COEXIST: Oneness through Diversity

By Michael Stansfield

This ark brings to life a mirid of ancient concepts humanity has discarded as impossible. Concepts such as direct democracy and world peace. It challenges each on an internal level to seek the wisdom of their rival to become whole and externally through the diversity of our politics and religions to become one. There are explorers of the known, and then there are explorers of the unknown. This ark takes the reader into the uncharted waters of humanity, religion, and philosophy. It is a book for the dreamers who see the world not as it is, but as it could be. Yet on this ark, all of humanity is brought on board. Insightful. Adventurous. Bold. Candid. Refreshing. Enlightened. A portal to the real-life world of our dreams.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Dec 6, 2021
• ISBN: 9781794736382

Book preview

Table of Contents

Prologue

for the Moralist

Introduction

Square of Humanity

Liberating God & Humanity

Orthodox Secular Enlightenment

Judaism Transcendence

Christianity Secularism Enlightenment

Christian Transcendence

Islamic Transcendence

Love Awakened

Idolatry in the Modern Era

Help Wanted for Prophets of Love

E Pluribus Unum

Ambassadors of Reconciliation

Separation of Church and State

the Altar Call

for the Humanist

The Day of Jezreel

To Whom Much Is Given

Failures of Past Democracies

Step 1: The Writing of Proposals

Step 2: Prioritizing of Proposals

Institutions of Learning

Gathering Signatures

Step 3: Passage into Law

Foundational Element

Natural Limitations of Congress

Committees

Mergers and Modifications

National Public Decree

Unity vs. Representation?

Collective Responsibility Laws

Party Politics

A Nation of Laws, Not of Men

Constitutions

Inalienable Rights

for the Capitalist

People vs. Ideas

Economics of City Government

Macroeconomics

The Wizard of Oz

The City Lord and Budget

The Shire Fellowship

Shire Judges

The Shire Ring Bearer

The Guardians

The Prince of the Covenant

Shepherds of the Roundtable

Halo of Education

Fantasia

National Elections

The Court System

Law Enforcement Bureaus

Military vs. Domestic Spending

Laissez-Faire Economics

for the Socialist

Community + ism (Ummah)

Love Thy Neighbor

The Courtship of Nations

Preparation for Relationships

The Ties that Bind

Communication Commission

Road to the Universal Alphabet

Life & Creation Commissions

Reach for the Stars

The Economic Commission

Don’t take her for Granted

Bringing the Families Together

Tying the Knot

The Honeymoon

Difficult Relationships

Kingdom on Earth

The Sabbath

The Liberation of Consciousness

My Tao

Enlightenment Halos

The Love Orb of Humanity (for the Holistic)

The Halo of Abraham

The Halos of Fantasia

The Trinity Halo

Prologue

What defines a person, a life, a being?  What creates their muse and enflames their passion?  Who or what inspires their path?  And under whose or what authority does the average person render their indictment upon humanity in part or in whole?  For most of a person’s existence is blossomed through events we can all relate to: childhood, friendships, education, career, dating, marriage, the birth of a child, common illnesses, the death of an elderly family member, etc.  For others there are events that few can personally relate to, but we can still imagine what that person must be going through, such as being the victim of a heinous crime, a false conviction, the premature death of a child, a near-death experience, etc.  Then there are events that exist beyond the imagination and comprehension.  To speak of them out loud makes one the subject of gossip and slander, the brunt of jokes, and the questioning of sanity.  One such event happened to me.  It tapped into a seed that was placed into my interbeing a decade prior and it nurtured my suppressed Tao to sprout, grow, and finally blossom. 

The event that took place on Tuesday following Palm Sunday in 2007 was precipitated by my opening prayer to my nightly devotion with that follows, "Lord, you stated that if I ask for anything in Your name, it would be revealed to me.¹ Lord, I am a Jew. You see the suffering of my people.  Your people!  Yet You swore we would be a people like the stars of the sky and the sand on the seashore, from the Nile to the Euphrates.  I look for a land of plenty, a promised land of abundance where it was said it took two men to carry one cluster of grapes, but all I see is a dry and cracked desert land.  Why must your people suffer so?  Please, explain this to me.  I don't understand." 

This was not an unusual prayer.  I was a man in search of answers, Where is the land of milk and honey I read about in the Bible?  Where are the peace and abundance that were foretold upon the return of Israel in Isaiah?  For many years, it seemed as if I was calling out to the wind, for the Lord did not answer me.  Now, truth be told, we accept that the Lord spoke to the prophets in the Bible without question, but today if people say that the Lord talked to them, we would consider them suffering from schizophrenia or some other mental illness. Yet during the ministry of Isaiah, who was commanded by the Lord to walk around naked to proclaim to the people that they were naked and wretched², or Ezekiel, who was instructed to cook his meals over human excrement,³ I would imagine that the Jews of their day thought that these men were mentally unsound or perhaps worse.  So, as I tell you the following events in my life, I completely expect your opinion of me to diminish.  Yet to conceal this portion of my spiritual pilgrimage would be something less than honest, as well as in some way a denial of the hand of God within my life. 

After praying each night before I go to sleep, I turn on a small light next to my bed, open my Bible to a random page, and start reading at a random spot.  Not so much out of divine expectation, but rather exhaustion.  Sometimes I was so tired I would have no recollection of the things I read the following morning.  That night I was reading from Genesis seventeen, starting in verse five.  For those who are unfamiliar with that section, Abraham’s name was changed from Abram to Abraham, meaning many nations.  In verse twenty, Abraham was upset with the Lord and pleaded, Please bless Ishmael, too, but God said no, inferring that the many nations promised between the Nile and the Euphrates belonged to Isaac alone— nations such as Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, and so on. ⁴The Lord replied to Abraham, I have heard you, and of Ishmael, I will make a great nation, but the blessing remains with Isaac.  It was at this point that the Lord bent down and whispered in my ear.  In effect, my conscience, through analytical reasoning, was wrestling with the stubborn prejudices of my heart.  An audible voice, no, but it was clear, without a doubt.  In this voice, He asked me, Who does the many nations promise apply to? 

