Reflections on the NOV 2012 election
The first reflection is that "It is the best of times, it is the worst of times, it is the age of wisdom, it is the age of foolishness, it is the epoch of belief, it is the epoch of incredulity, it is the season of Light, it is the season of Darkness, it is the spring of hope, it is the winter of despair, we have everything before us, we have nothing before us, we are all going direct to Heaven, we are all going direct the other way-" (Charles Dickens)
To this I add: "If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could then better judge what to do, and how to do it......." (Abraham Lincoln)
Looming over all this is the reminder that every empire in human history collapsed for basically two reasons: (1) an empire so stretched out that it became too costly and too difficult to control and (2) too much wealth accumulated in the hands of the few at the expense of the many at home.
Imposed on all this are three new wrinkles: (1)human overpopulation. The planet's population has doubled in my lifetime. As a consequence (2) there are no longer enough natural resources to enable everyone to live a lifestyle which some of us now live. There is no form of government which can change this basic fact. Then add (3)---for the first time in human history we now have a global economy instead of national relatively isolated economies. Thus, when any nation talks about economic issues it has lost the ability to control their own economic prosperity. The economy of most anywhere now affects the economy most everywhere.
If we wish, we can add climate change and species extinction, but that is largely a reflection of human overpopulation and the consequent human activities which lead to climate changes and species extinction.
All the above is, to me, where all considerations of this upcoming election starts: seeing the forest for the sake of the trees.
Noteworthy right away is that neither party addresses any of the above. We can listen to any political debate and never be aware that any of the above are issues at all. No, we are inundated with issues like abortion, gay marriage, birth control, gun rights, who is to get health care and who will pay for it, who gets tax breaks, illegal immigration, which party's base get the power to inflict the cost of reducing debt on the other party's base, etc. The rejection of any notion that everyone should sacrifice based on their % ownership of our national wealth is a reflection on just how shallow our religious or ethical society is, compared to what it purports to be. Every major prophet of every major religion---Confucius, Buddha, Jesus, and Mohammed-----all preached ad nausea that any accumulation of wealth past basic need is to be shared with the less fortunate, not spent lavishly on oneself, one's own family or to descendants via inheritance. All four never preached against financial success personally earned, but all four certainly made clear exactly to whom that earned wealth was to be shared. No one anywhere, of any culture or religious persuasion, ever refutes that the Golden Rule is an ethical principle. Ethics is an inherent human trait, genetically bestowed upon our species. Most everyone knows right from wrong is most situations. Whether any of us will do right is quite another question---whenever it is inconvenient or not self serving.
Thus we are faced with a quandary. If the issues raised currently in this election are really the deciding issues, then neither party is about to tackle the genuine issues. Thus, this election, at most, is nothing more than choosing just how fast everything goes down hill. Just like a parent is the last to see their child as an addict, or a thief, or a swindler, or a failure of any sort---so we too, as a dominant society or empire, like others before, are the last to face the realities of our situation. What is different this time, in the timeless process of evolution, is human inability to practice responsible reproduction. The frontier is gone, there are no new continents to be discovered, there is no longer any place to run, and everyone everywhere is being squeezed by the same issues raised in the first part of this tractate.
Most of you know that I like Obama. He really seems a decent, intelligent person who easily fits in with most any ethnic, economic or cultural group. Probably most people believe he wants to be fair to all the diverse groups which make up our nation. If he wins, that will be the basis upon which he wins. If he loses, people will just be voting their pocketbook---hoping that a change will improve their own economic status, albeit they haven't the vaguest idea what specific measures need be implemented to do so. Catchy slogans don't change anything. Pitting various groups against each other just makes everything worse.
In the short term, people like myself will benefit from a Republican President. Few benefit more than I with Republican tax breaks and loop holes. I rarely pay more than 10% tax on my earnings----simply because most of my income is not from productive work on an 8-5 job, but because I shuffle papers around and speculate. Those kind of earnings are, for some reason, privileged, and taxed at a low rate. I also worked for the state, and government employees are the last to suffer pension losses, health care cost increases, etc. But those of us in this category are next in line. Few citizens or politicians, at this point in time, are focused on restoring good benefits and pensions, but going after those who still might have them. It never is clear to me just how prosperity returns via reduced wages, smaller or non existent pensions, increased layoffs, longer working hrs, needing to work more than one job to survive, and supporting foreign slave labor via purchasing their products at the expense of our own work force. Aside from the low income tax rates for paper shufflers like myself, tax rates for the average person are lower now than any time in modern history. However, whichever politician promises to give even more tax cuts is likelier to win. We have become like lemmings, and are caught up in a stampede to the edge of the cliff. Let's wave to each other on the way down. What drives this stampede toward the edge of a cliff, not just here at home, but globally----is GREED, OVERPOPULATION, INTOLERANCE, and TOO MANY major problems coming at us all at once. We simply don't know where to begin, plus most insist on others sacrificing instead of them. The election is massive finger pointing---it is this or that ethnic group which is bringing us down, or the religious beliefs of certain others, or illegal immigrants, or workers, or gays, or capitalists, or the lazy unemployed, or or those with too many benefits, etc. Maybe, in truth, we have met the enemy and it is us---everybody blaming everybody else.
