In tonight's Presidential news conference, President Obama emphasized over and over that despite claims that large budget deficits amount to "generational theft," we need to make investments in energy, education, and especially health care reform, because that's the only way to break us out of our long-term, structural deficits. If we don't make investments in these areas, our economy will suffer, and that stream of debt will not have any long-term upshot to look forward to.
This got me to thinking: Since such a large share of the federal deficit comes from our Medicare and Medicaid shortfalls, and those shortfalls are the result of Americans continuing to get more fat, less fit, more stressed, and less balanced in their diets, then isn't every choice we make that leads to avoidable health problems the real cause of "generational theft"? Isn't this aspect of government debt just a symptom of the actual crime, which comes out of the American mind-set that someone else should have to pay for the consequences of careless living? That "someone else" is usually the health insurance industry, which includes the government, and by proxy the tax-payers that our children will eventually become.
So if you don't want our children to get stuck with their parents' debt, there is something you can do - start taking better care of your own health. Exercise for a few minutes every day. Make a point of eating fresh fruits and vegetables. Reach out to friends and family when you are stressed. Pick up a hobby that enriches your life. Do anything you can to change the direction your health is going in, and when you are ready, make another change. Then another. Before you know it, you'll not only feel better, but you'll also save your children literally thousands of dollars over the coming years.
Each one of us that makes this choice will reduce the federal deficit a little bit at a time, and eventually, if enough people take this kind of personal responsibility, we won't have to rely on deficit spending just to get through the day.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Friday, March 20, 2009
AIG Bonuses and Short-Term Thinking
There is a old wisdom that has been rising to the surface of American consciousness regarding the economic collapse of last year, which is that our crippled economy is the "long-term consequence of short-term thinking." I must say that I agree whole-heartedly, and I am glad that the notion of long-term investments in our government, our businesses, and our lives finally has fertile ground in which to grow.
Unfortunately, the American fetish for instant gratification is not yet dead-and-buried. Not only do we have those on the Right calling this the "Obama Recession" - after all, he's already had 60 days to fix a problem that was only 30 years in the making! - but we have an American public that is so outraged by the AIG bonuses that the House has already passed a tax bill that is little more than a "smart-bomb" for this small group of individuals - individuals who signed binding agreements with AIG in early 2008, long before any bailouts were even considered.
I understand the outrage, and of course we absolutely must address the kind of reckless, get paid-because-you're-rich-and-entitled mentality that drives these kinds of contract negotiations. However, we must also keep in mind that the reason why our entire economy has tanked is because nobody thought ahead to the unintended consequences of acting on our base desires, and if we now expect our highly-paid financial wizards to start paying attention to the long-term consequences of their actions, we must also hold ourselves to the same standard. We must temper our blood-lust with an eye for the long-term consequences of that righteous anger.
The alternative is to allow ourselves to be consumed by this anger, and thereby screw ourselves just as surely as these AIG "geniuses" have screwed us. Did anyone really think that as we focused our microscope on the inner workings of these bailed-out companies that we wouldn't find more and more examples of the kind of wrong-headed thinking that got us into this mess? Of course the whole thing is jacked, or else we wouldn't have had to bail them out in the first place!
And of course the bail-out itself is completely unfair. No one is denying that we shouldn't have to keep giving money to those who got rich off of bankrupting our economy. But the question is not whether or not it's fair, but whether we care about our ideal of fairness more than we care about our actual well-being.
If we continue with this witch-hunt mentality, we will surely make some major mistakes along the way. Remember in 2002-03, when America was still in shock over 9/11 and we thought it would be a good idea to invade Iraq? Six years later we are still paying for that mistake. Yes, we were lied to, but we were so scared and angry we didn't investigate that lie very thoroughly, did we? If we had done our due diligence we would have known that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11, that Saddam Hussein was actually philosophically opposed to al-Qaeda, and that "preemptive war" is just a euphemism for unprovoked invasion.
In the case of AIG and bonuses, do we really want to go down the road of seizing people's assets just because we're angry? Do we want to make today's two most difficult jobs - President of the United States and Secretary of the Treasury - even harder, at the same time that these two people are working night and day to right the wrongs of those who came before them? Do we want to deny our own responsibility for buying into a system that rewards greed over productivity?
It's a bitter pill to swallow, but if we want our Wall Street execs to think less selfishly, we have to be willing to do the same. If this public outcry forces our government to react for the sole purpose of assuaging our anger and distracts them from focusing on what actually needs to be done, that could extend the recession. And if this recession lasts for even one extra day, that will cost our economy and regular, tax-paying citizens far more than the $165 million being paid out in AIG bonuses. So let's think before we react, and maybe then we won't perpetuate the same kind of short-sighted thinking that was inflicted upon us over all these years.
