America
210 million adult citizens of voting age
29% or 61 million say Bush is right.
27% or 57 million say Kerry is right.
44% or 92 million said NOTHING!
The following is my response to a black Catholic man named Joe. He and his wife and children lived in the south and they toiled to establish a Catholic University in the land of the Protestants. Christians are Christian’s right? Well not exactly, and Joe and his family eventually had to move far way for their safety.
Our western economic system is based on division and this division is multidimensional and the layers are mostly invisible. We all are trapped in the layer we happened to end up in when we were born. Some of us find our way into the next higher or lower layer depending on enumerable circumstances and events that we have little control over.
Joe, you and your wife are excellent examples as you both worked very hard to do all the right things within your layer, in principal few would disagree with your efforts and most would applaud them. However, few will stand up and fight for what is right when they are called to the table. The bigger system has many other divisions to stir up which work against any significant change to the overall status quo.
The key dividing lines between the layers are based on wealth and power. All governments and religions are man made systems designed to maintain socioeconomic hierarchies that can remain reasonably stable with the maximum skew possible in the distribution of wealth and power.
See table 672 at www.census.gov/prod/2004p.../income.pdf
for a hint as to what I mean.
Unfortunately and not accidentally the chart only segregates the top 5% and if it were to segregate the top 1% and 0.1%, your mind would blow to see how the vast majority of all growth in the last 25 years has been funneled to the top one million or so individuals in America.
Today, as always, the best way for anyone to move up the socioeconomic ladder is by starting near the top. Obviously, we have no control over our starting place and if we started near the top, we would not be interested in change. The next best way to improve yourself is to get as much education as you can afford and make as many contacts as you can make with the folks that have the keys to the next layer you seek to enter.
Now even after all the hard work, most of us find ourselves trying to bring along our old layer into the new one and this cannot happen without a critical mass of fellow travelers within our layer all working in unity towards the same change in the system. Ask yourself, what unified layer or even undivided segment of any layer does any of us actually exist in?
Are American’s united, no. Are Oregonian’s united, no. Are Portlander’s united, no. Are the people on my block united, no. Are the people in my house united, (for me almost, I have one who battles). Are men united, no. Are middle-aged men united, no. Are blacks united, no. Are whites united, no. Are followers of Jesus united (hell no).
John Lennon dreamed; imagine all the people living as one. Yes, I can imagine it and I can imagine space men bringing back Coca-Cola to their planet not realizing it causes a deadly virus which will wipe out their entire race.
As for the non Catholics pulling in the opposite direction of what they know to be an honorable humanitarian endeavor, it should be now obvious that this is the condition you would have expected before you started if you would have only known now what you didn’t know then (a common theme in our society).
Sure, one may call themselves a Christian, Jew, Muslim, Humanist, Agnostic, or even an Atheist; but these are all nothing more than divisions of man which are further divided by various interpretations of the books and authors that lay their foundations.
If there is one god, god cannot be divided and his words can never be misinterpreted. Man does not need another man to act as a translator to understand god.
Why do others pull when we push? Mostly out of fear, fear of the unknown. If we are ignorant of another group from another division or layer, we resist their efforts to change the system. Even worse is the fact that the leaders of any large segment of the system tend to spread rumors and lies within their sphere of control to ensure maximum fear and confusion. Fear and confusion renders individuals helpless as we cannot make a sound decision, pro or con, and we are left with avoidance, apathy, and frustration. The leaders are left exactly where they want to be, in control.
If I were a well positioned, white, Baptist, born and raised in Georgia in a long established family, I too would be concerned about a black Catholic from Boston creating an establishment of potential wealth and power in my backyard that did not include my name on the founders list. People who would otherwise attend my Baptist schools and churches may instead attend a growing Catholic establishment and we couldn’t have that. (I think you get my point)
I am sure most of you reading this far have noticed that most of the big questions that come to our attention for a vote end up being nearly perfectly split 51/49. What does this tell us? It tells us that those in control of large blocks of money, power, and our mass communications systems have learned how to maintain a perpetual division of the people through promotion of misinformation (propaganda). In fact, the system is so perfected that it really makes no difference what figure head leads it. The figure head is nothing more than the face for those in control of wealth so vast that we simply cannot comprehend it.
