Government | Thrive Right Now!

Challenging our beliefs in life is not necessarily easy. Actually it makes us down right uncomfortable at times. The key is to be receptive enough to let the light of truth shine through the challenge and guide our path.

Ancient wisdoms and leading edge research confronts some basic concepts that have ruled our world for a long time. By stepping back and seeing how these thoughts shaped our world, we can look with a freshness that allows the expansion of our understanding.

'Truth in Life' is dedicated to developing resources addressing different aspects of life in order to understand the current concerns in American, and around the world.

The goal is to make available research material to further the educational process into the key issues being faced today. This format provides a way to navigate the great expanse of information.

By reviewing the comprehensive material presented and pursuing important considerations, discernment of solutions is possible.

Truth-in-Life is based on the principles that 'Knowledge is Power' and only way to change life is to 'Know Thyself' and 'Do Your Own Research' (DYOR).

Education through self knowledge is the key to understand any situation. Personal responsibility and action are necessary to make the needed changes that solve issues and improve life.

United States National Strategy for the 21st Century
The New Paradigm/Freedom and Liberty for the World
by Robert B. Reckmeyer
August 24, 2009

Positive thoughtful planning, such as; United States National Strategy for the 21st Century, are as much a part of our reality as Dark Side Conspiracies and yet in the post 911 conspiracy aftermath we can either be honest with ourselves and awaken from the dream, or we can choose to stay asleep and carry on as if our political, religious and educational leaders are telling us the whole truth and leading us to a brighter future. It becomes self evident, when we do our own research, (DYOR) that we are being manipulated, with a false reality, that leaves out many facts. These Dark Forces have not only left out the facts but in truth they have knowingly led us down a path that keeps us from the truth and our true potential. Our United States National Strategy for the 21st Century, has within it the seed to unleash the Forces of Freedom and release Positive Energy on a scale that has heretofore been suppressed by the Dark Forces, at work in the world. It is time to unleash our Hue-Man Potential and lead the world to a brighter future. The time to Take COLLECTIVE ACTION is NOW.

We have crossed the Rubicon and now enter a phase in our Nations history that dictates a quantum shift in how we do things not only here within the United States of America but throughout the world. Our mission is to set a National Strategy that incorporates our founding principals enshrined within our founding documents, i.e. the United States Constitution and Declaration of Independence. The Sovereign Nation-States that make up this great Nation must also be respected and honored within the greater collective. We must reestablish our national and inter-national objectives absent the War Doctrine and the misguided policy of empire building. We must reset our moral compass to include the rest of humanity and our moral, political, economic and spiritual leadership role in the world. It is imperative that we identify the high ground, changing course and relighting our candle as a beacon of hope for the world. Our leadership can either bring us and the world down or we can rise up on wings of eagles and soar to heights still yet imagined. This is our true mission.

This is the time that has been foretold from ages past. Our great nation has within its makeup a can do spirit that inspires the world. Our National Strategy can set the tone for the rest of this 21st century and can literally remake the world into what the ancients only aspired to. It involves a moral recommitment to national and individual sovereignty and human rights protected by our United States Constitution.

We must reject the Patriot Act as a document put in place to deny us our God given rights of freedom and liberty. Our Constitution must be the foundation of our republic and the basis for the rule of law. We must elevate our Constitutional protections to the rest of the world and reestablish the rule of law based not on a Globalist agenda but rather on a message of Hope and Inspiration. A message of hope that is spread not through the barrel of a gun, and the use of force, but rather through the example of a great nation acting as a light to the rest of humanity, a true City on the Hill.

Leadership follows a philosophical model that is either Fear based or Inspirational based. When we have been the true city on the hill, as a beacon of light to the rest of the world, they were inspired by our founding documents and the fact that we offered new hope to aspiring world populations. New hope was generated as a result of our guaranteeing individual sovereignty to all of the American people, (our Ideal, women, blacks, indians???). No longer was the King the only sovereign person in the nation but that same sovereignty was bestowed on each citizen as a birthright from the Creator. As we have drifted away from our founding ideals we have slipped into the great abyss, down the slippery slope into never never land. We have allowed the powerful to hold sway over us through a fear based leadership model. They have utilized mind control technologies that have dumbed us down to the point that we have lost our way. The world has watched us lose our bearings and drift into a false sense of purpose. The war doctrine is anathema to who we are as a nation and it is time to identify healthy boundaries and state in no uncertain terms that the present policy is not okay. We as a Nation must Reject Empire Building and a Perpetual War Doctrine.

