Signs of the Upwising: UNBREAKING AMERICA – How We the People Can Unrig the System and End Corruption

by
“We have a deeply divided body politic. Half the people believe the system is broken. The other half believes it is fixed.” — Swami Beyondananda

Back when Bruce Lipton and I were working on the “Healing the Body Politic” chapter in Spontaneous Evolution, I said, “We know our government is one sick puppy. But what’s the disease?”

I expected something related to heart disease, or cancer, or autoimmune dysfunction, but Bruce’s answer surprised me: “Paralysis.”

Besides being a cellular biologist, Bruce has been a keen student and admirer of the Declaration of Independence and America’s founding philosophy. So I asked him to explain.

From the biologist’s perspective, he told me, the government serves as a central nervous system for the body politic, coordinating and facilitating for the benefit of the entire “organism” and all of its “cellular” citizens. Unlike the propaganda we’ve been inundated with for decades, the government — when healthy — is a beneficial force.

Indeed, the Declaration of Independence established that the purpose of any government is to serve the people. And the Constitution literally sets out a mission statement in the Preamble — to “establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.”

In other words, government of, by and for the people was created to protect us from external and internal threats, and actually help us cooperate for the benefit of each and all. But in the past half-century, those who would benefit themselves to the detriment of the commonwealth and the common good have waged an all-too-effective campaign to discredit government itself. From the Powell Memorandum to the Koch Brothers, these forces have sought to proliferate the meme, “business good, government bad.” This attitude was typified by the famous Ronald Reagan quote, “The most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”

To his credit, Reagan did have an excellent sense of humor, so the quote stuck. And that brings us to Bruce’s diagnosis. Our government — that is, the apparatus designed to protect we the people and facilitate collaboration and cooperation — has been intentionally paralyzed so that nefarious forces can operate with impunity.

That’s why Donald Trump is more of a symptom than a cause. His election indicates the fed-upness of the American people, who chose to elect a known criminal rather than someone embedded in a chronically corrupt system.

The Democrats? Just like the Republicans, they are enmeshed in a “pay-to-play” system that requires a Senator to raise $45,000 A DAY for six years in order to win the next election!

While partisans are arguing whether to impeach Donald Trump, it’s the entire impeachable system that needs to be impeached.

Fortunately, a genuine breakthrough has been quietly brewing, largely unreported by the mainstream media who seem to have a vested interest in keeping the current “greedlock” in place. The organization is Represent.us, their campaign is called Unrig the System, and their slogan is: “The government is ours … it needs to work for us.”

Represent.us has as its key platform piece the American Anti-Corruption Act, whose intention it is to:

• Stop political bribery by making it illegal for lobbyists to lobby a politician and donate to their campaign. You can lobby, or you can donate, but you can’t do both.
• End secret money so Americans know who is buying political power.
• Fix our broken elections so the people, not the political establishment, are the ones in control.

I know, I know. They are proposing a sane world. They must be crazy.

Last year, along with my colleagues with the National Town Square project, Richard Lang and Rev. Lupton Abshire, I attended the “Unrig the System” event in New Orleans, and it gave us all genuine encouragement that there is indeed an “evolutionary upwising to overgrow the system.”

We were encouraged by the young people emerging from across the political spectrum to stand for the universal values that more than 90% of us share — just, transparent, honest governance that promotes the interests of “we the people” over what James Madison deridingly called “factions”.

Please watch Unrig’s short animated movie here featuring Jennifer Lawrence and share it with your friends, family and community — regardless of their party affiliation. Then, if you are so moved, join the upwising.

Each side, through fear, seeks to leverage us to vote for their “lesser evil” instead of the other side’s “lesser evil.” Here is a chance for you to evolve past the lesser evil meme and vote for THE GREATER GOOD!

Oh, and you can listen to our Wiki Politiki interview with Represent.us National Organizing Manager James Jamieson right here.

Thank you for being a Wiki listener and supporter, thank you for caring about our future, and thank you for being a co-heart on the journey!

Yours in Evolutionary Upwising,
Steve Bhaerman

Join the Upwising here

Go ahead. Patronize me. Support Wiki Politiki monthly through Patreon.

Wiki Politiki Begins Its Second Season – Thank You For Being Part of It

by

“An enrolling stone gathers no remorse.”

— Swami Beyondananda

 

Dear Friend:

I have now been doing my Wiki Politiki radio show /podcast for 13 months. It’s been quite a journey. I have met and interviewed some extraordinary solutionaries and visionaries for my show, and I am happy that folks can access our Conversations for Co-Creation on demand. That means YOUR interview will be available to an ever-widening audience forever (or until the end of the world, whichever comes first.)

