A bloated central govenment?  

How does centralizing work as a social process?

"Centralizing" homogenizes, constricts creative adaptation -an evolutionary characteristic, a human developmental characteristic.  Centralizing, socially shapes the belief that one size fit all.  Centralizing constricts creativity, ignores diversity, denigrates alternative thinking, and stimulates "polariztion" of people. 


Centralizing also fosters a governing "elite," a top-heavy adminstrative layer that grows further and further out of touch with grassroots.  Administrative layers, as we've known them in large bureaucracies, e.g. the NYC public schools, (and Democrat governments in general), expand through cronyism.  Recall the slogan: it's not what you know it's WHO you know (the basis of cronyism).  Centralizing shuts up opposing viewpoints, suppresses LOCAL agenda.  It can't meet everyone's needs so it prioritizes, selects, caters to, feeds dependencies, and panders votes.  

The more centralized governance, and the larger that governance, the more we discover that polarization rears its ugly head...because people don't feel good when needs aren't effectively met.  And if government is bloated, centralized, it certainly is not locally responsive except through crooked deals, earmarks, and cronyism.  Special favors proliferate ...as we've witnessed in the  proliferation of "earmarks" currently bloating the obamacare compendium, now under Supreme Court scrutiny.

Centralized, institutionalized bureaucracy  amounts to allowing an administrative elite to declare what will work for everyone -regardless of diversity needs determined in every single local community (beginning with the family, the neighborhood, the town).  An administrative special elite supervises access to advantages: THEY design the rules, the laws, the budgets, the paths of access  to power (energy resources, media, technology).  They publish the rhetoric that shapes how the populace perceives.  They in fact make our "local" decisions  from a central point of control.  Localities differ in nature, character, resources and needs.  Centralized decision-making is generally no good for the  diversity of "locals"  ostensibly intended to benefit from the institutionalizing of government.  


I believe in the freshness and wisdom of that which is LOCAL  -not federal.  I favor governance which is limited, focused, and transparently managed.    

As a voter, I prefer to register INDEPENDENT.  I don't like the homogenized version of either of the two major parties offered.  But in terms of how I live my life, develop children and adults, I espouse a conservative way of living and guiding others in my care.  


... In fact, I know very few parents and educators who actually live their lives and raise children in ways that are (politically speaking) "liberal." My friends and family actually live life in the conservative arena.  They believe in the wise conservation of human and natural resources. They live life according to prosperity principles.  And they believe prosperity thinking and behaving  within everyone's personal power, in fact our birthright to be activated from within.  


What is the activation process? 
What circumstances call it forth from within? 
What squelches activation? 
What restarts a stunted trajectory?


The "liberal" thought (and "liberal" action) resembles the thinking and passivity of laissez-faire parenting.  And fifty years of psychological and educational research has never backed such non-engagement.  Laissez-faire parenting leads to advocating "sleep training." 


The label "Liberal" is not all it's cracked up to be... but it sounds good. Labels can cleverly cover up truth.  Labels can be employed deceptively. As citizens, we are called to be adult thinkers, no longer following, trusting children:  look beneath the surface, look into the issue, look around actions out of sync with the words.  


Finally, look within.  Meditate, cultivate mindfulness ... even politically.  Our personal lives can become changed overnight by a subtle series of political  misperceptions, mistakes, votes.  While we may not see/feel/sense our political lives as palpably as our personal lives, the are as real.  We simply may not be as conscious of our political life as we are of our personal life.  


Our personal life is often tucked comfortably within a more nebulous (less perceptible) political life.    They are in actuality one life.  We experience living more powerfully to the extent our "outer" lives ...like the rings around Saturn... are integrated, synthesized, whole.  Our life, in all its layers, and on each level, deserves to be lived consciously.  

More About Daneen Borelli

Just click this link to the Daneen's affiliation and work:


http://www.nationalcenter.org/bios/P21Speakers_Borelli.html

Blacklash, by Daneen Borelli

Our new author is a conservative African American woman, engaged as a Fellow at a political institute in Washington, D.C.  She reports that years passed by before she became politically aware, and finally, politically engaged.  This is her first best-seller: Blacklash (2011). 

