• Psychology of Life

    Change is Coming and it’s Spectacular

    Lift Off
    JB Collection

    We have become aware that war is a no-win (white) man’s game.

    We have become aware that capitalism doesn’t serve the majority anymore, only a very small minority.

    We have become aware that justice is a social construct.

    We have become aware that if humans starve on this abundant planet; we have made a mistake and must change that mistake.

    We have become aware that poverty is for no one and no one is for poverty.

    JB Collection

    We have become aware that inequality is a deliberate tool and must be destroyed.

    We have become aware that our grief binds us in a way that nothing else can.

    We believe that health care is a right and not a privilege for the few.

    We are aware that our planet Earth is finite.

    We are aware that there is no such thing as human supremacy.

    We aren’t looking to preachers, or pastors or ministers to make our way in this world, we see what is good.

    We have become aware that it is our own perception and willingness and love that will bring us through the time that is dark.

    The good, the brave, the honest: abundance, truth, non-violence, love and honesty, these are what will guide us.

  • Psychology of Life

    the Trump Boat Parades, a great example of ignorant white privilege

    The Trump Boat Parades are the greatest examples of ignorant white privilege.

    I have to say ignorant because if you are woke, you could not, would not participate in a Trump boat parade. With wisdom you could see that a boat parade is screaming look at me and my money.

    Boats come from two types of homes: where dad does what he wants, mom says  “don’t question him” and the boat payments are his way of saying “my money, I’ll spend it as I want”. The other home that a boat comes from is, the home where a boat is easily afforded and no one is deprived just because someone bought a boat.

    No matter which home the boat comes from, a boat screams “I have excess dollars, look at me”. Boats are excessively expensive and the care of them is even more expensive.

    Bernie’s Campaign

    It’s not a good message in our economy. Not right now. There are millions of people without jobs, millions of families who don’t know where the next meal is coming from. Showing these families your money is like rubbing pepper on a kitchen cut; or rubbing salt onto a burn.

    The Trump boat parades are indicative of an attitude that says “we don’t care about you and your suffering, we don’t care that you are starving, we have enough money and we can burn it”. What Trumpers don’t realize is that the people who don’t have enough money are the majority of people in this country. Pre-pandemic over 75% of Americans were living paycheck to paycheck.  The country is hurting economically, more than anything else. More than anything else, we are facing economic deprivation.

    It’s clear to a feeling person that showing off with money has been out of style since the nineties. No one appreciates ostentation.

    The Trump boat parades are a way of identifying with Trump. It’s a way of saying “hey, greed and even racism is okay”. The wealthy are obsessed with the idea of not allowing anyone to take their own money – which is fair.

    However, they (the wealthy) also want one other thing and that is to worship on the altar of capitalism. Capitalism is the thing that makes all stealing, raping and looting justified. After all, it is done for the almighty dollar.

    Racism serves the purpose of having a handy victim so that no white has to feel “less than”. By having an entire race of humans that can be subjugated and told that they are less than, whites are able to keep their heads up high.

    By identifying with Trump, whites are able to justify their greed. They are also able to be “better than” and to subjugate an entire other race. This is also why it is so hard for Trump supporters to give up on supporting Trump. White men can thoroughly identify with Trump. Old men whose values are under attack by the up and coming generations that cannot agree with their values.

    Lots of people don’t want to give up the nineties, it was okay to be greedy and even condescending. It was especially gratifying to keep their boots on the necks of others. Feeling superior was a national pastime. Every working supervisor in America was busy grinding their feet onto the backs of working Americans.

    None of this has changed. We are still a group of people that want to feel superior and one up on everyone else. Who doesn’t walk into a room trying to figure out how to present as smart, or moneyed or cool?

    All Americans are complicit in the racism dance. We never did enough to resolve racism. We gave the concept a lot of lip service, but never enough real effort to eradicate racism. We could have outlawed racism decades ago. We didn’t. Just like the minimum wage, we sat complicitly allowing awful things to happen to others.

  • Economic Equality (A Goal),  Politics,  Psychology of Life,  World Affairs

    Our Government has Tricked You and Here is Why

    The Revolution has begun.

    People see behind the lies they were taught in Government class. 