Unfortunately, the American fetish for instant gratification is not yet dead-and-buried. Not only do we have those on the Right calling this the "Obama Recession" - after all, he's already had 60 days to fix a problem that was only 30 years in the making! - but we have an American public that is so outraged by the AIG bonuses that the House has already passed a tax bill that is little more than a "smart-bomb" for this small group of individuals - individuals who signed binding agreements with AIG in early 2008, long before any bailouts were even considered.
I understand the outrage, and of course we absolutely must address the kind of reckless, get paid-because-you're-rich-and-entitled mentality that drives these kinds of contract negotiations. However, we must also keep in mind that the reason why our entire economy has tanked is because nobody thought ahead to the unintended consequences of acting on our base desires, and if we now expect our highly-paid financial wizards to start paying attention to the long-term consequences of their actions, we must also hold ourselves to the same standard. We must temper our blood-lust with an eye for the long-term consequences of that righteous anger.
The alternative is to allow ourselves to be consumed by this anger, and thereby screw ourselves just as surely as these AIG "geniuses" have screwed us. Did anyone really think that as we focused our microscope on the inner workings of these bailed-out companies that we wouldn't find more and more examples of the kind of wrong-headed thinking that got us into this mess? Of course the whole thing is jacked, or else we wouldn't have had to bail them out in the first place!
And of course the bail-out itself is completely unfair. No one is denying that we shouldn't have to keep giving money to those who got rich off of bankrupting our economy. But the question is not whether or not it's fair, but whether we care about our ideal of fairness more than we care about our actual well-being.
If we continue with this witch-hunt mentality, we will surely make some major mistakes along the way. Remember in 2002-03, when America was still in shock over 9/11 and we thought it would be a good idea to invade Iraq? Six years later we are still paying for that mistake. Yes, we were lied to, but we were so scared and angry we didn't investigate that lie very thoroughly, did we? If we had done our due diligence we would have known that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11, that Saddam Hussein was actually philosophically opposed to al-Qaeda, and that "preemptive war" is just a euphemism for unprovoked invasion.
In the case of AIG and bonuses, do we really want to go down the road of seizing people's assets just because we're angry? Do we want to make today's two most difficult jobs - President of the United States and Secretary of the Treasury - even harder, at the same time that these two people are working night and day to right the wrongs of those who came before them? Do we want to deny our own responsibility for buying into a system that rewards greed over productivity?
It's a bitter pill to swallow, but if we want our Wall Street execs to think less selfishly, we have to be willing to do the same. If this public outcry forces our government to react for the sole purpose of assuaging our anger and distracts them from focusing on what actually needs to be done, that could extend the recession. And if this recession lasts for even one extra day, that will cost our economy and regular, tax-paying citizens far more than the $165 million being paid out in AIG bonuses. So let's think before we react, and maybe then we won't perpetuate the same kind of short-sighted thinking that was inflicted upon us over all these years.
Friday, March 13, 2009
You Are the Source
There is a fundamental quandary in the pursuit of one's own Liberation, which is that as you become more Free, you can't help but to notice how stuck the world is in its self-inflicted horrors. As you extricate yourself from your own delusions of identity and conditioned fear, the cacophony of the madness and suffering around you becomes deafening in contrast to your own inner silence.
This, I believe, is the cause of the "Bodhisattva vow" (i.e. the promise to be reborn until all beings are liberated) and all spiritual service: As you become more aligned with Truth, you can't help but to express that inner alignment by helping others untangle themselves from their self-induced delusions of ego, and the suffering that inevitably results.
What are those delusions? They all come down to one, fundamental lie, which is this: You lack what you need in life, and you are therefore dependent upon outside forces for your happiness and survival. This is the lie that the ego perpetuates upon You* every moment of Your life; it is a lie that, when believed, separates You from the infinite Source of Being from which we all are born. Once You are separated from Source, it is only too easy to convince You that You need the ego to survive, that You must sacrifice Your integrity to get Your needs met, and that Your whole world would come crashing down if You ever disobeyed the fearful dictates of the voices in Your head.
This pattern is a classic in abuser-abused relationships: The abuser tears down the abused person's self-esteem, isolates her from those who might give her the strength and insight she needs to fight back, and then promises to take care of her - so long as she avoids crossing him (which is impossible because there's always some new offense to rage over). The only remedy to this situation is to stop believing the lies that drain your self-worth, and re-connect to your own inner sense of strength.
