The Paradox of Giving

The nonprofit industry can be an industry of attrition, both materially and psychologically, and, what is perhaps a new thought: spiritually. Because we are dependent on the financial giving of others, while most human beings more readily understand the joys of receiving, we can often find ourselves financially impoverished. This constant struggle for support, in the context of our personal choice to give of ourselves in service of society, can often times lead to subtle resentment and even apathy when fully grown. This is our psychological impoverishment which no one wants to openly admit but which must be honestly addressed if we want to stay fresh, vibrant, and creative. Really?

Yes really. If we do not face, head on, the great spirit of attrition which permeates an industry which goes against the major human impulse to receive rather than to give, this spirit will infect all our work, including tainting our original good-will intent to give of ourselves. We will eventually come to see ourselves as fools carrying a fool’s burden, and we will eventually become restricted and guarded against the society we intended to serve in the first place.

Of course many of us will shun this thought. We will say to ourselves that this kind of defeatism is a sign that the person who admits to it never should have gotten into this industry at all, even while this infection is nipping at our own hearts. We will say that we need only be more creative, more willful, a better warrior for the good—even while as soldiers we are losing morale. And if we keep denying the truth long enough, we will become utterly compromised. Whether we admit it or not, we will begin to do our work just for our own livelihood. We will calculate that we have started on this path and we are better off just making a career of it till the merciful retirement years. And we will become utterly useless to society in spite of our open boast that we are here to serve society. We will tragically become not but parasites of apathy, victims of spiritual attrition. A spectacle of everything we originally set out against!

Wow! Pessimistic, ha? Off-putting even? Well, let me shine a ray of hope, but please don’t hold it against me if my hope comes from my spiritual tradition. I am not trying to proselytize, but am only offering my authentic perspective, as everyone should be free to find their truth wherever they choose.

When I think of my desire to offer myself in service of my society at New American Spring, I ultimately find that this inspiration comes from my Christian tradition. Jesus Christ, purportedly one of the very original Persons of the Trinity, co-equal with or but an aspect of God Himself, first set the example of servant leadership (John 13:14). God apparently created the universe (matrix) of the human family in such a way that in giving, everyone sees abundance, even the giver. The story of the feeding of the multitude with but three fish and two loaves of bread is an example (Matthew 14: 13-21). The spontaneous giving of the little child in this story inspired the rest to give what they had, and together, it was more than everyone needed.  Giving inspires joy in the receiver, whose joy then inspires him or her to give back. And yes, even the person who dedicates him or herself to society is also responsible for continual giving if he or she will not degenerate in the manner outlined above. How?

If as a nonprofit leader you are in the throes of the spiritual apathy I outlined above, whether you want to admit it or not, I urge you to give of yourself to other nonprofit leaders and aspirers. Your spiritual apathy might tempt you to say, in your heart, “Why should others come into this impoverished industry to compete with me for grants?” But the truth is, the more you encourage diversity in this industry, and the more you give of yourself and your support to other aspirers, the more you will see a vibrancy and even abundance which will come your way, both within and without.

This is the spiritual paradox of giving!

If you say to yourself that you want to give of yourself to society but loose that generosity when the giving becomes a desert road, then perhaps your original intent was a kind of self-service in the first place. Perhaps you are no different than the members of society who can only understand the joys of receiving. Perhaps you were out for a sense of honor, of righteousness, of nobility?

Give, and you will receive! Not such a trite saying, after all.

New American Spring!

Revolution of Vision, Evolution of world…

The ULTIMATE SOURCE of Racism

I don’t believe that the problem of racism in America or anywhere around the world can properly be addressed without understanding its underlying source in human nature. In order to apprehend this truth, we need to delve into the spiritual makeup of mankind.

Humankind is made in the image of God, as multiple persons sharing one, common nature. As God is three persons in one, singular nature, humanity is a multitude of persons sharing the same human nature. But the persons of God are fully actualized, complete, and unified in the God-Nature, while humanity consists of a multitude of persons not yet actualized.

Actualized means that the identity of each person is fully fixed in its relation to the whole community of persons. The God-community consists of Father, Son, and Spirit; or Source, Manifestation, and Love. Each person in the Godhead is fully formed (actualized) in its identity to the whole. The identity of the Father is to serve as the creative source of all things. The identity of the Son is to serve as the manifestation of all of the Father’s initiatives. And the identity of the Spirit is to be the embodiment of the natural love and affection between Father and Son, as the source of manifestation might love that which it manifests, or as the artist might love his perfect creation.

Now while God is fully fixed or actualized in his Persons as an eternal entity, humanity is in a state of becoming actualized. Human persons operating in time do not yet know, or have not yet attained, their true and final identities in relation to the entire human community of persons, or in eternity. This means that human persons are works in progress. Some persons will choose the make themselves destructive to the human family, while some will create identities which are loving to the human family. Here now is where we can approach the true understanding of racism.

Racism is only one species of what can be expressed as the Passion of Cain. As you might recall the story of Cain and Abel in the bible, Cain was the first human murderer. Because he was jealous and envious of his brother Abel, he murdered his brother for the sake of his own sense of self-esteem. This is the true and underlying nature of the racist person, or the sexist person, or the classist person, etc. Such persons seek to maintain a sense of superiority over their fellows in order to feel good about themselves, because within themselves, there is no good. They are the evil remnant of persons who are destined not to become actualized in the human family in love, but are destined instead to join the rebellious fodder to God and man, who are to eternally burn in the fires of hate which they themselves shall have made.

