Don't give up.

If you happen to read this, please don't disregard it. Please don't just cast the idea aside without giving it some thought. No change occurs over night. It begins though with a thought. It would take an entire book for me to sum up the whole idea. I cannot fully explain it all in such a short style.  In this format I am only able to put forth bits and pieces. I realize I will be asking some people to do one of the hardest things to do; to perceive outside of the box. But it starts with letting something new bounce around inside of your head. Or maybe instead, like me, you have already thought about these ideas, then know there is someone else in the world actively trying to make a difference.

Our country seems to have gone crazy, or maybe it would be better to say, it is our culture that has gone crazy. As a result of our culture our government has been overrun by greed.  The measure of our society has been the GDP for too long now. People making huge profits should not be in charge of our health and well being; this is common sense isn't it? This says something about us as a people whether we want to admit to it or not. Please give this some thought, why has money been made so important?  There are much more important things in life than how much our GDP is, whether it is the greatest nation in the world or not; it should not be measured in terms of profit.

Again this is common sense, isn't it? I mean as human a being, in our day to day lives, isn’t money far from the most important thing? It is rare I find a person who wouldn't rather being doing something else than going to work.  I understand that we have been raised to think money is so important, we were born into a situation where everything has a monetary cost, but can't we see past this just a little bit? Over the past century our government has become almost completely corrupted because of this focus on making money. Philosophically and literally the government is bankrupt which I believe to be a reflection of those who make it up, which is each and every citizen, you and I. There are a few good people involved, fighting the good fight, still trying to make a difference, but the major players are making money off of war and drugs. Big money. They are addicted to acquiring money. This is a very serious issue.

We all know it is a complete mess. We all know we want it to change. Most of us, if we think about it deeply, feel very helpless. We all know that we want our country to be a better place, but feel helpless to do anything about it. I think most people feel so helpless about it they just completely tune it out. But don't we all want to live in a place where we have our freedom? By labeling ourselves this or that, politically, all we are doing is creating division. Crying that we want them to stop is not enough. Simply becoming educated about these issues is not enough either. But we still are not helpless. It just so happens that freedom must be earned.

The bulk of the work, the majority of what needs to be done, is going to have to be done in our local communities. There seems to be a belief in America that we can just do whatever we wish on a day to day basis and there won't be any consequences for having that belief. Doesn't this belief need to be questioned? From my perspective it does not seem to be true. Because it does seem to matter a great deal if one really pays attention to what is going on; it seems our actions do have an impact on those around us. There is a great deal of scientific knowledge now which points out just how social we are as primates, and how much our environment affects our growth and experience. Other human beings are a huge part of our individual environment. This is a fact of life that many people are not fully aware of.

As it is, I do not believe we are aggressive enough in expecting more of each other as Americans, not in terms of achievement, not in terms of how much money one makes, but in terms of self-education; achieving awareness. We do not collectively hold each other up near high enough. Far too often it does not happen at all. We simply don't expect enough of one another.  I don't mean being aggressive in some physical sense, but more in the sense of how Mormon missionaries do it. Every day we should be making contact with at least one person and attempting to open their eyes. Socializing with one person who is still stuck in the social standard of society or stuck in some other dogmatic way of thinking and getting them to be more aware of what is going on; this is of great importance in a culture such as this.

There is a tendency of the supposedly educated to leave the ignorant behind. I personally believe it has to do with the natural tendency in humans to establish pecking order. And being unaware of this, it happens in quite a negative way for those lower on the ladder. The supposedly educated create the illusion that they are doing something about it, but they are not really ever actually fixing the problem. Politicians are a perfect example of this, they are supposedly educated, but yet are taking advantage of everyone lower than them on the pecking order. I personally have experienced this in my life, this failing of the system so to speak. They often talk a good game, but if you pay close attention to their actions, although they may label and study those less fortunate, they rarely actually reach in themselves and live a life that resolves the issue. They never become aware of their own nature and use it in a non harming way. Much like the racist who doesn't see her own ethnocentric traits and uses it to rationalize violence we must also see past the pecking order. These people of power are rarely reaching into the dark side of our society and actually pulling people out. They have not stepped out of the box yet themselves.

