Help Me If You Can!
His most debilitating character flaw was an overriding inability to ask for help. It was a radical sense of independence, bordering on fear of being dependent on anyone for anything. After all, dependence is a sign of weakness so you could think of this condition as a bad case of testosterone fever, egocentrism, or as some would say, pridefulness, resulting in impotence, an inability to multiply oneself. It was the feeling that if there was a job to be done, work to accomplish, or a challenge to be met, that he’d do it, he’s accomplish it, and he’d meet it without needing to ask for anyone’s help.
In the words of John Lennon, his favorite Beatle, “When I was younger, so much younger than today, I never needed anybody’s help in any way.”
He Was Disconnected
He was in this sense disconnected from the world and the people who surrounded him. He suffered from a level of self reliance (a distrust of others) that cut him off, alienated him, and radically minimized his own ability to do what he passionately wanted most to do…help others to help themselves. He was a rock, he was an island, and ironically he was unable to give help to others because he was unwilling, and so unable to ask for or receive any help himself.
What He’d Failed To Understand
What he failed to understand was the reality that being able to give help goes hand in hand with the ability to ask for help and actually receive it. When you close your door to one, you also close it to the other. In Lennon’s words, “But now these days are gone I’m not so self-assured. Now I find I changed my mind, I’ve opened up the door.”
The trick, as he was about to learn, is to open the door, to reconnect, and to recognize that nobody in this world is or ever has been completely self-reliant. In one sense, those who seem to be the most independent are the ones who ask for, and then receive the most help from others.
Sinking In A Sea Of Independence“
How ironic,” he thought to himself. “How incredibly ironic. And why has it taken so long for me to see this? Maybe it was because I refused (or was afraid) to look,” he answered to himself. But the fact was, he was sinking in an infinite sea of independence and suddenly found that he needed somebody to throw him a life-line, somebody to help!
What he suddenly was coming to recognize (at least he was catching the initial glimpses of) was that it’s not so much independence, but disconnectedness that’s the true sign of weakness, impotence, resulting in the inability to multiply oneself. On the other hand, when you connect, you can multiply yourself infinitely, even miraculously.
The Challenge
The question at this point was, how was he going to go about making a change in his life? How was he going to detonate the wall that he’d constructed between himself and other people? How would he go about swallowing his pride, and admitting to other humans that he himself needed help, and that he really isn’t this totally self reliant, self contained, self-absorbed vessel that he had always portrayed himself to be? That was the challenge that was staring him right between the eyes. “I’m going to need some help with this,” he thought to himself smiling.
Despite Being Armed…
Despite being armed with the greatest idea of the 21st century, he’d generated little interest and no real buy in. As he percolated on this dilemma he thought of the classic Stone Soup fairly tale that his Mom used to read him decades before (insert) and the Sermon on the Mount where Christ fed the masses, starting with only 12 loaves of bread, and finishing with lots more at the end (insert). In both cases, the hero asked for help and had miraculously received it.
Lennon’s haunting lyrics came echoing back again and again. “Help me if you can I’m feeling down. And I do appreciate your being ‘round. Help me get my feet back on the ground. Won’t you please, please help me?”
Saturday, November 26, 2005
Monday, July 18, 2005
The Momentum of Conventional Wisdom
It’s Not Just A Conspiracy
It’s The Cumulative Momentum Of Conventionalism
That’s Blocking The Way To Real Progress!
I have people come up to me and say “OK Mr. Buckett, if this idea is everything that you seem to think it is, why haven’t economists like say Allen Greenspan, Milton Friedman, Paul O’Neil, or John Kenneth Galbraith embraced the ideals of Binary Economics and Capital Homesteading?” And to tell you the honest truth, I had exactly the same questions when I was first run over by Kelso/Adler’s Capitalist Manifesto. I mean to me, it was so obvious and blatantly right that I wanted to know why in the world “the experts” hadn’t picked up on it, implemented it, and made the world a better place?
But the more I looked at the situation, and the more knowledgeable friends I talked with, the more I began to understand why “the experts” WILL BE THE LAST ONES to tune into and endorse this incredible, but highly unconventional idea, regardless of how great it is. The reason is that they have far too much invested in conventional wisdom (far too much to lose) to ever embrace an idea as revolutionary as this. Even if they see it clearly, which most of them don’t, their conventional lock step prevents them from even talking about such things in public.
So What Do They Have Invested
So what do they have invested? Well let’s start with years of education and study, high school, college, graduate school, post graduate school, etc. And then there are the professional papers, the articles, the books, the lectures and speeches declaring their allegiance to and support of conventionalism in a myriad of ways. And ultimately there’s the JOB, which is what gives them value, stature, distinction, and worth in the eyes of their friends, peers, and colleagues, if not their family whose bills are paid by this JOB.
In other words even if one of these well invested experts recognizes that the emperor is wearing NO CLOTHES, they can ill afford to point it out without jeopardizing their lifelong investment, their identity, their JOB. So people like Greenspan and Friedman cannot say that Kelso is right because doing so would be confessing that they themselves ARE WRONG, and that’ll never happen.
This Dilemma Applies To Much More Than Just Economists
In a very real sense, what we’re up against is conventional wisdom itself, and this dilemma applies to more than just mainstream economists like Greenspan and Friedman. Academicians generally speaking, often suffer from a similar, uncontrollable case of conventional indoctrination.
I mean that these people are paid by the state to know the conventional answers in their respective fields of endeavor. They’ve studied the conventional subject matter. They’ve thought long and hard about it. They’ve discussed and consulted professionally. And their students and clients are all supposed to look up to them because they are recognized by convention. After all, these folks are educators and teachers and without the answers, then who the hell are they?
To say this a little differently, academicians are the vehicles that our society depends upon to pass conventional wisdom on to the younger generation, and they (the academics) can easily feel threatened by situations that make them look as if they don’t know what they’re talking about, and they tend to avoid these situations like the plague. One other factor, get below the college level and (public) academics are union, through and through…for very good reason I might add. Most own very little wealth producing capital and unionization is a much better alternative than being divided, pitted against one another, and conquered by administrators like the teachers in most private schools. Anyway, academicians will never be the ones to light the binary fire either.
How About Professional Politicians?
Well then, what about professional politicians? You’d think that there would have been at least a few ambitious players who had read about the solution, understood it, and said “My God, I can ride this one all the way to the White House. I’ll be a national if not an international hero by telling the people I represent about the magic in this 21st century concept.” But to date, there have been no such takers.
Of course the problem with politics these days is that the surest way to victory in the third millennium is to get your hands on lots of money, hire the best PR agency you can afford, and spin your way into office. And when it comes to money people, they only back conventional wisdom, which has obviously worked well for them.
Add to that the fact the professional pols are also deeply vested (books, articles, speeches, reputations, etc.) in conventionality and they can ill afford to announce that Kelso has been right all along, because that would mean that they’ve been wrong all along. So the fate of this concept cannot be left in the hands of politicians either.
How About Professional Journalists?
Inevitably someone will suggest that professional journalists should be ripe for a new, outside the box idea like this. After all, they’re always looking for a scoop, an angle, something with which to surprise, provoke, or otherwise capture a reader’s attention. Why would they be averse to spilling the beans on conventionality and to telling they’re readers what they should have been told decades ago now?
To be honest, there have been a few of these journalistic renegades who have dared to think for themselves including Mike Wallace in a 60Minutes story back in the mid seventies, Bill Moyers in one of his famous interview books, and a guy named Nicholas Van Hoffman whose razor sharp pen and wit allowed him to challenge conventional wisdom regularly back in the day. But alas, these rogues were too few and far between to make a legitimate dent in the armor of conventional wisdom.
Furthermore, conventional wisdom owns the newspapers, the magazines, the TV and radio stations and networks who pay the professional journalists salaries. If they fly in the face of convention too hard and too often, they will not only find themselves unemployed, but unemployable in their chosen field of work…a large risk for anyone who lives and dies by the pen.
And Now Throw In The Totally Frustrated, Demoralized Majority
So far we’ve talked only about the protective layer of experts who are effectively paid to guard the palace gates of conventional wisdom, to repeat the company line, and who are unwilling, unable, or both, to risk their own immediate futures for the futures of generations to come. But let’s take one final step here and throw in the myriads of non-experts who have become so dazed and confused, so thoroughly disgusted and frustrated by today’s politics as usual, that they’ve been labeled the demoralized majority.
These people have lost hope. They’ve stopped listening. They’ve stopped thinking about it because it’s too frustrating, and such a waste of time. They feel totally impotent, and unable to make a real difference in the face of the crushing momentum that conventional wisdom has accumulated over the decades. And if they’ve lost hope, if they’ve stopped listening, and stopped thinking, these folks are playing right into the hands of the same status quo who pays the experts to say and think what they want them to say and think. This group of people also offers conventional wisdom a humongous layer of protection that will also have to be pierced if real change is going to occur.
Layer Upon Layer Of Conventional Armor
So what we’re talking about here is a situation where conventional wisdom is protected by layer upon layer of vested interest which discourages the likes of economists, academicians, politicians, and journalists from entertaining any new paradigm. But if they’re unusually adventurous and they happen to taste the forbidden fruit, they’ll find themselves in a situation where revealing a new-found truth would cost them dearly. They’re simply unable to say THE EMPEROR IS WEARING NO CLOTHES OUT LOUD, without having the emperor chop their heads off…a true dilemma for anyone.
If Not The Experts Then Who…
OK, now if “the experts” will not, or cannot afford to tell the public about this amazing new 21st century solution to 21st century problems, who can? The basic answer is that this revolution is going to depend on many non-experts, people whose livelihoods and identities are not owned, controlled, and dependent on the bondage of convention.
Using the emperor as our analogy once again, it was the non-expert, (THE CHILD) who revealed to all the wise old experts, (THE ADULTS) that the emperor was wearing no clothes. It’s going to take independent minded people who, like the child, recognize that what we’re talking about here is not some gigantic, mystical mountain, but something that the average Joe and Josephine walking around on Main Street USA can understand if they’ll only trust their own god given intellects and give it a try. Of course failing to try, effectively prevents all understanding.
Average Folks Cannot Afford To Wait For The Experts To Lead
The moral of the story is that the average folks in this nation can ill afford to wait around for the economists, the academicians, the professional pols, and the journalists to lead the way out of the mess that they led us into. We’re going to have to lead ourselves. And if we fail in that endeavor, the future of justice, democracy, peace, and prosperity for generations to come in these United States and around the world is in deep trouble.
It’s The Cumulative Momentum Of Conventionalism
That’s Blocking The Way To Real Progress!
I have people come up to me and say “OK Mr. Buckett, if this idea is everything that you seem to think it is, why haven’t economists like say Allen Greenspan, Milton Friedman, Paul O’Neil, or John Kenneth Galbraith embraced the ideals of Binary Economics and Capital Homesteading?” And to tell you the honest truth, I had exactly the same questions when I was first run over by Kelso/Adler’s Capitalist Manifesto. I mean to me, it was so obvious and blatantly right that I wanted to know why in the world “the experts” hadn’t picked up on it, implemented it, and made the world a better place?
But the more I looked at the situation, and the more knowledgeable friends I talked with, the more I began to understand why “the experts” WILL BE THE LAST ONES to tune into and endorse this incredible, but highly unconventional idea, regardless of how great it is. The reason is that they have far too much invested in conventional wisdom (far too much to lose) to ever embrace an idea as revolutionary as this. Even if they see it clearly, which most of them don’t, their conventional lock step prevents them from even talking about such things in public.
So What Do They Have Invested
So what do they have invested? Well let’s start with years of education and study, high school, college, graduate school, post graduate school, etc. And then there are the professional papers, the articles, the books, the lectures and speeches declaring their allegiance to and support of conventionalism in a myriad of ways. And ultimately there’s the JOB, which is what gives them value, stature, distinction, and worth in the eyes of their friends, peers, and colleagues, if not their family whose bills are paid by this JOB.
In other words even if one of these well invested experts recognizes that the emperor is wearing NO CLOTHES, they can ill afford to point it out without jeopardizing their lifelong investment, their identity, their JOB. So people like Greenspan and Friedman cannot say that Kelso is right because doing so would be confessing that they themselves ARE WRONG, and that’ll never happen.
This Dilemma Applies To Much More Than Just Economists
In a very real sense, what we’re up against is conventional wisdom itself, and this dilemma applies to more than just mainstream economists like Greenspan and Friedman. Academicians generally speaking, often suffer from a similar, uncontrollable case of conventional indoctrination.