If we took the range of earnings of all employed American’s and drew a line in the middle, the person smack in the middle (50% higher and 50% lower) would have to work twenty-four years to gross one million dollars and he or she would have nothing left after taxes, debts, and living expenses to hang their hat on. It takes the wealthiest American less than three hours to enjoy another million dollars. The poor guy way down at number one million on the list from the top has to toil for several weeks before he gets his next million.
Take any issue and break it into two opposing halves. Since our system is so efficient at maintaining confusion, each half attracts half of the population and each individual on either side of the pie has choices to make which include making no choice at all (the most popular choice). The Presidential Election is a great example: America has 210 million citizens of voting age; 57 million voted for Kerry, 61 million voted for Bush, and 92 million voted for no President. Ninety-two million either didn’t vote for President or they never even bothered to register to vote. Ninety-two million is the vast majority of American adults and they are lost in confusion and total apathy and this is not by accident.
See: www.census.gov/prod/2004p...lection.pdf
table 407 and extrapolate 2000 figures to 2004.
Election results: www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2004/pages/results/
So we can say that in any important issue requiring a vote from the “People”, the current population will generally break into three groups: (my comment below in parenthesis is my personal opinion)
40% apathetic (confused and see no point in participation and no money to lose)
30% left
30% right
The apathetic masses (40%) will simply turn the channel until they find something better to take their minds off of having to think. Thinking is painful when you don’t have a good education or the time and interest to participate in the process. If you don’t see any significant difference in the left or right and feel that either outcome holds no real hope for a better life down on Main Street., there is no reason to participate. Again, this reality is not simply occurring by accident.
The countries decisions are now left to the remaining 60% to decide. The people who do have a stake in the outcome and hopes for a better future if only the right people could be put in the driver’s seat.
First, we have the choice of how we gather the information needed to help us make the best decision.
1. Do research and learn the facts, figures, and history behind the issue. Ask “who benefits and who loses,” and follow the Yellow Brick Road (AKA - the Money Trail). I’ll call these people the American Freethinkers. The American’s who understand the Constitution and the danger of letting ANY one political party overtake all three branches of our government. The checks and balances were put in place to maintain balance and avoid excessive corruption.
OR
2. Do not spend time researching anything and listen to the talking heads on the TV and radio and assume our elected officials are working in our personal best interest with god on their side.
I would estimate only 20% of the 60% or about 25 million of the American’s who participate in the process choose number one above. That amounts to only 12% of American adults. These people actually spend much of their free time doing the tough research needed to make sound decisions about changing anything in our very confusing system. Unfortunately, after all the hard work, the final decisions always come down to what those who take path number two decide. This is horribly frustrating, but it is reality.
Group number two depends heavily on our mass media outlets to help them choose what to believe and decide. On top of this, our religions are used and abused by men of power and wealth who are nothing more than wolves in sheep’s clothes. When a rich man stands up and tells the working and poor man he knows what is best for him, he really means what is best for himself and after all, god is on his side, otherwise he wouldn’t be rich, right?
Now comes the fun part. We wrote off apathetic 40% and the freethinking 12%, this leaves 48% of adult citizens to square off and decide the fate of everything that they are asked to vote on. Let’s assume for a moment that all the votes are counted fairly.
These 48% or 100 million citizens are left to the weapons of mass media which just happen to be owned and operated by global corporations who happen to be controlled by those one million who have super concentrated wealth and pay for all the commercials that fund the programs, who happen to be the same people who pay lobbyists to wine and dine congress and nominate the party heads; they happen to be the same people who fund both parties we have to vote on; and own the hardware and software that counts our votes. Is somebody eating fish, I smell something fishy. Lights are flashing, sirens are blowing, smoke is bellowing, the fish are smelling.
