Why Recovering Humanity?

I’m aware that what you find on my website will seem grandiose or self-important, but it’s something I have to do. I think many people can relate to what has prompted it – grave concern about global warming and other catastrophic problems we are irresponsibly handing down to our children and grandchildren and deep frustration because it feels like there is nothing ordinary people like you and I can do that will make any meaningful difference.

Current models of government are inherently undemocratic and unresponsive to the concerns of everyday citizens. They were conceived and designed by wealthy white men who felt that they had to guard against the hoi polloi taking over. Decisions are unduly influenced by money and entrenched power. Demagoguery and blatant corruption are commonplace. “Honest politician” is an oxymoron. Fatalism, apathy, and cynicism are rampant.

I find the collective learned helplessness that has set in to be unacceptable. I understand where it comes from, but allowing ourselves to be duped, either by wolves-in-sheep’s-clothing promoters of the jingoistic status quo or by the irony-steeped zeitgeist of the ostensibly detached and smugly superior (yet anxiously obedient, fad-following) devotees of the religion of being cool, is unconscionable.

Besides the risks of being judged as being driven by a vain pursuit of glory or by some ax-grinding agenda, besides the very real possibility that nothing will ever come of my determined effort to swim upstream, and besides the likelihood of coming across as inelegant, I have nothing to lose.

By the same token, I do have a lot to lose by not putting my dream of creating a more hopeful future out there. It’s a matter of conscience, but it’s also a matter of pursuing emotional and mental health. It’s about recovering humanity.

My fondest hope is that I will directly or indirectly initiate something that will go viral and achieve critical mass. I realize that much of what I have posted here is probably too demanding and heavy to penetrate a mass audience. There are too many words. It’s too much to absorb, too deep, and too serious. Yet perhaps someone who reads what I have written will glean something that will inspire them to create something that will catch on and ignite real change. The ultimate sign of success would be for others to take ownership, reshape the vision into something they can get excited about, and run with it.

But even if everything I am reaching for turns out to be an embarrassing display of a ridiculous, quixotic fool pissing in the wind or is just doomed to desolate obscurity, at least I will know that I gave it my best shot. After all, “it’s better to light a single candle than curse the darkness.”

Getting involved in something like this may not be your cup of tea, but you might know someone who would be interested. Passing it on to her or him would be a real contribution. Don’t do it as a favor to me or anybody else; do it for yourself, your children, and your grandchildren. And it costs almost nothing to vote for the basic ideas presented here by going to our Facebook page and hitting the like button.