I mean that these people are paid by the state to know the conventional answers in their respective fields of endeavor. They’ve studied the conventional subject matter. They’ve thought long and hard about it. They’ve discussed and consulted professionally. And their students and clients are all supposed to look up to them because they are recognized by convention. After all, these folks are educators and teachers and without the answers, then who the hell are they?
To say this a little differently, academicians are the vehicles that our society depends upon to pass conventional wisdom on to the younger generation, and they (the academics) can easily feel threatened by situations that make them look as if they don’t know what they’re talking about, and they tend to avoid these situations like the plague. One other factor, get below the college level and (public) academics are union, through and through…for very good reason I might add. Most own very little wealth producing capital and unionization is a much better alternative than being divided, pitted against one another, and conquered by administrators like the teachers in most private schools. Anyway, academicians will never be the ones to light the binary fire either.
How About Professional Politicians?
Well then, what about professional politicians? You’d think that there would have been at least a few ambitious players who had read about the solution, understood it, and said “My God, I can ride this one all the way to the White House. I’ll be a national if not an international hero by telling the people I represent about the magic in this 21st century concept.” But to date, there have been no such takers.
Of course the problem with politics these days is that the surest way to victory in the third millennium is to get your hands on lots of money, hire the best PR agency you can afford, and spin your way into office. And when it comes to money people, they only back conventional wisdom, which has obviously worked well for them.
Add to that the fact the professional pols are also deeply vested (books, articles, speeches, reputations, etc.) in conventionality and they can ill afford to announce that Kelso has been right all along, because that would mean that they’ve been wrong all along. So the fate of this concept cannot be left in the hands of politicians either.
How About Professional Journalists?
Inevitably someone will suggest that professional journalists should be ripe for a new, outside the box idea like this. After all, they’re always looking for a scoop, an angle, something with which to surprise, provoke, or otherwise capture a reader’s attention. Why would they be averse to spilling the beans on conventionality and to telling they’re readers what they should have been told decades ago now?
To be honest, there have been a few of these journalistic renegades who have dared to think for themselves including Mike Wallace in a 60Minutes story back in the mid seventies, Bill Moyers in one of his famous interview books, and a guy named Nicholas Van Hoffman whose razor sharp pen and wit allowed him to challenge conventional wisdom regularly back in the day. But alas, these rogues were too few and far between to make a legitimate dent in the armor of conventional wisdom.
Furthermore, conventional wisdom owns the newspapers, the magazines, the TV and radio stations and networks who pay the professional journalists salaries. If they fly in the face of convention too hard and too often, they will not only find themselves unemployed, but unemployable in their chosen field of work…a large risk for anyone who lives and dies by the pen.
And Now Throw In The Totally Frustrated, Demoralized Majority
So far we’ve talked only about the protective layer of experts who are effectively paid to guard the palace gates of conventional wisdom, to repeat the company line, and who are unwilling, unable, or both, to risk their own immediate futures for the futures of generations to come. But let’s take one final step here and throw in the myriads of non-experts who have become so dazed and confused, so thoroughly disgusted and frustrated by today’s politics as usual, that they’ve been labeled the demoralized majority.
These people have lost hope. They’ve stopped listening. They’ve stopped thinking about it because it’s too frustrating, and such a waste of time. They feel totally impotent, and unable to make a real difference in the face of the crushing momentum that conventional wisdom has accumulated over the decades. And if they’ve lost hope, if they’ve stopped listening, and stopped thinking, these folks are playing right into the hands of the same status quo who pays the experts to say and think what they want them to say and think. This group of people also offers conventional wisdom a humongous layer of protection that will also have to be pierced if real change is going to occur.
Layer Upon Layer Of Conventional Armor
So what we’re talking about here is a situation where conventional wisdom is protected by layer upon layer of vested interest which discourages the likes of economists, academicians, politicians, and journalists from entertaining any new paradigm. But if they’re unusually adventurous and they happen to taste the forbidden fruit, they’ll find themselves in a situation where revealing a new-found truth would cost them dearly. They’re simply unable to say THE EMPEROR IS WEARING NO CLOTHES OUT LOUD, without having the emperor chop their heads off…a true dilemma for anyone.
If Not The Experts Then Who…
OK, now if “the experts” will not, or cannot afford to tell the public about this amazing new 21st century solution to 21st century problems, who can? The basic answer is that this revolution is going to depend on many non-experts, people whose livelihoods and identities are not owned, controlled, and dependent on the bondage of convention.
Using the emperor as our analogy once again, it was the non-expert, (THE CHILD) who revealed to all the wise old experts, (THE ADULTS) that the emperor was wearing no clothes. It’s going to take independent minded people who, like the child, recognize that what we’re talking about here is not some gigantic, mystical mountain, but something that the average Joe and Josephine walking around on Main Street USA can understand if they’ll only trust their own god given intellects and give it a try. Of course failing to try, effectively prevents all understanding.
Average Folks Cannot Afford To Wait For The Experts To Lead
The moral of the story is that the average folks in this nation can ill afford to wait around for the economists, the academicians, the professional pols, and the journalists to lead the way out of the mess that they led us into. We’re going to have to lead ourselves. And if we fail in that endeavor, the future of justice, democracy, peace, and prosperity for generations to come in these United States and around the world is in deep trouble.
Thursday, February 10, 2005
Red Ink Unlimited
“At Its Current Pace The Bush Administration Will Run Out Of Numbers With Which To Calculate The National Debt By Mid 2007!”
Washington, DC - So How bad is the national debt anyway? That’s the essential question being addressed by the conservative, accounting oriented think tank calling itself Mathematics Unlimited. Wrestling with the overwhelming national debt being created by the invasion of Iraq at about two billion a week, combined with the mega tax cuts the administration implemented in its first go around, and the entitlement programs that no politician is willing to take on, Math Unlimited spokesman Dr. I.M. Prudent came nose to nose against a really tough question.
Deep Accounting Doo Doo
In Prudent’s own words, “What number comes after nine hundred and ninety nine trillion and change? See what I mean? If we don’t come up with an answer soon, we are going to find ourselves in some deep accounting doo doo, because we’ll be unable to calculate the national debt that these boys are so hell bent on creating. How’ll we keep track of who owes who what?” Prudent asked with a quizzical look on his face. “This dilemma will require some brave mathematician to boldly go where no other mathematician has ever gone before.”
Cackajillion Is Coming On Strong
There have been several suggestions offered by Bush Administration supporters including things like “a sicillion” (offered by a friend from the mob), or “a dillion” (offered by a pickle manufacturer), and “a villion” (offered by Donald Rumsfeld himself). Someone even suggested “a Willion” in honor of W. Another guy suggested that the answer might be found in “light numbers” kind of like the astronomers who now deal in light years.
But the leading contender according to Prudent, came from a West Texas golf teaching pro named Dalton McCrary who suggested the new category of numbers should be “a cackajillion.” Asked to explain his idea McCrary said, “It just had a nice ring.”
In any case, in case any if readers have a suggestion for heading off this pending accounting disaster, just waiting to happen, please email Dr. Prudent any time at the following address, Prude@mathunlimited.com . He’s most anxious to hear from you.
Washington, DC - So How bad is the national debt anyway? That’s the essential question being addressed by the conservative, accounting oriented think tank calling itself Mathematics Unlimited. Wrestling with the overwhelming national debt being created by the invasion of Iraq at about two billion a week, combined with the mega tax cuts the administration implemented in its first go around, and the entitlement programs that no politician is willing to take on, Math Unlimited spokesman Dr. I.M. Prudent came nose to nose against a really tough question.
Deep Accounting Doo Doo
In Prudent’s own words, “What number comes after nine hundred and ninety nine trillion and change? See what I mean? If we don’t come up with an answer soon, we are going to find ourselves in some deep accounting doo doo, because we’ll be unable to calculate the national debt that these boys are so hell bent on creating. How’ll we keep track of who owes who what?” Prudent asked with a quizzical look on his face. “This dilemma will require some brave mathematician to boldly go where no other mathematician has ever gone before.”
Cackajillion Is Coming On Strong
There have been several suggestions offered by Bush Administration supporters including things like “a sicillion” (offered by a friend from the mob), or “a dillion” (offered by a pickle manufacturer), and “a villion” (offered by Donald Rumsfeld himself). Someone even suggested “a Willion” in honor of W. Another guy suggested that the answer might be found in “light numbers” kind of like the astronomers who now deal in light years.
But the leading contender according to Prudent, came from a West Texas golf teaching pro named Dalton McCrary who suggested the new category of numbers should be “a cackajillion.” Asked to explain his idea McCrary said, “It just had a nice ring.”
In any case, in case any if readers have a suggestion for heading off this pending accounting disaster, just waiting to happen, please email Dr. Prudent any time at the following address, Prude@mathunlimited.com . He’s most anxious to hear from you.
Saturday, February 05, 2005
Some Pregame Quarterbacking Thoughts
Some Pre Game Quarterbacking Thoughts For Your Reaction
Goal Number One For The American Revolutionary Party is to field a Capital Homesteading candidate who will win the White House in 2008.
Goal Number Two for the American Revolutionary Party is to field CH Candidates to win other public offices from the local level through the Federal level in 2006/8.
How Do We Accomplish These Two Goals?
We must generate a sufficient number of people who understand, and actively support Capital Homesteading and our candidates.
How Do We Generate These Numbers?
We must double ourselves each month by becoming radioactive with understanding and so contagious that we naturally talk about it, and attract others without even trying.
How Do You Become Radioactive With Understanding?
You become radioactive with understanding by getting down in the mud wrestling with the beast. The more you wrestle with it, the deeper your understanding will be. And the deeper your understanding, the more radioactive and contagious you’ll become.
How Do You Wrestle With The Beast? Let’s Check Out Several Possibilities…
1. You could find the time to check out Joe’s “10 Things You Can Do Almost Immediately,” page and activate yourself by doing one or two of these things.
2. You could talk on the phone to or email fellow members and ask all the really tough questions you can come up with.
3. You could weigh in on Joe’s blog once or twice a week.
4. Carol is planning to record a series of interviews with ESOP employees in order to get an “inside the box” prospective on that part of our solution.
5. Monica and Brooke are interested in addressing local groups with the Capital Homesteading message.
6. Jen Zuri is helping JLB to develop a power point presentation that Brooke, Monica, or anyone else in the country could use to make presentations.
7. You can make the monthly meeting a priority, and if you don’t, you’ll never really become radioactive with understanding, and the big idea whose time has come, will be written off again by the powerful few at the expense of the many.
8. However, by wrestling with the beast in any one of these ways (and there are countless other possibilities) the message will not only be getting out to other people, but the wrestlers themselves will become more and more radioactive by growing their own understanding to deeper and deeper levels.
If We Persist And Succeed In Doing These Things Month After Month…
If we can all actively wrestle with the beast just a little bit month after month, we will attract the attention of many people, and eventually political superstars like say Barak Obama, will get on board with us because the people have gotten on board with us, and we’ll drive this idea whose time has come into the White House, into the House and the Senate, at the national, state, and local levels, and we will succeed in helping to transform our nation into one that our own kids, and future generations can look back upon, be proud of, and be thankful that in this time of real crisis, real people were willing to stand up and take real action. Carpe diem!
Goal Number One For The American Revolutionary Party is to field a Capital Homesteading candidate who will win the White House in 2008.
Goal Number Two for the American Revolutionary Party is to field CH Candidates to win other public offices from the local level through the Federal level in 2006/8.
How Do We Accomplish These Two Goals?
We must generate a sufficient number of people who understand, and actively support Capital Homesteading and our candidates.
How Do We Generate These Numbers?
We must double ourselves each month by becoming radioactive with understanding and so contagious that we naturally talk about it, and attract others without even trying.
How Do You Become Radioactive With Understanding?
You become radioactive with understanding by getting down in the mud wrestling with the beast. The more you wrestle with it, the deeper your understanding will be. And the deeper your understanding, the more radioactive and contagious you’ll become.
How Do You Wrestle With The Beast? Let’s Check Out Several Possibilities…
1. You could find the time to check out Joe’s “10 Things You Can Do Almost Immediately,” page and activate yourself by doing one or two of these things.
2. You could talk on the phone to or email fellow members and ask all the really tough questions you can come up with.
3. You could weigh in on Joe’s blog once or twice a week.
4. Carol is planning to record a series of interviews with ESOP employees in order to get an “inside the box” prospective on that part of our solution.