As social organisms this is how to affect change in a culture, by reaching out and opening the eyes of another. We must work to change the culture itself; it is not enough to socialize with those whom we already have an understanding with. We cannot afford to simply stay with our own kind, we can't be ethnocentric ourselves, which we all have a tendency to do. My brother and I are often in close agreement, so it does the world little good for him and I to discuss awareness. But discussing it with someone who does not get the opportunity to discuss novel ideas, someone who does not think about it that much; discussing it with others makes a big difference in the world. We have a responsibility to our neighbors, to each other.

Constantly having people in our lives that we share our information with, trying to get them to see better what is going on around them really does pay off, and it always goes both ways. I personally have spent years attempting to get friends to open their eyes and it has always worked and it has always been worth it. And by opening their eyes I have opened my own even more. It is a win win situation. A win win way of life.

I have always asked my friends, after we have known each other long enough, to look back and be able to see, if it was worth it. I ask them if they ever wish they hadn't learned to be more aware. I ask them if they think they would have been better off not knowing just how much their belief systems were affecting their lives. They always say they do not regret it even though increasing ones awareness often has times of great sadness; it is always worth the price.

Helping someone else better their life by becoming more aware is what one does when one loves someone else. People often comment on the uncomfortablness of my own approach, they are not following me 24/7 so they cannot see that works. It is how I reach out to others, no two are the same as they say.  The idea though is that it is happening.

 To reach out socially and help improve the quality of the lives of those around us is the ultimate altruism. Who does not want this to happen? Who does not wish that someone would come along that could help them resolve a problem or two in life? This process can seem difficult because people are always so different and the way in which they are interacted with will always be changing. But it still must be done. If there is one thing I have learned for sure it is that nothing is ever true for very long. Something always comes along to contradict something I believe sooner or later. Holding a belief stops learning dead in its tracks.

I used to think I knew what Democracy was, but as with all beliefs I had to give it up.  Democracy is not merely a political system. It is a way of life. To have freedom requires difficult work in our daily lives, if we are to maintain that freedom. One does not just win freedom and after some ceremony has it forever after. It is a fight that never ceases. It requires a stable social base within the community in which we live, and every single day, time and energy must be put into the larger whole, the social organism, of which we are responsible.  But we are not merely a part of the larger social organism, we are more than that, we are the social organism. If the society itself is corrupted, then so are the individuals which make it up. This disruption in the government is a reflection of the disruption in our daily lives. This is why later I will ask you to look in the mirror. The way in which we were collectively raised to live, does not sustain freedom. This is a fact and not some theory. It is a hard fact to swallow because of the awareness it creates.  If we are not doing our part, to the fullest, all is lost.

This is exactly the place in which we find ourselves now. Lost. We as a people have only been doing what was done before us; collectively not giving it much critical thought. Mostly we have been watching TV, not voting, not being involved in self-education and acquiring as much debt as we can.  It is not just the government which has acquired debt, the masses have as well.  We have not been sustaining our communities ourselves. Our standards are too low. Although the reasons are many, and ultimately it is “to each their own” in resolving the issue; collectively it still must be done. We need to open our eyes, and see that our beliefs need to change because that is the only way to change our actions. The belief of what it means to live as an American is going to have to change.  This can only be done by sharing and acquiring knowledge, socially, by discussing the issues at hand. By confronting ignorance head on.

When the ship is sinking only fools do not triple their efforts. We cannot expect of another what we do not do ourselves.

If you think that you don't have the time, or you hear them say, they don't have the time. Don't give up.

It really does make a difference. A little here and a little there goes a long ways in changing someone's life for the better.

The only way to change the world is to change your self. But you see this would not be true if changing ourselves didn't have such a great impact on those around us.

We have to look in the mirror every day.