* You might have to advocate policies that would be hard on yourself, your constituents or your supporters — even temporarily. You might become unpopular. You might get assassinated or your plane might develop unexplained engine trouble and crash. You might even not get re-elected!
* You would actually have to face reality, get the facts, learn about complicated stuff like how complex systems work. (It's really unfortunate, but most of our thorny problems are all tangled up with complex systems that are tangled up with other problems, too. Yuck!!)
* You would have to listen to and work with people who see things differently from you. After all, they may know something that's important to take into consideration. That could be really unpleasant and take you far afield from your party line, out in the political boonies where the real danger lies.
* You just wouldn't get the same adrenaline rush you get when you stick with oversimplifications, grandstanding, being loved by your supporters, and launching juicy attacks on your enemies. There just aren't as many ego-strokes or perks available for working with others to deeply understand things and come up with what makes sense for the long haul.
This is the one link to share if you wish to have a consolidated view on these topics. The Tiny URL for this consolidated posting is http://www.tinyurl.com/Assisi-Egypt-USA.
Phi Beta Iota: Egypt is a lever for the Assisi Peace Summit.
1) Against dictators and corruption, inter-faith dialog and coordinated action is HAPPENING.
2) The connected young are the antidote to radical violent Islamic fundamentalism.
3) Muslim demographics must be understood by all Catholics and Protestants
4) The Church can be a central force for Open Spectrum, Open Source Software, Open Source Intelligence, and Open Society–imagine, in a revolution, all churches and mosques as sources of wireless solar and wind-powered information that cannot be shut down, that collaborate to avoid inter-faith violence and promote non-violent “presence” in the streets to overturn the 44 dictators and demand the withdrawal of all foreign military forces….
5) Revolutions are no longer national–the diasphoras matter–the global presence of the Church matters from local to national.
6) The hypocrisy of the USA is now fully revealed–Barack Obama made 500 promises to the American people he has not fulfilled, and he dares to suggest to anyone that they honor their promises? It is time for the Church to recognize that the people are the sovereign power, not governments, and that the Church can profit much more from a free people creating wealth than from absolving corruption by governments and corporations and crime families.
7) Liberation Theology is back–it must be elevated by the Most Holy Father NOW.
2012 is not the year of apocalypse, it is the year of awakening when the meek inherit the earth. The time between now and Assisi and from Assisi on is strategically priceless, in our collective view.
Below the line:
On Assisi Peace Summit and Inter-Faith Intelligence (7 Links)
On Egypt as Awakening (14 Links)
On Revolution in & Hypocrisy of USA (10 Links)
Direct to the Core Revolution References (8 Links)
For an open source revolt (here's some background on “open source insurgency“) to be successfully formed, it needs a plausible promise. A meta issue around which all of the different factions etc. can form (remember, most of the groups and individuals involved in an open source revolt can't agree on anything but some basic concepts). A generic “day of revolt” doesn't accomplish that. What could?
Using the multi-million scale No Mas FARC protests as an example and the critical ingredient in the Tunisian protests (extreme corruption that generated an endless wellspring of anger/frustration), a potential “plausible promise” for an Egyptian open source revolt is:
No More Corruption
Not only is a movement opposing corruption something the government will find hard to oppose, it is something every Egyptian deals with on a daily basis. It also has the added benefit of directly harming the entrenched ruling elite, who are likely to become poster children of the very thing the movement is against.
Phi Beta Iota: When did it go out of style for warriors to speak the truth and only the truth? Lies kill our own and dishonor our Republic. It is time for integrity to come back into being. Advanced Cyber/Information Operations (IO) are about truth & trust. No amount of courage at the tactical level can overcome a dishonest, unaffordable, intellectually-bankrupt strategy.
American forces invaded Afghanistan more than nine years ago, and we still don't know whom we're fighting. It's hard to know who did the better job of playing us for fools a few weeks ago – the Afghan who passed himself off as the “moderate” Taliban leader, who was rewarded with American cash for his performance, or Hamid Karzai.
. . . . . . .
With the lion's share of Iraq‘s southern oil fields in Chinese hands and the Kurdish nationalists determined to control the country's largest oil reserves, more fighting in Iraq is inevitable. This sort of thing would almost be funny, in an insane sort of way, if such military leadership did not result in the pointless loss of American lives, undermine American strategic interests and erode the security and prosperity of the American people – the things the nation's four-stars are sworn to defend.
. . . . . . .
When the budget ax falls, many inconvenient facts will come to light, unmasking the great deception that America confronted a serious military threat in the aftermath of Sept. 11, a deception promoted and fostered by politicians and ambitious generals who sought to gain from it. It will horrify and discourage Americans to learn we've bankrupted ourselves in a fight that always was analogous to clubbing baby seals. From 2001 onward, we never confronted armies, air forces or capable air defenses. Bottom line: There was no existential military threat to the United States or its NATO allies emanating from Afghanistan or the Middle East. There is none today.
For the time being, no one will say these things. It's easier to go, in Winston Churchill's words, “from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm” and nurture the money flow to Washington.
Retired Col. Douglas Macgregor, a decorated combat veteran, is executive vice president of Burke-Macgregor Group. His newest book, Warrior's Rage, was published by Naval Institute Press. See also his earlier books, Breaking the Phalanx and Transformation Under Fire.
By Simon Johnson (bio), Baseline Scenario, 30 December 2010
Our leading bankers looted the state, plunged the world into deep recession, and cost us 8 million jobs. And now many of them stand by with sharpened knives and enhanced bonuses – also most willing to suggest how the salaries and jobs of others can be further cut. Think about the morality of that one.
Will no one think hard about what this means for our budget and our political system until it is too late?
Seven years ago Tom Atlee, our mentor on collective intelligence and community self-organization for resilience and sustainability, began focusing on “ways of communicating.” Responding to a recent query from us about alternatives to partisan politics or dictatorships, he offered up the below links, each of which has many other links, as food for reflection.