After the Soviet Union fell and the world stage was our grand chessboard we allowed the Neocons, See; Project for the New American Century, to set national policy and institute a perpetual war doctrine that involves state sponsored terrorism, wars of aggression and a Globalist agenda that takes us further and further away from all that has made us great: individual rights, the rule of law, our constitutional protections, and a system of checks and balances. We have traded our Constitutional protections for the Patriot Act and its false guarantees of security. We have allowed this to take place, in our name, and with our nation’s constitutional form of government and future viability at stake. We are a great nation, not because we have the most guns, the largest economy or the most material wealth in the history of the world but rather because we guaranteed the personal sovereignty and the individual rights of our citizens i.e. Life-Liberty and pursuit of Happiness. These founding principals are who we are as a nation.

Since when do we allow an elite few to highjack our national identity and take us down a road to our collective peril? We must awaken from the dream and reassert our God given rights taking back our country and resetting our national strategy to reflect who we really are, Free, Sovereign, Intelligent, Loving Hue-Man-Beings.

We must recognize there are multi systems in play and that our government is not the same government that our founders set up for us more than two hundred and thirty years ago. Since the 1940’s we have watched the National Security Super State grow and metamorphose into a powerful Shadow government that reaches into every facet of our lives. It has its tentacles in our military, political and economic and educational institutions and grows in power with each new day. In many ways it is like a virus that has taken over our form of government, from the inside. They operate outside the rule of law; they have their own funding mechanisms, i.e. the illegal drug trade, economic fraud, theft, and outright funding through the intelligence budget. The Shadow Government, utilize false flag state sponsored terrorism as a tool to move their policy objectives forward in contrivance of all national and international law. They operate completely outside of the public scrutiny and have an international globalist agenda that is counter to the best interests of the United States, her people and the people of the world. Our National Strategy must be set with a full understanding of the true realities taking place in the world and not viewed with a false one dimensional linear perspective.

It is a fact that the National Security Super State has been in contact with Extra-terrestrial intelligences since the 1940’s and executed a disinformation campaign keeping the American people in the dark. It is one thing to set a policy of disinformation and another thing to keep the truth from the American public. The UFO reality is a part of our collective experience. The government can lie cheat and steal and there are those who will fail to see it. Conversely there are many waking up to the manipulation and realize that a true National Strategy must incorporate the full spectrum of our government if it is going to truly meet the needs of our great nation.

The unveiling has begun and many citizens are now demanding a National Strategy that incorporates the Exopolitical perspective, the National Security Super State Shadow Government, Globalist, New World Order realities. We cannot fail to unmask the deception if we are to formulate a true United States National Strategy. All cards must be on the table for it is then we will truly set the national agenda outside of the hidden shadow government that manipulates the world.

We have lost our way and it is now time to reevaluate where we have been, where we are, and where we are going. This reevaluation must include a well informed citizenry and a National Strategy for the 21st Century. The topics to consider will include Education, Food, Energy, Transportation, Sustainability, Economy, Spirituality, and Inter-National and Galactic relations. The model we create will be the hope of the world and will be realized by inspiration not by force. This is our mission if we will seize the moment and act in our National interest, the interest of humanity and the greater good.

The mission we have before us is dependant on those souls who reject the present model and help to bring in a new model founded on the principles that made us great. The great American experiment must stay true to its founding ideals while incorporating the present reality of our Galactic place in the Universe. We must rise to the occasion and through our moral leadership, our spiritual and conscious awareness, our technology and our sovereign individualism. We will help the rest of the world see what can be accomplished when we put our heads and our hearts together to once again lead the human species to a brighter and more sustainable future.

May I suggest we: do y(our) own research (DYOR) and come to our own truth.

Peace,

“Help me to be, to think, to act what is right because it is right; make me truthful, honest, and honorable in all things, make me intellectually honest for the sake of right
and honor and without thought of reward to me.” Robert E. Lee

Our founding fathers bestowed upon the United States citizen a personal responsibility that transcends our fundamental rights spelled out in our United States Constitution. “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America”.

The words in our Constitution sets up a system of checks and balances that seek to protect us from those in authority who may from time to time exert power and control in the furtherance of their agenda(s) and objective(s). We are to be eternally vigilant in our responsibility to hold these men and women not only to the words spelled out in this sacred document but also to the spirit contained within it.

Those citizen soldiers, who are the true Patriots of this great nation, must when called upon, stand firm and tall in service to the nation. Service to protect our way of life and our Constitution from those who would do us harm, both foreign and domestic. One must be willing to put personal interests aside and second to the interests of the collective whole.

