A Great Transformation: A Kin the Wisdom Tree

By Barbara Allison Bisbee

This book discusses recovering who we are. Are we socially evolved freedom loving hunter-gatherers? Or are we a new species seeking robotic bodies in a quest for immortality? Does this explain why we are angry, squaring off against friends and relatives? Are we a species divided against ourselves?

Until we come to terms with what we have lost, we lack the tools to create the transformation we desire.

Are we able to help ourselves or are we a subservient species evolving into a robotic body?

Discover who you are and move forward into a brave new world of self-realization and compassion for your evolvement.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Jan 16, 2020
• ISBN: 9781728336145

Barbara Allison Bisbee

The author is a mother and grandmother of four who has lived in various Wisconsin rural and town communities in addition to twenty-four years in Chicago and its suburbs. She graduated with distinction in Philosophy from the University of Wisconsin, Madison and obtained a MFA in Documentary Filmmaking, Columbia College, Chicago. She has worked various jobs ranging from secretarial and sales jobs to producing training videos and working with the profoundly disabled. Today she is an author, an artist and a teacher of meditation and wisdom.

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© 2020 Barbara Allison Bisbee. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse  01/16/2020

ISBN: 978-1-7283-3615-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-7283-3614-5 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019919466

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Prologue

Dedication With Eternal Gratitude

THE BOOK OF BEING

What Is Not

We Do Not Know Who We Are

The Wages Of War

Consolidated Money Interests Rule

You Can Known Who You Are

Essentially Crazy

THE BOOK OF ISMS

Isms

Modern Civil Obedience

Modern World Isms

Competing Isms

Rise Of Human Rights Governance

Resurgence Of Liberal Capitalism

Rise Of China

Rise Of Neo Fascism

Rise Of Democracy

Expansion Of America

Socialism And Communism

Nazi’s Third Reich

Allies Of World War Ii

Blended Economies

Parallel Poverty

MODERN WORLD CHALLENGES

Ecological Disasters

Humans Want Peace

Vision

Managed Capitalism

Consumerism

Facing Our Future

Rise Of Theocracy

Middle East

Deterrence In The Future

Nuclear Threats

Consumerism Run Amuck

Education

The Rise Of Artificial Intelligence

Rising Seas And Epidemics

Poisonous Pollution

Managed Benefits

Lost Jobs Means Lost Taxes

Taxes Mean Citizens Gain

How Legislators Lose Perspective

Seduction By Affiliation

Democracy Is Sacred

Sacred Knowledge Of Purpose

BOOK OF SENTIENCE

Look To Your Sentient Roots

Faith Is Ancient

Our Culture Shows Us The World

Sacred Vessel

Being Sacred Vessels

Sacred Vessels’ Economic Protections

Connectome Life

Environment

Read And Envision Your Future

Sentient Imperative

Development Of Sentience

Sentience Awry

Suicide

Depression

Mass Killings Rages

Sentience And Artificial Intelligence

Christ Consciousness

Sentience And Drug Abuse

Sentience Duped

Sentience Nurtured

Sentient Boundaries

Self Esteem

Sentient Spirituality

Sentient Tools For Spirituality

Gdp Does Not Mean Abundance

Win-Win Versus Win-Lose

Dumping Erodes Sentience

Sexuality And Sentience

Sentient Over-Population

Sentience And Germs

Sentient Spirituality Transgender

Sentient Spirituality And Judgement

Turning Off God Essence

True Meaning Of Monster

Protection From Monsters

Sentience Is Irrational

Democracy Has Sentient Foundation

Purpose Has Sentient Foundation

BOOK OF ENTANGLEMENT—OUR OTHER BEING

Accessing God Essence

Transcendence

Entanglement Vision

Spiritual Imperative

Entanglement As Citizens Of Earth

Entanglement, Prejudice And Education

Entanglement Verses Discrimination

Entanglement Leads To Health

Superiority Complex

Original Sin

Entanglement And Feudalism

Tribalism

Guiding Exchange And Interest Rates

Inflation Diminishes Abundance

Drug Solutions

Labor Creates Economies

Earth Entanglement

Children

Entanglement Versus Opioid Use

Dangerous Dream Worlds

Entanglement Protects

Entanglement Outs Self Pity

Home

Connectome

Entanglement Centering

Socrates And Christ

Innovators Access Higher Power

Duty Of Purpose

Entanglement Supports Taxes

Disaster Rebuilding

Strengths Of Entanglement

The Superconscious

Entanglement Means Evolution

Plurality Entanglement

Humans Possess Entanglement

Living Sacred Vessels

OUTLIER FORCES IN OUR WORLD

Edgar Cayse

The Voter

Forefathers

The Templars Descendents

Andalusia

Deal With Unseen Social Forces

Dalai Lama

Conserve Abundance

CURRENT FORCES OF CHANGE

Duplicitious Rule Of The Internet

Modern Society Consumption

Change In Skills And Technology

Change In Political Power

Class War

Business Monopolies

Plutocacy Was Not To Rule Democracy

Ai And Historical Competition

Rise Of Fascism

I Believe In Working Hard

