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Welcome to knowledge of
your powers and ways
to improve them
world conditions and ways to improve them
ways to have abundantly more energy and food
ways to have greater friendship and
peace
ways to have greater harmony of religions
ways to have greater economic justice
ways to improve our governments
ways to have greater happiness
ways to learn, grow and enjoy
ways to improve your life
∞
Improve Our World
~ Improve Ourselves ~
Will (Self-Activation) Motion Emotion Growth
Awareness
Learning Expression Reason Understanding Imagination Inspiration
Greetings to creatures of highly advanced, growing powers,
Welcome to knowledge
on how to advance some of your powers, which comprise "the force within you" -- and knowledge on how to
improve your spheres of experience.
Imagine that this knowledge is from an alien, an extra-terrestrial creature
-- doing so here helps you have more fun and learn more easily. It also makes it much easier to express knowledge
in terms that, at times, may sound alien, weird, goofy, abstract, scientific, or mathematic. Some knowledge expressed is from a
viewpoint that is far, far away from daily life on earth, with its sometimes misleading surface appearance.
This knowledge grows and improves, like everything else.
My time with you in this perceived realm of
existence, this life on earth, is very limited, and it decreases faster each day. So let us begin with knowledge on how
to improve some of your powers and how to improve some parts of your perceived world.
Do you enjoy learning? Are
you open to new things?
Each of us has an individual point of view, a point of intellect energies (PIE) made of (a
body comprising) unique awareness, understanding, and beliefs about things. Your point of view can more easily grow and
advance when you are more open to receiving new things to reflect on, within you (to "think" about).
Your PIE is loosely, and temporarily, connected to the mass of your physical energies (your body of physical powers).
Let's restate the above in more functional terms. Your point (sphere, body) of concentrated intellect energy
(point of view) expands and advances more easily when it self-activates itself to be more open to receiving and reflecting
on new things (more incoming forms of things; in-form-at-ion). Your point of view is an "I am" (I am aware,
I am understanding). When you make this active, you turn it on. So, your point of view, your PIE, is an I-on, Ion.
When you receive knowledge (thought energy) you are letting in(coming)-forms-(moving toward)-at-Ion. When you communicate,
you experience communication, your Ion is acting/active in two-way exchange (ex-[across]-change, transform); it does
converse (across-sing) commune (together-unite)-act-Ion, commun-i-cation. You sing with, and unite in action with another
PIE.
At times when you receive
information that is so new or different, it makes your inside feel new, different, strange, funny, unsure, weird, or uncomfortable.
You are experiencing a re-action (another-act-of-Ion) of acknowledging (act-know-edging / shaping), or acting to reshape your
knowing, of something. You might make an expression (exo-pressing; Ion-press-out-external), an admission (add [missing] by
Ion) that your past knowing was lacking/deficient.
Now that you are thinking in more abstract terms, we can have fun looking at some simple appearing,
and extremely important things.
What are we? What are we truly made of?
We are concentrated, dense bundles of changing, mixed forms of
energy with bodies of concentrated, condensed (dense compared to atmosphere), rather limited, advancing, physical energies
that are loosely connected to bodies of concentrated, condensed (dense compared to the ether-like field of intellect), rather
unlimited, advancing intellectual energies.
What do we all really do?
We use our advancing forms of energy to increasingly experience
(interact [observe and communicate in different ways and in varying degrees] with many other diverse bundles of changing,
mixed forms of energy (ranging from photons to complex creatures having growing levels and amounts of intellect energy [along
a continuum of this energy, from microscopic to immense]) — all within, and connected to, a single seen and unseen,
known and unknown immense sphere (body, field) of energy. As part of our interaction, we sometimes help other forms of energy
learn and grow.
In the universe, are we co-creating advancing points
of intellect and physical energies and powers? What is our position along the continuum-spectrum of these things? For example,
where are we along the continuum of awareness? This continuum ranges from the awareness of a moving photon (and infinitely
smaller, "weaker" points of awareness) to that of atoms, minerals, growing crystals, growing plants, growing
insects, growing animals, and humans -- forward into infinitely bigger, "stronger" points of intellect.
Do all things have a propelling energy, a driving force, a self-activated-will to grow, to advance? When the first
Ion (Iam) blinked on and off, and became aware of this, and controlled this change, and advanced its self-activation, did
this set in motion the advancement and growth of all that is? Are we doing this, are we in sync with this movement of existence?
The things described above are some of our basic roles in, and purposes of, and meanings to, our existence. Our purpose
is to do more of what we're already doing — observing, interacting with a growing number of other parts of existence
— and growing-advancing from this.
Because we have growing powers to interact with the world around us (social-sphere
of people and living-sphere (biosphere) of earth) around us, we are able to increasingly become aware of, understand, and
co-create (trans-form together) more of those spheres and more our experiences in them.
What do you envision for
your future, and for our future shared in those spheres? Do you have thoughts of growing scarcity of resources and
worsening competition over controlling them? Or do you have thoughts of growing abundance and greater cooperation in making
them?
Is your vision of the future one of heaven on earth, or hell on earth?
What do you currently choose to have around you? The images, sounds, thoughts, and other forms
of energy that you allow into the center of creative energies, your mind. The types of TV shows, news, sports, movies,
music, video games, magazines, books, and other forms of (stored and transmitted) thought energy you have in your life.
Are they of care, mutual respect, friendship, love, cooperation, growing, helping, and making peace? Or are they of
apathy, selfishness, anger, hate, conflict, violence, decline, and war?
When billions of PIEs focus their thought
energy on, and toward, the same target, things or collection of things to change (for good or bad), what do you believe happens?
Do you believe the collective thoughts of billions of people, in the realm of intellect energy, result in manifesting, producing
a collective change in the realm of physical energy, the world around you? Do billions of thoughts about deceit, murder and
war result in more or less deceit, murder, and war in the world? This idea is as ancient as the main teaching of the world's
first monotheistic religion, Zoroastrianism, which is: Have more good thoughts, good words, and good actions to have more
good things in our shared world.
Some
of this information is meant to:
Improve your understanding
of what you are and your powers to improve yourself, which include your powers of intellect energies -- your powers
of will (self-activation), motion, emotion, growth, awareness, learning, expression, reason,
understanding, imagination, and inspiration.
Improve your understanding of our world and your powers to
improve it. Some ways to improve it are presented.
Promote the use of reason and the
freedom to investigate and question all things — which includes all authorities, ideologies, long-held beliefs,
dogmas, superstitions, and traditions of religion, philosophy, and science. A society with many unquestioning minds, much
blind obedience, and much ignorance always loses its freedoms — and always declines into tyranny.
Promote
Many Experiments with Thought Energy. As stated earlier,
thought energy changes other forms of energy — it does this in small and big ways. A big collection of small forms of
intellect energy can make collectively big changes in big/dense forms of energy around them. What would happen if, for
one full day, billions of people focused their points of intellect-energy on the same thoughts of good will and happiness?
Would there be a collectively big result of more good will and more happiness in the world? Let's try it and
see.
Increase awareness of these important truths: - All your actions come from thought. Perhaps much of
the world is also from, or changed by, thought energy.
- All actions are forms of energy. Energy is neither created nor destroyed. It only changes form.
Thought is an energy that changes form into actions and other forms of energy. Some amount-level of thought energy is
part of everything we know.
- All things are part of a single energy field. This includes all seen and unseen things — such as your
thoughts, feelings, and imaginings.
- When you observe anything — using your powers (energies) of awareness and understanding —
you change it. This is called the observer effect. In other words, your thought energy interacts with, and changes, other
forms of energy.