The time has come for all true Patriot’s to say; “it’s not okay” and to raise our voices in unison, to hold our public servant’s accountable for their unconstitutional, illegal acts.

The whole of the United States Government is complicit in these acts, the President of the UNITED STATES, Executive branch, Senate, Congress and Judicial branch of our government. We as a people have been let down by our elected and appointed governmental officials through their action and inaction to uphold their sacred oath of office, to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States of America. We, as the people and good citizens of this republic must accept our responsibility for this current state of affairs.

One must come to a place in our understanding and reach a point where it becomes self evident that all men are created equal and none are above the law. If we sit back and do nothing, when our public servants subvert the constitution and break the law, then we too become complicit within the context of the law spelled out in our constitution.

Those citizen soldiers that pontificate and do nothing to right this wrong need only go back to sleep and pretend it will fix itself. Power unchecked only leads to more unchecked power and control. Those criminals, who continue in power, can only continue when the citizen chooses to allow them to further their agenda outside of the checks and balances spelled out in our constitution.

The history of liberty and personal freedom is a very short one and must be understood if one is to enjoy the rights contained within our founding documents. This is a great experiment in liberty and justice for all. One must not lose sight of the fact that it is a relatively short experiment and the forces at work, to disassemble our rights and privileges, as citizens of these United States, are well organized and very powerful. They possess not only financial resources but the full spectrum of tools to crush any and all opposition to their plan.

“We the people”, are all of us, right here and right NOW. We are not historical words on a piece of parchment but rather living, breathing human beings. We must stand up now and say enough is enough, or we fold and allow the dismantling of our sovereign rights as a nation and as sovereign individuals.

It is time to raise our voices and take responsibility back from the few that we entrusted to protect us. They have not lived up to their oath of office and we have not held them accountable for their acts and their failure to meet their responsibility. As long as we fail to take personal and collective responsibility for the situation we now find ourselves we will continue to reap what we sow.

It is not too late to act. We must have the will and the fortitude to see this great land cleansed of those in power who have put their own self interests and their agenda ahead of the common good. We the people must stand tall and take back our great nation from those who have failed to protect us from the subversion of our constitution.

It is time to take legal action to reassert our fundamental rights guaranteed by our constitution. Only a few, in congress, have had the inspirational insight to press for Impeachment, Dennis Kucinich, Ron Paul and a few others. In spite of their leadership the impeachment clause of our constitution has not been utilized due to a lack of true leadership, both Democratic and Republican. In truth the Congress is asleep at the wheel and scared to act. They have put their personal ambition and security ahead of the people’s best interest. We as citizens must seek legal recourse, through the courts, and move to hold our public servants accountable for their failure to preserve protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

The threat from within is far more dangerous than a threat from an outside power. We now find ourselves literally losing our constitution, our way of life, to a group of like minded men and women who think it best to govern from the top down and not from the bottom up. They have an elitist model that dictates a new world order. They have failed to recognize that under our Constitution, they are the people’s servants and not our masters.

The Project for a New American Century, PNAC is a document that has spelled out an agenda for full spectrum power and control. It is predicated on the notion that the United States has the right to exert its full power in the pursuit of its perceived interests spelled out by a few men in the name of the whole nation. This policy is being executed in our name without our informed consent. We have allowed these men to take control of our nation and subvert our ideals in the furtherance of their quest for full spectrum power and control. This must come to an end. They are consumed with their own success.

One can get lost in the details. The fact is we must be willing to take a second look and uncover the truth even when it hurts deeply. No one wants to believe the worst and it can be very upsetting when one finds out something terrible is going on. We must grow up as a nation and face the fact that crimes have been committed and the people responsible must be held accountable.

Many years ago when I was a young man, in my early twenties, I took a chance and chose to involve myself in an illegal, marijuana business. I was a very energetic well meaning man and was a risk taker. Science has identified a gene that is handed down from generation to generation that drives some people to take risks that many would choose not to. Many of our founding fathers carried the same gene and chose to involve themselves in the smuggling business. John Hancock was one of these men. Hancock was a successful wine merchant known throughout the colonies as “The Prince of Smugglers.” His reputation eventually earned him the honor of being the first to sign the Declaration of Independence. Many smuggled alcohol, tobacco, tea and other taxable goods. They also put their lives on the line in the founding of this great nation risking their fortunes, their lives, their liberty and their freedom, in their pursuit of freedom and justice for all.

