Are You Ready For A New Party, With A New Vision, Supported By A New Platform?

At some point everyone is likely to ask themselves "What's the point of all this?"  By "all this" they mean how did their life get this way.  Henry Thoreau commented on this conundrum by saying: "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation."  The quotation is from his book Walden.

His statement was a commentary on participating in life with the value system of conventional society.  Reading it for the first time in 1969 it had an impact on me then and the comment stuck with me.  At first the outright questioning of the meaning of life and society itself attracted me.  Society caused a lot of people my age to reject it.  

All these decades later I see the original question being asked but this time there's a lot more implied in the question. A marriage has ended, the kids have grown up, the body has begun to fail and my persistent worry is about the welfare of my cats if I should drop dead because there's no one else.  The question asks itself; "What's the point of all this?"  Does life and existence imply anything but the present misery and uncertainty orchestrated and maintained by society? 

Anyone living during the second Trump Administration will be driven to ask that question of themselves, on the basis of their own predicament, with their own take on the situation. The world is watching in astonishment and rejection of the behavior of the United States as it rampages around the globe.  The Noontide of the Trump Administration has become the Midnight of the world. Just read the news.

We can do better than this can't we?  But if we expect to do better a different way of doing things is necessary,  To keep doing what has been done is madness unless you're happy with the way things are now and where their destination is headed.  Are you happy?

I keep thinking about one of the desires of those who created the United States was the vision of a government that promoted the general welfare.  We do not have such a government now even if government leaders say we do.  You know that by looking around you. You know that by watching the news, by talking to your neighbor and when you are in bed alone with your thoughts. 

You don't need any talking media head to tell you that 'you just don't understand' or that you 'must be patient' while the same people, Republicans and Democrats, with the same political philosophy that produced the present undesirable moment, the ones who created the mess, have the responsibility of correcting what they did not do by mistake. That cannot turn out good.

Is this your lucky day?  Do you really think Republicans and Democrats working together can produce a satisfactory solution to what they worked so hard to achieve? Do you really think they want to promote the general welfare or are they only interested in promoting the corporate welfare?  Come on now!

Have you come to the end of the Republican and Democratic rope you've been hung with?  Is it time to consider a New Party with a New Vision supported by a New Platform that has as it's prime directive the promotion of the general welfare?  If not now when?

What would this New Party do?  It would address working class concerns and correct what needs to be corrected.  What would this New Party NOT DO?  It would not polarize the electorate over personal issues such as abortion and guns and religion vs science.  That kind of political alienation would cease.

This New Vision would see the wealth of the world generated by human productivity redistributed to those who by their strength, sweat, brain power and dedication have produced the wealth.  Working class people are the reason the Filthy Rich are the Filthy Rich. Imagine if the profit you created and was given to someone who had nothing to do with producing the profit was instead given to you the working class who created the wealth in the form of social amenities for all.

This New Vision would see the government providing the means for every member of society to participate and pursue life and happiness.  That would certainly be a big change wouldn't it?  Republicans and Democrats don't want anything to do with such ideas and not paying attention to them anymore makes the most sense.

This New Party would see to it that you had gainful employment.  You would have your healthcare needs met, your educational aspirations will be met, your retirement needs all taken care of by a constitutional mandate to "promote the general welfare."

Could you imagine something like that?  Would you like something like that?  You can have it if you want it as long as Republicans and Democrats are remembered for what they have already done and no one votes for them. I'm betting you don't want more of what Trump and the Republicans and the Democrats have in store for tomorrow and the day after.

How about it?  Is it time for a New Party with a New Vision supported by a New Platform? No it isn't!  It's way past time.

The Working Class Flu: a poem about social ills. Adults Only

 While looking back over the decades remembering how I had worked night and day and being aware of those who are today, decades later and younger than me, working night and day until they get old and look back and write their own poem to warn a younger generation. 

I wrote the following poem, The Working Class Flu, after looking back and looking forward, For adults only.

I made a video of the poem and set it to music.  Take a look.  The music and the reading of the poem went together well.  Enjoy.

Democracy's Blues: Poetry and Commentary

So what are democracy's blues?  I define that status as existing when the People, the electorate, are divided against their own interests by the political elite. This condition is exemplified by the Republican and Democratic Parties and the issues that are used to cause division.  Issues like abortion, gun control, freedom of speech, police reform.  I'm sure there are more. These issues are used by the various Parties to divide the electorate. 