- No one knows what anything is made of. For example,
we are only able to say with certainty that sub-atomic particles are made of some unknown form of vibrating “god particles”
and “energy strings”. Those things sound like the ancient ideas of the imaginary parts of geometry: points, lines,
and circles. For more discussion, visit the "Geometry and God" section in the "Existence" webpage, and
the “Images” (of Existence) webpage.
- No one knows the exact location from which you observe (see,
hear, know, envision, imagine...) anything. For more information, visit the "What You Are" section below.
- You are a bundle of energies with advanced powers of intellect. All your powers enable you to experience and interact
with other bundles of energy the single energy field — and they let you increase the uniqueness of your identity. Humans
have more powers to make their identities unique than all other known creatures. - You have the powers of will (self-activation), motion, emotion, growth, awareness, learning, expression, reason, understanding, imagination,
and inspiration. Are you improving them? Are you using them to do good?
- Your highest (crowning, royal) power is that
of imagination — because it is a source of infinite creation, which can be used to co-create a world filled with
the abundance of good, peace, and happiness.
- You have freedom to use your powers in many ways. Use them to do
good, to grow, to enjoy life, and to help others do the same. Do not use them in ways that harm others. Do not use them in
ways that violate the laws of society.
- Perhaps sin is to needlessly harm anyone or anything. Wide acceptance of this idea
changes some social norms and morals, upon which are based laws related to sexuality, polygamy, drug use, and even interactions
between species. - Perhaps evil is to do anything that opposes, oppresses, or limits the rights, freedoms and powers to
live, which are to be aware and understand (to learn), to self-activate and grow, to express (communicate), to imagine, to
create (make, produce), and to be active, to move (travel).
- Improve the way you govern yourself.
Improve your inner moral compass. U.S. President Abraham Lincoln described one like this, "When I do good, I feel good.
When I do bad, I feel bad. That is my religion."
- As more people control and govern
themselves better from within, society needs less external monitoring (surveillance), policing, and governing, which
means fewer police and fewer authorities — such as those of government and religion. As external monitoring,
policing, and governing are reduced, less taxes are needed to pay for them.
You may share any part of this with others, but do not receive anything in
return except the good feeling you gain. You may send
email to me at globalcomments@gmail.com. You may also download a free pdf copy of this information.
I
wish you continuous advancement, and I wish all of us better and happier experiences as we intereact and co-create in our
shared world on earth.
A
creature of highly advanced, growing powers
Ideas to Improve Our World
Use the Golden Rule to Govern Your Actions
Use all of your powers to do
good. Do not use them in ways that harm others. Do not use them in ways that violate the laws of society. Treat others this
way to enjoy the extremely valuable benefits of mutual respect.
Improve Yourself
Societies and their governments are made of individuals.
Improve yourself to improve the world around you.
Improve Your Government
Continuously conduct new experiments with governing. Try them
first at local levels and advance successful ones to higher levels.
Wisely Spend Your Money
Don't trade with, buy from, or invest in, people
or organizations that needlessly harm others. Instead, trade with, buy from, and invest in, those that help others.
Reduce Extremes
in All Things
Increase the tranquility and harmonious functioning
of society by reducing all extremes. A society functions like an orchestra with many diverse instruments. Gentle melodies
are made when the extremes of volume and rhythm are reduced, and diversity is fully used and appreciated. Reduce extremes
in accumulating and consuming resources, extremes in support and promotion of conflicting ideologies, extremes
in entertainment, etc.
Even increase radio broacasts of music having gentle harmonies, and increase
television shows and movies depicting gentle harmonious interactions between individuals and groups. Use these sounds
and images as "tuning forks" to produce the desired amplification of reverberations in the collective
mind and heart of society. Do not beat the drums of war or other agitating music, if seek to calm society.
The human race has only one really
effective weapon, and that is laughter.
- Mark
Twain (author)
Increase Feelings of
Happines
Laughter is the best medicine. Use it to help heal our world. Support and promote things
that bring happiness, cheer, smiles, and laughter. In your daily life, smile and laugh more — and help others do
the same. Use all forms of media to broadcast happy and funny music, movies, shows, etc.
Make Abundant Good and
Happy Entertainment
Reduce Fear, Anger and Violence
Boycott Scary, Angry and Violent Entertainment
Some
television shows, movies, music, video games, sports, and other forms of entertainment focus on violent, angry, and scary
things. Some show conflict resolution mainly through angry and violent actions, instead of through peaceful, meaningful dialogue.
What types of entertainment do have in your life?
You choose many of the images, sounds, and thoughts around you.
Which ones are you choosing?
The following entities benefit from fear and anger:
terrorist groups, weapons makers and sellers, money lenders for war, and individuals who gain power and wealth from preparing
for war and making war.
Make Greater Economic Justice
Make a
Global Maximum and Minimum Wage
Make and use laws that reduce unhealthy forms of extremism. Make and
use laws based on truth, justice, and mutual respect -- which includes reducinng extreme disparity between the many poor
and the few very rich.
In other words, reduce unhealthy economic extremism, while continuing to offer incentives to do more good work. Simply limit the extreme accumulations of
wealth by a few. Make and use an globally-binding international law that establishes a global maximum wage
of not more than 1,000 times the world's lowest minimum wage.
Vietnam has perhaps the lowest "minimum"
wage of $US 0.30 per hour, which equates to an annual income of about $600 per year. This means a global maximum wage
would be $300 per hour, which equates to an annual income of about $600,000 per year. Most people could live extremely
well on that, and they would be very grateful.
Some say this idea would reduce incentive for super-smart business-people
to expand and create businesses, and make more jobs. This implies scarcity of those types of people. They manage and
grow business. They don't fund them. Over one billion investors in corporation fund them. So extremely
wealthy individuals are no longer needed for making business and job growth. Only super-smart people are needed
for that. Out of the world's 5 billion adults, surely there are plenty who can do a super-great
job at this, and most would be extremely grateful to earn $600,000 per year.
Do not decrease this global wage
ratio or decrease the global maximum. However, allow each nation to make a lower wage ratio as needed, to increase
the minimum wage in their nation. For example, with the global maximum wage fixed at $300 per hour, a
nation can lower its wage ratio to say 30, as the way to increase its minimum wage to $10 per hour.
 This law on wage extremes discourages wealthy and powerful
executives of big corporations from sending so many jobs from wonderful, economically declining developed nations to poorly
managed, overpopulated, impoverished ones that often made many of their own problems. This law will be obsolete
after there is abundance for all.
Is having a global maximum and minimum wage the same as communism? No. It is
capitalism with elimination of harmful extremes. It is moderate capitalism. It is compassionate capitalism.
Technology has rapidly advanced globalization into making today's global workforce, with workers competing against
each other for jobs around the world. It has enabled formation of global employers (multinational corporations). And
it has made a global marketplace for goods and services.
So working members of the global public
will now enjoy the benefits of a fair, global wage ratio? Can it be done? International courts govern some aspects
of international trade by enforcing international trade laws. They are certainly able to enforce a law on global
wages.
Is your nation's government busily working with other governments to make this happen, for
the healthy interests of its many citizens? Or is it busy aiding itself and the greedy interests of a few wealthy,
powerful people and organizations?
Every nation must make and use laws that provide incentives and disincentives
to businesses, so that more of them participate in helping to make opportunities for its citizens to do
good work and earn adequate incomes.
This wage ratio, along with laws to promote business development
and job creation, will improve both self-respect and mutual respect.
It will also reduce the potential for worsening social
unrest, which is increasing due to economic decline, growing unemployment, growing numbers of working poor, growing poverty, and
(in many nations) the rapidly growing gap between the few rich and the many poor.
