Citizens Councils

TOWARD THE CREATION OF A DEMOCRATIC POLITICS AND ECONOMY

Leave a comment

Permitting the continuation of multinational corporations’ hegemony over our politics and economy can only lead to the further exacerbation and estrangement of those in our society who are separated by the ever-widening chasms of financial capacity, i.e. the plutocrats and those citizens who comprise the entire balance of every subordinate social class in this nation, whose financial reality is unceasingly deteriorating by every measure of qualitative and quantitative assessment.

To seek a redress from the federal government for these afflictions is to engage in a delusional aspiration, given its captivity to the macro-political influences in this culture, whose principal if not exclusive concern is the unrelenting accumulation of wealth and the unbridled opportunity for further global commercial inroads and the profits that these incursions generate.

Though there exist an expanding number of initiatives at both the state and municipal levels that are auspicious alternatives to the status quo e.g.  public-private partnerships, technical and financial “incubators”, and experiments in social entrepreneurship that are formally concerned with communal measures of analysis/impact beyond the profitability of these enterprises, as well as other organizational forms of innovation and implementation, the cumulative influence of these activities do not comprise a requisite “critical mass”  that currently contains the potential to substantively transform the U.S. into an authentic social organism in which democracy is extensively extant and where the economics of an infinitely greater egalitarianism may be glimpsed.

As a result it is my considered judgment that in order to significantly augment these efforts, numerous “Citizens Councils for a Democratic Economy” should be created throughout this country, with a particular emphasis in those urban and rural areas where unemployment and poverty are most pronounced.  The entities should be comprised of the  broadest possible coalition of individuals who represent any statistically meaningful constituency of an ethnic, commercial, personal values, religious, or artistic and cultural character,  within the geographic area under consideration.  Beyond these groups, university expertise, and professional organizations should engage in this dialogue as well.  Sources of financial capability and municipal/rural planning should also be involved in these deliberations.  However, beyond the breadth and depth of these socioeconomic variables, what is most important is the ethos under which these conversations shall transpire. 

What must reside at the epicenter of the normative system that animates these exertions is the explicit commitment to the  following ethical and value propositions:  That those entities created to serve any purpose be it commercial enterprise, artistic or cultural, educational, or environmental, housing construction, and infrastructural projects either new or rehabilitative in character shall be undertaken and administered in a maximally democratic manner which permits all citizens to be equal voices in the formulation of these activities and services which are deployed, the compensation which those involved in its operations shall be provided, the ability of all employees to be heard regarding the those decisions that affect, any and all aspects of its governance and agendas, be they internal to the enterprise or external regarding its community impact.

Moreover, such considerations as an economy that is sustainable in its intrinsic nature must be observed, ratios between median wages and the compensation of senior executives must be adhered to, and perhaps most importantly, what must invigorate this process at its center is the objective of creating those projects and activities that in a central and explicit manner will mitigate those factors of social pathology in which these communities/areas are ensnared.  Thus, if unemployment is the ascendant variable, those enterprises/services to provide both the skills and capacities required to be wage earners must be offered, and the enterprises that are created must serve such critically required necessities as enlarging the numbers of affordable housing units, retrofitting structures to provide a reduction in energy use, restoring and expanding the regions infrastructure, enlarging high speed internet capacities for all citizens, and elevating the quality of life within the spheres of the creative artistic and cultural initiatives to which those who reside in this vicinity shall have access.

The sole prohibition of involvement shall pertain to corporate behemoths lest they attempt to capture or unduly influence the democratic processes and economic predispositions toward the implementation of a maximal egalitarian/administrative efficacy   distribution of those employed in these entities and or to subvert the additional priorities enumerated in the previous sections. 

That this essay is incomplete in a host of regards is without question correct.  However, it is an attempt to begin the process of delineating how we might proceed in this society in hundreds of communities toward the objective of both mitigating the inequality, poverty, and powerlessness which so many of us are enslaved within at this crucial point in our national history.  In subsequent posts I shall provide must greater detail and specificity regarding both the processes and structures that will be deployed to achieve these goals and the chronology and sources of the expertise and financial capacity to translate the work of these councils into material reality.