    Federal Capitol Building: Public Domain

    My immature understanding of government from my Civics class and from my reading of John F. Kennedy’s Pulitzer Prize winning book Profiles in Courage was essentially flawed.

    I learned that as a citizen, it was my duty to read about legislative candidates. I was told to understand the issues and vote on the candidate that I believed in. Based on the voting base, the successful congress member would then vote to benefit their own home base population. Always, congress was directed to work for the benefit of the people.

    Because of something called “politics” politicians are doing things that are not good for the people. While we may call it politics, it is truly all about money. The politicians are in pursuit of money, vote on all matters big and small, only as a result of being paid to do it.

    Public Domain

    Currently, in this country, there appears to be no reason to stop a public mandate for “Medicare for All”. Yet, no political platform will get on board and fight for this important public right to healthcare. In fact, we are in a country, where one person, yes, that’s right, ONE person makes life and death decisions for everyone in America. (This is definitely not what the founding fathers planned.)

    One man causes so many deaths, Mitch McConnell who has stopped all legislation as it sits on his desk. Untold numbers of new legislation proposed by the Democrats sit on this man’s desk (collecting dust). Caused deaths how, you ask…

    Your morning reminder that Mitch McConnell refused to take up any legislation to help states respond to COVID the whole month of June because he wanted to ram through as many conservative judges as possible.” @ChrisMurphyCT

    Many attempts to legislate equal rights, if passed would prevent much of the rioting in this country. Relief efforts for the Corona virus disaster all sit on his desk. An increased minimum wage sits on Mitch McConnell’s desk.

    What possible justification would there be for paying tipped workers $2.13 per hour (minimum wage)? The only justification that I know is that the legislators are lining their pockets with the blood of these same workers and taking millions in bribes to keep the status quo – status quo.

    What possible justification is there for a minimum wage that no one can survive on ($7.25)?

    In a different example, at the state level: One man has prevented so much wellness, Rick Scott who blocked the Medicaid expansion in Florida. How many deaths did Rick Scott cause by blocking the Medicaid expansion in Florida?

    “A report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities released last week said states that expanded Medicaid showed significant reductions in death rates for older adults who fell into the income brackets that allowed them to gain the coverage.”

    This isn’t the country that I learned about in my high school. The country I learned about included in the design a balance of power. How did we get to a point where one person can cause the death of others through legislative action or inaction?

    How many of these legislators are taking money for some very specific purposes? For example, the world financial crisis caused by the banks:

    JP Morgan is worth $2.4T, and only paid a $13B fine for their role in the ‘08 financial crisis. Our predatory capitalist system rewards greed, and punishes those who try to play by the rules. #BreakUpTheBanks #BreakTheDuoploly Quote Tweet Ryan Knight @ProudSocialist

    JPMorgan quarterly earnings?

    BREAKING: @JPMorgan, the biggest U.S. bank, just reported its highest quarterly revenue EVER during a pandemic that’s seen 40 million Americans lose their jobs and small-businesses decimated. I cannot stress this enough: #FuckCapitalism. It is killing everyone besides the top 1%. @4apeoplesparty

    How many legislators did it take to keep JPMorgan Chase from suffering any dire consequences as a result of the 2008 financial crisis?  How many legislators does it take to keep them from paying taxes and one step further from using those taxes to provide relief to millions of Americans who are suffering from the Coronavirus crisis?

    Please help me understand why “Medicare for all” is not real, right now, today?

    Health insurance statistics are not what we are being told. Medicare and Medicaid are the largest payers of healthcare in America and have been for decades. The balance of national health care dollars are spent by for profit insurance companies on healthy cherry picked people who insurers chase after for their healthcare dollars. Why? Because insuring them is cheap – they don’t file claims.

    At this time, we are being bombarded with false information about who has lost healthcare as a result of the Covid crisis. Each research facility gives a different number or attempts to extrapolate a number of uninsured. Since the 90s, the uninsured number always stayed at around 38 million. Obama was able to reduce that number by half. Not only are we back up to 38 million, but we have surpassed it now. Trump kept peeling away at the Affordable Care Act and replaced it with nothing. Most people in America depend on their jobs to provide health care insurance, therefore coverage. So where are we now? The loss of jobs, the loss of health insurance.

