Prerequisites for Greatness

My asterisk key is taking a beating from quoting Trump without typing the full words he uses.  “Shi*hole,” “P*ssy,” etc.  So there are now nations that Trump perceives are latrine-like.  Before I yell “how dare he!” (I know.  It should read “how dare him” but that just does not sound correct.)  I take a deep breath and realize there are likely Americans who agree with him.  Yes, Americans.  Land of the free, home of the brave, the pillar of democracy and the home of civil rights and diversity Americans who would rather see America as a white man’s land with not a care in the world for the world.  And with that realization it occurs to me that until we are able to walk away from some of our beliefs we will never achieve greatness.  In fact, I believe we will not survive.  So what are those beliefs that not only keep us frozen in time but make it impossible to move forward to better times?  Here is my list:

Globalization as a concept has been a failure for virtually everyone except multinational corporations.  Corporations get it that healthy economies everywhere promote their own growth and prosperity.  Individual humans tend not to get that so much.  We still act as though we can see international boundaries if we look out the window of our airliners.  We cannot.  Such boundaries are man-made so they can be man-changed, or perhaps we should say people-changed.  Nationalization must stop.  If people are suffering in Bangladesh or Haiti or Puerto Rico or Burundi or Syria or Afghanistan we will feel the effects here just as we feel the effects here after hurricanes and typhoons, mudslides and fires, tsunamis and tornadoes somewhere on the planet.  We must help those who are hurt and injured and need food and shelter.  It is one planet and we are all stuck on it.  We must think globally because all that happens impacts the entire globe.  It is not a choice.  It is reality.  A nation that says, “My nation comes first.” will be the nation left out in the cold when the storms hit and the people of that nation realize none of us can survive for long without all of us.  It also means that there is no way to be born on this planet and be considered an alien.

Weaponization and militarization is prima facie the antithesis of world peace.  No wars are fought without weapons.  Now that we already have enough atomic, nuclear, and hydrogen bombs to blow up the planet many times over it seems foolish to allow more to develop.  We actually have people who are certifiable with their fingers on the buttons that can kill millions and destroy the planet. We have got to find another approach to the brinkmanship and the deterrent philosophy.  Weapons do not solve problems, they exacerbate them.  We always assumed that if the mature nations of the world controlled the nukes everything would likely be OK.  Those days are now gone.  Even nations that were formally mature have devolved to name calling and bullying.  It is not a safe planet anymore.

Religious beliefs are killing us.  Anyone who believes their god is THE god, and if their god whispers in their ear telling them what is good and what is bad, and who is good and who is bad, then those believers feel authorized to hurt other people, even kill other people in the name of their deity.  That is obscene.  Even worse, some of the theists promote practices that are harming the planet immensely.  Unless we can get population growth under control we will all starve or die of thirst.  Any religion that opposes contraception control must cease and desist immediately.  Any religion that opposes the rights of human beings based on skin color, nation of birth, gender, sexual identity, and sexual preference is harming human beings and must cease and desist immediately.  Any religious belief that is willing to mandate that 50% of the humans on the planet must be subservient to the other 50% must cease and desist immediately.  We are losing too many contributions from women for our own survival and they must have the right to govern, be free to learn and drive and dress as they please, and to govern their own bodies regardless of what some insecure male religious leaders teach.  We are not likely to ever simply eliminate religious beliefs because some folks will always feel the need for mystical and mythical explanations of things.  However, those beliefs have had a hand in more deaths and more discrimination and more persecution than almost anything else I can name.  There are millions of people who worship hundreds or thousands of deities and all of them believe they are right and they are the chosen ones.  Until we can realize it is not in our worship of the unseen that makes us great, it is the help and support of those in need that makes us great.

Fossil fuel dependence must also end.  We are destroying our planet and we are not only not prepared to evacuate we have nowhere else to go.  We can no longer allow those who have made fortunes from the discovery, refining and marketing of fossil fuels to continue to do so.  We must implement clean, renewable energy immediately.  We must protect the cleanliness of our water and our oceans and the very air we breathe.  We must stop driving cars and motorbikes and ships and planes that burn fossil fuels.  It is only if we do this across the globe can we save the planet.

So there it is:  nationalism, weaponization, religious beliefs and fossil fuel dependence are the prerequisite beliefs that must be abandoned in order for us to survive.  I have hope that we can move in these directions. 

At least I did have hope until a year ago when we inaugurated a President who believes we should go backward and support the very belief systems that will doom us.  America First will doom the planet.  It is impossible to become great again when we have never been great.  We have never been great because we supported fossil fuel dependence, bigotry, nationalism and conservative religious beliefs.  We must let go to move on to greatness.  The hoarding of wealth is not a sign of greatness.  Living as a member of humanity is.