 

 

Uncategorized

TECHNOLOGY’S ULTIMATE DESTINATION IN AN AMERICAN AND GLOBAL CONTEXT

1 Comment

The continuing encroachment by technology upon human exertion in this nation and throughout  other modern societies is consigning ever greater numbers of our citizens to a posture of economic irrelevance.  In the unrelenting quest to automate and mechanize virtually all manufacturing activity and thus achieve unprecedented levels of efficiency and cost reductions and from a corporate perspective most importantly an increase in productivity, as the result of unprecedented combinations of technology/employee collaboration.

The incremental profits obtained from these procedures are allocated not to those employees in these commercial enterprises who are responsible for these increased profits, but rather to the senior executives of these corporations, augmented dividends to shareholders, and to the enhanced value which the equity in these companies reflect.

Inherent in this absurdity is to attain an objective that at some golden moment in the not too distant future completely eliminates the requirement of employees participation in these manufacturing processes. For when that state of technological supremacy has been realized then will the optimization of profits be both complete and insurmountable. 

The ramifications of this “accomplishment” will be to swell the populations of the unemployed, further concentrate the accumulations of wealth and political influence among those who are presently so disproportionately the recipients of these material and governmental forms of largesse, and given the disappearance of sources of revenue by those who are terminated, shall reduce the capacity of our citizens to purchase consumer products or engage in any economic transactions other than those which literally sustain their very existences.  From these realities homelessness shall rise dramatically, crime will markedly increase, marriages will succumb to the pressures of poverty, alcohol and drug dependency will escalate, and the ferocious competition for employment in any capacity shall become ever more fervid. 

Moreover, public systems of law enforcement, education, social services, and recreation and arts and cultural programs shall all become the proportional casualties of ever reduced funding and the massive increase in those client populations which require these services to remain viable.

In the final analysis, these burgeoning forces and trends shall further exacerbate in a national context what Mayor De Blasio characterized in his successful recent bid to become the Chief Executive of our nation’s premier municipality, New York, “A tale of two countries ever more estranged and ever more unequal.”   In a country that presently reflects an unemployment rate that is in excess of 15%, where more than 50 million citizens receive food stamps to supplement their inadequate nutritional budgets, and where vast areas of both rural and urban environments lie deserted and fallow, because major corporations have relocated to domestic or overseas locales which have proffered obscenely generous tax forgiveness incentives, and other substantial financial inducements in order to attract these companies to these areas and provide the employment opportunities their manufacturing activities require.

It is as a result of this unceasing quest to take up commercial residence in those localities that embody “right to work” laws, and are thus inhospitable to union activity, and prevailing wage levels that are almost always below that which exists in other union friendly environments, and of course the lengthy periods of immunity from state taxes and other traditional costs of business which these entities absorb in more enlightened and progressive politically sovereign jurisdictions, that are cumulatively responsible for the unceasing expansion of the universe of those who are involuntarily consigned to idleness, with all that flows from that state in terms of self-loathing, retreats into alcoholic dependency to anesthetize the anguish which their economic status reflects and in the most tragic eventualities, when their suffering is insupportable will bring their lives to a close.

The sole and exclusive concern of those who control and direct the activities of these companies is the pursuit of the maximization of profit, irrespective of the implications and consequences to their employees, the environment, and the frequently traumatic repercussions and havoc to the larger communities and regions which their departure creates.

To wish to reduce the drudgery and danger of manufacturing procedures that are unhealthful or mind-numbing or produce casualties of body and spirit is a laudable and noble objective. However, the question becomes subsequent to their elimination from the workplace how does our society allocate to these individuals that which is equitable and allows then to engage in both our economy and the crucially necessary psychological engagement in labor that is indispensable to their self-worth? We may very well be entering into an era where the 40 hour work week is an antiquated concept which is no longer necessary. In order to ensure the involvement of those who are currently unengaged, a 25 hour period of involvement in the economy may be sufficient to both sustain our economic levels of productivity for most individuals. If the minimum wage were elevated to $15 per hour a family of two wage-earners could provide a middle-class existence for their children and themselves for a work week of this duration.