The effect of a divided electorate can be seen in the failures of society that populate our daily experience.  People, families without homes, people, families without enough to eat, people without lucrative employment, people, families without health insurance that actually pays their medical expenses, people who need education. These are things every member of the working class needs. 

Every working class family or person needs all of those things. But the Republicans and Democrats have artfully found a way to divide the working class and encourage them to vote in a way that denies themselves the very basic things they all need in common.  

This division is created and maintained by the Republican and Democratic Parties. It is this division that is keeping the American People from uniting along class lines and voting as a bloc.  As long as this blindness created by the two political parties remains the same old same old remains and the People are left hopeless without a vision. 

Democracy's Blues is a poem written about the way we the people are used by the Republican and Democratic Parties to keep us fighting each other and to keep us from having a just and equitable society for the working class.

Democracy's Blues

The nations are angry,

men run to and fro,

the People are feeling uneasy

as if waiting for something to blow.

While the President pontificates

holding in his hands our fate

legislators disingenuously debate

about who to save

and who to eliminate.

All the while the People despair,

their life has become a lamentation.

Their future is dark, 

cold and bleak;

as is that of the nation.

The People long for a leader to lead them,

but receive only knaves and fools.

who meet them with smiles 

and promises;

but smiling faces making promises not kept

are cruel.

Promises unkept

leave the People broken 

and bereft,

desperate for hope

when no hope is left.

The way out is closed

without a Vision that unites

making them see, 

how to set things right.

A nation divided

does not long endure,

or to the People be true;

until we see 

we all need the same things

we'll keep playing 

democracy's blues.

January 10, 2023

Mark 8:15 Update To Present

 

"Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod." Mark 8:15.

The Pharisees were the spiritual leaders of the day.  Herod, of course, represented the State of the day.  The two influences, Church and State, comprised the authorities of the day.  

Click

to see a video from the Academy of Ideas on the topic of mass media.  

Jesus warned about believing what they have to say.  So the message has been updated.

NASA Climate Scientist Has Had Enough

Noam Chomsky on manufacturing consent.  

The Spiritual Sides Of War And Peace: a poem

 

I was thinking of the goings on in the Ukraine and all the human suffering that has happened and how much more is yet to happen.  

I wrote the poem below with the thought there are two sides to war.  Enjoy the video reading of the poem.  Feel free to share it.  Peace is good, war is evil.  There are those who fight and create suffering that they themselves and others must endure.  

There are the good and there are the evil.  The evil make war and produce suffering that they themselves and other humans must endure.  Spiritually speaking all war dead die as a result of fratricide, such is the spiritual nature of war. If we are all one in God we are all brothers and sisters.

This is an anti-war, or perhaps more correctly, a pro-peace, poem.  I view war to be 'Evil' and peace to be 'Good'.  War is anti-human. To engage in anti-human activities is to be 'Evil'.

Life is Good Today (poetry)

Life Is Good Today

While Biden and Putin are deciding who gets to live and who gets to die is is good time to take stock of your ontological situation.

Who are you? And if Biden and Putin decide that you and your family have to die because of the guiding principles of statecraft and the requirements of capitalist expansion is that the end of you?

No one can give an answer to that question which will satisfy every questioner. But we can be faithful to the needs of life and the moment every day and there is not a more honorable way to live. 

Ready Or Not Change Is Coming To America

America is being destroyed from the inside out.  A lot of people know, or suspect, that it is so and are tiptoeing around the topic. The hard truth is that Americans have been left out in the cold by the two dominant political parties. Those would be the Republican Party and the Democratic Party. 

Both parties have behaved as if the welfare of the Voting Class was not associated with governing. As it turns out both the Republican Party and the Democratic Party have financial relationships that preclude taking anymore than a passing interest in the welfare of their constituents which I refer to as the Voting Class.

The financial relationships the Republican and Democratic Parties are involved with are the root cause for the present state American society finds itself in right now. This outcome turns out to be a real big assault on the concept of democratic forms of government. A democratic form of government is government where the citizens take care of their own welfare through processes they imagine, create and control. These financial relationships, to which the Republican and Democratic Parties willingly wed themselves, make a democratic form of government out of reach for Americans.