Such human persons will not become actualized in a loving and unified humanity in eternity, which humanity is destined to marry into the Godhead itself, becoming the very children of God with all the rights, privileges, and powers entailed. So because our world is made up of a mixture of persons who are on their way to making themselves the true children of God, as well as persons who are on their way to making themselves the cast-off of creation, we see this American and now global struggle of some persons for a fairer and more just humanity, against other persons seeking to maintain privileges at the disadvantage of others.

Nor, finally, should we make the mistake of assuming that all those who are presently on the side of disadvantage and are presently protesting for racial justice, are necessarily those destined to become Children of God, those who will choose the side of Love of their fellow human beings. For they might just as well be those who, if they had opportunity, would themselves discriminate, or may themselves be current predators in other dimensions such as domestic abuse, for example. Even those who might presently be practicing racism cannot be judged (although they should be stopped), since they might be operating under a misguided sense of enmity with their fellow human being due to pre-existing conflict and competition, and since no man but God the Father knows what a person will finally become.

Therefore while we must definitely challenge our collective conscience in creating a more just and socially temperate world, the true onus falls upon each and every one of us, individually, to examine ourselves. We must each ask: am I a predator? Not just am I racist, but do I find, when I look into my heart, that I’d rather enjoy advantages over others, even at their disadvantage? For this is the true and ultimate passion behind racism, and all other evils in our human family…

New American Spring!

Revolution of Vision, Evolution of world…

PS: If you find this point of view intriguing, I encourage you to follow my video series titled “The Beautiful Story” at my New American Spring Facebook Page at: Facebook.com/NewAmericanSpring

Disdain for the Poor?

Let me pen a fiery bitty on what Covid-19 implies for the American conscience in these times.

 

SOME Americans (mostly upper middle class and richer “conservatives”) have a way of, let me say it bluntly, despising the common person, the person who, maybe because of social disadvantages of various kinds, have not “pulled themselves up by their own bootstraps” to escape a paycheck to paycheck lifestyle.  Although there are noble aspects of conservatism, primarily its value for fiscal responsibility, I put the word “conservatives” in quotes here because I want to highlight the less humane side of an attitude often sheltered under the term. Therefore some of our less noble “conservatives” feel, as Bernie Sanders lambasted one Republican senator in congress for his attitude during the Covid-19 relief legislation, “if these riff raffs make more on unemployment than they do in normal work, they will stay on it like the parasites they are.” What’s worse, these nastier Americans often call themselves “Christian” while entertaining such attitudes.

 

But somehow, this does not apply to their big money friends, the true leaches who somehow found a way to put their greedy grubby hands out in the name of Covid-19 relief by having congress allocate hundreds of billions of dollars which will be leveraged into trillions via the machinations of the Feds, far outstripping the entire relief package. See my other blog titled “Does It Take a Global Pandemic to End a Social-Political Virus?”

 

Oh how just it would be if Americans used this Covid-19 pandemic to finally wake up to the rude hijacking of their country by these corporate1%ers who have long sold their souls to the devil in treating their fellow human beings as stones in their monstrous edifice of wealth and twisted pride! I might seem to be having some rhetorical fun here but I don’t feel I’m being ultimately unfair in following the logical trail from such attitudes to its extreme portrait. And no, I am not excluding such “American Heroes” as Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and even Donald Trump. Everyone who managed to ride over their underlings as vassals, on their way to the top, even if they later turned to philanthropy on behalf of the rif raff. They are among these truest “deplorables,” including Hilary Clinton who had her share of trampled colleagues yet had the gall to disparage “deplorables” as alien to her truth. Competition to the “top” can be fierce and heartless and no matter what one does with one’s ends, ones means can never be justified, for stained souls remain stained until full repentance in self-humbling.

 

Specifically, it would be great if instead of having the “common” taxpayer, through congressional allocation, bear the burden of such corporate handouts through the printing of money out of their own red American blood, Congress would instead make the Feds (who are private, by the way) put the hat out to all the 1%ers to cover the Covid-19 slowdown out of their collective trillions of trillions in assets, siphoned off from these very poor, these tired, these yearning to breathe free in their own land. Do you think it is a coincidence that Trump went to Congress to ask for more money for “small businesses?” Who do you think “small businesses” will send that money to? Hint, hint: the very corporate structures who are the landlords and underwriters to these “small businesses!” For no, no. Corporations MUST CONTINUE to make money, even on top of having the poor taxpayer print them money to get themselves even further ahead.

 

Corporations are somehow “persons” but they have a strange immunity to Covid-19!

 

Now take note, I’m gonna make a truly gruesome prophesy. I predict that these “forgivable loans” offered to small business to pay their “workers,” after these business have taken the bait and exhausted their loans to pay their corporate landlords; I predict that they will experience a great hardship being approved for forgiveness. Why? Because the sinister trend in America and the world is a radical polarization of wealth, which means small businesses, while now respected, will fall next to the slaughter. For the American “middle class” is now among the poor, and was first conquered.