The same is true of the relationship between You and Your ego. The bitter truth is that the ego takes away everything it promises to give You. It operates on the principle of contraction - it creates fear, which forces you to contract/disconnect from the object of your fear, which then creates so much suffering that your "best option" is to try to dominate and/or destroy that which you fear. The idea is that if you succeed, then the object of your fear will be gone (or at least under control), and the contraction/suffering goes away. But far more often you will fail, leaving you disconnected and afraid, and even if you succeed, that will only encourage the ego to find something else to dominate or destroy. It's a sad, miserable existence, robbing You of the abiding joy that comes from feeling connected to Source, all in the pursuit of a happiness that is elusive and - at best - transitory.
There is an alternative, though, which is to recognize that You are the Source, You are the answer. Abide in what You are, and everything else takes care of itself. Stay connected to here-and-now, and Your choices will naturally be good ones because you won't be crazed with fear. Start your path to Liberation simply by acknowledging that the ego has You doing crazy things, and that there must be a better way. YOU are that better way, but that You has no identity aside from its own IS-ness, so embracing it will be terribly unsatisfying to Your ego. Be prepared for a struggle as Your ego fights for survival; it cannot live unless it can convince You that You need it, so be prepared for ever-more-convincing tales of what the ego supposedly does for You. Because the ego is a lie, Your best strategy is simply not to believe the lies. This will eventually become easy enough- Truth comes from the Source, and YOU are the Source.
* I capitalize "You" and "Your" at times to emphasize the higher nature of my readers' True Self.
This, I believe, is the cause of the "Bodhisattva vow" (i.e. the promise to be reborn until all beings are liberated) and all spiritual service: As you become more aligned with Truth, you can't help but to express that inner alignment by helping others untangle themselves from their self-induced delusions of ego, and the suffering that inevitably results.
What are those delusions? They all come down to one, fundamental lie, which is this: You lack what you need in life, and you are therefore dependent upon outside forces for your happiness and survival. This is the lie that the ego perpetuates upon You* every moment of Your life; it is a lie that, when believed, separates You from the infinite Source of Being from which we all are born. Once You are separated from Source, it is only too easy to convince You that You need the ego to survive, that You must sacrifice Your integrity to get Your needs met, and that Your whole world would come crashing down if You ever disobeyed the fearful dictates of the voices in Your head.
This pattern is a classic in abuser-abused relationships: The abuser tears down the abused person's self-esteem, isolates her from those who might give her the strength and insight she needs to fight back, and then promises to take care of her - so long as she avoids crossing him (which is impossible because there's always some new offense to rage over). The only remedy to this situation is to stop believing the lies that drain your self-worth, and re-connect to your own inner sense of strength.
The same is true of the relationship between You and Your ego. The bitter truth is that the ego takes away everything it promises to give You. It operates on the principle of contraction - it creates fear, which forces you to contract/disconnect from the object of your fear, which then creates so much suffering that your "best option" is to try to dominate and/or destroy that which you fear. The idea is that if you succeed, then the object of your fear will be gone (or at least under control), and the contraction/suffering goes away. But far more often you will fail, leaving you disconnected and afraid, and even if you succeed, that will only encourage the ego to find something else to dominate or destroy. It's a sad, miserable existence, robbing You of the abiding joy that comes from feeling connected to Source, all in the pursuit of a happiness that is elusive and - at best - transitory.
There is an alternative, though, which is to recognize that You are the Source, You are the answer. Abide in what You are, and everything else takes care of itself. Stay connected to here-and-now, and Your choices will naturally be good ones because you won't be crazed with fear. Start your path to Liberation simply by acknowledging that the ego has You doing crazy things, and that there must be a better way. YOU are that better way, but that You has no identity aside from its own IS-ness, so embracing it will be terribly unsatisfying to Your ego. Be prepared for a struggle as Your ego fights for survival; it cannot live unless it can convince You that You need it, so be prepared for ever-more-convincing tales of what the ego supposedly does for You. Because the ego is a lie, Your best strategy is simply not to believe the lies. This will eventually become easy enough- Truth comes from the Source, and YOU are the Source.
* I capitalize "You" and "Your" at times to emphasize the higher nature of my readers' True Self.
Saturday, March 7, 2009
On Ideology vs. Personal Responsibility
Given the unprecedented support our forward-thinking president has, it's hard to miss the sharp contrast given by entrenched opponents to Democrats and liberal values. Still, I am quite proud of my country-men and -women, for despite the focused and consistently negative nay-sayers who squawk so loudly every day, public opinion is still firmly behind our president, a man we elected to solve our problems and who has only just begun to at least try to fulfill his mandate.
This is one of those times in history where the collective consciousness of an entire nation can either choose to evolve, or to remain mentally fuzzy on the reality it is in. For it is not the government that is the problem (as Republicans would have us believe), nor is it free enterprise that is the problem (as Democrats often try to convince us), but it is people who create problems and it is people who choose not to police their own behavior.
