The 1 Percent, Revealed | Mother Jones

The 1 Percent, Revealed | Mother Jones: the idea of the "liberal elite" could not survive the depredations of the 1 percent in the late 2000s. For one thing, it was summarily eclipsed by the discovery of the actual Wall Street-based elite and their crimes. Compared to them, professionals and managers, no matter how annoying, were pikers. The doctor or school principal might be overbearing, the professor and the social worker might be condescending, but only the 1 percent took your house away.

This about sums it up... There are some lucky folks on the upper end of the middle class, or even at the bottom of the upper class, that annoy us with their arrogance or even their good fortunes. However, in the final analysis, it is the real "one percenters" that are behind the greatest transfer of wealth from the bottom 99 to the top 1% that history has ever witnessed. The socialisation of risk and privatisation of reward is the most breath taking theft in recent history, and our government has done next to nothing to hold these crooks accountable.

TFTD: Wisdom is Like Air

Wisdom is not solely The domain of any one person, religion, or epistemology. It is like the air we all breath… it has always been here and we have always shared it. What you think of as belonging solely to you can only be held inside of you for a short time, but eventually it must go out into the world to be shared, reused, and consumed by every living thing. When you breath in wisdom, it changes you and you change it but its essential nature is unchanged. If you close it in, air becomes stale and eventually loses its ability to sustain life. Wisdom, like air, must be renewed by returning to nature. Wisdom can be sweet or it can carry the reek of death. Live a life where you can enjoy sweet air, but never close yourself away from the bitter or unpleasant truth of existence. If you never smell the foul stink of bullshit, how will you appreciate the sweet smell of desert flowers after the rain? Go out into the world and experience the wisdom of other people, places, and beliefs and one day you may find a place where the air is sweet to your liking, and you will know you are home.

Government OF, BY, and FOR the People - Lokpal for India, Lokpal for USA

I just finished reading a article in the NY Times about India's "Second Battle for Independence". The article is about Mr. Anna Hazare, who was arrested yesterday for attempting to stage an unsanctioned public fast. Mr. Hazare is at the front of a national movement to battle public corruption. Check out the article, "Hundreds Arrested in India Over Planned Protest", at Nytimes.com: http://nyti.ms/pnQNy3

Mr. Anna Hazare walks the path of Mahatma Gandhi as he declares his intention to "fast unto death" if the Indian government does not create the independent anti-corruption body known as Lokpal. His declaration reminds me of Ghandi's fast which preceded India's independence from Britain.

Corruption is a huge problem in India, where the CM of Karnataka was recently found to have allowed illegal mining in the state. Infrastructure projects in Bangalore have dragged on for years as a result of ongoing public and private malfeasance. By contrast, a recently effective CM in Andhra Pradesh was able to create a modern freeway from the new airport to the city of Hyderabad. You can see the difference between a well run state, and one riddled with corruption.

In America, corruption is not a secret problem. Here, corporations are now allowed to spend unlimited money to push political issues or support politicians running for election. In addition, our politicians spend significant portions of their terms in office "fund raising" which often means hosting $1000-plate dinners.

America needs to take note: peaceful protest can work, and one man can change the course of human history. This knowledge is one of the gifts we received from India, through Mahatma Gandhi, and was one of the inspirations for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. We must demand change of our government and we must "be the change you wish to see in the world" (MK Gandhi).

American Priorities

Response to "A Deal They Cannot Make" from The Economist magazine:

There are no leaders in the GOP, just angry reactionaries. Sadly, they do represent a significant portion of the American Electorate. Worse, the party machinery and talking heads have gotten so good at selling lies and misinformation, that it will be a long time before America recovers.

America's problems are systemic rejection and mistrust of academic excellence and scientific achievement. High School football stars earns huge scholarships while good grades result in Jr College for those lucky enough to continue their education past grade 12. Intelligent and thoughtful discussions are pushed aside for popularity contests, and rather than celebrate our differences as unique strengths, we punish them as aberrations from an ignorant religiosity. Our politicians are as twisted as our priorities... Life reflects art; in this case the caricature. 

"Corporate Greed" is a Redundant Expression

Corporations do what they must, and it is up to the people to decide what constraints to impose on them. The idea of treating corporations as "people"  is especially troubling, and only in America are corporations treated as such.

The measure of corporate morality is profit, and the only way to force a corporation to behave according to societal norms and expectations is to impose restraint, or regulations as they are more commonly known, on them so that all corporations operate on a level playing field based on the moral disposition of society.
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Atheist Spirituality? Possible, wonderful, and more

This post started off as a response to the essay What is Atheist Spirituality? from the blog Atheist Spirituality. Unfortunately it got so long that it wouldn't save as a comment, so here we are.

For much of my early life, I hung onto the title "Atheist," and it turns out to have been pointless. "Atheist" is just a word, but it is well understood by most people, and serves as a convenient logical hat rack to hang additional thought on. At this point in my own spiritual development, I've decided that I'm essentially a Buddhist (minus the magical mysticism), and truly appreciate the need for spiritual development as much as physical, emotional, and intellectual training; would that be "Secular Buddhism?"
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Prayer for Harmony between Systems of Honour and Law

A couple years back, I was lamenting what I saw as the decline of honour, which I believe extends to personal responsibility, among other external demonstrations. I was trying to understand why it appears to be on the decline given that there are so many people that I've asked about it, who feel that honour is very important.

The answer that I found was both surprising and saddening. The "Honour System" is antithetical to the "Legal System." As a society increases its dependence on a system of laws, it must act to discourage or weaken competing systems based on honour. An example would be "Honour Killings," which are socially acceptable in some parts of South Asia, even though they are technically illegal.

A codified legal system almost implies other, competing systems of codified behaviour, which must be discouraged, weakened, or eliminated altogether. Imagine someone trying to say they can do something in America because their religion says it's OK or the way to do it (e.g. Sharia, Polygamous Mormonism, ritual sacrifice).

As the system of law becomes the primary codified system of behaviour, only that behaviour which is specifically proscribed will be avoided, and only when the police aren't around to catch you. Unfortunately, you cannot legislate morality any more than you can force someone to have common sense.

What is needed is a parallel system that can survive in harmony with the accepted, primary legal system. Where the legal system is lacking, the alternate system can fill in or supplement. Religion has long served this role, but is actively on the decline as America becomes increasingly secular

In 1990 only 8.5% of the population identified themselves as having no religion, which climbed to 15% by 2008. During the same period, self-identified Christians declined from 86.2% of the population to 76.0%, although it's worth noting that the number of Christians rose numerically from 151 mil to 173 mil. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_the_United_States, citation #4 from Trinity College, 2008).

I'm not a Christian, but I agree with many of the teaching in the New Testament. My favourite quotes being "Love your neighbour as you love yourself," "Judge not, lest ye be judged in turn," and "as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me." Jesus sounds like my kind of guy! So if there are so many Christians in America, why do we have homeless, hungry, and the death penalty? Why do people feel like their ugly, vituperative comments, either on a Facebook comment thread, or through the traditional media, are in any way acceptable? Where is the shame and indignation?

It seems to me we are living in a time when there is an abdication of morality, justified by technical adherence to the current codified system of law. I'm not sure what the root cause is, but this realisation makes me sad. The ongoing argument between Left and Right seems to be symptoms of this larger ugliness. I hope I live to see the day when humanity regains its humanity, and the system of secular law provides the floor for conduct, but we all aspire to higher standard of ethical and honourable behaviour.