WE are responsible for everything!
Why is it that our little blue planet, floating in the vastness of space, is constantly in the throws of conflict?

Two words. Selfishness and Greed.

We like to think of ourselves as superior to every other life-form on the earth yet we can't seem to achieve the most basic level of harmony that the natural world achieves without any effort at all. Every other life form on the planet lives according to basic instincts and awareness of a natural order that keeps things in perpetual balance. As far as we know, only we humans have the gift/curse of self-awareness that allows us to totally ignore our interconnectedness with everything around us in favor of isolated, selfish motivations.

Humans are selfish creatures. Even when we act in giving, seemingly unselfish ways it's often because we want to be liked, to be seen as a good person, which in itself is fundamentally selfish. Of course, many of us also have genuine unselfish moments. We can give of ourselves, our time, our resources without any expectation of getting something in return. If we're honest however, if those moments fail to be recognized and appreciated eventually they too end up being tainted by our desire to at least get a thank you every now and then. Even the best of human nature ends up wanting.

The point of this isn't so much to emphasize how flawed we are but to draw attention to how this fact of human nature has led to the situation we all find ourselves in with a government, military and corporations that are totally out of control. All of these institutions are comprised of people just like you and I. The infamous THEM is us. In order for our present situation to exist, it requires millions of people just like you and I to go along with it. It takes millions of us to ignore the enormous amount of fraud and corruption going on all around us all the time. The problem isn't just those who are making the big decisions. It's about whether or not you and I have to courage to face them down and stop turning a blind eye to all the things we know are wrong. Somehow, we have to speak up, organize with each other so we don't have to stand alone within companies, within the military, within the government. We have to stand up and resist or the downfall of our nation will not stop.
Never Ending Class Warfare
When speaking about the selfish side of human nature the group of people that have always been the biggest offenders are those we call "THE RICH." There are examples of rich people that have a moral compass. There are people who built their fortune by playing fair and treating their employees with respect, acknowledging they couldn't have achieved their success without them. This is not the group I'm talking about. The group I'm talking about gained their wealth and power through less than honorable means. They are called the Robber Barons, the ones that gave meaning to the word "railroaded." We all know who these people are and we all know they use their wealth and power to gain unfair advantage over everyone else. They never play fair.

We like to think we live in a country where we are free. Are we? Are we free? Think about it. How much control do we actually have over our own lives? Every single month we see our government grow larger and larger, imposing more and more rules, regulations and penalties for non-compliance. We love to think we live in a democracy, but when you look at our culture square in the face, what you see is mostly authoritarianism. The relatively small group of people making the big decisions about what direction our society takes have absolutely no interest in what any of us want, think or feel.

Whether we like it or not we live in an authoritarian world. Just about everyone seems to have more say over our lives than we do. Our nation was founded as an unrealized ideal. Benjamin Franklin once said they have given us a Republican form of government, which is ours if we can keep it. I think it's clear the ideal has never been realized. It's been a constant battle against those that feel they have a right to rule over the rest of us.

I believe most people do want to do the right thing, to treat people fairly, but I also see that many also fall prey to the dark side of human nature perhaps because we don't really seem to have much control over the shape of our lives. When we get a little power, a little say . . . well, we all know what can happen, especially in government positions.
Our Representatives are surrounded by the trappings of royalty. So why are we surprised that the climate in Washington corrupts everyone?
Check out this photo of Orrin Hatch and the late Ted Kennedy. Notice the room they are in. Notice the humble furnishings. Look familiar? This room is palatial, no different from a royal palace in Europe. The moment someone is elected to a seat in Congress, they enter the top five percent wage earners in the country. They now earn a whopping $174,000 a year, plus benefits and all those lovely perks that they typically get down the road. Members of Congress have ZERO incentive to change their ways. For most of them, everything is running exactly how they want it to run.

The ruling class, as they refer to themselves, created the climate in Washington to be just as it is. They clearly did not want to foster the sense that ordinary people were to rule this nation. I've often thought that we should turn the Capital building into a museum and make everyone work in regular offices like the rest of us and pay them a salary similar to what the rest of us live on. What the heck do members of Congress do to warrant the kind of pay they get. I guess the idea was if they get paid enough they would not be susceptible to bribes. Yeah, that worked out well, didn't it?

We're in the mess we're in for a great many reasons. Much of the social conditioning is by design but that doesn't mean we don't have some responsibility for it. We can still undo the mess we're in, but the first step is to face the fact that we've let this happen in the first place. Millions of us have spent decades keeping our mouth shut about all the crimes being committed in the places we work. We have watched it all happen and have done nothing about it.

Well, this is your chance to change all of it. We have to start somewhere so what better place than with a bunch of no good rotten criminals we call our representatives in Congress. If we all take a stand against them and make them pay a price for what they've done . . . "Well begun is half done!"