    The revolution is coming.

    MLK the Revolution: Public Domain

  • Baby Boomers,  Economic Equality (A Goal),  Management,  Philosophy

    Internet Freedom or Danger?

    Johanna BaynardJun 4 · 3 min read

    We continue to get so many opinion pieces on the internet. Everyone wants to weigh in on what the World Wide Web is doing to us. I read today about TikTok, I read about Youtube, I read about Instagram and Twitter.

    So much of what I read was about how the internet is changing us — but not for the better. Lately I have read a lot about politicizing the Internet. There are loud and compelling complaints about Facebook, and Twitter, and Instagram and now TikTok.

    Gaming — JB Collection

    I’ll never forget years ago; I was standing in the hallway of a convention center complaining loudly about the lack of service and the lack of coffee. I was the hostess of the event and I was dealing with a broken agreement. One of my trainers asked me “so do you really think this hotel should do things your way?” That put me in check for a second and he continued with “do you believe that the world should act according to your rules?” It was food for thought and it made me think hard.

    I never did get coffee that day, but I did learn the lesson of my frustration. If I want to live more peacefully, I’ll have to accept that people don’t always do what they say and things never go just right when you’re planning a huge event, or any event, for that matter.

    It is this conversation that I think about when I read articles about the Internet. From the beginning, when my colleagues were complaining about texting, I would always respond differently. Colleague “my kid is always on his phone, he won’t stop texting”, Me “he’s learning how to read quickly and how to spell, all good”.

    What I find interesting is that so many believe that the Internet should be controlled. Even the Facebook Staff.

    First, I don’t believe the Internet is controllable. That is what is so amazing about it. The Internet has given those without a voice, a real voice: including a place to meet and a place to talk and all online! Secondly, how will 7 billion people ever come to any agreement about the way that the internet “should” be? Yes, no and maybe.

    Clay Banks on Unsplash

    We the people have responsibility for what we understand, we cannot pass that responsibility to another.

    Right now, Trump is trying to change the narrative about who he is and what he stands for.

    Trump is going after those who disagree with him.

    Imagine a world where there was only one story: Trump’s.

    I would even go back to my earlier conversation. That is, that the world won’t go the way that you want it to go. If you want peacefulness, accept the mess. Fifteen years ago, not any of this was possible and now it’s here. Just Imagine where we are going…

  • Economic Equality (A Goal),  World Affairs

    Trump Keeps Going and No One Stops Him

    Everything I read, no matter what the source, discusses Mr. Trump’s madness. He continually rejects common goodness and concern for Americans. And yet, many follow his directions and many even defend him. I’m not sure I understand this. Over and over again, this man claims American headlines and keeps his name in front of Americans. I cannot identify any reason why Trump is in the headlines.

    In the meantime, he has behaved so badly, that no other person known, could survive the press associated with his bad behavior. How has he survived? Any other public figure would be condemned, rejected and forgotten about. Given all of his bad behavior and the condemnation of millions all over the world: Who follows his direction? Who does his bidding?

    Let’s address Trump’s latest controversy. Trump decides (with the help of outraged aides) that he wants to visit the Episcopal church across the street of the White House. In order to do this, peaceful protestors have to be removed from the area that Trump wants to walk to and pose for a picture.

    Who decides that it is okay to disperse the peaceful protestors with the use of violence, flash grenades and tear gas (Bill Barr)? Then, who, who would actually do this? Who would throw tear gas and a flash grenade into a crowd of peaceful protestors? The curfew was passed, and that curfew is possibly what gave the brutes an excuse for violence.

    Doug Mills / New York Times

    If you are an American soldier it is against the law to raise a weapon on an American. If you are an American policeperson, it is against the law to use a weapon except in defense of yours or another’s life.

    People follow this madman’s orders, preferences, dictates, etc. suggestions. Why, who, how?

    Madness: no one believes that Trump is a spiritual man. No one believes that he knows what is inside a Bible. There he stands in front of the Episcopal church with a Bible in the hand. No one has been able to give us a hint of what the point was of that entire exercise.

    The police dispersed peaceful protestors with violence, then Trump was staged with a Bible in front of a church. What was the point? Who followed his orders? Who made the orders? Why? Madman.

