we remember.