5. Monica and Brooke are interested in addressing local groups with the Capital Homesteading message.
6. Jen Zuri is helping JLB to develop a power point presentation that Brooke, Monica, or anyone else in the country could use to make presentations.
7. You can make the monthly meeting a priority, and if you don’t, you’ll never really become radioactive with understanding, and the big idea whose time has come, will be written off again by the powerful few at the expense of the many.
8. However, by wrestling with the beast in any one of these ways (and there are countless other possibilities) the message will not only be getting out to other people, but the wrestlers themselves will become more and more radioactive by growing their own understanding to deeper and deeper levels.
If We Persist And Succeed In Doing These Things Month After Month…
If we can all actively wrestle with the beast just a little bit month after month, we will attract the attention of many people, and eventually political superstars like say Barak Obama, will get on board with us because the people have gotten on board with us, and we’ll drive this idea whose time has come into the White House, into the House and the Senate, at the national, state, and local levels, and we will succeed in helping to transform our nation into one that our own kids, and future generations can look back upon, be proud of, and be thankful that in this time of real crisis, real people were willing to stand up and take real action. Carpe diem!
Tuesday, February 01, 2005
A Valentines Thought For Resolutionaries
Political Junkie Turned Love Counselor Claims…
“I Know The Secret Of What Girls Really Want, But I’m Willing To Bet Nobody’s Ever Told You…”
OK already, I know that people out on the street think of Joe L. Buckett as a political junkie/hack and not a love counselor. However, for Valentines Day I’m going to swap my political junkie/hack hat for a love counselor’s hat and see if I can make a point here. You see, in my younger years, after a great deal of research and exploration, I discovered a secret. I discovered what girls really want from a relationship with a guy. Then I found the girl I really wanted, I gave her what she really wanted, and guess what…we’ve been happily married now for over thirty years.
Now I recognize that all the girlie magazines claim to be able to reveal this same deep, dark secret…if you’ll only buy their monthly publication. Their revelations though are so incredibly shallow and predictable that you know what they’re going to say before you ever check out the table of contents. They always “reveal” to you that girls want bigger body parts, harder body parts, trimmer and slimmer body parts, heavy breathing, and a man with a slow hand…and all kinds of other inane drivel that leaves you without a clue about what girls really want. Am I right? You know I’m right. Tell me I’m wrong?
And The Secret Is…
But I’m procrastinating, and I know that you’re anxious to learn the secret that I’ve promised to reveal, so let’s get on with the show. But I warn you, when you hear it, you’re going to exclaim, “My God, I knew that all along. It’s so obvious. Why didn’t I think of it?” So before you get more upset, here’s the secret. And you can quote me to any girl you know and ask her if I’m not absolutely correct in my analysis.
What girls want most of all is to spend their days and nights, weeks, months, and years being actively engaged in activities that are interesting, meaningful, creative, colorful, and just plain worth doing. To be engaged in such activities effectively makes your life meaningful and worth living, right?
On the other hand, what girls want to avoid at all cost is being engaged in activities that are boring, tedious, repetitious, routine, mundane, mechanical, and ultimately unworthy of any genuine human’s legitimate attention. Are you with me so far? After all, doing such things makes your life meaningless and unworthy of living.
If You Really Want To Really Impress Her…
So, if you want to make a really great impression on that girl of your dreams, then put her in situations in which you’re both actively exploring things and places that are really interesting, meaningful, creative, colorful, and ultimately worth exploring… together! And if you do these kinds of things together, she’ll soon begin to associate all those good times with YOU. And when you become the recognized source of all of her great times, you’ll have a huge advantage over your competition, I guarantee it. You’ll be in position to win her heart. Now go ahead and say it. You knew this secret all along, didn’t you. It just never quite lit up on your radar screen. See what I mean?
The One Big Fly In The Ointment
The one really big fly in the ointment though is, what happens if you are personally living one of those totally dull, boring, mundane, and ultimately tedious lives yourself. How in the world are you ever going to create situations full of legitimate excitement and adventure for her, and eventually win her heart if you can’t even do if for yourself? That’s right, if you’re incapable of creating adventure in your own life, what are the odds that you can produce that miracle in someone else’s life?
How Can I Pursue Excitement And Adventure When I Have Bills To Pay…
“Hold on, hold on,” you say. “Now you’re insulting me and making me mad. You see the reason I’m unable to create excitement and adventure in my own tedious and totally boring life is that I’m caught up in the modern economics of making a living. I mean those exciting adventures you keep yakking on and on about require money to make them happen. And in my case, I wasn’t born a Kennedy or a Rockefeller. I wasn’t born on a yacht, I didn’t grow up playing polo, and I didn’t inherit the opportunity to live adventurously. I’m the paycheck to paycheck kind of guy who’s just trying to meet his mortgage payments, car payments, food, and utilities with THE DAY JOB!”
“Not only that, but the company I work for squeezes me for between 40 and 50 hours each week, which means that any excitement and adventure has to be stuffed in and around the stupid DAY JOB. And to be honest, when five o’clock rolls around, I’m bushed and ready to put my feet up. And all you want to talk about is how I need to create excitement and adventure if I want to attract and impress the girl of my dreams.”
I Already Know The Girl Of My Dreams, But…
“But there’s more. I actually know the girl of my dreams and I happen to know that she’s caught up in the same bloody dilemma. I mean like me, she grew up being sold on the idea that hard work, and keeping your nose to the grindstone will get you ahead in the good old USA. But the only thing that hard work has produced for either one of us are two incredibly boring DAY JOBS, which we both loathe, but for the moment neither of us can afford to quit, because, as they always say, A DAY JOB you hate beats bankruptcy and starvation every time.”
“I mean when you say wage slave, my girl and I can both fully identify. When you say industrial sharecropper, we know exactly what you’re talking about. I mean we’re both working the master’s plantation, and we’re both supposed to be thankful to him for giving the opportunity to us instead of some other poor slobs. And if we complain out loud, we’re out on our ears. But honestly, I don’t know what to do about this problem. And without a viable answer, I don’t see how I am supposed to be able create a life full of meaningful excitement and adventure for me or for her. What do you suggest Joe?”
Slaying The Wage Slave Dragon
I suggest that winning a girls heart is, and always will be, a matter of romance, adventure, and slaying multi-headed, tail swishing, fire-breathing dragons. The modern day beast may not always be as easy to spot as the original fire breathers of a previous era. But they’re still very big, very powerful, very intimidating, and extremely dangerous, just like their predecessors back in the days of King Arthur and Sir Lancelot. So let’s have a quick look at four ways that guys today challenge the fire breathing, Wage Slave Dragons of the 21st century, and analyze where they succeed, and where they fall short, especially in terms of winning the heart of your dream girl.
Slaying The Wage Slave Dragon, Level One…
So what kinds of things do modern guys do to spice up their lives, to counteract their adventure and excitement free lives of wage slavery, and to win the heart of their dream girl? Well some guys join the health club and try to make certain body parts bigger and harder, and other body parts trimmer and slimmer. Others buy hot, fancy cars because all the advertisements portray cars as sexy and adventurous. And there some guys who take exotic vacations to far away places, cultivate a taste for gourmet food and drink, become sports or rock and roll junkies, go to movies, play poker, gamble, or worse. And for these guys variety is the spice of life. These kinds of activities certainly are better than nothing. They will provide temporary relief (the dragon still controls most of their week) from the ravages of a tedious and stressful day job, and they will win the hearts of some girls…at least temporarily.
Slaying The Wage Slave Dragon, Level Two…
Another strategy used to slay the wage slave dragon is when you start your own business, work for yourself, direct your own traffic, be your own boss, and eliminate the guy who owns 40 to 60 hours of your life each week so he can tell you what to do, and when to do it, for that specific period of time. Generally speaking, starting your own business is an adventure, and done right, you’ll at least have the potential to eventually own and control your own life, to experience the financial independence (freedom) that employees seldom experience, to create the discretionary time in which real adventure can develop into a way of life, and win the heart of your dream girl.
The problem however is that ninety percent of new business startups fail within their first year. And for those who don’t fail, the owner is usually so caught up in keeping his company afloat, that he still works 60 to 70 hours a week. As the result, the freedom and discretionary time that should be the fruit of his hard work and dedication, is seldom experienced. In other words, although the boss has been eliminated, the wage slave dragon is still lurking in the shadows of the days, weeks, months, and years of most small business owners, and it generally prevents him from ever getting around to creating the adventure, and the excitement required to win the heart of his dream girl.
Slaying The Wage Slave Dragon, Level Three
At this level you and your family actually start to break free from the wage slave dragon. The big antidote for you and yours is when the wealth producing capital that you own generates enough passive income to pay all your bills, and meet all your financial obligations. When and if that day ever arrives, you’ll be financially independent, and free to give your days, weeks, months, and years to those activities that YOU decide are most important and most meaningful in your life, instead of what the boss or the customer thinks are most important and meaningful.
The problem with slaying the wage slave dragon at level three is that it’s extremely limited because so few people ever achieve it, which means that so few get to experience this level of freedom. Furthermore, if this level is achieved, (think of your favorite movie star, rock star, or sports hero here) you’re now faced with the challenge of actively finding something meaningful (yachting anyone?) to do with your life. There are no more excuses because your life now belongs to you, not to the boss or the customer. And if you’re unable to solve that little dilemma, you’re destined to come face to face with the vacuum of meaninglessness and ennui, which has caused many a privileged human to escape into the bottle, the needle, or some other self destructive behavior.
Not only that, in the current confused economy, the natural tendency is for capital (and financial freedom) to accumulate (be monopolized) in the hands of a few (YOU) at the expense of the many, which itself is the root cause of social unrest, crime, and what we now call TERRORISM in the 21st century. And while this level of dragon slaying may win the hearts of many girls, that real girl who wants to live a meaningful and fulfilling life will probably find this level of adventure extremely shallow, and meaningless. But at this stage you’ve certainly broken away from the grasp of the wage slave dragon yourself. On the other hand, you’ve left most others on the hook and struggling to free themselves from the monster’s grip. And one of them could be the girl of your dreams.
Slaying The Wage Slave Dragon, Level Four
At this level you will be encountering the dragon at its most dangerous. You’ll be encountering him at the systematic level. To do this will not only require tremendous courage, but tremendous skill, and tremendous knowledge of your opponent. You see at this level you’ll be attempting to destroy the Wage Slave Dragon not only for yourself and your girl, but for people all over America, and eventually the world. Talk about a real live adventure with wide ranging consequences! This one really is the big one!
And to even entertain such an incredibly outrageous thought, many of your friends will laugh at you, and think you’ve gone completely off your rocker. But if you really understand the immensity of the stakes, the nature of your opponent, and method by which you can win this epic battle with history’s most ferocious beast, you’ll be able to chew up all those criticisms and spit ‘em out, you’ll find the heart to persist, and you’ll win, not only the heart and respect of your dream girl, but the hearts, minds, the respect and thanks of generations for years and years to come. You’ll also feel good about YOU.
I Suggest That You Ride To The Rescue Of Your Damsel In Distress…
So as a political junkie now turned love counselor, I work with people like you all the time…people who are facing exactly the same problems. My suggestion is as follows. I suggest that you first take stock in yourself, then leap into the saddle of your proud black stallion, draw your terrible swift sword, and then ride off to rescue your modern day damsel in distress.
I suggest you devise a clear and potent strategy with which you can successfully go toe to toe, eyeball to eyeball with this all intimidating, fire-breathing dragon who has his bloody claws wrapped around the lives of both you, your girl friend, not to mention most of the world’s people, and slay this dragon at level four, once and for all, in such a way that he never ever rears his ugly head again.
Identifying The Enemy
But if you’re going to accept this incredibly romantic and adventurous challenge, with any realistic expectation of success, it’s essential that you fully identify this enemy, and to know as much about him as you possibly can before you mount your lethal attack. So let’s start that ball rolling by giving the dragon a name. Let’s call him…
· Concentrated wealth/power
· Concentrated capital ownership
· Anti-democratic capitalism that benefits a few at the expense of the many
· A system of wage slavery
· A system of industrial sharecroppers
· The Federal Reserve and The World Bank
· Thought control through ownership and control of the mass media
· The modern and thoroughly confusing political shell game
· The Republican Party owned and controlled by the corporate elite
· The Democratic Party owned and controlled by the corporate elite
· The Libertarians, the Socialists, the Greens
· Shock and Awe
· Etc…there are lots of other names, but these will do for starters
Learning All About Your Enemy
Now that we’ve given the dragon a name, an identity, the next task is for you to learn all that you can learn about him, including his strengths and his weaknesses, so that when you mount your attack you will succeed in bringing him to the ground, and you’ll be in a position where you can cut off his head, and finally slay this dragon once and for all. I mean once he’s down, you’d better keep him down, right?
