a good conspiracy theory and the best ones are from Robert Ludlum. If you look at the economy throughout the past couple of decades, you'll see a pattern. Say that 20 years ago you got together a group of plutocrats with the goal of making the country a better place for big business. And let's say you started by creating a set of ideal outcomes. Then the scenarios would include
1. Find a way to put working-class people in their place, which is to shut up and be grateful to even have a job.
2. Open new markets for American goods, especially ones where they do not compete with goods from local companies.
3. Find ways to operate outside of government regulation and lawsuits.
4. Increase consumer spending without increasing wages.
5. Increase government spending without sparking inflation (which eats into the value of accumulated wealth).
Those five events would create enormous wealth without social uprising or government interference.
First, you create a global labor market. Doing so, you open new markets, such as China and India. Thus, you have more people to sell to, and, if done properly, lots of low-cost laborers, reducing your labor costs while getting rid of lots of pesky employees and the expensive annoyances they have become accustomed to, like benefits.
Indeed, you accomplish the quadruple-dip of wealth creation — suppress domestic wages, thwart inflation, and add new customers, all while side-stepping labor and environmental laws.
The only drawback to this scenario is that by suppressing wages, people have less money to spend on your products and services. However, if you could achieve easy credit, you could maintain or increase spending levels. Further, if you have a nice, costly war, you pump vast amounts of governmental money into the economy.
Take all this together, and you have two or three decades of what used to be called "unconscionable profits." You don't hear that phrase anymore because we as a society have agreed that there is no such thing — it is now a part of our culture that the more you can grab the better.
Would such a series of coordinated events require a conspiracy? No. Let's face it, the natural state of affairs in a free-market system is inequality, not equality. In order to have an income distribution that is becoming more equal would require compassionate effort. To have diverging income classes requires doing nothing. And nothing is what we, as a society, have done. We have conspired to not give a damn. So that is my conspiracy theory.
That raises the question of how working people can deal with the reality of a global labor market. Individuals must figure out what businesses have always understood: The real money goes to those who can get around the pressures of competition, to monopoly power. You get rich by having exclusive rights or information, like say owing the rights to the dominant software used by computers. For individuals, this monopoly power is individuality — there is only one George Clooney or one Tiger Woods. For most people, however, exclusivity is not an option; the best they can do is have a specialty. But say you are a trained specialist, like a radiologist, engineer or architect. You still might find yourself competing globally — for instance, architectural plans for US buildings are being drawn in China.
Thinking globally, you must take into account the geography of competition. If your work can be done via the Internet, then you are up against the world.
However, if it requires face-to-face meetings, then you have limited competition, perhaps even a bit of monopoly of geography. In other words, a career comes down to two principles: specialize and localize.
Global economic conspiracy theory says that controlers determine of economic fate. Is there a global economic conspiracy? if such a conspiracy exits what can we do about it.
There are many people and institutions that would like to control our lives. There is a lot of frustration and grief these controllers can bring. We do not have to suffer this. There are many ways to avoid those who take without giving. You can see below how history provides a guide.Our society may seem headed for ruin, but what we call chaos is really the universal way. Evolution works with three forces, the pressure of change (we call birth), the momentum of continuation(stability) and marvel of transformation (death). These forces are always in play and in balance. When things appear imbalanced, the imbalance is our misunderstanding, not an error in the universal way. Our duty is to adjust to reality, not the other way round. There are many ways we can successfully do this in the modern world. A seminar I conducted years ago in London featured Gordon Brown, member of Parliament who had been responsible for looking after Mikhail Gorbachev when he had just become Premier of the Soviet Union and was visiting England for the first time. Brown spoke in horror at how smart Gorbachev was. Our spirits sank. Our incorrect thinking? “The Soviets are bad. Anything good there is bad”. Had we been in touch with reality we would have correctly thought, “If the Soviet Union is bad, a really smart man will change the system.” Gorbachev did!
A first line of controller defense is knowing that all is in order. We cannot see or understand everything. Light does begin at the darkest hour. Every bad thing does push the pendulum closer to change. Patience is a virtue. The worst energy of negative energies is its own momentum.
One option is to ignore controllers. Get on with life! Chances are we will scrape by without pain. Most controllers eventually screw up and stew in their own juices. Enjoy the good in things as they are.
Or we can run (move somewhere where social principles are more in tune with our desires). This is not always easy. Family and friends usually cannot come along. Travel grows more wearisome and troubled every day. Yet this is one powerful and good option for some.
We can also fight. Fighting runs a gamut from becoming a terrorist (I will use Patricia Hearst, Timothy McVeigh, the holdouts in Waco and Ruby Ridge as examples of why not to choose this path) to being an activist.