I answered, Isaac.

He asked, How many nations will Ishmael be?

I answered, One.

Then how come you credit Ishmael as many nations and believe Isaac to be only one nation? 

I argued, Lord, these people are not Jews.  I felt the Lord leading me to open my Bible again to another random place and verse.  The verse I turned to next was 1 Chronicles 5:2, Though Judah was the strongest of his brothers and a ruler came from him, the rights of the firstborn belonged to Joseph. (NIV) The still small voice whispered, Why would you expect the many nations' promise to come from Judah (the Jews) when the birthright belonged to Joseph? 

Lord, I inquired, Are not these people Ishmaelites? 

The Lord replied in regard to the identity of Ishmael, Why not India?  Isn’t it also a people too numerous to count? 

I retorted, No, Lord!

Why? the Lord interrupted. Because you like them?

My heart was grieved, and there was a moment of silence before I replied, But what everyone else says is different! 

Again, I felt the Lord leading me to open my Bible to a random place, and the verse I turned to was Jeremiah 14:14, The Lord responded to me, ‘The prophets are prophesying lies in My name.  I have not sent them or appointed them or spoken to them.  They are prophesying to you false visions, divinations, idolatries, and the delusions of their own minds.’ (NIV)

This left me confounded and perplexed.  I considered the centuries upon which modern Christianity exists and defines itself.  How could it be that the millions, perhaps billions, that have dedicated their lives to studying the Bible could have missed something so profound?  And I considered how entrenched as a people we were in our faith and just how difficult it would be at this point to accept anything new of such magnitude. At this point, He bent down and whispered in my ear, Abraham believed in Me, and he was made righteous, but you do not believe.  The Arabs are the many nations of my people Israel.  They are like the stars of the sky now and exactly where I swore they would be, just as I promised Abraham, and you hate them!  You have been found guilty of murder before me! 

Murder?  I have never raised my hand against anyone!

You think your heart is concealed from me?  The prayers of those who call upon my name for evil against their brother are continually before me.  The verse came to mind, These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.  At that moment he showed me myself through His eyes.  Grief took hold of me, and I began to weep uncontrollably. 

Again, I opened to a random verse, this time to Matthew 10:27, What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs. (NIV) 

I recalled all the years I had tried to bring change at GE.  I’m the guy that no one listens to.  So the mere fact that he would call on me to proclaim his message was meant with the response of shock and disbelief, Me? They will not listen to me.

Again, I felt the Lord leading me, and I opened my Bible, this time to Exodus 4:10–12, and He whispered in my ear, Who made your tongue?

I replied, What if they don’t believe you spoke to me?

And again, I opened my Bible, Exodus 4:1-3 Moses answered, What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The LORD did not appear to you? Then the LORD said to him, What is that in your hand? A staff, he replied. The LORD said, Throw it on the ground. Moses threw it on the ground, and it became a snake, and he ran from it."  I didn’t have a staff, but I remembered the second sign, so I put my hand under my shirt to see if it would become infected with leprosy.  I was trembling, I held my breath and pulled out my hand.  No change! 

The LORD responded, Here you are alone in your room risking nothing, can you do this when you have something to lose?

I replied, I can’t do this alone.

Then I closed the Bible and re-opened it to another random verse, Exodus 3:12 And God said, I will be with you.

I asserted, Lord, you need someone like Billy Graham for this job.  The Lord responded, You seek the reputation of men as the world seeks it so that people should believe based on his word and his reputation.  I am sending you and the cast aside of this world, to see if they will believe based on My Word and My reputation!  The Lord whispered in my ear, Michael, I don’t want them to see you. I want them to see Me! 

Lord, I replied, I have no degree or formal training in the Bible.  Again, I felt Him leading me, and I opened my Bible, however, because the last three verses had randomly gone to Exodus, I intentionally opened my Bible to the other end —this time to Acts 4:13, When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished, and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. (NIV)  Even still an exact answer to my question.

I asserted, Surely, these pastors have scriptures to back up what they are saying.  I am going to go to them, and they are going to cite some verse and prove me wrong. 

At this point, the voice that had been calm, almost passive, became loud and passionate, Who do you think wrote that book!?  Will you test Me?  Okay, then, test Me!  Go to these men you have put your faith in, more than you have put your faith in Me! 

And then silence.  The voice in my head would not speak.  It was the first time for me and to date, I have never had another event like it.

Given the uniqueness of the event for posterity let me provide some further insight into the experience itself.  In a normal conversation, there is miscommunication, but when the voice is in your head, you know exactly what they mean without question.  When a person speaks passionately about any subject often images will come to mind, but when this new mental presence was in my mind, I could not only understand but also see their argument and feel their emotions as if they were my own.  It is like in a dream where you can’t hear the person’s words but know exactly what they are saying and what they mean.  The speed of the conversation at times was also mind-blowing.  In an argument two people are communicating and often talking over one another so that they are speaking at the same time and neither is truly listening as they are thinking about how to retort what the other person is saying, but when it is in the mind you know and understand their counterargument even as you are making your defense so that the speed at which you are receiving and giving is at the speed of thought.  Only the ideas presented were arguments I had never contemplated.  When the presence left it was as if a part of me had disappeared.  One feels hollowed out, rejected, mentally exhausted, and alone.    In addition to this, I was flooded with anxiety with the deepest inter-voice crying out to action.  It is one thing to believe in God, it is another to experience a realization that there is a form of consciousness beyond known existence.