Failure to act now
could result in the development and growth of harmful political extremist movements, faster reductions in rights and
freedoms, faster emergence of police states, and ultimately forms of tyranny.
The negative, destructive energy
form of economic extremism can slowly (or quickly) change into the negative, destructive energy forms of social
extremism (political, religious, etc.). Most forms of extremism are harmful to society. Extreme love, kindness, friendliness,
fairness, altruism, and abundance of resources are not harmful.
 Make Abundant Energy from Geothermal Energy
Make Abundant Food from
Abundant Energy
Take part of the
trillions spent on weapons and military forces, and spend
it on things to make abundant energy and food for all. This will result in abundant good will and happiness.
Improve laser canons and use them to make geothermal wells. Literally
turn swords into plowshares.
The abundant energy from these wells will turn vast deserts into vast farmlands, and there will be abundant food for all.
Do this and make many grateful friends for life. Friends don't make war against friends.
 Change tools of war into tools of peace. Use the gift of imagination to
end hunger and poverty everywhere.
1. Make geothermal wells and steam powered generators of electricity.
2. Develop
genetically engineered crops that thrive in desert soils.
3. Build the geothermal wells and electricity
generators first in impoverished nations.
4. Use peaceful public protests to overcome
opposition by the fossil fuel industry and others having major investments in the way things are, and opposition by
individuals and groups having very selfish interests in accumulating extreme amounts of physical wealth and power from
competition for scarce, limited resources like petroleum oil.
5.
Use some energy to build pipelines and pump water to deserts.
6. Use some energy
to build and run desalinization plants.
Why haven't these things already been done? There is much more profit, power, and control to
be gained (by a few) from scarcity than there is from abundance for all.
Before abundance exists worldwide, every nation
must keep its population in balance with its resources through ways that include voluntary, preventive birth control
and incentives for people to grow in other ways, such as through education and employment opportunities to better themselves
and their living conditions.
Make Abundant Energy from Sunlight
Make Abundant Food from Abundant Energy
Build a collection of curved dish (flattened bowl) shaped mirrors on the tops of roofs to
focus sunlight energy at a distant container of water. These can be super big mirrors, or rows of many small ones. Aim each
mirror's focal point at a container of water on top of a tall tower. The reflected sunlight energy heats the
water and causes it to boil into steam. Light energy is concentrated and changed into the heat energy of steam.
Use the steam energy (steam power) to operate a generator
of electric energy (electricity). Kinetic (motion) energy of the rapidly moving water particles (steam) is changed into the
kinetic energy of moving parts of the electric generator, and this kinetic energy of moving generator parts is
changed into electric energy. It's simple. It's easy.
Think about it.
In addition to using the electricity,
you can use the hot, purified water that results from the steam losing its energy, cooling down, and reverting back to liquid
form.
The hot and cold purified water can be used for various
personal purposes in homes. Purified cool water can be used to irrigate gardens and farms.
If this water isn't needed for those things. Some or all of the steam can be safely released
into the air, causing no harm to the environment -- because the amount of heat energy and elements/chemicals released
into the environment is equal to the same amount that would have existed without operation of the sunlight-to-electricity
generator.
Use some of the electricity to pump water up
from wells and up into the water-steam container. And use some to pump the water to wherever it is most needed.
A curved dish mirror can be made from inexpensive things such
as clear plastic bowls that have a thin sheet-layer of highly reflective plastic (like silver Mylar) attached to
the backs. Music CDs are examples of clear plastic discs containing an utlra-thin layer of higly reflective material. Imagine
rows of these clear plastic reflective bowls attached to lightweight panels (sheet of plywood or sheets of aluminum
membrane). Scientists and engineers are highly capable of creating ways to make, assemble, and operate all of these things.
Lightweight scaffolding (made of wood sticks, bamboo
stalks, hemp stalks, or even plastic and aluminum tubing) can built on top of existing rooftops to support the panels
of mirrors. You can retrofit this abundant, clean, cheap electric generating system onto rooftops of buidlings in many existing
residential and business areas.
In undeveloped areas, create a communal,
circular central park with playgrounds and gardens, and build houses along roads and foot paths that encircle the
central park. Build each house with a rooftop that is aimed perpendicular to the central park's water-steam
container. This way, no scaffolding and panels need to be added to rooftops later.
In some places, build stadiums with graduated, raised circular seating -- perhaps in
a central park. Build sunlight focusing, reflective roofs over this seating. This arrangement not only protects
people from exposure to rain and excessive sunlight, and it provides an additional area that focuses sunlight at
the water-steam container.
If you don't like the idea of a big amount of super-hot water up high in a tower
near people and other creatures, then continuously pump small amounts of water through tubing that spirals around the bottom-side
of a bowl shaped structure. In this way, only small amounts of water are super-heated at any given time, and in case of tower
collapse, only a small amount of super-heated water can fall to the earth.
The circular pattern of community development around a central park area has these added benefits:
It promotes fellowship between neighbors by giving them a communal park, playground, and garden area.
It requires the least amount of public infrastructure to serve the needs of homes encircled around the park. For example:
1) Fewer roads are needed. People can walk to their transportation vehicles located along major and minor straight
roads that extend radially from the central park.
2) Public utility lines (water, sewer, and electric) radiate
out from a central distribution point, and spread out like along arcs parallel with roads and footpaths.
It
gives efficient distribution of incoming resources, such as food other goods, which can be distributed at markets in
the central park.
It gives greater protection against crime.
Walls can be built around the circular collection of homes, with very few openings, while still providing ease of travel.
During times of little or no sunlight, use heat from a geothermal well, or heat from burning hemp biomass or
bio-fuel, to heat and change the water into steam.
 Make Abundant Energy and Food from Hemp
Grow Abundant Life-Giving Hemp Everywhere
Hemp is the manna of earth. Plant it everywhere.
In the time of one year, hemp produces more biomass than any other plant. Kudzu vine might be a runner-up.
Hemp
has super-strong fiber and seeds rich in useful oil.
Develop genetically modified hemp that grow
in even more abundance, and in a wider variety of soils and weather conditions.
Use hemp to make lightweight,
breathable, very long-lasting concrete. To make this concrete, mix hemp pulp with potash and water. Use this concrete to make
(and insulate) buildings and things like roads, bridges, and paved foot paths.
Use hemp oil as biodegrable
liquid fuel that is safer to store. The flashpoint of hemp is 300-deg F and that of petroleum is 125-deg F.
Use hemp oil as a nutritious food; it has a 3:1 ratio of omega-6 to
omega-3 essential fatty acids.
Why use up the forests which
were centuries in the making and the mines which required ages to lay down, if we can get the equivalent of forest
and mineral products in the annual growth of the hemp fields?
- Henry Ford (inventor and industrialist)
Use hemp oil as lubricant for machines and other mechanical
devices. It has a breakdown temperature much higher than petroleum oil.
Use
hemp oil to make biodegradable plastics and anything else currently made from petroleum oil such as fertilizer, pesticide,
synthetic rubber, nylon, glues, etc.
Use hemp fiber to make long-lasting
cloth, paper, particle board, and other products currently made from wood fiber and cotton fiber. (Growing cotton requires
much pesticide and energy.)
Hemp oil is very biodegradable. After one month in water, almost 90% of it dissolves
into non-toxic matter.
Why haven't these things already been done? There is much more profit, power, and control
to be gained (by a few) from scarcity than there is from abundance for all.
Make the most you can of the Indian hemp seed and sow it everywhere.
- U.S. President George Washington
 Have
Greater Harmony of Religions
Boycott
Organized Religion
Make
and Use Your Own Good Belief System
Enjoy
Altruism and Fellowship in Charitable Organizations
Without religious organizations, there will be much less competition and conflict
(in all forms) between followers of religions. A result will be much more harmony between believers of all religions.