Legitimate forms of activism run from general political activity (”Throw the bums out”) to dedication at balancing one aspect of a perceived wrong. Two of my children have taken this approach. One dedicated his life to preserving wildlife, the other to enhance human rights. They live simple Spartan lives, not too concerned with financial reward or material comforts. Their fulfillment comes from knowing that their lives stand for and are being used to express a positive action. If you are not too worried about wealth, health, status or comfort (these are the tools most controllers use against us) it is easy to become pretty immune to external manipulation. The popular portrayal of Mahatma Gandhior Martin Luther King are examples of this approach. Making a dent in even one negative aspect of life can be enormously satisfying and brings fulfillment. Having a battle to wage peacefully is satisfying, directing and provides a sense of cause. This is a powerful and positive way to fulfill one’s life.
Yet even this mildest approach of resistance has risks. Some controls will do just about anything to grab and mainatin control. Even open, honest confrontation with controllers can have danger.
This risk can be mitigated by being balanced and truly understanding power and change. We can enjoy our delights without being dictated by them. We can gain joy and hope from every event. We can see light at the end of every tunnel and look for and use the positive element in every action, no matter how terrible it seems. We can work to change no one or nothing but ourselves and be leading lights in whatever actions we do.
In short we can gain if we don’t push. We can let the momentum of the controllers do all the work and just pull a bit instead. I call this “Universal Karate”.
Years ago while living in the Andes with a group of shamans all the banks closed in Ecuador wiping out most everyone’s savings. On the evening of the bank shutdown a shaman staying with Merri and me discovered that he had lost every penny he possessed in the closure. He asked for us to gather round and gave a prayer of thanks for the change that this misfortune would bring. This is Universal Karate. He did not mourn for a moment over the loss, but looked immediately for the benefits this event would bring.
Positive energy can act like armor plating against controller attacks. This approach embraces turmoil for what it is, the universe, life, reality.
From a single infinite point this universe exploded into our current existence and its swirl is of steady never ending change running through times of chaos and times of calm. If we accept each realm for what it is, holographic illusions, and if we remain steady and fulfilled to what we are, not what we have or where we are or what we are doing,then we are impregnable by the controllers.
Imagine for a moment the Roman Empire. This was the place to live and be for hundreds of years. Being a Roman citizen was something really special. People were always trying to move there. They even had illegal immigrants just as Western countries do now. Then negative controllers took over and Western civilization fell apart. Some Roman emperors were really terrible, debauched, misguided, useless and interested only in their own self grandiosement. They controlled other peoples’ lives in the worst way. Roman senators and the elite lost their broad vision and controlled only for their short-term ideals of living in luxury and comfort. These leaders made the mistake of doing only for themselves and drained the spirit, finances and vitality of the public. Civil disputes grew. Caesar crossed the Rubicon. Invaders came and sacked the place. Terrorists began to abound! Sound familiar?
When Rome and its stabilizing energy was lost, Western society moved into a dark age. Barbarianism ruled. The mightiest sword was king. Civilization was isolated by distant, dangerous journeys. Civilized knowledge was hidden, rule of law lost and concepts of democracy,universal education, suffrage and welfare forgotten.
Yet some survived, prospered and grew enlightened even in these enormously uncivilized times. The monks and higher beings tucked themselves (and civilized knowledge) into well-guarded monasteries and lived good, fulfilled lives despite negative energies that so prevailed.
#1: Some of these people moved. The sun always shines somewhere and during the European dark ages other civilizations thrived. If we live in a society where we do not have to have permission to immigrate we can always go elsewhere if things are too uncomfortable for us.
#2: Some people fought. They developed strong armies and the crusades began. This was a spiritual quest driven mostly for material gains. Some thought they won. Most won, but this painful process did bring growth and evolution as well.
#3: Others stayed in fortresses. These hard to reach places and wise keepers of the arts refined and exemplified “Universal Karate” in their self-defense. They laid a foundation for martial arts, that used physical energy to complete the circle of understanding bringing clarity to the union between all things. The essence of these self-defense systems and martial arts is not to win through force of attack, but by directing the opponent’s force to carry the opponent to a point of knowing where there is no need for violence. These wise men applied this concept of “Universal Karate” in every aspect of their lives.
Controllers only have power over those who accept it. A recent message pointed out that it is our hunger and not the food that takes us to the feast. It is also our fears, not power of the controllers that give them control. The 14th century poet, Rumi, eloquently pointed this out when he wrote:
“I have lived on the lip of insanity, wanting to know reasons, knocking on a door. It opens. I have been knocking from the inside!”
