Creating a Critical Mass of people who understand our present worldwide culture is flawed at its very foundational level is the key to saving the world. Right now, as you read these words, there are millions of people who already understand the truth of what I am saying and stand ready to help make the necessary changes. But those of us who already “get it” also understand there are not yet enough brothers and sisters standing with us. The best thing we can do right now is to help other people understand our situation. There must be enough people who understand the need for change, and stand ready to make it happen, so that the changes can be made even as those opposed to changes attempt to prevent the cultural shift from happening. In order to achieve this, we are going to have to change a few million more minds.
Based upon my analysis of political polls taken during the Democratic Primary election, our voters in this country are divided into the following three groups:
- Approximately 43% of us are ardent Trump supporters. My assessment is that most of the people in this category will probably die while still holding their racist beliefs. We can and should try to reach as many of the people from this group as possible, but realistically, our task is to enlighten their children regarding the reality of connectedness.
- Approximately 22% of us are Progressive lane Democrats. Many of the people in this category are already a member of the Critical Mass we are advocating for in this book, and the balance are ripe to be recruited.
- Approximately 35% of us are Moderate lane Democrats. It is the people in this group who are key to saving the world. Somehow, we need to make enough of these “Moderate lane Democrats” understand that everything is connected, and that we need to resume our roles as Responsible Members of the Community of Life.
Are you interested in saving the world? I know I am. And guess what? We can do it! All we have to do is to convince enough people of the veracity of the truths set out in this book so that we can achieve the Critical Mass. I remember very well going through a huge personal transformation when I read Ishmael. I hope some of you who read Soft Landing, will experience that same tremendous sense of relief I did when I read Ishmael and learned there is a way out of this mess. And the way out of this mess is that when enough of us finally “get it”, then we can transform this culture into one that actually works… not only for us humans… but also for this beautiful planet and the rest of the Community of Life.
During the process of writing this book, I have tried my best to identify and understand the various categories of people who resist the truths contained herein. Without a doubt, if we want to save the world, we are going to have to find a way to reach a lot of them. Through my analysis of our situation, I see four main categories of people who are resistant to understanding and acknowledging the reality of connectedness. These are:
- Religious people.
- Ultra-conservatives, Tea Partiers, and right-leaning people who believe in trickle-down Reaganomics, who I sometimes refer to as “Ayn Randers”.
- Racists.
- People who are simply afraid to consider there is something terribly wrong with our culture because it would mean that their whole lives have been based upon a lie.
Simply because their egos have not developed sufficiently to transcend their own personal needs and desires, many of the people who fit into one or more of these categories could read this book cover to cover and still resist the truth and logic of the explanation of how things came to be this way. Many people are so wrapped up in their own dysfunctional emotions, they could never conceive of a worldview that encompasses our entire culture, or one that requires us all to act responsibly as a member of the Community of Life on this planet. These people are simply not ready for the truths contained herein. In order to bring them along, the first step is to help with their ego development. The egos of millions of our children are stunted by unresolved childhood traumas resulting from physical and sexual abuse, neglect, bullying, or exposure to other violent acts.
In many cases, these children could be helped in school, but unfortunately, many of our schools of today are not up to this task. A universal curriculum of emotional intelligence taught by qualified teachers would not only serve to help many children in their ego development but could identify students who need specialized help and care because of traumas they have experienced. In fact, all of our teachers should be screened for emotional intelligence, and those falling below a certain level should be disqualified from a teaching position on any subject. We could also take another huge step forward by transforming our educational system into one that provides free, high-quality schooling for all of our children everywhere. Currently, our teachers in our public education systems are not well compensated. That should change. Currently, our children from higher income neighborhoods receive a higher quality education than children from lower income neighborhoods. That should change. Currently, our children must mortgage their futures by taking out student loans to pay for their college educations. That should change.
Even among those of us who do not suffer from stunted ego development, very few of us understand the reality of our situation. Our government here in the United States has been stolen by huge corporations and the 1%. Most of us don’t even understand how a good government would function in order to benefit us all. Our present government is set up to benefit big corporations and the wealthy. It was not designed to be that way. As evidenced by the Preamble to the U. S. Constitution, the founder’s hearts were in the right place:
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution of the United States of America.