Now while I had heard from a consciousness beyond my comprehension of the universe, the consciousness had not revealed anything from the Bible that was not already there.  The mere fact before the event I considered myself to be a steadfast follower of Christ and then when I meant him, I was offended at him put me into a depression.  The anxiety of a man who felt like I had failed my God. I pleaded with him to forgive me for my pride and arrogance that evening.  But like the wind, he was gone.  While one believes that God hears their prayers nothing replaces the affirmation of a physical response.  Neither before nor since has the voice returned.  Yet that briefest of moments, as a pebble in a pond, its rings vibrate in me still to this day.  Having said that, I realize that there are so-called prophets that use such a claim for power and control or to lift up a message they believe the world needs to hear.  I have heard others claim a Divine feeling regarding what shoes to wear each morning.  With all of the false claims out there does this imply that every encounter is false?  I open up to humanity in hope that I am not alone.  That others have heard and to give them the strength to speak. I also open up to acknowledge the truth that God is alive and real, and that I will not deny the voice that came to me before humanity.  But also, as a personal journal to reflect upon the man I was and come to terms with who I have now become because of the experience.  There is an irony for those who go through such an encounter.  The words the voice tells you no-one desires to hear or even cares about are cherished echoes that daily pull on the strings of your heart.  It redefines your identity and fundamentally changes you as a human being.  With each rejection that identity is amplified when you choose not to deny yourself.  Consider Paul the apostle.  Jesus came to him saying, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? Having trouble kicking against the goads? or in layman’s terms, Saul why are you fighting against God’s evolution of humanity? All Paul was given was this short revelation that his view of the world was wrong.  There was no vast knowledge or wisdom of the Old Testament imparted.  Yet Paul’s identity changed.  How he looked at and interpreted scripture changed.  Paul never documents that his letters are from God, rather he is revealing scripture through the eyes of a changed man.  The voice is not at my beck and call, I neither deserved it nor can rationalize it in scientific terms.  Yet it happened.  Hearing the voice of Jesus has uprooted my life.  From that night the Bible began to unravel before me, yet something new was cultivating within me. 

To come to terms with the person I am, one needs to understand the person I was.  Coming from a lineage of those that sacrificed in real ways to advance humanity, the bar for success was set rather high.  Living up to the hopes and dreams of those that came before us can be a monumental task.  It is said each generation is like the tide, advancing forward, but always fought against by the receding wave of the previous generation.  Inspired by an old poem by Robert Herrick to the virgins, make much of time, come hell or high water, I was determined to make my mark.  The sand in my hourglass was full and the future was a vast unshaped horizon.  To solve any great riddle all one needs is time. Acknowledging the fleeting inspiration and creativity of youth, I channeled my compass on a life quest for answers to the great unsolved questions.  There is joy in solving the impossible, in accomplishing the things my college professors said could not be done.  And of course, in each discovery one unravels a piece of themselves and also leaves a piece of themselves behind for others through their work.  As our passions sway and shift, our identity is carried along for the ride and I didn’t want to waste a moment of it.  Growing up in a conservative evangelical home I intentionally set my focus to discover the beauty of moral relativism as a means of stepping outside of my box into a larger universe.  As a catalyst in the spring of 96 I began my effort to unravel the mystery of Universal Representation of humanity’s philosophical mind.  By the winter of 06 I completed my task.  So that I may come full circle I turned my sites to a new riddle, to understand the mysteries of the Bible. In this endeavor fate stepped in at the precise moment when I received a helping hand from an unexpected source.  That night provided guidance for my new venture, yet it would be another decade before the full realization of that encounter would be unveiled. As I matured in one philosophy new insights would open up in another.  It was as if something inside of me was searching for harmony and balance.  It is said you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.    I had made it to the portal, but seeing the door and opening it are two different things.  It was not until I bridged the gap to a new philosophy and religion, unknown to mainstream humanity, that I turned the knob and entered.  For years I have equated enlightenment with intelligence, yet many who were smarter than I had not obtained it.  Enlightenment is foremost found in the courage of the soul to allow oneself to die to the things they always knew were true and take a chance to listen to their neglected alter ego.  When I stopped making arguments to convince myself that I was right and gave ear to my muzzled conscience the path that followed unveiled a creation in desperate need for a revival, evolution, and incorporation of humanity’s neglected spiritual element in our modern-day secular society.  No longer an element in opposition to the others, but rather a holistic approach through the bonds of love to understanding faith and philosophy.  Having crossed the threshold, I put pen to paper.

Sometimes language doesn’t have the words one needs to say. I call the book COEXIST for what the term has come to mean, yet I am not looking to merely COEXIST or TOLERATE but love my adversary for the essence of who they are and in their own way for forging me into the being I was destined to be. It is all a part of this crazy little thing called life.  Thus, even in their hatred toward me I am indebted to them and love them all the more.  This is not the only path to LOVE, nor would imitating my path guarantee illumination.  It is not a thing that can be just mimicked but must cultivate and harmonize uniquely and beautifully from within each soul.  There is a you within you that wants to be found.  Where one lived, studied, worked, played; the names of friends, coworkers, and relatives; personal events: weddings, funerals, and holidays, are the essence of most autobiographies, because they describe the structure of their life, yet these things fail to see the inner self.  The superficial layers so many add to avoid exposing their true self to the court of public opinion.  What would friends and family say if they knew I was questioning my faith?  If my political philosophy was different than theirs?  If my nation’s enemies were my friends?  In some way we all wear drag to fit in.  The shame of denying the creativity of the Creator’s mold.  This book is me stepping out of the proverbial closet in the hope that others will do the same.  Years of youth fade away.  Now a quarter century passed, moments of insight no longer come with the same frequency.  Thus is the wisdom of age comprised of the nuggets of days past which I stored in this chest of gems.  This book is an autobiographical treasure map I leave behind to guide other seekers to the uncharted waters that the unseen beauty of humanity’s political and religious diversity may be unveiled.  While the pages ahead are an expression of this changed human being, they are not, nor should they be considered any voice other than my own.  And having the choice between another Divine Testament through miracles and supernatural events or an evolution of humanity through the wisdom of the human spirit, I would choose the latter as I believe the Creator prays for and believes in his creation’s capacity to evolve itself.  Now as to whether or not the pages ahead represent a faithful expression of the voice I heard that night and the degree to which the solutions presented solve the impossible riddles I will leave to your judgment, but whether or not I should be praised or condemned I promise those with an open mind with the patience to fully digest this journey into the unknown will be in adventure that will challenge each to their core.