All joy and fulfillment is within. Controllers only have power if we open the door and invite them in.
1. Find a way to put working-class people in their place, which is to shut up and be grateful to even have a job.
2. Open new markets for American goods, especially ones where they do not compete with goods from local companies.
3. Find ways to operate outside of government regulation and lawsuits.
4. Increase consumer spending without increasing wages.
5. Increase government spending without sparking inflation (which eats into the value of accumulated wealth).
Those five events would create enormous wealth without social uprising or government interference.
First, you create a global labor market. Doing so, you open new markets, such as China and India. Thus, you have more people to sell to, and, if done properly, lots of low-cost laborers, reducing your labor costs while getting rid of lots of pesky employees and the expensive annoyances they have become accustomed to, like benefits.
Indeed, you accomplish the quadruple-dip of wealth creation — suppress domestic wages, thwart inflation, and add new customers, all while side-stepping labor and environmental laws.
The only drawback to this scenario is that by suppressing wages, people have less money to spend on your products and services. However, if you could achieve easy credit, you could maintain or increase spending levels. Further, if you have a nice, costly war, you pump vast amounts of governmental money into the economy.
Take all this together, and you have two or three decades of what used to be called "unconscionable profits." You don't hear that phrase anymore because we as a society have agreed that there is no such thing — it is now a part of our culture that the more you can grab the better.
Would such a series of coordinated events require a conspiracy? No. Let's face it, the natural state of affairs in a free-market system is inequality, not equality. In order to have an income distribution that is becoming more equal would require compassionate effort. To have diverging income classes requires doing nothing. And nothing is what we, as a society, have done. We have conspired to not give a damn. So that is my conspiracy theory.
That raises the question of how working people can deal with the reality of a global labor market. Individuals must figure out what businesses have always understood: The real money goes to those who can get around the pressures of competition, to monopoly power. You get rich by having exclusive rights or information, like say owing the rights to the dominant software used by computers. For individuals, this monopoly power is individuality — there is only one George Clooney or one Tiger Woods. For most people, however, exclusivity is not an option; the best they can do is have a specialty. But say you are a trained specialist, like a radiologist, engineer or architect. You still might find yourself competing globally — for instance, architectural plans for US buildings are being drawn in China.
Thinking globally, you must take into account the geography of competition. If your work can be done via the Internet, then you are up against the world.
However, if it requires face-to-face meetings, then you have limited competition, perhaps even a bit of monopoly of geography. In other words, a career comes down to two principles: specialize and localize.
Global economic conspiracy theory says that controlers determine of economic fate. Is there a global economic conspiracy? if such a conspiracy exits what can we do about it.
There are many people and institutions that would like to control our lives. There is a lot of frustration and grief these controllers can bring. We do not have to suffer this. There are many ways to avoid those who take without giving. You can see below how history provides a guide.Our society may seem headed for ruin, but what we call chaos is really the universal way. Evolution works with three forces, the pressure of change (we call birth), the momentum of continuation(stability) and marvel of transformation (death). These forces are always in play and in balance. When things appear imbalanced, the imbalance is our misunderstanding, not an error in the universal way. Our duty is to adjust to reality, not the other way round. There are many ways we can successfully do this in the modern world. A seminar I conducted years ago in London featured Gordon Brown, member of Parliament who had been responsible for looking after Mikhail Gorbachev when he had just become Premier of the Soviet Union and was visiting England for the first time. Brown spoke in horror at how smart Gorbachev was. Our spirits sank. Our incorrect thinking? “The Soviets are bad. Anything good there is bad”. Had we been in touch with reality we would have correctly thought, “If the Soviet Union is bad, a really smart man will change the system.” Gorbachev did!
A first line of controller defense is knowing that all is in order. We cannot see or understand everything. Light does begin at the darkest hour. Every bad thing does push the pendulum closer to change. Patience is a virtue. The worst energy of negative energies is its own momentum.
One option is to ignore controllers. Get on with life! Chances are we will scrape by without pain. Most controllers eventually screw up and stew in their own juices. Enjoy the good in things as they are.
Or we can run (move somewhere where social principles are more in tune with our desires). This is not always easy. Family and friends usually cannot come along. Travel grows more wearisome and troubled every day. Yet this is one powerful and good option for some.
We can also fight. Fighting runs a gamut from becoming a terrorist (I will use Patricia Hearst, Timothy McVeigh, the holdouts in Waco and Ruby Ridge as examples of why not to choose this path) to being an activist.
