Wake Up, America! We're Not in Kansas Anymore, Toto.

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Wake Up, America!
We're Not in Kansas Anymore, Toto

By Steve Bhaerman

Have you ever had a dream like this? You’re cruising on the
freeway, and you hit the brakes to slow down -- and nothing happens.
Then you go to turn the steering wheel, and once again you have no
control. You try the gas. Same thing. None of the control
mechanisms are working, and you are helplessly careening down the
freeway in an out-of-control vehicle. At that point, you usually
wake up.

Well it’s time to wake up, America. Welcome to the new American
“dream.” Over the past five years, the steering and driving
mechanisms our country’s founders designed for our ship of state
have been progressively (or rather, regressively) taken out of our
hands. Our elected representatives ... our courts ... the “loyal
opposition” ... the press ... the electoral process itself, have all
come under the influence of some dark force. We find ourselves in
an intractable, costly perpetual war. Civil liberties are being
taken away, and those who have taken an oath to protect us are
inexplicably going along with the program. Gold collar criminals
and high-ranking officials are looting the commonwealth, as the
middle class in our country disappears. Scientists who point out
global warming or environmental distress are being silenced. The
media keeps us numbed up and dumbed down by distracting us with the
most divisive or trivial issues.

Aside from the real massive problems we face if we would only
face them -- peak oil and global warming, and a house-of-cards
economy where the Chinese hold the strongest hand -- we face the
gravest political and moral crisis in our history. Yes, there was
the bombardment of the Capitol during the War of 1812, the Civil
War, the Great Depression, the war against fascism sixty-five years
ago, and the ongoing cold war, ostensibly against totalitarian
communism. But never, never in our history has the “enemy” been so
starkly and obviously our own rulers.

This realization is a hard gulp to swallow. None of us have
wanted to go there. But now, we must courageously wake up to the
realization that “there” is already “here.” The body politic is
gravely ill, and unless we open our eyes and face this condition
squarely in the face, government of the people, by the people, and
for the people will indeed perish from this earth, only to be
replaced by neo-feudalism disguised as Big Brother totalitarianism.

This is not a time to push the panic button, but a time to push
the “calm button” that activates our highest values of love,
courage, imagination and curiosity. Einstein has told us that a
problem can never be solved at the level of the problem. So as the
“political” solutions seem to dissolve one by one, we must find the
solution at the next level up.

Amazing Disgrace: How America Got Eaten By Her Own Shadow

First though, let’s see if we can get a handle on where we are
and how we got here, as a nation and as a species. There is a
phrase inAmerica the Beautiful, our spiritual national anthem,
asking God to “shed His grace on thee.” Indeed, grace has shone on
this country, perhaps because of the radically enlightened
principles and documents this country was founded on. The
progressive forces of truth, freedom, and extending opportunity to
all have created enough graceful momentum to counterbalance genocide
against native peoples, slavery, and our own unique brand of
imperialism.

But I submit we’ve finally used up our grace. We hit “peak
grace” right after World War II, and we’ve been burning a dwindling
supply of it for the past sixty years. Some would say that the
downward turn began when we took a page from Orwell and renamed the
“Department of War” the “Department of Defense,” and sold our soul
to the military industrial complex. Since the end of World War II,
we have sponsored over 200 wars resulting in the deaths of millions,
all to protect “the free world.” Now I have a fierce practical
streak in me, and an understanding that there are indeed
“evil-doers” in the world, and we need to take steps to contain
these toxic forces and protect ourselves. But now it’s time to face
the sad fact that we’ve become the toxic force we’ve been protecting
ourselves against.

Something happened back there in the late 1940s, and we took a
wrong turn. We empowered a secret government, and we instructed them
to do whatever they needed to do to “protect us,” as long as they
didn’t tell us what they were doing. The way to beat the evil-doers
was to out evil-do them, and the way to do that in a democratic
republic like ours was to make sure we the people never had to
directly face the moral dilemma of contradicting our highest
spiritual values in a misguided effort to protect ourselves.