When Meritocracy Strangles Democracy

THIS IS WHAT WE ARE

Object Creating Society

Objectifying Of Humans

Media Objectifies Humans

Monetized Society

Ascent Of Drugs

The Ascent Of Desperation

Myth Of Cheap Goods

THE FOUNDATION OF HUMAN SUFFERING

Humans In Bondage

Disruptive Reformation

Theories Compete

Consequences Of Theories

We Means Everyone

Change

Nihilism

Zombie Collective

Capitalism Exists In Most Countries

The Fear Collective

Displaced Farmers

We Are In World War Iii

Duped And Bam Boozled

Self-Sufficiency

Climate Change Is Not Cycles Of Climate Variation

Human Behavioral Evolvement

Beware Of State Media

YOU WHO ARE WISDOM

Worthiness And Worthiest

Authentic Self

Humans Are Irrational

Receptive Meditation

The Greater Good

The Democratic Republic

One Citizen One Vote

Changes And Amendments

A Corporation Is Not A Citizen

Quid Pro Quo

The Bill Of Rights

The Constitution Is Being Corrupted

Democracy Under Siege

A Great Transformation

The Greater Good Is Not Free

Parenting

Duplicity

Leaders

Delusions

You Are The Leader For Change

Modern Leadership

Reclaim Democracy

Goals

Surmount Three Challenges

Wisdom Of The Tree

Acknowledgements

Bibliography Of Influencing Books

PROLOGUE

Read this book by section—then pause

To contemplate

You are meant to write all over this book. It is your guide to the many crossroads. Each of us travels.

The journey in time called life.

As each of us is part of Earth’s organic whole.

DEDICATION WITH ETERNAL GRATITUDE

This book was inspired by the selfless lives of Nikola Tesla, Karl Polanyi and my friend, Alleine Carl. This book is dedicated to their legacies. May humanity become a better species by following the example of each with their generosity of spirit.

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THE BOOK OF BEING

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WHAT IS NOT

This book is a journey. Each of us needs help in wrapping our head around the many forces that have formed us. None of us is the imaginary person or story on TV that may have filled our subconscious. Each of us is the accumulation of events, economic relationships and technological forces of our time. The fortunate are anchored in validation and inclusiveness separate from monetary worth. Identity is rooted in one on one interaction with other people. This has been the essence of being human for 200,000 years. It is the reciprocal love that waters our roots, stimulating independence, self-esteem and compromise.

What I describe is most difficult and yet part of each of us.

It is not something you must believe, it simply is. You might have no idea who you are. It began with your war scarred parents who were shut down. Gradually, they and their children put earning money before nurturing their children and grandchildren. Then their grandchildren became obsessed with smart phones and computer games instead of physical affirmation and activity. Without daily parental attention, systems of law and faith based mores were ignored. Phone and computer monitors offered facts and imaginary stories but no moral guidance. Lost were lessons in empathy, boundaries and compassion.

Essentially, many of us lost knowledge of our identities. We each have different sensitivities and abilities. Childhood is the perfect time to discover and embrace the uniqueness of being. Discovering our unique selves requires a quiet time contemplating feelings everyday. Also, we need loving parents and friends’ supportive inter-actions.

Look at the tree’s reflection in the water. Like its root system, human beings have root systems. It is the elemental personality that sustains each of us through loss, deception and disappointment. Each of us is born helpless; then the personality is nurtured by loving parents and community. Each of us gains knowledge of boundaries meant to protect. Each of us learns meeting needs and how to relate to other humans within a moral framework.

It begins with your kin: your relatives and ancestral family. Before we can speak we learn about past events and people who influenced our parents and grandparents. It is in their attitudes. It is in their habits. It is in behaviors toward others.

There are events and people who continue to influence our behaviors and values. Their influence is profound.

Nonetheless, the first influence on modern humans is an ancient personality who taught guidelines for treating one another with respect and inclusiveness. This human gave to us hope as we face a violent world.

Christ came to the western world as a light to show the way, but he is not who you think. The patriarchal Jewish tradition during his time and the patriarchal Roman social systems corrupted Christ’s message. Christ said our Father or our Lord was a source we could contact in our secret [hidden within] place. Belief in God gives us eternal life. The fusion of the patriarchal Roman and Jewish cultures with the teaching of Christ brought forth the image of a powerful male above us, but God is invisible.

