The Working Mind philosophy is all about the Fulfillment of Mankind's Potential, about using Reason to do so, about generating Empowerment, which is necessary to prevent Mankind's blind and headlong race to extinction.
We are sheep; we are lemmings; we are rats feeding frenziedly on each other; we are locusts devouring everything in our path. Given what we are willfully doing to this planet and our fellow inhabitants, Mankind may not be worth saving.
But the only way that each of us can live a fulfilled life is to live a fulfilling life, which occurs when each of us gets off our duff and does
something that leaves the world a better place.
* * * * * * * *
The logic in this area begins with
Ayn Rand, who stated that Reason is Mankind's primary tool for survival and that without the practice of Reason, Mankind surrenders to the worst within ourselves, which keeps us in a permanent struggle merely to survive.
I repeat this idea from both directions: in order to live a fulfilling life, one –
each of us – must intend Fulfillment for others,
AND in order to fulfill Mankind's potential, the Individual
must fulfill his/her own freely-chosen Meaning & Purpose in Life.
Unless many, many humans – billions – take on such a Stand, then Mankind will indeed be extinct in two generations.
The Four Horsemen of Biblical Revelations still ride roughshod over the Planet: War, Pestilence, Famine and Death prevail. Religion not only avoids addressing any action to fight these metaphorical Four Horsemen, Religion actively supports their reign, and in fact does so thru a Fifth Horseman, Ignorance.
The Oligarchy gives Religion free rein, which furthers their common agenda of slavery of Mankind thru the Culture-Structure. [The Culture-Structure is defined as all the machinery of civilization out there, the design of which is to ensure that Things Do Not Work. How we know this is in the design is that the results produced are that Things Do Not Work!]
Modern Life remains an endless downward spiral: the Oligarchy keeps winning because and as long as we all surrender our Self-hood – replacing Reason with Agreement, replacing Integrity and Excellence with Expedience, replacing Freedom with Obedience, replacing Responsibility with Bureaucracy, replacing Self-Interest with Apathy.
Economic slavery inside the Culture-Structure ensures that workers are always too busy scrambling for survival to be able to unify and rise up and rebel against the Oligarchy.
If YOU do not fulfill your potential as an Individual, then you are keeping Mankind from reaching the potential required for any global fulfillment, anything beyond survival.
We have been lied to in every area of Life, but the Big Lie here is that survival is subject to the dictates of the Culture-Structure / Oligarchy. To believe this Big Lie is to agree that you have no Power. In fact, your survival (per Ayn Rand and Working Minds) is a right – and that you on-goingly surrender that right to the Oligarchy is precisely how you lose your Individual Power, and why Life seems out of your control.
All that is required to get your Individual Power restored is to keep your Power, just not give it away, simply not surrender to the dis-empowering practices inside the Culture-Structure, not surrender to the propaganda that is broadcast every minute of the day, intended to convince you that what you are is not the ideal. Buy this, force that, prove your worth by seeking fame & fortune, change what you are into something else. Be seen, be cool, sell out. Surrender to the Big Lie that if you sell out your Power then all will be well.
* * * * * * * *
C'mon, guys. All is
NOT well on Planet Earth.
Dozens of wars across the planet, but the only one on TV is the Iraq morass. Do you know where Fiji is? Did anybody report on the latest coup there, or the dissidents today occupying the Office of the President of Tahiti? Does even the B.B.C. fully report escalating body counts in the endless wars in Somalia and Sudan and Namibia and Peru and the Philippines and Indonesia and former Russian states? [A search on C.N.N. for 'rebels' brings up info on U.N.L.V. sports scores.] How long do you think the post-Arafat Israeli-Palestinian cease fire will last? Where next will the Culture-Structure ignore a flare-up of
genocide with toothless U.N. sanctions and no action?
Alaska and Canada's northern reaches are melting, the oceans are rising, the treelines move 100 feet higher each year, species migrate northward to stay cool, weather gets nastier more often (ask Florida), glaciers on every continent disappear by miles each season, endangered species lists increase exponentially – while the United States is addicted to 40% of the planet's fossil fuel consumption and O.P.E.C laughs all the way to the bank.