I was investigated for three years, indicted for running a Continuing Criminal Enterprise, CCE 848, and served time in federal prison for my illegal acts. I faced my accusers, I plead guilty to my crimes and I served my time in order that I could enjoy the freedoms this great nation has to offer. I learned the rule of law applies to all citizens regardless of their station in life, color of ones skin, political persuasion or elected position. I learned that we are all created equal and no man is above the law, or so I thought. In truth there are many ideals that we fight for and yet in practice we fall far short of those ideals. We must continue to reach for those ideals or they mean absolutely nothing at all. They are reduced to just words on a piece of paper. If we don’t fight for them then we are as bad as the criminals who exert their power and control over us manipulating them for their own gain.

I broke the law as a youth and I paid dearly with the loss of my freedom serving eight years in federal prison. I lost my family, my home and my fortune. I lost time with three young sons and they lost time with their dad. I paid the price demanded of me and I was man enough to own up to my illegal acts and face my accusers. I did not run and hide or corrupt the system to further my own ambition; I owned up to my criminal acts and completed all that was required of me. My debt to society has been paid in full.

How do we hold others accountable for their illegal acts? I would suggest we convene a Grand Jury made up of citizens who hold our constitution sacred and worth every drop of blood that has been shed protecting it from threats both foreign and domestic. There comes a time when men and women must stand up and be counted. Now is one of those times. Our nation must be taken back by the people for the people and do it within the law spelled out in our constitution. We must reinstate the rule of law.

The U.S. Patriot Act, passed after the 9/11 operation, was executed by elements within our government who have an agenda for full power and control both here at home and throughout the world. They have cloaked this act as a needed measure to protect us from an outside threat. In truth the threat is from within and is the complete subversion of our constitution. When one takes a hard look at the 9/11 operation it has all the elements of a false flag operation and seems all too real. When one studies the Kennedy assassination along side the 9/11 incident and realizes the level of manipulation perpetrated on the American people, both operations utilized the same techniques of trauma based mind control. The perpetrators are masters at manipulating the public and creating a false reality.

It does not matter if you believe the government’s conspiracy theory-version of the events on 9/11 or if you are a member of the 9/11 truth movement. Either way they have manipulated the public into believing that the U.S. Patriot Act is legal and enacted to protect us from an outside threat. In truth it has completely trashed Article [IV] of our constitution; “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizers, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized,” and thrown out Habeas Corpus, “The Privilege of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when is Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it”.

If the 9/11 event was a false flag operation, to further their agenda for full spectrum power and control, then it should cause all of us to take a second look and hold each elected official accountable for their actions on that fateful day. If they failed to protect us and act then they need to give an account. If they were a part of the operation either as an intelligence agent, military officer, elected official or on any other level then they need to be put under oath to give an account and be brought to justice. If they were a part of the cover up, on any level, then we need to uncover the truth and put all the facts on the table. If it means giving immunity to the lower level people involved, in order to bring the true masterminds and perpetrators to justice then we need to act decisively and bring this national tragedy to a close. We must not fail to act; we must be mature enough to face the truth and come to terms with this national tragedy.

The National Security Act has been in place since 1947. President Truman failed to foresee the damage that would be done, to the nation, in the name of National Security. We now are faced with a government apparatus that hides behind the cloak of secrecy and a false classification to hide its misdeeds. National security is invoked for every misdeed and utilized to hide both real national security issues and those that are kept hidden from the public for criminal purposes.

The Iran Contra/CIA Cocaine/Mena Airport conspiracy was a classic illegal operation that was run from the Reagan White House under the direction of George H.W. Bush when he was Vice President. Ollie North and the operation to trade arms for hostages was only one side of the equation. The big story was the cocaine operation run for the benefit of raising large sums of cash to finance Black/Operations and should be understood in those terms. If we allow our government to utilize the National Security Act, as a cover for their illegal operations against the American people and the people of the world, then we are as guilty as those in authority.

The utilization of the national security act to cover up illegal operations and to keep the public in the dark is an illegal use of the act and those who have perpetrated this system must be uncovered and held accountable. The rule of law is subverted by the use of this act and we must demand that it stop or we allow it to happen. Citizen solders must stand together and hold this government accountable from the lowest member to the highest, including the President of the UNITED STATES, the National Security Council, the membership of the Senate and Congress and our Judicial branch of government. No man or woman is above the law, no one.

If we think it right and just to lock up petty criminals and yet we allow the highest governmental officials to get off without having to give an account for their crimes then what kind of a nation are we? I suggest we are a nation of cowards who have failed to live up to our responsibility as citizens of this great republic. We fail not only ourselves but we fail future generations to come.