COEXIST

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Part I – (Dedicated to the Moralist Element of the Square)

Introduction

The religious institutions of which most familiar gather in a building where one person speaks to a congregation whose perspectives are little to no different from their own.  The success of these institutions is measured by how many seats are filled as well as how many profess the beliefs of the speaker.  The congregation is not permitted to ask questions or speak in general during the sermon.  Questioning the fundamentals of the faith will make you a subject of gossip and advocating another faith will find you an early exit with a request not to return.  The political parties in terms of how diversity of opinions are treated is virtually indistinguishable from those of a religious nature.  Thus, the expression of faith be it secular or religious is through conformity, rather than diversity of opinions.  COEXIST exists on the other end of the spectrum and its success is measured by the diversity of the religious and political expression it yields rather than its singularity.  As questions can cross multiple disciplines of faith and philosophy, they are infinitely more complex to answer.  Thus, to say this book or any book represents the beliefs of COEXIST would be totalitarian or laughable.  Rather this book structures a framework for a God of diversity⁵ in a world we call home through which He, or She, willed a plethora of religious and political opinions. 

As human beings, we know what home is, or for some of us the hope or ideal of what home should be: friends, family, nostalgia, all interlaced with love.  It is an emotional, spiritual, and physical connection to a place that goes beyond the superficial level.  In the broad sense I ask, you the reader, ‘Is this world your home?’  If you are honest with yourself, you must confess it doesn’t always feel like home. The pain within our world creates an internal drive within each of us to find that desired home, whether it be heaven, beyond the pages of this life through religion, or hope to reshape our world through politics or technology. Politics and religion share the illusionary draw to pursue a destination limited only by our imagination.  However, as is the nature of dreams, there is always someone who invades our grand delusion with cold dark reality, and then a retaliation takes place to cut down their beautiful delusion.  This is the nature of the perpetual conflict between the religions and political parties in our modern era. Religion, political science, technology, can be kind of like love.  You find that special someone, and at ninety they are still the most beautiful person in the world, and no one is going to tell us any differently.  Ask any Christian, Jew, or Muslim, if they follow the God of Abraham, Moses, or Elijah, the same people, analyzing the same historical settings, often with the very same words in print, but with a very different perceptible meaning.  Also consider political science, the same nation, the same struggles, but with very different perceptions between the political factions. The difference is not in the present, but in the desired destination, the mythical home that each faction is striving for, as Peter Pans in search of their NeverNever Land. There is a connection we feel between ourselves and nature, as it is said, from the dust we came and to the dust we will one day return, but within humanity, the internal struggle between the beautiful fiction and the cold reality divides us. The diversity and creativity within creation draws in our soul as we take in our interconnectedness within our atoms between the planet and stars and our shared DNA within the plant and animal kingdoms.  Yet this same interconnection and diversity where it is strongest within our own species has created an internal rivalry throughout humanity, a disconnection, an aura of isolation, and contention that makes our world far from the home we desire.  Without the beautiful delusion or at least the hope within the beautiful delusion, the perceived hopelessness of the human situation draws many into bouts of anxiety and depression, where life itself is viewed as a curse to the extent that some view suicide as the solution.  Most of us attempting to cope with the reality of our world will instead invest ourselves in a fictional world through sporting events, hobbies, video games, sitcoms, movies, and other things where passions can be safely invested on a superficial level.  If you are like most human beings, this will cause you to gravitate toward others who think and reason within the same delusion, so that family and friends are defined through nationalism, corporate, political, and religious infrastructures, such that most define themselves through terms, such as an Accountant, a Christian, a Democrat, an American, etc.  Under these conditions for a Republican to accept the criticism of a Democrat or vice-versa is to destroy how he or she defines him or herself and his or her dreams.  Without the dream (the hope of home), one is left with hopelessness and the despair that follows.  This is why their opponents' only solution, beyond suicide, is that their enemies should adopt their delusion, and so the circle continues indefinitely.  Yet in the broader sense while such definitions, Republican, Muslim, etc., connect us within various niches they also separate us from our universal connection within humanity and the Divine, while also detracting from the internal inspiration and creativity that uniquely defines each of us as human beings.  And on an external level, what is the perceived value of the human being to their niche beyond the servitude he or she can yield?  Or to rephrase, is a human being valued by their government, their employer, or religion beyond a piece of property or resource to be utilized as their owners predetermine?  To answer no is to be naive of the power of each niche to make existence for the divergent, the whistleblower, or the Imagineer into a living hell. 