The format below offers our readers a focus question, then our author's report -followed by analysis and synthesis ...drawing inferences from Blacklash and current events covered daily by media (ABC,CBS,CNN, FOX, NBC). 

Reading Question #1

What if our current federal government had an energy policy permitting industry to develop our wealth of natural resources?

Daneen reports this background on US adult opinion:

• 50% believe we should increase production of  domestic oil by allowing drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (where it is actually barren)
• 67% support offshore oil drilling
• 76% claim the government isn't doing enough to develop our own gas and oil resources

So what's wrong with Barack Obama's behaving, thinking? 

He's had (and still does) his campaign hands in the pockets of the Big Green Gods of Energy Experiments!

And what's wrong with that?

1. Experiments take time to sort the good from the bad (Remember Solyndra Solar Panels??? And sundry others in bed with Barack???) (Remember the research that said smoking cigarettes, eating margarine, and using trans fats did no harm?)
2. American families need reliable, inexpensive energy now...not wait fifty years from now.
3. Practicing authentic  Prosperity Consciousness means honoring what we have now...not ignoring it, dismissing it, sanctioning it, discarding it, preventing access!
4. Our United States deserves to be free of entanglement with terrorist nations determined to destroy "infidels." 
5. We DO NOT NEED THEIR OIL ...we have more than enough of our own...right here...right now!  (Why does Barack, like an addicted father in an unhealthy relationship, work so hard to maintain our UNNECESSARY DEPENDENCE on those who hate US?  
6. Any solid Family Systems therapist would ask What's in it for Barack? How's that working for US?

Author's Perspective: 

"The President needs to shake loose from the corporate and environmental activist special interest groups that have influenced his policy and reverse the course and adopt a pro-growth energy strategy.  

There is something wrong when the corporate and social elite (Barack Obama, et. al) can use their power of government to advance their narrow interests while harming the standard of living of hardworking Americans, denying us our right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

Appendix 1, Kindle 83%

Study Time begins in America ... invitation to form a study group

It's Sunday morning and gratefully being retired (and Being Rewired), I have made time to "study" the layers within national and world events now for 7 months.  

This is more time on task than I required to study 67 textbooks from three fields (education, psychology, and research methods). Back in 1974-76,  such preparation was deemed necessary before submitting to doctoral level "preliminary or qualifying" exams (intense all day written and oral cross-examination sessions over a three day period).  This is how the University determines if a coursework-completed graduate student demonstrates the necessary and  sufficient thinking skills, knowledge and know-how, as well as ethics to conduct and publish original research. 

So, I sent a document I assembled to the people I care about -including bits of politically relevant research ... very basic in fact ...terms and concepts for starters. All sources were provided so that each person can cross check at home.  Everyone was encouraged to open the attachment and "read at your convenience." This format prevented anyone from opening a document if s/he had no interest.

I will list the terms and websites below in this blogspot so you also can directly inform yourself at your convenience.

1. Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary...look up Capitalism, Communism, Marxism, Socialism
2. www.marxist.org:  What is dialectic materialism?
3. www.mltoday.org: How does Marxism-Leninism play out in today's issues?
4. www.allaboutphilosophy.org: Does sociological thinking mattershow up in political policies and rhetoric? Does politics matter for you and those you care for in the schools and marketplace politically?

  I encourage you to connect the dots for yourself.  Use your acquired lens to practice decoding "news" presentations according to each particular network's political orientation.  Notice how networks vary considerably in both the "news" they will  cover and the issues they omit.  Notice tendencies to predigest the issues for you vs report facts and let you seek/ listen further to position statements and debates about the meaning of those facts.

I implore you, as we have learned to avoid the dangers infused in additive-laden "manufactured" foods, please avoid listening to predigested and particularly-sculpted media presentations about big issue information on our plates in America.  Instead, activate your own inference skills (highest level reading skill) to inform yourself, talk among family and friends, and read between media's lines at the very basic political-principles conversation staring back at us from our table in America. 