Feedback from guests has been positive, and many guests appreciate the conversational nature of the interviews that allows them to go deeper than they normally would. That’s why I feel that many of these interviews will be “evergreen” as they uniquely represent the interviewees’ long-term perspective, and of course there is always the surprise of humor, thanks to the mischievous Swami.

As we begin our second full year of broadcasting, I am even more excited. The next two years will be pivotal, as humanity must face global existential issues like climate change. To do so, we have to have “political climate change” as we evolve from defending ideological positions to facing real problems together.

Taking Wiki Politiki to the next level involves three “upgrades”. First, we want to video broadcast and record the interviews via Zoom video, so that we create a presence on You Tube, and give our community a choice to listen or watch. Second, I am looking to engage an assistant / co-producer in linking these interviews to the communities that would be most interested in them. Finally, I would love to create an informal “consortium of co-hearts” to guide, to advise, and to support this venture.

So, thank you for being a supporter / contributing your wisdom and perspective as a guest on the show.

Here are some of the ways you can help me as I build and extend my platform:

1. Proliferate your interview far and wide, particularly if you like the way it represents you, your ideas, your “work of heart.” Post it on social media, and think of the Facebook groups — or other groups — where it would find an appreciative audience. Here is the link to the page, and please use this link to post.

2. Consider being part of our informal “board of advisors” and help us gain financial traction, promote the show, and suggest guests who would add to the greater conversation.

3. Financial support, and there are several ways of doing this:

• Become a Founder for $333 via PayPal — no, it isn’t tax deductible but as the Swami says, it’s good karma and who knows, you might be able to skip a “karma payment” down the line

 Donate with PayPal

• If you have a product or service to share, or even a “cause” you want to support, consider being a sponsor … that gives you 8 30-second spots over two months of shows, and the spots stay with the shows when they are archived … the cost is $500, also via PayPal (These are limited … only two slots available for January and February)

Buy Now Button

• Make a donation in any amount via PayPal

Donate with PayPal

• Become a Patreon patron for as little as $5 a month, and be an ongoing supporter … these add up!

 

• Feed two or more birds with one scone, and share Swami’s comedy and the breakthrough book Spontaneous Evolution (now in 25 languages!) with your friends, family and co-hearts

 

 

4. Share Wiki Politiki with your community and encourage them to listen, patronize and support the show.

 

 

Heartland Security: Discovering and Cultivating Our Sane and Sacred Center

by

A LIVE Zoom Video Series Co-Sponsored by Wiki Politiki and the Association for Global New Thought

 

“If we cultivate HEARTLAND security, homeland security is a given, because our true security is in the land of the heart.” — Swami Beyondananda

Albert Einstein said it: The field is the sole governing factor over the particle.

In other words, when you put a magnet underneath a piece of paper and then sprinkle iron filings on the paper, the particles (iron filings) are arranged in a pattern determined by the field (the magnet).

So what does this have to do with politics and evolutionary change?

Simply this. Most of the activity and activism around politics until now has been about moving the particles around — shifting the balance from this side to that side, or that side to this side — instead of changing the field.

To change the political “game”, to create political climate change and functional governance of, by and for the people, involves changing the field.

The Absent Sacred and Our Current “Shituation”

And what is most significant about the current political field is not what’s there, but what’s been missing — a coherent commonly sensed consensus of what is sane and sacred. In the absence of this sacred center, the “rule of gold” has overruled the Golden Rule. In this spiritual and moral vacuum, there is currently no more powerful cultural force than the power of money, so it should be no surprise that the rules of money rule by default.

And in the absence of a coherent, positive vision for how we move forward together, we’re in danger of moving backward.

Consider that in the 2016 election, the two most “coherent” positions — that is, strongly and energetically held — were the Berniecrats and the Trumpsters. We all know what happened to Bernie, and thus the more energetic and “coherent” field of Donald Trump prevailed against Hillary, associated by both sides with the status quo. Thus the Republicans technically won the election, even though the values espoused by the Democrats are more closely aligned with the majority view.

Thus we now have a President whose values represent a minority of Americans, while the majority is alarmed by the President’s lack of qualifications, lack of character, and counter-evolutionary views, policies, and cabinet appointments. We have a crisis that will come to a head if and when Prosecutor Mueller brings charges against Donald Trump and his administration.