But when you set out to act in stealth and secrecy -- even in the
service of “good” -- at some point you become the very thing you
oppose. For who thrives in the darkness, but the dark forces? So it
is that in the world of spyfare, we’re necessarily dealing with
murderers, criminal syndicates, drug runners, and at some point we
morphed into the anti-life force we claim to be fighting. Even
worse, over the past two generations we have become addicted to the
war economy. And thus we began our downhill slide from grace,
slowly being devoured by our shadow.

The first obvious time the dark forces broke through the
invisible “membrane” of decency was the Kennedy assassination. Even
for those who bought the lone assassin theory, it was a perpetration
that forever damaged our political psyche. Think of how the 60s
began -- with hope, with the Peace Corps, with Alliance for Progress
-- and how it ended -- with the assassinations of King and RFK, with
angry anti-war protests, with Kent State. For those of us who grew
up reciting the Pledge of Allegiance -- and believing in “liberty
and justice for all” -- America would never be the same.

As the 60s gave way to the 70s, 80s and 90s and the hippies and
yippies became yuppies, we the people “sold out” or rather “bought
in” to the pervasive dominant meme that it was money, money, money
that mattered. The culmination of the “me” society was the 90s,
when a Democrat, Bill Clinton, raised more money than any
Presidential candidate had ever done before. Under the guise of
“benevolent” globalization, corporate rule and privatizing
resource-rape was extended even further.

By the time 2000 rolled around, we had done run out of grace.
Had we still had a little cache of grace in the bank, the scale
would have tipped to Gore. 9/11 might have been thwarted or
averted, and in any case not turned into “the New Pearl Harbor.”
Had we had an even a little emergency stash of grace under the
mattress, Congress or Colin Powell or someone would have been able
to stop the Iraq War before it started. In 2004, voting fraud would
have been exposed in Ohio and Florida, and Kerry would have been
declared the rightful winner. And on and on it goes.

And here we are. We have seen our economy go from a
“value-adding” economy to a “wealth-extracting” one. The dollar is
now probably worth less than the paper it’s printed on. We’ve
devolved into a debtor nation, little more than a banana republic in
a super-power suit, armed to the teeth. We’ve watched the country
of Martin Luther King regress back to the country of Pat Robertson.
We have allowed ourselves to be dragged along into an illegal
pre-emptive war for empire based on lies. Our President has been
brought up on charges by anInternational Tribunal (with arms control
expert Scott Ritter, Gen. Janis Karpinski and other respected
authorities testifying) and the story isn’t even worth a paragraph
in the “liberal” San Francisco Chronicle. We are flat out of grace,
and have in fact disgraced our Founding Fathers. We have hit
spiritual bottom -- and most Americans don’t even know it.

The Truth Shall Upset You Free

The first step in facing any grave illness -- particularly when
the disease is addiction-based -- is telling the truth. This may
not be pleasant or easy, but as the Swami says, “The truth shall
upset you free.” The condition we face is life-threatening, not
just to liberty and justice, not just to our democratic republic,
but to human life on the planet itself. (We can assume that
whatever happens to us, the roaches will very likely survive.)

In addition to the truths the framers of the Declaration of
Independence held self-evident 230 years ago, we must now take the
first step of facing some darker self-evident truths:

1. The results of the Presidential elections in 2000 and 2004
were very likely the result of fraud, and thanks to very hackable
voting machines future elections are in jeopardy.

2. The official 9/11 story has more holes in it than Dick
Cheney’s hunting buddy, and could very well be the most devastating
and cynical scam ever imposed on the American people.

3. The media -- the fabled “fifth estate” has become the “fifth
column,” betraying the truth left and right, mostly right. The one
major difference between our “liberal” media and Pravda of 30 years
ago is that the Russian people knew they were being lied to.