I come from a family of West Point graduates who have been entrusted with a higher degree of responsibility to protect this great nation from enemies both foreign and domestic. Sometimes we the people are all called to step foreword and put aside our own personal interests and seek a higher standard within the context of our collective reality. This is something each person must either face and take corrective action or choose to stay silent, at our collective peril. Major General Albert Stubblebine, Two Star-General, West Point Class of 1952, United States Army, retired, is one such patriot. Dr. Stephen E. Jones, Physicist and Professor of Engineering, BYU, Lt. Col. Robert Bowman, PhD, Director of Advanced Space Programs Development under Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter. Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski, A Pentagon eye-witness and a former member of the staff of the Director of the National Security Agency, Michael Chossudovsky, Professor of Economics, University of Ottawa and Paul Craig Roberts, PhD, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, Reagan Administration are also true patriots. All of these men and women have stepped foreword to address the inconsistencies within the government’s version of the events on 9/11. The fact that each man and woman has taken the time to study the 9/11 incident and come to a much different conclusion, than the governments version, is compelling but what is really compelling is the personal price each person has paid in service to their country. They are like many of us; they are directed and led by a higher standard.

They have put their good name and careers on the line in the search for truth. I commend each and every one of us that finds the courage to seek the truth whether it is the 9/11 incident, Iran Contra, the war in Iraq or any other difficult issue we confront in life.

We are now in a time of revealing. We have within our grasp an understanding that has been long overdue. As we come to the realization that something is terribly wrong and needs to be dealt with we must not lose our balance or our focus. We must press forward in our search for truth and make the hard choices that need to be made and we must hold our public servants accountable for the current state of affairs.

What is Our Vision for The Future?
Are we still dreaming the American Dream?
by Deborah Sue Pomeroy
August 19, 2009

Where are we in the world right now? How far have we drifted from those dreams we had as when we still held the wonder in life? Who have we surrounded ourselves with in our day to day living? Are we partnered with people who are on the same path that we are journeying or wanting to journey? What have we sacrificed? Is it worth it?

Life is more than surviving or getting by... with so many challenges being faced today in our world with the economy, health, government, insurance and all the other factors that are struggling to hang onto ... a clear direction that is benefitial for anyone, it's time to sit up and take notice. The time is not to slumber into a passive state while 'others' solve the problems. The choice is ours.

What is our personal dream and what is the American Dream?

With everything is such a state of flux... this is the time to face the hard questions and put all our efforts into creating the world we want to live in. The current way is not the right way. There is a better way. I challenge you to do some research and find some real answers in your own life.

I ran across this article, I thought at least raises some of the concerns and speaks to us redefining our viewpoint of what our world looks like and what we want.

A New End: A New Beginning | John L Petersen, Arlington Institute

For almost a decade now, I have been traveling broadly speaking to groups of all sizes and almost every discipline you can think of about the big change that appeared to be converging on the horizon.

Often characterizing the coming shift in terms of breakdowns and breakthroughs, I’ve tried to build integrated mental pictures of the extraordinary nexus of driving forces – both conventional and unconventional – that seemed destined to reconfigure the way we live on this planet. My book, Out of the Blue, introduced an approach for making sense out of big events that would otherwise be surprises, and my latest volume, A Vision for 2012: Planning for Extraordinary Change, uses the breakdown/breakthrough themes to propose a general approach for dealing with large scale change.

So, I’ve been thinking about this possibility for quite some time. (My wife would probably tell you that I think about it all of the time.)

I generally agree with the many thoughtful people who consider predicting the future to be a fool’s errand. It is intrinsically fraught with so much complexity and uncertainty that the best one can do with integrity is to array potential alternatives – scenarios – across the horizon, and then try to think about what might be done if one of those worlds materializes.

Scenario planning has certainly been an effective discipline, helping many organizations to imagine potentialities that probably otherwise wouldn’t have shown up in their field of view. But as I facilitate organizations going through these exercises, the little, nagging voice in the back of my head is not asking, “What is the array of possible futures?” – it is always wondering, “What is the future really going to be?”. It wants concreteness. It wants predictions.

I think that no one knows for sure what the future will bring, but after some time of being in this business one begins to be able to discriminate between what is substantive and structural and what is largely speculative. For me, at least, some things have an intuitive sense of being real and important, and the rest of the possibilities lack just enough gravitas that I know that they’re only “ideas”. That intuitive sense is supported when it becomes possible to triangulate from a number of independent sources that all point to the same conclusion – the possibility has substance.

