Posts from — November 2008

Today is Election Day. If you haven’t voted, take part in this historic day. Should Barack Obama win the presidency, you will tell your grandchildren “I helped change the culture of America for the better on November 4, 2008.”

This is the third post in a series about the spiritual and mental causes of the current financial meltdown. It is my assertion that this current economic meltdown is not simply due to people and institutions overextending themselves financially, but that our current economic crisis is a consequence of attitudes and beliefs, to include a chronic indifference to the wasted potential of our own people.

At the end of my last post I proposed that this economic crisis asks us to reinvent ourselves and create something better. Yet creating something better will require that we give up two very destructive beliefs and embrace our real reason for living.

Before I begin, let me make it clear that I am not saying that every American has the attitudes, ideas or beliefs mentioned herein.

Yet every American is a piece of the whole and, as such, we each bear the burden and the responsibility for attempting to change the attitudes, ideas and beliefs that have been destroying our people, our nation and our world. It is time to get beyond those ideas that grew out of a hard and difficult evolution.  

Just as Christ chose to take responsibility for sins that were not his, so are we called to take responsibility for the destructive and negative attitudes that poison humanity. So let us take a look at two destructive, negative and divisive beliefs that have been controling both our national dialogue and our destiny. 

The first belief involves our idea of extreme individualism. This is the idea that the individual is entirely “self made” and can live and prosper independently of the whole.

To a point, individualism inspires creativity and builds confidence. However the idea of individualism in the U.S. has become a pathology because it insists on labeling anything that benefits others without making a profit as “socialism” and, hence, negative.

Our philosophy of individualism tends to define the worth of a life strictly in terms of material goods amassed, popularity gained and money accrued. It does not value the cultivation of right relationships with people, money and the earth.

In addition, those who promote extreme individualism refuse to see that everything we have has come from the earth and has been built on the efforts of the hundreds of millions who came before us. They deny that it is in our best interest to be caretakers and co-creators. We are told we must own and exploit.  This philosophy contains the idea that each of us is a lone “island.” Deeply imbedded within the American psyche, it is exemplified by these sayings:

“He who has the most toys wins.”
“I’m not here to save the world.”
“I am a self-made man.”
“I am not my brother’s keeper.”

The second destructive, negative, divisive and patently untrue idea that runs through our national fabric is about God. At least half our populace believes in a vengeful, punishing god. This has proven to be a real liability to our growth and enlightenment as a people and a nation.

When we believe in a punishing god we are bound to do things for which we believe we deserve punishment. Since virtually all thought becomes self-fulfilling prophesy, it is only a matter of time before we punish ourselves for what we believe are our sins. It also follows that people who are hard on themselves will, typically, be even harder on others. 

A person who believes in a punishing god will have little trouble waging wars or torturing people who are labeled “terrorists” or “evildoers.” After all, his god is more than willing to condemn mankind to writhe in the unending torture of hellfire just for being human. When torture is your god’s way of dealing with people, it makes perfect sense to justify our torturing people here on earth as a means of political expediency.

Consider that:

[Read more →]