  • Economic Equality (A Goal),  World Affairs

    Hey White Folks, Hey Black Folks, You’ve Got the Wrong Bad Guy

    The wealthy in this country have been working with your legislator to keep you poor, no matter what you do.

    Every single inequality can be defined with money. Money is the great equalizer.

    We’ve been placated for a long time and each time, we the American people, gave to peace, we lost our dignity. Now we must take it all back.

    You have a role and you have power in the coming Revolution, but it’s not the role you may think.

    We gave our power away. It is our time to simply take it back.

    Without Violence — we take our power back, in the same way that our power was taken from us. We change our legislators. We change our laws. We commit ourselves to economic equality.

    Banning together is a number one priority: equality, in every way, for every human.

    Shared Values:

    Economic Equality — human beings must share all resources with each other.

    How do we get to it without violence, hatred and anger?

    1. Ban Together

    2. Organize, agree on specific measurable goals.

    a. spend 5–50 days working on campaigns to ensure the November elections of Progressives.

    b. all workers strike from McDonald’s for 2 days, until the minimum wage is increased to 17.00 per hour

    3. Communicate with each other and support each other’s efforts.

    4. Scream power to the elite.

    5. We are not here to fight, we are here to make right.

    For you who work for the government: every chance you get, every request that is made for the good of another, use all of your power to give to the good of others.

    1. Give food stamps, give support and give aid.

    2. Every wounded person in your care, will not fear you because they see and feel your compassion.

    3. Interrupt when others are injuring humans. Call out when behavior injures others.

    4. Make grants to all that it is possible to do so.

    5. No blame necessary, only change.

    For you in poverty-stricken communities, power is in numbers, striking is very effective, coming together in numbers is powerful. We have to change the story.

    Make everything you do count for the Revolution:

    1. Vote for the progressive candidate and then keep that candidate accountable.

    2. Workers’ Unions have been effective for keeping workers safe and paid well.

    Unknown Source

    3. Whatever you do, stay strong: No is not an answer.

  • Economic Equality (A Goal),  World Affairs

    Am I in America or the Twilight Zone?

    The awful economic story of the pandemic is invisible to the press and to the people.

    Johanna BaynardMay 11 · 4 min read

    14.7 unemployment rate 10 times the worst month ever (CBS News)

    Watching TV, America looks normal. “Advent health” talks about storybook healthcare, personalized for everyone…people are singing.

    And yet, America has hit the crazy number of 33 million unemployment claims.

    It’s a surreal world. One in which the TV goes on as if nothing is happening outside. The commercials talk endlessly about “we are in this together”. And yet, nothing can be further from the truth. This is simply a tag line that businesses are using to continue the business of making money. The businesses have no intention and no plan to help the unemployed, the sick or the hungry. The businesses use the tag line to keep customers immersed in this idea of togetherness.

    Eclipse JB Collection

    We live in a world where one man has more power than anyone else, one man, who represents no one except himself. Mitch McConnell. The Democrats can and do put legislation on his desk, legislation that is good for Americans, an expansion of food stamps — for example — and there it sits, on Mitch McConnell’s desk, never coming to fruition. When confronted about his in-action, McConnell will say that the President won’t consider it, so why should he bother?

    How is that possible? We were so careful in the crafting of our country, and yet, look where we are now. Powerless and more needy than ever. We have 33 million unemployed human beings with no chance of getting what they need. The latest unemployment statistics are 10 times worse than any other time in history.

    Our governing body will do nothing for the unemployed human beings, nothing. We received our $1,200.00 stimulus check and that is the end of that. If more is even considered for us human beings, the idea will be shot down by Mitch McConnell and the republican senate. It’s as easy as that. Wall Street received a two trillion and a half dollar stimulus, but no such stimulus is being considered for human beings.

    This is my Alice in Wonderland feeling right here, in America. Advent Health singing their own praises with the hymn of “we are in this together” and yet I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that Advent Health will do NOTHING for the homeless human being who is uninsured, NOTHING. The point of Advent Health is the CEO’s salary and the shareholders’ dividend ONLY. No humans are considered. I know this. The world is not how it presents itself to be. The world is some other nameless and selfish monster consuming everything and everyone in the name of capitalism. Predatory capitalism has run amuck and is eating human beings now.