People always ask me after my talks what I think is going to happen. “With all of these converging trends, what is 2012 really going to look like?”. It happened again last week in a radio interview. Mostly I hedge and dance a bit and say that I don’t know for sure. There will be a new world and a new human that will come out of all of this. The notion of cooperation will shape the way people see themselves and the rest of the world . . . and there will be new institutions and functions, etc. Pretty general stuff.

But, over a year ago, the notion that all of this big change could spell the substantial reconfiguration of the familiar country that I have lived in all of my life began to gel in a way that moved beyond the notion of being just a possibility – a wild card – into that space of plausibility. I now have come to believe that it is likely and will happen – soon.

Ideas like this are so big and disruptive that it is really quite hard to get to the place where we take them seriously. For most of us, our lives are evolutionary – punctuated, perhaps with trauma now and then, but mostly populated by events that are familiar, even if they don’t always make personal sense. The concept that EVERYTHING might change is so foreign to any experience that most of us have ever had that even if we say the words and talk about the possibility, we really don’t internalize what this might mean.

Therefore, along with most folks, I’m kind of late to this game. There are other notable thinkers who jumped to the natural conclusion quite some time ago. Dmitry Orlov, for example, first started to build a theory of superpower collapse that included the U.S. in 1995. Only in the last few years has he been talking publically about his ideas and the ultimate direction of U.S. trends. His book Reinventing Collapse is recommended. He also gave a great speech about the subject recently.

James Howard Kunstler, a wonderfully entertaining and provocative writer, was very clear about the systemic and structural nature of the larger problem in his 2006 book, The Long Emergency. His always interesting blog is a weekly assessment of where we’re going wrong. He clearly sees the demise of America coming this way.

Our own David Martin first outlined the financial dominos that were going to fall in a talk at The Arlington Institute in July of 2006, which he has updated on two subsequent occasions here in Berkeley Springs. Implicit in his treatise was the collapse of the U.S. and global financial system, but again, it’s one thing to imply those words and quite another to really believe them.

I was aggregating my own perspectives and being influenced by some of these folks such that last year while in Singapore I even told my friends there that I thought we were seeing the beginning of the end of the U.S. as we’ve known it. I didn’t think they really believed it then but, in the months since then, they reportedly have made major leadership changes in their government investment company to reposition it in the future away from the U.S. and the US dollar.

There are numerous indicators that suggest the big change is coming.

Multiple trends are converging – Huge, extraordinary, global trends, any number of which would be enough to derail our present way of life, are converging to precipitate a historic big transition event. A partial list would include:

The global financial system is collapsing. During the next 10 months, it appears that wave after wave of blows will strike the system (see this Feb. 15th piece by Dave Martin about the next big shock), raising the very real possibility that it will experience large-scale failure sometime before the end of the year.

We have reached the beginning of the end of petroleum. Global production has been flat for the last three years. Senior oil company executives are now saying that they will not be able to pump more. Supply will likely begin to decrease significantly after we move across the peak. Prices will increase again if the demand holds up. This is important because our present way of life is built upon petroleum.

The global climate system is changing – some say it is getting much warmer, others now suggest a mini-ice age within the next decade. In any case, probably increased irregularities in local climates will result with attendant problems in agriculture, natural disasters, and economies.

The cost of food is increasing rapidly as a result of global shortages not seen in 40-50 years. This could be exacerbated by increasing energy costs and climate changes.
The effects of larger solar eruptions hitting the earth through a tear in the magnetosphere will disrupt global communications, weather, perhaps satellites, and even organic life over the next 3-4 years.

Problems are much larger than government – These kinds of problems are much greater than anything that contemporary governments have ever had to deal with before. Peak oil, climate change, and the financial meltdown by themselves have the potential to significantly overwhelm the capabilities of government. If bureaucracies can’t deal with the aftermath of a natural disaster like Katrina, something ten or more times that damaging would leave most people fending for themselves. If these extraordinary, disruptive events end up being concurrent, then the whole system is at risk.

The problems are structural – They’re systemic. Perhaps the best source for beginning to understand the deep, interdependent nature of all of this is by taking the Crash Course at www.chrismartenson.com. Some of these issues, especially the financial, oil, and food problems are also a product of how we live, our priorities, and our paradigms. We are creating the problems because of our values and principles. Without extraordinary, fundamental changes in the way we see ourselves and the world, we will keep getting what we are getting.