Every nation must reduce all forms of ignorance
that harm society, and are often from unreasonable, unhealthy, outdated religious ideologies.
People
must always have the right to find and collect information from any source.
People must always have the right
to believe as they wish.
People do not have the right to harm society by promoting and supporting ideologies
of oppression of human advancement, oppression of science, oppression of discovery, prejudice, bigotry, sexism, racism, hate,
unlawful retribution, limitations on questioning, obedience to anything accept society's laws, and intent to incite
destruction, violence, murder, war, or genocide.
This includes ideologies of outdated books on the teachings and
lives of Mithra, Zoroaster, Abraham, Confucius, Buddha, Krishna, Moses, Jesus Christ, Muhammed, Baha'u'llah,
Joseph Smith, Ron Hubbard, and others.
These books were written by fallible humans for a certain time and
condition of the world around them; therefore they contain some outdated advice and laws, as well as some mistakes. This
fact does not reduce the profound sacrifices, good will, good thoughts, good words, and good actions of some wonderful Founders of religions.
The truth is clear to all those who understand the benefits of using reason as much as possible
in personal and government decision-making.
The overall drawbacks to societies, and the world, from
organized religion currently outweigh the benefits. In more simple terms, on local to world levels, organized
religion results in more overall harm than good.
For this conclusion and all important matters, research them,
learn from many diverse sources, analyze your findings, and reach your own conclusions. Please send me any research, findings,
and analysis that support a different conclusion.
 If you want to show unselfish concern for others
(altruism) by doing good things in a group, and/or if you seek fellowship with altruists, be an active member of
a charitable group.
If a good charitable group doesn't exist near you, make one. You could even play
a part in forming a non-profit world altruists charitable organization. In this new organization, no one should ever
be paid to do good work in or for it.
Such an organization also should neither own nor rent any big,
fancy (or simple) buildings that are seldomly used by lots of people. If you enjoy seeing and being in big, fancy buildings,
build big, fancy neighborhood and community centers open to all good members of the public, for good learning and good recreation,
such as through libraries, lecture halls, study areas, gardens, playgrounds, exercise, and sports facilities.
Have all of the formation, maintenance, functioning, and expansion of this world altruists organization done only
by volunteers who receive no compensation of any form, except for the good feeling they gain from actively expressing
their unselfish concern for the well-being of others -- through their good thoughts, good words, and good actions.
These requirements make being a part of it extremely unattractive to any person or group seeking personal
accumulation of excess physical power and/or wealth.
You can't prevent others from learning about, and
talking about, people who do many good unselfish things for others. But to reduce the potential harm from accumulating excess
fame, the altruists who do abundant good things for other can always ask others to not talk much about their actions
-- and help ensure their public anonymity.
It's simple and easy to make and enjoy such a good charitable organization,
without doing harm by it also supporting and promoting unhealthy ideologies along the way.
Contents
State of Our Shared World
Summary
Legal,
Peaceful Solutions
Improve Ourselves The Power of Thought Programs
to Improve Yourself Making Thought Programs Using Thought Programs
Mass Media Programming Thought and Energy Unified
Energy Field What You Are What You Are Not
Ignorance
Improve Our Governments
Introduction Democracy
New Experiments with Democracy Improving Lotteries and Voting Results of Using Lotteries The First Democracy Life and Death of Democracy Additional
Information
State of Our Shared World
Summary
This is a brief
summary of the present state (form) of the world, its speed of movement and direction, the powers guiding its movement,
and it's reasonably predicted form.
More detailed information on problems is presented in the Big Problems and World of Ideas webpages.
The sources of greatest overall human suffering are the human actions resulting
from the harmful, negative thought energies of extreme ignorance, extreme aggression, and extreme greed. These
sources also harm planet Earth and many other things living on it.
During the
past several decades, many parts of the world have experienced rapid acceleration of change in form.
Technology increasingly shrinks our world into an ever smaller community of diverse people and
cultures — and this is making some big problems, as opposing ideologies clash.
One of the biggest problems is overpopulation, which is often the result of outdated ideologies of some
religions. It produces poverty and despair, which sometimes result in acts of desperation such as
participating in extremist groups and committing acts of terrorism. It also produces low wages around the world,
along with often irreversible trade imbalances, growing debt, and long-term economic decline.
Many nations
are experiencing growing social unrest due to a variety of factors such as the following.
- Fuel and food costs are
rising due to growing global demand for limited resources.
- Economies are declining due to loss of jobs
to much poorer nations, the resulting trade export-import imbalances, resulting growing debt and currency devaluation.
- Economic extremism (economic injustice) is worsening due to the growing numbers of poor, unemployed, and
underemployed, and due to the growing accumulation of wealth by the rich.
The gap between rich and poor is
becoming more obvious. As more struggle to live, this disparity provokes resentment and anger that
is being vented more each day. Some use social media and public protests. Others resort to violence and destruction.
In some places it's resulting in growth of membership in extremist political parties.
Many of these problems impact us in different ways.
Some see
greater difficulty finding employment. Some are finding it more challenging to provide their families with basic necessities
of life, such as healthy foods.
Some see the following things increase in frequency and scale: public
protests, violence at protests, acts of terrorism, and acts of class warfare.
Overall, more people are releasing
the destructive emotional energies of frustration, hurt, misery, anger, and hate. Some are changing this energy into actions
that are destructive and violent. They should redirect their energies toward constructive actions.
As social
conditions worsen, governments react by reducing rights and freedoms. They increase spying (surveillance) on people's
thoughts, words, and actions. There are more surveillance cameras and checkpoints along travelways. There
are more drone aircraft.
There is more spying on the exchange and storage
of information, which includes all data exchanged through, and stored in, mobile phones and computers. Will
they next secretly and remotely turn on microphones in your phones and computers? Will they invent
a device that detects and relays brain activity, brain waves, to a policing agency?
You are already enabling
others to use GPS in cell phones to monitor your exact locations, to use wireless transfer of your personal digital data to
monitor some of your thoughts, to use Internet connection with your personal computer to monitor your personal data storage
and transfer, soon to use your microphones and cameras in cell phones and personal computers to monitor what you say, hear
and see, soon to use your Google camera glasses to more precisely monitor your field and focus of vision. Will your thoughts
be monitored more closely, in new ways, next?
We also hear about more surveillance
and censorship of the news media — and of outspoken critics of government.
Some governments are increasing their police and training their militaries to do policing. There are
more scenes of riot police battling protestors. There are more incidents of excessive force being used by police.
Governments are reacting to growing problems due to clashing ideologies (ignorance), overpopulation, and greed
in a shrinking world. Expect more of that as problems worsen.
 Legal, Peaceful Solutions
In
addition to individual efforts to promote good things like abundance, good will, mutual respect, justice, education, advancement,
and growth, societies may join together in groups to do so. Individuals and groups may, in accordance with the laws of their
nation, gather allegations of wrong-doing, and collections of evidence of wrong-doing, by entities (individuals
or groups) that support, guide, and/or commit wrong-doing. You may use legal means to identify the highest-ranking
members of these groups.
You may present these collections of allegations and evidence to the public
and to the law-enforcement or judicial agencies of any nation. An ideal judicial panel would include diversity of expertise
in analyzing the evidence, such as doctors, scientists, engineers, economists, lawyers, sociologists, psychologists,
and others who are skilled and knowledgable in analyzing and healing social, intellectual, and physical damages,
injuries, and results of harm.
