Gently in manner, strong in deed. This is the way we must handle the oligarchs. When I speak of sanctioning, I believe that reparations need to be made for decades and generations of assaultive behavior. Our communities, our people and the environment have suffered at the hands of our energy, our, financial and our military industrial giants. The data exists to prove negligence on the part of the largest corporations that have dominated decision-making for decades. We need a path to justice for their abuses. We can gently continue to hold their feet tot the fire, after all it is the fires they kindled themselves that have gotten us all into hot water to begin with. I do not intend to take the edge off the need for a three pronged approach, but pitchforks are not as common as they once were, so the pitchforks we have at our disposal have three different prongs.
Boycott, divest and sanction are the tools we have that allow us to continue to be gentle in demeanor but strong in action. If one should desire help in these matters, there are several places to start. Buycott is an application that you can add to your phone that allows you to become more informed about products while you are shopping and choose your purchases based on the corporate culture that brings those products to market. Another way is to speak with others about why you choose to boycott Nestle', Unilever, BP or other corporate criminals. Divestiture is more difficult because as many of us have found, the private market for retirement funds is never as simple as corporation "A" or corporation "B", to assure that the mythic investment houses remain unthreatened by regulation, virtually everything has been co-mingled into "funds", various groupings of holdings that lose their distinction within our larger investments.
In my case, I was lucky enough to be able to choose a fund with no energy holdings, but that also assures that none of my retirement income will come from renewable energy companies either. Sadly, the funds that my retirement management firm offers have no opportunities for moral and/or ethical investment in the possible futures that I hope to one day see occur. The flip side of divestiture is that there need to be alternative funds in which we can invest which echo and strengthen the monetary standing of corporations that are working toward a healthier and happier next seven generations.
Rather than the Ugly American version of this Latin phrase, "Walk softly, and carry a big stick.", I far prefer the Latin, for several reasons:
First, because bully diplomacy disgusts me. Being a bully, whether toward individuals or toward states (nations) says far more about the bully than the bullied. The fear, isolation and pain upon which bullying finds a place in our culture is about our failings as human beings. The greatest beast under the bed, the most important dragon to be slain and put to rest, forever is that of abuse. Science proves that the only way to be taught to be abusive and neglectful of others, is to be abused and neglected during your own formative years. Bullies feel this conflict severely enough that they lash out, for lack of the love and nurturing that were required for their own development. Letting the "big stick" become a powerful military has been the biggest threat to true security imaginable. Bullies never care about those they hurt, in exactly the same way that their caretakers ignored the fallout of their actions, or inaction. In severe pathology, the bully feels that their abuse and neglect for others is a way to show the same kind of love they received, perpetrating power and control issues across generations.
Second, the walk softly implies that there is a sneaking element that is absent in Latin. It is well-known, that even in our passing, we change the quality of the air through which we pass, the laws of unintended consequences demand that when we do interact with the world, we be gentle, abiding, because we never know when our coarseness could be mistaken for aggression. Perhaps one of the first lessons in diplomacy and statespersonship is to be refined, cultured and accommodating, not just a thug trying to keep others from getting their hackles up.
Third and most importantly, I see the language itself for what it actually was, a smokescreen for all that has been blatantly obvious since the beginning of oligarchy. The walk softly portion, when seen with open eyes refers to trying to keep our foreign neighbors at sub-revolutionary revolt by offering tidbits for their elites that make them feel commensurate power and control over their people that our leaders do, but with none of the actual power, that being delegated to the multi-national corporate and financial sectors. Once beholden, these agents loyalty is never questioned. What the words were covering for were the real actions that dangled carrots for complicity, or at least learned silence, so that corporate plunder could be legitimized.
When we practice the art of walking our path in grace, gently responding to and experiencing, rather than monetizing our environment, abundance ensues. This allows us to not only stand, but act with purpose and intensity that would be unavailable to us if we were trying to impose our vision on the outside world without grace. In very real ways this ancient truth has been eclipsed momentarily with the flash of a fraud, the art of a huckster, so adept at thievery as to be "untouchable". Ultimate coarseness, unparalleled narcissism and deplorable self serving behavior flaunts reality, and we now have these as traits of our next President. It becomes ever-more important for We the People to take on the difficult task of doing right and good in the face of the evil and deceitful behavior by our modern-day oligarchs. There has been nothing gentle or graceful about the way our democracy has been purchased right out from under us and there is nothing defensible about the deeds that are being undertaken by the oligarchs either. I trust each and every one of us to make better decisions than faraway billionaires.