    Marcus Spiske — Unsplash

    Professor Scott Galloway asks

    “What is our trillion-dollar bet — where are we spending the trillion our kids will be saddled with? Simple: rich people. Lower tax rates on the wealthy and corporations (84% owned by the top 10% income earning households) were supposed to inspire growth and investment. They haven’t.”

    “The tax cut will pay for itself.” — Steve Mnuchin

    1/31/20 Galloway blog

    “Allowing companies to fail is the first regulatory principal of capitalism” Matt Taibbi states. Why aren’t we allowing the stock market to self stabilize? According to Taibbi “the Greatest wealth transfer ever, S&P are partying.”

    The Federal Reserve keeps throwing money at the stock market — to the tune of 2.5 trillion dollars (in the name of the pandemic) and the press is saying nothing. Why, how is that even possible? The Fed = Rich people giving rich people money = Jerome Powell

    Austin Distel — Unsplash

    The stock market is worth more now even though 20 million people have lost their job (in April). There is no connection between wall street and main street USA. No one can see it?

    I’ve just watched the news and nothing is being stated about this thievery. It’s as if nothing has happened. We are all satisfied that although the average American has received very little recompense and the wealthy have received a huge transfer from our tax money, nothing is being said on the news. Am I in an alternate reality? Is this the Twilight Zone?

    There is no way that 33 million unemployed people are going to be okay without help. The taxpayer bail out of $1,200.00 is gone. What will all of those families do without an income? Why hasn’t any investigative reporter pursued this story? What do we think is going to happen when all of these human beings become homeless and hungry?

  • Economic Equality (A Goal),  Psychology of Life,  Speaking as a Parent,  World Affairs

    The “Relief Package” Didn’t Relieve

    And yet we keep thinking that America is the best. The bread lines are miles and miles long. American food lines.

    People received stimulus checks into overdrawn accounts.

    I see all of the charities and I think “please don’t donate there, the only thing American charity does is make their CEOs rich, they don’t do enough for those who are suffering.” Why do we need so much charity in America?

    With all of the welfare organizations going on in America, why aren’t we doing better on behalf of the poor and poverty stricken? Why aren’t we doing better for the compromised middle class?

    With the current Covid stimulus package, can we really say that we have helped? Today, on TV, I watched an “old white man” talk about how the new stimulus package had to be about supporting businesses so that people could be tied to their jobs. (Trickle down economics for everyone?) That’s the problem, jobs in America do not support Americans. We don’t have a livable wage in America, we don’t have affordable healthcare, we don’t have corporations making sure that workers benefit from employment.

    Do you want a billion dollars? “Of course, but only if you own an airplane, cruise ship, bank or mega-business. You are only a human being in America? Oh, well, hmmm, I don’t know if we have anything for you. Okay, how about $1,200.00? What will that buy you? I don’t know, one month of rent?”

    Trump and his cronies have, literally, pumped billions into the stock market. This is money that should have gone into healthcare, human beings and the welfare of those who are waiting in food lines with starving kids.

    We aren’t paying people enough; they are not earning a livable wage. These folks cannot withstand what is happening in this country now. If people aren’t earning a living wage, how could they possibly have savings?

    To my shame and mortification Motherjones.com writes: “Was anyone aware of this? “More than 80 percent of the benefits of a tax change tucked into the Coronavirus relief package Congress passed last month will go to those who earn more than $1 million annually” The middle-class picks up the bill! “

    No America, it’s not enough for the everyday earner. When will we learn to give to people instead of organizations? When will we stop the corporations from owning America?

  • Economic Equality (A Goal),  Psychology of Life,  World Affairs

    Poverty in the time of Anguish: Covid-19

    No one wants to admit that they are in poverty; and that’s at least part of the problem. The 75% of Americans who are working paycheck to paycheck do not want to admit that they cannot handle a $1,000.00 crisis. All of us want to believe that we have it made and that we can manage any challenge. That’s why Amscot, “The Money Superstore” is so successful. And they rape us for our hard earned dollars.

    I am not sure how or when it started, but greed has a very rich and a very long history. Sociologists’ will tell you that greed and jealousy over property did not evolve until the concept of property ownership became a human law.