So how do confused people armed with sound bites and factoids decide what and who to vote for? They listen to the conflicting ads and talking heads and toss a coin up to their god and let their gut feeling and emotions guide their decisions. Coins only have two sides and the odds of falling one way or the other are always 50/50.
Oddly, western people of faith agree there is but one god and simultaneously divide into scores of subdivisions with well established barriers built on fear to keep them apart.
Our system leads us to believe George Bush is a “good Christian” and therefore his decisions are with the good of mankind in mind. I would interpret a good Christian to mean one who is a good follower of the teachings of Jesus Christ. How many Christians fit this model? Jesus was a liberal and a humanist with total conviction in his beliefs who accepted all people regardless of their color or lack of wealth or ignorance. Would he engage in a War? Would he join the Baptists in Georgia who made it impossible for Joe the Catholic to do something of great value for his fellow man? Would he tell Joe to move to Boston and give up? Few of us can walk in the footsteps of the man named Jesus, I make no comment as to his being God, but certainly he was of god or god like as he was ready and willing to suffer ridicule, rejection, total economic loss, and to die for what was fair and just. He certainly was not the only man that ever walked the earth to behave in that manner, but the number who has is extremely small.
So, the bottom line is that we are really all one people under one system of nature which operates perpetually. We are all interconnected within this system. Together, “we the people” have total power, a power which no single government or religion could ever dream of controlling. Our man made socioeconomic, political, legal, religious, and communications systems have been designed to divide and conquer. Divided, we are weak and powerless victims to whatever is wished for by those with great power and wealth and they are not about to let any of their power and wealth go without a fight. However, their selfish and weak principals, ethics, and morals won’t stand the test when they have to answer the question, are you ready and willing to die for what you believe in.
Keep up the good fight.
Peace
Rev
210 million adult citizens of voting age
29% or 61 million say Bush is right.
27% or 57 million say Kerry is right.
44% or 92 million said NOTHING!
The following is my response to a black Catholic man named Joe. He and his wife and children lived in the south and they toiled to establish a Catholic University in the land of the Protestants. Christians are Christian’s right? Well not exactly, and Joe and his family eventually had to move far way for their safety.
Our western economic system is based on division and this division is multidimensional and the layers are mostly invisible. We all are trapped in the layer we happened to end up in when we were born. Some of us find our way into the next higher or lower layer depending on enumerable circumstances and events that we have little control over.
Joe, you and your wife are excellent examples as you both worked very hard to do all the right things within your layer, in principal few would disagree with your efforts and most would applaud them. However, few will stand up and fight for what is right when they are called to the table. The bigger system has many other divisions to stir up which work against any significant change to the overall status quo.
The key dividing lines between the layers are based on wealth and power. All governments and religions are man made systems designed to maintain socioeconomic hierarchies that can remain reasonably stable with the maximum skew possible in the distribution of wealth and power.
See table 672 at www.census.gov/prod/2004p.../income.pdf
for a hint as to what I mean.
Unfortunately and not accidentally the chart only segregates the top 5% and if it were to segregate the top 1% and 0.1%, your mind would blow to see how the vast majority of all growth in the last 25 years has been funneled to the top one million or so individuals in America.
Today, as always, the best way for anyone to move up the socioeconomic ladder is by starting near the top. Obviously, we have no control over our starting place and if we started near the top, we would not be interested in change. The next best way to improve yourself is to get as much education as you can afford and make as many contacts as you can make with the folks that have the keys to the next layer you seek to enter.
Now even after all the hard work, most of us find ourselves trying to bring along our old layer into the new one and this cannot happen without a critical mass of fellow travelers within our layer all working in unity towards the same change in the system. Ask yourself, what unified layer or even undivided segment of any layer does any of us actually exist in?