I am hiraeth, which is to say, I am homesick for the human home we can all share as ourselves.  Such a universal home could only exist through the symmetry of the global human family.  I realize as a species, while many have tried, I acknowledge that we have never arrived at such a utopian destination.  Such a destination only exists within our dreams, and for most such a target is purely delusional within itself.  Nevertheless, it is only through our hopes and dreams, delusional as they may be, that such a world may be constructed and realized because all human advancement has always begun with hope and a dream.  This path that you are about to embark upon, to discover humanity’s home, is not a home exclusively for one race, religion, or political creed, but rather a home for all.  Where each is accepted as members of one family and one creation.  Using all our hopes to magically create something real.  While I realize to fulfill this goal, the oneness of all creation, thought, and science is required, to achieve this end, our first prerequisite lies at the other end of the spectrum.  For each of us in humanity must appreciate the diversity and unique awe within all things, so that each one of us can not only accept the differences in others but also cherish them enough to embrace the hopes and dreams of our rivals.  Therefore, our assignment in this textbook is to design and construct a system that unites all of humanity and creation without compromising, limiting, discouraging, or hindering the hopes and dreams of any element within humankind.  Ergo our first task is to determine what these niches within humanity are, what their deepest hopes and aspirations are, and how these various niches and rivals within society relate to one another, both within their historical and modern context.

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To construct a basic framework for understanding these differences in the spring of 1995, I graphed and charted the intersecting lines within Humanity’s thoughts so that I could begin on an elementary level. This graphical map I call the Competitive Square of Humanity maps the intersections between the philosophies of logic and ethics.  Most of our political discussion will center on the American political system and Great Britain as they are considered the fathers of the modern Republican form of government, which dominates the globe in the current era.  In these modern republics to keep one philosophy from dominating the others, the political system has designed each ambition to counterbalance the others so that each philosophy is restrained from reaching its pinnacle Shangri-La by the others.  Using this counterbalance approach, the dreams of each aspect of society have become like a donkey chasing the carrot, never reaching, endlessly pursuing. The carrot becomes a fictional, unachievable, and impossible destination.  Without fulfillment, the carrot becomes immortalized.  The carrot, our unfulfilled dreams, desires, love, with time becomes a source of bondage used by the system for manipulation and control.  Each political party brings out candidates who inflame our desire to achieve our hopes and dreams.  Some even get elected to Congress, but society is not selecting their ideas to become law through such elections, but rather choosing their warriors to fight against the hopes and dreams of their rivals, so that the core vision, the end game of the heart, is lost to all sides.  Ergo, the political party apparatus and our legislature itself become the instrument that prevents our greatest dreams from ever seeing the light of day.  This intentional design provides short-term stability by limiting the size and scope of progress, but in the long-run when a society by design encourages its people under the guise of political liberty to struggle to achieve hopes and dreams that can never be realized through built-in limitations within the system, should anyone be surprised that the end-result of this perpetual political battle is distrust, deceit, and isolation between human-beings?  And if this is the anticipated and encouraged result within the Republic, should humanity be surprised that such animosity would inevitably spill over in a world of Republics, giving rise to wars and partisans as the factions’ exhaust their faith in the bureaucracy and look to other options to forcibly implement change.  The good book says, love your neighbor, which begins with an understanding of what your neighbor’s aspirations are, even if your neighbor is your political or religious enemy.  Taken collectively, if one truly and deeply understands all the political and religious dimensions that compose the Competitive Square of Humanity, they will see that each philosophy has noble intentions at heart.  This textbook is divided into four parts; each part representing one of the four core beliefs from which all reasoning is born with the direct aim and goal of understanding what that philosophy’s impossible dream is and how in practical terms that mythical home can be realized all in the tone and voice of that philosophy.  Finally, the most impossible reality of all is that each of these impossible dreams can be practically and realistically achieved in harmony with the other philosophies so that one ambition is not forced to compromise the essence of who they are for the sake of another.  Therefore, the Square will naturally evolve into the Circle, as the rough edges of dissension are made smooth and seamless.  Moreover, once one can transcend the square, the genuine symmetry of the universe will be understood.

The nature of our dreams falls into several categories: religious, political, technological, etc.  Our hopes also vary in complexity and range from those we can grasp to those that are pure fantasy, given the limitations of the present age and our place in our society.  Take religious dreams for example, at one end of the spectrum one person dreams about becoming a deacon at his or her local church while others have grandiose visions about re-establishing the Levitical Priesthood at the Temple in Zion or being a prophet that altered the fate of Empires through the Word of God as read about in ages past.  This textbook is for the grandiose dreamers of the world on making these impossible dreams scientifically and philosophically possible in practical terms.  Most of our dreams we discard not because they are not technically feasible, but rather we deem them not possible within the constraints of our economic abilities, rank in society, etc.  How many have political dreams, but know that these ideas will never see the light of day because they are poor, shy, lack access to the media spotlight, or they are unwilling to compromise their ethical standards, as seems to be a prerequisite for being in public office in our modern era?  Even if you were president has not the constitution, and other checks and balances in place prevented some of humanity’s most elaborate dreams from ever seeing the light of day?  As the old proverb says, God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and the wisdom to know the difference.  Yet these limitations, while very real, have been pushed aside in this work to allow the untapped potential and power of the human spirit to be unveiled.  Most are aware of two types of writing: fiction and nonfiction and many realize that truth is often stranger than fiction, but there exists a third category when scientific reality becomes so unbelievable that it becomes pure fantasy.  In line with another great philosopher who once stated the most delusional, and yet the truest reality, of all, "All things are possible for the one who believes.⁶"

What is the Square of Humanity? 

In a republic, political parties become necessary to get legislation passed if there are to be collective, cohesive political efforts in a legislature.  However, collective, cohesive political efforts also limit the creativity of individuals by removing original new ideas for dealing with challenges and issues that may turn out to be against the party’s will or its organizational structure. 