Now in my own prejudiced view, the best way to become well informed about the characteristics of this absolutely hideous, modern day dragon is to check out several good websites that explain this subject thoroughly. They include…
www.joelunchbuckett.com
www.americanrevolutionaryparty.us
www.cesj.com and a number of others that are referenced on these three sites.
Then You Will Cut Off Its Head, And…
And once you’ve made a thorough study of the enemy, you need to gather your troops and prepare for the attack. At this point you will have approximately 45 months to gather your team together. At the end of that period of time you will mount an attack that will bring this modern fire-breathing dragon to its knees, you will proceed to cut off its head, and mount it on a stake for all to see.
Finally You And Your Girl Will Ride Off Into The Sunset, And…
In the mean time you will have courageously gone toe to toe, eyeball to eyeball with the largest fire-breathing dragon the world has ever known, lived through 45 months worth of romantic excitement and adventure in the process, rescued not only your damsel in distress and won her heart, but you will have rescued yourself and many others from the dredges of wage slavery and industrial sharecropperism at the same time. And after all that, I think it will be safe to say that you and your girl will be able to ride off into the proverbial sunset and live happily ever after. What do you think?
P.S. Ladies, the excitement and adventure recipe works just as well on guys. I say let’s all ride off, slay this bloody dragon, and finally live meaningful lives of our own. While we’re in the process, let’s help our kids and their kids, etc., etc. to do the same. And if we fail to achieve that noble goal, we have nobody to blame but ourselves.
“I Know The Secret Of What Girls Really Want, But I’m Willing To Bet Nobody’s Ever Told You…”
OK already, I know that people out on the street think of Joe L. Buckett as a political junkie/hack and not a love counselor. However, for Valentines Day I’m going to swap my political junkie/hack hat for a love counselor’s hat and see if I can make a point here. You see, in my younger years, after a great deal of research and exploration, I discovered a secret. I discovered what girls really want from a relationship with a guy. Then I found the girl I really wanted, I gave her what she really wanted, and guess what…we’ve been happily married now for over thirty years.
Now I recognize that all the girlie magazines claim to be able to reveal this same deep, dark secret…if you’ll only buy their monthly publication. Their revelations though are so incredibly shallow and predictable that you know what they’re going to say before you ever check out the table of contents. They always “reveal” to you that girls want bigger body parts, harder body parts, trimmer and slimmer body parts, heavy breathing, and a man with a slow hand…and all kinds of other inane drivel that leaves you without a clue about what girls really want. Am I right? You know I’m right. Tell me I’m wrong?
And The Secret Is…
But I’m procrastinating, and I know that you’re anxious to learn the secret that I’ve promised to reveal, so let’s get on with the show. But I warn you, when you hear it, you’re going to exclaim, “My God, I knew that all along. It’s so obvious. Why didn’t I think of it?” So before you get more upset, here’s the secret. And you can quote me to any girl you know and ask her if I’m not absolutely correct in my analysis.
What girls want most of all is to spend their days and nights, weeks, months, and years being actively engaged in activities that are interesting, meaningful, creative, colorful, and just plain worth doing. To be engaged in such activities effectively makes your life meaningful and worth living, right?
On the other hand, what girls want to avoid at all cost is being engaged in activities that are boring, tedious, repetitious, routine, mundane, mechanical, and ultimately unworthy of any genuine human’s legitimate attention. Are you with me so far? After all, doing such things makes your life meaningless and unworthy of living.
If You Really Want To Really Impress Her…
So, if you want to make a really great impression on that girl of your dreams, then put her in situations in which you’re both actively exploring things and places that are really interesting, meaningful, creative, colorful, and ultimately worth exploring… together! And if you do these kinds of things together, she’ll soon begin to associate all those good times with YOU. And when you become the recognized source of all of her great times, you’ll have a huge advantage over your competition, I guarantee it. You’ll be in position to win her heart. Now go ahead and say it. You knew this secret all along, didn’t you. It just never quite lit up on your radar screen. See what I mean?
The One Big Fly In The Ointment
The one really big fly in the ointment though is, what happens if you are personally living one of those totally dull, boring, mundane, and ultimately tedious lives yourself. How in the world are you ever going to create situations full of legitimate excitement and adventure for her, and eventually win her heart if you can’t even do if for yourself? That’s right, if you’re incapable of creating adventure in your own life, what are the odds that you can produce that miracle in someone else’s life?
How Can I Pursue Excitement And Adventure When I Have Bills To Pay…
“Hold on, hold on,” you say. “Now you’re insulting me and making me mad. You see the reason I’m unable to create excitement and adventure in my own tedious and totally boring life is that I’m caught up in the modern economics of making a living. I mean those exciting adventures you keep yakking on and on about require money to make them happen. And in my case, I wasn’t born a Kennedy or a Rockefeller. I wasn’t born on a yacht, I didn’t grow up playing polo, and I didn’t inherit the opportunity to live adventurously. I’m the paycheck to paycheck kind of guy who’s just trying to meet his mortgage payments, car payments, food, and utilities with THE DAY JOB!”
“Not only that, but the company I work for squeezes me for between 40 and 50 hours each week, which means that any excitement and adventure has to be stuffed in and around the stupid DAY JOB. And to be honest, when five o’clock rolls around, I’m bushed and ready to put my feet up. And all you want to talk about is how I need to create excitement and adventure if I want to attract and impress the girl of my dreams.”
I Already Know The Girl Of My Dreams, But…
“But there’s more. I actually know the girl of my dreams and I happen to know that she’s caught up in the same bloody dilemma. I mean like me, she grew up being sold on the idea that hard work, and keeping your nose to the grindstone will get you ahead in the good old USA. But the only thing that hard work has produced for either one of us are two incredibly boring DAY JOBS, which we both loathe, but for the moment neither of us can afford to quit, because, as they always say, A DAY JOB you hate beats bankruptcy and starvation every time.”
“I mean when you say wage slave, my girl and I can both fully identify. When you say industrial sharecropper, we know exactly what you’re talking about. I mean we’re both working the master’s plantation, and we’re both supposed to be thankful to him for giving the opportunity to us instead of some other poor slobs. And if we complain out loud, we’re out on our ears. But honestly, I don’t know what to do about this problem. And without a viable answer, I don’t see how I am supposed to be able create a life full of meaningful excitement and adventure for me or for her. What do you suggest Joe?”
Slaying The Wage Slave Dragon
I suggest that winning a girls heart is, and always will be, a matter of romance, adventure, and slaying multi-headed, tail swishing, fire-breathing dragons. The modern day beast may not always be as easy to spot as the original fire breathers of a previous era. But they’re still very big, very powerful, very intimidating, and extremely dangerous, just like their predecessors back in the days of King Arthur and Sir Lancelot. So let’s have a quick look at four ways that guys today challenge the fire breathing, Wage Slave Dragons of the 21st century, and analyze where they succeed, and where they fall short, especially in terms of winning the heart of your dream girl.
Slaying The Wage Slave Dragon, Level One…
So what kinds of things do modern guys do to spice up their lives, to counteract their adventure and excitement free lives of wage slavery, and to win the heart of their dream girl? Well some guys join the health club and try to make certain body parts bigger and harder, and other body parts trimmer and slimmer. Others buy hot, fancy cars because all the advertisements portray cars as sexy and adventurous. And there some guys who take exotic vacations to far away places, cultivate a taste for gourmet food and drink, become sports or rock and roll junkies, go to movies, play poker, gamble, or worse. And for these guys variety is the spice of life. These kinds of activities certainly are better than nothing. They will provide temporary relief (the dragon still controls most of their week) from the ravages of a tedious and stressful day job, and they will win the hearts of some girls…at least temporarily.
Slaying The Wage Slave Dragon, Level Two…
Another strategy used to slay the wage slave dragon is when you start your own business, work for yourself, direct your own traffic, be your own boss, and eliminate the guy who owns 40 to 60 hours of your life each week so he can tell you what to do, and when to do it, for that specific period of time. Generally speaking, starting your own business is an adventure, and done right, you’ll at least have the potential to eventually own and control your own life, to experience the financial independence (freedom) that employees seldom experience, to create the discretionary time in which real adventure can develop into a way of life, and win the heart of your dream girl.
The problem however is that ninety percent of new business startups fail within their first year. And for those who don’t fail, the owner is usually so caught up in keeping his company afloat, that he still works 60 to 70 hours a week. As the result, the freedom and discretionary time that should be the fruit of his hard work and dedication, is seldom experienced. In other words, although the boss has been eliminated, the wage slave dragon is still lurking in the shadows of the days, weeks, months, and years of most small business owners, and it generally prevents him from ever getting around to creating the adventure, and the excitement required to win the heart of his dream girl.
Slaying The Wage Slave Dragon, Level Three
At this level you and your family actually start to break free from the wage slave dragon. The big antidote for you and yours is when the wealth producing capital that you own generates enough passive income to pay all your bills, and meet all your financial obligations. When and if that day ever arrives, you’ll be financially independent, and free to give your days, weeks, months, and years to those activities that YOU decide are most important and most meaningful in your life, instead of what the boss or the customer thinks are most important and meaningful.
The problem with slaying the wage slave dragon at level three is that it’s extremely limited because so few people ever achieve it, which means that so few get to experience this level of freedom. Furthermore, if this level is achieved, (think of your favorite movie star, rock star, or sports hero here) you’re now faced with the challenge of actively finding something meaningful (yachting anyone?) to do with your life. There are no more excuses because your life now belongs to you, not to the boss or the customer. And if you’re unable to solve that little dilemma, you’re destined to come face to face with the vacuum of meaninglessness and ennui, which has caused many a privileged human to escape into the bottle, the needle, or some other self destructive behavior.
Not only that, in the current confused economy, the natural tendency is for capital (and financial freedom) to accumulate (be monopolized) in the hands of a few (YOU) at the expense of the many, which itself is the root cause of social unrest, crime, and what we now call TERRORISM in the 21st century. And while this level of dragon slaying may win the hearts of many girls, that real girl who wants to live a meaningful and fulfilling life will probably find this level of adventure extremely shallow, and meaningless. But at this stage you’ve certainly broken away from the grasp of the wage slave dragon yourself. On the other hand, you’ve left most others on the hook and struggling to free themselves from the monster’s grip. And one of them could be the girl of your dreams.
Slaying The Wage Slave Dragon, Level Four
At this level you will be encountering the dragon at its most dangerous. You’ll be encountering him at the systematic level. To do this will not only require tremendous courage, but tremendous skill, and tremendous knowledge of your opponent. You see at this level you’ll be attempting to destroy the Wage Slave Dragon not only for yourself and your girl, but for people all over America, and eventually the world. Talk about a real live adventure with wide ranging consequences! This one really is the big one!
And to even entertain such an incredibly outrageous thought, many of your friends will laugh at you, and think you’ve gone completely off your rocker. But if you really understand the immensity of the stakes, the nature of your opponent, and method by which you can win this epic battle with history’s most ferocious beast, you’ll be able to chew up all those criticisms and spit ‘em out, you’ll find the heart to persist, and you’ll win, not only the heart and respect of your dream girl, but the hearts, minds, the respect and thanks of generations for years and years to come. You’ll also feel good about YOU.
I Suggest That You Ride To The Rescue Of Your Damsel In Distress…
So as a political junkie now turned love counselor, I work with people like you all the time…people who are facing exactly the same problems. My suggestion is as follows. I suggest that you first take stock in yourself, then leap into the saddle of your proud black stallion, draw your terrible swift sword, and then ride off to rescue your modern day damsel in distress.
I suggest you devise a clear and potent strategy with which you can successfully go toe to toe, eyeball to eyeball with this all intimidating, fire-breathing dragon who has his bloody claws wrapped around the lives of both you, your girl friend, not to mention most of the world’s people, and slay this dragon at level four, once and for all, in such a way that he never ever rears his ugly head again.
