Government and Leadership

The type of government employed by a nation (democracy, monarchy, communism, etc.) is of little significance as long as it provides the requisites for true progress: liberty, security, education, and social harmony. The moral values of the populace, as reflected in their leaders, determine social evolution.

The public expects direction regarding the way they should go.  Most leaders fail to recognize that Jesus has already given them all necessary guidance, leadership and direction. Just as Moses lead the children of Israel out of slavery in Egypt each civilization must go forth to find its "holy land."

Evolving Law and Social Order

Today, the major nations achieve stability through a co-operative social infrastructure.  Social institutions (family and education) enable personal freedom.  Economic freedom comes through capital and invention, mental emancipation through culture, and freedom from violence through police enforcement of the law.

In less advanced cultures religion provides the controls for social order.  Historically, religion made possible the accumulation of capital through various forms of tithing.  The resulting leisure of the shamans and priests promoted art and knowledge.  While the religious hierarchies were expensive, they were worth the price. The professions and scientists emerged from the priesthoods. Religion always policed the morals of society.

The true religion of Christ will greatly quicken social progress.  Using the principles of Christ, war, armies, and police forces will fade into history.  Government will gradually disappear. Personal self-discipline will render human laws obsolete. (The need for government is inversely proportionate to the morality and spirituality of the citizenship.)

Earth will attain lasting worldwide peace only when nations surrender their sovereign powers into the hands of the brotherhood of men, a government of all planetary mankind. The United Nations, a confederation of sovereign nations, will never bring permanent peace to mankind. A confederation of nations can only prevent minor wars and control the smaller nations.  They cannot control the most powerful governments.

Jesus taught conflict is evil because it holds back the spiritual work of the Spirit within man.  Such conflict is a civil war within the personality.  While Jesus obeyed all the contemporary civil laws and regulations, his teachings ignored the transient civic, social, and economic realms. He rendered to Caesar the things which were Caesar's and to God the things which are God's.

Under the ultimate spiritual Law of Love, the individual recognizes responsibility and identifies with the whole. The individual relinquishes everything for the good of all. St. Paul stated the concept as  "Having nothing and yet possessing all things."

Homeland Security

It is justifiable for an advanced nation to maintain a powerful military as a defense against invasion by hostile peoples.  It is not morally justifiable to employ those military resources in an offensive war.

Advanced cultures can defend their civilization without yielding to the temptation to utilize military forces aggressively. While maintaining an adequate defense against attack by foes, they should give special attention to the training of statesmen, scientists, and philosophers.

Employ all mobile military machinery in trade, commerce, and recreation during peacetime. Mobilize the entire nation if war is declared. Throughout the period of hostilities, military pay should prevail in all industries to curtail the exploitation of wartime conditions by the industrial-military complex.  The commanders of all military branches should be members of the Commander-in-chief’s executive cabinet for the duration of the war.

Political Organization

The growth of organizations representing political power is good for mankind because it includes ever-enlarging segments of the whole. Such growth is not free of problems.  There have been problems at every stage of political organization from family units into tribes and into nations.  There will also be problems in attaining the ultimate of political growth, the government of all mankind.  Human loyalties, once mobilized, are hard to change. The same loyalty (patriotism) that makes possible the evolution of nations complicates the evolutionary development of the government of all mankind.

Maintaining the balance between the individual and all mankind is vital.  Between the level of the individual and the level of the total of mankind, all groupings and associations are of value only as far as they enhance the welfare, well being, and progress of both the individual and the totality of men.

With the entire world explored and occupied, and the dominant nations few and powerful, the stage is set for major wars. Sovereign nations cannot exist side by side without generating conflicts.  The great powers must either continue the struggle for dominance or surrender the prerogatives of supremacy and create a global government.  Only when such a representative or democratic world power controls the world's land, air, and naval forces, can peace on earth prevail.

In a world government the small nations will be equal in power to their bigger neighbors just as the small state of Rhode Island has the same number of senators in the American Congress as the more populous state of New York or the largest state of Alaska.