Moreover, there is presently an enormous and urgent need to repair and modernize our nation’s infrastructure, surely this is work that is both crucial and rewarding, and many of those who currently sit idle would be ecstatic at the prospect of being involved in these efforts from both a sense of meaningfully contributing to our country’s viability and the relatively substantial wages which those with these skills and craft aptitudes are compensated.

Finally, a 25 hour work week would allow our citizens to reduce the current levels of stress and anxiety which plague so many of us as employees, parents, siblings, friends, and other important roles we assume in the current work schedules which often extend to 50 hours or beyond. Additional “volitional” time would enable us to enrich our lives our families and our communities and most crucially would permit us in postures of exploration, contemplation, and analysis, to examine our lives and our society and formulate those models of social justice that we wish the American culture to incorporate and gravitate toward and the strategic and tactical political processes that must be created and employed to attain these substantive improvements in the quality of our individual lives as well as those of us who collectively comprise this nation.

The epic struggle in which we are engaged is in some quintessential regard the imperative requirement to reduce the political influence of these corporate behemoths and increase those burgeoning voices and efficacy of our fellow citizens and the thousands of organizations that currently exist to transform America into an ever more coherent, persuasive, and formidable, force of moral persuasion that will ultimately achieve the humanizing objectives which are possible when the juggernaut of technology is subordinated to its appropriate posture of democritization both in the United States and beyond our borders in other industrial societies.

PROVIDING STRATEGIC ASSISTANCE

A MOST CRITICAL PRIORITY FOR 2014 – ESTABLISHING A NATIONAL OFFICE FOR STRATEGIC ASSISTANCE

Leave a comment

Currently, tens of thousands of organizations are effectively discharging various aspects of the agenda to transform this nation. In arenas of community based economic development, economic development corporations, state and local banks and credit unions, and other projects are providing democratized and decentralized alternatives to traditional hierarchical American corporate structures.

University-community partnerships are formulating programmatic and policy responses to mitigate the lack of affordable housing in many metropolitan areas. A broad range of systems and mechanisms are being deployed to improve the efficacy of citizen participation in local government and by so doing obtaining increased responsiveness from municipal political officials.

Unique measures to evaluate economic performance in an infinitely more comprehensive manner than those indices such as GNP or the Dow-Jones Averages, or related standards that are both parochial and misleading, have been developed to more accurately evaluate our nation’s economy and its ramifications in all areas of our society.

The analytic tools to which I refer reflect happiness quotients, the external impact which corporate policies register of a negative character on the environment, the sufficiency of a range of wage levels to sustain residency beyond the poverty level, the affordability of health care, and the ecological footprint of our society regarding the depletion of our natural resources and the ramifications for the sustained maintenance of our culture in the present, and most importantly in the longer term.

The expanding universe of incubators throughout this nation that are providing both technical and financial resources to fuel these audacious effort of social entrepreneurs, as well as a significant continuum of non-profit, for profit, public-private undertakings, that extend the frontiers of social and political experimentation and enable citizen-employees to acquire equity positions within the various commercial enterprises where they are discharge their duties, is enlarging at a geometric velocity.

However, the preceding efforts as laudable and critical as they are in the strategic transformation of this country, suffer from a crucial deficiency, which is that they do not manifest in an entirely rendered manner a complete paradigm of those variables that comprise a fully transformed culture.

For in the absence of a strategic plan that does not address and include all the requisite ingredients of a humanistic society which resides on the imperative ethical underpinnings to which equitable macro-political and economic institutions are anchored, and in which individuals engage in the liberating dynamics of self-transcendence, the exertions of so many will be doomed to realize but a portion of the social reality that has provoked the commencement of this activity.