Identifying The Enemy
But if you’re going to accept this incredibly romantic and adventurous challenge, with any realistic expectation of success, it’s essential that you fully identify this enemy, and to know as much about him as you possibly can before you mount your lethal attack. So let’s start that ball rolling by giving the dragon a name. Let’s call him…
· Concentrated wealth/power
· Concentrated capital ownership
· Anti-democratic capitalism that benefits a few at the expense of the many
· A system of wage slavery
· A system of industrial sharecroppers
· The Federal Reserve and The World Bank
· Thought control through ownership and control of the mass media
· The modern and thoroughly confusing political shell game
· The Republican Party owned and controlled by the corporate elite
· The Democratic Party owned and controlled by the corporate elite
· The Libertarians, the Socialists, the Greens
· Shock and Awe
· Etc…there are lots of other names, but these will do for starters
Learning All About Your Enemy
Now that we’ve given the dragon a name, an identity, the next task is for you to learn all that you can learn about him, including his strengths and his weaknesses, so that when you mount your attack you will succeed in bringing him to the ground, and you’ll be in a position where you can cut off his head, and finally slay this dragon once and for all. I mean once he’s down, you’d better keep him down, right?
Now in my own prejudiced view, the best way to become well informed about the characteristics of this absolutely hideous, modern day dragon is to check out several good websites that explain this subject thoroughly. They include…
www.joelunchbuckett.com
www.americanrevolutionaryparty.us
www.cesj.com and a number of others that are referenced on these three sites.
Then You Will Cut Off Its Head, And…
And once you’ve made a thorough study of the enemy, you need to gather your troops and prepare for the attack. At this point you will have approximately 45 months to gather your team together. At the end of that period of time you will mount an attack that will bring this modern fire-breathing dragon to its knees, you will proceed to cut off its head, and mount it on a stake for all to see.
Finally You And Your Girl Will Ride Off Into The Sunset, And…
In the mean time you will have courageously gone toe to toe, eyeball to eyeball with the largest fire-breathing dragon the world has ever known, lived through 45 months worth of romantic excitement and adventure in the process, rescued not only your damsel in distress and won her heart, but you will have rescued yourself and many others from the dredges of wage slavery and industrial sharecropperism at the same time. And after all that, I think it will be safe to say that you and your girl will be able to ride off into the proverbial sunset and live happily ever after. What do you think?
P.S. Ladies, the excitement and adventure recipe works just as well on guys. I say let’s all ride off, slay this bloody dragon, and finally live meaningful lives of our own. While we’re in the process, let’s help our kids and their kids, etc., etc. to do the same. And if we fail to achieve that noble goal, we have nobody to blame but ourselves.
Monday, January 24, 2005
January's Notes From The Underground
Notes From The Underground
The January 9th (Our Third) Meeting
45 Weeks And Counting…
· One quarter has passed and we’ve had three good, enthusiastic meetings
· But for the first time we had less than the expected number of participants
· This caused us to dispense with the agenda and to focus on recruiting issues
· Monica had invited four people and they all were unable to find the time
· Brooke invited four people, and one (enthusiastic) couple made it to the party
· Pam invited a couple and they were unable to find the time
· Breaking the rules, JLB invited two couples and they were unable to find the time
· Although to be completely accurate, several of these did call to report conflicts and to say they’d be in attendance for the next meeting
· We discussed the $3,000 Plan (Capital Homesteading) as our primary attraction
· We listened to a portion of the Norm Kurland interview which was well accepted
· Jim suggested that an audio recording of Joe’s $3,000 Plan could be helpful
· Monica suggested that meeting in a public place (i.e Starbucks) could help
· Brooke suggested that a Saturday morning may be better than Sunday PM
· So we changed from second Sunday, late afternoon to a second Saturday, mid morning meeting in a local coffee house to be announced next time around.
· But we all know that the effectiveness of our efforts depends on our ability to get the message out on the street, and to inspire people who are normally politically domesticated, dormant, and generally inactive to become politically active.
· And to everyone at the meeting, this meant that we have to boil our message down into a more clear and concise, user friendly package to get the job done
· To that end I consulted with one of our members who got caught in an emergency home plumbing project (Jen Zuri) and asked if she would help me to wrestle together a power point presentation around The $3,000 Plan, which I would like to present, live and in person, at our next meeting. She consented.
· I think that this may help drive the central message home for both the wrestlers, and I think it will also help clarify some of the latent uncertainties that I believe are still lurking in the shadows, and are at the root of our recruiting challenges.
· I know that we’re all relatively amateur activists who have never really done this kind of thing (challenge the status quo?) before, and that includes JLB
· But I’m also convinced that we all see that we’re onto a BIG IDEA that is sorely needed by this nation, and it’s one that will never find its way onto the radar screen either mainstream party, or any of their third party cousins unless we push.
· We also know that the Democrats (nationally) are in big trouble and in dire need of a BIG IDEA around which to rally their troops.
· And their looking to a guy named Obama from ILLINOIS to lead them out of the woods, and into the winner’s circle. Without it the Dems are DOA in 2008.
· We also know that the Republicans (in ILLINOIS) are equally lost in space and thrashing about for the BIG IDEA around which to rally their troops.
· Without it the ILLINOIS Republicans are DOA in 2006 and 2008.
· And here we sit out in the western suburbs, in Starbucks, or Carol’s or Brooke’s living room discussing THE BIG IDEA that both D’s and R’s are desperately looking to find….quite literally, a weapon of mass attraction!
· In other words, they currently have the money and the organization, but WE HAVE THE BIG IDEA THAT THEY BOTH MUST HAVE OR DIE!
· In order to move this agenda forward we must feel a SENSE OF URGENCY within ourselves, and if we do, we can create a sense of urgency in others that will translate into actions of various sorts. But it will include putting a meeting date on the calendar and making absolutely certain that, barring major conflicts, they are attended, because if we fail to do so we’re destined to have instant replays of 2000, and 2004 in 2008, and 2012, and our kid’s lives are in the balance.
· We’re all going to be part of the problem or part of the solution, and the choice belongs to us. I challenge myself, and all of you to dig deeper, to understand more thoroughly, and to come up with creative ways to make this BIG IDEA a reality.
· The clock is ticking. We have ONLY 45 MORE MONTHS to grow and become a force to be reckoned with. Let’s all find a way to make it happen together.
The January 9th (Our Third) Meeting
45 Weeks And Counting…
· One quarter has passed and we’ve had three good, enthusiastic meetings
· But for the first time we had less than the expected number of participants
· This caused us to dispense with the agenda and to focus on recruiting issues
· Monica had invited four people and they all were unable to find the time
· Brooke invited four people, and one (enthusiastic) couple made it to the party
· Pam invited a couple and they were unable to find the time
· Breaking the rules, JLB invited two couples and they were unable to find the time
· Although to be completely accurate, several of these did call to report conflicts and to say they’d be in attendance for the next meeting
· We discussed the $3,000 Plan (Capital Homesteading) as our primary attraction
· We listened to a portion of the Norm Kurland interview which was well accepted
· Jim suggested that an audio recording of Joe’s $3,000 Plan could be helpful
· Monica suggested that meeting in a public place (i.e Starbucks) could help
· Brooke suggested that a Saturday morning may be better than Sunday PM
· So we changed from second Sunday, late afternoon to a second Saturday, mid morning meeting in a local coffee house to be announced next time around.
· But we all know that the effectiveness of our efforts depends on our ability to get the message out on the street, and to inspire people who are normally politically domesticated, dormant, and generally inactive to become politically active.
· And to everyone at the meeting, this meant that we have to boil our message down into a more clear and concise, user friendly package to get the job done
· To that end I consulted with one of our members who got caught in an emergency home plumbing project (Jen Zuri) and asked if she would help me to wrestle together a power point presentation around The $3,000 Plan, which I would like to present, live and in person, at our next meeting. She consented.
· I think that this may help drive the central message home for both the wrestlers, and I think it will also help clarify some of the latent uncertainties that I believe are still lurking in the shadows, and are at the root of our recruiting challenges.
· I know that we’re all relatively amateur activists who have never really done this kind of thing (challenge the status quo?) before, and that includes JLB
· But I’m also convinced that we all see that we’re onto a BIG IDEA that is sorely needed by this nation, and it’s one that will never find its way onto the radar screen either mainstream party, or any of their third party cousins unless we push.
· We also know that the Democrats (nationally) are in big trouble and in dire need of a BIG IDEA around which to rally their troops.
· And their looking to a guy named Obama from ILLINOIS to lead them out of the woods, and into the winner’s circle. Without it the Dems are DOA in 2008.
· We also know that the Republicans (in ILLINOIS) are equally lost in space and thrashing about for the BIG IDEA around which to rally their troops.
· Without it the ILLINOIS Republicans are DOA in 2006 and 2008.
· And here we sit out in the western suburbs, in Starbucks, or Carol’s or Brooke’s living room discussing THE BIG IDEA that both D’s and R’s are desperately looking to find….quite literally, a weapon of mass attraction!
· In other words, they currently have the money and the organization, but WE HAVE THE BIG IDEA THAT THEY BOTH MUST HAVE OR DIE!
· In order to move this agenda forward we must feel a SENSE OF URGENCY within ourselves, and if we do, we can create a sense of urgency in others that will translate into actions of various sorts. But it will include putting a meeting date on the calendar and making absolutely certain that, barring major conflicts, they are attended, because if we fail to do so we’re destined to have instant replays of 2000, and 2004 in 2008, and 2012, and our kid’s lives are in the balance.
· We’re all going to be part of the problem or part of the solution, and the choice belongs to us. I challenge myself, and all of you to dig deeper, to understand more thoroughly, and to come up with creative ways to make this BIG IDEA a reality.
· The clock is ticking. We have ONLY 45 MORE MONTHS to grow and become a force to be reckoned with. Let’s all find a way to make it happen together.
Saturday, January 08, 2005
Oh Yes I Can...
Pablo: The Little Boy Who Didn’t Know He Couldn’t…Yet
When Pablo came into this world he had one big advantage, which was that he hadn’t yet learned that he couldn’t do certain things. As the result he tried doing all kinds of things and he discovered, much to his amusement, that some of the things he tried he could do, while others he couldn’t do…yet.
For example, he discovered that if he wanted to do so, he could stretch his arms, his legs, his fingers, and his toes out so they felt longer, or he could pull them back in so they felt shorter. He found that if he reached out and touched things he could find out what they felt like, hard, soft, cool, warm, smooth, rough, etc. He also found that if he could wrap his fingers and thumb around an object that he could kind of control it and bring it in closer. He could throw it on the floor, which is when he discovered that he could expect Mom and Dad to fetch and bring it back to him…a couple of times anyway.
He tried laying on his stomach, and rolling over to his back. Mom sat him up and he found that to be an interesting experience. He watched Mom and Dad do the things that they could do and Pablo wondered if he could do them too? The most interesting thing they did was to stand on their feet and legs, balance, and move around wherever they wanted to go. Mom helped Pablo to hang on to the high chair to help him to stand up and that worked out pretty good. But when he let go and tried to move across the room like Mom and Dad, Pablo fell right on his face. Dad picked him up, dusted Pablo off, and consoled him.
Mom And Dad Encouraged Pablo
But Mom and Dad kept encouraging Pablo to walk, the falls became easier, and one day several weeks after he began trying, he took his first four steps…and then he fell again. But four steps, that was something to celebrate, at least his Mom and Dad thought so. They kept encouraging him and Pablo kept walking and doing all kinds of new things all the time. Mom and Dad thought Pablo must be a very bright boy. And one of the other things Pablo learned was that if you keep trying to do the thing you want to do, the odds of doing it become better and better until you succeed.
In fact during his first four years of life, Pablo tried and learned to do all kinds of things all because he didn’t yet know that he couldn’t do them. And if he didn’t know that he couldn’t, then maybe he could. Not only that, but the only way Pablo could find out whether he could or couldn’t do something, was to try it. That way he knew for sure. In other words, if he didn’t try something, he’d never find out what he could do and what he couldn’t do. It was about that simple. And Pablo wanted to know. For all these reasons Mom and Dad always thought that Pablo must be a very bright young boy.
Then Pablo Turned Five And Went To Kindergarten
Then when he turned five years old, Mom and Dad enrolled Pablo in kindergarten along with lots of other five year olds, and instead of comparing what he could do yesterday to what he could do today or tomorrow, the teacher taught Pablo to compare himself to the other kids in class. The teacher was very good at this kind of thing and she saw all kinds of things like some kids were tall and some were short, some had blonde hair and some had brunette hair, some were skinny and some were stocky, some were fast runners and some were slow runners. And most importantly to the teacher, there were some kids who were smart, some who were average, and some who were below average and she placed them all in groups that reflected this assessment of them.
