What exactly are we supposed to do? We hear about change all the time, but instead of motivating us to do something, our politicians only know how to complain - with few real solutions. I'm afraid that it is up to us to make the moves, not our politicians. But make what moves? This is where we become confused.
Sitting back and waiting for someone else to do something is not only a cop-out, but is our fundamental problem. Who can do anything about our situation other than ourselves? If we wait for the politicians to help, we could be waiting a long, long time!
The psychology is that the problems are too immense for little us to do anything about them, so we use this as an excuse and do nothing, remaining in our little comfort zones that are not so comfortable any more! We forget about the power of the masses, which is us, and which is formidable! If each of us cut our gasoline consumption 25%, for example, that would make a tremendous difference on prices. The refiners would no longer have an excuse of not enough capacity in their plants to supply our insatiable appetite.
But where do we begin cutting our gasoline consumption? Well, we begin with what we can do individually. We don't wait for someone else to do it; we get out in front of the situation. We approach it as a priority instead of an afterthought, and we do this in every aspect of our lives. How do we do this? We cut down on our consumption, which flies in the face of big business that encourages consumption.
But look where runaway consumption has gotten us. The excesses on Wall Street and the mortgage markets, the rise in food prices, and the rise in commodity prices; it all has to stop, and only we can stop it, because it is no one but us, and our greed and insecurity, that cause the bubbles.
The word is discipline, that repugnant word for which none has a taste. Discipline, obedience, compliance, submission - things that seemingly restrain us and seem counter to a free democracy - but discipline actually frees us, and that is the enigma of discipline. Freedom sounds better, to do as we please, but this freedom has led us into buying the biggest gas guzzlers that we can't afford, in order to stroke our insecure egos so that we can sit up higher than the other guy or gal, or look more threatening in our big diesel pickup trucks. We act like children in school yards.
Or we indulge in consuming just for the sake of the psychological boost, such as buying enough clothes and shoes to fill ten walk-in closets! How to cure this? Stop being unintelligent and indulgent when buying things. Do without for a change and see how you feel. After you get over the withdrawal, you might be surprised and accumulate some different values along the way.
We have the endless garage sales, and still must rent storage units to alleviate the tons of stuff we accumulate. And then complain about prices going up for Chinese goods (Chinese "bads?")
None of us wants to work in a factory any longer; that's for the lower class; all we want to do is sit around and manage our portfolios. But that's not going to work either - everybody managing portfolios! So how to cure this? Fight for higher wages and health benefits however you can and as often as you can. Believe me, your large employers can afford it, they just prefer to stroke the stock holders.
And if your employer is a small businessperson who won't pay you a livable wage or provide healthcare because he or she can't afford it, then they should get a real job for themselves where they might have to work for a living instead of hiding behind the perceived notion of entrepreneurship where they don't think that they have to work for a boss. Actually, they have many bosses; all of their creditors!
But to do anything requires restraint. Discipline is the first step of any rehabilitation program, any religious order, and any sane way of life. If we are undisciplined as individuals, our entire country will reflect our disorderly conduct, and soon we will have the type of chaos that is now just beginning. Discipline is taking responsibility for ourselves and sacrificing what we want for what is good for society.
But few want to help anyone except themselves. So how do we cure this?... Well, we can meditate to begin with. Meditation is the fastest and surest way to not only become disciplined, but to see what we are doing regarding careless and indulgent actions. And if we can't even sit quietly for a few minutes every day in meditation, how can we discipline ourselves to do anything?
Unfortunately, non-compassionate, selfish attitudes create a dog-eat-dog world, and this is what we see developing here in the good 'ol U.S. of A. We can't even agree to help the sick and poor who can't afford health care or the outrageous cost of drugs.
When we collectively turn our backs on our fellow human beings, believe me we had better start watching our own backs, because we will soon become "them." How to cure this? First of all, take a frank assessment of your attitudes, and adjust them if you don't like what you see. Meditation will help.
The deceptive attitude of big business can't be demonstrated better than the misleading P. R. commercials now airing by the drug companies. These commercials promote a bus going around the country helping poor people who can't afford their overpriced drugs! While the drug companies charge Americans three hundred percent or more than the rest of the world for drugs, just because we don't control our drug prices, while other countries that have socialized medicine do.
How to cure this? If possible, tell your doctor that you don't want his drugs, or the drug companies that funded the doctor's education. And that you have the discipline to regiment your lifestyle and heal yourself naturally. And vote for whomever has the best socialized medicine proposal. And maybe even go to a doctor who promotes alternative medicine, you know, that stuff without side effects!
I just don't think that we are going to spend our way out of this one. Our national credit card, compliments of the rest of the world, is due for one of those nasty letters informing us that our interest rate has doubled. And it's too late to tear it up now.
It's time for different values, other than what we can buy... on credit.
E. Raymond Rock of Fort Myers, Florida is cofounder and principal teacher at the Southwest Florida Insight Center, http://www.SouthwestFloridaInsightCenter.com - His twenty-eight years of meditation experience has taken him across four continents, including two stopovers in Thailand where he practiced in the remote northeast forests as an ordained Theravada Buddhist monk. His book, A Year to Enlightenment (Career Press/New Page Books) is now available at major bookstores and online retailers. Visit http://www.AYearToEnlightenment.com
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