The first organized church defined how we accessed our hidden connection to a power greater than our own. It was through weekly confession and religious stained glass images.

Incredibly stirring images painted by artists like Michelangelo re-enforced the concept of God in human form, reaching down to touch a man’s outstretched hand, seeking comfort. The Catholic Church meant these superlative images to give the faithful something tangible to believe in. The Medieval and Renaissance worlds were subject to plagues and wars that destroyed entire cities. To provide comfort and hope for an afterlife, the Church presented a strong, kingly patriarch overseeing the lives of superstitious and fearful human beings.

The strong kingly figure of God also comforted peoples who may have lost eighty percent of born children before the age of fifteen. Antibiotics and most vaccines are less than a hundred years old. Humans lived suffering from tuberculosis, typhus, malaria, smallpox, plagues, dysentery and sepsis for millennia.

From the fourth century to the present, the Roman Catholic Church has strongly influenced nations and worldview ideas.

For centuries, persons who spoke of scientific findings or ideas contrary to Catholic Church doctrine were often tortured or killed. The Roman Catholic Church was not conveying Christ’s message. His message was the hope of salvation for humankind by turning away from violence.

In the 1600’s, Renaissance scientists began to be protected by the rebellious German princes. Some say secret Templar societies also helped with money.

Gradually, the power of the Catholic Church diminished. Protestant religions developed. Overall spirituality was replaced by scientific thought and economic secularism. Enter the industrialization of labor and rise of capitalism.

People turned away from self-reflection. Their children looked to acquiring things and addictions in order to face an inner emptiness and loss of parental interaction.

For many thousands of years every religion in every culture taught belief in God or Gods, and morality. In most advanced societies, laws are now secular. It is thought, God no longer watches over people. Indeed, God does not exist.

For centuries after the Renaissance, much of the world was ruled by powerful dynasties; these were often corrupt.

After World War I, fascist and communist governments dominated Europe and much of the world. Again, murder and terror enslaved all peoples. It was a world without protection.

Most people are not innately cruel and vicious. Before the twenty-third century BC archeology evidences little mass violence. Beginning with the stories of Homer, THE ILIAD and THE ODYSSEY, ancient values of bloodlust and destruction appear. For the past three thousand years or so, humans have often gone to war. Usually most people do not want war. Sometimes they become fearful. Leaders manipulate that fear. This is one of your tree roots. Humans have been living in fear that is manipulated. Sometimes the sources of that fear are manufactured by propaganda repeated again and again.

Once you are again reunited with your other self, you will become whole again. You will be able to sort out the lies, misconceptions, and know grace. Because you will make better choices, the world will be a better place.

WE DO NOT KNOW WHO WE ARE

Nothing has prepared us for the near future.

Today, humans do not know who they are. Past humans knew and acted upon the needs of their group. Previously, individuals continuously interacted with family and social members. In today’s developed societies, each of us lives in a bubble where most of us aspire to be like a media personality or the self styled rich and powerful in order to feel in control. From an early age, each child is separated from parents and siblings by day care and schools. After school, while parents are still at work, the others in our activities define our worlds, be it devices with media personalities (TV) or real human interaction. Even the way others treat us can depend upon which social group they identify with: ethnic member, media imaginary person, or their personal prejudices nurtured by their environment.

We have had no defining adversaries like saber toothed tigers or invading barbarians to fight. Qualities of self-sufficiency to meet real past obstacles are unused. Our businesses emphasize short-term goals and profits. Our governmental agencies can be shut down by a new administration. Physical endurance and many skills are useless in an immediate gratification society centered upon convenience. All needs for sustenance are met via huge shopping outlets. Water, sewer and energy resources come to our homes. Our biggest decisions are what vehicle to drive or what entertainment to choose.

We have been conditioned to be helpless because we have not been centering ourselves for guidance and direction; so, we default. We follow the media. This book is a handbook, a primer, for self-discovery of the true self, in the twenty-first century. You will need it. Changes are coming that no other culture in history has faced.

Past humans knew who they were. They decided to act in their self-interests. How else could humans have survived the changing environment? Humans used their ability to ascertain reality and acted to preserve themselves. In the distant past humans were not subjugated by fear and denigration. It has been imposed by human upon human violence and the co-opting of the tools for decision-making.

Below are synopses of how successive generations of humans were conditioned to tolerate being subjugated.

