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Quotes

Equilibrium

Equilibrium

It’s not for being my well being,
…but for any being on the planet
…to be in need just shouldn’t be.
The laws of equilibrium dictate
…that the Political Economy will not equilibrate
…till the wages in Africa
…are at par with the wages here.

IF IT’S NOT CHOCOLATE DON’T EAT IT
2001

SPIRITUAL POLITICAL ECONOMY – Part 1

Spiritual Political Economy

is the study of the interrelationship between the spiritual and material aspects of humanity and the economic and political institutions and processes necessary to support and sustain our livelihood and evolution.

Spiritual Political Economy is interested in analyzing and explaining the ways in which our engagement in various sorts of spiritual practices affects the allocation of resources in society through the natural laws of the universe, as well as the ways in which the nature of the economic system and the behavior of people acting on their socio-economic interests affects the form of spiritual practices and the kinds of rules and policies that are agreed upon.

Spiritual Political Economy recognizes the inherent separation between spiritual and economic institutions and practices, but also recognizes the necessity for considering these seeming disparities in order to provide a framework for dealing with an emerging order that is historically unique, seemingly uncharted and consequently fearful for many.

Spiritual Political Economy honors the origins of economic thought and seeks to return to the moral imperative from which it was born.  Adam Smith’s THEORY OF MORAL SENTIMENTS is a necessary prelude to the WEALTH OF NATIONS.  The Golden Rule, DO UNTO OTHERS AS YOU WOULD HAVE THEM DO UNTO YOU, is “written into our genes” and is a necessary dictum for conscious evolution.

Spiritual Political Economy rejects the notion that humanity is morally stagnant and incapable of advancement beyond material goals, and embraces the concept that we are living, breathing beings in a continuous state of change, and our destine is to return full circle to the source from which we came.

Spiritual Political Economy honors the nature of the Dialectic Process and presumes that the emerging Thesis or new Paradigm is evident today in the emerging social fabric that is the result of centuries of evolution.

Spiritual Political Economy recognizes that the diversity within the natural order is reflected in the social order and that the health and wealth of communities depends on a healthy interrelationship between all the seemingly disparate elements in the society.  Our social order is more web than hierarchy, and common sense is comprehensible to all.

Spiritual Political Economy recognizes the immanent collapse of materialism as manifested by global corporate capitalism, that unregulated capitalism fosters greed and avarice, has run it’s course, and will lead to the suicidal end of the human race; and recognizes that the inevitable end of materialism means the emerging of a new spiritualism throughout humankind.

Spiritual Political Economy seeks to define the possibilities and potential implications of the emerging globalization of localism through internet based communications, computer assisted manufacturing and sustainable food production, which are co-jointly fueling hope and optimism for a population that is weary of war, starvation, rape and genocide and longing for peace, prosperity, and health.

GMO Letter to Feinstein, Boxer and Woolsey

Letter to Senators Barbara Boxer, Dianne Feinstein, and Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey

There appears to be a revolving door between just about every industry in the United States and the agencies that we have created to regulate them.  The Department of Agriculture is no exception.  In January, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, with the “heavy handed” urging of President, ‘I’ve-got-an-organic-garden-in-my-back-yard’, Barack Obama, approved the coast to coast planting of Genetically Modified alfalfa, sugar beet and corn seeds.  Genetically Modified seeds or GMO’s, incorporate a disruptively violent process of splicing poisonous genes into the DNA of plants in order to ward off pests, which eventually destroy natural seed stores via airborne contamination. The entire feedlot of the country, affecting milk, meat and produce, could potentially be contaminated within a year.

We face an IMMEDIATE CRISIS. Despite repeated industry claims to the contrary, a recent Canadian study (Daily Mail, May 20, 2011) shows Bt toxins (Bacillus thuringiensis) implanted into food crops to kill pests, showing up in 93% of the blood samples taken from pregnant women.

On May 6th, 2011, we held a forum in San Rafael, CA where over 300 people came out to hear Norman Solomon moderate a panel of GMO experts: Good Earth Natural Food Store owner and  “Non GMO Project” founder Mark Squire, “Seeds of Deception” author Jeffrey Smith, “Uncertain Peril” author Clair Cummings and legal council for the Center for Food Safety Rebecca Smith.

In order to protect the imminent threat to our food supply Organic Consumer Association’s founder Ron Cummings is organizing a Millions Against Monsanto Washington, DC lobbying event for World Food Day on October 17.  Doctor Bronner’s son is organizing a New York to Washington march that same week.  We in Marin County are organizing a lobbying effort in Sacramento in September and will join World Food Day activities in Washington, DC in October.

This is our “Cairo Moment”.  Our corporate controlled government has gone too far.  We will stop Monsanto.  Little people like myself are fed up, are “mad as hell and are not going to take it anymore”.

Real politicians follow the lead of the people they represent.  This is your time to step up and do the right thing.  Fill the gaping regulatory hole left by the FDA to protect American’s, by actively working to require mandatory labeling of genetically engineered foods. Education and organization is the first step, restoring democracy is the second step and stopping Monsanto is our final goal.

For over forty years, I have supported the organic food movement with every purchase I make.  As a human being, I firmly believe I should have the right to know if my foods have been genetically engineered. Under current FDA regulations I don’t know if GE ingredients are in the foods I purchase and feed my family. Labeling is essential.  If Kraft and Kellogg’s can label the GM products they sell in European countries because the Europeans have demanded it, they can certainly do it here in the United States.