It was mostly during my lifetime that our government was stolen from us. It happened little by little, and hardly anyone noticed. Now, at this point, there is hardly anyone left who has a good understanding of what functions and duties our government should be doing on behalf of all of us. And that makes it really hard to fix. Most of us see the way our government is working for the benefit of the corporations and the wealthy and we assume the dysfunction is the result of our government being flawed in some basic way. They don’t see that it is working just as the corporations and the wealthy who stole it from us are intending for it to work.
The only fix available is for us to somehow achieve a general awareness among our voting population of how our government has been stolen. After that, we still have a functioning democracy and the fix is easy. First, it happens in the voting booth. Then, we abolish corporate personhood.
One hundred percent of the Republican Party is comprised of people from one or more of the categories outlined above. This means the Republican Party, which is one of the two dominant political parties in this country, is totally comprised of people whose basic beliefs align with a world where everything is separate. Clearly, in order to achieve the all-important Critical Mass, we are going to have to somehow reach a significant number of Christians, Ayn Randers, racists, and fearful people. That is why I have been working so hard to debunk Christianity and to demonstrate the insanity of consuming our last remaining natural resources for the sole purpose of maintaining the wealth of our already privileged upper class.
Religious People
Certainly, many of the members of the organized religions are a difficult bunch to convince. They think they already have the answers, and they are not the answers we are providing here. Without a doubt, many religious people are guilty of intellectual laziness. They look at the big questions like, “What happens when we die?” And, “Who, or what is responsible for creating this fantastic universe we live in?” And, “Who am I and why am I here?” And they decide the questions are too hard for them to answer for themselves. So, they simply defer to the “experts” of organized religion. The fix for these people, therefore, is for them to take the time to examine these beliefs, so their belief in a fairy-tale God who is separate from us, and who created this world just for us to conquer and rule, and who will judge us when we die, and many of their other unfounded beliefs, including especially their belief in “salvation by faith,” can be debunked and rejected one changed mind at a time.
Ayn Randers
The libertarians and the conservatives, on the other hand, are guilty of greed and irresponsibility. They use the flawed philosophy of Ayn Rand that tells them the world will work best if everyone acts in their own self-interest. What then, is the fix for greed, irresponsibility, and selfishness? Maturity, of course. Basically, these people need to grow up. Ron Paul, who ran for President as a Republican and a Libertarian in the 1988, 2008, and 2012 elections, may have given the appearance of a very mature person, but I assure you, inside that craggy old noggin is the immature mind of a self-centered teenager. Admittedly, a pretty smart teenager. Even one with some pretty good ideas. But, a teenager, nonetheless. And, as these libertarians, Ayn Randers, conservatives, and Reaganites mature, they need to dig a little deeper with their thinking, and hopefully… eventually… they will be able to identify the flaws in Ayn Rand’s philosophy, and embrace the truths contained in this book that tells us everything is connected.
Racists
Another very significant and very problematic group are the racists. Ever since the 2016 election, I have been saying that Donald Trump has accomplished one very good thing for our country. And that is by winning the election, and by governing with his 41 to 44 percent approval rating, and by leading those almost weekly rallies attended by the thousands of ardent and enthusiastic followers, Trump has served us all very well by shining a flashlight down into the deepest, darkest recesses of our collective basement. For the first time in a very long time, we have all seen the surprisingly large population of rats scurrying around down there in the darkness.
Until Donald Trump got elected, we did not know they were there. Now we do. And that is a good thing. It is a good thing because that is the type of information we need if we are going to be able to find a way forward. These are the same people that Hillary called “Trump’s basket of deplorables”. Calling them that may have cost her the election. But it is important to understand that she was not wrong. There is no question that racism is deplorable. But saying it out loud probably cost Hillary the election because calling them deplorable energized them and brought them to the polls in order to defeat her. Certainly, calling them Trump’s basket of deplorables was one of the half-a-dozen things that occurred just before the 2016 election and combined to contribute to her surprising loss.
But I’m not running for President. I’m just trying my hardest to help create a Critical Mass of people who see that our flawed and doomed culture must be replaced with a culture that recognizes the truth that everything is connected before it crashes. There are a lot of labels I could put onto these ardent Trump supporters. I could even call them racists, though I will try not do that too often. I want to try to be a little bit careful about what I call them, because some of them can still be reached, and I do not want to alienate them like Hillary did.