Long ago, JuJu gathers with other humans to celebrate at Gobekli Tepe, located in now modern day Turkey. Some 10,000 years ago or more, Gobekli Tepe was the temple site of thanksgiving for hunter-gatherer people. The site was open to the stars. JuJu knew the constellations coincided with gathering, harvesting and hunting seasons. JuJu watched others as they took position to offer thanksgiving. They motioned to JuJu where to stand and how to give thanks in silent prayer. They smiled at one another as they taught JuJu the meaning of changing star patterns. Everyone worked together to set up the temporary campsite outside Gobekli Tepe. They prepared the community meal. JuJu brought berries and nuts from her distant home. JuJu listened to conversation as group members exchanged information with those who lived in different groups. Theirs was the common goal of survival. Teaching the young meant recognizing them as future leaders. Every child was taught medicine, hunting and gathering skills. JuJu knew validation. JuJu understood an inclusive worldview.

JuJu’s world was hardly an utopian world. There were no modern conveniences or medicines to cure diseases or eradication of menacing carnivores. Nonetheless, JuJu felt validated and worthy of being given the tools of survival. Slavery, caste systems and political disenfranchisement were not yet known. In the future, humans would learn that they could gain by diminishing another person’s self worth by subjugation. For JuJu’s life, inclusiveness meant she participated in all decisions of the group, and there were no secrets kept from JuJu.

Thousands of years later, SuSu was born in Gaul (now France) while the Roman soldiers enforced the will of Rome over SuSu’s people. SuSu knew to get out of the way of Roman soldiers or be abused by them. SuSu knew hunger because Roman soldiers took away most of the harvest. The Gaul families had inadequate grain, vegetables and fruits to consume. SuSu knew anger because the Romans took away Gaul’s resources. SuSu knew helplessness in the face of Roman cruelty. SuSu knew life as a have not because the Roman’s monopolized all of Gaul’s resources and killed any rebellious people. SuSu did not understand an inclusive worldview because SuSu’s people had lost parts of their cultural heritage and assertiveness due to being colonized by Rome. SuSu’s people had begun to lose awareness of who they were.

SuSu’s world was based upon violence and conquest. SuSu’s world also did not know convenience or modern medicine, albeit more medical treatments may have existed than in JuJu’s world. Fundamentally, SuSu knew giving up autonomy to the cruelty of soldiers. Worthiness was limited to subservience and fear-motivated action. SuSu’s tribe may have valued SuSu, but the conquering Romans did not, except as a slave or subjugated person. SuSu’s people’s ceremonies of faith and renewal may or may not have been tolerated by Rome.

In the 18th century AD, Shirley left home and family in a monarchy dominated Europe for the offerings of America: free land, religious freedom and adventure. It was harsh to work seven years for the person who paid Shirley’s passage to America. Nonetheless, Shirley stayed to work another two years in order to save money. Shirley had known only hunger and deprivation in Europe because the aristocracy owned the resources. The aristocracy allowed Shirley’s family little of the grains they worked so hard to sow and harvest. Shirley found a spouse after gaining the long sought dream of owning land. However, Shirley and spouse found they alternately resented and embraced each other after both had spent many years in servitude. They struggled to again find the emotional tools humans use to express gratefulness and inclusion. Neither Shirley nor spouse felt life included validation and inclusiveness, although they possessed land.

Shirley and spouse had been raised in societies devaluing humans who were not aristocrats. Worthiness and access to decision-making tools were given only to the wealthy landowners. Want of food and necessities dominated other lives. These lives were fear motivated; family relations were dominated by religious mores based upon repression of emotions: sexuality, individuality and political expression. Why? Religion was a political tool used by the aristocracy as well as religious leaders.

Marion was born in America and fought during World War II in the 20th century AD. Growing up on a farm, Marion never lacked for food or companionship because seven siblings helped milk cows, raise crops and grow a garden. They canned many foods. Marion did not know indoor plumbing until he joined the military in 1941. Electricity came to the family farm in 1940. It was on an outside pole with a telephone mounted to it. Marion’s mother and sister washed clothes outside using a scrub board and a wringer, then hanging clean items out to dry. Like many of their friends who lived in town, their refrigerator was an icebox. Many town families enjoyed indoor plumbing but had no hot water, unless heated on the stove. There were general stores but no super markets; so, people tended to gardens and canned vegetables. Even though Marion’s family was successful as farmers, Marion did not own much of a wardrobe or many objects. As an adult, on weekends Marion attended a movie house. In fact, it was at the movies Marion found a spouse. They continued to regularly go to the movie house until they bought a TV. Both knew the fears of living through a world war when American culture was dominated by the upper class. Industrialists enforced attitudes and rules to protect their country from internal and external threats. A desire to escape these fear experiences colored their adulthoods; so they loved the escapism of movie stories but kept the value system each had known while growing up: inclusiveness, gratefulness and hard work with the habit of saving. Marion’s children knew the same values. Marion allowed the children to watch TV for one hour only in the evening. Marion expected the children to play outside with other children or do chores when not doing schoolwork. A parent was always at or near home.