92% of the American public wants the federal government to require mandatory labeling of genetically engineered foods. ABC News stated, “Such near-unanimity in public opinion is rare.” I HOPE you will listen to me and the other 92 percent of the American public who want mandatory labeling and show your support for American consumers by supporting and co-sponsoring legislation requiring mandatory labeling of genetically engineered foods.

Food Crisis

 

In January, Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, authorized the unrestricted commercial cultivation of genetically modified alfalfa from sea to shinning sea.  Within one year of this planting, the entire milk supply and cattle feedlot in this country could potentially be contaminated.  Next came the sugar beets that account for half of America’s sugar supply.  The “third shoe to drop” came as Tom Vilsack approved the splicing of the enzyme alpha amylase into corn used to manufacture ethanol.

Friday January 28, 2011  New York Times, B1 – U.S. APPROVES PLANTING OF MODIFIED ALFALFA

Saturday February 5, 2011   New York Times, B3 – U.S. SAYS FARMERS MAY GROW ENGINEERED SUGAR BEETS

Saturday February 12, 2011   New York Times, B1 – U.S. APPROVES CORN MODIFIED FOR ETHANOL

For over fifteen years now, Monsanto has been introducing Genetically Modified Organisms, GMO’s, into our food supply, primarily with soybeans, cotton, corn and canola.  The Corporate takeover of our food has been a slow and insidious process, and today it is nearly impossible to find 100% organic soy or corn, that is not contaminated. Ready-to-retire seed-saving-farmer Percy Schmeizer from Alberta Canada has been fighting Monsanto for the last ten years.  THEY sued him for stealing THEIR seeds, which migrated over to HIS property and polluted HIS crops.  The “chutzpa” and influence of these corporate giants is unbelievable.

The proven ill effects of GMO’s have been well documented by Jeffrey Smith in a number of books including GENETIC ROULETTE.  Liver and kidney damage, along with reproductive problems are common.  Third generation mice are not reproducing, and second-generation cattle are reproducing 40% less.   Public opinion polls indicate that 90% of the people in this country want to have labeling of GMO’s, while over 50% of the people don’t want Genetically Modified food at all.   Most of Europe rejects GMO imports.   Uncontrollable super weeds are developing in areas where GMO herbicides and pesticides are polluting the soil. General Foods and General Mills have serious concerns that the new GMO Amylase modified ethanol corn will migrate to the sweet corn and kill the “flake” in corn flakes. The GMO test splicing of pharmaceuticals in food products; i.e., Prozac in corn, persists and is expanding.

We face a crisis, an immediate threat to our food supply and the end to certified organic foods as we know it.  The revolving door between the Department of Agriculture and the giant food and seed companies, is typical of the same revolving door between Goldman Sacks and the financial regulators, between the nuclear industry and the nuclear regulators, between the oil industry and the oil regulators, between the war machine and military industrial complex, between corporate privatization and deregulated government.

The Corporate Colonization and GMO pollution of the food supplies in Paraguay, India and Mexico are well underway.  We are the now target, but we have the tools to fight back.  We have access to Social Networking, Television and Face to Face contact. We can make a difference.  Get informed, use the internet, get involved, talk to you friends and neighbors.  Make a difference.  Just do it.

The year started out so hopeful

The year started out so hopeful

        The year started out so hopeful.  ADBUSTERS published an article by my old Political Economy professor, Robert Heilbroner, Final Reflections on the Human Prospect and PARABOLA published A Reverence for the Divine, by Peter Kingsley.  Both articles flipped conventional thinking on its head and both articles offered HOPE for the future.  Hope has sure come into abuse and misuse over the past year, but for a brief few weeks, I felt like it was reemerging as a real prospect.

     Heilbroner, your typical elbow-patch-pipe-smoking-liberal-tweedy professor, wrote Final Reflections in 1975, as I, with his encouragement, was dropping out of graduate school and heading to California.  He updated it in 1990 and ADBUSTERS, the most anti-capitalistic publication in the mainstream market, published his thoughts twenty years later in 2010, wow.  He talks about the end of capitalism and the dangerous mentality of industrial civilization itself. He sees us moving into a postindustrial era where characteristics of many pre-industrial societies, such as the exploration of inner states of consciousness and a more communal social organization, rather than material accomplishments and individual achievement, become the norm.

     Peter Kingsley essay is from his new book, REALITIES.  He asserts that 6th Century BC Greek philosopher Parmenides, the father of Logic, developed his thesis from a previously unknown Shamanistic practice called Incubation, not from some head tripping dry abstract thinking.  Incubation meant going deep inside, shutting down the body, going into the darkness of a cave, for anywhere from a week to a month, and finding the still point of deep mediation, visiting the underworld or the otherworld.

      Heilbroner, author of the most famous Political Economy book of the 20th Century, THE WORLDLY PHILOSOPHERS, and Kingsley, well-respected theologian and philosopher, have both turned western philosophy on their head.  As one of my long-term projects has been writing a “Spiritual Political Economy”, both these publications gave me much food for thought, fit into my own philosophy and gave me what I needed.

         That was then, a time of hope. This is now, a time of unprecedented disasters, one after another.  I’ll continue catching up to the present with my next post, which will start with the events at the end of January.