For anyone tempted into lower level thoughts of racism, I refer you to Daneen Boreli's best-seller: Blacklash (2011).  She is a highly studied and articulate African American citizen, political analyst, and writer.  Her book is available on Amazon via kindle, hardback, and paperback.

Hmmm...

If you don't yet have such political interest, this format spares you exposure to these very basic elements of current political research.

If you'd like to have a public forum for further discourse, dialogue, commenting ... please particpate in this  blog and consider Being Rewired.   

Delacorte Spirit Campus: "Trackpack†" will soon replace the backpack !

Delacorte Spirit Campus: "Trackpack†" will soon replace the backpack !

The Iron Lady (2011) ... Margaret Thatcher played by Meryl Streep

Margaret Thatcher was humble-home raised by hardworking parents ... and Oxford educated because Margaret worked diligently ...and lived according to principles of personal responsibility.  She became the first woman elected to Parliament ...and the only woman for a very long time.

With deep courage, Margaret led her colleagues to bypass succumbing to fear of being "unpopular."  Constituency were clamoring for more, and more, then even more  government hand-outs.   Margaret's forecast was certain: succumbing to fear of political censor would  bankrupt Great Britain.   Burgeoning labor union activists riled up and inflamed  unionized workers  to out-of-hand protests, hate, victim -thinking ... mob acts of bullying.

In spite of the smears, malignant, violence, work shut-downs that made the country literally stink, Margaret steadfastly refused to succumb to misguided entitlement thinking  and community organized gang tactics.  Well-known today, the result of standing firm on principle "put the great back in Great Britain" because representatives followed her caution to think and act according to this principle: human beings have inherent powers causing them (when not patronized, underestimated) to develop  personal industry, personal and social responsibility, and self-respect through activating their own powers in the world, making contributions of social merit.

Margaret encouraged parliament to behave on principle, not fear: "Shake the shackles of socialism!"

When desire to preserve the good life is threatened by fear and denial, too many of us are  seduced into thinking what we see, hear, practice currently through our presidential  policies, are not the toddler steps toward Socialism.

It's comforting instead to think  "positive" thoughts, hoping our freedom life needs no preservation, conservation, affirmation, nor persistent attention.  Mindful attention and visioning are necessary but are they sufficient in this material world where some play "nice" and other play bully?   


I prefer to follow Quaker advice: Pray, but move your feet! When budgets are avoided, bills are passed into law without being read, elected officials are admonished into voting BEFORE reading, social security served as a slush fund, and our tax dollars are blown because big brother lobbies promise votes and campaign money then we all need to study the underlying issues.   It's comic relief though to simply recall the song so many grew up on ("It's not easy being green...").

And we've been culturally trained by media to think kindly of green...mother nature's green, you know.  Spring and summer are green.  Things that grow and clean the air we breathe are green.  We have really deep and vital associations with the color green.  Don't we?

Marketing knows that. Advertising knows that. Community organizers know that. Hmmmm, we thought green could only be good ... never considered those wily ways...how could the deep meaning of green change?

" It's not easy being green...easier, sweeter to disregard the direction in which this leads us.  This quandary brings to mind Laugh-In's Arte Johnson's soldier, characterized as peering out from brush. As he cautiously takes in the panorama, we hear him whisper,  "Interesting! ...   Very interesting! ... Interesting ... but STUPID!"

We prefer to be polite, well-mannered, "trusting."   So we think instead that America will always be America ...just different.  Yes,  we can change.  Life changes, even when we don't want it to.  All changes are not good.  All differences are not the same .  We live on a planet where everything is relative and all choices matter.

It's tempting to blur our acquired view of the Emperor -not look beneath his very fancy rhetoric, not connect the his vague dots, not notice his nakedness.  (Cognitive dissonance is an exacting psychological master.)

It's impolite to pull back the curtain of OZ and see behind what is pocketed, hidden, covered up.  Civilized, cultured adults tend to avert their gaze from ugly, even unpleasant revelations . And it takes time. And we've learned to be rushed...and gratified...and we feel better about ourselves, about our lives when we behave in polite ways...even when "others" won't!