Thus, in order to ensure that a paradigm which contains those conceptual components that when actualized will attain the most complete transformation of our nation, am I establishing beneath the umbrella of the Center For Humanistic Global Initiatives’ “Transform America” campaign, the Office of National Strategic Assistance. This entity shall discharge five primary obligations:

1. Assist in the development and the provision of continuing technical assistance to local strategic planning efforts within various rural, suburban, and urban areas, whose primary task is to formulate a strategic plan for the transformation of that geographical locale, that reflects and embodies those normative values that are delineated in such publications as the Oberlin Project, The New Economics Foundation, and the most recent work of Gar Alperovitz; “What Then Must We Do.”

2. To ensure the realization of the fundamental requirement of these prescriptions which is to establish a sustainable community based economy and larger cultural reality that reflects maximally feasible democratic planning procedures and protocols; that creates commercial enterprises in which employees are both equity owners in these entities, and significantly impact the administrative and operational policies and practices by which these workplaces are governed.

An additional requirement is that the ecological footprint does not exploit natural resources in a manner that is non-sustainable; and that makes provision for the fullest possible actualization of the creative aspirations as well as the psychological and spiritual dimensions of all those individuals who reside in this region.

3. Assist these councils in obtaining the financial resources to both commence this planning dynamic, and as various projects are finalized to aid these groups in identifying and initiating discussions with possible funding sources, that will culminate in the consummation of a contractual instrument through which these monies will be furnished.

4. To ensure the greatest possible prospective effect between those projects that are envisioned and approved and the mitigation of poverty, unemployment, educational, social dysfunction, and all other indicators of those cultural pathogens/ social services inadequacies, that are extant in this area.

5. To conduct continuous research inquires regarding the development of social indicators beyond those that measure traditional financial realities; to monitor the broad range of various similar efforts to determine which democratic planning councils engaged in the transformation of this nation are achieving significant progress, or are confronting difficulties, as well as those fully rendered paradigms that are producing the greatest success.

This matrix should include the capability to measure the contentment, financial sufficiency, and personal evolution that their citizens are deriving from these plans, that have as their simultaneous objective the diminution of poverty and all other aspects of social injustice from which human privation and suffering is derived.

Though this process shall require a substantial chronology of effort to fully realize, when it has been completed the innumerable local community-based plans shall comprise in some crucial regard a de facto national strategy by which the United States may be ushered into a future that will reflect a dynamic moral predicate upon which equitable institutions are providing socially just results for our populace, as our citizens simultaneously explore the various modes of self-transcendence.

I have addressed these concerns more fully in the animating publication, “America’s Future: Requiem or Transformation” which appears as a PDF beneath the VISION tab of this website.

One additional task that must be confronted at the earliest conceptual opportunity is to inquire precisely what forms, structures, systems may be constructed to address projects of a regional or national scope by technical or financial entities that retain their decentralized and democratic nature though the scale of their efforts demands a coordination and intermingling of resources that is currently unprecedented.

What our efforts must preclude regardless of our motives, is to ensure that we do not replicate in any element or aspect of a future American reality, is the replication of hierarchical structures of decision-making as well as the power and influence that historically emanated from these entities, that has so severely warped and inhibited the capabilities of our citizens to chart their destinies and fashion the fullest actualization of their potentials, and by so doing attain a happiness that has been unprecedented in our nation’s experience.

Self Transcendence

DEFINING SELF-TRANSCENDENCE

Leave a comment

          In the frame of reference in which we are operating, precisely what is it that constitutes the definition of “self-transcendence?” It is the attempt to explore as fully as is feasible the objective social reality of our lives, with particular regard to  the nature, content, and sources, of the discontent, unhappiness, and lack of fulfillment, that is present in our diurnal activities. 

The second element of this activity is the cognitive construction of a prospective alternative existence which would fully liberate and empirically actualize our talents, aptitudes, and passionate creative impulses.

          In addition to these efforts a crucial related endeavor, to isolate and identify those cognitive and behavioral patterns that we manifest that are responsible for the suffering we cause and the harm we inflict upon our fellow citizens, is an  imperative task.

         For it is through this examination of that which is absent in our existence that causes us great consternation, and the unleashing of our muse,  our capacities, and our fervor, as well as those deficiencies of character and ethical deportment that provokes irritation and outrage among others, that we may embark upon a professional engagement that will sustain us.  Moreover, it is these subsequent  spiritual and psychological exertions which will liberate us from our imprisonments, and achieve a life of meaning, purpose, and an impact on those with whom we interact, that is salutary and uplifting.