There's no need to prove the notion that corporate money is adverse to democracy.  IT IS ADVERSE TO dEMOCRACY BECAUSE IT INFLUENCES THE GOVERNMENT'S DECISIONS. The financial relationships that define and inform the Republican and Democratic Parties I summarize as "The Corporate Donor Class".  The Corporate Donor Class are 'people' who are not citizens, not human, and who are disallowed by law from voting themselves. 

Even though the Corporate Donor Class cannot vote those that comprise the Corporate Donor Class control most if not all of what Republicans and Democrats decide to do. The influence of the Corporate Donor Class  is the one major impediment Americans face when wondering why it is so difficult to fully realize the dream of a democratic republic. It is hard for most Americans to conclude that the Corporate Donor Class is at fault when the Republicans and the Democrats treat them like royalty. The time is upon us when it will not be such a hard conclusion to reach.

In a genuine democratic republic the citizens, which I refer to as the Voting Class, direct their own future without the financial burden of having to increase the profits of the non-human, non-voting, non-citizen Corporate Donor Class first. Americans are in the sad condition they find themselves in today because of the financial relationships of the Republican and Democratic Parties with the Corporate Donor Class. The condition of Americans cannot substantially improve until the Corporate Donor Class no longer has an influence on the political decisions of American lawmakers.

That is the problem Americans find themselves awash in. The Republicans and Democrats have left Americans at the proverbial station and now have declared them homeless, worthless and a public nuisance worthy of contempt and not much more. 

The solution to this is a political Party that addresses the bedrock needs of every human family on the proverbial Main Street of  America. This Party would NEVER form a financial relationship with the non-human, non-citizen, non-voting Corporate Donor Class and therefore it would never be indebted to them. 

Americans are ready to make a change. The Corporate Donor Class is more than willing to assist in making that change. If Americans fall for that again they deserve what they get because they are living in the society the Corporate Donor Class and the Republicans and the Democrats decided should be everyday life for the average wage earner in America. If you want more of what the Republican and Democratic Platforms will allow you to have just keep on voting for one of them. Either one will see to it that you end up in the poor house.

But you don't want that. You're sick of endless war, you're sick of your dollar being worth less and less and goods and services costing more and more. You work hard and can't rent a decent room to sleep in.  You get sick and can't afford to go to the doctor. You'd love to work more but you need to take care of your child and there is no childcare provided by society when Republicans and Democrats are in charge. You'll look around yourself at all the others in the same condition and shake your head thinking there's no way your kids or theirs can go to college and escape the poverty trap the Republicans and Democrats and the Corporate Donor Class have set for them. 

You are right to despair if you can only imagine a government that the Corporate Donor Class and the Republicans and the Democrats preside over.  You are wrong if you cannot imagine a Political Party that does not let the non-human Donor Class intrude into the business of The People and still feel that way. The People can, by their vote, disallow that behavior. That's the beauty of small 'd' democracy. The People are in charge of the government's decisions when there is a democracy. The bankers don't call the shots and neither does the Corporate Donor Class. The People themselves, the Voting Class, run the show and the show is for them, The People.

When a democratic government exists The People themselves make the choices that affect their lives and the lives of their neighbors. They would decide whether or not they want to pay for their own healthcare or if they want their taxes to pay for it. The People who work, unlike today, would have workplaces that paid enough for the laborer to enjoy life in society. The People in retirement would have no worries because taxes would insure that their 'Golden Years' were not their 'Garbage Years'. In a small 'd' democracy The People can live for today while planning for the future by educating all who wish to be educated. Like all the other blessings this too would be paid for by the taxes we The People, the Voting Class contribute.  Ain't democracy grand? We could have it if we wanted it bad enough to give up on Republican and Democratic solutions.

The Donor Class rarely pays its share of taxes and rarely is told 'No!' by either a Republican or a Democratic lawmaker. The only democratic way to change this is if there is a political Party made up by members of the Voting Class that will produce a Platform that will  make the improvements that will improve their lives. That Party will have as it's Platform the policies that nourish the working tax paying class as well as those unable to work. We know intuitively what these things are that society at present is lacking and we know how to provide them democratically. We can do it.

In summation we know what the problem is. It's Republicans, Democrats and the non-human, non-voting, non-citizen Corporate Donor Class that have soiled our democratic aspirations. Replacing them with People friendly lawmakers is the only viable way Americans can save themselves.