Although these ardent Trump supporters represent the group whose minds will be the hardest of all to change, some of them can and will join us. If we can somehow help some of them to see that their racist thoughts and feelings are flawed, and that holding those flawed thoughts and feelings are detrimental to not only to the people of color who are the objects of those flawed thoughts and feelings, but especially they are detrimental to the racists themselves, then some of them can become former racists, which is a very powerful thing. We need them here with us, so in an effort to make nice, I will sometimes substitute the phrase “ardent Trump supporters” when I really mean to say “racists”.
But saying that begs the question; “Are all ardent Trump supporters racists?” Considering that Trump burst onto the scene in 2015, riding the escalator down to the basement of Trump Tower (How appropriately symbolic was that!) to make his announcement speech, in which he asserted that Mexico was sending people who have lots of problems, I think it is pretty hard to deny that anyone who is an ardent Trump supporter, at the very least, has to not mind having a leader who is racist. In that speech he said those immigrants that Mexico was sending to the U. S. are “bringing drugs. They’re bringing crimes. They’re rapists. And some, I assume are good people.” And later on, in the same speech he also said, “I will build a great wall on our southern border and I’ll have Mexico pay for that wall.”
Like I said, we all owe a debt of gratitude to Trump for shining his flashlight down into our collective basement. Largely because this surprisingly large segment of our population welcomed such statements from a Presidential candidate, Trump’s campaign easily won the Republican nomination for President. As far as Trump’s appeal to the racist segment of our voting population, it also didn’t hurt that before running for President, Trump had famously been the person driving the blatantly racist “birther” controversy about Barack Obama.
And going back to 1989, his racist fans could also take comfort in Trump’s participation in the rush to judgment of the five Black and Latino boys called the Central Park Five, who were convicted of assaulting and raping a white woman as she was jogging through Central Park. Three weeks after the incident, and before the trial began, Trump took out full page ads in all four New York papers advocating a return of the death penalty so these kids could be properly punished. All five were convicted and sent to prison, then exonerated by DNA evidence seven years later. According to several accounts of recent interviews, Trump will still assert the guilt of these kids when asked about it today.
Then, since taking office, there is Trump’s family separation strategy at the southern border wherein thousands of children have been separated from their parents and placed in cages. Another example of Trump’s blatant racism is the fact that he tried unsuccessfully to ban all Muslims from entering the United States. Continuing down the list of examples of Trump’s racist behavior, there is the tragedy in Charlottesville, after which Trump announced there were good people on both sides, including the side that was comprised of white supremacists, neo-Nazis, neo-confederates, KKK members, and white nationalists.
Just recently, during the State of The Union Address, Donald Trump awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Rush Limbaugh, an avowed racist. Do you think it is possible that even a small portion of the ardent Trump supporters are completely oblivious to all of these racist positions and views held by the President? On the contrary, these racist positions and views of Donald Trump are quite obviously one of the big keys to his popularity.
In the intervening time since the 2016 election, it has become obvious that our country is being ruled by Trump’s basket of deplorables. Significantly, a 41 to 44 percent approval rating translates to an 80% majority in the Republican Party. This means that any Republican Senator or Congressman who crosses Trump will most certainly lose his seat in the next election… not to a Democratic rival, but to another Republican, chosen, approved, and inserted by Trump into the Republican Primary. Three years into the Trump Presidency, our fragile democracy is teetering on the edge of authoritarianism. It remains to be seen…. Will this be a good thing because it exposes flaws and defects in our present manner of government? Or, will it signal the end of democratic government for the United States? Apparently, the answer will come in November (2020) at election time.
Fearful People
One of the biggest categories of people I gave copies of Ishmael to who didn’t appreciate it, were people who just weren’t willing to question whether or not their whole lives might have been based upon a lie. When you think about it, the significance of this realization is immense. This one, I can certainly understand and even sympathize with. I think it takes a lot of courage for people to be willing to question whether or not our culture might be flawed at its foundational level as is ours. It is fear, plain and simple, that holds a huge percentage of people back from even considering whether or not our culture is insane and most certainly is destined for a crash landing in the very near future. (That is, of course, unless we can bring it in for a Soft Landing!)