          When we complete this process does it become possible and imperative that we begin the effort to transform our lives and our actions to conform to ethical standards that were previously cited, in the initial portion of this commentary.

          The final task is to initiate the labor to create those social, economic, political, and esthetic involvements, that will stimulate the fullest possible actualization of one’s capabilities and fervor, and  by so doing significantly augment our sense of self-worth, joy, contentment, and personal tranquility.

Exemplary Organizations

A PARTIAL LIST OF ORGANIZATIONS

Leave a comment

           Recently, increasing numbers of incubators in which technical and financial assistance is accessible to those who wish to create various enterprises in the realm of technology, biomedical,  software, and most recently in New York, an incubator to stimulate the pursuit of artistic activity, gallery exhibitions, and a commercial viability to support these artists in the longer term have been implemented.

            These repositories of expertise and monetary resources that can assist individuals in the establishment of commercial and non-profit ventures have been established beneath the banner of state governments and municipal jurisdictions, as well as under the aegis of private innovators.    

          For those who are predisposed to contribute their intellectual, artistic, financial, or political skills, to thousands of existing for profit, not for profit, and non profit organizations, and public – private partnerships, that are addressing any aspect of those efforts required to create a humanistic multi-dimensional society, your computer and all the massive troves of information to which it allows access  will provide a road map for your journey, and an eventual gateway to your professional future.      

          For those who have established a commercial enterprise as your company evolves in terms of both revenue and profitability you may wish to avail yourself of the Benefit Corporation Statutes that exist in a number of states, that permit corporations to consider a matrix of intense concerns in their operations beyond the exclusive concern of profitability.

            Such factors as levels of compensation to employees which permit them to attain a robust middle-class status and beyond, to environmental considerations that mitigate negative impacts, to the provision of affordable housing for those in your employ who may require it, and a general continuing interest in the larger communities in which you are located in terms of their challenges and welfare, are among those relevant considerations.

           By availing yourself of the protections these statutes afford you are insulated from the legal obligation of many corporations who must maximize their profits lest they provoke litigation from disgruntled investors.

              In Brooklyn, N.Y. and in other urban areas  a substantial proliferation in the artisanal activities of specialty food produce and beverages both alcoholic and non-alcoholic, been occurring.  For-profit, not-for-profit, and nonprofit, community economic development organizations, are allocating billions of dollars annually to public-private partnerships, to rehabilitate distressed neighborhoods, and create employee-owned and managed companies.

           These entities  provide both products and services and occupational training programs, as well as equipping the unemployed with the requisite skills to obtain jobs that may culminate in a lengthy and remunerative career trajectory within the private sector.

          Within the community of individuals who are dedicated to the reform of both corporate and political macro-institutions, are those who are engaged in broadening the representation of employees, citizens, and unions, on the board of these trans-national entities, for the purpose of  attaining greater equitability in the relationship between the compensation levels of senior executives and their infinitely more numerous subordinates.

           In addition their agendas are concerned with the diminution of those corporate activities which impact the environment negatively, and who are committed to broad and continuing support and assistance in and involvement with the communities in which they are situated.  Moreover, there is an unceasing effort to insure that employees have access at a very negligible financial cost to equity ownership in these organizations, be it in the form of  common shares or stock options.

           Beyond the previous initiatives is the crucial matter of democratizing hierarchical chains of administrative command, so that employees may exert  greater influence over the operations of the production processes and service obligations they are expected to discharge.

          For in the final analysis so much of the alienation and estrangement these individual employees experience in the daily performance of their duties, is the fundamental sense of the dehumanization they experience and the lack of dominion over their current assignments and the future that awaits them in their workplace.

           An additional aspect of their current discontent is the distribution of the increases in productivity which these employees  achieve in concert with technological innovations, that are allocated disproportionately to senior management.

