The words to this song, always bring me back to the central philosophy of Personal Responsibility.
I was fortunate to take the est (Earhart Seminar Training) in the late 70's. Werner H. Erhard freely admitted that his training was re-packaged ancient wisdom (Taoist and some Zen Buddhist through his exposure to Alan Watts) combined with some contemporary thought, (Books such as Think and Grow Rich Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill and Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz, and Scientology courses and the writings of its founder L. Ron Hubbard). No-one has a patent on the Truth.
The primary purpose of the course was to "Transform your Experience of Life". Through a self confrontation process, we were shown how taking responsibility for everything that happens in our life is really the key to satisfaction in life. By taking responsibility, we forego taking the "victim" role and acknowledge ourselves as the creator of our experience and the author of our story.
In practice, this is sometimes a difficult position to take, especially when circumstances do not turn out according to our plan. None-the-less, it is the only enlightened response to life.
An even earlier influence for me was a book by Alan Watts entitled The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are.
I just watched an inspiring talk by Alex Collier, in which he suggested that we all focus on how we can design a society that is holographic rather than hierarchical. Nature has lots of examples of holographic organization, the most obvious is the cell. Within the cell is the DNA for the entire
organism. This kind of design is very robust. A multicellular organism can survive the death of many of its individual cells and continue to function.
Man, since the beginning of recorded history, has attempted to organize society hierarchically. There was first the Chief of the Tribe, then their were the Pharaohs, Kings, Tzars, and Emperors. All hierarchies.
Even the geniuses of the American Revolution, could only attempt to limit the power of government, through three supposedly equal branches at the Federal level that were supposed to create checks and balances on each other as well as the States which were supposed to be sovereigns that were each left to have those powers that which was not specifically granted by the Constitution to the Federal government, or was reserved by the Bill of Rights to the People. It worked reasonably well for about 100 years. World War II was the excuse for the growth of the Federal Monster and things have gone down hill for freedom ever since.
Power corrupts, and as the Defense-Industrial Complex grew, it took on a life of its own. Money bought the politicians and the government as grown like a cancer taking over our lives and our freedom. The United States which saved the world from Fascisim during WWII has now become the world's biggest bully, engaging in Wars, Police Actions, Covert Operations, and every and any intervention into other people's business as the Power Elite desires.
The System has failed! We need to figure out a way to organize society that will not devolve into the "few" controlling and exploiting the "many". Hierarchies do not work!
So the problem is, how to create a holographic society? This is the greatest challenge of our time. Maybe, the greatest challenge of ALL time, since our failure to solve this problem could become an existential problem for the human race.
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