First Against The Wall

I'm not an alarmist...but (unreputable way to begin a sentence) Is the treatment of Gaddafi at the hands of the mob a portent of what is to come for the tyrants of the West that produce nothing but wealth for themselves at the expense of everyone else? We produce jobs they say – I call bullshit, where they rule - unemployment is rife and these companies seem content to execute mass sackings to maximise their profit. Where are the shareholders with a conscience? Where is the Government of the people? Occupation of financial districts is the beginning and I hope and pray that this fight will not descend into bloodshed. But so much blood has already been shed for the God of greed and that’s why drawing a bow between Gaddafi and the heads of Wall St Type Players isn’t that far-fetched. They steal, they oppress and they are mad enough to believe they have a right to do so and that everyone will love them for doing so. Heed the warning, don’t find yourself cowering in a drainpipe, find a conscience.

You'd think that the whole 1% as opposed to the 99% issue would mean that garnering public support to see the 1% as the first against the wall wouldn't be so hard but the problem of greed goes deeper than that. On graphs I saw recently regarding the distribution of wealth in the U.S. 1% owned 40% of the wealth and if you stretched out to the top 5% you'd find 70% and to the top 20% you'd find 85-90% of the wealth. I find it disturbing that 80% of the people own 10-15% of the wealth. So my point is that the movement against the rich is not against 1%, it's against 20%. And judging by comments on news articles and opinion pieces it would seem that those on the side of the rich is greater even than that number. Is that because so many still believe that they can break into the top 20? Well with the gap between rich and poor widening, that is getting more and more out of reach and besides, why would you want to do that if you could only get to the top by climbing over others to get there? Or is it because people like the comfort of being ruled?

In Australia the differences are not as marked as they are in the U.S. But unless we support action to see real change the gap between rich and poor could grow here too. I don't want to discredit the slogan that is the 99%. It is a powerful argument and I'm encouraged to see that on October 29 there is a call for a global march to send a message to the upcoming G20 Summit in France. I like the synergy that is the 99% asking the 1% to pay a 1% robinhood tax on all financial transactions and currency trades. The robinhood tax claims that were this tax implemented it would raise over a trillion dollars and fund every social program and environmental initiative in the world. Is that asking too much? The 1% would have to be greedy evil bastards to shout this down would they not?

All these numbers are doing my head in. 

For more information go to http://robinhoodtax.org.au/

What Motivates You?

A mid last century musician Bill Dixon said “Fear is the greatest motivator”. It appears that civilisation agrees. Those with an urge to motivate others for whatever agenda they have often utilise fear to do so. We are delivered this almost daily in the political realm as we watch and listen and read through whatever medium we get our news from. They dole it out from their fear budget in small change that builds up over time. They place large bills of it in your palm as they smile and shake your hand and sometimes they write massive cheques that bounce when you try to cash them in, realising that children weren't being thrown overboard after all.

In the world of religion fear is a universal motivation. Fear God, and perhaps rightly so, but while you're at it also fear those who follow a different God or the same one only with a different name or a different understanding. Fear women who want to speak, or lead or show their ankles or god forbid, their faces. Fear homosexuality and gay marriage for they will turn us all gay and bring natural disasters down on our heads. Fear beards and funny hats and atheism, ethics classes and most of all scientists – those godless souls searching for a theory of everything. Do not allow people to use their own minds to come to their own conclusions on spirituality. Tremble so much that you will do all in your power to indoctrinate people into your belief system before they gain the ability to discern for themselves.

And it works! We all know fear, it is programmed deeply into us so that when we see a bear charging towards us we are motivated to our fight or flight response. Fear is natural, it gets our adrenaline pumping and readies us to do what needs to be done to survive. So there are times when being afraid is a good thing but is it healthy for us raised in this culture of fear to be so overly exposed to this emotion? It's like we have learnt to be addicted to it, we lap it up, we crave it, good news stories don't sell newspapers, we feed the monster that feeds off us. We have a list a mile long of things to be afraid of including stock market crashes, strangers, technology, too little clothing - too much, failure, success, young people, foods, how people see us and death etc. It's a booming market of relentless commercials telling us what we need to survive. With so much to be scared of, we surrender ourselves to being controlled because there is so much we feel need to be protected from.

I might say here that if you should fear anything, then fear fear, but it might be better to come at it from a different angle. I don't believe that fear is the greatest motivator. When we look back at the people that have shaped humanity and the great things that we have done I see another motivation at work. We went from having reds under the bed to being in bed with them at the crumbling of a wall and the world didn't go to the dogs. When Churchill delivered his famous speech he aroused something in people stronger than fear. When we went to the moon the whole world watched in united wonder. When the storm threatened to sink a fishing boat a man stood up and said “Don't be afraid, I am here.”

Those who have moved to occupy Wall St are not moved to action out of fear, they are angry and they believe in justice and compassion and without hope that they could make a difference why would they bother? Fear leads us to fight or to withdraw and while there are some things worth fighting for, some injustices that need to be cast out with great force, it is hope that something better will come of it that gives us the courage to overcome fear. Fear destroys and controls and leaves us cowering in a basement behind closed doors. Hope opens doors to something new, freeing us to be creative, hope is the greatest motivator.

We fear what we don't understand. Solution – come to understand what it is you fear which means coming with an open mind and not just latching onto the nearest loudmouthed potentially closed minded opinion. When they tell you the Carbon Tax or refugees will take away your job, Muslims will take over your culture or climate change will snuff us out, be skeptical, be humble, then learn. For our own good, education is so vital and learning how to learn and keep on learning is what will serve real progress for humanity.

When I look to recent leaders, when public support was high in getting someone elected it arose from hope instead of fear. Rudd and Obama won through to office on the wave of hope and while some of that hope may have been naïve and misplaced it exasperates me why so many still want to employ fear as the motivator while their public support nosedives. We can unite under hope but fear tends to divide us and tear us apart. And for those that fall to their knees in front of God, respect or honour is what God calls for, not twisted meanings that call for you to obey out of terror. If God is, then God is love. Is my greatest fear that hope will go missing? If so then I'd rather focus on hope, what do you hope for?