Marion knew worthiness. Marion was the lucky descendent of peoples who had cleared the land for agriculture. The big emotional obstacle in Marion’s life was that Marion inherited a world based upon a belief in rugged individualism: use force if necessary to get what is wanted, and what one wants is more important than rule of law. Marion belonged to a worldview that sanctioned killing the last Passenger Pigeon and broke treaties with Native American tribes. It was unlikely that Marion knew the details, like the marching of Native Americans away from tribal lands ceded in treaty to them. This march was called The Trail of Tears. Marion knew only the faith of religious groups with their doctrines. Marion was better off than most: he had the right to vote, purchase land and his chosen lifestyle. Nonetheless, Marion was emotionally scarred by experiences of killing and seeing fellow soldiers die during World War II.

The child of Marion, Marion Junior, knew to be inclusive, grateful and save some income from working. Marion Junior knew indoor hot and cold water plus the use of flushing toilet. In the 1970’s, Marion Junior and spouse decided to leave the kids to a babysitter after OPEC destroyed their budget. Their mortgage interest rate was in double digits, and the escalating cost of gas increased the prices of food and products. Inflation’s negative effects were new to Marion Junior and spouse. These effects changed their view of work and life. Given the opportunity for both to work outside the home, they took it, hoping to save money for the next unexpected economic challenge. At the same time, credit cards became available and housing became the rock for accumulating family net worth. Soon, Marion Junior and spouse were buying more items than their monthly income covered. The easy credit of plastic paid their bills until they stacked up $5,000 in debt. Then, Marion Junior began working a second job to pay off the credit card. Raising their children became secondary to keeping up with what their friends and neighbors bought. Everyday, everyone they knew watched many hours of TV. Nearly all homes seen on TV were modern with status symbols of multiple color TVs, new appliances and furniture. Numerous status cars were parked in front of the garage with few exceptions, such as Fred Sanford’s home (of Sanford and Son). When the children asked for what their friends possessed or items they saw from watching TV, Marion Junior and spouse provided. It helped assuage the nagging feeling something was missing in their children’s lives.

What was missing did not become obvious until their children went out into the adult world. One child got lost in drugs and alcohol, causing an early death. That child left behind two children. Marion and spouse raised their grandchildren. They were not alone. Twenty percent of all grandparents were raising their grandchildren due to their children’s drug and alcohol use. Blessed with being past their earlier years of economic hardship, Marion Junior and spouse made sure one of them was home to raise their grandchildren, who often struggled with personality issues. Marion Junior became aware that all the grandchildren obsessively watched video games. And Marion’s other child was raising a grandchild obsessed with computers. In fact, the grandchildren were relating to their imaginary worlds of computer websites and video games more intensely than relating to other humans. Marion Junior and spouse entered their golden years aware their grandchildren lacked interpersonal skills. Simply, the grandchildren were looking to be defined by imaginary stories emanating from electronic boxes. Marion Junior realized earning and accumulating money became so important it replaced the fundamental task of imparting reciprocal validation among humans with manners, empathy and a sense of belonging.

The grandparents, Marion Junior and spouse, provided support as their grandchildren grew up. Eighty percent of that generation’s children were not so fortunate. Parents often worked two jobs each to sustain their investment in their home, which gained economic value each year in the ravenous real estate market. Speculation in real estate and stock markets became ways to earn a living for more and more citizens as the work economy moved away from manufacturing.

THE WAGES OF WAR

World War II cleared the playing field for new economic realities and opportunities. It also challenged the roots of democracy. All wars eliminate the previous economic and world orders. One, war stimulates the development of new technology. Two, war creates a new social order; democracies become autocracies or oligarchies in order to streamline decision-making, suspend freedom of expression and centralize resources. Three, the winner of a war stimulates its economy with the economic spoils: new markets and sources for raw materials, including cheap labor.

After World War II, South America, Western Europe, much of the Far East, the Middle East and Africa opened to American entrepreneurs. Soviet Russia (now the Russian Federation) invaded and took over Eastern European nations. When the Chinese Communists took over China, they soon annexed Tibet for its resources and resettling of the Chinese Han population.

Since recorded time, the victors of war took over land. William the Conqueror came from Normandy, defeated King Harold and gave Anglo Saxon land to French Normans. The Romans colonized the entire Mediterranean Sea territories. The Greek, Alexander the Great, colonized the known western world of his day. The Persian King, Cyrus the Great, colonized most of the Middle East. China’s emperor, the Son of Heaven, united the country. Peter The Great, conquered his many rivals to unite Russia.