4. The Democratic Party leadership (an oxymoron very high in
irony content) lacks vision, courage and integrity. You can count on
them to once again trot out the slogan that has kept them safely
out of power for years now: “We’re not as bad as the Republicans.”
Not even this is true. In my book, the enabler bears as much
responsibility as the abuser. Until they prove otherwise, the only
things the Democrats are good for are taking our money and wasting
our votes.

Now I hope all of that didn’t sound too cynical, because cynical
is the last thing I want to be. The upside of “disillusionment” is
that it disabuses us of of the “illusionment” that keeps us knocking
on doors that will never open, and marching down pathways that lead
to a dead end. The release of false hope is the gateway that can
lead to real hope. Hopefully, that is where this is all leading.

So before we take a look at what we CAN do, let’s bump up to the
macro to have a look at the big, big picture. We humans are, as a
species, facing a “rendevous with destiny.” Despite Einstein’s
assertion more than 100 years ago that we live in a universe where
all is related, we are still acting as if we’re in a “Newtonian”
universe of force opposing force. We humans are definitely slow
learners. We’ve had “only” a century to integrate Einstein, and we
used his theory to develop weapons of mass destruction. It’s been
2000 years since Jesus said “Love thy neighbor,” and yet we humans
still seem to be marching under the “eye-for-an-eye” banner.

But now in this shrinking world that could definitely use a good
shrink, push is finally coming to shove, and in the light of
shrinking extractable resources and expanding intractable regimes,
we are on a collision course with ourselves. The “middle” path of
muddling along is about to hit a dead-end, and we stand at a
crossroads in human evolution (or devolution). We must now choose
one and only one of these two paths: “We’re all in this together,”
or “it’s every man for himself.”

We can “play it safe” and say it’s either dominate or be
dominated. We can then rally (or huddle) behind our troops and
celebrate our own survival as we excuse genocide against others as a
necessary by-product. It’s been done before, you know. And not
just by the Third Reich. Every empire has done the same thing, and
has found some creative way to cloak selfish motives in nobility.
But time is running out, and more and more humans are coming to see
that from the perspective of all the great spiritual teachings in
the world, “survival” at this level is the booby prize.

What we humans are being called to is no less than an
evolutionary step toward really giving our professed “faith” a run
for its money. We are being called out from behind petty and
ancient feuds, unconscious “miasmic” patterns that have thwarted us
for centuries. We are being called out from behind the remote, away
from reality TV, and towards reality. We are being asked to take
the “red pill,” and emerge from the matrix of machine-made illusion
and cultivate the “tree of life” right here in the so-called “real
world.”

In this evolutionary mission, we have more going for us than we
think. We have the teachings and techniques of great spiritual paths
and masters, many just recently liberated from secrecy. We have
technical know-how, and those most extraordinary of human resources,
imagination and curiosity. We have worldwide networks of
communication. And of course, we have the force of necessity, the
Mother of all reasons to change and change now.

On the other side, the main weapons they have are fear and
force. Although these may seem formidable in the short run, in the
end they are no match for the power of life. “Life” relentlessly
moves forward in greater expansion, creativity, diversity and
freedom. Like the weed poking up between the cracks in the
sidewalk, life has a tendency to prevail.

Of course, they want you to forget this, and sadly too many
people have. As political responses to situations that are “bigger
than politics” have been thwarted, and as the current Administration
rains down outrageous perpetrations on a daily basis, people have
allowed themselves to become disheartened. Without the spiritual
compass that helped guide the likes of Martin Luther King, many
modern progressives fail to see the spiritual context behind the
values they are fighting for. How else could the “moral authority”
in this country have been ceded over to those who rail against two
men lying together as an “abomination,” but have no problem with a
whole bunch of men lying together to bomb a nation?

