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What’s Wrong and Right
with the World
I’ve been carefully analyzing this for the last month—for my
whole life, I meant to say—and now, this month, I can definitively report to you just what’s right and what’s wrong with the world.
Well, okay, to tell the truth it came to me in a flash, but then we as a society don’t really put much credence in flashes or something that someone says unless they haven’t deviated from it for at least one lifetime.
I’ve realized, however it came to me, that in one form or another one of our big problems begins with the word “could.”
I’m sure all of us know a lot of ways this manifests: “I could have, but didn’t,” “I would if I could,” “how could that be, it was there a minute ago,” and especially, “they could have told me this before now.” Then there’s my favorite two coulds, “we could meet our goal if you could give us.…”
I’m sure you all know and can add your own examples. It gets worse if we add, “I should have.” That thought has to be right up there with the most disempowering energy drains, period.
In the early days of TLC we made little red magnetic hearts for people’s refrigerators that said, “Don’t Should on Yourself.” They were pretty popular. Shoulds can be tough to deal with too.
While these contribute to What’s Wrong with the World and are worth considering, it’s the way could is used in the media that leads me to “I could scream.” It’s most commonly prefaced with an unspoken but understood OMG, as in Oh My God!, and presented to us every single day:
OMG, if we don’t change things quickly the economy could fall apart! OMG, if we change things now the economy could fall apart! OMG, if you ingest this you could get cancer! OMG, if you don’t ingest this you could get cancer.
I am writing this before the Supreme Court decides what will happen with the Big Bad Obama Care Law or with the Obama Cares Law, depending on your view of it. That’s another big one and has all the commentators telling us what could happen and those dire consequences.
These coulds appear everywhere these days and usually shapeshift and appear in their opposite form a day or so, or week later.
Differences in politics are expected so of course we get those contradictions. We get it too, however, from the evening news, daily newspapers or “impartial” reporters like the Associated Press—over and over.
What makes it worse is when it’s not really based on any study they have done or in-depth reporting, they’re just telling us what someone has said.
What’s worse is where it leads us. The unspoken part of it, like the OMG that underlies it and it’s also the lie in it. These dire consequences that could happen if something else isn’t either changed or kept the same is just one part of it.
First it needs to be noted where it doesn’t always lead us—to the dire things predicted. Do they ever really happen the way we are told they will? As soon as I’m fully recovered from Y2K, I’ll look into that. Look at what was going to happen with the national debt limit. In addition, if we shut out the shouts for a minute and looked for ourselves, might we discover that sometimes dire consequences become unintended consequences? Isn’t getting an unintended consequence just as reasonable to expect as a predicted dire consequence? So who really knows?
What these dire predictions do lead us to and imply indirectly is that we need the people who are telling us these things. We, incapable human beings, who are are simply lost without them. We won’t know what to do, they do, and if we don’t listen that flushing sound can’t be very far away. It could happen any time now—and, by the way, trust us.
If the government doesn’t fix it quick—or the government doesn’t leave business alone now—OMG! We’ll just never know what to do without them controlling things—or rather what will do without these people whose main focus is remaining in power.
It may look like all big business wants is to be left alone—and they do—but if government is or looks ineffective, who gets to look more effective and gain more control of things?
The other given assumed in these predictions is that the “them” we need controlling things is them—not that we have a society capable of self-governing. It’s not an us/US that the Founding Fathers may have envisioned and empowered us to be, assuming we engage in it, of course.
It used to be on July 4 we’d hear how great this country is and the potential of it because the system and the people made it great. That may have been in earlier times, however.
Joining us these days are the new kids with their trust funds and unlimited ability to shout all of their what could happens if we don’t listen. They’re experienced at it and very good at it. Has anyone heard that life won’t ever be quite right without the right car or clothes? Or that bad breath will ruin it? Is there really much that we can buy that won’t make us more popular and fun to be around?
The political game is where the newly declared people, formerly know as corporations, can fully play in now. Will that sound like something that will move us/US in the direction of empowerment?
The last issue of Harper’s magazine stated that over 91% of independent political spending on television ads in the past year came from anonymous donors. Is that from drug cartels? China? How can we know if laws are being broken?
Ironically, while there are powers everywhere in the world—in governments and business—wanting to control events and control us in certain directions, they get no guarantees with their purchase. That’s because one of the things that’s right with the world is people. They ultimately have a sense of fair play and eventually notice.
People change things, especially when they think they can. People can care more directly, in ways organizations simply can’t.
Eventually some of the would-be controllers may even notice the not-so subtle shift that the world is going though now. It’s the same one that often has us feeling uneasy about the world. The energy is shifting.
Aren’t we starting to see that the tool of control is losing its ability to force what the people who yield it want it to accomplish? Listening to their plans, it’s obvious that they are living in an old energy paradigm, and don’t fully realize that the energy coming in these days is not an energy that makes it easy to control others.
Missing is the energy that kept the Soviet Union together, kept the Arab/Muslim world together and allowed us to militarily and politically control the rest of the world. It just isn’t there now as much as it was in the past. Power is shifting away from force. This may not be compatible with the grandest designs of some governments in the world, some economic unions, or the desires of the new kids on the block.
On a personal level it’s not an energy that says, “if you loved me you’d do this thing.”
It’s more like, “I love you and want you to do what makes you happy.” It’s recognizing what’s ours to control and what isn’t. It’s allowing others to be them selves.
Hearing from people with profitable agendas about what could happen next stirs a lot of people up. So this also means it’s a good time to get to the gym and let things out there.
Have you noticed that the more stirred up and emotional people get the fewer options they see for themselves and the country?
The world and possible solutions get turned into absolutes and seeing only one solution pretty quickly.
Does this serve us? Or does it serve those serving it to us? When we step away from fear and more calmly look at the options in front of us—knowing options are there—more than one appears. We try something. If it doesn’t work, we try something else.
We have an ability to adapt that no government or big business does. Throughout history they have come and gone, and changed. It’s really time to get a sense of our powers, not fear what could happen to us.
Don’t terrorists succeed when they put fear into others? Whether it’s a real fear or an imagined one, when someone spreads uncertainty like some are doing, isn’t that a terrorist act? Who are the terrorists these days? I think they can even be thrown in jail without a trial. Maybe things could change quickly.
What’s really right with the world is us—people. No matter how much big this or big that tell us we need them, it’s them that really need us—to empower them. Why else would they bother with us?
It’s people who are better at adapting. We adapt and discover more easily. If you’re listening to terrorists who are afraid of losing their power, remember that if the worst-case scenario happens and things fall apart, it’s them that get replaced—with something better—fresh people. It could get better. If not, we adjust.