Joe Biden goes to war…
When I saw this piece about bombing Syria, I wondered where the outrage is: It didn’t take long for this new president to play Commander in Chief. Poor, poor, poor us, who don’t get it yet that we need to care about each other as much as we care about ourselves, and that might makes right isn’t on that agenda.
Could it be that the most fundamental thing to do to shift a worldview based on self-interest to where humanitarian concerns are paramount would be something like UBI, where everyone on earth gets enough sustenance — food, shelter, education, health care – to be brought out of poverty? Then, we’d have a playing field where we could change everything instead of being imploded in the status quo of the ever-widening split between the haves and have nots.
Impact Investing is in the wind now. The logic of impact ideas is one thing, but, since they fight with the status quo, what I focus on is how to change the underlying belief system that holds the status quo in place. I got a helpful insight years ago when I was with two people who had taken MDMA. It riveted them in present time, with no past and no future, and all that was there was love. It wasn’t getting to love; it was coming from love. Peel away the veils and walls we have erected, agonizing over what came before and worrying about what is looming, when you just are open and receptive in the present moment, what’s there is love. It’s basic. I don’t hear people saying that and I think it’s really informative about our nature and what we aiming to get in tune with.
How about an inspired leader, such as we haven’t had for a long time? We don’t have any Gandhis or Mandalas, let alone a courageous American President. There’s no one principled in the limelight — except Greta Thunberg who got massive attention on global warming. It takes too long to take our time to fix things and someone who jump starts what’s new maybe could do it. I wonder about a revered figure, like Oprah, following up on Greta. She’d go on TV. She’d tells everybody the time is now to create a cooperative world. We have to work together. And she’d just make it happen. Oprah’s got enough money to do it herself. Whatever it takes. She’d become the Greta of action. You couldn’t deny her. She’d get us working out how everyone can get food, shelter, education, health care. She’d be the next Time Magazine Person of the Year. Everyone would listen to Oprah. Beyoncé could be her opening act. Make it wonderful. Everyone would be so happy to be in a world that is dedicated to making things better.
I actually don’t get how the rich part of the world can ignore the poor part. We’re all in this leaky boat together. It isn’t even charitable thoughts that need to lead the way — practical ones will do. Like give money to the poor and they spend it. That’s what we need. Such a giant wake-up is in order, and hopes are dashed that Covid would produce it. Not so far. If nature could talk, she would be telling us she has to make it worse so we wake up to make it better. Arghhhhh.
We need a broader conversation that recognizes how relatively unconscious humanity was. Take the U.S. with the Indians. They were savages so we could kill them. Then blacks were savages. Understanding all people are human comes first. And that is such a revolutionary thing that at least we can recognize that it is logical for it to take a very long time to work its way out to where we won’t have vestiges of it. But, we are on the way, where building on a foundation that is truthful, where we accept how misguided we have been is not an act of cowardice but of the courage to accept what has been because it has been, and to use the error of our ways as our springboard from which to leap into the better world to come.