    A History of Greed

    Once the laws of property ownership came into being, everything about humanity changed. Suddenly, men are concerned that their offspring by their very own and only their very own. Marriage evolved into a much stronger social institution once property ownership was established. Men only wanted to leave their hard won properties to their very own offspring.

    The history doesn’t quite matter when the concept under discussion is social greed. Social greed is a term for two reasons, often people think of greed in terms of the effect it has on their neighbors. They want neighbors to know that they can be “better”. The other reason for the term social greed is that, at least in this country, social greed has an effect on others and our society. Our society suffers as a result of this combined sense of righteousness to attain wealth over any other human value, including our neighbor’s health.

    The Coronavirus Demonstrates

    The coronavirus shows us irrevocably the current tragedy that is the United States of America.

    It is the mirror held up to the ugly witch’s face showing her that her once remarkable beauty is lost.

    It all seems impossible. Covid-19 is a pause, an interruption, a change in everything and everyone, a change in life as we knew it.

    The virus comes at us like a tornado, with a deadly wind ripping and tearing through the lives of all humans on Earth. This novel coronavirus has no bias.

    What America Needs to Fix

    1.        Healthcare – America is the only first world country in the world that doesn’t have universal healthcare. We need it and we should have it. It’s been more than forty years since economist’ showed that healthcare doesn’t respond to the principles of economics. Healthcare doesn’t respond to supply and demand.

    Violet Johnson

    Uwe Reinhardt, Princeton economist, conducted massive studies decades ago and demonstrated that economics does not work with healthcare. When you put two physicians across the street from each other, prices go up, they do not go down because of “competition”. These are known facts and yet, the ignorant senators and representatives insist on letting the “market” regulate healthcare. How can they dare be so ignorant when 330million people depend on them?

    2.        Jobs with a living wage – it’s a fact that lawmakers allow themselves to gain wealth from their position. This allowance has given them the motivation to keep minimum wages at a minimum. Our capitalist society has convinced Americans that having wealth is a matter of merit. We merit wealth by working hard and making money. We use the principles of supply and demand to demonstrate the making of a better mouse-trap as a means to wealth. The belief is, if you aren’t wealthy, it’s because you haven’t worked hard enough or long enough. Or perhaps you are not creative enough to have built the best mousetrap.

    America promotes this myth about meritocracy, that says something to the effect of “if you are a janitor, you don’t deserve to make a living, only people who go to school and earn degrees deserve a living wage.” When read like this, the concept seems absurd and that is because the concept is absurd.

    Everyone; deserves to make a living wage, Everyone.

    3.        Lawmakers who belong to the wealthy class simply manipulate their own positions to gain more wealth. In the meantime, because they are out of touch with anyone who lives in America, they continue to make laws that will benefit themselves, as in only, me, myself and I. The wealthy want Americans to believe that they have gained wealth through their own merit and hard work. But can you say that it is hard work, when the wealthy have been bribing Senators and Representatives to keep the minimum wage, minimum. Scott Galloway commented in his blog (2/7/20) “It’s difficult for our elected leaders not to shape public policy around the concerns and priorities of the super wealthy when they have more access to their senators.” How is that meritocracy?

    We can and do, what we want to gain wealth. As history tells us, this is rarely legally or morally correct. Americans have used the philosophy “the ends justify the means”. What we are missing, right now, today, is the tyranny of what Capitalism has done to us. It is dire.

    The recent wealth tax breaks are clear proof of this. In what country, besides America, could someone like Jeff Bezos, the owner of Amazon, pay zero in taxes?

    Ben White on Unsplash

    4.        Student loans: who can believe that in America, the Secretary of Education, Betsy Devos, is also an owner of a student loan collection agency? For comparison, I don’t mean the corrupt countries that we are all familiar with, I mean in the Western democracies.

    What’s Next for America

    Americans have no reason to remember the French Revolution, which they call Bastille Day. Bastille Day is the day that the French stormed the Bastille (a military base and a prison) thus starting the French Revolution. The French were very tired of being poor. The story has it that when Marie Antoinette heard that the French peasants were asking for bread and that there was no bread anywhere, she said “Let them eat cake!” According to Wikipedia, such a statement: in context would thus reflect either the princess’s disregard for the peasants or her poor understanding of their situation if not both.”