How then, can we reach these fearful people? For, in order to successfully achieve that all-important Critical Mass of people who “get it”, a lot of people who fall into this category are going to have to be won over.
Maybe we can help these fearful people deal with their fears. First, they need to understand it is their fears that are holding them back. Then they need to understand there is never any reason to allow fear to have control over them. Here is an excerpt from one of my all-time favorite books, Das Energi, by the songwriter and musician, Paul Williams:
Fear is the greatest enemy of awareness.
It leaves shame and guilt far behind.
Fear is the force that holds us back.
And we need not be held back any longer!
Listen.
There is a way to deal with fear.
First: Accept that fear is not needed, that there is never a reason to let it live. Carry this knowledge with you always. It is your first line of defense.
Second: Learn to recognize your fears, in all their forms, in the earliest stages possible.
Third: Learn reflex. Any fear-killing mantra will do. Say I shall not fear. I need not fear. Write your own mantra. Learn it. Use it. Killing fear is like stamping out a fire. Reflex Fear: Stamp it out.
Fourth: Never, under any circumstances, think first. That will destroy reflex. Shoot first. Stamp it out. Then think. If you must.
A less fearful person is more conscious, more present, and more aware than a more fearful person. It’s all about raising consciousness. Fear inhibits the free flow of energy. In this case, it prohibits people from considering whether or not they adequately understand the true nature of our reality. For the reality is…. If they have not yet examined the evidence and come to the conclusion that our culture is insane, they do not, in fact, understand our reality. The more you can clear yourself from your fears, the higher the level of consciousness you will be able to achieve. And the higher the level of consciousness you are able to achieve, the more likely you are to desire to replace our present, insane culture with a sane one.
But, as I related to you in the beginning of this book, in my own case, my learning of the truth provided me with a huge sense of relief. Looking back, I can see that I had somehow been aware on a mostly subconscious level, throughout my entire life, that something was seriously wrong. Finding out what that something was, for me, provided a grand, celebratory moment. It was a celebratory moment… not because I learned how screwed up the world was… but because I learned that there was a potential fix for our severely screwed up world! I’m sure there are many more people out there, just like me, who will experience a similar sense of joy and relief, when the reality of our situation, which includes the fact that we can fix this, is finally explained to them.
Join the Cultural Revolution
I doubt whether there will be many people who will read this far into this book and still not be convinced that our present culture is insane and must be replaced before it crashes. I imagine that most of the people who reject what I am saying in this book will have stopped reading long before reaching this chapter. However, for those few skeptics who do read this far, please allow me one more opportunity to persuade you to join us in our cultural revolution.
As to those of you who remain skeptics because of your religious beliefs… To you, I say… You are obviously an intelligent person. If you were not such an intelligent person, you never would have picked up this controversial book and read it. Considering that you are an intelligent person, how, then, have you not found it within yourself to question these unfounded beliefs in a fairy-tale God who created this world, and everything in it, just for us humans, as a test to see whether or not we are worthy of joining Him in Heaven? Just because your church has been around for a couple of thousand years does not mean that your church’s belief system is founded in reality. In fact, the very fact that your religion has been around for two thousand years means that it began long before we understood many of the most basic facts about our cosmos and our place within it. The last two thousand years, and especially the last two hundred years have brought us a lot of new information that really should be considered before anyone makes any assertions about the true nature of reality, especially anyone like our religious leaders.
And I would also like to reiterate…. Giving up on your version of organized religion does not mean you need to walk away from all things spiritual. As I have been asserting herein…. The unseen world of the Shaman is real. There are many options for people on a spiritual path that do not involve turning their thinking brains over to big organizations with selfish motives. As you know from reading about my experiences with Santa Claus, Richard Hogue, LSD, out-of-body experiences, haunted houses, meditation, telepathy, lucid dreaming, etc., I have been moving down my own spiritual path for my entire life. I can’t say I have all the answers, but I can tell you the fuzzy picture I started with does not seem as fuzzy as it used to. And I can tell you for sure, it has been a very interesting, and a very satisfying, rewarding journey. For me, direct experience has played a huge role, but reading has been a big part of my own journey as well. If you are interested, I have included a list of books I have read and recommend. You will find it after the Afterward.