Governments are for the benefit of men. There can be no end to the evolution of political organization short of a government of all men. All other sovereignties are temporary and inferior.

The State of the Nation

Most leaders of the world’s democratic countries tend towards idealism.  They are limited, however, by the period in which they live, by their advisors, and by their own political dishonesty.

Democratic governments are awakening to the realization that true democracy does not yet exist due to widespread corruption and to the ignorance of the masses regarding their role as citizens. Smaller nations are realizing their dependence upon the larger countries while the larger nations are beginning to recognize their responsibilities to the weaker nations.

Regrettably, America today is giving the world an image of discord, self-interest, materialism, and immorality.  American business, government, and many churches in America have reached a state of corruption, graft, greed and sexual evil.

In a parallel time, Jesus told the Jewish leaders of his era that they had come to the point of making their choice between the will of the Father and the ways of darkness. As you choose, so shall you be.

The aim of a spiritual individual is to handle the energies that play through him so that only good can result.  Each mortal can misuse his life energy or employ it for beneficial purposes.  The same is true for nations and races.  A nation’s leaders marshal a nation's forces and focus the national intent towards ideals or corruption. 

Every true son of God revolts from the sight of pain, sickness, and poverty in the world. Through the experience of thought and the physical difficulties of life, men learn such conditions must change.  There is no alternative.

True Christianity, as Christ taught it, will happen whether America participates or not.

Drug Prohibition

America has lost the war on drugs. Even though the government spends almost $50 billion each year fighting the drug war, the problems related to drug misuse continue to worsen.  Government remains committed to the delusion that social drug use is controllable at an acceptable cost. 

When government recognizes this is not true, it will devise methods of controlling drugs other than through coercive drug laws.  The coercive drug laws are sapping the vitality of America's cities, courts, police, and society as a whole. 

It is time to legalize some outlawed drugs by regulating, taxing and controlling them. Ending the war on drugs will lessen street crime, violence, and homicides related to underground drug dealing.

Drug abuse is a health problem with social and economic effects. The government should be providing public health care, social services, and financial support to addicts. Law enforcement should be peripheral to drug control not at the center.

Addictive drugs are a menace to individuals and society.  Still, in a changing civilization, cures should be proportional instead of total if the cost to society for eradication is too great.

Overdue Election Reforms

 Despite the higher number of voters in recent elections, voter turnout in America is among the lowest in the western world.  The reason for this ennui is due to disinterest and disgust with politicians. 

Long time incumbents in the Congress (who control which bills are brought to the floor) adhere primarily to the dictates of their corporate benefactors rather than the needs of the people they represent.  They will not deal with reform issues that may challenge their incumbency or their party.

 In the Electoral College (where the President of the United States is actually chosen), the votes of minority voters in most states do not count. Most states stipulate that the presidential candidate who wins the popular vote in the state gets all of the state’s electoral votes. The votes of the minority are meaningless.

Redistricting of states is required every ten years to reflect the census count.  Redistricting practices of many state legislatures ensure one party is in the majority so that incumbents are not at risk for re-election and so the majority party can remain in power.  This process of gerrymandering is common throughout the United States. 

The two major political parties establish artificial barriers making it difficult for third party and independent candidates to campaign for office.  Further, the political appointees of the party in power ensure the neutralization of opposition views at all levels of government.

Since campaigns require expensive advertising, the party with the most funding determines the election results.

Democracy in the United States should not tolerate a voting system where the candidate who wins the popular vote can lose the election.  The vote of every citizen must count equally. Amend the Constitution to eliminate the archaic Electoral College so every vote may count as cast.

Eliminate the restructuring of voting districts done to gain political advantages.

Require media monopolies to give independent and non-major party candidates an equal opportunity to run for office by including them in televised debates.  Minimize the election campaign season. 

Political service should be valued as man’s greatest vocation. The ambition of the finest citizens should be for election or appointment to a position of governmental trust.  Reciprocally, good governments should bestow their highest honors for service upon their best civil and social servants.