You may expect your nation's law-enforcement agencies to legally
arrest, detain, and bring to trial those suspected of great wrong-doing. You may expect your judicial agencies to
fairly and openly determine their guilt or innocence, and determine their punishments, which may include forms of restitution
to their victims.
Use only your nation's legal means to investigate and gather evidence of wrong-doing in your
nation. Begin gathering allegations and evidence of wrong-doing by the following likely suspects:
The highest-ranking
members of organizations that most aggressively and successfully reduce the physical and intellectual well-being,
the rights, freedoms, powers, and means for security and advancement of the greatest number of members of your society. These
include members of organizations of religious extremism, politcal extremism, nationalistic extremism, economic-business
extremism, and environmental extremism.
Improve Yourself
The Power of Thought
Self-improvement begins with your thoughts.
The power of thought is very great. So
learn how to most effectively use it. Thoughts change our lives and things around us. The collective thought energy from you, and everyone who ever
lived, has slowly changed our world in a big way. You choose the thoughts you have. Thoughts are things you can screen.
You can keep out unhealthy thoughts. Many negative thoughts are cast broadly onto societies through TV, radio, the
Internet, movies, video games, music, etc.
Ask yourself how many TV shows and movies have a positive, uplifting
message — or make you laugh. Just channel surf and see how few there are. Ask yourself the same question about
the music and other entertainment you allow into your life.
At times, you can stay away from all mass media for a few days.
You can have a silent retreat, and tune in to your own thoughts. You can also limit your exposure to negative news —
but still remain informed — by only reading the headlines. You can purposefully have positive thoughts that improve your
life.
Programs
to Improve Yourself You can use thoughts to improve yourself. You can improve many things, such as your health, relationships with
others, and your ability to achieve greater success.
You can do this by giving yourself sets of commands in thought
programs. Some people call them self-commands, self-suggestions, and affirmations. The term "thought programs"
is most accurate. Giving yourself a set of commands is like programming a computer. Your brain is like a computer, and
your body is like a machine that's controlled by it.
Your brain is more powerful than any computer, and your
body is more complex than any machine.
 Making Thought
Programs
How do you make the most effective thought programs?
First, make them in a way you
enjoy reading and saying. You might use words you say in your daily life.
To make interesting programs, try repeating
the same thought using different words. Or say your program with others. Try different ways to see which ones work best for
you.
Avoid confusion by keeping sentences shorter than 14 words. Use commands about things happening
right now. So use commands that start with I am, I have, I do, or I feel. And avoid commands about things happening later on. So avoid commands that start with I ought to, I should, I will, and I would. Use commands that focus on the good things you want. And avoid commands that focus on what you don’t want. So
avoid words like avoid, free, reject, and stop. You
can do this by saying the same thing in a positive way. The following are some examples:
-
I avoid fear becomes I am brave.
- I am free from weakness becomes I am strong.
-
I stop a harmful habit becomes I am
healthy and protected from harm. Avoid commands about working to make things happen. So avoid commands that start
with I achieve, I acquire, I push away, I reject, and I seek. Instead, use commands that start with I am, I have,
or I receive. Avoid commands that sound unsure. So avoid
commands that start with I could, I should, or I might. Your mind usually overlooks small things that reverse the meaning of bigger things.
So avoid the following: Words like no or not.
Words that begin with dis, non, or un. Words that end in less, free, or out (such as without). If you must use these types of words, emphasize them.
Examples are
presented in the Thought Programs webpage.
 Using Thought
Programs
You must repeat a thought at least 100 times to make a lasting path in your brain.
The fastest way to do this is to send a thought through as many parts of
your brain and body as you can. You can read, say, hear, and write them. And you can try recalling them from memory.
A lasting electric path in your brain is called a neural pathway. Making this path is like making muscle memory.
For example, after you repeat a body motion enough times, you finally do it without thinking about it. When you walk, you
don’t think about which muscles to use.
You can use thought programs in a way that amplifies their effect.
A group of people having the same thought appears to amplify to do this. For example, you can have a group of people use healing
thought programs to help someone recover from a health problem. People of various religions do this in the form of group
prayer. Sometimes it works.
In using thought programs to improve health, remember that there's a time
and place for almost everything. So get help from a doctor if you need it.
Don't expect thoughts alone to
solve every problem.
 Mass Media Programming
Now that you know more about thought programming, you can better understand the power of
mass media to change society.
Sometimes, mass media uses repeated words and images to program people. This is
especially so for advertising. Repetition works, or else businesses wouldn't pay so much to repeat their messages.
TV and radio "programming" is an
accurate way to describe what mass media can do. People watching, and listening to, these programs use that part of their
brain that accepts things without question. This is called passive viewing and passive listening.
During passive
viewing and listening, a person's thoughts are changed without them knowing it.
When people fall asleep
with the audio left on, they still hear, and the effect of this total passive listening is even stronger. So do yourself a favor. Turn your TV and radio off before you fall asleep, especially if you’re
not sure about what you'll hear. You can use the stronger effect of total passive listening to your advantage by making recordings of
your own healthy thought programs, and start their playback before you fall asleep.
 Thought and Energy Thought is a form of energy that is part of the Unified Energy Field. More information
on this field is presented in the "Unified Energy Field" subsection below.
Where does thought come from?
What is it made of? No one knows. But we know what it changes into and what it does.
Thought energy changes into
electric energy that travels through billions of brain cells. As it moves between parts of your brain, it produces brainwaves
which can be measured. All forms of energy move in waves, which are forms of vibration. Thought energy makes your brain send
electric signals through your nerves, and chemical signals through your veins, to every cell of your body.
Your
thoughts also impact your every emotion. So you can use this to your full advantage. If you're feeling sad or depressed, listen
to only happy music and watch only funny shows. Maybe place some happy pictures around you. At the same time, avoid anything
that's sad or negative. See how long it takes for thoughts to make you feel better.
 Unified Energy Field
All things in
the Universe — including all thoughts, mass and space — are forms of energy. And they're all part of a unified
energy field.
Your
thought energy interacts with this field. If this field also includes the thoughts of a God, then you could say your
thoughts interact with those of God. Visit the "Speculation on God" webpage for more information.
Your thoughts, words, and actions
change parts of the unified energy field. And this field changes parts of you.
A basic law of physics is that energy is neither created nor destroyed
— it only changes form.
For example, fuel is the energy of mass that changes form
into motion, heat, electric, and light energy. A car does this. Likewise, thought energy changes into many
things.
No one knows exactly what anything is made of. Solids
are made of atoms, which are made of 99.99999…% space and sub-atomic particles. These particles are
made of some type of undefined, vibrating bundles of energy strings. Scientists are still guessing about them.
Glass
is a good example of how much space is in solids. Imagine a glass cube as big as a football field. You can
look through it as if it's not there. Light isn't reflecting between its atoms — light is passing through
them, because they're made almost completely of space.
So how real and solid is everything
else?
In simple terms, everything is always changing (all energy vibrates), and everything always stays connected
(remains part of a unified energy field). And no one knows what anything is really made of. This includes your thought energy.
 What You Are
You are a concentrated bundle of vibrating energy. This energy includes the composition and actions
of your physical being (body), which has limited powers. And this energy includes the invisible composition and actions of
your intellectual being (mind), which has limited and unlimited powers.
These forms of energy comprise who you
“are”. They comprise your “I am”, which is your "be-ing".
Your being may also include some of the energy waves you emanate. In other words, your being may
also include changes you make to physical and invisible things around you — physical things, people, people’s
minds, people’s lives.
For example, a bell vibrates and rings. It is a vibrating bell. Does its vibration also include the vibrating air (sound)
around it and the feelings this produces in people who hear it?
The limits of a concentrated bundle of vibrating
energy within a vast field of vibrating energy can get blurry.