The crisis will not be resolved by impeachment or even with a Democratic majority in the House this fall. We will still have a system where when push comes to shove, the voters are forced to choose the “lesser evil.” The problem is that the lesser evil is still evil. And the same fundamental forces — the military industrial complex, big Pharma, big oil, agribusiness, the banking industry — still control BOTH major parties. As the divide-and-conquer not-so-mellow drama unfolds, each side is fully aware of the other side’s undeniable shadow.

The Coherent Voice of the Sane Majority = Heartland Security

The way forward will involve the “sane and reverent majority” — left and right coming front-and-center — gathering around the values that unite us. Beyond the identity issues that ultimately pit us one against the other there are the IDENTICAL issues we all face: clean air, clean water, clean soil and clean government.

My playful way of characterizing this new movement to put the “heart” at the center of our discourse and activate and cultivate the heart and soul of who we really are is “Heartland Security.” The conversation begins by calling forth a new vision of “sane and sacred” that encompasses the religious, the spiritual, and the ethical secular. It is a common (and yet until now all-too-uncommon) space beyond religion and non-religion where we recognize the three expressions of love — truth, beauty and goodness. As Swami says, “While few of us have seen God, we have all seen Good.”

That’s why I am thrilled to announce a new Zoom video series in collaboration with my colleague Barbara Fields at the Association for Global New Thought, called Heartland Security: Discovering and Cultivating Our Sane and Sacred Center.

Our first Zoom video webinar is scheduled for this coming Wednesday, March 21st, 5:30 pm PT / 8:30 pm ET. The webinar is free to attend, and you will be able to participate and ask questions. You must register, and you can do that here.

The conversation will focus on how we create and animate a “spiritual firewall” and coherent vision that will unite us spiritually so we can use the imminent crisis to evolve and thrive. This month’s guests are:

Rev. Kathleen McTigue

Rev. Kathleen McTigue is the director of the Unitarian Universalist College of Social Justice (UUCSJ). Before joining the staff of UUCSJ in 2012, McTigue served for 25 years as a UU parish minister, including 21 years as senior minister to the Unitarian Society of New Haven, Conn. A core part of her ministries has been public advocacy and faith-based organizing for marriage equality, immigrant rights, economic justice, and peace. Her previous experience also includes multiple roles with Witness for Peace and a yearlong economic study in Tanzania. McTigue earned a master of divinity degree from Starr King School for Ministry and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Stanford University See more here.

The Rev. Lupton P. Abshire

An Episcopal priest, Lupton Abshire has over 25 years of experience serving faith communities around the country and in East Africa. His academic background includes degrees in organizational development, theology, philosophy and consciousness studies. He has been a practitioner of meditation and other mindfulness disciplines since his college years. Lupton’s ongoing relationships with a network of Washington D.C. influencers are the legacy of his father, David Manker Abshire, who served as a Special Counselor to President Reagan and was the United States Permanent Representative to NATO and presided over the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress. See more here.

Please join us and “join the upwising!”

Wiki Politiki is YOUR Resource for Political Independence

And please support Wiki Politiki as a true resource for “political independence” — from the two parties, from the mainstream media, and from the battlefield that has sucked our collective money, time, energy and attention. We don’t have a huge — or even tiny — corporate endowment. That means we are completely “crowd-funded” by those who can share small amounts or large. Find out more about how you can become a sponsor, a member or simply make a one-time contribution by going here.

Or become a Wiki Politiki patron via monthly contributions via Patreon:

Wiki Politiki Officially Launches Today

by

Join the Upwising and Spark An Evolution

“It’s time to shift from the fear-based state of emergency to the
love-based state of ’emerge ‘n see’.”
— Swami Beyondananda

There is an ancient Chinese curse / blessing, “May you live in interesting times.”

Well, here we are.

We are experiencing the chaos of transformation, and if we are fortunate the transformation of chaos through awakening human consciousness.  In our book, Spontaneous Evolution, Bruce Lipton and I offer a three-step plan for living our evolutionary future now:

  1.  Evolutionary Awareness.
  2.  Evolutionary Intention.
  3.  Evolutionary Practice.

The Wiki Politiki radio show / podcast has been created to help us do all three.  Our interviews with evolutionary “solutionaries” are designed to help us see beyond politics as usual and set the stage for “politics as unusual” — where we use our energy, attention and resources to find solutions together, not just defend positions that keep us stuck in the fruitless conversations of the past.

