Wisdom Quarterly
An American worker puts the final touches on a beautiful smile (@berto/Flickr.com)."We can complain because rose bushes have thornsOr rejoice because thorn bushes have roses"* Aesthetic Realism states that there will be no economic "recovery" until economics -- making money, creating jobs -- itself becomes ethical, based on goodwill rather than on the common ill-will that has been dominant for centuries.
This grand view points to a road map that Republican
B.S. Obama (judged on his actions not his public relations campaigns) for the U.S. economy.
What steps could be taken to create jobs? There are many. We have done it before. After disastrous wars of the past -- and we have pretty much been involved in conflict almost without interruption for 200 years, but these dots are not connected by mainstream history books even though information on most of our invasions, covert wars, conquests, and prolonged occupations are well documented -- we had recovery programs.
There was the G.I. Bill. There was a massive movement to employ artists. There was once even a space program. We built bridges, a massive highway system, reservoirs, scenic routes, a rich library system, civic institutions, all of which we collectively call "infrastructure." The world and we are happier when we focus within.
But some element in power -- a shadow government that pulls strings at the White House, Pentagon, CIA, and other centers of power -- prefers to look for happiness without.
What is the meaning of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? It certainly does not mean happiness. We are not happy, and we were never promised happiness. Just its pursuit. So let's pursue it here. And when we grow happy, strong, and fabulously affluent, lets help others with no strings attached.
Those strings get us in a lot of trouble "policing" the world, subverting other governments, creating untold pollution and misery. Let's keep it in our pants. And our pockets will runneth over with riches to share with everyone around us. Is it a Cold War we need? Why not a Hot Peace? Let's wage peace!
And as the first act of peace, let's employ our own citizens to help our own citizens.
- These roads need fixing.
- These walls need painting.
- These cities need planning.
- These national parks need salvaging.
- These corporations need regulating.
- (Of course they don't want regulation, who does?)
- The space above us needs exploring.
- Plants need planting.
- Farms need diversifying.
- The environment needs cleaning.
- Animals need caring.
- Kids need raising by the community.
- Teens need tutoring.
- Prisoners need rehabilitating.
- Parents need help.
- Elders need teaching opportunities.
- Bread needs baking.
And somewhere somehow there needs to be more candlestick making so we can all meditate (or
pray) together in peace.... It's easy and natural.
So why are Americans still unemployed? It seems obvious.
This misery is the way the "powers that be" (which include the international bankers, the Obama administration, the war profiteers in their corporate jobs, the major industries, all of which may be referred to as, however secret its members may be, the "Military-Industrial Complex").
So before you find yourself at your neighbor's throat or blaming those darn economically-pressured immigrants, or becoming a violent xenophobe demanding a scapegoat (ala 1945), look for the real culprit. Nothing that is happening today is happening by accident or necessity. It's someone's plan. And THE PLAN is going well.
Would that they made another plan -- rather than blaming biblical prophecy and the angry, vengeful God of our Judeo-Christian society. There will never be peace without until there is peace within. So that puts the onus on us to peace out.
"The measure of a civilization is how it treats its weakest members."- And if your son/daughter is a CIA functionary or soldier, tell him/her to come home and stop following illegal orders to kill, disrupt, rape, terrorize, drug, and sow fear throughout the world.
Meditate,
pray, play, discuss, debate, join together respectfully -- whatever peaceful means it takes to pursue happiness. Because the pursuit, also called the journey, is the happiness. Or as Buddhism likes to say: There is
no way to happiness; happiness is the way!
The US military does not work for the 99%. It works for the banks, who are part of the military-industrial complex. Together they form the 1%.
The National Security Agency [NSA, shown below], a secretive arm of the U.S. military, has begun providing Wall Street banks with intelligence on foreign hackers, a sign of growing fears of financial sabotage. The assistance from the agency that conducts electronic spying overseas is part of an effort by American banks and other financial firms to get help from the U.S. military and private defense contractors to fend off cyber attacks, according to interviews with U.S. officials, security experts and defense industry executives. More