Your
body has obvious powers. Your mind has total power over its actions, and has some power over its composition.
Your mind has powers to be aware, to understand, to reason, to feel emotion, and to imagine.
Your mind also has power to will things into physical reality
— to cause physical actions, to move/rearrange/transform physical things. And it has power to will things into
intellectual reality — to imagine and invent things/ideas, to share them with others, and add them to (or change) the
collective body of thought.
Your mind has will power. You use your will
power to choose and change your awareness, understanding, and thoughts. By doing this, you change your feelings, words, actions,
and body.
You gain awareness by receiving information
from sounds, sometimes from encoded sounds (spoken words), which is sound wave energy. You also gain awareness by receiving
information from images, sometimes from encoded images (written words), which is light wave energy.
Your body
converts these energies into electric impulse energies that go into your brain. Your mind interprets and understands them,
and it stores some of them. No one knows where the exact point is in your brain from which you finally "view" and
"hear" things.
You have the power to
recall information (images, sounds, thoughts, feelings) from your memory. No one knows exactly where and how these things
are stored in your brain (or mind). Billions of “video”, “photo”, and other “data files"
must be stored somewhere.
You have the power to
see, hear, and feel things when you are alone in a dark, silent room — when you recall sights, sounds, and feelings,
when you imagine or dream while you're asleep. From where do you perceive all of these things?
You also have the power to gain awareness and understanding from sources like intuition, inspiration,
and imagination. No one knows exactly what these sources are made of or where they are located.
You use these powers of your mind to change your thoughts, feelings, words, actions, and the composition
of your body — and you change those of others.
What You Are Not
You're not
most of the forms of energy around you. You're not most of the things outside your body. Although some people identify themselves by some of the physical things they temporarily
possess or “own” — but they are not those things.
You are not
trapped by your stored, past thoughts (memories), which may include unhealthy ones. Realize that your brain must first access
your "memory-thought data bank", and then it must open specific bits of stored thoughts ("data files")
-- as you re-member (reassemble) them into full memories. Next your mind's eye must observe and understand-comprehend
them.
Your will-power controls your brain. So, you use your willpower to control which memories you remember --
including the frequency and intensity. Therefore you are not trapped by them. Bad memories will not "scar you for
life".
 Ignorance
To be ignorant is to ignore truths either knowingly and willfully
or unknowingly and without will to do so.
More than 80% of adults in the world can read. But this doesn't imply
they are free of ignorance. Even some people with very advanced university degrees are ignorant. Ignorant people fail to question, fail to use reason, fail to think
for themselves, and fail to learn from many sources including those with new or opposing thoughts.
Some ignorance comes from repetitive but limited use
of reason. For example, members of some religions occasionally base decisions based on superstitious, illogical, unreasonable,
and unhealthy beliefs. They simply reject the use of reason at times. Some get in a habit of doing this, and big
problems happen.
Some people are programmed by others, from an early age, to do things like believe
things based on faith instead of reason. Others lare taught to react and base decisions on emotions instead
of on reason. Lack of the continuous use of reason is a form of mental illness. It often leads to lying to
oneself and to others, as well as lying to justify doing bad things.
Ignorance is promoted by those who promote the unquestioned acceptance
of authority, which may be of a person, a book, or an organization. When an increasing number of people have
this attitude and they transfer it toward government — the door to society's decline into tyranny
is opened.
The power of peer pressure from group-think meetings is often used to promote ignorance.
Often, repeated messages are used to program people into ignorance.
Ignorant people are also often discouraged
or punished for seeking information from other sources, especially when the information opposes, presents righteous questions,
or validly undermines the
fundamental ideas, principles, and authority systems of their non-completely-reason-based
belief group.
We pay to fix problems made by the ignorant. Any we pay in many ways. Sometimes it costs us
money. Sometimes it costs us our rights and freedoms.
Ignorant people are less able to self-govern, so more
government is needed. We all pay for that with our taxes.
We pay for costly, and sometimes very
destructive, mistakes made by a few ignorant individuals. Just read the daily news for examples of that.
When a majority of society is ignorant, it is easily manipulated into things like needless wars that profit
a few and foolishly giving up rights and freedoms based on non-sensical justifications or secretly orchestrated, frightening
events.
If a nation expects to be ignorant and
free, in a
state of civilization, it expects what never was
and never
will be.
- U.S. President Thomas Jefferson
You can free yourself from ignorance by promoting and doing the following.
1. Question Authority
2. Use Reason
3. Avoid Negative News and Entertainment
4. Avoid Negative Programming
5. Avoid False Pride
6. Avoid Fear, Be Brave, and Laugh More
1.
Question Authority
Questioning authority is good.
In rare cases, questioning authority is bad.
For example, a soldier
needs to follow orders without question, unless the orders are to do
something illegal.
Question all unproven and illogical ideas from authorities in your
family, school, religion,
and government. Good, sane authorities
shouldn't be afraid of questions.
Don't accept things
based only on faith.
It's bad to be like a sheep. Be an independent thinker who can lead,
follow, and remain neutral at the right time and place.
Don't let others make you feel helpless. Usually, you can help
yourself. Life is not always easier and safer
when you let others tell
you what to think.
Enjoy the company of people who question authority. It’s dangerous
to be with people who blindly obey.
Avoid people who try to make others appear dumb or feel ashamed
for asking questions.
Question with boldness even the existence of God; because,
if there be one, He must more approve
of the homage of
reason than that of blindfolded fear.
- U.S. President Thomas Jefferson
2. Use Reason
Make decisions based on reason. Gather
facts to make informed decisions. Don't make decisions based mainly on emotions, assumptions, and guesses.
Use reason to
strengthen your sense of right and wrong. By doing this, you'll govern yourself better. You'll develop a strong,
inner moral compass.
When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad,
I feel bad. That's
my religion.
- U.S. President Abraham Lincoln
3. Avoid Negative News and
Entertainment
Avoid filling your life with lots of negative news — and negative entertainment.
For
news, be content with learning the basic facts, instead of flooding your mind with bad news. A lot of TV and radio "news"
consists of dramatic and shocking reports, commentary, and scary speculation.
Reduce the amount of time you
spend being a passive viewer and passive listener.
Learn from many sources. Bigger is not always better. Sometimes,
bigger news organizations are less trustworthy than smaller ones.
News people are not authorities, although many
speak with great authority. Question their motives. Who owns them? Who tells them what they can and can't say?
4. Avoid Negative
Programming Don't receive repeated unhealthy thoughts from others. If you
are forced to be near this, try to focus on other things. No one can see inside your mind. Don't go
to group meetings where you are encouraged to obey authority without question. Reject being like sheep, being submissive,
and not thinking for yourself. You are either lazy or foolish if you avoid thinking for yourself.
5. Avoid False Pride Be humble about how little you know.
Relative to everything there is yet to learn, each of us knows very little.
Be humble enough to admit when you’ve
been wrong or ignorant. This requires great strength if you've been wrong about something for a very long time. Be curious. Strive to learn more. Learning is a form of growing.
Avoid feeling
superior to others because of your limited knowledge, your beliefs, or your membership in a group-think organization.
6. Avoid Fear, Be Brave, and Laugh More
Avoid fear mongers. Avoid watching them and listening to
them. Fear mongers get money and power from selling and promoting fear.
Live in courage, even if you are constantly told to live
in fear. It's very unhealthy to live in fear. Poor decisions can be made when they are based mainly on emotion.
Worry is the secret
weapon perpetrated upon us by the
dark forces
of the world that lurk in the shape of fear,
uncertainty, confusion, and loss. We, on the other hand,
have our own secret weapon against these incorporeal
fiends.
