Stepping Back to Look at What's Real

I’m noticing some of our leaders in Congress don’t think there’s enough money to go around.  

 

It reminds me of how Larry Norman used to sing, “You can’t see nothin’ when you close your eyes.” 

 

Of course we will never find what we’re looking for if we’re looking where it isn’t.

 

Consider this:

 

The top 1% have enough money to wipe out the entire national debt and STILL BE IN THE TOP 1%!   Most 1%ers have more money than they can spend in a lifetime.  It’s just sitting there, unused.  (or reproducing itself, unused).  IN FACT, THE TOP 1% CONTROL MORE MONEY THAN THE OTHER 99% COMBINED.

 

Now, when you add the wealth of the top 2%ers, 3%ers, 4%ers and 5%ers, we’re really rolling in dough!

 

I have nothing against making money or having lots of it.  I have spent a big chunk of my professional career helping people get more of it.

 

What does give me a raised eyebrow are those around us who worry there’s not enough money to meet everyone’s needs, when in reality, it’s quite plentiful.  Some of us are like fish that don’t know we’re surrounded by water.  The issue is not that there’s not enough money.  It’s that those who have much less cannot foot the bill for those who have much more. 

 

We don’t have a money problem.  We have a moral problem.  It takes caring, awareness, and gratitude to reach an emotional maturity level that can comprehend the point of view, “I’m blessed to be a blessing.”

 

Yes, it may be true that many who are wealthy worked hard for it.  And yes, much wealth has also been handed down and gifted from previous generations.

 

But it doesn’t make sense in my mind that if I live in a country that allowed me to have more dollars than I could ever spend, I should let others suffer while I enjoy my blessings.

 

Research shows that in general, the more we have, the less generous we are in sharing it. I think many on Capitol Hill have forgotten why they are there.  And it’s not to give more privilege to the privileged.  It’s to make sure the privileged help the less fortunate.

 

Of course, if we were all willing to look at the truth, we’d have to give up a lot of the drama that helps us feel alive, and instead the peace of shared abundance would rule.

Although many of our leaders endorse skipping out on paying our bills, the time to decide what to spend on what is during the formation of the budget, not when some want to hurt people they made promises to.

 

Tricking ourselves is unflattering.  Tricking others is cruel.  Let’s acknowledge the abundance and move on.

 

As always, I’m open to feedback and discussion. 

How to Understand Those Who Seem Impossible to Understand

Psychology is "the study of the human mind, and how it influences behavior."

This is how I discovered judgement is folly.

When studying the background of Osama Bin Laden (who grew up in extraordinary violence and saw this as his only choice to be a major influencer to please his god), his future behavior was quite predictable, and a reflection of what any of us may have chosen under the same unbearable conditions.

Once one understands Adolf Hitler's upbringing (ex: Hitler ran away from home at age 5 to escape the abuse he later repeated inflicting on others), it becomes clear he could not become anything else than he was, as would any of us being subjected to the same challenges.

For those who have studied Donald Trump's history, it is clear that his choices in behavior could not be anything else from what we see, again, as would be the case for any of us raised under those conditions. (Ex: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rp_Ew98D4OM )

Those of us who act strangely, as well as those who cannot even recognize abusive or disrespectful behavior, are all products of our environment.

If you grew up being taught compassion, empathy, integrity and honesty, it is likely reflected in your behavior now. Those who were not as fortunate as you require we use that compassion, empathy, integrity and honesty to understand, not reject or attack, someone who could not be anyone else.

It is sometimes these radical differences in how our environment shapes us that make it difficult to understand someone who thinks or acts so differently from us.

Most decisions are not made rationally, but emotionally. Many of us try to understand someone through logic, but we get a lot further ahead in understanding someone when we focus on the emotional basis for their thinking. Most of us miss understanding others because of this.  

Understanding other people requires emotional intelligence more than intellectual intelligence. If we do not understand someone's emotions, we will not likely understand their thinking or their behavior.

So instead of becoming enraged by people who act out with manipulative or unlawful/abusive behavior, find ways to understand what motivates them to do so.

And keep in mind, that those people who judge you suffer from the same dilemma that challenges you - they have not taken the time to understand you emotionally. Many of us do not have patience to do this work, which is why humans often miss each other like ships in the night.

What this means is that everybody deserves our grace. (Even you deserve your own grace.) When we have doused our lives, and the lives of others, with enough grace, we will stop judging/attacking, and finally experience the inner peace we are seeking.

Understanding Gun Violence

It’s difficult to follow the logic of many in the United States who make decisions based on repressed fears and misinformation fed to them over many years.  Prejudice does not seek out facts, because staying the dark feels safe, especially when being informed threatens one’s self esteem.  None-the-less, this seems odd to many of us who find more relief in facts than in the delusion of fantasy.

Gun enthusiasts often maintain that guns are not a serious factor in shooting deaths.  I have even heard some say they believe more guns will protect us.  Statistics do not bear out this fantasy.  Documented evidence shows 98.3% of the time guns are used offensively, not defensively (FBI).  That means the hope of being saved by a good person with a gun is an historically unlikely event.  Only 1.7% of the time are guns actually fired as defense against an attack. We are 50 times more likely to be hurt by a gun than saved by one.  

 

Unless you are a gun owner.  Because a gun owner is 3 times more likely to die from a gun, those in possession are 150 times more likely to be hurt by a gun than saved by it.  Note: for every 111 Americans killed daily in the US, only 1 is attributed to law enforcement gun use (bradyunited.org).  While over 40,000 people are killed each year by gun violence in the US, only about 300 of them are killed in defense for safety (FBI).

 

I have found that non-thinkers will also often ignore more than 50 years of research showing whenever gun safety protocols are enacted, shooting deaths go down.  Note records of Canada (by 50%), Australia (by 95%), or Japan, the country with the fewest gun deaths per capita.  

Japan, which has strict laws for obtaining firearms, seldom has more than 10 shooting deaths a year in a population of 127 million people.  In other words, The United States has as many gun deaths per capita every 2 hours that Japan has in a year.  In fact, more children are killed by firearms in the US every day than in all of Japan in 6 months.

If Japanese civilians want to own a gun, they must attend an all-day class, pass a written test, and achieve at least 95% accuracy during a shooting-range test.  They have to pass a mental-health evaluation, as well as a background check.

By contrast, 40% of guns are sold in the US without a background check, easily obtainable by the mentally ill, and there is no training required.

Norway has 1/10 the gun deaths per capita as the US.  Australia and the United Kingdom reduced gun deaths through buy-back programs.  Canada cut theirs in half simply by requiring registration.  Other countries, such as Norway and Thailand, attribute fewer gun deaths to a cultural attitude of respect for each other as citizens.

Although most shooting deaths in the US are from handguns, automatic rifles are the weapon of choice for most mass killings.  Since 85% of killings in mass shootings are executed with assault rifles, it is no wonder that mass shooting deaths went down when such weapons were banned from 1994 to 2004. (Gifford Law Center).

There are lots of real-world successes in managing gun-deaths.  The United States has historically enjoyed respect from many nations for a number of reasons, but seems quite satisfied to be leader of the world in allowing the shooting of its own citizens, adults and children, without employing proven methods to stop it.