Time To Face The Music and Dance

So how do we face these issues on a higher level, and translate
all of this happy-sounding philosophizing into effective action?
How do we make the shift from politics as usual to politics as
unusual? What does the American Evolution look like in practice?
Here are some ideas which will hopefully lead to better questions,
and clearer answers:

1. Cultivate the Field. Early last summer -- at a time when I
was feeling particularly frustrated and impatient -- I got an
insight which proved to be prophetic: At times when the “form”
isn’t fully formulated, focus on “the field.” In other words, all
we had to do was to continue speaking our truth with open-hearted
courage, and these thought-forms would manifest in unexpected ways.
Indeed, within a few months, we had seen the Cindy Sheehan
phenomenon, and the whole world had seen the Bush Administration’s
response to Katrina. Later on in the year, Scooter Libby was
indicted, and then Tom DeLay.

Right now, the most effective thing we can do on a daily basis is
speak the truth with “calm passion.” In their heart of hearts, a
majority of Americans know there is something terribly wrong. We’re
not in Kansas anymore, and we may not even be in America, at least
not the America we love. The media refuses to go any deeper than
positional squabbling. So we must do it. The biggest obstacle we
face right now is our collective unwillingness to see our own
shadow. However, once a critical mass of us face this fear directly
-- and act anyway -- it only becomes easier. Remember, the wall of
lies is “hanging by a threat.” When we the people no longer feel
threatened by that threat, the wall of lies will crumble into dust.
All it takes are one or two or three or a dozen respected prominent
Americans to “break through the soundless barrier,” and the media
will finally have to cover the story. The stronger the “field” of
courage and truth we create at the grassroots, the more inevitable
the breakthrough.

2. Stop Marching, and “Stand” Instead. The new theme song for
“politics as unusual” should be “I Ain’t A-Marchin’ Anymore.” What?
How else are we going to protest? How else are we going to show
the world our numbers? I heard Tom Hayden say something last year
that struck a chord: “Marching and demonstrations are a tactic used
by a besieged minority. Today, those who oppose the Iraq War are in
the majority.” The whole idea of marching, shouting, protesting and
being “anti” is oppositional. In a perverse way, it actually
strengthens our “opponents” by reinforcing polarity.

So, I propose that we never march again, and that we “stand”
instead. No more yelling, no more shouting, no more spouting anger
that squanders energy better spent. Marching indicates there is
someplace to get to. Standing demonstrates that we are already
“here” and are quietly steadfast as a “stand” for the world we know
is possible -- and necessary. “Standing” is an acknowledgment that
we are not fearful or intimidated. It is an invitation to courage,
and an inspiration to those who are ready to evolve beyond dueling
dualities. Standing also acknowledges that darkness isn’t the
“opposite” of light, it is the absence of light. So there is no
need to “fight” darkness, as long as we shine the light.

What might this look like? I am envisioning something I call the
50 Million American “Stand.” 50 million Americans voted for regime
change in 2004, and with the President’s approval numbers hovering
just above freezing, there is the growing understanding that we have
now devolved into an entirely new form of government -- an
“illegitimacy”: government of the bastards, by the bastards and for
the bastards. I know that sounds harsh and judgmental, but have you
noticed that these people aren’t even feeling the need to cover up
their crimes? Our government is cheating on us, and top officials
are brazenly being seen consorting with these gold-diggers in public.

So ... what if on an appointed day -- July 4th would work --
Americans willing to be a stand for what our Founders stood for
(truth, justice, liberty and transparency) gathered at every town
hall, city hall, state capital, and on the mall in Washington,
D.C.? What if 50 million or more Americans took that one day to
stand in front of whatever symbolizes governance in America, and
reminded our “leaders” that this is ultimately “our” country? Those
unable to be there in person could “appoint” a representative by
handing them a letter to that effect, and on the appointed day in
every city, county, state and in our nation’s capital these citizens
would let themselves be counted. Thus, a gathering of 10,000 people
might represent 50,000. The theme would be “Stand Up ... And Be
Counted.” And we would indeed count the people who show up and are
represented, and in this way we would let our erstwhile leaders know
that we “count.”