 

And are you ready for an even starker idea? Who knows if the butchering and partitioning up of the American middle class and the other poor of our world, not to mention our own dear mother earth who is psychopathically raped by cancerous industry, did not itself cause the providential or poetic release of Covid-19 as a virus from the blood of the saints, as well as from the blood of the animals we are supposed to be stewards of, crying out to God for justice? For in displaying before our collective eyes the truth of our mortality, does not this pandemic prod us to the realization that since we are all in the same boat, should we not commit ourselves to one another’s’ welfare?

 

We are all Americans. We are all human beings. I appeal to what remains of the conscience of those who may entertain in their blackened hearts a deep-seated disrespect for the poor. Please consider what you can do to HELP the less financially independent learn how to catch fish, rather than curse them for not knowing, for not having a boat, or for not inheriting the advantage of the water, either racially, socio-economically, or even in gender.

 

Love, my fellow Americans. Love is my message, even if my tone here might seem rather fierce.

 

Revolution of Vision, Evolution of World…

Dear Mr. Bannon

I have recently been viewing a number of video interviews of, and speeches and debates by yourself on YouTube, and I wanted to address you directly, since I am a populist visionary at New American Spring also. Let me immediately get at the heart of whom you say you are, and confirm to you, in solidarity, that your vision of a nation-state governed world, with the well-educated and healthy citizen as the basic unit, is a noble one indeed. Straight out of college and graduate school, I might have in the past found tempting the idea of a one-world government, a unity of mankind based on equality, fraternity, and nobility. But having spent some time in the real world after my higher learning, I realize that our human society at present is not capable of such a universality. Whereas the nation-state, having been a unit of social cohesion for many centuries now, can the more easily, and should remain our basic global social unit.

 

This must be so until general human society can organically evolve into that great destiny of universal equality, fraternity, and nobility, that is. Let’s call it the Star Trek Dream, a goal which I think the human race should never give up on.

 

Yet regarding your Breitbart agenda of pushing for your populist vision nationally in America and even internationally, I wanted to offer you a very important perspective from a co-visionary. To have any hope of true success, your movement MUST have spiritual caliber, for humankind is essentially a spiritual race. I wanted to introduce to you the truth that no human unification can be achieved without first recognizing and being prepared to address, let’s call it Babylon for the sake of term familiarity.

 

Babylon is a prevailing spiritual sentiment in the human race, and a corresponding kingdom in two forms. That sentiment can best be expressed in the Biblical exclamation “Am I my brother’s keeper!?” For we are all, first and foremost, children of Cain. Our general human unwillingness to see our fellow person as our individual charge, as someone whose well-being we are naturally responsible for, represents our prevailing spiritual sentiment as a species, and this sentiment first and foremost produces a stronghold or a kingdom in the human heart. This kingdom in the heart then produces a general human social and political culture of competition between persons for the resources in our world. This competition utilizes all available social and political structures to produce the environment of a dog-eat-dog world, and an inevitable domination or rule of the biggest dogs.

 

These biggest dogs are whom you understand as the “elites.”

 

The end result is that your Breitbart agenda is aimed at taking on the second kingdom, the political kingdom of Babylon, while failing to address, for failing to recognize its seed in the first kingdom, the prevailing sentiment of self-centeredness in the human heart. While this seed remains unaddressed, no amount of success against political Babylon will remain secure, for the Babylon of the heart will sprout up new political strongholds of inequality and injustice. Even if you managed to take down the “elites,” your own social faction, your “people,” will only become the next oppressors. Or is that your aim, a Babylonian warfare across, maybe racial lines, as the Nazis attempted?

 

Are you perhaps just another Babylonian warrior? Meet the new aspiring boss, same as the old boss?

 

Here is where you must deeply and personally search your own heart, Mr. Bannon. Are you yourself a carrier of the virus of Babylon, or are you a true champion of a healthier human race? Are you at war on behalf of some social-political identity of people which is exclusive (white working class, for example), perhaps believing that all people should form factions and learn to fight for themselves in the perpetual Babylonian struggle, or can you envision a world where every individual of every diversity stands up to fight for his and her dignity on behalf of all humanity? What are your limitations, Mr. Bannon? What is your truth?

 

Perhaps you might be tempted to click you tongue at this notion of making Breitbart, “God” forbid, into a church, but I am not really proposing that you give up the political struggle for some quasi-spiritual dream. I am only suggesting that you fight your enemy the more comprehensively. For the true enemy is Babylon, Mr. Bannon, an enemy which I myself am girded against, and one which I am not unwilling to seek out an ally against.

 

Start by teaching your followers at Breitbart that unless they identify with ALL OF HUMANITY as equals and as BROTHERS of the struggle, WITHIN OUR COLLECTIVE HEARTS as well as AGAINST THE ELITES, the Big Dogs of Babylon, the fight will be lost from the start. The fight will in effect be a meaningless and endless warfare WITHIN the stronghold of Babylon, that true enemy of us all which pits us against one another, resulting in endless historical suffering and human carnage.