As is often true in times of crisis (and opportunity) things seem to be getting better and worse at the same time.  The purpose of Wiki Politiki is to both shine the light of truth, love and laughter on the endarkened corridors of power … and shine the light of evolutionary possibility in front of us, so we can firmly and peacefully set our intentions, and turn the ideal into the “real deal”.

Some 230 years ago, a small band of evolutionary revolutionaries put forth the outrageous idea that we are all created equal, and that our rights derive not from some earthly king, but from life itself.  The crises we face today — not just political and economic, but ecological and spiritual — bear some similarity to what America’s founders were up against in 1776.  They faced an economic and political tyranny at the hands of the world’s most formidable multinational corporation of that time, the British East India Company, in cahoots with the equally formidable British army and navy.

Their choice was in a way the only one available to them at the time … a revolutionary uprising to overthrow the system.  Today, given our shared awareness and ability to connect digitally in an instant, we have the opportunity to launch an evolutionary upwising to overgrow the system.

We have vastly more knowledge, and infinitely more information than we did two centuries ago.  And now we need to bring forth the wisdom — from traditional religion and spiritual practice, now being confirmed by science — that will provide the context that will help us not just survive, but thrive.

As the Swami tells us, the only way to confront the darkness of the “deep state” is by cultivating a “deeper state” of loving awareness, truth, reconciliation and forgiveness.  All those “truth movements” seeking to uncover the dark secrets of the powerful must evolve into a “higher truth movement”, where we once and for all empower the Golden Rule over the rule of gold.

The kids already know this.

Imagine the teenagers in Parkland — and elsewhere — asking, why is it legal to buy and sell “assault rifles” (note the name) to civilians when the only purpose for those weapons is mass murder?  What kind of insanity is this?  What kind of insanity ignores the reality of climate change and environmental crisis to line the pockets of a few?  What kind of craziness will split up and destroy families rather than coming up with a sane and decent policy to both allow and limit immigration?

As I “go out on a whim” and ask myself, why am I putting my energy into this project when I could be using my talents some other, possibly more lucrative way, the only answer that comes is, “For the kids.”

I’m thinking of my friend’s son, who late in the evening after the 2016 election, reassured ME … “Don’t worry … it will all work out.”

I’m thinking about the interview I heard when I was a kid with the great baseball player, Willie Mays.  When asked if his team, the Giants, were going to win the pennant, wise Willie replied, “That’s what we’re going to play the season to find out.”

So … will those who come after us face the dystopian future where our worst fears are realized?  Or will they be able to enjoy clean air … clean water … clean food … and clean government … free to be themselves, yet connected in community?

That’s what we’re playing the game to find out.

Here is the statement of purpose for my weekly Wiki Politiki podcast:

“WIKI POLITIKI is a podcast, a platform, a context and a community where sane and functional ideas can “come out and play”, and where we can use our intelligence more intelligently in this “shrinking world that could definitely use a good shrink.”  We’re not afraid to look darkness in the heart at Wiki Politiki.  And … we do so with love, humor, compassion, and equanimity.  And we invite you to become part of our community where we identify, nurture and proliferate the practical visionary ideas that will bring what our colleague Charles Eisenstein calls “the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible.”

And here is how you can participate:

• Check out our archived shows — on topics as diverse as forgiveness and the deep state, the #METOO movement and worker-owned co-ops, conscious evolution and conscious business.  Listen to the ones that spark your curiosity, and share with friends and community.  We see each of these interviews as an “ambassador” to an awakening community that will bring listeners back to Wiki Politiki to empower a movement of movements.

• Join the upwising and get on the Wiki Politiki email list … it’s free

• Support Wiki Politiki by becoming a Member

• Support Wiki Politiki by becoming a Founding Sponsor or Angel and be featured on our Sponsor’s Page 

• Become a patron, and support Wiki Politiki monthly –

• Make a one-time donation in any amount using PayPal 

• Share this message and links with anyone you know who wants to experience GENUINE ENCOURAGEMENT and forward motion in creating a world of thrival for all, in what Bucky Fuller called The World Game:

“Make the world work, for 100% of humanity, in the shortest possible time, through spontaneous cooperation, without ecological offense or the disadvantage of anyone.”

As the Swami would say, our choice is clear.  Either we play the World Game or fall back into the default, “End-of-the-world game.”

The Bucky STARTS here!

Yours in evolutionary upwising,

Steve Bhaerman

With special thanks to our Sponsors, Members, Donors, Guests, Listeners and Staff — Garth Catterall and Annette Toivonen.