Are American’s united, no. Are Oregonian’s united, no. Are Portlander’s united, no. Are the people on my block united, no. Are the people in my house united, (for me almost, I have one who battles). Are men united, no. Are middle-aged men united, no. Are blacks united, no. Are whites united, no. Are followers of Jesus united (hell no).
John Lennon dreamed; imagine all the people living as one. Yes, I can imagine it and I can imagine space men bringing back Coca-Cola to their planet not realizing it causes a deadly virus which will wipe out their entire race.
As for the non Catholics pulling in the opposite direction of what they know to be an honorable humanitarian endeavor, it should be now obvious that this is the condition you would have expected before you started if you would have only known now what you didn’t know then (a common theme in our society).
Sure, one may call themselves a Christian, Jew, Muslim, Humanist, Agnostic, or even an Atheist; but these are all nothing more than divisions of man which are further divided by various interpretations of the books and authors that lay their foundations.
If there is one god, god cannot be divided and his words can never be misinterpreted. Man does not need another man to act as a translator to understand god.
Why do others pull when we push? Mostly out of fear, fear of the unknown. If we are ignorant of another group from another division or layer, we resist their efforts to change the system. Even worse is the fact that the leaders of any large segment of the system tend to spread rumors and lies within their sphere of control to ensure maximum fear and confusion. Fear and confusion renders individuals helpless as we cannot make a sound decision, pro or con, and we are left with avoidance, apathy, and frustration. The leaders are left exactly where they want to be, in control.
If I were a well positioned, white, Baptist, born and raised in Georgia in a long established family, I too would be concerned about a black Catholic from Boston creating an establishment of potential wealth and power in my backyard that did not include my name on the founders list. People who would otherwise attend my Baptist schools and churches may instead attend a growing Catholic establishment and we couldn’t have that. (I think you get my point)
I am sure most of you reading this far have noticed that most of the big questions that come to our attention for a vote end up being nearly perfectly split 51/49. What does this tell us? It tells us that those in control of large blocks of money, power, and our mass communications systems have learned how to maintain a perpetual division of the people through promotion of misinformation (propaganda). In fact, the system is so perfected that it really makes no difference what figure head leads it. The figure head is nothing more than the face for those in control of wealth so vast that we simply cannot comprehend it.
If we took the range of earnings of all employed American’s and drew a line in the middle, the person smack in the middle (50% higher and 50% lower) would have to work twenty-four years to gross one million dollars and he or she would have nothing left after taxes, debts, and living expenses to hang their hat on. It takes the wealthiest American less than three hours to enjoy another million dollars. The poor guy way down at number one million on the list from the top has to toil for several weeks before he gets his next million.
Take any issue and break it into two opposing halves. Since our system is so efficient at maintaining confusion, each half attracts half of the population and each individual on either side of the pie has choices to make which include making no choice at all (the most popular choice). The Presidential Election is a great example: America has 210 million citizens of voting age; 57 million voted for Kerry, 61 million voted for Bush, and 92 million voted for no President. Ninety-two million either didn’t vote for President or they never even bothered to register to vote. Ninety-two million is the vast majority of American adults and they are lost in confusion and total apathy and this is not by accident.
See: www.census.gov/prod/2004p...lection.pdf
table 407 and extrapolate 2000 figures to 2004.
Election results: www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2004/pages/results/
So we can say that in any important issue requiring a vote from the “People”, the current population will generally break into three groups: (my comment below in parenthesis is my personal opinion)
40% apathetic (confused and see no point in participation and no money to lose)
30% left
30% right
The apathetic masses (40%) will simply turn the channel until they find something better to take their minds off of having to think. Thinking is painful when you don’t have a good education or the time and interest to participate in the process. If you don’t see any significant difference in the left or right and feel that either outcome holds no real hope for a better life down on Main Street., there is no reason to participate. Again, this reality is not simply occurring by accident.