 

So let me briefly paint what the Dream of 2020, through 2020 vision, can become. 1. Encourage your most fervent Breitbart followers to become organizers who seek out all peoples of all diversities for a movement of national-social dialogue. By tolerantly taking to one another foremost, we will develop solidarity, the needed solidarity to fight against the “elites,” for big dogs easily conquer divided prey. 2. Expose the truth of Babylon so that the fight will be pure. You may lose many in Breitbart at this point who are actually Babylonians, who seek only to replace the Big Dogs and lord it over others through some sense of superiority, but you will in the process weed out the true enemy. And 3. Make the goal clear to all: First, a unified country based on a bottom-up solidarity of the American people as independent and responsible citizens, and second, a unified world of equal and noble nation states, all working in justice and solidarity.

 

If this dream is somehow however distasteful to you, then you are in fact Babylonian yourself, and New American Spring has no ally in you.

 

Revolution of Vision, Evolution of World…

Does it take a GLOBAL PANDEMIC to end a SOCIAL POLITICAL VIRUS?

Our poor human race has been repeatedly victimized by, lets call it BABYLON (for the sake of term familiarity). Babylon, as I see it, is the system of top-down subjugation of the human race by a wicked few–a rule of the Top Dogs. The prevailing spiritual attitude within the human race is best encapsulated by the phrase “Am I my brother’s keeper!?” Because we are reluctant to recognize that we are all one and equal within our human family, which is eternal and divine, we instead try to outcompete one another for the resources of our world, resulting in the age old dog-eat-dog reality. But the unfortunate truth is that because we embrace this present spiritual dysfunction in our natures, some will inevitably rise up to be the Top Dogs and they will attempt to subjugate and enslave the rest, all for their tainted prides.

 

Now this is in fact today’s world on the global level as some ultra-elitist groups who sit on the majority of the world’s wealth and social political control seek to codify or make concrete their domination via a global economic system, one which aims to subjugate the human masses in a new feudal system–the new face of Babylon. Sadly, this kingdom of Babylon is still alive and calculating how it can use the Covid 19 pandemic to advance its dominion, as witnessed by the recently passed “Stimulus Bill” in America due to Coronavirus. Americans, in their present distress, collectively fail to realize that the 400 billion earmarked to larger corporations will be leveraged into trillions, thereby further propping up and securing the wealth domination of the few.

 

To the uneducated and unsophisticated American masses, they made it look as if what was given to corporations was dwarfed by what was given to “main street,” while in hidden form, they made sure that this 400 billion can be turned into trillions, far outweighing the ENTIRE bill at present. By “they” I mean the career politicians, Republicans AND Democrats. The Democrats, on their part, made a show of initially opposing the stimulus bill because the 400 billion was a blank check to some. But what they really meant by “some” was the republicans only, and they wanted a piece of the honey well. So they “compromised” by installing and “oversight committee,” which is no more than their jackal-herd controlling a piece of the carcass as well. They intend to leverage this say-so about how this money is dished out in such a way as to ensure that the moneyed elites, like pigs at the troth, will offer them personal career and enrichment kickbacks. And don’t think that they will not attempt to secure even more when, due to the severity of the economic decline, they will have to “revisit” the stimulus. May the American people awake enough by then, I pray, in order to undue this crime in the next bill, putting Babylon in its place.

 

While New American Spring is non-partisan, I feel that a video clip by Ocasio-Cortez captures this outrage quite well:

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/489863-ocasio-cortez-blasts-22t-coronavirus-stimulus-package-as-shameful-on-house?jwsource=cl

Likewise Bernie Sanders addresses the Babylon spirited disrespect of some republicans here:

 

Ok so our founding father, Thomas Jefferson famously said: “I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves ; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education.” But did he realize that Babylon would have taken such a hold of his child, America, as to inspire its leaders to capitalize on such ignorance, far less than to institute a program of citizen education and fortification? (This program is New American Spring, by the way…)

 

So a new dynamic entered the equation of the human struggle against Babylon with the birth of Coronavirus. This virus can help to level the playing field, as even the richest and most connected can acquire it. While they will not have to worry about limited ventilator supplies, since the American masses have already been beaten down to accept that money buys life in the present capitalist run healthcare system, some of Babylon might still be vulnerable due to their age. At any rate, all of humanity can now be invited to re-evaluate its prevailing spiritual passion. Are we our brothers’ keepers, after all, or do we still insist that we are not?

 

So it possibly takes a biological virus to shake up the virus of Babylon. But only if we realize that Babylon is in fact a virus in all our hearts, in our souls, just as, scientifically, viruses may work their way into the DNA of the life chain they infected in the past.

 

May the Coronavirus be the one to undue the remnants of the virus of Babylon, sparking a bottom-up world order based upon a new unity passion, and may human beings finally realize that yes indeed, WE ARE OUR BROTHERS’ KEEPERS.

 

FALL BABYLON, FALL!

 

PS: If you were fortunate enough to see this blog please copy it and share it before Babylon attempts to take it down under the justification that IT is the virus.Or rather, THEIR virus, to be exact, as truth is fatal to lie…

 

Revolution of Vision, Evolution of World…

 

 

Worse than Coronavirus?