The Republican U.S. Congress has raised the limit on the National Debt four times since Dubya took office, with the new cap going to $8.8 TRILLION DOLLARS – which is expected to last a mere 18 months! [That there is a statutory limit at all is pure farce: the Oligarchy sees no limitations to their dominion over you.]
* * * * * * * *
You must step outside the execrable False Value System of the Oligarchy and the Culture-Structure (the agent of which is your personal, internal False Mind) and locate and commit to Values predicated on Reason, or all is lost. You and hordes of others must disobey the pull to drift along quietly, to be sheep, to be lemmings.
The value to begin with is Reason. Which is not subjectivity, which is not Survival, which is not Force, not Ignorance, not Scarcity, not Passivity.
Reason gives that Individuals exist as Free Individuals only when they exercise the Right to be Free Individuals. The Individual can stand as an equal to anyone precisely in the moment that they look dis-empowerment in the eye and say "Hell no, this is wrong."
Had
anyone at Enron done this simple yet courageous thing, there would not be $15 billion in bonds now set up to be paid off by the children of California. (With the equivalent payoff to the Oligarchy in place wherever each reader may reside.)
The Fulfillment of Mankind's Potential begins when you stand up and decide that it is indeed up to you to counter the invisible terrorism of the Culture-Structure and the Oligarchy by doing that which empowers, which in its simplest form is the free choosing of one's Personal Meaning & Purpose.
You do this and the Oligarchy cannot use your innate Power; they lose by your refusing to surrender any further Power to them.
Retain your Power and the Oligarchy shrinks.
* * * * * * * *
While I said above that it will take billions of Individuals, standing for and practicing Reason to turn the tide, maybe a few millions is all it will take. In fact, it may not take such a number of Individuals using Reason to plant the seed of Empowerment.
While the U.S. Constitution is being shredded by the neo-conservative
fascists that pull Dubya's strings, the facade of constitutional government must still be faked. The more important document, however, is the
Declaration of Independence.
The situation in 1776 is a lot like today: the British monarchy began with oppressive taxation (without representation) and civil wrongs, which led to verbal rebellion and civil disobedience, which led to punishment by force, at Lexington & Concord in April 1775. A group of WASP businessmen, many of them slave owners, met together and stood up and said 'No!', fully cognizant of the risk that they were taking: "... we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor."
There were only 56 signatures on that document, the most dangerous piece of writing ever brought into being. That defiant action brought forth a new Value for Mankind, one that you each sell out on every time that you surrender Reason to the intent of the Oligarchy.
Where are such Individuals today? If they do not exist, then Mankind is doomed. If they – YOU! – do not speak up, then Mankind has no chance. If masses of people do not risk their Individual Self in some matter, then they condemn themselves and Mankind around the globe to a life of suffering – the cost of having Sold Out.
* * * * * * * *
In October, I participated in two
Landmark Education courses – Communication: Access to Power (as a 'reviewer', having done the course previously) and Communication: Performance & Power. This led to a demand that I sign up for the T.M.L.P. (Team Management & Leadership Program) which lasts a year and provides training in what it is to generate the distinction 'team'. The quarterly T.M.L.P. Weekend in November was marvelous, and I am fully engaged in the course.
Now, when I first recognized the distinction 'Working Mind' and then wrote the 600-page book that defines the elements of this Philosophy of Empowerment, it soon became apparent that I must enroll others to guide and support this, which is my freely-chosen Personal Meaning & Purpose. These would need to be Individuals of demonstrated effectiveness, who would take on and commit to the context of expanding the practice of Reason, to expand the audience for Working Minds principles, to place the baton of Empowerment & Reason into the hands of others who would likewise pass the skill and practice of Empowerment ever deeper into the culture of Mankind. [And-or to teach and guide me in doing that.]
The natural name for such a loose body of compatriots might be Founding Fathers, Board of Coaches, Inner Circle, any number of other terms. But based on the logical construct early in this essay, I decided that a proper name for such a group of people is "Team for the Fulfillment of Mankind's Purpose".
Perhaps it will not even require fifty-six men & women this time.
So this next year, I will devote much of my resources to such expansion, using what I learn in the T.M.L.P. course. The form of this will be designed 'on the fly', as I learn and apply new skills and distinctions. Formal? Informal? I have no idea what the next year will look like.
I will report progress herein as it occurs.
[copyright 2004 by Gary Edward Nordell, all rights reserved]
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