The countries decisions are now left to the remaining 60% to decide. The people who do have a stake in the outcome and hopes for a better future if only the right people could be put in the driver’s seat.
First, we have the choice of how we gather the information needed to help us make the best decision.
1. Do research and learn the facts, figures, and history behind the issue. Ask “who benefits and who loses,” and follow the Yellow Brick Road (AKA - the Money Trail). I’ll call these people the American Freethinkers. The American’s who understand the Constitution and the danger of letting ANY one political party overtake all three branches of our government. The checks and balances were put in place to maintain balance and avoid excessive corruption.
OR
2. Do not spend time researching anything and listen to the talking heads on the TV and radio and assume our elected officials are working in our personal best interest with god on their side.
I would estimate only 20% of the 60% or about 25 million of the American’s who participate in the process choose number one above. That amounts to only 12% of American adults. These people actually spend much of their free time doing the tough research needed to make sound decisions about changing anything in our very confusing system. Unfortunately, after all the hard work, the final decisions always come down to what those who take path number two decide. This is horribly frustrating, but it is reality.
Group number two depends heavily on our mass media outlets to help them choose what to believe and decide. On top of this, our religions are used and abused by men of power and wealth who are nothing more than wolves in sheep’s clothes. When a rich man stands up and tells the working and poor man he knows what is best for him, he really means what is best for himself and after all, god is on his side, otherwise he wouldn’t be rich, right?
Now comes the fun part. We wrote off apathetic 40% and the freethinking 12%, this leaves 48% of adult citizens to square off and decide the fate of everything that they are asked to vote on. Let’s assume for a moment that all the votes are counted fairly.
These 48% or 100 million citizens are left to the weapons of mass media which just happen to be owned and operated by global corporations who happen to be controlled by those one million who have super concentrated wealth and pay for all the commercials that fund the programs, who happen to be the same people who pay lobbyists to wine and dine congress and nominate the party heads; they happen to be the same people who fund both parties we have to vote on; and own the hardware and software that counts our votes. Is somebody eating fish, I smell something fishy. Lights are flashing, sirens are blowing, smoke is bellowing, the fish are smelling.
So how do confused people armed with sound bites and factoids decide what and who to vote for? They listen to the conflicting ads and talking heads and toss a coin up to their god and let their gut feeling and emotions guide their decisions. Coins only have two sides and the odds of falling one way or the other are always 50/50.
Oddly, western people of faith agree there is but one god and simultaneously divide into scores of subdivisions with well established barriers built on fear to keep them apart.
Our system leads us to believe George Bush is a “good Christian” and therefore his decisions are with the good of mankind in mind. I would interpret a good Christian to mean one who is a good follower of the teachings of Jesus Christ. How many Christians fit this model? Jesus was a liberal and a humanist with total conviction in his beliefs who accepted all people regardless of their color or lack of wealth or ignorance. Would he engage in a War? Would he join the Baptists in Georgia who made it impossible for Joe the Catholic to do something of great value for his fellow man? Would he tell Joe to move to Boston and give up? Few of us can walk in the footsteps of the man named Jesus, I make no comment as to his being God, but certainly he was of god or god like as he was ready and willing to suffer ridicule, rejection, total economic loss, and to die for what was fair and just. He certainly was not the only man that ever walked the earth to behave in that manner, but the number who has is extremely small.
So, the bottom line is that we are really all one people under one system of nature which operates perpetually. We are all interconnected within this system. Together, “we the people” have total power, a power which no single government or religion could ever dream of controlling. Our man made socioeconomic, political, legal, religious, and communications systems have been designed to divide and conquer. Divided, we are weak and powerless victims to whatever is wished for by those with great power and wealth and they are not about to let any of their power and wealth go without a fight. However, their selfish and weak principals, ethics, and morals won’t stand the test when they have to answer the question, are you ready and willing to die for what you believe in.
Keep up the good fight.
Peace
Rev
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Portland
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