It is laughter. - Vera Nazarian
Reduce fear by gathering facts and using reason. Reduce fear by laughing.
Reduce fear by focusing on positive things.
Enjoy happy times with other people.
Enjoy happy TV shows, movies, music, and other healthy entertainment. Find ways to laugh more.
A healthy level of fear is useful
for survival. But, it should be based on facts and reason.
Laughter is somewhat contagious, because it feels good. Fear is very contagious, because it's a
primary instinct for survival. That's why your "fear button" can be so easily pushed. And that's why fear
lingers.
The only thing we have to fear is fear itself —
nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror
which paralyzes needed efforts to convert
retreat into advance.
- U.S. President Franklin
D. Roosevelt
Improve Our Governments
One of the most well-known examples of
harm done by the
combination of ignorance, democracy, and greedy powers is the
the torture and
murder of Jesus Christ. Greedy powers (seeking
fame, power, wealth), authorities of the Roman government,
conducted a public vote among a large group of ignorant people.
The greedy powers easily influenced
(incited) the group into
voting for the torture and murder of Jesus. Was Jesus a powerful
social
advocate for democracy, feared by the Roman Empire?
Did the Roman government make a public example out of Jesus,
to maintain society's unquestioning obedience to tyrannical authority?
In its greedy self-interest,
did it "dumb down" the masses in many
ways, such as by depriving the ignorant masses of
ways to learn
and grow? Did they offer all levels of education free to the masses?
Did
they fear the ideas that Jesus was teaching them? Did they fear
teachings on the power of belief -- believing,
possessing greater
thought (intellect) energies, and how to use this world-changing power?
Think
about it. Then think about the increasing dumbing down and
growing apathy about advancing, in your democracy-based
society.
Introduction
To improve your government, continuously conduct new experiments
with it.
For example, experiment with better ways to choose government officials. First experiment at the
local level. Then experiment with the best of these at higher levels. In each experiment, poll residents about results,
and see which ones work best.
Democracy
Almost two thirds of the world’s people are governed by some kind of democracy. Almost all are
election-based democracies, and this makes them wide open to corruption.
The word democracy comes from the ancient Greek word démo-kratía
for people-power, and it means the following:
- When the largest number of people in a group agrees on something, it’s as if the whole group
agrees on it. This is also called majority rule.
- People and their laws have equal respect for each person’s rights.
- People govern themselves. In direct democracy,
each person helps make and enforce laws. In indirect democracy, people choose representatives to make and enforce laws.
Most people are never taught that the first
democracies used lotteries to select representatives, as the best safeguard against corruption. Today, democracy is much more
at risk for corruption because of the following.
- The rich are many times richer. Some businesses are richer than countries.
- Election campaigns cost much more.
- Modern mass media influences
many voters, and much of it is controlled a few powerful entities.
Today, democracy is also at risk from the growing apathy of people who’ve
lost respect for government. They know the selection (election) process is corrupt. So they don’t bother to learn about
candidates or issues. And they don’t bother to vote.
Most representatives in today's democracies don't represent society, even at local levels. In
general, most people don’t have the time or money to campaign for election. The problem gets worse at state and national
levels, and in big cities, where the cost to campaign is much higher.
As a result of the cost to get elected, very wealthy people and entities buy power
in government by giving campaign contributions to the candidates they favor. They influence government. This isn't democracy.
It's plutocracy (rule by the power of wealth) that is thinly disguised as democracy. Most people know this.
New Experiments with Democracy
For new
experiments with democracy, try the following: - Use combinations of lotteries and elections to select officials. - Have term limits
for offices in national government councils (a congress or parliament). - Increase voter turnout by conducting voting in places where
most people usually go each week — like shopping centers. - Have term limits for the people who count votes. - Have candidates advance
through government one level at a time. This will help them gain experience in governing and know more about problems at every
level. This also ensures they're first found trustworthy by their neighbors.
- Instead of having one person
in charge of an executive branch (a president, governor, prime minister) have an executive council. Why?
1)
A council is more difficult to
corrupt than only one person.
2) Modern inventions end the need for having only one executive. For example,
if quick decisions need to be made, council members can use telephones.
3) People already
trust councils to make important decisions, such as in supreme courts.
Improving
Lotteries and Voting If lotteries are used in the selection process, how can
it be improved?
Lottery drawings can be done in front of a group of randomly selected volunteer
witnesses. Their names and contact information can be part of public record available to all. A televised live view
of the drawing and witnesses can be broadcast.
Drawings can use transparent machines that mechanically choose
from marked identical objects. For example, lottery drawings for multi-million dollar jackpots use transparent machines containing
numbered ping pong balls.
If voting is used in the selection process, how can
it be improved?
Public voting should use secret voting and paper ballots. Ballots should be stored for several
years, in case a recount is needed.
People who collect and count voting ballots should have term limits, and they
should be randomly selected from registered voters.
Results of Using Lotteries
Results of using lotteries in the selection process
include the following:
It’s much more difficult for very wealthy people and entities to influence process
of selecting government officials. Because of this, there are fewer officials making decisions that harm society. There's
greatly reduced need for political parties. Less money is spent on them. There are fewer social problems from the
division they create.
Officials in government better represent society.
More people have a chance to serve in all levels of government.
Society knows it's
better represented, and has more respect for government decision-making. And there’s more respect for those who enforce the people's laws, such as police
and judges.
The
First Democracy History’s
first recorded democracies began in the cities of Greece around 600 B.C. They tried different experiments with democracy.
They first saw which ones worked best in small cities and then tried the best of these in bigger cities. The first indirect
democracy (using representatives) began in Athens, the largest city in Greece. It lasted from around 600 B.C. to 300 B.C.
In this democracy, people used lotteries to choose almost all of their representatives in government. They also
used lotteries to choose jurors for public trials. They used public voting for selecting very few officials — such as
generals who could only obey orders. People
of Athens used lotteries to choose members of their Council of 500, which made laws. The Athens area was divided into ten
districts. Each district used lotteries to choose 50 men from its people to serve in the Council for a year.
The
Council also used lotteries to choose Council presidents from current Council members.
Each month, the Council
randomly chose presidents from only one district’s group of Council members. The president served only one day, but
could be chosen again that month. He could only serve as president twice in his lifetime. Today people only use
lotteries to select trial jurors. Why is it good for individual justice but not also for social justice?
Who loses
if lotteries are also used for social justice? Who gains?
People of Athens used lotteries much more than public voting, because they knew lotteries
protected democracy from corruption.
Aristotle, the co-founder of Western Thought, promoted using lotteries
as the best way to safeguard democracy.
 Life and Death of Democracy About the time the original thirteen American states adopted their new constitution in 1787, Alexander Tytler, a
Scottish history professor at the University of Edinburgh, had this to say about the fall of the Athenian Republic some 2,000
years earlier: “A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot
exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the
time that voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury [editor's note:
and corporations discover they can influence elections and officials to get generous gifts from the public treasury].
From that moment on, the majority always vote for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public
treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed
by a dictatorship. The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations from
the beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, those nations always progressed through the following
sequences:
1.
from bondage to spiritual faith 2. from spiritual faith to great courage 3.
from courage to liberty 4. from liberty to abundance 5. from
abundance to complacency 6.
from complacency to apathy 7. from apathy to dependence 8. from
dependence back into bondage”
Additional Information
Let’s Toss for It: A Surprising Curb on Political Greed is a research
paper by Sigmund Knag. Here’s an excerpt.
“Nowadays elections
are almost universally regarded as the keystone of political affairs. Besides paying taxes and perhaps serving in the military,
average citizens participate in political life mainly by voting.