After the Second World War, the Allied nations formed the United Nations and the World Bank. It was hoped that they would settle international disputes and finance the development of struggling Third World Countries, in addition to quelling aggressions by one nation upon others.

One of the American allies of World War II, the Soviet Union, opposed the philosophy of capitalism. Currently Russia is a totalitarian system with the façade of elected leadership, ruled in fact by capitalistic plutocrats. The emerging nation of China, also a plutocracy, first opposed developing capitalism. It now is a totalitarian social system utilizing a managed capitalistic economy.

Russia embraces an economic plutocracy but holds carefully managed elections. Its current leader, Putin, quotes a Russian philosophy put forth by Ivan Ilyin, which believes humans must be managed by a totalitarian government because imperfect humans cannot know God’s mind. Then, the world must be led by a new political reality that might begin a repair of the world and redeem the divine. The NY Review, April 5, 2018, Author Timothy Snyder, God Is A Russian. Thus the current Russian leader believes in a holy mission.

The Soviet Union (Russia) broke up in 1991. The eastern European countries it conquered after World War II again formed their own sovereign nations. It appears Putin sees his mission as again annexing those lands beginning with Ukraine.

An illusion remains among many leaders; a past greatness that must again be achieved. Putin claims the breakup of the Soviet Union was the greatest tragedy of the twentieth century. He appears to be working to again colonize sovereign nations.

The reality is that the right of a large country to annex neighboring nations is over. That is why America joined World War II. America wished to end the war of Nazi aggression upon Russia and Europe. America helped save Russia from Nazism. National boundaries must be respected for world economic and political stability.

The Nazi’s ideal of an ancient Aryan race meant to conquer the world is counter to history. No nation has ever conquered all other existing nations.

In modern times, no leader or nation has the right to impose its language and culture upon another nation. That is what the allied leader Franklin Delano Roosevelt hoped would result from the Second World War. He wanted to apply the ancient spiritual principle of doing unto others what you would have them do onto you.

Stalin believed in spreading his version of communism. The former Soviet Union annexed nations because Stalin believed in Lenin’s main ideal: spread international socialism, even to nations that did not want it. President Truman did not confront the Soviet Union because the American public was weary of war. Only America had the resources to stop Soviet invasions. The other Allies were depleted of resources and the will to continue waging war. Thus began America and Russia devastating other countries in localized proxy wars, the so-called cold war.

The Soviets believed the annexing of Eastern European lands was an opportunity to show the world the benefits of Socialism. Russia has the same intellectual resources as the western world and plentiful natural resources. However, the Russian peoples do not have the political power Marx espoused. Russia has a military arsenal that challenges America.

America is the other premier world military power. America struggles to achieve its ideal of true representative democracy. It struggles to give everyone the right to vote, without being purged from voter roles or other means of voter suppression. Gerrymandering and the Electoral College prevent true majority rule. America has not always been electing leaders elected by the majority of voters.

Weapons are expensive. Peace requires leadership, money and commitment for results that benefit all peoples.

The mark of a great world power is the development of services and products to help all peoples.

What binds nations together is the harmony of continued trade without fear of aggression: cyber aggression as well as military aggression.

Some weapons are unnecessary and counterproductive to world peace. For example, The underwater nuclear drone would create a 1,600-foot high tsunami potentially wiping out entire cities…The Russian 32 Proseidon drones would ‘render the US missile system defenseless’ and make Russia a global dictator Moskovsky Komsomolet. The Week, Jan. 25, 2019 page 9.

The United States invaded Iraq with its super aggressive Shock and Awe campaign in 2003. It was successful in the short run because the courageous military did overthrow a cruel regime. Nonetheless, it was a long-term disaster because there was no plan for peace. The Middle East territories devolved into continuous sectarian violence. As of 2019 millions of people have been murdered or displaced. The influx of refugees has caused many other nations continuous political conflict.

Do either of these examples promote global peace and cooperation among countries?

Both create fear and its consequences: the build up of even more weapons. Clearly, our world leaders do not know who they are. They are not accessing their higher power and purpose. They are behaving as intimidated, fearful creatures. Today, we need leaders to access their better angels. We need courageous leaders. War is not an option in a nuclear world. War is not going to save our climate from catastrophic heat or cold.

Fear has dominated Russia and America. Both peoples have been intimidated from within. My parents’ generation fought the Second World War. Beneath the surface of social relations was much guilt and anger.

