Will the upheaval in which the world finds itself ever come to an end? The answer is Yes!, as youll see in these continuing excerpts from The Storm Before the Calm, in which youll discover the role you can play in the times just ahead.... What must occur if Threefolding is to work Now there is one thing that absolutely has to happen if a new balance is to be achieved between the three spheres of human Collective Life. The third sphere must be recognized. It must be equalized. It must be given its proper place in the triumvirate. Right now our cultural, spiritual, social, ecological, and communal aspects of life are subordinated to the economic and political aspects. They are given short shrift by the media (which is economics dominated) and by the government (which is politics dominated). These days the imperative of politics and business is to cut off the free flow of ideas from the cultural sector (public broadcasting, free access Internet, etc.). “In fact,” says Nicanor Perlas, “global powers behind one-sided globalization are only too aware of its strategic importance and are trying to hijack or co-opt civil society as a third global power and harness this force for their own ends.” Ideas from the cultural sphere, or what Mr. Perlas calls civil society, that do not coincide with the thoughts and goals of business or government are therefore systematically minimalized and marginalized—as will be, no doubt, the ideas in this book. Even the call for ideas from outside of this book will probably be described by the Establishment as a jejune approach to the solving of humanity’s problems; a naïve and simplistic appeal at best. Yet the appeal is neither naïve nor simplistic, but the most powerful tool ever put into the hands of humanity: conversation. For it is as Victor Hugo is said to have written in his diaries: Stronger than all the armies is an idea whose time has come. I believe that humanity now is desperately calling for new ideas, and desperately needs to be stronger than all the armies. Those new ideas must emerge in particular (but by no means exclusively) from the cultural sphere. They must come from spiritual teachers and artists, from poets and philosophers, from educators and ecologists, from journalists and athletes and postal clerks and miners and traffic cops and nurses and waiters and musicians and cooks and cleaners and clerks and salesmen and housewives and househusbands and from…Regular People Everywhere. That is to say, from you. For balance to be achieved between humanity’s three activity spheres there must also be not merely an acceptance of the cultural sphere, not only a recognition of it, but an honoring of its importance. Its various expressions should be funded by the other two sectors as a matter of law and policy and social obligation, not as a matter of largesse. Right now we can’t even get the public to provide sufficient funds for elementary schools, for heaven’s sake. The concern of everybody is to lower their property taxes, even if it means lowering the quality of education. We’ve created secondary schools in which the teaching of Business Math has been judged more important than the offering of Drama or Music (so-called extracurricular activities which are now all-too-often budgeted out of education programs. But just try to eliminate another “extracurricular activity”—sports. Oh, no, never. Not in a country of Friday Night Lights.) We’ve created television networks where crass cartoon shows replete with juvenile jokes about flatulence are given more prime time exposure than biography programs about people who have immeasurably enhanced the human experience, or discussion programs about current affairs, or enriching programs about the marvels of our planet and its countless life forms. In fact, as I have noted, many want to now cut off public funding for such programs altogether. We have created a society in which an auto race is more important than the human race. The U.S. government, through the budget of the National Guard, is reportedly spending roughly $20 million to sponsor NASCAR racer Dale Earnhardt Jr., while the Army spends $7.4 million to sponsor Ryan Newman, and the Air Force spends $1.6 million on AJ Allmendinger. Apparently, according to press reports, the Army is spending another $8 million on NASCAR programs in general. All of this, the military says, is for the purpose of attracting new recruits. Not happy about this at all, U.S. Congresswoman Betty McCollum, D-Minn., proposed legislation that would ban the Pentagon from using taxpayer dollars to sponsor NASCAR race teams. Pretty wild idea, eh? She issued a statement saying, in essence, that she found it beyond inappropriate for Congress to vote to spend multi-millions on race car teams while at the same time cutting funding for homeless veterans, community health centers, and family planning services. I can’t even believe this is a discussion. The Republican-controlled House of Representatives not only discussed it, but voted down McCollum’s idea, 281-148. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Check out the website that has been specially created to allow the conversation that has been started here to continue. Go to TheGlobalConversation and see what you think.
Posted on: Sat, 19 Apr 2014 13:00:00 +0000
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