If this past year of 2020 (and continuing in 2021) has taught us anything, it should be that we need to become more self-sufficient as individuals and as communities that live in the same area. What does seem to have happened though is that we have fallen into using big corporate delivery systems (e.g., Amazon and Walmart) that further eroded local businesses (many closed because of lockdown) but boosted the incomes of billionaires while pushing tens of millions of common people further in to deep poverty. Modern self-sufficiency is NOT about going back to pre-industrial living, as many survivalists seem to espouse. I quite like much of modern technological living, but it has to be tempered with realism and a recognition that this means becoming sustainable, and hence much less consumer framed. The three main aspects of beginning sustainable self-sufficiency are to locally produce electricity and grow food locally, and to keep the money moving internally within the community. I’m not talking isolationism, but living-well locally as cooperative communities thriving within ecosystem limits even as we continue to trade globally.
While Relocalization is needed and makes sense to many, getting people to readily embrace it has its problems. The consumer paradigm has made us complacent in letting others take responsibility for how society functions. We always look to government or other forms of hierarchy to provide what we want. I was recently talking with a couple and the impression I got was they lived in hope of being saved by some external force for good. I covered this problem in a post a few weeks ago and elsewhere in this blog about ‘Waiting for Superman’ (see previous post The Hierarchy 2 – Waiting for Superman {Feb 2018}). We are that external force – literally, we are the ones we are waiting for. But the truth is that we have become addicted to convenience and quick fixes. And the hierarchy, Cabal, 0.01%, the Billionaires (take your pick of how you refer to the controllers) like this because it makes us be reliant on them.
When all the billionaires meet with other movers and shakers at Davos each year, one of the topics that comes up is how they can be philanthropic in helping the planet. If fact they have a whole panel session set up to discuss this topic. Now if you have heard billionaires like Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, etc., talking about philanthropy, then you would have heard them say they are willing to donate over 98% of their wealth in philanthropic giving. If like me you are feel this is incredulous and some form of shenanigans, then you would be right! The one topic you will not hear them talk about is paying their fair share of taxes. In Davos 2021, Dutch historian and author, Rutger Bregman, gave a short speech about taxes instead of philanthropy. Needless to say, he didn’t get any applause, just abject silence from the massed hierarchy present. There were several questions from the public about dignity and worker exploitation during the philanthropic round-table, but none of the panel gave any comments, which is odd considering this is what we common folk perceive philanthropy to be about? We hear these notions from the billionaires via the media (see two posts back about Tim Levine’s research) but we tend to default to accepting it as truth. Yet, what philanthropy means to the uber-rich is about something else: it is about them keeping their wealth while giving us the impression of them being good.
The worlds billionaires have taken to setting up very large ‘Foundations’ and ‘Donor-Advised-Funds’ from which they donate (tax free) to causes and projects of their choosing. Several exposes recently have outlined these shenanigans – look up articles about the perils of billionaire philanthropy by Chuck Collins (The Nation), Mother Jones, and many others. Many of these billionaire foundations are really (Limited Liability Company’s (LLC – a business structure that can combine the pass-through taxation of a partnership or sole proprietorship with the limited liability of a corporation). Investigative reporters call them ‘Personal Charitable Savings Accounts’ for the uber-rich that are usually tax-exempt. But, don’t foundations give to noble causes you might ask? Sometimes yes, but rarely without strings and hidden agendas attached. More often, foundation money is given (so hence a charitable donation) to corporations in which the billionaires are already major shareholders, thereby increasing their shareholder earnings. This serves to increase monopolizing and control even faster than it is already occurring. Of the largest 100 global economies, 51 are corporations whose interests transcend national country interests. And that number is growing as sovereign nations become more beholden to corporate designs.
The mind-boggling lies by the hierarchy are going to get worse with even more censorship unless we, the common people, start to wake up to what is going on worldwide. If there is one thing I have noticed this past year, it is the excessive polarization of perspectives. The result has been fear, despair and alienation from others, especially when it is about conflicting beliefs that we are being manipulated into accepting. The solution is simple. Avoid radical old-style tribalism brought about by internet trolls and social media algorithms. This is especially true with simplistic thought paradigms and memes generated through the internet. The controllers pit us against each other and have done throughout history. Freedom of thinking! = flexibility and acceptance of others.
So how do we move past all the lies and control? Simple, stop listening to it! Start thinking how you can Relocalize yourself and your neighborhood. How can you begin to create a community where everyone helps others, and the artificial separation, so characteristic of modern consumer living, is dismissed? It’s not about agreeing on everything, differences are valuable as long as we accept that they can be beneficial and not just a cause for discontent. It is about recognizing what connects us so that we do not need the hierarchy. That means stay heart centered and collaborating without becoming polarized on any differences – diversity is a positive, not a reason to dislike or even hate another person.
Think about it for a minute. A billion is a thousand million. Many of the billionaires have tens of billions and they want still more. Even when they pretend to donate their wealth, they are still focused on making even more than they give away – it’s how they play the game – the richest become richer and the rest of us just get it in the teeth to please them. We all dream of a better world that is fair and equitable, but WE have to make that world. We cannot keep leaving letting the hierarchy control that dream for us, because their dream is total domination not equity. It’s time to wake up from the hypnotizing illusions of the hierarchy and find our own new dream. When each of us realizes that when our personal potential is unleashed that is when a new kind of world is ours for the making.
“The first step in de-hypnotizing yourself is to recognize that you have been hypnotized in the first place” Richard Bach
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