The political party system is built and designed around the general framework of how a person thinks logically and ethically about any issue.  Philosophy, in its most elementary form, falls into two categories:  logic and ethics.  Ethics is divided into two opposing ideas.  One is known as humanism or moral relativism: that all things happen by chance, that their nature is determined by their context, and that observation changes and alters from one person’s perspective to the next.  On the other side of the square is moralism or moral absolutism. This is the belief that there is a preordained order through a Creator, wherein each person has a destiny that he or she is meant to fulfill as part of some overall intelligent design or plan.  Moreover, behind the flux of change and circumstance there remains one constant set of values that is true and right and others that are wrong, as markedly deviating from the good, and these are usually outlined through traditional religious or philosophical texts.⁷

Logic, in political terms, is divided into two general categories as well.  The first, Darwinism a.k.a. Capitalism is built on the principle that the value of each human life is determined by each person’s actions, with the survival of the fittest so that a criminal is valued less than a saint is.⁸ On the opposing side, there is socialism, which has as a core belief that all human lives are of equal value, that a person’s actions may be good, but that this in itself does not increase that person’s value as a human being because a person’s value or life is innate and sacred.  Darwinism values competition, whereas socialism values unity. Darwinism emphasizes the individual, and socialism focuses more on the community.

Every political concept we come across our minds naturally provide us with both an ethical and a logical reason for the solution we determined. Reason is the place where ethics meets logic, as each person’s political science reasoning is based on taking one ethical view and merging it with a logical view. When one takes capitalism, a.k.a. Darwinism and blends it with moral absolutism, what one comes back with is the republican political philosophy. When one takes socialism and combines it with moral relativism, one comes back with the democratic political philosophy. When one takes capitalism and merges it with moral relativism, the result is the basis of the libertarian political philosophy.  Finally, when one takes moral absolutism and combines it with socialism, the result is the foundation for the holistic political philosophy, which I affectionately dub COEXIST.   It is the most suppressed of all the political philosophies as it is only grasped after an appreciation is obtained for all others.  It seeks to promote the all in all, as there is no competition as exists at the top of the square, but only seeks cooperation and harmony along all sides.  To its left is communism, which rejects all religion and to its right is theocracy which rejects everything outside of its religion.  While in their own way both Communism and Theocracy exist at the bottom of the square, the push of the communist against religion and the theologist inability to allow for religious diversity prevents these two from fundamentally uniting.  This animosity at either end of the bottom of the square also conceals the beauty of this element from greater humanity. 

These differences exist not only internally, but globally as well when one considers the cold war as a rivalry between Capitalism in the United States and Communism in the former Soviet Union. This competition for power between these philosophies has led to a significant amount of bigotry throughout the country and the globe.  Bigotry is the intolerance toward those who hold different opinions from oneself.   Each political party in American Society tends to denounce its opponent as being either stupid or evil.  However, I believe that each of these philosophies is extremely intelligent, has added extreme benefits, and enhanced the value of humankind.  It is also my contention that each one of these philosophies is needed in society, as the yin and the yang, to reach a good social balance. In some proportion, humanity is made up of all these groups.  The political party system was designed to build collective efforts among people with the same political philosophies.  Each person does not have to be informed which party he or she should belong to; our political philosophy develops naturally within each of us.  Not only each one of us but each society as well moves and shifts as events affect our lives and we see the world from different angles.  The graph, referred to as the Competitive Square of Humanity, was developed to help show how these political philosophies relate to one another.  In modern politics in the United States, one may get the impression that the Democratic component and the Republican component of the square dominate because their arguments are superior to the other elements of the square.  The reality is that their arguments are given more weight and airtime due to the power of the political infrastructure supporting them.  Thus, as the centrifugal force of the Sun’s rotation keeps the planets rotating on its equator, the power of the two-party system arbitrarily forces society into either party to have a voice in the system.

The square is held together through the bonds between ethics and logic, and it is pulled apart through the conflicting and ultimately opposing directions within ethics and within logic, respectively.  In a republic, one philosophy is granted authority above the others, depending on which party holds a majority in Congress, as well as who sits in the White House.  The goal of this new world is to fulfill the square (by representing the square) with all the philosophies in society and to do so in harmony with the struggles of the age. Each aspect of this new world model was designed to amplify in its own way an individual piece of the square so that each may call this new system their own.  The terms used in the square were derived from what was viewed as their modern-day equivalents in society, but these words will change, depending on their time in history and society. The concepts, however, have remained constant and date back to the beginning. 

To accomplish this, the book has been divided into four parts, each part, presenting a different portion of the Competitive Square of Humanity.  It is important to note that the Divine is not divided from humanity and as such the needs of the other elements of the square are just as real to the Divine as is the religious element, despite what you may have heard at church.  To divorce these elements from the Divine is to suggest that the Divine is not and has not been working through these elements from the dawn of humanity.  To ensure a true representation of these other elements the tone of each philosophy is made to speak specifically to that belief within the framework of that element’s natural philosophy, supported by the origins of that element.  Just as the Moralist element through the religions that argue its philosophical viewpoint Orthodox Judaism, Evangelical Christianity, and Fundamentalist Islam, the Humanist element has been underpinned by the writings of Thomas Jefferson and the Bill of Rights, the Capitalist part through the US Constitution and Declaration of Independence, while the Socialist through the modern-day environmentalist movement, the Hippocratic Oath, the music of John Lennon, among other sources that carry a Socialist ideology.  We begin with a quick look at each of the core philosophies.