I marveled at the strength and determination of Dad’s friends in their mid-seventies who carried his casket into the church. The feeling I got was of honorable ancient warriors struggling with a heavy, thick oak casket, bringing their brother to his elegy. It was an elegy of praise and appreciation for his life as a fellow war survivor and their years of friendship playing golf, bowling and card games. Father’s wife praised him as a good husband and wonderful father, which he was. My father died a church elder, full of comfort and compassion for all who knew him. To meet him, you would have judged him outgoing and agreeable; yet, my father and his war buddies could not talk about the war. Ask other Baby Boomers, Did your father talk about the war? Once, when I was too young to know any better, I pressed him about fighting in the Pacific. He said he would never forget the smell of death. He said he was the company cook and never carried a rifle. He had a holster gun but never had to use it. He was required to go out on patrol to find bodies and bury the dead. He never wanted to go back to the Pacific islands, like Hawaii. One other time, when I complained about a relative, who was a father but did not support his family and instead used his income for womanizing, gambling and alcohol, father’s eyes looked far away. Finally, Dad told me it was the war that ruined men. Some returning warriors never recovered from the shock of war.

The shock of war was a mystery to me. However, it must have been bad because my father’s expression had been one of pain. I asked other friends what their dads said of war and all of them told me their fathers did not want to talk about it.

Vaguely, I recall the fear of the McCarthy hearings. People were spooked to even discuss them. I was young, but I understood fear. Now I realize people were being intimidated. After a war, it is easy to silence those who have no political power. So people smoked tobacco a lot. Looking back, I realize the smoke was like a veil. Outwardly, everyone was celebrating with brandy toddies, card games and buying all the new consumer goods, but inside there was a dark void: anger and guilt. After all, most Americans went to church and were taught the Ten Commandments. These commandments forbade killing other humans. For civilian and soldier, the toll of war was the emotional dilemma of trying to reconcile these beliefs with orders to kill. Between the two worlds of celebration and darkness hung the grey haze of smoke, masking an inability to reconcile the horrors of war: fear of losing loved ones, fear of losing identity, country and hope. There was the guilt of survival. The realization that every ideal you believed in– including God–was turned upon its head. It turned a person inside out, perhaps with a shred of self-loathing. You wanted to see the enemy dead. You wanted, but didn’t want, to kill. You could not save the innocent babies, children and women; yet, if they were the enemies, didn’t they deserve…no, no, no.

My father may have finally understood why I was against the Vietnam War. He said so. But he also said, when your country tells you to go to war, you must. He had no answer for fighting a just war as opposed to refusing to fight a war based upon political theory by old men who sat thousands of miles away drinking whiskey and smoking fat cigars. He assumed his country would never participate in an unjust war. Vietnam was his wake up call. Washington legislators were changing. They no longer represented the ideals of Roosevelt or Truman or Eisenhower. When Kennedy was assassinated, was it because there was a new order?

CONSOLIDATED MONEY INTERESTS RULE

Americans accepted the new order. Corporations gradually infiltrated the legislators with lobbyists and money for re-elections. President Reagan told citizens government was the problem. Government was the problem? In a democracy, citizens are the government. What was he talking about? He said we needed fewer regulations and to let the market decide policies. Each American became a commodity in the labor market–a commodity that had to find its value. So, Americans supported legislators who began deregulating and worked to crush the labor unions’ influence. Future presidents pushed ahead trade deals and exported jobs. The question was, if jobs were not created in the new energy industries like solar and wind, how were the workers who lost manufacturing jobs to afford buying the new cheap products? No legislators cared.

Even the rural way of farming life became monetized in new ways. Weather caused crop failures meant farmers lost land to bankers who developed corporate farming. Many farming families formed corporations for the new tax deductions. Wealthy foreigners bought farmland. The corporate tax advantages put the small farmer at a disadvantage in competing to sell products.

Many media personalities espoused myths: the alleged benefits of capitalism outweighed the rights of organized labor and the invisible hand would regulate market excesses. Individual citizens were on their own. Legislators no longer were interested in protecting worker jobs, the environment or providing needed services. The political parties turned upon the government they were supposed to serve. Now government was to serve corporate and big money interests. Both political parties bought into this creed.

The ascent of corporate domination of government and political parties was the result of needs during World War II. The extensive common interests between manufacturers of war weapons and legislators overseeing war could not be undone.

After the war, returning soldiers needed jobs. Corporations needed workers. The marriage between government interests and corporate interests meshed perfectly. As rationing ended in 1952 and government ceased to control the flow of goods, it never occurred to citizens that the manufacturers would become the new rationing system of goods and employment. After 1980, the people were told the market would decide demand for product and, by extension, employment opportunities. This new reality seemed to work until corporations relocated production to foreign countries and employed foreign workers. Yet, those same companies wanted their former workers’ markets and money. Corporations wanted to use the interstate delivery and communication systems. They wanted to coast along in a secure, safe country with observed rule of law. But corporations did not want to pay for these privileges. Short-term profit became all-important.

