The Republican Party, the Democratic Party, Conservative Philosophy, Liberal Philosophy, Libertarian Philosophy, the Tea Party, Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter, Progressives, and many more, are each groups of liked minded people with common causes. Each group has its own points of view and, in most cases, eloquently and forcefully present their issues and dilemmas.
Most of these views are right and proper. They are created out of altruistic and well-meaning attempts to identify and fix the inequities and challenges that threaten the tranquility, fairness and even the existence of our culture and American democracy.
We can look at each of these groups and philosophies as vessels. These vessels are made up of well thought out descriptions and arguments of particular causes. Some look similar, some seem to be opposites, some look forward, some look back, some talk of greed and heartlessness, some talk of economic justice, some call for love and compassion, some call for understanding. What do they all have in common? They all seem to call for actions, but they really are EMPTY VESSELS.
This is not meant to be a criticism, but an observation. They are made up of strong, attractive outer shells but inside they have no real solutions. No viable solutions that good, intelligent members of different perspectives can agree on. For every good idea it seems there is an equal and opposite bad outcome that nullifies it. For example Government do more, and we financially destroy ourselves with uncontrollable debt. Government do less, and we have millions of our brothers and sisters in pain and slipping into lives of desperation, crime or despair. Let the private sector take care of it, and we get frustration, ineffectiveness, blame, and heartbreak. And none seem to solve any of the problems that they address. The arguments go on, the pain and inequities continue and we find ourselves mired in the abyss of frustration and failure. In the end they only serve to create awareness. A noble effort but not the outcome that is desired. Without any viable answers, the questions become moot.
When you have empty vessels one of two things can happen. Either they languish and are eventually put on the shelf and forgotten with so many other lost causes, or they get infiltrated with some foreign, corrupt and distorted ideology that may look similar but is a perversion of the intent of the vessel. They look the same on the outside but inside they are usually made up of veiled hate (and sometimes not so veiled hate). They preach violence and insurrection under the names of what were originally good intentions. These credos are constantly lurking below the surface of societies, looking to take advantage of weaknesses and opportunities to rise and overtake. All of a sudden our beautiful vessels that were created by our better angels and sincere feelings to make us better people, are commandeered by virulent perversions. These can be White Supremacists disguised as Conservatives, Antifa disguised as Liberals, Socialists disguised as Progressives. All that is left is the hate.
Is all this happening because, as of now, there are no real solutions for how a democratic, capitalistic society can create a system that remediates the inequities that are naturally created? What can we do to stop these corruptions of our courageous struggles to find fixes? Are we fated to be forever immersed in circular logic? Are we doomed to growing polarization and financial ruin until our society and dreams of a more perfect union are crushed under the failures of our own good intentions?
We must have a new conversation. We must make sure our vessels are not only strong and attractive on the outside, but filled with constructive, practical, logical and transformative solutions.
This is at the heart of a new book published by THE Institute for CARING called CARING for DEMOCRACY: The American Fix. In it you will find unique and powerful explanations and solutions. We ask you to read and consider these concepts and if you agree, help to make the implementation of this new experiment a reality.