Pablo Was Labeled Average
As it turned out the teacher put Pablo in the middle group, but he had no idea why. Anyway he learned this new way of looking at himself from the teacher. Then he found out that when he tried stuff because he didn’t know that he couldn’t, the way he’d always done, some of the kids would laugh and make fun of him if he failed to do what he was trying to do. They thought less of him when he tried and failed, and the teacher seemed to think less of him too.
From this experience Pablo learned that it was embarrassing and painful to fail in front of the other kids and he never knew that before. But once he learned that lesson, he decided to avoid trying when other people were around and in doing so, Pablo would avoid having the other kids make fun of him, laugh at him, and make him think less and less of himself.
Pablo Learns To Stop Trying
By the time his kindergarten year was over, Pablo had switched gears when it came to trying new things. Prior to kindergarten, as you will recall, Pablo didn’t know that he couldn’t, so he would try it and find out whether he could or not. And back then when he failed nobody made fun of him, his Mom and Dad encouraged him to keep trying, and so he’d persist until he learned how to walk, how to talk, and how to do all kinds of very difficult things, because he just kept going until he finally learned to do what he wanted to learn to do.
But once in school Pablo learned that failing in front of the teacher and the other kids was embarrassing, painful, and that the simple solution was to stop trying in front of them. At least then he had an excuse. After all…he wasn’t trying, right? And when he stopped trying, he could no longer find out if he could or he couldn’t do things. But at least he wasn’t embarrassed, at least the other kids weren’t laughing at him and making him feel bad about himself, because they wouldn’t know if he could or couldn’t because he refused to try.
Pablo Learns To Shoot Himself In The Foot
Now the problem that developed over time was the more that Pablo refused to try, the less he learned about what he could and could not do. And the less he learned, the more his teachers and his peers just presumed that he couldn’t learn to do new things, otherwise he would. Nobody wants to be labeled a dummy.
By the time he’d reached junior high school Pablo was no longer in the middle group, he had been labeled a slow learner, and a low performer. Even Mom and Dad threw their hands up and bought into what the teachers said about Pablo. Apparently he was not bright like they’d originally thought. After all, all parents think their own kids are bright, but some of them have to be wrong, right?
Pablo Even Began To Believe His Teachers
Worst of all Pablo began to believe what the teachers and his peers said about him. He began to feel angry and frustrated when he was in school…which by now, he absolutely hated. He began getting in fights with other kids and giving teaches a hard time, so now he was also being labeled a behavior problem too. Pablo finally dropped out of school without graduating, without a high school diploma, and then he went looking for work.
He applied for job after job, but found that the market for young people who’d dropped out of school, and who were also considered behavior problems, was pretty bad. And the jobs he was offered paid so little that they guaranteed Pablo would stay on the bottom of the heap, no matter how hard he now tried.
Let’s Go Over How All This Happened…
Now you can use your imagination and finish this story any way you’d like, but the main thing to understand is that Pablo, like almost every other kid who comes into this world, was born with a gift of curiosity which he turned into knowledge of many amazing things. He knew he didn’t know that he couldn’t do something unless he tried it and failed. Then he discovered that if he kept trying, sooner or later he’d often succeed.
So Pablo explored his environment, watched Mom and Dad, and he tried to do the things that he saw them doing. And this entire time Mom and Dad always encouraged and even expected him to be able to learn and do all these wonderful things, if he persisted, which he usually did.
But when he was enrolled in school with a teacher and with other kids, they taught him that if he tried and failed, that they’d make fun of him, and think less of him. And in the long run, they convinced Pablo that he couldn’t do much of anything, and that it was no longer worth trying.
Pablo learned to hate school, his peers, and eventually to hate himself, all because he was systematically taught that he couldn’t do things, and for whatever reason, he and his parents thought the school system knew what it professed to know. After all, these people have college degrees and they are smart, right? But once Pablo himself bought into their suggestion that he couldn’t…his fate was sealed.
The First Really Good Question
Now, the first real question at this point is…who’s to blame? How would you answer this controversial question?
· Is it the overworked and underpaid teacher who’s given the task of sorting out the strengths and weaknesses of 25 to 30 kids each year in order to begin the selection and labeling process that we now call “education” in the 21st century?
· Is it the school administrators who are hired to oversee and operate the system?
· Is it local school board members who are elected to oversee and direct the administrators, and the school system?
· Is it the country, state, and federal educational administrators who concern themselves with marketing unfunded mandates like No Child Left Behind.
· Or is it Pablo’s parents who presumed that the people who made up the system knew what they were doing when it came to educating Pablo?
· Or Pablo himself who should have been stronger
· His peers who should have been more compassionate and understanding
· Or do each one of these parts kind of go along with, and feed on the others while under the hypnotic presumption that questioning the system that’s served this nation well so for over 200 years, is a sign of disrespect, disloyalty, is unpatriotic, and cannot be tolerated?
· And if you choose this last one, then who’s in charge of evaluating the bloody system and what it’s producing?
The Second Really Good Question
The second real question is, what can we do about this problem? What would you tell Pablo, his peers, his parents, his teachers, his school administrators, the school board who oversees the system? I know what I’d tell them. I’d say it’s the expressed goal of this school system to teach Pablo and all his peers that the only way to find out if you can or you can’t do something is to try doing it. And just because you can’t do it today doesn’t mean that you’ll be unable to do it tomorrow…so long as you keep on trying. No, there really is no substitute for persistence.
I would say that in order to succeed the system must convince Pablo and his peers that there is absolutely nothing wrong with failing to perform, and there is everything wrong with failing to try. After all, in the big picture, human life is all about exploring and testing our limits from day to day, plotting and planning how to push those limits back over weeks, months, and years.
Winning And Losing In Education
To the degree we achieve that goal, the system and everyone in it wins. To the degree we fail, everyone loses. As the old saying goes, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. So the job of educational systems around the country is to do everything possible to produce strong links who know that if they only keep their eyes open, think for themselves, and relentlessly persist, persist, and persist, they can probably learn to do whatever they really need to do in life.
It’s the job of school systems to strengthen each and every one of those links, every day, every week, every month, and every year, and to make sure Pablo knows that if he keeps on trying, there’s very little that he can’t accomplish. On the other hand, Pablo needs to know that if and when you ever give up on yourself and stop trying, you are limiting yourself, you are shooting yourself in the foot, and you are dooming yourself to future failure after failure. For me this is the biggest lesson any child can learn during their formative years, and teaching kids to really believe, down deep in their gut, that they can do it as long as they persist…is what education in the best sense, is all about.
What Does This Have To Do With Joe And The American Revolutionary Party?
To be honest, I wrote this piece for a different book, but I’ve decided to include it in this one too because I think it applies so profoundly to what we are attempting to accomplish in the new American Revolutionary Party. I suggest it’s not only the school system that’s at fault here. I suggest the system at large is designed to eventually convince people that they should not, and indeed they cannot, challenge authority and win. It starts with parents, moves on to teachers, professors, supervisors, managers, business owners, and of course at the top of the list is the government.
I mean how many people do you know who don’t even bother to show up to the voting booth to vote for the President of the United States and his colleagues in Congress because they are thoroughly convinced that THEIR VOTE MEANS NOTHING. Or how many people do you know who show up to vote, but are convinced that they’re being asked to choose between the lesser of two corporately sponsored evils? And how many people do you know who are absolutely convinced that they are absolutely powerless in the face of the mega money, and the multinational corporations who own and control both mainstream parties (and to an extent the lives of the people) in America today?
The Disease…
When people are finally convinced of all those kinds of things, they are suffering from the same systematically generated disease as Pablo. The disease is called the I CAN’T DO IT SYNDROME, and it’s effectively a systematic domestication, a systematic neutering of the people in order to protect the status quo. Once the people believe that they can’t do it, guess what. They stop trying just like Pablo stopped trying. And when you stop trying, THE BIG BOYS AUTOMATICALLY WIN BY DEFAULT.
The Antidote…
The antidote is the I CAN DO IT IF I RELENTLESSLY PERSIST bacterium. Now the thing to understand about this antidote is that it won’t work by itself. That is to say if you sit in the lotus position and repeat to yourself over and over again I CAN DO IT, I CAN DO IT, I CAN DO IT like the little train who could, you will go absolutely nowhere at warp speed, and accomplish nothing.
On the other hand if you understand the central message of this book to the point that you are on fire, and you’re bubbling over with excitement over the fact that YOU JUST LEARNED THAT WE CAN DO IT, you will become contagious, and you will begin to infect all kinds of people around you…without even trying. They will see the excitement in your eyes, hear the enthusiasm in your voice, and they’ll become so curious about the changes they sense in you that they’ll start to ask questions.
Coming Back From The Dead, And Fully Embracing Life
And when you start filling in the answers to those questions, these people will actually start thinking and seeing for themselves that they’ve been sold a bill of goods by the system. They will come to realize that, just like Pablo, there was a point in their lives when they too didn’t know that they couldn’t. They were magical. They were adventurers who were discovering new things almost every minute of the day. Their lives were fun, exciting, and they were alive in a way that they have not been alive in the longest time because the system succeeded in convincing them that they couldn’t do it.
The ARP Challenge
This then is the challenge for the members of the American Revolutionary Party who have discovered the antidote to the I CAN’T DO IT SYNDROME. Once we’ve returned from the dead ourselves, we must then bring friends, relatives, neighbors, and other acquaintances back to life. That is to say, the first step of the journey is to clearly recognize that we can do it, but only if we try. If we don’t believe we can, there is no reason to try. And if we fail to try, the big boys win by default, while we the people, and generations of people to come, will lose because we the people of this generation swallowed the systematically produced kool aid, and we failed to try…just like Pablo.
When Pablo came into this world he had one big advantage, which was that he hadn’t yet learned that he couldn’t do certain things. As the result he tried doing all kinds of things and he discovered, much to his amusement, that some of the things he tried he could do, while others he couldn’t do…yet.
For example, he discovered that if he wanted to do so, he could stretch his arms, his legs, his fingers, and his toes out so they felt longer, or he could pull them back in so they felt shorter. He found that if he reached out and touched things he could find out what they felt like, hard, soft, cool, warm, smooth, rough, etc. He also found that if he could wrap his fingers and thumb around an object that he could kind of control it and bring it in closer. He could throw it on the floor, which is when he discovered that he could expect Mom and Dad to fetch and bring it back to him…a couple of times anyway.
He tried laying on his stomach, and rolling over to his back. Mom sat him up and he found that to be an interesting experience. He watched Mom and Dad do the things that they could do and Pablo wondered if he could do them too? The most interesting thing they did was to stand on their feet and legs, balance, and move around wherever they wanted to go. Mom helped Pablo to hang on to the high chair to help him to stand up and that worked out pretty good. But when he let go and tried to move across the room like Mom and Dad, Pablo fell right on his face. Dad picked him up, dusted Pablo off, and consoled him.
Mom And Dad Encouraged Pablo
But Mom and Dad kept encouraging Pablo to walk, the falls became easier, and one day several weeks after he began trying, he took his first four steps…and then he fell again. But four steps, that was something to celebrate, at least his Mom and Dad thought so. They kept encouraging him and Pablo kept walking and doing all kinds of new things all the time. Mom and Dad thought Pablo must be a very bright boy. And one of the other things Pablo learned was that if you keep trying to do the thing you want to do, the odds of doing it become better and better until you succeed.
In fact during his first four years of life, Pablo tried and learned to do all kinds of things all because he didn’t yet know that he couldn’t do them. And if he didn’t know that he couldn’t, then maybe he could. Not only that, but the only way Pablo could find out whether he could or couldn’t do something, was to try it. That way he knew for sure. In other words, if he didn’t try something, he’d never find out what he could do and what he couldn’t do. It was about that simple. And Pablo wanted to know. For all these reasons Mom and Dad always thought that Pablo must be a very bright young boy.
Then Pablo Turned Five And Went To Kindergarten
Then when he turned five years old, Mom and Dad enrolled Pablo in kindergarten along with lots of other five year olds, and instead of comparing what he could do yesterday to what he could do today or tomorrow, the teacher taught Pablo to compare himself to the other kids in class. The teacher was very good at this kind of thing and she saw all kinds of things like some kids were tall and some were short, some had blonde hair and some had brunette hair, some were skinny and some were stocky, some were fast runners and some were slow runners. And most importantly to the teacher, there were some kids who were smart, some who were average, and some who were below average and she placed them all in groups that reflected this assessment of them.
Pablo Was Labeled Average
As it turned out the teacher put Pablo in the middle group, but he had no idea why. Anyway he learned this new way of looking at himself from the teacher. Then he found out that when he tried stuff because he didn’t know that he couldn’t, the way he’d always done, some of the kids would laugh and make fun of him if he failed to do what he was trying to do. They thought less of him when he tried and failed, and the teacher seemed to think less of him too.
