New thinking about the causes of the global economic downturn

All these so-called experts on television, who wax on about the reasons for unemployment (or any issue, for that matter). If they are Republican, they are largely hypocrites. Democrats like Pilosi and Reid are damn fools letting all that pork into the proposed stimulus package, which many experts are saying is not big enough (heck, a trillion dollars doesn't go as far as it used to...).. These people are all thinking one-dimensionally. All of these things are inter-connected: The Economy, Corruption, Energy, Climate Change, War and Cultural Ideology. It's a big network of factors that depend on one another.

People need to start embracing systems theory, which is to understand that we are connected to the planet - the mother of humanity - and to each other. Instead, we fight one another, one-up one another, "dis"(respect) one another. That's our animal nature, the part that fights to survive (only now, since for some wealthy cultures like the U.S., we don't have survival pressures and conflict, so we make them up with our sporting events, and bring the fight to pay-per-view). We started holistic thinking in the 60's, but then the Republicans or greed-mongers (who know who they are, like the Bilderberger) largely killed it off in the 80's. The media sold us that Jimmy Carter was a bad president, the hippies were stoned out, lazy and unwashed, and that "Greed is Good." Greed is not good.

We need to evolve our consciousness, to re-awaken the hippie, the environmentalist, the idealist. I don't want to let John Lennon's death be the end of idealism. The time has come to change our thinking before we kill ourselves. So while we have to enact laws that limit a person's wealth, we also have to penalize the cheaters. Sure, everyone did it (i.e., the "shameful bonuses" of Wall Street), but that doesn't excuse it. If you could do it, would you have the entire Congress fired? How do we maintain civility and fight stupidity and greed? If evolution is true, then evolve, damn it humanity, evolve!

The television media that I am hopelessly addicted to, forces every issue into a 3 minute sound byte. The public will never understand the reason for unemployment when limited in these terms. Because if you take the "Mind Walk" and truly know and feel our interconnectedness, then you stop thinking of 'me', and start thinking of 'we,' because we are a large family. We are the children of the Sun and the Earth, and like the native Americans knew, we are the brother of the wolf and the sister of the eagle. What a loss when the Europeans committed patricide against the native Americans. That goes beyond shameful.

We need more than the usual talking heads of media personalities and politicians. How about professors and plumbers, New Age gurus with the politicians - now that would be television! Perhaps that is my mission, so if you read this, and later see it, then you can say "you read it when you were unemployed," because who has time for anything if you are working these days? We've put so much pressure on ourselves that we are doing two jobs, which creates a schism of employed versus unemployed. Will we end up fighting each other for a job? If we over-simplify, then one can say "greed has caused the unemployment," and in a large part, that's true. But the truth is, it's our system that's broken, and we'd better understand that before we try to fix it, else we'll spend trillion after trillion while unethical, illegal, corrupt and criminal people will take our money. And that unethical, illegal, corrupt and criminal entity is the US Government.

Alas, the politicians are lemmings, following the money that buys the votes. They should all be required to attend US History and review the Declaration and the Constitution - on a weekly basis, because very few seem to "get it." The entire roster of government employees should be term-limited. Everyone should be required to serve in government, because we're supposed to have a government, to quote Lincoln "by the people, for the people."

Let us hope that Barack Obama is a Lincoln. He seems to "get it"; to be able to think multi-dimensionally, to be smart enough to understand the system, and a willingness to evolve. If he fails in this task, I entertain so many fears (which was Bush and Cheney's domain). Their policies brought on this new century depression, and they should be forced to reconcile. The system needs balance, which means if you commit the crime, you have to do the time. Otherwise, the Middle Class will fall into poverty, or worse - history will repeat itself, and Rome will burn. I could go on, but I have to find a real job.

Peace

The Real Bush Legacy

How will history judge President George W. Bush? What impact has his administration had on the world? Why should we care? Regardless of your political affiliation, you should demand truth and embrace ethics. Unless you have blind allegiance (or un-thinking faith), one must acknowledge the Bush legacy as not just a travesty, but a tragedy as well.