Leaders think the old system can be “rebooted” -- Almost everyone in leadership positions in the Obama administration and in other countries, wants to make the old system well again. Jim Kunstler has said it well: “Among the questions that disturb the sleep of many casual observers is how come Mr. O doesn't get that the conventional process of economic growth -- based, as it was, on industrial expansion via revolving credit in a cheap-energy-resource era -- is over, and why does he keep invoking it at the podium? Dear Mr. President, you are presiding over an epochal contraction, not a pause in the growth epic. Your assignment is to manage that contraction in a way that does not lead to world war, civil disorder or both. Among other things, contraction means that all the activities of everyday life need to be downscaled including standards of living, ranges of commerce, and levels of governance. "Consumerism" is dead. Revolving credit is dead -- at least at the scale that became normal the last thirty years. The wealth of several future generations has already been spent and there is no equity left there to re-finance.”

That is why:

We’re not dealing with the structural issues – All of the biggest efforts are attempts to reinflate the financial bubble, and keep the mortally wounded institutions alive. The knee-jerk reactions come from the same people who helped to design and feed the present system. These people are also deluded – they think (or act like) they know what they are doing.

They don’t realize that:

The situation is so complex that no one really understands it -- The Global Business Network’s Peter Schwartz, reporting on a conversation with the Financial Time’s Martin Wolf said that Wolf’s key point was that the nature and scale of the credit crisis is so novel that it’s not clear we know what we’re doing when we try to stop it. He is deeply worried. Steve Roach of Morgan Stanley said at the World Economic Forum annual meeting at Davos that he agreed with Wolf: we are in uncharted waters. Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of The Black Swan: Impact of the Highly Improbable, says the financial system is so complex that it is impossible for anyone to understand it . . . and because of that complexity it is inevitable that it will exhibit significant, unanticipated behaviors (his Black Swans) that careen across the planet.

The issues are global -- Japan’s exports fell by 46 percent in January, and Hong Kong’s economy contracted 2.5 percent in the last three months of 2008. Foreign investors closed 45,000 factories in China in the last 8 months and China closed 20,000 itself. Those closed factories mean products aren’t being shipped.

The system is fundamentally out of balance – In the U.S., the rich are getting richer (at unconscionable rates). National media has reported that the government is monitoring all internal communications of its citizens – but lies and says it is not. Common sense is not included in big, sweeping federal edicts. The Transportation Security Administration, for example, wants to make pilots produce background checks on members of their family (and their business associates) in order to legally give them rides in a non-commercial, private airplanes. The Agriculture Department in its NAIS program wants all small farmers (big feedlots are exempt, of course) to put GPS/RFID tags on all of their animals: chickens, cows, horses, goats – even fish were initially included – so that the beasts can be tracked, on a day to day basis by the government, It’s also now against the law in some states, like Illinois, for farmers to save the seeds that they’ve grown – they must buy new ones each year from large seed companies.

Most of the U.S. federal budget goes to the military -- More than half of the U.S. federal budget goes to military and military-related agencies. This kind of growth, of course, is what brought down the Soviet Union. In sharp contrast to the political apparatchiks that protest that more money is needed to reverse the shrinking, aging, and decline in readiness in the Army, Navy and Air Force, few seem to understand that budget increases are a primary cause of the problems, a symptom clearly described in the new book, America's Defense Meltdown: Pentagon Reform for President Obama and the New Congress. (by Winslow Wheeler, et al., available in late March)

No new ideas, government can’t be responsive – If the natural solutions to these massive issues include innovation, foresight, adaptability, sustainability, and resilience, it is unlikely that a thinking American could be found who would suggest that the source for these capabilities would be our government. They’re in charge, but they have no new ideas about how this all should work.

They’re also slow – and this situation needs fast, agile responses. There is an additional problem: even if they did have good ideas the government wouldn’t be able to effectively implement them because -

Too much inertia, too many lawyers and lobbyists --

There is a huge, well-funded effort in place to maintain the status quo or to shift the future to benefit one group at the expense of others. It would be impossible within the present system to initiate dramatic change when the threat was still on the horizon. Every group or organization that might be negatively affected would fight in congress and the courts to keep themselves alive regardless of what was at stake for the larger community.

Only when the crisis was about to crash down on everyone – when adequate time and resources for effective response were nonexistent – might everyone pull together for the common good.

Potential solutions take too long to implement – These issues are so gigantic that confronting and redirecting them takes a long time. One study, for example, suggested that a national crash program to find alternatives for oil would need to have been started 20 years before the peak in order for there not to be significant disruption of the underlying systems. We do not operate with either that foresight or resolve.

Supply chains are long and thin – Globalism and just-in-time production has produced supply chains in most areas of commerce that are very long – often to the other side of the earth – and very fragile. There are many places between there and here where something can go wrong. If and when that happens, necessities will not be available and in those situations, people resort to unconventional and/or anti-social behavior.