From this experience Pablo learned that it was embarrassing and painful to fail in front of the other kids and he never knew that before. But once he learned that lesson, he decided to avoid trying when other people were around and in doing so, Pablo would avoid having the other kids make fun of him, laugh at him, and make him think less and less of himself.
Pablo Learns To Stop Trying
By the time his kindergarten year was over, Pablo had switched gears when it came to trying new things. Prior to kindergarten, as you will recall, Pablo didn’t know that he couldn’t, so he would try it and find out whether he could or not. And back then when he failed nobody made fun of him, his Mom and Dad encouraged him to keep trying, and so he’d persist until he learned how to walk, how to talk, and how to do all kinds of very difficult things, because he just kept going until he finally learned to do what he wanted to learn to do.
But once in school Pablo learned that failing in front of the teacher and the other kids was embarrassing, painful, and that the simple solution was to stop trying in front of them. At least then he had an excuse. After all…he wasn’t trying, right? And when he stopped trying, he could no longer find out if he could or he couldn’t do things. But at least he wasn’t embarrassed, at least the other kids weren’t laughing at him and making him feel bad about himself, because they wouldn’t know if he could or couldn’t because he refused to try.
Pablo Learns To Shoot Himself In The Foot
Now the problem that developed over time was the more that Pablo refused to try, the less he learned about what he could and could not do. And the less he learned, the more his teachers and his peers just presumed that he couldn’t learn to do new things, otherwise he would. Nobody wants to be labeled a dummy.
By the time he’d reached junior high school Pablo was no longer in the middle group, he had been labeled a slow learner, and a low performer. Even Mom and Dad threw their hands up and bought into what the teachers said about Pablo. Apparently he was not bright like they’d originally thought. After all, all parents think their own kids are bright, but some of them have to be wrong, right?
Pablo Even Began To Believe His Teachers
Worst of all Pablo began to believe what the teachers and his peers said about him. He began to feel angry and frustrated when he was in school…which by now, he absolutely hated. He began getting in fights with other kids and giving teaches a hard time, so now he was also being labeled a behavior problem too. Pablo finally dropped out of school without graduating, without a high school diploma, and then he went looking for work.
He applied for job after job, but found that the market for young people who’d dropped out of school, and who were also considered behavior problems, was pretty bad. And the jobs he was offered paid so little that they guaranteed Pablo would stay on the bottom of the heap, no matter how hard he now tried.
Let’s Go Over How All This Happened…
Now you can use your imagination and finish this story any way you’d like, but the main thing to understand is that Pablo, like almost every other kid who comes into this world, was born with a gift of curiosity which he turned into knowledge of many amazing things. He knew he didn’t know that he couldn’t do something unless he tried it and failed. Then he discovered that if he kept trying, sooner or later he’d often succeed.
So Pablo explored his environment, watched Mom and Dad, and he tried to do the things that he saw them doing. And this entire time Mom and Dad always encouraged and even expected him to be able to learn and do all these wonderful things, if he persisted, which he usually did.
But when he was enrolled in school with a teacher and with other kids, they taught him that if he tried and failed, that they’d make fun of him, and think less of him. And in the long run, they convinced Pablo that he couldn’t do much of anything, and that it was no longer worth trying.
Pablo learned to hate school, his peers, and eventually to hate himself, all because he was systematically taught that he couldn’t do things, and for whatever reason, he and his parents thought the school system knew what it professed to know. After all, these people have college degrees and they are smart, right? But once Pablo himself bought into their suggestion that he couldn’t…his fate was sealed.
The First Really Good Question
Now, the first real question at this point is…who’s to blame? How would you answer this controversial question?
· Is it the overworked and underpaid teacher who’s given the task of sorting out the strengths and weaknesses of 25 to 30 kids each year in order to begin the selection and labeling process that we now call “education” in the 21st century?
· Is it the school administrators who are hired to oversee and operate the system?
· Is it local school board members who are elected to oversee and direct the administrators, and the school system?
· Is it the country, state, and federal educational administrators who concern themselves with marketing unfunded mandates like No Child Left Behind.
· Or is it Pablo’s parents who presumed that the people who made up the system knew what they were doing when it came to educating Pablo?
· Or Pablo himself who should have been stronger
· His peers who should have been more compassionate and understanding
· Or do each one of these parts kind of go along with, and feed on the others while under the hypnotic presumption that questioning the system that’s served this nation well so for over 200 years, is a sign of disrespect, disloyalty, is unpatriotic, and cannot be tolerated?
· And if you choose this last one, then who’s in charge of evaluating the bloody system and what it’s producing?
The Second Really Good Question
The second real question is, what can we do about this problem? What would you tell Pablo, his peers, his parents, his teachers, his school administrators, the school board who oversees the system? I know what I’d tell them. I’d say it’s the expressed goal of this school system to teach Pablo and all his peers that the only way to find out if you can or you can’t do something is to try doing it. And just because you can’t do it today doesn’t mean that you’ll be unable to do it tomorrow…so long as you keep on trying. No, there really is no substitute for persistence.
I would say that in order to succeed the system must convince Pablo and his peers that there is absolutely nothing wrong with failing to perform, and there is everything wrong with failing to try. After all, in the big picture, human life is all about exploring and testing our limits from day to day, plotting and planning how to push those limits back over weeks, months, and years.
Winning And Losing In Education
To the degree we achieve that goal, the system and everyone in it wins. To the degree we fail, everyone loses. As the old saying goes, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. So the job of educational systems around the country is to do everything possible to produce strong links who know that if they only keep their eyes open, think for themselves, and relentlessly persist, persist, and persist, they can probably learn to do whatever they really need to do in life.
It’s the job of school systems to strengthen each and every one of those links, every day, every week, every month, and every year, and to make sure Pablo knows that if he keeps on trying, there’s very little that he can’t accomplish. On the other hand, Pablo needs to know that if and when you ever give up on yourself and stop trying, you are limiting yourself, you are shooting yourself in the foot, and you are dooming yourself to future failure after failure. For me this is the biggest lesson any child can learn during their formative years, and teaching kids to really believe, down deep in their gut, that they can do it as long as they persist…is what education in the best sense, is all about.
What Does This Have To Do With Joe And The American Revolutionary Party?
To be honest, I wrote this piece for a different book, but I’ve decided to include it in this one too because I think it applies so profoundly to what we are attempting to accomplish in the new American Revolutionary Party. I suggest it’s not only the school system that’s at fault here. I suggest the system at large is designed to eventually convince people that they should not, and indeed they cannot, challenge authority and win. It starts with parents, moves on to teachers, professors, supervisors, managers, business owners, and of course at the top of the list is the government.
I mean how many people do you know who don’t even bother to show up to the voting booth to vote for the President of the United States and his colleagues in Congress because they are thoroughly convinced that THEIR VOTE MEANS NOTHING. Or how many people do you know who show up to vote, but are convinced that they’re being asked to choose between the lesser of two corporately sponsored evils? And how many people do you know who are absolutely convinced that they are absolutely powerless in the face of the mega money, and the multinational corporations who own and control both mainstream parties (and to an extent the lives of the people) in America today?
The Disease…
When people are finally convinced of all those kinds of things, they are suffering from the same systematically generated disease as Pablo. The disease is called the I CAN’T DO IT SYNDROME, and it’s effectively a systematic domestication, a systematic neutering of the people in order to protect the status quo. Once the people believe that they can’t do it, guess what. They stop trying just like Pablo stopped trying. And when you stop trying, THE BIG BOYS AUTOMATICALLY WIN BY DEFAULT.
The Antidote…
The antidote is the I CAN DO IT IF I RELENTLESSLY PERSIST bacterium. Now the thing to understand about this antidote is that it won’t work by itself. That is to say if you sit in the lotus position and repeat to yourself over and over again I CAN DO IT, I CAN DO IT, I CAN DO IT like the little train who could, you will go absolutely nowhere at warp speed, and accomplish nothing.
On the other hand if you understand the central message of this book to the point that you are on fire, and you’re bubbling over with excitement over the fact that YOU JUST LEARNED THAT WE CAN DO IT, you will become contagious, and you will begin to infect all kinds of people around you…without even trying. They will see the excitement in your eyes, hear the enthusiasm in your voice, and they’ll become so curious about the changes they sense in you that they’ll start to ask questions.
Coming Back From The Dead, And Fully Embracing Life
And when you start filling in the answers to those questions, these people will actually start thinking and seeing for themselves that they’ve been sold a bill of goods by the system. They will come to realize that, just like Pablo, there was a point in their lives when they too didn’t know that they couldn’t. They were magical. They were adventurers who were discovering new things almost every minute of the day. Their lives were fun, exciting, and they were alive in a way that they have not been alive in the longest time because the system succeeded in convincing them that they couldn’t do it.
The ARP Challenge
This then is the challenge for the members of the American Revolutionary Party who have discovered the antidote to the I CAN’T DO IT SYNDROME. Once we’ve returned from the dead ourselves, we must then bring friends, relatives, neighbors, and other acquaintances back to life. That is to say, the first step of the journey is to clearly recognize that we can do it, but only if we try. If we don’t believe we can, there is no reason to try. And if we fail to try, the big boys win by default, while we the people, and generations of people to come, will lose because we the people of this generation swallowed the systematically produced kool aid, and we failed to try…just like Pablo.
Friday, January 07, 2005
The January '05 Meeting Agenda
American Revolutionary Party: Meeting # 3 Agenda
Only 46 Months Remaining Until November, 2008
Date: Sunday, January 9, 2005
Place: The home of Brooke Hamlin
Time: 3:30 PM (after the NFL)
Structure·
FYI, in an effort to be a bit more organized than last meeting, we’ll dedicate the first hour of the meeting to the enclosed agenda. At the end of the first hour anyone who needs to run will be allowed to do so. But if you’re inclined to chew on the issues afterward, the second hour will be dedicated to discussion, dialogue, and digestion of the basic ideals around which this new party is being formed. If you plan to stay for hour two, bring all your questions/comments/etc. and let’s throw ‘em all out on the table for discussion.
· Floating Board of Governors Idea - Carol has recently suggested that we consider having what she calls a Floating Board of Governors instead of formal officers. This group would be temporary (say a quarter?), and it would consist of a small group of partners (say four) who’d take ownership of the coordinational responsibilities for that short period. Then, each quarter, half of the board would be replaced by two new partners who will coordinate things for a quarter themselves, before being replaced. The intention would be to have everyone be a board member sooner or later. If we like it, we could implement the idea immediately. Comments/suggestions?
· JLB posted a “splintering” strategy on the blog that we should discuss briefly.
Projects
· Capital Homesteading CD recording (an interview with author Dr. Norm Kurland) will be posted on JLB’s website before the January meeting for anyone to download or pass on to interested colleagues.
· The Power Point Presentation has yet to be done. Let’s discuss.
· Carol and Brooke suggested that doing some interviews with employees from ESOP companies would be valuable. Comments or suggestions?
· Blog feedback – we got some this past month, but we’ll need to continue growing that electronic dialogue in order to maximize it/s potential. Comments?
· List of local groups who’d be good candidates for a power point presentation (Monica/Brook suggestion). Has anyone compiled anything here yet?
· JLB talked with Norm Kurland about doing an ARP blog, and at this point he’s inclined to defer to Joe’s blog.
· Bank Account – is anyone in a hurry to start this? Comments?
· Data Base – Pam has started it. Carol suggested that an official membership application form might help our data base collection. Comments?
· Jim’s suggestion of combining the CD and the Book – the book will be ready to send to the printer before the 1/9 meeting, and the Kurland CD will be ready for tasting by the 1/9 meeting. Jim and JLB need to discuss logistics of this project.
· Barak Obama has been invited again, and to keep things even, we also invited former Republican Senator Phil Crane who rumor has it may have an interest in attending our meetings. JLB will give details on 1/9.
· Streetwise (homeless) newspaper column – have heard nothing from them and will give potential reason why if anyone is interested.
· Notes From The Underground – if there’s anyone else who’d like to take over the gathering of the official notes of our meetings, type ‘em up, and distribute ‘em, please indicate by raising your hand. If you want it temporarily that’s fine too.
