Searching for God # 141

 If the predictions in The Sovereign Individual have relevance, cogency and prescience, and the obvious implication is that the ‘public good’ or the ‘public interest’ as we have come to know it for a couple of thousand years, in communities, towns, villages, cities, provinces or states, and nations, is no longer effectively operative, given that the billionaires, oligarchs, tyrants, despots have squirreled their money in cryptocurrency, outside the range of any nation or federal reserve bank, and outside the range of all law-enforcement, and all social services have been defunded, leaving millions to fend for themselves in a dog-eat-dog jungle of destitution, there will still be millions clambering for attention, respect, dignity, and survival. 

The stark dichotomy of such a scenario is so horrendous as to be beyond dystopian. We, that is the world’s population, are already facing severe draw-downs of foreign aid, (USAID completely defunded, while other governments are shifting huge sums into military/defense/security budgets) and conservative voices are already howling about the costs of ‘foreigners’ to their local, provincial and national budgets and services, the plight of millions is only going to grow. More and more people in what are deemed ‘developed’ countries, many of them originally characterized as “Christian,” are uttering that parochial, isolationist, even nationalist and what can only be termed ‘frightened’ and ‘insecure’ words: ‘We have to look after our own, not those foreigners who don’t belong here!’  

The trouble with that attitude, increasingly pervasive as an underground forest fire, is that the world has shrunk to the point where there are no longer ‘foreigners’ except in our closed minds. We are all inheritors of the planet’s atmosphere, the world’s oceans, forests, coral reefs, sea creatures, flora, fauna as well as the non-boundaried viruses, diseases, and climate eruptions, drinking water.  At the same time, whether we are conscious and accepting of it or not, we are all also custodians of all of those resources desperately needed for our survival. (that is all of us!). We have also inherited a world that has been divided into national pieces of land, regional pieces of ideology, religions, economic traditions, cultural artifacts and rituals, educational and political systems and institutions, along with varying degree of what might be loosely termed ‘human rights.’ Our many ‘divides’ have been the collective focus at personal, academic, economic, religious, ideological and political levels, although many continue with the cliche, ‘our strength is in our diversity.’ 

The dominant, majority in any and all geographic regions are also howling about the loss of their ‘dominance’ and many focus on the ‘wokeness’ of what they call the ‘politically correct’ focus on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). Colonialism, racial prejudice, the power of size and dimension, the power of weapons and dollars as instruments of bigotry and dominance all have a long and bloody history. Erasing, or even attempting to dilute these instincts, among a population of mainly ‘sensate’ men and women (who base their perception and their processing on literal, empirical reality) is a monumental task, larger than all of the religious, political, economic, psychological and ideological programs currently extant. The adage, ‘the body is in the soul’ captures the irony and paradox of our shared, universal situation, at least somewhat. 

Stripping away the colour of our skin, the power of rationalism to dominate our poetic imagination, the public flustering and even open combat over the pursuit, acquisition and sustaining of personal, party, religious, ideological, ethnic POWER, (and our inherent instinct for its loss, bruising, wounding, intrusion, invasion, long before even dominance!)  we are all facing a similar, if not an increasingly identical, set of problems. 

And therein lies another of our shared inheritances: each problem is considered by the policy wonks the political class, the academic scholars, the economists, the military planners, and ever the marketers and communicators on its own merits, definition, dimensions, and framing. Solutions, then, are inevitably considered in and from separate ‘files’ and also separate (and appropriate) kinds of mind-orientation. Institutions, agencies, policies, budgets, and the roots and traditions and protocols of each of these ‘separate empires’ of both operation and thought operate primarily as ‘special turfs’ for those inside their buildings, offices, geographic regions, jurisdictions, or however those inside wish to ‘define’ their boundaries (like dogs declaring their territorial domain!) And, of course, energy imagination, developed skills and training are all dedicated, whether consciously or not, to the maintenance of those now ‘sacred’ boundaries. 

These dynamics know no national, religious, political, intellectual, legal psychological or public declared definitions. They are shared everywhere where any and all attempts to ‘manage’ to ‘lead’ to ‘organize’ and to ‘bring order and good governance’ into play. The gold-ring of the pursuit, design, plan, strategy and tactics of POWER, whether at an individual or organizational (collective) level has common attributes, even if the symbols of those methods differ by tradition, heritage and custom. 

Attempting to ‘fit’ into the consciousness of the leaders of the developed world in the midst of these internecine emotions, conflicts, compromises and collusions, by the millions of voiceless is not merely monumental; it is impossible. Getting on the radar of those who have levers of power, wealth, public policy, public attitudes, and public permissions is analogous to the single voice from Haiti pleading on Canadian national television for Canada to open its doors so that more Haitians who face death by remaining, can emigrate. A barely slight chance of her voice ever being heard, at ‘official’ levels. 

And so here is a modest if uncomfortable observation: what about eliminating all of those policy, academic, literal, empirical, ideological, religious, historic, ethnic, racial and definitional boundaries on which we are all impaled and begin to see the world from the perspective of those millions of voiceless whose lives, if they are not brought into the public consciousness everywhere will only slink into the earth literally forgotten, deceased and buried without even the dignity of an honourable burial. 

What if humanity, together, collectively, universally, and both consciously and in a long-term committed covenant opened its (our) arms, minds, hearts, bodies, budgets, ideologies, theologies food supplies, energy supplies, medicines, health care, commitments to protect the shared environment on which we are all dependent....in other words what if dominance, it obsessive grip on our public consciousness, gave way to a shared vulnerability, not only as an attitude but as an actual real, empirical and in-our-face force that exposed the lie in which we have all been indoctrinated, brain-washed and ‘told to believe’...that we are all here to acquire, sustain and celebrate the level, degree status and influence of power over others. 

Would such a surrender, considered by millions to be a sacrifice, be so irrational and so stupid and so frightening that it can only be considered a kind of ‘satire’ and never be taken seriously? It is not a proposal that is premised on some kind of utopian, romantic, ideal, or even ideological purity. It is not a proposal that is likely to garner even reflective support from many....especially among those who might glance at it, dismiss it out of hand and merrily go on their way. 

For those who, on the other hand, pause, consider the alternative, the way we are going about our lives currently, permitting, whether by choice or in and through apathy, withdrawal, disenchantment, or even deliberate insouciance, those billionaire persons, with their zillionaire ambitions to take over the public square. That public square does not belong to them, in any country, province town or city. And in every town, village, city and province and nation, those with big trust accounts and investment portfolios are ‘in charge.’ Anyone who is either unaware, or denies where power lies, increasingly and obviously among the very rich, is already given a pass to the growing persistence, malevolence and risk of this trend continuing. 

We have all been, in our own way, complicit, in helping the world to arrive at this obvious ‘tipping point’. And we will also all have to be fully engaged in bringing us all back from the precipice of our own demise. 

And if that proposition is not integrous to our shared spiritual, as well as physical, emotional, psychic, economic and political and environmental ‘LIFE,’ I am not sure what is. 

David Suzuki, a twentieth century prophet-scientist, posed an equation long ago that continues to be needed everywhere....’the economy should be working for us, not the other way round,’ The argument here in this space, today, and likely for days to come is merely an extension of that original proposition. Adopting the confidence, the courage, the voice and the impertinence that are and will be needed in order to confront what is becoming a cancerous political international tumor, before it suffocates our planet and our shared public square is a goal to which each of us can and must commit, in our own unique way.....and now!