Is it worth saving?

I understand the fear that people face in this current crisis, but let's ask, is the life that being a slave in the system offers you so great? Is it worth saving, or are you just so afraid of the unknown that you cling on to what you have, no matter how many problems. Ask yourself, and be honest, do i really want to live the rest of my life this way, or do i just believe that this is the best i can hope for, it's how it is, no hope of anything better, other than maybe buying a new car.

So many of the people i meet are TIME-POOR, working, commuting, busy, busy, busy.
OVER STIMULATED, ASSAULTED by all the distractions, phones ringing, ads, etc.
So many seem to experience SENSORY DEPRIVATION. Sure they eat and drink, but most don't seem to have the experience of being in their bodies.
ALIENATED FROM NATURE. Destroying the ecosystem. Toxic lifestyle, toxic society, a cancer on the planet.
POOR HUMAN RELATIONS, COMMUNICATIONS, INTIMACY
so many people don't seem to have any idea of the effect their choice of words have, don't understand the flows and pauses of conversation, don't understand the differing styles of male and female communication, in short, no skills, not even the concept of acquiring those skills.

etc, etc, etc. I'll hold my pointing out the problems to a minimum. I'm sure you can think of many more.

So again i ask, is it worth saving?
Maybe you are one of the lucky ones, but i think most people in America would say their lives suck in many ways,
1) if they were honest, with themselves and others
2) if they were able to get in touch with their deep feelings, which so many people seem to be out of touch with. That is one of the major effects of this society's lifestyle, to cause people to shut down.

Let's build a just, sustainable society, one that offers real satisfaction, fulfilment, peace and joy, through connection and service with nature and other people, and the very first step is admitting that WHAT WE HAVE IS NOT WORKING.

Our current system is rigged for people to remain wage slaves their whole lives, rigged in subtle, hidden ways that the average person has no idea of. Some people manage to be "successful" in the business world, but usually at the cost of failure in their personal lives.

So what is it i'd like to see?

DAILY LIFE people could start their mornings with up to one hour of meditation or prayer, depending on your orientation, and do up to an hour of exercise or yoga, etc., and have some time to spend with their families. A world where people are rich in time to spend taking care of themselves physically, mentally and spiritually, and have the time to establish connections with others, especially family.

Schools would teach communication skills, such as NVC (non violent communication), and relationship skills, such as those contained in a book called Breaking the Impasse
http://www.beyondintractability.org/booksummary/10564/, as well as principles of self care such as healthy eating, food preparation, exercise, etc. In short, schools would teach the essential skills of how to be in the body and deal with other people.

2 a work week of 4 days, 6 hours day, doing work that truly helps other people, such as elder care, teaching, manufacturing of what is essential, necessary paper work, etc.
http://consciouschoice.com/1995-98/cc095/dump40hourweek.html

3 an environmentally healthy lifestyle. Sustainable, Organic, non toxic. An end to disposability.

4 a fair wage system, where no one made more than 10 times the salary of anyone else, and workers received 1/2 of the profits of a company, in the form of bonuses.
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Society/Winner_Steal_All.html
http://perfectlylegalthebook.com/

How is this going to happen? Our whole society propagandizes us, especially through the mass media, especially TV, that ME is what we need to focus on, and We is a limited circle of family and friends. The key change is one of Values, where we are committed to
creating a world where everybody wins,
whereas the world we have is one of winners and losers.

and what do i mean by "a world where everybody wins". That sounds pretty lovey dovey, pie in the sky.

I mean a world where the everyone has the support to reach their full potential. A world where classes have one teacher for each six students, a world where parents have plenty of time to spend with their children, a world without poisons in the air, food and water. A world where people practice taking care of their health. A world where people live in integrity with themselves, other people, and the environment. A world where people aren't assaulted by noise and distractions and ads from the moment they wake up to the moment they go to sleep. A simpler, slower, more meaningful way of life, where lying on the grass in the sun in a park is something one can do every day, and there aren't a lot of emotionally damaged "homeless" people who have self sedated to escape from the pain of their lives, because everyday life is joyful, not painful.

