DON'T LIKE THE WORLD? THEN CHANGE IT!

"Liberty leading the People."

It has always amazed me just how easily humans accept the status quo no matter how unpleasant, dangerous or unfair it is. Currently, the control of 300 million frightened Americans by Bushco is just one example.

Obviously we humans are easily conditioned, first by our parents, then our wider family, community, state, then country. From the beginning, we are told that this is good, that is bad, this is how males and females should behave, this is how worthwhile students, employees, sportspeople, citizens, etc, must act. To reinforce this we are taught about laws which govern our behaviour, the punishment that will follow should we deviate. All along, questioning of anything is strongly discouraged.

In many homes and schools, religion is introduced as both a threat and an inducement and we are told about what happens to sinners and the rewards that await us if we're good (rewards that come from some Big Guy or Gal in the Sky that no one has ever seen or met). We are taught that our religion is the right one, that our God is the only one.

So, ever more dutiful, we vote, pay taxes, go to church, are deferential to our betters in the main, accept that there are very rich people who live like Kings, that democracy is best, that a two party system is essential, that we have to spend much of our early life being 'educated' then, for the balance, we have to work hard (to help make someone else a millionaire), get a mortgage, try to become rich, have kids. Some of us become bored public servants or we join the Armed Forces and spend our life killing other people, etc. Then, at sixty-five or seventy (if we live that long), our duty done we retire and wait around to die while wondering what life was really all about.

The funny thing is that is doesn't have to be this way at all. We can have any world we want. We can have any society we want. We can change all the rules of the game tomorrow. How is that possible, you ask?

Well, our rulers are in the minority and we, the people, are in the majority. Bigtime! There are at least six billion of us and perhaps a couple of million of them. The overwhelming numbers are with us! So what's stopping us?

Those who are profiting politically or economically from the current world order will oppose any change. Strongly. They are not going to sit idly by and watch their empires, the ones that lay the golden eggs for them, being dismantled, their assets sold off, their power diluted. Imagine how Murdoch might feel if suddenly he was no richer than a shoe polisher? Imagine how George would feel if he was stripped of his political power and had to pick peas in California to make ends meet (assuming of course he would be capable of doing that)? Putin, Pervez, and all the other Presidents and Prime Ministers, Despots and Kings who oppress and manipulate and torture anyone who opposes them, they could all be banished, ridden out of town on a rail in a matter of months if we, the people, so decided.

And what about the Multi-Nationals who are busily poisoning and polluting our world and creating global warming as they urge us to buy, buy, buy? We could get rid of them, change things back to a more rural lifestyle, one where we again enjoy the simple things of life and the natural world. Imagine being freed from the gimmicks of technology and the endless pressures of advertising, of social climbing, of materialism, etc.

And what about nationalism, the drive by some countries to control others (in the case of America, even the world) using military force? We could all decide to be world citizens. We could decide that everyone in the world must share equally in the world's wealth. We could declare greed a vice, imperialism a crime.

And what about religious division, the conflict that has raged for centuries between Muslims and Christians and Jews and Hindus, etc? Surely religion, for those who deem it important, must be relegated to a position where it can result in no more than a war of gentle words rather than an ongoing exercise in hatred and killing as is too often the case.

And what about war? We, the majority, could stop it tomorrow. We could, after taking back control of our world, destroy all weapons. We could close down all the armament industries and turn them into medical research centres and put all those who profit from war in gulags where they belong. We, the world's people, could declare peace tomorrow and it would be so.

Yes, our world could be a wonderful place and life a beautiful, peaceful experience with everyone caring for each other and sharing, with things like honesty and generosity and humility and selflessness being valued once again.

There's little stopping us! What the hell are we waiting for?