But just from time time to time pay a little attention to elsewhere:
...look to Greece,Portugal, Italy, Ireland noticing how socialism plays out far away

...look to Syria, Egypt, Yemen (yeah, might as well scan the entire Middle East) to see how well polite people's sanctions work to reduce big boy "bullying." (Professionals know that the only thing to reverse bullying in schools is  All Hands On Deck.  (All adults, including the kids' parents, strictly confronting and staving even "hints" of bullying.)

...look to history, for instance the revolutions of France and Russia: the recipe for violent destruction is to increase class consciousness while simultaneously frittering away resources (very passive aggressive), fuel strong divisions and distrust based on money and affiliations, fan flames of anger into sizzling hatreds,  encourage outrageous mob behavior (bullying), finally use "fear-speak" to threaten and forecast victimization.

I look and listen and vote for the conservation of the America (imperfect but growing more conscious each decade).  What principles  grow a greater and better garden of diversity and human best?

Moving on? ... Or Moving Out of a free fish mentality. Anyone, with enough time on task, can become a master fisher!

So I recieved an email from a friend today.  She expressed appreciation for my recent writing forwarded to her.  I had addressed the importance of moving out of the constrictive field of remaining forever young in the world of "politically correctness,"  which has become a good and compassionate personage club.  Making sure we are being pc is living in fear of not belonging.  In family systems, this is analogous to fear of abandonment.  


Unhealthy families push shame and guilt on members...shunning, namecalling, distaining.  Sounds like the same strategies of social coersion to toe the party line used by public rulemakers governing from the land of  "Politically Correct."  Yes, we can change the words we attach to some entity or dynamic, but renaming doesn't change the essence.  Politically correct is a coersion dynamic used to keep "nice" "generous" "compassionate" people quiet.  Shhhhhhh, your success might hurt his feelings...unless you give him half of it...maybe more.  A concept has energy and vibration...and we all feel the truth when we stop worrying long enough.

I've been tentative for months now - really to make certain I'd been investigating and cross-checking the political panorama sufficiently to trust my perceptions, and facts.  One day, I got it: I'd studied sufficiently enough that I knew what I was talking about.  The connections were undeniable. That moment dawned clearly, as did the moment I knew I'd mastered concepts and interconnections from studying the 67 texts required for my written and oral doctoral preliminary examination. (1975) (I received commendation for far more than acing those great bodies of information and know-how.) 

To keep my mouth shut after this most recent (2012) "Ah-Ha" has become impossible...it would be irresponsible.  

From my trainiing and experience in both education and psychology, I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that ignoring bullies and their escalation of risky behavior actually expands bad behavior in quality and quantity.  Like a wildfire uncontained, it escalates further, consuming everything in its path.  EGO fully shows up in politicians and institutions no differently than in individuals. Institutionalized EGO ...abstracted, leveraged, active with survival agenda, may be the most dangerous of all egos in operation on this planet.... it never stops wanting more... until it is no more.

And this is just what has happened historically: The progressive movement of the twenties (appropriate geared to educating the masses and protecting children from working to support their families morphed.  It kept the label, but morphed by nature into "liberal thought," which in turn curried influence from socialist thinkers.  More recently a really radical left crawled inside the political institution and they thrive on discord, divisveness, class warfare, and revolution.  They fan flames of divisiveness (and entitlement thinking) as they move through neighborhoods of unrest.  Experienced community organizers, they know what works to get people feeling their pain bodies!

Through more frequent, more vocifereous, and  strategic use of practiced phrases and postures they camouflage "personal reflections" to pass as compassion.  They move their agenda through popular consciousness like cereal advertizers do on children traveling through supermarket aisles.  Clever and wiley, such "leaders" repeatedly reference the race card, the if-you-earn-lots of money-you MUST HAVE played by some "other" rules  card, the women-are-abused card, etc. etc.  They profit by the populace staying still in past pain.  The Hunger Games (2012) is a brilliant  film, rendering a possible future spawn of such tactics, such cunning, such calulating.