· New Issues……………………
· Break for Discussion
Only 46 Months Remaining Until November, 2008
Date: Sunday, January 9, 2005
Place: The home of Brooke Hamlin
Time: 3:30 PM (after the NFL)
Structure·
FYI, in an effort to be a bit more organized than last meeting, we’ll dedicate the first hour of the meeting to the enclosed agenda. At the end of the first hour anyone who needs to run will be allowed to do so. But if you’re inclined to chew on the issues afterward, the second hour will be dedicated to discussion, dialogue, and digestion of the basic ideals around which this new party is being formed. If you plan to stay for hour two, bring all your questions/comments/etc. and let’s throw ‘em all out on the table for discussion.
· Floating Board of Governors Idea - Carol has recently suggested that we consider having what she calls a Floating Board of Governors instead of formal officers. This group would be temporary (say a quarter?), and it would consist of a small group of partners (say four) who’d take ownership of the coordinational responsibilities for that short period. Then, each quarter, half of the board would be replaced by two new partners who will coordinate things for a quarter themselves, before being replaced. The intention would be to have everyone be a board member sooner or later. If we like it, we could implement the idea immediately. Comments/suggestions?
· JLB posted a “splintering” strategy on the blog that we should discuss briefly.
Projects
· Capital Homesteading CD recording (an interview with author Dr. Norm Kurland) will be posted on JLB’s website before the January meeting for anyone to download or pass on to interested colleagues.
· The Power Point Presentation has yet to be done. Let’s discuss.
· Carol and Brooke suggested that doing some interviews with employees from ESOP companies would be valuable. Comments or suggestions?
· Blog feedback – we got some this past month, but we’ll need to continue growing that electronic dialogue in order to maximize it/s potential. Comments?
· List of local groups who’d be good candidates for a power point presentation (Monica/Brook suggestion). Has anyone compiled anything here yet?
· JLB talked with Norm Kurland about doing an ARP blog, and at this point he’s inclined to defer to Joe’s blog.
· Bank Account – is anyone in a hurry to start this? Comments?
· Data Base – Pam has started it. Carol suggested that an official membership application form might help our data base collection. Comments?
· Jim’s suggestion of combining the CD and the Book – the book will be ready to send to the printer before the 1/9 meeting, and the Kurland CD will be ready for tasting by the 1/9 meeting. Jim and JLB need to discuss logistics of this project.
· Barak Obama has been invited again, and to keep things even, we also invited former Republican Senator Phil Crane who rumor has it may have an interest in attending our meetings. JLB will give details on 1/9.
· Streetwise (homeless) newspaper column – have heard nothing from them and will give potential reason why if anyone is interested.
· Notes From The Underground – if there’s anyone else who’d like to take over the gathering of the official notes of our meetings, type ‘em up, and distribute ‘em, please indicate by raising your hand. If you want it temporarily that’s fine too.
· New Issues……………………
· Break for Discussion
Sunday, January 02, 2005
It's All About People
No People Equals No Movement, Two People Equals A Landslide
At the risk of pointing out the obvious, this movement is all about PEOPLE. Without people, all the great ideas, all the great theories, all the great articles, books, web sites, publicity, planning, intentions, and all the money in the world mean ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! In short, NO PEOPLE, NO MOVEMENT. By the same token, if every who claims to have fire in their belly over this red hot idea goes out the door and ignites ONLY two more flames (no more than two are allowed), then we’ll have a LANDSLIDE on our hands come November of 2008.
Here are the kinds of questions we all need to be asking ourselves. Who else in my small, but immediate sphere of influence do I know who feels like the American political system is TOTALLY BROKE AND BANKRUPT? Who else feels as if they’ve been expected to go the voting booth and choose between the lesser of two corporately sponsored evils, instead of between candidates who truly represent the American people? And most importantly, who else agrees that if this nation does not pick up the remote, switch off the boob tube, get up out of the Lazy Boy, and go out and do something about it, the fiascos of 2000 and 2004 are destined to repeat themselves all over again in 2008?
Three Basic Obligations Of An American Revolutionary Party Member
Now, once you identify these people, and I don’t know anyone who doesn’t know at least a couple of people who feel this way, you have three basic obligations if you’re going to cross the dividing line and become a fully activated member of the solution instead of just another hand wringing part of the problem. And mark my words. You are destined to be one or the other. It all depends on what YOU do.
Obligation Number One
Obligation number one is to RECRUIT YOURSELF. What do I mean by that? I mean, if you suspect what I think you suspect, namely that this idea really is the big idea that the world has been waiting for, the real McCoy around which genuine government of, by, and for the people can finally be built, then you owe it to yourself to dig into it further. Ask questions until you’re blue in the face. Check out related books, web sites, Google the internet, and wrestle with the issues until you have finally taken a position one way or the other. Either you’re in favor of this unique and new free market paradigm for the twenty first century, or you’re against it. And you know why in either case.
Now how can you tell when you’ve come to a decision? You’ll be able to tell when you suddenly say to yourself, “My God, why in the world have our leaders failed to implement this blatantly obvious solution? Why didn’t my teachers tell me about it back in school? You’ll know when the understanding you’ve developed turns into a level of excitement and enthusiasm that makes you glow in the dark, renders you contagious, and bubbles over naturally in the middle of normal conversations over cups of coffee, and causes you to tell other people about what’s going on in your life because they can see the excitement in your face and they can hear the enthusiasm in your voice.
Obligation Number Two
This phenomenon leads us right into obligation number two, which is RECRUIT TWO OTHER PEOPLE. But I don’t want you to see this as recruiting in any normal sense of the word. In other words, I don’t want you to feel like you’re selling anything to anybody. If you’ve really covered the bases of obligation number one, all you have to do is be around people, listen closely when they talk, and it’ll be easy to recognize those people who are aware of what’s going on politically. And when you do this, it’ll happen naturally, with absolutely no effort on your part whatsoever. Your understanding, enthusiasm, and excitement will begin to bubble up and boil over in the conversation, and before you know it you’ll have people wondering OUT LOUD just what in the world you are so incredibly excited about?
You see, genuine excitement over anything (let alone something as large and far reaching as this) is a rare these days. And when people see it bubbling out in you, they’ll start asking you questions without your prompting. Then all you have to do is fill in the answers... naturally, tell them what you’ve discovered, and before you know it they’ll be asking you how you got involved, and effectively, how they can become involved too?
Obligation Number Three
Once you’re contagious the real problem becomes the fact that you are allowed to recruit NO MORE than two people. That’s it. So your second basic obligation is to ignite two new fires, and your third basic obligation is to make sure that these new fires continue to grow brighter and brighter every day, every week, every month until they are as contagious as you are, and they naturally, without trying, ignite two more fires.
Two Quick Questions For You
At this point I want to ask YOU two questions. First, have you ignited two other fires and brought them to a meeting? Next, have you have you poured gasoline all over these two fires, rendering them white hot, and contagious enough to become fire lighters themselves? If not, the real question becomes, have you really recruited yourself? Have you cultivated your own fire to the point that you’re contagious? If your answer is “yes I have,” then lighting other fires will happen quite naturally.
It’s All About People
A genuine revolution (even a peaceful one like this) is always all about PEOPLE, and ACTIONS that will attract PEOPLE? If we can get to people to understand this revolutionary ideal, the American Revolutionary Party is destined to become a force to be reckoned with over the next 48 months. We must avoid laboring in the fields of ideals and theory. We must bring the revolution to the street, which is the only place where genuine fires can be ignited and grown into movements that will eventually demand the attention of those who are in power, because WE’LL BE ELECTING THEM!
No People Means No Movement
None of this is to say the other things we do are important. But in the end, when push comes to shove, No people, means NO MOVEMENT. And No movement means NO CHANGE. But TWO people, duplicating themselves over and over again over a 48 month period will develop into a LANDSLIDE that’s destined to change politics and life in these United States, and the world…forever and ever.
At the risk of pointing out the obvious, this movement is all about PEOPLE. Without people, all the great ideas, all the great theories, all the great articles, books, web sites, publicity, planning, intentions, and all the money in the world mean ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! In short, NO PEOPLE, NO MOVEMENT. By the same token, if every who claims to have fire in their belly over this red hot idea goes out the door and ignites ONLY two more flames (no more than two are allowed), then we’ll have a LANDSLIDE on our hands come November of 2008.
Here are the kinds of questions we all need to be asking ourselves. Who else in my small, but immediate sphere of influence do I know who feels like the American political system is TOTALLY BROKE AND BANKRUPT? Who else feels as if they’ve been expected to go the voting booth and choose between the lesser of two corporately sponsored evils, instead of between candidates who truly represent the American people? And most importantly, who else agrees that if this nation does not pick up the remote, switch off the boob tube, get up out of the Lazy Boy, and go out and do something about it, the fiascos of 2000 and 2004 are destined to repeat themselves all over again in 2008?
Three Basic Obligations Of An American Revolutionary Party Member
Now, once you identify these people, and I don’t know anyone who doesn’t know at least a couple of people who feel this way, you have three basic obligations if you’re going to cross the dividing line and become a fully activated member of the solution instead of just another hand wringing part of the problem. And mark my words. You are destined to be one or the other. It all depends on what YOU do.
Obligation Number One
Obligation number one is to RECRUIT YOURSELF. What do I mean by that? I mean, if you suspect what I think you suspect, namely that this idea really is the big idea that the world has been waiting for, the real McCoy around which genuine government of, by, and for the people can finally be built, then you owe it to yourself to dig into it further. Ask questions until you’re blue in the face. Check out related books, web sites, Google the internet, and wrestle with the issues until you have finally taken a position one way or the other. Either you’re in favor of this unique and new free market paradigm for the twenty first century, or you’re against it. And you know why in either case.
Now how can you tell when you’ve come to a decision? You’ll be able to tell when you suddenly say to yourself, “My God, why in the world have our leaders failed to implement this blatantly obvious solution? Why didn’t my teachers tell me about it back in school? You’ll know when the understanding you’ve developed turns into a level of excitement and enthusiasm that makes you glow in the dark, renders you contagious, and bubbles over naturally in the middle of normal conversations over cups of coffee, and causes you to tell other people about what’s going on in your life because they can see the excitement in your face and they can hear the enthusiasm in your voice.
Obligation Number Two
This phenomenon leads us right into obligation number two, which is RECRUIT TWO OTHER PEOPLE. But I don’t want you to see this as recruiting in any normal sense of the word. In other words, I don’t want you to feel like you’re selling anything to anybody. If you’ve really covered the bases of obligation number one, all you have to do is be around people, listen closely when they talk, and it’ll be easy to recognize those people who are aware of what’s going on politically. And when you do this, it’ll happen naturally, with absolutely no effort on your part whatsoever. Your understanding, enthusiasm, and excitement will begin to bubble up and boil over in the conversation, and before you know it you’ll have people wondering OUT LOUD just what in the world you are so incredibly excited about?
You see, genuine excitement over anything (let alone something as large and far reaching as this) is a rare these days. And when people see it bubbling out in you, they’ll start asking you questions without your prompting. Then all you have to do is fill in the answers... naturally, tell them what you’ve discovered, and before you know it they’ll be asking you how you got involved, and effectively, how they can become involved too?
Obligation Number Three
Once you’re contagious the real problem becomes the fact that you are allowed to recruit NO MORE than two people. That’s it. So your second basic obligation is to ignite two new fires, and your third basic obligation is to make sure that these new fires continue to grow brighter and brighter every day, every week, every month until they are as contagious as you are, and they naturally, without trying, ignite two more fires.
Two Quick Questions For You
At this point I want to ask YOU two questions. First, have you ignited two other fires and brought them to a meeting? Next, have you have you poured gasoline all over these two fires, rendering them white hot, and contagious enough to become fire lighters themselves? If not, the real question becomes, have you really recruited yourself? Have you cultivated your own fire to the point that you’re contagious? If your answer is “yes I have,” then lighting other fires will happen quite naturally.
It’s All About People
A genuine revolution (even a peaceful one like this) is always all about PEOPLE, and ACTIONS that will attract PEOPLE? If we can get to people to understand this revolutionary ideal, the American Revolutionary Party is destined to become a force to be reckoned with over the next 48 months. We must avoid laboring in the fields of ideals and theory. We must bring the revolution to the street, which is the only place where genuine fires can be ignited and grown into movements that will eventually demand the attention of those who are in power, because WE’LL BE ELECTING THEM!
No People Means No Movement
None of this is to say the other things we do are important. But in the end, when push comes to shove, No people, means NO MOVEMENT. And No movement means NO CHANGE. But TWO people, duplicating themselves over and over again over a 48 month period will develop into a LANDSLIDE that’s destined to change politics and life in these United States, and the world…forever and ever.
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