This means that, in answer to the question, "where is your brother", instead of answering "am i my brother's keeper?", we reply, "i have done everything possible to help my brothers and sisters be all they can be, and i myself am doing my best to live my deepest truths".

And what's the first step?
The first step is for YOU to be absolutely honest with yourself, and the second step is for you to have the courage to make whatever changes you need to make so you can start living your life the way you want to live.
http://www.cchange.net/

Why hold on?

America is not user friendly.

• Landlords charge as much as they can, employers pay as little as they can get away with
• Employers fire as many workers as they can, have the ones left standing work two jobs for the price of one, while CEOs pay themselves enough money to buy a small country
  
• The environment is poisoned. the food supply is poisoned, the water is poisoned, the air is poisoned, the ice caps are melting, the ocean is fished out, mountains have been strip mined, we have nuclear waste we don't know what to do with, and more
  
• A "good" job means working 60hrs/wk, a bad job means you need two jobs.
• Health care is for the wealthy.
• People's lifestyles are sickness producing.
  
• A fat, sluggish populace that knows more about American Idol than American politics
  
• The media picks the candidates in elections by giving billions of dollars of free advertising, which they call "news coverage", to one or two candidates, and freeze out the rest
• In a supposedly "free" country, people go to jail for smoking pot, and can not marry the person they love.
• In California, under the 3 Strikes Law, people are serving life in prison for stealing a VCR or a bicycle.
  
• People are encouraged at every turn by advertising to sell themselves into economic slavery by running up their credit cards.
• 9/11 was an inside job http://www.wanttoknow.info/9-11cover-up
  
• elections have been hacked http://www.wanttoknow.info/electionsinformation
  
• True peace and satisfaction are rare commodities, not to be found in the mainstream world
• Tax Laws, really all laws, favor the wealthy http://perfectlylegalthebook.com/
• The whole system is a carnivorous one in which the poor and middle class are just a big feed lot for the super rich to eat.
  

So why hold on to a dysfunctional, brutal,
cruel system
that offers lots of ways to lose and
not many to win?

what is a criminal?

someone who knowingly hurts other people for their own benefit.

ultimately criminal behaviour is selfish behaviour; i win at the expense of you losing, whether this is street crime or predatory lending.

by this standard, much of what passes for normal business practices are criminal, including high rents and low wages. On the other hand, personal behaviors such as gambling, drug use, sodomy, and prostitution, are not.

I distinguish between moral crimes, which hurt others, and legal crimes, where religious and other beliefs are turned into laws against certain behaviours. The usual argument is that society is brought down by things like prostitution. Personally, i think society is much more damaged by repression.

I believe in Freedom, a very unfashionable idea these days.

In fact, i believe that putting people in jail for victimless crimes, such as drugs, is in itself a crime, and those who advocate such brutal repression are themselves criminals, since they seek to hurt others (by locking them up) in order to force the whole society to live by their puritanical beliefs.

So, i ask you, come up with your own definition. What is a criminal?

Happiness is

a state of mind.

So often i have thought, i would be happy if this or if that. it is true that having my human needs met frees me to access deeper truths, however, ultimately, i find happiness is a state of consciousness, and dis-satisfaction is a state of consciousness. of course, very often these states are the result of caffeine, alcohol, sugar, etc. (drugs are way too powerful for me).
leaving those aside, the question becomes, how can i live in the state of consiousness that has happiness as one of it's attributes.

In Aldous Huxley's Perennial Philosophy (it's a great book) there is a saying that joy is the surest sign of the presence of god. is that ultimately the key to human happiness, an ongoing mystical experience of the presence of god, living with the presence of god? (god also meaning spirit, goddess, or whatever you want to call it, they're just different names for the same thing).

yes.

Look Deep, think like a chess player

Every action has both intended and unintended consequences.
The phrase "web of life" is amazingly accurate.
Most beings see only what is in front of them, not understanding the effects they have on people, places, animals, they'll never see.

Look deeply, think like a chess player. If you make this move, then what will happen next, and your reaction to that, on and on. That is really how life works; seeds that were planted a long time ago, sending ripples forward in time, effect our lives, yours and mine, today, here and now.