We often hear mention of the democratic ideals as the reason for action in any given cause. My question is, what comes to mind when you hear or read about democratic ideals?
As a rule we don’t live in a democratic environment at home or at work. Any group entity will end up with someone making the final decision for the group. At home or at work that person is not voted into that position. Our natural human nurturing isn’t based on the democratic form of governing.
So where did the democratic ideals come from? They came with the spread of knowledge, which was put on super drive with the invention of the printing press. They came also with the shift in wealth to the merchants and industrialists as the Industrial Revolution changed the agrarian landscape with the shift from human labor to machine labor. As a result the labor class became a poverty class.
From the very beginning democracy was developed by the well to do for their’ own benefit up front. Being that there were so many of them in the American Colonies, the writing of the American Constitution deals with the individual’s protection from the many other white males 21 years or older who owned property.
We all know that the law doesn’t protect us equally. Race, color of skin, religion, sexual orientation and wealth play into the quality of treatment by government representatives, made up of a wide spectrum of the general population. For the last three years a new factor has crept on the public stage, political affiliation. Many current Politian’s promise they will fix that problem with more laws or more enforcement of the existing laws.
Fortunately we are at the beginning of the Technological Evolution and a major shift in the Zeitgeist resulting in more people of all economic strata working on building a better socio-economic system. There is a growing awareness that if more people were doing well in meeting their financial needs and wants, a lot of problems would no longer burden us with emergency elevated government costs at all levels of government.
Growing awareness is shown by today’s young people, who are publicly shaming their elders for not working harder on climate change with more urgency and recourses. They are also asking for more efforts towards mass shooting prevention. The long and short run effects will depend on how well they can walk their talk. I expect a lot more young people will be more willing to enter entrepreneurship as the physical affects of robotics and AI continue their inroads into our way of living.
The mess in Washington isn’t the sole cause of concerns for American Democracy. A much larger cause of concerns is the lack of participation in our democratic system. Many well to do Democracies with non-mandatory voting have better voter turnouts than America. Despite that, wealth distribution is very much the same but income distribution has been narrowing in the EU while widening in the US in the years since the financial crisis of 2008.
The view from Wall Street and sold by the news media, shows the American economy in a better position than those of other developed countries. The view from Home Town USA shows an ever-increasing number of people becoming dependent on social services or finding themselves on the street. The most news coverage is given the more visible homeless population, with occasional mention that a larger number of people are facing the same future.
I could fill pages describing all the hardships our current government endorsed business systems are inflicting. I can’t, however, point to one simple solution. I can’t even point to one single cause. I can say, however, that the 2020 Election will be a glimpse of what the future brings to harvest.
Right now we have the poster child of what’s wrong with Washington occupying the White House. Instead of government for the corporations by the corporations it’s real estate by the realtor in chief. It is that way because people like to serve their own interests. So if the working lower middle class wants to get past the point of receiving an occasional handout from above they have to get more involved in the local, state and national government process. Voting is a good start for developing new habits.
Democracy is a system of individual freedoms that span across all aspects of life. The political aspect sets the stage so to speak by setting the rules of conduct in the form of laws. These democratically selected laws are to benefit all the people the lawmakers represent. In reality, the laws being passed are due to the efforts of a few people that are motivated by a variety of reasons money being the most represented. No mater what the incentive, it is always an organized effort by multiple people to promote their own interests.
TIME TO ORGANIZE
I could go on and on about providing arguments that we have reached the point in history where the majority of employees are facing the prospect of vocational obsolescence. There is little chance that humanitarian feelings will prevail in the Board Rooms to stop that from happening. At this point in time, November 2019, growth of micro businesses has been growing every year influenced by the extended retirement period increased life expectancy brings with it. The Internet and delivery services are providing the tools to make entry into the free market affordable for many people. However, more people are going into business because jobs for their skills are scarce not because they want to be self employed. The condition of being unprepared in skills, knowledge and funding for going into business will increase when going into business is a necessity instead of a choice.
The main reasons for organizing has always been based on the proposition that well organized groups can enhance the ability to reach individual goals. I belief that the time is right to organize the micro sector of small businesses in the format I laid out in 1994. In light of the ease of establishing fake information on the Internet, sponsorship and at least one physical contact with the sponsored should be kept as the means to grow the individual chapters. With the advances in AI the referral system I wrote about 25 years ago can be set up without potential favoritism.
This is a good time to bring in the concept that the answers are hidden in the problems. I have no vision of people giving up convenience and gadgets unless they are forced to do so. If we don’t acknowledge the fact that major changes are taking place in all areas of our life, due to climate imbalance we will be scrambling for our survival. We have been aware of the impact our commercial activities has on our planet for some time. Now we are being forced to deal with the domino effect our emotion driven behavior and widespread endorsement of, “Let George do it.”, has positioned us at.
EMOTION VIA LOGIC
Perhaps the most attractive essence of Star Trek for me, when it first came out in 1966, was the play between emotion and logic. The selection of the crew was based on logical selections to provoke emotions while allowing logic to maintain a strong presence. The social, economic, spiritual and environmental issues the original Star Trek series portrayed are still with us but not exactly the same. That latter part is a very important FACT. NOT EXACTLY THE SAME is the most ignored fact by most of us all the time.
Technologically we have made a lot of advances since the start of Star Trek in 1966. Though emotions play a big role in our technological developments logic is the key player in production of what we envision. What we envision could use more logic to guide our emotions.
Despite being aware how my personal everyday activities have a direct affect on the community and the environment I have resisted improving my behavior with regards to the environment for many years. My confession brings me to the human factors and their role in our future. There is a general agreement that old habits are hard to break. If your fortunate enough to have developed many beneficial habits and life hasn’t thrown you any unexpected curves in the road you are truly blessed. For most of us, the road is full of curves and playing victim is less self reflecting, which too often leads to admission of guilt.
That is why we have waited to really deal with climate induced changes on earth, which are hostile to our survival. We just discovered the main source of the increasing amount of plastic pebbles we are finding mixed with the sand on our beaches and blanketing the sea floors are the tires we use for personal and commercial transport. How long it will take us to get past using rubber tires or perhaps wheels in general for transportation is to be seen. The main influence prompting change in our behavior will be provided by nature. I say that because although I have been warning about the need to be more climate conscious I haven’t implemented many changes in my habits. Habits I know contribute to the problems I point to.
Nature provided the main influence I predicted, in the form of COVID-19. The global shut down was put into place after I wrote, ‘DEMOCRACY IS NOT A SPECTATOR GAME”. The recent mass demonstrations point to a widespread agreement that democracy requires conscious and civil participation. I will be expanding on Nature’s message in, “COVID-19 THE LONG AWAITED MESIAH” ‘bringing the truth to light’. Available soon.