Boycott, divest and sanction are the tools we have that allow us to continue to be gentle in demeanor but strong in action. If one should desire help in these matters, there are several places to start. Buycott is an application that you can add to your phone that allows you to become more informed about products while you are shopping and choose your purchases based on the corporate culture that brings those products to market. Another way is to speak with others about why you choose to boycott Nestle', Unilever, BP or other corporate criminals. Divestiture is more difficult because as many of us have found, the private market for retirement funds is never as simple as corporation "A" or corporation "B", to assure that the mythic investment houses remain unthreatened by regulation, virtually everything has been co-mingled into "funds", various groupings of holdings that lose their distinction within our larger investments.
In my case, I was lucky enough to be able to choose a fund with no energy holdings, but that also assures that none of my retirement income will come from renewable energy companies either. Sadly, the funds that my retirement management firm offers have no opportunities for moral and/or ethical investment in the possible futures that I hope to one day see occur. The flip side of divestiture is that there need to be alternative funds in which we can invest which echo and strengthen the monetary standing of corporations that are working toward a healthier and happier next seven generations.
Rather than the Ugly American version of this Latin phrase, "Walk softly, and carry a big stick.", I far prefer the Latin, for several reasons:
First, because bully diplomacy disgusts me. Being a bully, whether toward individuals or toward states (nations) says far more about the bully than the bullied. The fear, isolation and pain upon which bullying finds a place in our culture is about our failings as human beings. The greatest beast under the bed, the most important dragon to be slain and put to rest, forever is that of abuse. Science proves that the only way to be taught to be abusive and neglectful of others, is to be abused and neglected during your own formative years. Bullies feel this conflict severely enough that they lash out, for lack of the love and nurturing that were required for their own development. Letting the "big stick" become a powerful military has been the biggest threat to true security imaginable. Bullies never care about those they hurt, in exactly the same way that their caretakers ignored the fallout of their actions, or inaction. In severe pathology, the bully feels that their abuse and neglect for others is a way to show the same kind of love they received, perpetrating power and control issues across generations.
Second, the walk softly implies that there is a sneaking element that is absent in Latin. It is well-known, that even in our passing, we change the quality of the air through which we pass, the laws of unintended consequences demand that when we do interact with the world, we be gentle, abiding, because we never know when our coarseness could be mistaken for aggression. Perhaps one of the first lessons in diplomacy and statespersonship is to be refined, cultured and accommodating, not just a thug trying to keep others from getting their hackles up.
Third and most importantly, I see the language itself for what it actually was, a smokescreen for all that has been blatantly obvious since the beginning of oligarchy. The walk softly portion, when seen with open eyes refers to trying to keep our foreign neighbors at sub-revolutionary revolt by offering tidbits for their elites that make them feel commensurate power and control over their people that our leaders do, but with none of the actual power, that being delegated to the multi-national corporate and financial sectors. Once beholden, these agents loyalty is never questioned. What the words were covering for were the real actions that dangled carrots for complicity, or at least learned silence, so that corporate plunder could be legitimized.
When we practice the art of walking our path in grace, gently responding to and experiencing, rather than monetizing our environment, abundance ensues. This allows us to not only stand, but act with purpose and intensity that would be unavailable to us if we were trying to impose our vision on the outside world without grace. In very real ways this ancient truth has been eclipsed momentarily with the flash of a fraud, the art of a huckster, so adept at thievery as to be "untouchable". Ultimate coarseness, unparalleled narcissism and deplorable self serving behavior flaunts reality, and we now have these as traits of our next President. It becomes ever-more important for We the People to take on the difficult task of doing right and good in the face of the evil and deceitful behavior by our modern-day oligarchs. There has been nothing gentle or graceful about the way our democracy has been purchased right out from under us and there is nothing defensible about the deeds that are being undertaken by the oligarchs either. I trust each and every one of us to make better decisions than faraway billionaires.
No comments:
Post a Comment