$600 trillion in derivatives are a house of cards -- Looming over the whole financial situation is an almost unfathomable quantity of financial instruments – derivatives – which are essentially casino bets with no underlying value supporting the transaction. Warren Buffett calls them financial weapons of mass destruction that could bring the whole system down. Derivatives only work if there is confidence in the system – you believe the casino will really pay your winnings. If other things in the environment erode that confidence there is the real possibility that things rapidly reconfigure themselves.

Cooperation is unlikely, protectionism will prevail – Instead of countries cooperating with each other to deal with these big transnational problems, we’re seeing a pulling back to protect each country’s perceived short-term interests, regardless of what the implications might be in the longer term. At the same time we’re all connected to each other in very complicated ways, so if any substantial pieces of the system don’t work it will affect all of the other ones.

History says it’s time – Perhaps what is most compelling to me is that history strongly suggests that the time is right for an upset – they always happen about now in the historical cycles. I talk about this in my book a bit, but the short version is that big punctuations in the equilibrium of evolution have produced extraordinary, fundamental reorganizations to life on this planet on a regular, accelerating basis from the beginning of time as we know it. We make progress as a species when we are forced in one way or another to evolve to seeing ourselves and the world in new ways. Necessity is the mother of invention, etc.

So, it doesn’t look to me like we’re going to be able to do what might be needed to maintain the present system . . . and it is likely that we’re at one of those extraordinary moments in history when each of us gets the opportunity to play an important role in not only transitioning to a new world, but also designing it.

It appears that the financial system is likely to collapse sometime this year – probably before the third quarter – which will then require a great deal of effort next year (and into 2012?) to design and build a new framework. It is obvious that many businesses will fail as the result of this abrupt slowdown (just read the papers today), and there will be unprecedented hardship for many people around the world. A long view of what is happening could posit that only through the collapse of a legacy system could a new world evolve . . . and that is what is happening.

So, what to do in the face of unprecedented change?

Two specific things come to mind:

Plan for the transition – Start to think now about how you’re going to provide for yourself and those who are important to you in a time when many things don’t work the way that always have in the past. Dmitry Orlov talks about some options in his above-mentioned talk and book. There are many websites and books on this subject.
Key Concept: Cooperation You can’t do this alone. Start to work together with like-minded individuals to sustain yourself – regardless of whether your concerns are food, water, shelter, transportation or finances.

Start thinking about the new world – Now is the time to begin contemplating the design of the new world. Governments should be doing this. Companies should start skunk works. Big international organizations should put it on their agendas.
Here’s the catch. This might not happen. Personally, I think that if there is any one person that has the potential to at least soften this transition it is Barack Obama. As I’ve suggested, he will have his hands full just trying to get the underlying people and institutions to think differently and act fast enough, but if anyone has the chance to pull it off, it would be him. Already he’s getting government to move faster and in more substantive ways than any of his predecessors. It may be, by the way, that he will be the best guy to wind down the old system and reconstitute a new one. It’s all of the other folks running the government that I’d be concerned about – the ones who continue to see the world as it used to be.

There are any number of reasons why this scenario might not manifest itself, not least of which is that there will be many thousands, if not millions of people who will be working very hard to assure that the system doesn’t come apart (but then, they may be doing the wrong things).

Seems to me, therefore, that flexibility and permeability (allowing new ideas to get through) are of critical importance here. Remember the first law of Discordianism: “Convictions cause convicts”. Whatever you believe imprisons you.

So, stay loose. The winners need to transcend, not try to work their way through all of this. Concentrate on building the new world, don’t get emotionally involved in the daily reports of the current global erosion. I’ll try to send along some additional thoughts as the situation matures.

If your group would like to hear more about this, I’m always happy to come give presentations on these subjects. Give me a call and we’ll see if we can make something happen.

JLP

Note: We’re sorry not to have been able to publish FUTUREdition for the last few months. We hope that we will be able to continue sending it to you in the near future.

Arlington Institute

Original Author:John L Petersen
Publication Date:03/03/2009

Today it is accepted that we 'as the people of the earth' are not only polluting our world with all the trash, waste, chemicals and by products that we dump where ever and as often as we like with little consideration for the rest of the planet.

We realize as well that the over production of want is depleting our limited supplies in this world. Not only are the resources being used at an accelerated rate, we are affecting negatively the biodynamic balance within this world.

We need to step back and see the big picture with new eyes. Do some research and realize the what we can do to make a difference. It is up to us. Our world is a reflection of what we think and what we do... lets clean up how we are living our lives and help others do the same!