Earth will achieve well-governed civilizations through a proper balance of material wealth, intellectual greatness, moral merit, and cleverness in social organization.  Leaders delay the progress of civilization when they fail to make the changes needed to keep pace with scientific developments.

The education of children for leadership should concentrate upon increasing their powers of reasoning, not the training of memory. They should study the outstanding personalities of history, literature, art, and religion from the aspect of their positive influence for good upon their age weighed against the background of the civilization in which they lived.

By considering the quality and purpose of good leadership, students absorb history, creativity, idealism, and philosophy with a consequent influence upon their own character.

Election Reform Sabotage

The election reform movement seemed to achieve its greatest victory with the passage of major amendments to the Federal Elections Campaign Act in 1974.  Nonetheless, the aspirations of the reformists remain unfulfilled.  In fact, due to reform sabotage and political mischief in the Congress, campaign and election abuses today are far worse than in 1974.

Between 1977 and the present, congressional campaign spending and congressional election contributions by political action committees (PACS) have increased exponentially. One of the mischievous results of that reform is a Congress whose members have made themselves nearly immune to defeat.

The modern election reform movement that followed the 1972 Watergate affair, sought to lower the cost of political campaigning, minimize the influence of special interests in both elections and the writing of laws by the legislature. Advocates of election reform sought to accomplish these goals by placing limits on campaign contributions and through term limits.

In the interim, Congressmen have greatly enlarged their professional staffs and propaganda resources.  This places a premium on the skills of professional campaign managers and media artists, giving these hired guns a large role in controlling the electoral process.

Post-Watergate reforms created the Political Action Committees (PACs), handing corporate lobbying interests (who are quite willing to finance the increasing cost of campaigning) a large role in setting national priorities.

The cure is to place limits on Congressional staffs and office budgets.  Demand that the Ethics Committees in the House of Representatives and the Senate enforce their standards for congressional behavior. Impeach rogues. 

In addition, America’s legal system interferes with the proper adjudication of justice when it uses laws for selfish gain. This arises when an individual or group disregards the fact that laws serve the common good. 

No political system can fulfill its own idealistic promise unless all of its citizens, both leadership and ordinary people, maintain consistently high standards of ethics.

America’s Social Heritage Deficit

America is squandering its social heritage. The materialistic Me Generation, which elected the first two American presidents who actively avoided military service (Clinton and Bush), is in control of the country. The sense of duty that made Kennedy's words, “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country,” so compelling in 1960, is gone. The ideal of building a better future for America’s children is evaporating.

America is bankrupting its future by embracing radical deficit financing to reward the wealthy today while failing to invest in in the welfare of future citizens. 

In cutting taxes while drastically increasing spending, the government is favoring America’s aristocracy while laying the financial burden on America’s children.

In relaxing the control of greenhouse emissions, America has placed astronomically higher costs on the future to combat the effects of catastrophic climatic change.

By invading Iraq with a pretended coalition under the greater pretense of protecting America from weapons of mass destruction, America is incurring untold billions in debt while enraging Muslims now determined to extract their revenge on America. 

Vital stem cell research has been financially suffocated through irrationally restrictive policies guaranteeing that future Americans with curable diseases will die unnecessarily.

In each of the illustrative cases above, America has placed the burden of financial and policy costs upon future Americans.  Ironically, the vast majority of the present generation is not benefiting.

Revoke the charter of the federal government to go into debt.  Allow states to borrow only for purposes of war and only after obtaining a three-fourths consent of the citizenry through a referendum. In the event of war approved by America’s citizens, empower National Council of Defense to assess the states for money, as well as for men and materials, as required. Do not allow any debt to run for more than twenty-five years.

Rid the government of selfish thinking people whose only motivation is capitalistic.

Elect government leaders at all levels whose goal is not the exploitation of labor and public deception. America should not have to contend with selfish power loving public servants.

Turn the tide of government in favor of righteous demeanor.