          Broader dimensions  of political economic and social innovation can be found on such websites as Basic Principles For A New Direction, which posits the essential specific actions that are required to  create an equitable and sustainable economy.

          Community-Wealth.org presents the crucial forces which are gathering ever-greater momentum within local communities, as the result of numerous public initiatives at the municipal and state echelons of government, and in unprecedented relationships between anchor institutions and local community based organizations such as hospitals and other health care facilities.

           In these companies equity ownership by their employees is substantial and their impact and influence in administrative and operational spheres of its management are significant and continuing.

          In addition, various organizations, programs, and policies, which link in a bi-lateral posture university and community institutions, are stimulating the creation of community wealth and the increased abilities of citizens within these areas to attain a responsiveness from local governments, that was previously unobtainable.

          Moreover, beneath the umbrella of the New Economy such entities as the Institute For Policy Studies, Economic Policy Institute, The New Economy Working Group, and the Levy Institute at Bard College,  are formulating new paradigms of economic development that are community based. attempts to provide alternatives to those models  which operate as traditional hierarchical systems

           In the realm of intellectual activity which seeks to supplement and supplant traditional structures of public and corporate governance, such groups as the Alliance For Democracy, Center For Corporate Policy, Demos, and the Center For Digital Democracy, are vigorously engaged in the conceptual creation of new mechanisms, systems, and standards of measurement and evaluation.  When implemented these entities will remediate the grievous inequities and oppressive character of much that comprises the current American social reality.

           In addition, these organizations will continue the rigorous critical analysis of existing institutions that are the ideological impediments that obstruct our nation’s progress to a more egalitarian distribution of wealth, and the actualization of a vibrant multi-dimensional civilization.

          One additional component of research, i.e. the techniques to successfully organize impoverished communities to transform our  national consciousness are such entities as META, Political Economy of the Good Society, Center for Community Change, Center for Third World Organizing.

       

 

Strategy

A Strategy For Transforming America

2 Comments

  At this juncture of your review of this document many among you will determine that the sentiments and prescriptions contained in my presentation, though laudable and relevant to our quest to create a more equitable society and humane cultural framework, do not address the critical matters that are central to a secular existence in this the second decade of the twenty-first century in the American national experience, and you would be correct.

However, it is my intent to commence the formulation of this agenda for a personal and a social renaissance in very comprehensive and specific terms in this portion of my cognitive musings.

           Perhaps the most critical of considerations regarding this mammoth task of humanizing this civilization must we address the individual who wishes to commit to this  laudable effort and the matter of how they might attain and retain in the longer term, a situation in which they and their families economic viability is preserved.

           To withdraw from various involvements in transnational corporate behemoths in order to reclaim the potential of participating in a lived experience that is multi-dimensional and self-actualizing is a crucial first step, but by so doing we are not relieved of our personal financial responsibilities to ourselves and our spouses/partners and our children.

            What are possible destinations for these courageous and  noble pioneers that shall provide both the requisite stream of revenue, as well as the organizational structures that are humane, innately equitable, and provide the possibility of equity positions and profit sharing  in which a maximally democratic system of administrative supervision is extant?

            Armed with the results of your self-transcendence  inventory  does it become possible to chart a course of social entrepreneurialism where you are the master of your economic aspirations. The mission statement  and strategic plan you formulate  will reflect the fullest possible flowering of your normative system and the muse you wish to allow  the greatest possible empirical expression. 

             

Effective Modes

Effective Modes Of Psychological Treatment

Leave a comment

        The conversion of which I speak can only be accomplished through either spiritual or psychological processes and protocols. Within the clinical realm the arduous efforts to confront and neutralize their pernicious, false, and horribly negative self-perceptions, is achieved with the continuing assistance of a skilled therapist, initially in exploring the content of the individuals unconscious where these atrocious messages and warped notions reside.

         These communiques of misinformation have frequently been placed there over decades of reiteration by parents who themselves have sustained substantial scarring and cognitive deformities, as the result of the nuclear family environment in which they were reared. Subsequent to this investigation are attempts at behavioral modification implemented to remediate the self-destructive patterns of activity in which these individual are ensnared.