So I believe that, as Bob Marley once sang, there are times when “there is a natural mystic, blowing through the air.” That is to say, times when great and dramatic things are happening in the human community, and not infrequently bad things. “Many more will have to suffer, many more will have to die. Don’t ask me why.”

 

Coronavirus is threatening our sick and our elderly, and we are now more than ever facing the spectacle of our mortality. The irrational panic going on around the world would be worse if the virus had a higher mortality rate and a wider victimology and or a more virulent pathology. Yet is there something worse than death? I say yes.

 

As Patrick Henry proclaimed at the Second Virginia Convention in 1775, “Give me Liberty or give me death!” If a totalitarian or otherwise tyrannical force ever arose to control human beings on the most basic social level (to control individuals) then life would be worthless in direct proportion to such control. So why am I bringing up these considerations? Because I am appealing to every individual today to be vigilant.

 

Most of us are already familiar with the capability of centralized surveillance in our technological present. And ever more, the world is becoming virtual. Yet how many of us have paused to consider the possibility of the world being herded into virtual communities and its potential for centralized control, for a new type of tyranny which would be unprecedented and utterly complete? A world where, when our common “reality” is mediated and intercepted, we are now completely controlled? Indeed, one where even our perception of the “real” is shaped and manipulated by whomever controls the new virtual paradigm through their power of censorship.

 

So we are encouraged to social distance. Ok. I say ok until this virus is controlled, but I warn you not to become complacent in it. I am social distancing myself and I do highly encourage this prudent action in trust of the scientific community, refraining from visiting my elderly parents and doing my best to keep my own family contagion free. But I am writing this blog because I am also seeing the potential for a great and terrible “mystic” in our world as schools become virtual, as churches becomes virtual, and as politics become more and more televised. Some might say that this is a rather distasteful time to introduce considerations which might cloud the waters of the fierce fight we should and must wage against this virus, but I disagree. While we are all home and feeding on remote media, this is a great opportunity to open up our minds and begin to tackle the larger question of what we can do to ensure that nothing challenges freedom and democracy in our world. This is a great dialogue opportunity which I hope to spark here, since I have pondered these questions thoroughly to have come up with a plan at New American Spring.

 

Is it not clear that if all eyes are encouraged to feed on reality from one medium, whomever can manipulate that medium effectively become our new God? Unless we do all we can to keep an intentional atmosphere of dialogue and healthy democratic debate, however.

 

So let us ask: is fear of our mortality excuse enough to forfeit our free lives?

 

In our day of populist pushback against top-down globalization such as Brexit, Trump and the newest excitement in Bernie Sanders, Coronavirus seems a rather convenient way to interrupt the face-to-face energy which is the very food of populism, the bottom up will of the people. Not that I am proposing that this virus is intentional, mind you. I am only encouraging the out-of-the-box thinking and awareness that a democratic world needs to possess if it will stay free. Perhaps I’m more sensitive to the danger of tyranny than most because I am the founding visionary at NewAmericanSpring.Org, THE anticipated populist manifestation of our American future.

 

Therefore let me be among the first to ask: who controls the new medium? One thing I can assure you is that someone or some group, if not already in control, is vying for that control. Murphy’s Law is true in politics as in anything else. If someone can attempt to seize control in any way, shape or form, they will. And this new type of enemy of mankind will be the most virulent because the most monstrous or far reaching. The true contagion.

 

Therefore my fellow citizens of the world, I say onto you: keep vigilant against ALL viruses. For there are things indeed which are far worse than death, such things which might co-opt life itself!

 

Revolution of vision, evolution of world…

Why BERNIE can WIN NATIONALLY (if the Democrats don’t conspire against him again)

So I have been deeply and personally following what I understand as an American populist awakening since the Great Recession of 2008. I saw how the Tea Party on the right leaning side of American politics attempted to mobilize against the shameful bailouts of Wall Street, but how its grassroots energy was infiltrated and corrupted by corporate philosophical and political forces represented by the Koch brothers. I then witnessed the Occupy Wall Street awakening on the left side of American politics and their attempt to return America to a people’s economy, but how this movement eventually fizzled out due to its lack of a coherent political direction. Now I clearly see how Trump became the resurrection and champion of the Tea Party awakening and how Bernie is becoming the next presidential champion of the Occupy Wall Street awakening. But how?

To understand why Bernie can win, we must delve into the ideological separation of the American people on the right verses the left, republican verses democrat, conservative verses liberal. We must remind ourselves how this separation ultimately proved itself meaningless as the American people, whether lead by republicans or democrats, nonetheless saw a singular and continual diminishment of their real wealth and material wellbeing since the post-World War II boom years.

Was it not a democratic president, Bill Clinton to be exact, who ushered in NAFTA, resulting in, as Ross Pero forewarned, the “great sucking effect” on American manufacturing, weakening the American People’s real economic wealth over the years? And was it not the right leaning Citizens United who opened up American politics to become greatly influenced by corporate money, resulting, over the years, in policies through its super PACs backed candidates (Obama, to be exact) who shamefully favored moneyed interests to the detriment of the American middle class when he refused to force banks to honor the mortgages they wrote in bad faith? If Obama had not been pressured by his ties to corporate forces, he might have forced these banks to reduce mortgages to their deflated or market values as well as reduce interest rates to their post-bubble lows, so that as the market recovered over time, which it inevitably does and did, the only winners might not be the banks. This singular failure on Obama’s part resulted in a massive wealth flow away from the American people and into corporate hands, or, seen in another way, a great polarizing shift of wealth in America, particularly away from those who could least afford it.