The wealthy surround themselves with beauty and luxury while shutting their eyes to the poverty, starvation and ugliness of the lives of the millions of people who surrounded them.

This indictment is true in every nation.  It is breeding a growing spirit of unrest and revolution. A war is now brewing between the selfish wealthy interests and the mass of humanity who demand fair play and their rightful share of the world's wealth.

Legal and Illegal Immigration

America is experiencing an extraordinary wave of immigration. During the 1990s, an average of more than 1.3 million legal and illegal immigrants settled in the United States every year.

The U.S. Census Bureau projects that within 50 years, immigration will swell the population of the United States from its present 288 million to more than 400 million.

The foreign-born population of America is currently 33.1 million. Of this number, eight million are illegal immigrants. These Census Bureau estimates are probably conservative.  Other estimates indicate a considerably higher number of illegal immigrants.

The Immigration and Nationality Act allows only 800,000 people to settle each year as permanent residents in America.

Even though the U.S. Border Patrol has an annual budget in excess of one billion dollars, the flow of illegal immigrants across our borders continues to increase. As long as America’s foreign policy supports dictators and oligarchs south of our borders, oppressed people will continue to invade the United States where employers like Tyson Foods illegally recruit and employ them at very low wages.

To assist American corporations such as ConAgra, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has enabled a flood of cheap corn and other commodities into Mexico dispossessing over a million Mexican farmers.  These people go either to the urban slums of Mexico or north to America.

The Visa Waiver Program allows foreign visitors with passports from 27 countries to enter the United States without visas.  Restoring the consular screening abroad that existed until 1988 would allow screening in the origin countries for possible stolen or altered passports and exclusion of persons with criminal records and involvement in terrorism.

The overcrowding crisis in American classrooms is directly attributable to high immigration. If immigration continues at current rates, all efforts to reduce class sizes and ease overcrowding will fail.

U.S. immigration policy slants towards admitting relatives rather than immigrants with needed workplace skills.  Consequently, America is importing poverty while it cannot meet the challenge of assisting its own poor and disadvantaged.

The number of undereducated immigrants in our society is rising, as is their share of the poor population.

Immigrant use of welfare programs is 43 percent higher than non-immigrants' use.

Job competition by waves of new immigrants depresses the wages and salaries of American workers and hits hardest at minority workers.

 American businesses recruit the best engineers, scientists, software people, and doctors from developing countries. These professionally trained people should remain at home to build the culture of their own countries.

Non-citizens who commit crimes are a growing threat to public safety and national security, as well as a drain on scarce criminal justice resources.

As competition for housing in cities with large immigrant populations increases, the cost of housing is growing.

Today's large-scale immigration has led to the growth of ethnic enclaves where assimilation is unnecessary.

Although it is a federal crime for non-citizens to vote in federal elections, many non-citizens vote, creating a potential to affect the election results.

Enforce the existing immigration laws especially against companies who recruit and employ illegal immigrants. Enforcement is nearly non-existent.

Raise the minimum wage to the purchasing power level of 1968, $8 per hour. Since 1968, the U.S. economy has doubled in production per capita. America must ensure a living wage in the United States for full-time workers and their families. Currently, 47 million full-time workers work for less than a living wage.

The long-term solution to immigration is reducing the division between rich and poor in the United States and other nations.

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)

The CIA is not a central intelligence agency but the covert action arm of the President and his foreign policy advisors (Republican or Democrat). 

The Central Intelligence Agency performs secret activities and covert missions under the protection of national security with minimal accountability. CIA activities are highly classified, beyond the purview of most congressional members and the public.

The alliance of political parties and big business enables corporate America to infiltrate and direct the missions of the CIA.

Disinformation is a large part of the CIA’s responsibility.  The American people are a primary target of its fabrications.

In the late 1940’s, the CIA began a secret project called Operation Mockingbird, with the intent of buying influence.