Legitimate forms of activism run from general political activity (”Throw the bums out”) to dedication at balancing one aspect of a perceived wrong. Two of my children have taken this approach. One dedicated his life to preserving wildlife, the other to enhance human rights. They live simple Spartan lives, not too concerned with financial reward or material comforts. Their fulfillment comes from knowing that their lives stand for and are being used to express a positive action. If you are not too worried about wealth, health, status or comfort (these are the tools most controllers use against us) it is easy to become pretty immune to external manipulation. The popular portrayal of Mahatma Gandhior Martin Luther King are examples of this approach. Making a dent in even one negative aspect of life can be enormously satisfying and brings fulfillment. Having a battle to wage peacefully is satisfying, directing and provides a sense of cause. This is a powerful and positive way to fulfill one’s life.
Yet even this mildest approach of resistance has risks. Some controls will do just about anything to grab and mainatin control. Even open, honest confrontation with controllers can have danger.
This risk can be mitigated by being balanced and truly understanding power and change. We can enjoy our delights without being dictated by them. We can gain joy and hope from every event. We can see light at the end of every tunnel and look for and use the positive element in every action, no matter how terrible it seems. We can work to change no one or nothing but ourselves and be leading lights in whatever actions we do.
In short we can gain if we don’t push. We can let the momentum of the controllers do all the work and just pull a bit instead. I call this “Universal Karate”.
Years ago while living in the Andes with a group of shamans all the banks closed in Ecuador wiping out most everyone’s savings. On the evening of the bank shutdown a shaman staying with Merri and me discovered that he had lost every penny he possessed in the closure. He asked for us to gather round and gave a prayer of thanks for the change that this misfortune would bring. This is Universal Karate. He did not mourn for a moment over the loss, but looked immediately for the benefits this event would bring.
Positive energy can act like armor plating against controller attacks. This approach embraces turmoil for what it is, the universe, life, reality.
From a single infinite point this universe exploded into our current existence and its swirl is of steady never ending change running through times of chaos and times of calm. If we accept each realm for what it is, holographic illusions, and if we remain steady and fulfilled to what we are, not what we have or where we are or what we are doing,then we are impregnable by the controllers.
Imagine for a moment the Roman Empire. This was the place to live and be for hundreds of years. Being a Roman citizen was something really special. People were always trying to move there. They even had illegal immigrants just as Western countries do now. Then negative controllers took over and Western civilization fell apart. Some Roman emperors were really terrible, debauched, misguided, useless and interested only in their own self grandiosement. They controlled other peoples’ lives in the worst way. Roman senators and the elite lost their broad vision and controlled only for their short-term ideals of living in luxury and comfort. These leaders made the mistake of doing only for themselves and drained the spirit, finances and vitality of the public. Civil disputes grew. Caesar crossed the Rubicon. Invaders came and sacked the place. Terrorists began to abound! Sound familiar?
When Rome and its stabilizing energy was lost, Western society moved into a dark age. Barbarianism ruled. The mightiest sword was king. Civilization was isolated by distant, dangerous journeys. Civilized knowledge was hidden, rule of law lost and concepts of democracy,universal education, suffrage and welfare forgotten.
Yet some survived, prospered and grew enlightened even in these enormously uncivilized times. The monks and higher beings tucked themselves (and civilized knowledge) into well-guarded monasteries and lived good, fulfilled lives despite negative energies that so prevailed.
#1: Some of these people moved. The sun always shines somewhere and during the European dark ages other civilizations thrived. If we live in a society where we do not have to have permission to immigrate we can always go elsewhere if things are too uncomfortable for us.
#2: Some people fought. They developed strong armies and the crusades began. This was a spiritual quest driven mostly for material gains. Some thought they won. Most won, but this painful process did bring growth and evolution as well.
#3: Others stayed in fortresses. These hard to reach places and wise keepers of the arts refined and exemplified “Universal Karate” in their self-defense. They laid a foundation for martial arts, that used physical energy to complete the circle of understanding bringing clarity to the union between all things. The essence of these self-defense systems and martial arts is not to win through force of attack, but by directing the opponent’s force to carry the opponent to a point of knowing where there is no need for violence. These wise men applied this concept of “Universal Karate” in every aspect of their lives.
Controllers only have power over those who accept it. A recent message pointed out that it is our hunger and not the food that takes us to the feast. It is also our fears, not power of the controllers that give them control. The 14th century poet, Rumi, eloquently pointed this out when he wrote:
“I have lived on the lip of insanity, wanting to know reasons, knocking on a door. It opens. I have been knocking from the inside!”
All joy and fulfillment is within. Controllers only have power if we open the door and invite them in.