Moralist: All the philosophies in the square attempt in their own unique way to build up a person’s or society’s pride and esteem, except the Moralist. The Moralist would say we are all sinners and are saved not by our goodness, but rather through the grace of God to build humility, forgiveness, and selflessness within society or a person.  As this tone is firmly found within the Moralist Element of the equation, I would fail the Moralist not to use this tone and method to achieve its impossible dreams through practical means.  The ultimate aspirations of the Moralist:  To show how the sum-total of human history is by and through divine design and to build a society and the world upon the love of God and the love of one another. The unification of the world under one God and one faith (Symmetry of all religions).

Moralist Government Aspirations: From the monarchy and theocracy government models, the moralist evolved the Feudal System whereby independent nations and kings are bound and tied together through the clergy under the Pope from the Vatican.  Our goal is to evolve this form of government; the monarchy will also be expanded to a Divinely appointed position. However, the monarch will also be under Levitical Courts under the Chief Priest in the Temple as described in Biblical texts.

Moralist Religious Aspirations: Note for the moralist there is no divide between church and state. 

(Shangri-La of Christianity) The completion of the Global Great Commission, the acceptance of original sin, a world born-again (the way of the law is death, but through the sacrifice of love is eternal life), the redemption of Israel, and the message of the foretold witnesses to come.

(Shangri-La of Islam) The transformation of the Arabian Desert into Paradise, Eden restored, with rivers that flow in the land of the living through the liberation of the Palestinian people.  Universal acceptance among (Jews and Christians specifically) that Islam is the resurrection of the ancient religion as prophesied throughout the Old Testament, and the Quran is the third Testament, next to the Torah and the Gospel.

(Shangri-La of Judaism) The establishment of the priesthood of Aaron and the building of the Temple as outlined by the prophet Ezekiel, the world celebrating one set of holidays as described in the Torah, the coming Messiah to save the Jews from their enemies, bringing peace to the Earth, and the fulfillment of the Abrahamic Covenant. 

We also will endeavor to provide universal acceptance of the primary precepts of each of these faiths:

(Primary Precept of Christianity) Christ is the Messiah, the Son of God (Elohim), and we can also be children of God, and the Holy Spirit has followed after him and is alive and working in the world today.

(Primary Precept of Zionism) The Jews were made to be the priests of all humanity and it was God out of his love for his people who took away Israel’s idols and restored Israel from the dead.

(Primary Precept of Judaism) The Tanakh has not passed away, is still relevant, and is needed in our modern age. All the Torah was put in place by God and should be followed. 

(Primary Precept of Islam) Allah alone should be worshipped, for he is one and there is none like him.  Mohammad is the final prophet of Allah (HaElohim), accomplished all that Allah (the God) predestined him to do, and that both he and what he accomplished were foretold through numerous prophets throughout the Tanakh (Old Testament) ahead of time.  The Hajj (Pilgrimage) to Mecca (Kaaba) was put in place by God as part of Humanity’s and the Angels’ journey to our Promised Land.

Furthermore, while the institutions of these faiths may be in a continual struggle against one another, the religions themselves have a Divine universal, and all-encompassing harmony and symmetry between them. The sole caveat is that to achieve the hopes and dreams of one faith is contingent upon meeting the hopes and dreams of all religions.  Also, understanding that while the followers of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, may exist in the Moralist element within the square the knowledge required to fulfill these faiths requires the transcendence of all the components of the square. 

Humanist: The hope and dreams of the humanist, for a person or society, is self-realization through complete intellectual freedom.  The humanist is the only element in the Competitive Square of Humanity that does not attempt to change society or a person.  The humanist sees the beauty within a person or society as they are.  The humanist does not see one right or correct path, but rather sees the beauty in the uniqueness and creativity within each society and person.  The humanist is not against change but wants it through natural evolution only when society or an individual is ready for and desires the change to take place.  You will hear this tone throughout the section on the humanist because it is the voice and ethics of the humanist. 

Humanist Government Aspirations: From Athenian local democracy, the humanist evolved the Republic government model, beyond the Republic the humanist evolved the Bill of Rights as well as the state propositions for the ballot. The impossible dream that I endeavor to achieve through practical means for the humanist is a directly democratic government.  Not a government of the majority, but rather a state where each voice counts independently, and each society can evolve and grow differently, creatively, and uniquely on its own.  Designed for governments in the millions, billions, and trillions of people, to allow each voice to be heard, blossom, grow, and evolve.

Humanist Religious Aspirations: Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism, which exist primarily within the Humanist element of the square, however, to achieve their true enlightenment they must be willing to transcend the square, therefore once the square is fulfilled we will have also brought about the:

(Shangri-La of Hinduism) a state of liberated consciousness, and the:

(Shangri-La of Buddhism) Enlightenment and transcendence, as well as the:

(Shangri-La of Taoism) Clarity and discovery of the path within.  Not forgetting the:

(Shangri-La of the Agnostic and/or Atheist) Acceptance of the Big-Bang, string theory, Artificial Intelligence (the closest thing to a God acceptable by an Atheist), etc. as well as an understanding that humanity’s fate is in humanity’s hands.

Capitalist: The Capitalist hope and dreams are to maximize the efficiency, productivity, and growth within each person and society using competition and struggle.  The Capitalist is the only element in the Square to love hardship and adversity as tests to be overcome.  This is the tone of the Capitalist section of this work. 

Capitalist Government Aspirations: The impossible dream of the Capitalist that I attempt to achieve through practical means is creating a form of government that exceeds the efficiency, competition, and productivity of the private sector.  A kind of privatization of the public sector, where taxation and government budgets are all privatized. A government based on savings, rather than deficits, and a government that does not place shackles on human achievement, creativity, and growth. Also close to complete sovereignty has been granted to the local governments allowing them to fail without breaking the system so that a private enterprise competition is built into the local government itself.  The best succeed and expand, and the rest fade into obscurity.