It is therefore clear that whether liberal or conservative, republican or democrat, our American leadership have only presided over an inevitable material weakening of our American people’s base. Money has long been and continues to be our real boss, so that whether our president is republican or democrat, we might do well to heed The Who’s famous lyrics, “meet the new boss, same as the old boss.”

The reason why Bernie can win is part-and-parcel of the reason why Trump won—the American people, awakened in 2008, are now becoming more and more capable of breaking away from their traditional political identities. Trump shook up the Republican Party essentially because the conservative middle class were the first, on the populist level, to take presidential political action against their real diminishment of economic well-being. The slogan “Make America Great Again” means just that—make American economically strong again. And while I do admit that there are what I call “populist impurities” in this Trump revolution such as racism, scapegoating (of Hispanics), bigotry and some degree of white entitlement, the GREATER reason why Trump is now president is his serving as an economic populist hero to a significant section of Americans. But this then is exactly why Bernie can succeed in the presidency and literally supersede Trump. There are a greater number of left leaning Americans who feel the same populist economic anxiety in such intensity as to elect a president, Americans who will no longer be intimidated by the “socialist” scarecrow.

America, in short, is now able to conceive of an consider some level of collectivism in its economic and social make-up, and the majority will no longer be scared off by the old lambast against “communism” or “socialism.”

Trump superseded Obama due to the American People’s awakening from their economic slumber, and Bernie can supersede Trump if the American People also awake from their ideological slumber. But one thing is inevitable. The American People are now truly awakening to the fact that their country is not theirs, that it belongs to money, and that it is high time to TAKE IT BACK!

I make these observations and analysis as the founding visionary at NewAmericanSpring.org, the social curriculum through which Americans can reclaim their country and seal the success of very Liberty as an historical experiment!

Revolution of Vision, Evolution of World…

Understanding America, 2020

There is presently a great deal of political spin and propaganda coming from our public representatives and partisan skewed news media, both from democrats and republicans, generally across right verses left ideological lines. But today I will attempt to get at the real heart of what concerns America. The issue of importance in our republic today, and one that is part of a global significance, is that of Economic Populism.

Populism is the broad based sentiment of the people, so that Economic Populism is the general, economic anxiety of the people.

Due to the effects of global competition, assisted by globalist policies dictated by an entrenched set of government officials, Americans have seen, over the years, a gradual reduction in their real wealth and economic strength. An example of this loss is the diminishment of manufacturing in America, resulting from such global trade deals like NAFTA. Another example is the HUGE wealth loss of the middle class during the 2008 national recession, sparking populist awakening in the forms of the Tea Party (on the right) and Occupy Wall Street (on the left). This loss of economic strength and status therefore characterizes the American populist spirit, expressed as a generalized state of economic anxiety. Now because white, middle-class Americans are still the major politically active base of the American people (as Trump shrewdly saw), their Economic Anxiety sided for Trump in the latest presidential election. Simply put, Trump ran on the slogan of “Make America Great Again,” which is a clear call for a reestablishment of our economic strength as a nation.

It should be noted, by the way, that while Trump happened to run on the republican or right leaning side of American politics, America also has Economic Populist candidates on the left, notably Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. So that in the present state of American Populism, a generalized economic anxiety shared also by left leaning Americans (who actually outnumber right leaning Americans) these two candidates, if they ran together, might most potently challenge Trump on the deepest grounds of what moves America today. Just so you know…

Now here is where I will have to delve into matters which might be characterized as conspiratorial, but I urge you to read through my entire article here. I feel that there is a close knit group of career politicians and or elected American officials who are pushing for the process of economic globalization, mainly in order for their power faction to secure domination in a global economic order. This group is that which is vaguely referred to as the “deep state.” This group, moreover, is beyond the right verses left divide in America, probably responsible for accentuating such a baseless divide and most likely having representatives on both sides.

On the republican side, for example, they are promising regular Americans that if they applied themselves they too will become rich, while actually pushing for greater polarization of wealth in America by representing mainly the interests (in actual policies) of the wealthiest Americans, all in order to subdue the masses economically and acclimate them to a global feudal system. On the democratic side, they are mainly pushing for identity based political competition and dysfunction among the people, in addition to greater public entitlements, in order to divide and pacify the people– in preparation for the same ultimate global economic and political subjugation. What’s most poignant is that if America falls victim to this new enslavement, it will represent the greatest slap on the face of humanity itself, since America stands for humankinds free expression in Liberty.

This is nevertheless the reason why both Trump and Sanders are presently being persecuted—they are both on the forefront of nationalist-populist resurgence. The only difference is that while Trump fights for American economic dignity from the traditional, capitalistic side, Sanders seeks material flourishing for the people through a collectivist approach, disparagingly referred to as “socialist.” Yet both approaches have at their heart the same intent for a material well-being of the American people, so that it is up to the American people to reconcile these ideological differences toward their true interest if they will ever wise up and unite, a task which New American Spring hopes to assist in accomplishing. The Trump impeachment trials are being used by this manipulative group with global intent to beat down a duly elected economic champion of the people, just as the latest “women can’t be elected” charge against Sanders (similar to the 2016 Democratic Party’s obstruction of his legitimate candidacy) is being used by the selfsame interest to ultimately nullify a potential left-leaning defender of the people’s welfare.