Baby Boomers and their children were shell shocked by the bait and switch of corporations’ loyalty. First, corporations made Americans prosperous by supplying well-paying jobs and its taxes, funding new American infrastructure: roads, airports, vehicles, sanitation systems, water access, modern schools and bridges. It was managed capitalism working at its best. Beginning in the 1980’s, liberal (laissez-faire) capitalism replaced managed capitalism. Corporations moved production abroad. Citizens hoped government would provide incentives for new manufacturing businesses, providing a tax base and employment. Nonetheless, most government representatives expressed surprise that citizens did not understand: jobs are the domain of businesses. Only businesses determine what and where jobs are offered because only businesses understand how to efficiently run a production line, market product and deliver goods. Government was not able to do what businesses do. Yet, in 2000, when major corporations like Enron and MCI went bankrupt, it became clear even businesses did not do what only businesses can do. Then, in 2007 and 2008, the housing market excesses tanked the world economy. Market manipulators, regulators and bankers worked in unison to cover one another as the market teetered and tottered. The market could not self-regulate. Only the government could bail them out. This is the same government that allegedly should not be in business according to contemporary economic sages, but it could become a bank. It appears socialism was okay for the rich corporations that were too big to fail.

Only a generation of utopian idealists could buy into these delusions. Or was it a war and depression era shell-shocked generation, brainwashed by their fear of money and authority? And then children and grandchildren who did not question the media propagandized myths that anyone could speculate and become rich?

Why have Baby Boomers and their children been so naïve? We worked hard. We are far more tolerant of pluralism than past generations. We are well educated and informed.

It is because we have not known who we are. Therefore, we go along with whatever prevailing myth is offered to us. World War II was such a painful memory for our parents that they closed down. The lessons of the Great Depression were not passed on. We never learned of the downside of the Gilded Age, when corporations owned America. It was all a vague, romanticized history we thought could never occur again. Why? Baby Boomers belong to the tribe who won the greatest conflict in the world, World War II. We think ourselves invincible. Even our comic books extoll the virtue of unparalleled power. Better educated than our parents, we nonetheless put no restrictions on commerce or government representatives–the sources of our wealth and guardians of our democracy–because we never knew want. Want of food. Want of shelter. Want of healthcare. Want of employment. Want of value for being human. Want of the candidate elected president by the majority vote.

We also are self-indulgent: why put restrictions on businesses when any day we could be in business? What business owner wants to allow anyone else, including the government, to put limits on what is allowed?

Baby Boomers grew up in this homogenized media sprawl of music and TV programming. Westerns romanticized the lawless settling of western lands. Good guys got rid of the bad guys; so, justice prevailed. Disneyland over developed the imaginary worlds of bedtime stories. Gambling became legal and glamorized. Everyone could become a player. Gold chains, gold coins and gilded furniture in a home became esteemed. The pursuit of money became an obsession permeating all levels of society because in a secular culture there needs to be the elevated goal, the height of attainment.

We had to be free. Everyone had to be free. Yet, we failed to listen to one of our musical sages, Janus Joplin: freedom is just another word for nothing else to lose. Doesn’t that sound like the exasperated words of an addict? Were we so full of illusions, self-compulsion and self-importance because we had no true self? We became chameleons because we did not know who we were?

YOU CAN KNOWN WHO YOU ARE

There was not a prior era in history when humans were innocent and happy. There was a prior era when humans nurtured their immature. Humans emerged from childhood feeling each had a valuable place in an inclusive society.

Baby Boomer’s parents were so traumatized by World War II they did not share their traumas with their children; because they were shut down. Imagine living in fear every day that your soldiers would not win. Imagine living in fear that those who you love would not come home. Then you grieved for soldiers who did not come home. Imagine living in a world where the government repressed all media and you had to be careful what you said or what friend you made or what organizations you joined. It would be like living in a compartment inside yourself. When you finally could open the door to live an open life, you would not look back at the pain, the repression and the guilt of survival over those who paid the ultimate sacrifice or were destroyed by war.

The illusion is that there are winners after a war ends. The reality is there are no winners. Everyone is scarred. Societies are warped. Nurturing another generation competes with trying to forget, using alcohol, cigarettes and escapism. This may be why we have been doomed to repeat one world war after another world war. Can humanity and the Earth survive a third world war?

We are more than a victim or an aggressor in wars. We are emotional beings of social innovation and technological success.

Sixty-five thousand years ago humans survived a volcanic eruption yielding catastrophic destruction for mammals. Humans survived by eating underground foods.

Over two thousand years ago, in 480 BC, ancient Athenian Greeks evolved a democratic society and defeated the invading Persians. The Greeks formed an alliance with neighboring Greek city-states to save their nation from servitude by the Persians led by