         In the absence of a successful intervention by clinicians or by continuing immersion in a program of spiritual enlightenment, the intergenerational transmission of pathologies continues ad nauseam, ad infinitum.

          However, within such spiritual practices as those found in twelve steps fellowships, ever-lengthening sobriety often produces beyond abstinence from drug or alcohol use, a mentality of substantial and warranted self-regard. It is as the result of the implementation of these steps in daily behavioral actions and the cognitive alternations which are possible by the retrieval of sanity, and the crucial task of invoking the assistance of a capability which transcends their personal resources, that this spiritual transformation is enabled.

         In addition, it is by the application of these modalities that the toxicity of self-loathing is supplanted by the awareness that we are deserving of self-esteem, intrinsically by virtue of our inherent status as sentient beings, as well as by the recognition that our conduct has been transformed from exploitive, manipulative, narcissistic, contemptuous, and self-absorbed, to a pattern of interacting with others that is customarily  considerate of their priorities and concerns.

          Moreover, this interpersonal modality is also kind and respectful in tone and tenor, and reflects a continuing desire to be of service to our fellows in a selfless manner, seeking no recompense other than the awareness  that these acts of kindness produce an extraordinary sense of well-being and  contentment, which far exceeds the pleasure they derive from any efforts predicated on self-seeking or ego inflation.

          The fundamental truth of the human experience is the sublime irony that the greatest happiness we can experience is attributable not to those efforts which seek as their objective  the augmentation of rewards or accomplishments for ourselves, but rather are derived from the exertion and actions we undertake to assist our fellow human beings.

           Those attempts to both mitigate the suffering they are experiencing whatever its causes, and augment their opportunities to live fulfilling and meaningful  existences, is the primary source of our contentment. It is in these acts that salvation and self- -transcendence can be found  beyond all other locations in the human experience.

          

Psychological Profiles

Psychological Profiles

Leave a comment

   Surely the group of CEO’s who comprise the Forbes 400 who are experiencing lives of unparalleled accomplishment, and who reside at the epicenter of an orbit of professional associates and reverential acolytes, must have acquired a peace, contentment, and sense of self-worth, that few others have known.

           However, for the vast majority of those who occupy those exalted locales at the pinnacle of these corporate and financial institutions, a quite different and in fact regrettable dynamic characterizes the fundamental essence of their awareness.

          Many of them who have devoted extraordinary effort in their quest to become CEO’s of these corporate behemoths, or in postures of a rabid entrepreneurialism have created companies that through their unrelenting efforts now reign supreme in their respective areas of commercial activity, are propelled toward these heights as the result of enormous insecurities and nuclear family pathologies.

          These disease syndromes have produced self-images that are deformed and reflect a primary sensibility of self-loathing, and an unremitting sense of inadequacy and deficiencies that often relate to physical characteristics of homely countenances, diminutive stature, and anemic or corpulent physiognomies.

           Thus, what frequently fuels their  desire to succeed is the transcendent need to demonstrate to detractors  that their assessments of their abilities were flawed, and their predictions of failure or mediocre destinies were in error.

           In the final analysis their vindication will be derived from their triumph to amass personal fortunes that exceed those other plutocrats, who are also engaged in the ruthless and all-consuming exertions to ascend to an ever more rarefied status on the holy grail of annual financial rankings, the Forbes 400.

           It is these rankings in their view which will demonstrate to other captains of industry and the general public the accomplishments for which they are responsible, and thus empirically demonstrate to all their superiority and the incomparable qualities they represent and embody.

          The crucial question which must be posed at this juncture is as the result of expending herculean energy and  virtually every waking moment of their consciousness in the pursuit of these financial objectives, when they have achieved their objectives and reside virtually alone on the apex of Mount Olympus, do they then experience  a sensibility that is joyous, passionate, creative?

        Are their lives  populated with loving family relationships, and substantive and rewarding sources of friendship, that nourish their capacities to become empathetic, selfless, compromising, and affectively vibrant, (all of which are required to create and sustain mutually beneficial human arrangements)?

