Deepak Chopra on How to Convert to A Peace Economy

For my four thousandth post at D.U. I would like to offer this article on nine steps to convert to a peace economy by Deepak Chopra. May peace prevail.



Deepak Chopra on How to Convert to A Peace Economy

You have been elected by the first anti-war constituency since 1952, when Eisenhower was elected after promising to end the Korean War. But ending a war isn't the same as bringing peace. America has been on a war footing since the day after Pearl Harbor, sixty-seven years ago. We spend more on our military than the next sixteen countries combined. If you have a vision of change that goes to the heart of this country's deep problems, ending our dependence on war is far more important than ending our dependency on foreign oil.

The most immediate changes are economic. Unless it can make as much money as war, peace doesn’t stand a chance. Since aerospace and military technologies remain the United States’ most destructive export, fostering wars around the world, what steps can we take to reverse that trend and build a peace-based economy?

1. Scale out arms dealing and make it illegal by the year 2020.

2. Write into every defense contract a requirement for a peacetime project.

3. Subsidize conversion of military companies to peaceful uses with tax incentives and direct funding.

4. Convert military bases to housing for the poor.

5. Phase out all foreign military bases.

6. Require military personnel to devote part of their time to rebuilding infrastructure.

7. Call a moratorium on future weapons technologies.

8. Reduce armaments like destroyers and submarines that have no use against terrorism and were intended to defend against a superpower enemy that no longer exists.

9. Fully fund social services and take the balance out of the defense and homeland security budgets.

These are just the beginning. We don't lack creativity in coping with change. Without a conversion of our present war economy to a peace economy, the high profits of the military-industrial complex ensures that it will never end.

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http://www.tikkun.org/magazine/tik0901/frontpage/chopra

and become the change you want to see.

Health Care Reform!

Sure, I agree with him on this any many issues - but his advocating of quack medicine should disqualify him from any Surgeon General post!

I have no love of Native American remedies, unless they can be proven in a labaratory.

At least he has the decency to recommend traditional meds in cancer ONLY after the Scientific Path has failed.

Education
He completed his primary education at St. Columba's School in New Delhi and graduated from the prestigious All India Institute of Medical Sciences.

Having graduated from AIIMS in 1969, Chopra emigrated to the US in 1970 with his new bride, Rita, to do his clinical internship at a New Jersey hospital, followed by residency training for several more years at the Lahey Clinic in Burlington, Massachusetts and at the University of Virginia Hospital. He became board certified in internal medicine and endocrinology.

Career
Dr. Chopra has a licence to practice medicine in the states of Massachusetts and California, is a member of the American Medical Association (AMA), and a Fellow of the American College of Physicians.

Chopra taught at Tufts University and Boston University Schools of Medicine, and became the Chief of Staff at the New England Memorial Hospital (later the Boston Regional Medical Center) in Stoneham, Massachusetts. Chopra also established a large private practice.

Writings

Deepak Chopra has written more than 50 books. They range broadly across spiritual and health topics; including bestsellers on aging, the "Seven Spiritual Laws of Success," the existence of God, arguments for the afterlife and world peace. He has also written novels and edited collections of spiritual poetry from India and Persia.



just because you may disagree with the holistic approach to medicine does not make it quackery.

Pushing unverifiable claims is its root definition

i think living life following the 7 laws of success (life) could yield a fuller, more gratifying existence.

I think he would be a fantastic SG.

From the Borgen Project: Poverty Reduction Through Political Accountability

http://www.borgenproject.org/Defense_Spending.html

The World's Largest Military Spenders
(Defense budgets in billions)

United States $522
China $63
Russia $62
United Kingdom $51
Japan $45
France $42
Germany $30
India $22
Saudi Arabia $21
South Korea $21




Here's how political leaders are spending the discretionary budget.

in any peace process. Chopra is the man.

and accept no advances for his books? God forbid anyone should dare to make a profit in these United States!

There's nothing special about his books - nothing that hasn't been said before by better writers - but you have to pay for them to find that out.

Excellent documentary shown on Bill Moyers last week - it's message is Peace and There Is A Lot More That Unites Us Than Divides Us. This documentary needs to be shown to every high school student in the US/World. Excellent - beyond excellent. If you want Peace, Be It, Live It.

The Military Industrial Complex is out of control, the "war on terror" is a sham, and the world can be a much better place without either. Putting our energies and resources toward peace and the people of the world is what our government should be doing, not taking part in these horrors of big banking, the oil industry, the military industry and etc.

would be a very careful and though out explanation of why each of these suggestions would be impossible to implement . . . ours is a war economy, and these folks don't know any other way . . .

Excellent piece and congrats on 4000!