It has been suggested that George Bush is a spoiled imbecile (albeit smart enough to follow puppet-like, the advice strings of Karl Rove and Dick Cheney). The man can't think (or speak, for that matter) on his feet, and as a "decider," has shown the poorest judgment of the most inept nincompoop. Yes, people will argue the US hasn't been attacked since 9/11, and the surge in troops in Iraq was the right thing to do, but both of these points can be debated.

Terrorism is a worldwide problem, and although the U.S. hasn't been attacked in 8 years, there have been malicious international attacks (Bali, London and Madrid and Mumbai). Terrorists have shown great patience when planning significant schemes - it was 8 years from the first 1993 World Trade Center bombing to September 11 - so it is not unexpected that there have been no American attacks during the Bush term. This is all fine and well, but what is neglected in the media is the analysis of the cause of terrorism, which is poverty, ideology, and desperation.

The media should be ashamed of itself for the way it presents information, and in some way has added to the problems of our planet by buying in to the obfuscation of the issues through the 'bandwagon thinking' in which issues are reduced to 3 minute sound bites repeated throughout the day, instead of an intelligent discussion with fact-checking, so readily available with the internet (although much of the internet also suffers from a lack of factual data). There seems to be broad acceptance that the media-buying public has the mind of an 8 year-old dolt (and given Bush's 2004 re-election, that perception is easily justified). To the thinking public, the Bush legacy is that of a dim-witted bully who tried to dictate an alien ideology onto a culture of misogyny and intellectual repression. Yeah, that's going to work.

In time, historians will make the point that Bush misused his authority by invading Iraq. Instead of following Osama Bin Laden into Afghanistan, Bush used what would later be described as "faulty intelligence about weapons of mass destruction" as an excuse to create a western-leaning Middle Eastern country and to control that country's oil. And it's all about the oil - from American imperialism and a lust for power, to global warming and the pure greed of those that control the energy markets, further polluting the planet with dirty and unsustainable resources.

For those who have already made up their mind, these points either resonate to confirm our worst fears, or by now the reader has long-since turned away. This is the schism that George Bush "the Divider" has created. Not since the Civil War has American been so fractured. And as one seeing the repetition of history, from U.S. political issues like whether or not to nationalize banks, to the rise and fall of great nations, the lack of societal wisdom prevails. Indeed, human nature itself seems to be the cause of our ills (even evolution is suspect, for where is the evolved consciousness?) As we teeter on the brink of our very existence, men of seeming good will - men (or women) with families that love them are making decisions of selfish, material gratification, at the expense of our future. How does one not care?

In the end, the life span of humanity may be just a wink in time so that the planet can live. Perhaps our fate is the deep impact of a comet or asteroid, or a global pandemic or nuclear war, or destruction by GORT (Genetically Organized Robotic Technology from "The Day the Earth Stood Still"). So difficult to believe would be that we ourselves are the cause of our own demise. It would be hard to pin it all on BUSH (Beyond Understanding Shit Head). Is it possible that our destiny now lies in the hands of the choices that Barack Obama makes? If he makes the right choices, can we turn it all around?

There will (I hope) be plenty of time for the next generation to research, ponder and promote the Bush retrospective. If our society will have learned anything, that is, if academia and the media are not under strict government control, then the people might yet uncover the truth. But I am doubtful. At a time where the biggest swindlers in history have flourished - from Enron to Bernie Madoff, AIG of Citigroup (and this after the junk bond king Michael Milken "made off" with millions due to legal loopholes, where he was allowed to keep some wealth after less than 2 years in prison), our government continues to cheat us by allowing - even empowering! - those who create great wealth, regardless of the legality or ethics. What is clear is that the worst of America's tendencies - from graft to greed and hypocrisy to hegemony, has occurred under George W. Bush. No matter how he tries to whitewash it, this dangerously dimwitted demagogue is by far the worst president in over 200 years. Hopefully, Obama can make up for it.