    Which is the point of this writing. Washington D.C. no longer serves the people, nor do they understand the people. Indeed, we are back to “taxation without representation” as no one in Washington represents the poor and middle class.

    We are in a deep crisis in America and we are headed for a future that no one wants. Grieving families, and a majority of Americans that are starving, that is all it will take to create the American Bastille Day. The beginning of a Revolution that will end the tyranny of the wealthy in America.

  • Psychology of Life

    Jesus is My Hero

    Yet, I am a child of God also. And if you read the words of Jesus, you know that he considers himself and all humans as children of God. Jesus does not see himself as special or magic. Instead, he lifts everyone up proclaiming that we are all capable of any duty or chore that Jesus himself accomplishes.

    Photo by João Amadi on Unsplash

    Trust me, if Jesus were alive today, he would be as angry with Christians as he was with Jews (in the time of Romans). There is no question that Religion has failed us in every way. Jesus would be the first to tell us that we have failed him and his message.

    Religion…

    Religion was never to be the touchstone of belief. Belief was to be measured in our acts: our acts of love and redemption. Never were our beliefs to be measured by our fealty to a church and a religion. Giving money to a church has never been a means into God’s heart and home.

    So, to my understanding, humans built an entire religion around another human (Jesus), who stated emphatically for us not to do so.

    For this religion, around the world, which has caused so many wars and so much pain, now, in this century, is the richest of all the richest. Matthew 19:23 “Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew19:24 “and again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.”

    Against all teachings of Jesus Christ, the religions rose up and began gathering money. They gathered so much money that they hardly knew what to do with all of it. The Vatican is one such example of this ridiculous wealth. Ridiculous because it is against the founder’s words, ridiculous because its function does not benefit humans.

    Homeless Person Sleeping
    Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

    Where are we? What’s next? Church attendance is low. More importantly, the role of the church is now being scrutinized by all of those abused by the leaders of the church. Scrutiny is appropriate, as we need to dig out the dirty and sick underbelly of organized religion. Preachers, priests, pastors and rabbis used their authority to take advantage of the young.

    The Road Ahead…

    Not only have the great religions been abandoned by the young, all see that they have become evil – a place where bad things happen, and greed abounds.

    While Jesus has always been my hero; Christianity has failed and more so, religion has failed and that is all religions, including Judaism. Childhood sexual abuse is so common in both religions: Christianity and Judaism. The acquisition of ridiculous amounts of wealth has run rampant for both religions. What now? Old white men expressing their sexual needs and their greed, have led us all into damnation.

    We can see individual kindness, but it isn’t good enough to overlook the sins of the religions. What do we do? Where do we go now?

    There is no question that humanity needs a moral compass. The ten commandments have served us well – yet only insofar as EVERYONE feels governed by them. This is not the case. Men often feel that these commandments do not apply to their own journeys. Even while Moses promulgated “do not commit adultery”, Moses committed adultery.

    It’s time for us to rise up to the occasion and promulgate a new ten commandments that is inclusive and that everyone will believe applies singularly to themselves. It is time to create a broad and new moral compass for all of humankind.

    Instead of a “white man” bringing “down” commandments from the mountaintop, how about if human beings all agreed on a few rules that apply to everyone without regard to race, gender and wealth?

    Un-Religion

    What if we can all agree about what is right and proper behavior? Save those agreements for big things that apply to all, not for the small and petty rules of the social classes.

    • We could all agree on non-violence.
    • We can all agree on not murdering one another.
    • We can all agree that honesty serves our highest good.
    • We can all agree that wholeness and integrity are important human principles.
    • Lastly, we can all agree that we must change our awareness of Earth to one of abundance.
    • We cannot continue living the lie of scarcity. Scarcity encourages greed.

    We humans need each other, and in that need, we must come to terms with our interdependence. The Earth is one whole and the lives upon the Earth are only part of that one. By understanding the oneness in our lives, we can finally see the price we have paid for acting as if we are separate beings. Hurting others is only possible if you believe that you are separate from the other.

    Jesus told us most of these things. We need to listen to those words and then we need to move on. It’s time to form a new reality for our future.