           Regrettably, in most instances they assuredly do not experience that marvelous eventuality. For those who are compelled to demonstrate their fundamental self-worth and by the accumulation of wealth and the influence that flows from it, the traits of solipsism, self-absorption, narcissism, and obsessive-compulsive behaviors, as well as arrogance, contempt, and condescension, become ever more entrenched and preeminent as the central hallmarks of their consciousness and behavior.

            Continuing forays into episodes of alcoholic and pharmacological excess to anesthetize the isolation and boredom and emptiness of life in their palatial but sterile residences, recur with frequent regularity.

           Often in the quest to resuscitate a meaningful and substantial sensorial dynamic, repetitive immersion in  sadomasochistic sexual practices in which orgasmic and violent rituals commingle, are recurring requisite activities.

            However, the most tragic and cruel irony about the lives of those who are committed to this mode of existence is that regardless of the magnitude of wealth they acquire it is never sufficient to satisfy their appetites, or silence the insatiable demons that reside in their consciousness.

           It is patently impossible in the material realm to achieve the conversion of a state of frantic desperation and alienation into a consciousness in which serenity, Agape, and the joy of a leisurely immersion in  human fellowship emerges.

          Moreover, the profound yearnings and self-exploration of the wounds and vulnerabilities of an experiential compilation, in the both the past and current segments of their life, will continue to elude them as well in this physical environment.

 

 

 

Economic, Social Deficiencies

Social Deficiencies (Economic)

Leave a comment

   Examining contemporary American society through the lens of those moral prerequisites, what we discover is a civilization that in so many regards and contexts fails abysmally to translate these ethical underpinnings into institutional realities.

          Though various elements of our population are beset with disparate challenges that are endemic to their economic status in our financial hierarchy, all are buffeted by the evolving negative impacts of  ever-increasing concentrations of wealth among ever-decreasing miniscule numbers of our citizens, by the declining employment opportunities within our society as the technological juggernaut continues to replace human labor with computers, as well as by corporations that relocate manufacturing elements of their organizations to overseas locales where labor costs are less expensive.

           These trends trigger the unremitting, reality of unemployment statistics which when such categories as underemployment, part-time, and positions that have been stripped of health and other forms of traditional employee benefits are included,  impact approximately one-fifth of our fellow citizens.

          Among those who live in poverty, the struggle to  survive demands herculean efforts to obtain the meager  salaries of multiple minimum-wage jobs, as well as navigating the challenges of public assistance programs, to supplement these anemic wages.  Health care even with the advent of the Affordable Health Care Act remains beyond the financial capacity of millions of Americans.

           Drug and alcohol dependency are escalating in all segments of our nation, but particularly within our deteriorating urban cores, where the physical environments  continue to crumble and become uninhabitable. As a result residents desert their unsafe homes and deteriorating neighborhoods, awash in crime and single parent households, and a disintegrating social and religious fabric that reflects the harsh, cruel, lawless, communities that these regions have become.

         Ultimately the hopelessness that afflicts these individuals depletes their will to escape this imprisonment, and they become resigned to futures that are bereft of joy, achievement, happiness, and material adequacy. When those for whom a life that is comprised of sorrow, emptiness, and extraordinary anguish, becomes insupportable, they exit from this human circumstance by their own hand.

          And if the plight of those who dwell in these society’s basements of impoverishment is appalling, the contemporary circumstances of the middle-class is not a significant improvement. Declining median incomes, stagnating wages, evaporating jobs, are cumulatively eroding both the material platform and psychological serenity of this segment of our fellow Americans.

          Moreover, the supreme irony is the financial circumstances of those who have succeeded in attaining an asset base which places them in the upper-middle class and beyond, (with the exception of the miniscule numbers who comprise the apogee of our pyramid of wealth) is the intensifying pressures to retain their privileged status in an economy that continues to shed employees and reallocate to ever fewer senior executives in the corporate and financial communities, remuneration packages comprise of salaries, stock options, perks, and retirement incentives that dwarf in some instances their average employees income by a multiple of 300.

          

Creating An Ethical, Equitable, and Self-Transcending Culture