It is hard for me, at 72, to see this whole election as anything more than good theatre. It is the younger generation to whom the future belongs, not those like me in their terminational years----and that is the way it ought to be. Like others, I kind of want to say I have earned any accomplishments in life, and the many blessings along the way were all personally earned. But this would be quite a stretch---I didn't choose my parents (although I tried to raise them right), my country of birth, my community of birth, the grade and high schools I went to, my physical attributes both good and bad, my neighborhood peers during my formative years, my physical health, my ability to run some distance and then more, etc. In fact, almost any of my accomplishments, none of which are going to be in any record books, depended on the support, guidance, or protection from key others. We all know the truth to this, in varying degrees, but we all, to varying degrees, want to feel we did it the old fashioned way---we earned it. It is the less fortunate who deserve their fate. Mostly this is quite a stretch. Progress in the evolutionary process, by the nature of God's laws that control this process, has almost nothing to do with any individuals earning anything.
But it is all moot. There is no "I" in God's evolutionary process. Clearly it is a good process, an endless process, and one for which there is no logical reason to believe it will end. I personally accept the existence of God for the simple logic that where there is a gift given, there must be a gift giver. Of course all the cards in a card deck are important. There is no game if all the cards are aces. Chance, genetic diversity, and environment are the forces; we are the cards in the evolutionary process---while God's created laws of nature govern the process. We are not in control of this process at all. What we do have control over is the extent to which we can achieve personal contentment , given our own circumstances and the cards in our hands. Of course not all circumstances lend themselves to much achievable contentment at all. There is more tragedy than success in life.
Democracy is beginning to collapse big time. So is every other form of government. Incumbents are being thrown out right and left across the globe. The important issues are so complex now that the average citizen is simply lacking the knowledge to vote intelligently. The campaigns go on now for literally years, the next campaign begins the day after an election. All the myriad media gadgets, in the hands now of common people across the globe, are effective ways to channel sophisticated propaganda at diverse populations to ensure all the right emotional buttons are pressed to get their targeted population angry. We still, for example, have blood bath campaigns about abortion, even though in reality it only takes a pill now to have a successful abortion. So whatever the law is matters little. The question is effectively moot. It would be as easy to get a pill for abortion as it is to get marijuana to get mellowed out.
It a larger sense, and more ominous sense, power is now passing from governments of any kind to the people. Aroused mobs of citizens, with little gadgets to communicate with each other, now have the ability to create instantaneous mobs---here, there, and everywhere---and no police force can be here, there, and everywhere at the same time. Incumbents of all political stripe are now being defeated at the polls or displaced with street mobs. The 'winners' are no more capable of stopping the chaos than the rulers just displaced. Can this happen in America? Of course it can, and it can happen almost overnight----just like it has happened almost overnight in so many other places. And when this kind of chaos sets in, for whatever the reasons, history has shown that it is always the 'have-nots' who win. They win because they have nothing to lose and the have's have everything to protect. As pointed out in the beginning of this tractate, overpopulation is the Achilles heel of the current human species. The evolutionary process has dealt with species overpopulation before (non human) and will deal with it again. There is no reason to believe all species will end up extinct, but there probably will emerge a new species or improved old species which will understand the need for responsible reproduction.
At any rate the November election will come and go and someone will win and someone will lose and everyone will lose, even the winner. Obama can keep the lid on longer than a Republican. With Obama gone, all the varied groups at the bottom of the economic ladder will be ripe to create chaos. As John Kennedy once said, "IF A FREE SOCIETY CANNOT HELP THE MANY WHO ARE POOR, IT CANNOT SAVE THE FEW WHO ARE RICH". I wander around a lot, it is a longstanding hobby. I wander and see, depending on where I am wandering, masses of people living lives of quiet desperation. They are walking time bombs ticking away, all with these little gadgets for personal communication. Remember, we had all the power and wealth in Vietnam and lost. We have had it in Afghanistan and are accomplishing little, we had it in Iraq and really lost there too. Gadafi had the power and wealth and lost. Mubarack in Egypt had the power and wealth and lost, etc. The ball game has changed. It is scary. Where is the establishment winning anywhere? Mother Nature may well be stepping to the plate. She always bats last and with little mercy. God's laws which govern evolution are immutable. Time flies we say. No, Time stays, WE go. Hang on to your hats, this could be bumpy ride.
