WALKING AWAY...

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WALKING AWAY...

Dear Friends:

I have said it before: "Stop watering a dead tree."

Sometimes a limb is so badly infected that it cannot be repaired...it must be amputated. Sometimes something is so tragically broken that it no amount of effort, love or money can fix it...it must be scrapped and replaced.

When you cannot work within a system, sometimes you must work outside of the system --i.e., working on it instead of in it. And when you cannot win playing by somebody else's rules, sometimes you must make your own.

It takes time, but some special people arrive at a point in their comprehension of the way things are where they fully understand that the game is rigged, and that no matter what they do, they are slated to lose. It hurts to have been hustled or conned, but it downright kills you when you know that you are being hustled and that you are powerless to walk away. It erodes your self-esteem. It can embitter you.

When a socio-economic system is so inherently corrupt that it is cancerous, you can no longer work within its confines to reform it. You must pack your bags and leave, or perhaps, if you've the requisite courage (and artillery), you can get everyone else to clear out and play in somebody else's yard.

I frequently speak of the need for new beginnings, for fresh thoughts, for a clean slate. I frequently speak of the need to get people's attention - to shake them out of their hypnotic torpor. I frequently speak of collaboration and cooperation instead of confrontation and partisanship.

In my socio-economic model of the Global Interworked Cooperative Business Community as a new form of entity, I  do not see the need for stealing from others to enrich myself. I believe that if we work together, the inherent synergy produced will allow both of us to win, and to share in the prosperity. It saddens me to think that so many people have become brainwashed into believing that there are only winners and losers, and that winners can only become winners by stealing from the losers, leaving them to starve. We live in a time when people define morality to suit convenience.

I have come to understand how riots are incited and revolutions are born; how some people walk away from the trappings of "civilization" and disappear to live "off the grid."

I find it incredibly frightening, yet somehow encouraging, when a career politician walks away from the game because he becomes disgusted with its lies, rationalizations, destructiveness...its inertia and its hopelessness.

I salute US Senator Evan Bayh today for his taking decisive action instead of resorting to empty rhetoric. [cue drumroll]. He decided to say "no more."

Read this, brought to you by the Yahoo! News Blog:

Disillusioned Bayh advocates electoral “shock” to broken system

Tue Feb 16, 7:35 pm ET

In an interview on MSNBC this morning, newly retiring Sen. Evan Bayh declared the American political system "dysfunctional," riddled with "brain-dead partisanship" and permanent campaigning. Flatly denying any possibility that he'd seek the presidency or any other higher office, Bayh argued that the American people needed to deliver a "shock" to Congress by voting incumbents out en masse and replacing them with people interested in reforming the process and governing for the good of the people, rather than deep-pocketed special-interest groups.

Bayh's announcement stunned the American political world, as up until just last week he looked to be well on his way to an easy reelection for a third term in the Senate, and his senior staff was aggressively pursuing that goal.

But Bayh had apparently become increasingly frustrated in the Senate. In this morning's interview he noted that just two weeks ago, Republicans who had co-sponsored a bill with him to rein in the deficit turned around and voted against it for purely political reasons. He also stated repeatedly that members of his own party should be more willing to settle for a compromise rather than holding out for perfection.

"Sometimes half a loaf is better than none," Bayh insisted.
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Bayh has taken a necessary first step -- acknowledging that something is just plain wrong, and walking away from it. But who will take the second step -- finding a better way for all of us? That remains to be seen... Pointing out a problem is helpful, but solving problems is what growth and progress are ultimately all about.

Faithfully,

Douglas Castle

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Labels, Tags and Terms: Evan Bayh, Problem-Solving, partisan politics, negotiation, compromise, collaboration, integrity, new social paradigms, TNNW, Articles by Douglas Castle,

THE CASE FOR CITIZEN AMBASSADORS

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Dear Friends:

The U.S. government has been fighting a moral battle within its own ranks about many things:

1. What to do about a flagging domestic and worldwide economy...hearing petitions for bailouts from industry groups and institutions and trying to determine what action to take; this involves a great deal of time, a fight against legislative inertia, a fear regarding public opinion, a propensity to yield to the pressures which all too often precede putting a bandage on a cancer, and numerous other Hobson's choices in the interest of polishing a pile of compost. Sadly, many of these decisions will result in even greater problems for the country's future, including continued inefficiencies, inflation and the creation of a "corporate welfare state."

2. What to do about the detainees at the Guantanamo Bay prison facility, many of whom have been held without formal charges or any form of "due process" since the terrorist attacks on the United States of 9/11. Many of these individuals may well be completely innocent of any offense, but they were unfortunate to get caught in the net of braod fear and paranoia that possesses a country under attack. Part of the government believes that these people have been denied any type of rights, recourse or remedies -- they have been captive for more than six years without being formally charged and without an opportunity to present their case -- while another branch of the government insists on keeping these "detainees" (calling them "prisoners" might entitle them to certain constitutional and civil rights) locked away while appealling the decision of the other branch (in this case, the judiciary) that these people be treated as people, and released immediately. The detainees are the ultimate victims in a battle between two branches of the same goverment which are unable to reach an agreement. And the years go on...

Governments cannot solve many problems. When they attempt to intervene, the "cures" prescribed are often worse than the diseases. When proper decisions are made in a rarity of cases, these decisions or their implementation comes far too late -- not unlike liberating the prisoners in a concentration camp after they have been malnourished too long to survive.

As citizens of our respective countries, and as citizens of the Internationalist Community, we are unfettered by the mindset, malaise and politics which keep governments from "fixing" the problems of peoples and commerce.

We are called upon as Citizen Ambassadors to create change and to solve problems as individuals, in cooperation with other individuals, and to form teams which transcend geological barriers and isolationist traditions in order to implement solutions. We need to be partners. We need to become team participants. We need to organize and to implement with humanitarian and entrepreneurial efficiency.

We cannot leave our salvation to highly compromised governmental bodies which move at a glacial pace and ultimately shoot at flies with cannons.

Faithfully,

Douglas Castle, Internationalist