This, finally, is what I mean by the great deal of spin coming from our elected representatives, both on the right and left, propaganda that Americans, with New American Spring’s help, shall hopefully soon able to see through.

Now a post script for those who find this article too conspiratorial in spirit. Let me offer you a solution for your concerns. Let’s say that this so called “deep state” group is indeed a conspiracy fiction. Would it make any difference to the fact that the American people need to come together on the grassroots level, across ideological lines, to fight for their broad based interests? And let’s say this group exists. Do we really need to try and delve into deeply hidden and nefarious truths, when the bottom line remains, if we unite, their power will be nullified anyway? And what’s more, won’t they be the ones to reveal themselves as the opponents of an American grassroots unity movement, since this would directly threaten them? So in the end, the aim of New American Spring is legitimate, even if there is no “deep state.”

Unite, America, and build a better and dignified life for all…

Christianity and our Coming Social Convergence

So I was honored and pleased to have attended Dr. Fulginiti’s Institute for Human Flourishing’s dinner event last Saturday evening in Oviedo, Florida. Our group conversation centered on the question of whether America is a Christian nation. At the discussion I shared my own examination of the historical period surrounding the penning of the Magna Carta and my speculation that this document, having been moderated by the then Archbishop of Canterbury, definitely bore signs of Cristian influence which subsequently passed on to America. Such influence being the Magna Carta’s helping to inspire the very spirit of liberalism’s belief in the value of the individual, after the pattern of the supremely valuable individual, Jesus Christ. To see more of this argument, stay tuned for my upcoming book “Next Generation Rising: A Heart to Heart to Young Adults.” These points are in Chapter 1 titled “American Child.”

Our conversation then evolved into an exploration of Christianity’s place in our present American liberal evolution. I introduced my New American Spring Vision of an American society characterized by a state of maximal liberty. That is, a society in which every individual will be at liberty to be and do whatsoever he or she pleases, so long as everyone collectively agrees to one and only one constraint—that no individual harms or hinders any other in the free exercise of his and her liberty. See John Stuart Mill’s essay titled “On Liberty” for a fuller understanding of this principle. I emphasized that this one constraint to liberty is of course essential in order to have a social environment itself, since otherwise, individuals will be at each other’s throats, leading to anarchy and the breakdown of the very social condition. I also stressed that a social state of maximal liberty will require two other essential values if it will avoid anarchical disintegration. The first is that of embracing diversity, or seeing the individuality of one another as a good thing rather than as a threat. And the second is that of tolerant dialogue, from which process individuals can influence one another toward a healthier state of social convergence. For truly tolerant dialogue will not fail to result in a new and shared social consciousness, a natural “morality” which will then be the basis of a truer social cohesion. Let’s optimistically call this new social state our Coming Social Convergence.

The pushback that I encountered against my premises centered on what I understand as the pessimistic spirit about human nature. Christianity, for one, holds that human beings are hopelessly sinful and corrupt. Our long line of historical experience, moreover, only shows a human race that is basically selfish, self-centered, violent and destructive. So the natural question arises: why do I feel that a state of maximal liberty of individuals will not only not result in anarchy, but might ultimately evolve into a new, social cohesion through dialogue? I pointed, in response, to the very conversation our group was having. I asked: were we not having some influence on one another through mere conversation? And if this happened in the same cooperative spirit, nationwide, might peoples not naturally converge in healthier ways?

I’m writing this little article, at any rate, to summarize what New American Spring stands for, from a Christian point of view. Firstly, I am Christian myself. So it would seem very unusual indeed that I might advocate for a society of maximal liberty. For a society in which individuals do whatsoever they please, even if constrained by the mandate not to discriminate or harm any other (which “discrimination” or “harm” is determined socially through dialogue), would certainly result in actions which are presently understood as “sinful.” We even had a person of Middle Eastern dissent in the group who went so far as to say that individuals can still be evil in such a social context, and I followed up by asking her what makes an individual evil if he or she does not hurt anyone else, since evil, in my mind, is determined through its hurtful and destructive effects? Such questions which confront one another’s assumptions are often the fruitful consequences of dialogue, even if they lead to moments of silence and contemplation, as I seemed to observe mine doing.

Returning to my mission, however, of answering this question of Christianity verses Sin in maximal liberty, I had to clarify to my group the definition of three essential concepts: Free Will, Freedom, and Liberty. Free Will, as I hold it, is the individual’s ability to either accept or reject God or the Creator. As a Christian I hold that God gave us this ability to either accept or reject him for the greater purpose of Love, since one cannot love a person whom one is unable to reject. Freedom, secondly, is the individual’s state of health and well-being following the choice to accept his or her Creator, as a robot might be considered healthy if it complied with its original programing and design from its engineer. And Liberty is the mere ability to do whatsoever one pleases in society and the world, regardless of whether such choices align with a state of accepting ones Creator (Freedom) or rejecting one’s creator (Sin). Now we are able to see the exact way in which a state of maximal liberty can involve occasions of sinfulness. We can also understand how Christians can argue that a state of maximal liberty is not “Free” in the Christian sense if it occasions sinful choices among individuals, resulting in self-destruction. Choices of life contrary to God’s original design.