Sticking to the notion that "our" system is inherently good and "their" system will lead us all down the road to hell only allows us to ignore the fact that corruption is a personal choice, and we should question those who benefit from the obfuscation. When conservatives behave according to their values, the world benefits; when liberals are open to all views - including "unenlightened" conservative opinions - we are all enriched. When people in government do their jobs conscientiously, we have better, more efficient services and oversight. When people in business treat their customers with honesty and respect, we have a functioning economy that improves everyone's lot in life.
So let's abandon our entrenched positions that demonize liberals, conservatives, rich, and poor. Let's focus on what choices we've each made to contribute to this mess, and what we can do to get ourselves out of it. Let's be constructive, and do this right for once!
This is one of those times in history where the collective consciousness of an entire nation can either choose to evolve, or to remain mentally fuzzy on the reality it is in. For it is not the government that is the problem (as Republicans would have us believe), nor is it free enterprise that is the problem (as Democrats often try to convince us), but it is people who create problems and it is people who choose not to police their own behavior.
Sticking to the notion that "our" system is inherently good and "their" system will lead us all down the road to hell only allows us to ignore the fact that corruption is a personal choice, and we should question those who benefit from the obfuscation. When conservatives behave according to their values, the world benefits; when liberals are open to all views - including "unenlightened" conservative opinions - we are all enriched. When people in government do their jobs conscientiously, we have better, more efficient services and oversight. When people in business treat their customers with honesty and respect, we have a functioning economy that improves everyone's lot in life.
So let's abandon our entrenched positions that demonize liberals, conservatives, rich, and poor. Let's focus on what choices we've each made to contribute to this mess, and what we can do to get ourselves out of it. Let's be constructive, and do this right for once!
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Fooling the People
In watching the Republican party continue to implode, I am reminded of an old saying: "You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time."
"Fooling the people" is what the GOP has relied on ever since they developed their "Southern Strategy," which culminated in Karl Rove's tactics of playing to the base and dirty attack politics. The problem is, once you push out all oppositional forces through deceptive tactics, and the inevitable consequences of having a dishonest heart crop up, there's no one left for the people to blame but you. Thus, fooling all of the people can only last so long.
Now that Republicans have been relegated to a near-powerless position in Washington, they have a choice - continue with the same old tactics of the past, or forge a new way forward. To me, it looks like the exact same choice that any individual has when his ego has gotten him into trouble - deny responsibility and go deeper into the illusion of happiness-through-dominance, or accept responsibility and be humble enough to learn a new way.
So far, it seems like the majority of GOP power-players have been unable to shake their dependence on the egoic strategies of division, conflation, and obfuscation, while a few of the more forward-thinkers are starting to embrace a more honest and inclusive direction. This gives me hope. While I generally don't agree with the conservative platform, I also don't want a full third of our citizens to feel disempowered, disheartened, and unhappy that their voices aren't being heard, no matter who makes up that one-third of our American pie.
Every single citizen of our country and our planet is a part of our collective soul, and as such we all suffer when they suffer. We are all diminished when anyone's voice is diminished, no matter how unpalatable we find their voice to be. That is why I hope and pray the Republicans can come out of this with a more inclusive heart, and that Democrats can let past battles die and be authentically gracious in their victory.
"Fooling the people" is what the GOP has relied on ever since they developed their "Southern Strategy," which culminated in Karl Rove's tactics of playing to the base and dirty attack politics. The problem is, once you push out all oppositional forces through deceptive tactics, and the inevitable consequences of having a dishonest heart crop up, there's no one left for the people to blame but you. Thus, fooling all of the people can only last so long.
Now that Republicans have been relegated to a near-powerless position in Washington, they have a choice - continue with the same old tactics of the past, or forge a new way forward. To me, it looks like the exact same choice that any individual has when his ego has gotten him into trouble - deny responsibility and go deeper into the illusion of happiness-through-dominance, or accept responsibility and be humble enough to learn a new way.
So far, it seems like the majority of GOP power-players have been unable to shake their dependence on the egoic strategies of division, conflation, and obfuscation, while a few of the more forward-thinkers are starting to embrace a more honest and inclusive direction. This gives me hope. While I generally don't agree with the conservative platform, I also don't want a full third of our citizens to feel disempowered, disheartened, and unhappy that their voices aren't being heard, no matter who makes up that one-third of our American pie.
Every single citizen of our country and our planet is a part of our collective soul, and as such we all suffer when they suffer. We are all diminished when anyone's voice is diminished, no matter how unpalatable we find their voice to be. That is why I hope and pray the Republicans can come out of this with a more inclusive heart, and that Democrats can let past battles die and be authentically gracious in their victory.
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