The prevailing mood at all of these events would be hope,
inspiration, joy, and a peaceful steadfastness that perhaps hasn’t
been experienced since the great civil rights march on Washington
forty-something years ago. We would aim for 50 million Americans to
be represented, and because of the local connection, the events
would have to be covered by every local newspaper and TV station.
These events would be reported worldwide, and the message to the
world would be: We the people of America have made the choice to
take back our country, our heritage, our legacy.

3. Pray For the Soul of America, and Invite the People of the
World to Do the Same. I’m sorry if this sounds unctuous, and before
you secular humanists reading this run for the hills please take a
minute to sit with this idea. There are many definitions of prayer,
but if we go with the most generic, it boils down to “shared
intention for the good.” In his book on the subject, Dr. Larry
Dossey cites studies that show people who are “prayed for” actually
recover more quickly from surgery and have fewer complications.
Interestingly, it doesn’t seem to matter what tradition the prayer
is in. As long as there’s healing intention, it works. In this
sense, even a self-identified atheist could participate in this
field, simply by wishing an individual, a group, or a situation
well. In a similar way, practitioners of Transcendental Meditation
have correlated an influx of meditators to an area with a reduction
of the crime rate.

Would it help heal our afflicted body politic? Well, it would be
worth finding out, and like chicken soup, it couldn’t hurt.
Imagine a “tag-team” prayer vigil, 24/7 where any and all spiritual
groups that want to participate can keep the “flame” burning.
Imagine tens of thousands of communities across the country, unified
in intention that “only love prevails.” Such a “field” would
enliven and inspire the same kinds of gatherings worldwide, among
those of all religions (and no religion at all) ready to affirm
“we’re all in it together.”

Think of it this way. If we the people of America are able to
turn things around here, imagine the inspiration for the rest of the
world. Imagine the impact that real freedom -- not economic
exploitation and cultural disrespect covered by a thin, artificial
veneer -- would have on those who might otherwise be polarized into
radical Islam. Who knows? If we birth real freedom at home and
treat others with respect abroad, we might be surprised to find that
millions of people who “hate” us now will step up and proclaim,
“I’ll have what they’re having.”

4. Flex Your Fiscal Muscles. In a country where it’s money,
money über alles, let’s begin to flex our fiscal muscles by
withdrawing financial energy from what we don’t want, and investing
it in what we do. 50 million voters voted for regime change in
2004. If each of those individuals shifted just $100, that’s $5
billion. Now, of course that ain’t much, but it’s a start. What if
just one fiftieth of that number, a million people, pulled the plug
on their cable, or stopped their daily newspaper subscription, and
shifted that money to support online news services such as TruthOut,
OpEd News, Common Dreams?

A recent Zogby poll indicated that 64% of the Democrats in
Pennsylvania are women, and I suspect that the trend is true in other
states as well. Since every piece of marketing research I could
find says that women do the bulk of the shopping in this country,
that would indicate a lot of under-utilized clout. What if women
who instinctively understand that a “you-and-me” world is safer and
more life-affirming than a “you-or-me” world, used their spending
power to feed the healing forces in this country, and starve the
hurting forces? For starters, folks can check out BuyBlue.org.

If all this sounds “idealistic,” remember that we are rapidly
approaching the point where the ideal must become the real deal --
otherwise, when it comes to human life on the planet, it’s no deal.
For a long time now, we’ve been hearing that every generation must
step up to defend freedom. Now it’s our turn. In the past, we’ve
been called upon to march to some foreign land, armed with a gun.
In these times, being a stand for freedom looks like standing up
where we are, armed only with the Declaration of Independence, our
Constitution, and the knowledge that every religion or spiritual
path boils down to some variation on the Golden Rule. A critical
mass of citizens standing on the brink of evolution, firmly and
fearlessly, stripped of illusion. Now that is the real “naked
power” that will change the world as we know it.

© Copyright 2006 by Steve Bhaerman. All rights reserved.

This is the first in a series of articles called “The Next Step:
Putting the American Evolution Into Action.” Next installment: What
Keeps the Insanity In Place, and What We Can Do About It.

Steve Bhaerman

http://www.wakeuplaughing.com/