Why then, as a Christian man, do I advocate for a state of maximal liberty and why do I accept the resulting social convergence, good or bad, which might result in the best case scenario from such a liberal evolution? Simply because I feel that this evolution is inevitable and cannot be avoided, so that the best thing I can do as person concerned about the well-being of my human family is to enable its development in the healthiest way possible. Liberalism will have to be tempered with tolerance and dialogue which require humility and a form of operational social love if it will not result in chaos and destruction. Therefore my Christian Charity tells me that in a society which will inevitably take this liberal direction, I must do my best to assist in its safe passage.

There is a second reason why I actually want to participate in the growing liberalization of America, however, besides keeping my society from running off the rails. I often think that our Christian tradition entertains certain principles, concepts and ideas about right and wrong which I’m not sure, in my own heart, actually comes from God. One wife one husband, for instance, while human nature might be quite capable of multi-amorous relationships, moderated by a mature rationality. One physical life and after that the judgment, as another example. While it is quite possible that the soul goes through many incarnations in a karmic tangle, Christ being the way out of the web of reincarnation, which might be the true meaning of salvation. A third example of Christianity’s artificial restrictions might be its limitation of various sexualities, while humanity might be quite naturally diverse in sexual expression–if only society evolved into its full and natural potential, etc. I feel that there might be a benefit for human self-understanding by allowing for a society that is at liberty to radically experiment with traditional value systems. A society that breaks down all traditional assumption and put humanity to the test for what it really is, accepting only the constraints mentioned above for the sake of social cohesion. Part of me wants to see what the human race actually has inside itself when allowed to express itself in the greatest possible way through liberating its smallest unit, the individual.

At the very least I might be accused of toying with Pandora’s Box. What would it mean to open up the previously unopened chamber (from the perspective of this socially radical way) of the human heart? Am I toying with ultimate destruction, or am I the prophet of a new awakening? While I don’t know the answer myself, I can only repeat that this is the direction liberalism is taking anyway, so why not help moderate the journey to be as safe as possible? One thing I will however take immediate comfort in is that in this new society of maximal liberty, I should be most at liberty to be my Christian self. If God puts in my heart that I should live in such and such ways which might be self-constraining in the mind of another individual, would I not thereby be an example onto him or her? And if God did indeed speak to me in such instances, would I not thereby be a light? If God really courts the human family and invites all individuals to Love, would not a maximally liberal society really bring home to individuals the emptiness of living contrary to the intentions of God via the empty wages of Sin? I dare say, a maximally liberal society would be a perfect place for God’s light to shine, for God’s true children to influence their fellow human beings. And if Christianity happens to be wrong, then humanity will finally have an opportunity to free itself from self-hating because self-limiting traditions.

This willingness to allow for such a radical test of our human race should not dissuade anyone on the side of truth, as I feel I am as a Christian. It should not dissuade the sincere Christian. One who is not a “Christian” only because it makes one feel better than others (self-righteous). Or one who is not a “Christian” because it brings social privileges in a Christian-value-system society (hypocrite). Or one who is not a “Christian” because it gives one an arbitrary (because merely born into it) sense of meaning in an otherwise meaningless world (existential coward). A true Christian would welcome a state of maximal liberty and not be afraid, for truth fears nothing.

Selah!

Future of Diversity

 

So one thing I have come to deeply understand in my 47 years of life is that humanity is diversity personified. Whoever champions the cause of embracing diversity in the human community, he or she is a champion of our very race on this blue planet.

 

Today, the forefront of the challenge to diversity on our globe is the LBGTQ campaign. Even though or perhaps because I am in the majority as a straight male, I still fully appreciate that human sexuality is the most powerful AND the most sensitive of the kind of varieties we find among our species. If ever our human race will fully embrace itself as a species of colors and variety, acknowledging that this is a good thing, it will largely be in response to this dimension of its self-understanding. May we indeed evolve to fully embrace one another in all our differences, recognizing that variations are a good thing about our species.

 

So long, of course, as no human being abuses any other in his or her self-expression, as he or she has a right not to be abused. The “abuse” limitation to human variety will require peoples coming together and reasoning together, so let us leave this point for future discussion.

 

At any rate, I have dedicated my highest dreams and ambition in life to bringing this embracing spirit to America. Not just or specifically regarding human sexuality, but the embrace of all human varieties as a sacred point of existence itself. America as a nation is leading the way in inclusiveness since we have always boasted being the “melting pot” of the world. But our crowning achievement on behalf of our very species will be in taking this integrative concept to its full and logical extent.

Therefore to my fellow warriors in the cause for a world which loves itself by loving its variety, I say, “hip, hip, hooray,” and I ask you all to join me in action by visiting and supporting my own humble work in this spirit, at http://www.newamericanspring.org.

 

Revolution of vision, evolution of world…

 

Roger Farinha, Founder

The New American Spring Social Curriculum for a Better World