The CIA infiltrated the nation's businesses, media, and universities by recruiting thousands of on-call operatives. Media people employed by ABC, NBC, CBS, Time, Newsweek, Associated Press, United Press International, Reuters, Hearst Newspapers, Scripps-Howard, Copley News Service, and 400 journalists, secretly carried out assignments for the Central Intelligence Agency.  (This is according to documents on file at CIA headquarters.)

Most Americans believe America has a free press.  In fact, America gets most of its news from government sources and corporate controlled media. 

In its publicized history, the CIA:

Has deposed world leaders,

Organized the invasion of Cuba

Attempted to assassinate Fidel Castro

Formed a Laotian army

Operated its own airforce (known as Air America take part in a secret war in Laos)

Conducted operations to prevent the election of Salvador Allende in Chile ( then planned a coup to overthrow him)

And, funded and armed the Contras in Nicaragua (who sold the cocaine that fed the crack-cocaine epidemic in America). 

All of these covert activities were  illegal and cost billions in unreported taxpayer dollars.

Return the CIA to its original role as a central clearinghouse whose mission is to synthesize intelligence. Abolish the covert operations function of the CIA.  If not abolished, there will never be an end to the corruption that prevails in the integrated cluster of the American press, the multi-national corporations and the American government. 

Slavery

Slavery is a vital link in the evolutionary chain of human civilization. Society uses slavery as a bridge to progress to a more advanced civilization.  The most obvious form of slavery compels a backward people to perform physical labor for a superior people.  The wealth and leisure time generated by the slaves contributes to the further intellectual achievement of the conquering ethnic group.  Eventually the slaves share the blessings of the higher society they helped create. 

The blade of slavery has two edges.  If slavery continues after achievement of a higher level of culture, it becomes the most pernicious of all social maladies.

For hundreds of years, dominant black tribes and then the Arabs subjugated and enslaved blacks in Africa.  Inter-tribal warfare was constant.

A little over two centuries ago, the black slave-owners sold captives taken in the warfare in Africa to white slave traders who shipped them to the United States and the West Indies to work for large plantation owners.  Since the backs were uneducated and governed by superstitions and taboos, they were considered savages by their new white slaveholders. 

The French, Belgians, Dutch, British, Germans, and the Italians exploited the black tribes that remained in Africa. These countries enriched themselves on the resources of the land and the labor of the inhabitants. The impact of the white race upon blacks was brutal, but it brought great evolutionary development: education, medical aid, sanitation, the ending of the ceaseless tribal wars, and a more advanced religion.

In spite of their understandable antagonism, later generations of blacks should acknowledge some indebtedness to their white brothers. Education and progressive ways of thinking are enabling the blacks to take their place in a modern world. 

The consequences of failure to heal the rupture in the relationship of the black and the white races will retard the cultural history of our planet for hundreds of years.

Slavery is not restricted to relations between militant tribes.  Enslavement may manifest itself not only between races, but also between nations, capital and labor, man and woman.  Enslavement may be political, industrial, economic, or religious.

Nations and Separateness

All nations have their own civilization and culture. All nations possess a spirit of nationalism.  Most have evolved from family to tribe to nation status.  All jealously, guard the borders of their geography and mores.

Internationally, the United States is a superpower exerting great influence upon other countries.  Rightfully, smaller nations fear exploitation by the superpowers.  Some formerly powerful nations, such as France, resent their lessening significance. All the less powerful nations of the world demand equal rights.

In every nation, separateness is raison d'être.  Minorities proliferate within national borders. They are ill treated at home and abroad.  Religious groups spread dissension.  The rich continue to reorganize to better control the finances of the world.  The poor are fighting for their rights and better living conditions.  Nations are fighting diplomatically, politically, economically, or militarily to further their own interests.  Distrust is universal.  There is little sense of security.

Founded on materialism, the civilization of the world instills a false sense of values into men.  Materialism fosters separateness.  Some leaders within all nations, realizing that there can be no peace in the world without justice for all are struggling to create organizations that will give status and opportunity to all nations. Their objectives are still materialistic.  Their ideas are presented idealistically, but with selfish motives. Still, this is progress in an evolutionary world.