Although people disagree about election procedures
and often feel disgust with election outcomes, hardly anyone today doubts that elections provide the only way to establish,
legitimize, and control a government. Historically, however, general elections have been the exception rather than the rule
for selecting and guiding governments. Alternatives include various autocratic or despotic systems and processes and, in more
democratic systems, methods that supplement or substitute for elections. Among the latter is lot-drawing, also known as sortition
(from the Latin root sort, meaning ‘lot’). This procedure has intriguing characteristics and effects as well as
potential for present-day utility. In this article, I discuss its history and nature and consider some possible applications
in the American political system.”
Sortition is an on-line article in the open source encyclopedia Wikipedia. Here's an excerpt.
“Sortition (also known as allotment) is a fair method of selection by some form of lottery
such as drawing coloured pebbles from a bag. It is used particularly to allot decision makers. In ancient Athenian democracy, sortition was the primary method for appointing officials, a system that was thought to be one of the principal
characteristics of democracy. It is today commonly used to select jurors in Anglo-Saxon based legal systems.”
“Fairness & Equality. Sortition is inherently
fair in that it ensures all citizens have an equal chance of entering office irrespective of any bias in society and implies
an equal society where there is no meaningful difference between all the members of the society, which would make one more
suitable than another.”
“Democratic. Almost all Greek
writers who mention democracy (including Aristotle, Plato, and Herodotus) both emphasize the role of selection by lot or state
outright that being allotted is more democratic than elections. For example, Aristotle says: ‘It is thought to be democratic
for the offices to be assigned by lot, for them to be elected is oligarchic.’ We see the same idea in the 18th century
after the re-emergence of democracy in the writings of Charles de Secondat, baron de Montesquieu: ‘The suffrage by lot
is natural to democracy, as that by choice is to aristocracy.’”
“Less corruptible than elections because processes can be developed to ensure that selection is completely
fair. For example, Athenians used complex allotment procedures with complicated machine to allot officers. Like Athenian democrats,
critics of electoral politics in the 21st century argue that the process of election by vote is subject to manipulation by
money and other powerful forces; and because legislative elections give power to a few powerful groups they are believed to
be less democratic system than selection by lot from amongst the population.”
Casting and Drawing Lots: A Time Honoured Way of Dealing with Uncertainty and for Ensuring
Fairness is a research
paper by William A. Silverman and Iain Chalmers. It’s posted on the internet and it’s available as a free pdf
download. Here's an excerpt.
“The lot causeth disputes
to cease, and it decideth between the mighty. – Proverbs 18:18."
“Casting lots for Divination. The Hebrew bible makes a number of references to lots.
For example, Jonah declared ‘Let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this evil is upon us’; and the
whole book of Esther is the story of Purim, which means ‘lots.’ Although the masses were forbidden by Jewish law
to cast lots for divination — which was the prerogative of the priests — God’s authorities on earth were
allowed to use lottery devices to guide judgements. Thus the chief priest carried sacred stones inside his breastplate, through
which he sensed divine intentions. The stones gave God’s answer, determined when the ‘Yes’ or the ‘No’
stone was drawn out. King David consulted this oracular medium before going into battle: when the ‘Yes’ stone
appeared, forecasting his victory over the Philistines, he set off on the warpath.
Although the early fathers
of the Christian church were vigorously opposed to divination by lots, sometimes excommunicating those who practised it, this
did not stop the Church itself using this method for decision-making. For example, in 782 CE, when the bishops of Poitiers,
Autun, and Arras all claimed the body of St. Leger, lots were cast, with the result that the saintly remains were handed over
to the Bishop of Poitiers.”
“Lottery Versus Authority
and Fallible Human Judgement. In the past, the results of drawing lots were considered to reflect divine guidance. Today the
results are more likely to be regarded as reflecting the play of chance. Lotteries to decide which citizens shall risk their
lives in defence of their countries have been accepted as a fair, democratic solution to a problem of difficult choices. Lots
for the 1917 military draft in the United States were drawn in public, in the presence of the President and other dignitaries,
by a blindfolded Secretary of State.
The words of the US Secretary of the War Department capture its essence:
‘This is an occasion of great dignity and some solemnity. It represents the first application of a principle believed
by many of us to be thoroughly democratic, equal, and fair in selecting soldiers to defend the national honor abroad and at
home.’”
“Drawing Lots to Ensure Fairness.
Whether or not divine intervention is invoked as the mechanism through which the casting of lots leads to decisions, the method
has been recognised for millennia as a way of ensuring fairness in deciding difficult matters. Thus, the land of Canaan was
distributed among the tribes of Israel by lots (‘And ye shall inherit the land by lot according to your families.’
– Numbers 33.54).
Sometimes lots have been used to deal with particularly dire circumstances. When it became
apparent in 73 CE that the zealot Jewish soldiers at Masada could not survive, they drew lots to select the ten men who would
carry out the mass suicide. The immediate survivors of shipwrecks have also had to take life or death decisions in attempts
to ensure that at least some of them would able to return home alive.”
A Citizen Legislature is a book
by Ernest Callenbach and Michael Phillips. Its text is posted on the internet. Here’s its description followed by an
excerpt.
“Americans are worried about Congress, and they
are right to worry. The founding fathers intended Congress to be representative of all Americans — ‘a portrait
of the people in miniature.’ But today 95% of its members are still white, male, property-owners, almost half of them
lawyers. Congressmembers receive over $300,000,000 in campaign contributions, and their votes follow the demands of the wealthy
sources that provide these funds.
As one observer in Washington puts it, we now live in a ‘special interest
state.’ Congress is not doing the job it was established to do. Many reformers recognize this threat, but solutions
that only deal with campaign spending have failed to reach the root of the problem.
Now there is a scientific
way to select legislators so they will be truly representative. This process worked for the ancient Greeks over more than
two centuries. We can make it work in our society today. We can vote it in, using the people’s initiative powers on
the state level as a start. This book tells how our new system will operate, how it will fit into the existing American governmental
structure, and how it will restore a direct, powerful voice in Washington to the whole of America.”
“It happens that there is an easy and even inexpensive way to choose representatives
for a legislative body so that they would in fact be a ‘transcript’ of the whole society: sortition, or selection
by lottery, which was used by the Athenians to choose representatives for two centuries.
The time has come to
examine this type of direct representation as a possible way to bring the whole people’s voice to Washington. We have
changed our notions of what constitutes proper representation many times in American history. Voting rights in the original
thirteen states could be exercised only by free, white, propertied men; it was not until 1860 that property requirements were
generally struck down, and in the form of poll taxes they persisted in some states until 1965. Freed black slaves theoretically
received the vote in 1870. Women were not given the right to vote until 1920. The Voting Rights Act, which provided effective
access to the ballot for blacks, came only in 1965. Eighteen-year-olds have voted only since 1971.
It is well
within the power of the American people, acting either through the amendment process or through a constitutional convention
(especially if one should be called to consider the proposed balanced budget amendment) to revise our method of selecting
representatives.”
Random Selection in Politics is a book by Professor Lyn Carson and Professor Brian Martin. Here’s an excerpt from the book’s
introduction.
“Government
by elected representatives is taught in schools and presented in the media as the natural way of doing things. Powerfully
legitimized by the ideas of mandate and merit, representatives elected under this system consider that the electorate has
given them a mandate to govern, while bureaucrats consider that merit and expertise justify their role in a powerful decision-making
elite.
Representative government obviously is a great improvement over previous systems of rule, such as feudalism,
autocracy, and dictatorship; but nevertheless it is a system of rule in which citizens have relatively little impact on a
day-to-day basis.”
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