So, please consider leaving your organized religion with its judgmental God. Your unfounded beliefs in a fairytale are holding you back from embracing the truths set out in this book. We need YOU to help us save the world.
Now… To you Ayn Randers out there… and to all of you Tea Partiers… and all of you ultra-conservative, right-wing Republicans…. Thank you very much for reading this far. In my experience from talking (arguing?) with many of you over the years, you probably have a hard time swallowing the fact I am advocating that we provide basic needs for everyone, with no requirements from them whatsoever. You don’t think it is fair that you are so smart, and you work so hard, while so many of the people who will receive these benefits might lack your intelligence, and they might also be lazy, ignorant, uneducated, and unambitious. And, especially you don’t like it that a portion of your income may be taxed in order to pay for these benefits for people you don’t believe deserve them.
I am guessing that my problem convincing you of these truths must be because of your unshakeable faith in the cultural myth that tells us the strongest, and richest, and smartest, and the hardest working among us should reap all of the rewards, as well as your belief in the cultural myth that tells us there is not enough. In your opinion, the food is locked up for good reason. You believe that anyone who is not willing to work hard enough to provide food and other basic necessities for his or herself and their family deserves what they get.
Here is what I have to say to you…. Those are cultural myths because they are myths. They are myths because they are not true! They are based upon and derived from our basic cultural myth that tells us the world was made for man to conquer and rule. This cultural myth fosters a false sense of separation. And it is this false sense of separation on which Ayn Rand based her flawed philosophy of objectivism, that tells us everyone should always act in their own self-interest.
If you have any desire to help us to save the world, then please stop worrying about how hard the underprivileged among us are working and start thinking about the truth of what I have been telling you here! Everything is connected! We are all in this together! All of life is precious. Greed, on behalf of the wealthiest among us, and ignorance, on behalf of the aspirants to wealth who adhere to Ayn Rand’s message, are the only reasons any person on this planet ever has to worry about basic needs.
We are all members of the Community of Life!
And we all need to resume our roles as Responsible Members of the Community of Life! Everything is falling apart, and it is entirely our fault! There is very little time left for us to bring this ship carrying our collective culture in for a soft landing before it is all comes crashing down!
And to all of my fellow inhabitants of this tiny little speck of dust we call Planet Earth, who believe there is a difference between white, black, yellow, or brown people, there are so many things I could say to you about why you should rethink your racist tendencies. In fact, beginning with “Everything is connected,” and “We are all Africans,” I’ve already said them all in these pages. Only you can change your own mind. Self-reflection is an incredibly virtuous undertaking. If you try, I believe you will find that you really don’t have to think very deeply in order to debunk your racist thoughts and feelings. Find someone who has already overcome their racist tendencies and listen to what they have to say. I promise you, you will never ever regret overcoming this very serious flaw in your makeup.
Finally, to those of you who are simply freaked out by the immense implications of the fact that our worldwide culture is based upon a lie…. Have courage! You don’t have to think very deeply in order to understand that it is preferable to have the correct information when you are attempting to ascertain the true nature of reality. Don’t let fear hold you back.
And getting back to those Moderate Democrats who are supporting Joe Biden, et al instead of Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren in the Progressive wing, you obviously are a lot closer to joining our Critical Mass than are the Ayn Randers, the religious faithful, or the racists. Probably, it is fear of change that is holding you back from joining us. Most of you are probably in denial about the fact that our government has been stolen from us by huge corporations and the 1%. Maybe after you read the next and final chapter that describes what our post Soft Landing world might look like, you will be a little less fearful. You are our best hope for saving the world. Please consider carefully what I have been saying here. A Moderate Democrat does not qualify as a Responsible Member of the Community of Life!
Thank you all, from the bottom of my heart, for considering my arguments. The successful achievement of our cultural revolution necessarily depends upon the creation of a Critical Mass of people who understand that connectedness is the reality and stand ready to take responsibility as caretakers of the Community of Life. Since nobody can think for another person, this Critical Mass may only be added to one person at a time, as each person is able to incorporate these truths into their own consciousness. Who knows? A last-minute conversion of such a reader might prove to be pivotal in the establishment of our Critical Mass.
