Transpartisan Politics - WikiPolitiki

“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

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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!”

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