Capitalist Religious Aspirations: The religious ambitions of the capitalist are unlike any other:

(Shangri-La of American Heroism) This is the religion of the soldier, the athlete, the fight against insurmountable odds, the rise from nothing, the survival of the fittest, the ultimate pilgrimage to be the best, to save the world, infinite rewards, or catastrophic defeat.  This book is life’s gaming console for the unbeatable challenge, the most daunting riddle, the ultimate struggle of good vs. evil.  Not for the faint of heart, but for those who hear the warrior’s cry, give me liberty or give me death.⁹

Socialist: The Socialist hope and dreams are family, cooperation, and shared resources.  The Socialist is the only element of the square to interpret his or her identity through society and nature holistically. For the socialist, there is no such thing as ownership.  Ergo the socialist what is mine is yours and what is yours is mine.  The socialist ideal is where everyone pulls together to help everyone else in what is best for the common good.  The socialist has no rank or discrimination between people or nations.  This is the tone of the Socialist in this work.

Socialist Government Aspirations: The impossible dream of the Socialist that I attempt to achieve through practical means is World Peace, the world without borders, united in the marriage of nations, free of poverty, disease, and war, a government of building bridges, grand projects, and the creation of the one-world global family.  A socialist government beyond communism, but rather the familyism concept of Confucianism and the brotherhood of Islam, unachieved by the Soviet State, through a family where love is not only its currency but the basis of its existence.  Not forgetting the impossible dreams of the environmentalist this family relationship will be taken beyond humanity to include humanity’s connection to creation: the earth, the plants, all aspects of life, including those of the cosmos so that harmony and oneness may be established between humanity and the universe through the ages of the zodiac. 

Socialist Religious Aspirations: Most religions had either socialist and\or capitalist attributes to them.  For example, Islam has family ties through the Muslim Brotherhood and the concept of Ummah and Diwaniya, while Judaism sees their family as the people set apart or chosen by God, and Christianity has a family bond through the body of Christ as represented by the church to have a relationship with Christ.  These religions, while they can have socialist attributes, primarily exist in the Moralist element.  There are, however, religions that exist primarily within socialism:

(Shangri-La of the New Age Movement) The age of Aquarius is supported through Biblical texts and tied prophetically within the zodiac as well as the unification through the family of faiths as one.

(Shangri-La of Confucianism) the family society.

Today in our society, each of these four philosophies is always endeavoring to meet their own political, technological, and religious ends, through their own unique ways.  The problem is they attempt to do so at the expense of the other philosophies and see the other viewpoints as wrong or at least as less important than their own desires and needs.  They are quick to find fault and only see evil intentions with the motivations of the other philosophies but see their element as pure and noble.  The difficulty is to create a natural symmetry between these seemingly opposing beliefs so that they can naturally work in harmony with each other.  To these ends, each element I dedicated years of my life to embrace and transform into each particular element. To see its fullest potential and its greatest inspirations; so that essentially, in political terms I became the Capitalist, the Humanist, the Socialist, and the Moralist and in religious terms I became the Christian, the Jew, and the Muslim.  Each of these goals is considered impossible to achieve. By society’s standards, they are all considered fantasy.  The pages that follow turn these fantasies into the world of the practical and real.  If your goal is to love your neighbor as yourself, the first step is to understand and relate to their hopes, to put their dreams above your own.  Each section while it may be an element in opposition to your own element it is, nevertheless, also an opportunity to learn, understand, and relate to those you perhaps once saw as your enemy.  Furthermore, while the tone for each element is of that element, it is also designed to push that element to realizations about itself that it may not wish to see or to come to grips with.  Consider it a tough love from a friend, so that the core of the grand delusion may be maintained, while also allowing the world to be viewed from a different perspective.  Prepare yourself, as each element, while working in harmony with the other philosophies will be as opening a door to a different world and different mentality.

As children, we learn from our parents and those around us.  During these earliest years, we believed our parents had a complete understanding of the universe and desired in all ways and things to be like them. As adults, many revert to this adolescent nature craving unconditional love.  Realizing our parents are inferior, we place God in the shoes of our parental figure as adults to fulfill this fundamental need.  Many in our society turn to religion, attending some religious institution under a pastor, rabbi, or imam to achieve truth and understanding.    This god figure is not always of a religious nature but could take the form of science, politics, and other philosophies of all sorts.  It is in our nature as human beings to believe our thoughts and ideas are superior to all others.  It is a yearning to show the world that their ideas, voice, and soul matter, that it has intrinsic value to the universe and if the universe could understand this it would love them unconditionally in the form of immense fame, authority, power, wealth, etc.  Nevertheless, this type of love and total freedom lacks sonder¹⁰ and is selfish in that it also suppresses the fame, authority, power, wealth, etc. of others, which in its own way translates into a form of totalitarianism and control.  Control is the denial of any portion of one’s unique beauty, which is why the human subconscious, perhaps our soul, longs for liberty because the heart yearns to be unconditionally loved. 

There is, however, an evolution of humanity to see beyond this primitive conception of love.  The deepest form of this bigotry is found in the religious institutions of our world, mainly found in Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, which is why I have begun our journey with the Moralist.  Note again; I am distinguishing between the religions themselves and the institutions that claim to represent them.  New religions are endlessly attempting to win the support of their old counterparts, while the old counterparts see newer faiths as cults to one degree or another with the additions of their added scriptures.  For example, Christianity is perpetually trying to win over Judaism, while viewing Islam as a cult.  Judaism sees both Christianity and Islam as cults to one degree or another while Islam is perpetually trying to win over both Christianity and Judaism.  Islam, for instance, instructs its followers not to tell Christians or Jews that their books are false because portions of their books are true. 

As each of these establishments could care-less what I think, and consider their own illusion of God to be greater than all others, therefore, I choose to talk to them through