Personally, I matured into my current place of breaking this shame & guilt regulated socially acceptable be-good silence. From a quiet place of prayerful consideration, I compared political policies/statements with prosperity practice principles. I realized that I am doing my nation and the ones I love a deep disservice by being politely silent when I hear statements I know don't fit their personal beliefs ... and how they have worked to earn  their livings and raise their children to think independently and be respnsible caring adults willing to work diligently and creatively.  

One day, at a family event, I stopped behaving in politically correct ways,  publicly.  After an eight month study of our political scene, I was wlling to say what I learned from connecting the dots: Obama practices thinking and behaving and commentary that is way out of line with prosperity principles.  Practicing ways to divide our nation is not only not Unity thinking, but it counters the intent and framework of our nation's constitution. We are based on diversity...each state is different geographically and governs differently...locally.

Once I allowed myself to think these thoughts, I realized that what Obama is doing is not only not helpful, nor practicing prosperity consciousness ... he downright passes the buck, distorts, incites division, and behaves legislatively as a full-blooded socialist does.  He was not vetted properly the way we have done for past presidents I have witnessed ... the media "protected" him -which is what happens with the good child in sick family systems.  (So who is controlling which media networks???) And what is their ultimate economic agenda for America? for themselves? )  Any candidate for a job (especially Presendent) does not need the path made easy, does not need affirmative action strategies operating on theri behalf to ensure they win.  If a leader is authentically well-suited to the job at hand, s/he  deserves opportunity to lead through true merit.  S/he does not need media protection...s/he needs vetting to strengthen even further his/her integrity (as life does).

During my career, I was so consumed in "helping" people empower themselves to be successful in their lives that I had no time (nor energy) to follow national/world issues.  Also, I trusted that my labor union was giving an impartial review of political parties and candidates and laws proposed.  I know differently now that unions are tribal.  They in fact feed Obamas' campaign as do the ever popularized green energy profiteers busy structuring dynamics as does Monsanto genetically alter seeds ...so that now we have to continue to purchase their packs of seeds each season.  Seeds from ouf fruit and vegetables no longer grow themselves when planted.  I also know that when almost 50% of our population is not paying taxes of any kind, they are not vested in what goes on behind the very observable scenes. Thus,  we have an empowerment & personal responsibility problem that has burgeoned from ingratiating political policies that promise to give people free fish, instead of teaching them to fish. 

So,  I consider it my responsibility (retired with time to study) to follow the issues carefully and our national security warnings: See something ---Say something :) No more need for citizens to pull the race card, nor the women's rights card.  Pulling cards feeds a mentality of victimization...and that is encouraged only in sick families.  

And a great book study is Spiritual Economics by Eric Butterworth.  He makes a strong and steadfast case for erasing the outworn victimization mentality with prosperity thinking locally, nationally,  globally.  


Another great book is Blacklash, by Deneen Borelli. Deneen is an African American who espouses conservative thinking, which is actually prosperity thinking.  Deneen says more and more conservative Blacks are beginning to speak out and will no longer be silent  for fear of being name called and ostracized by those who have a power or greed agenda. Reading Deneen shone light on the bigger picture and underlying dynamics of continual big money made by outdated civil rights leaders through inciting old thinking to keep an entire people enslaved in victimization thinking.

Something is deeply off track, contricting, and unhealthy when we experience social fear of disagreeing with public policies...this has shown up for so many people I know  in relationships, social circles, and national forums.  No one wants to be thought of as a racist, a woman hater, a person who lacks compassion for our brothers and sisters on the planet.  But we must know ur selves from the inside out...and not fold at agenda-based name-calling.

Public policies that waste hard-earned tax dollars,  drain resources, ignore resources available now, constrict creative enterprise, reward entropy, enculturate an ongoing sense of entitlement, damage initiative,  and require homogenization ... well these lead down a "beaten" path.  We choose instead to rise up and put to full use our Twelve Powers (Unity Village, MO) ...and personally I tingle inside when I tithe to sources of empowerment thinking!!!