Collectively (certainly in North America), we’re not making good decisions. We’re exporting jobs; we’re destroying the middle class, sending more wealth to the top 1 % and swelling the numbers of the impoverished; we continue degrading and poisoning the natural environment, which feeds and houses us . We are encouraged to live in constant fear - the Commie Soviets quickly replaced by Islamic Terrorists and soon perhaps by the Chinese – so we won’t object to dumping vast, precious resources into the military, the police and jails…out of which certain parties are making lots of money.
People feel powerless, confused, and worn down, working long, grinding, competitive hours with no job security. There’s no solution in sight since the biggest populist movement at present is the Tea Party, supposedly fighting for Main Street rather than Wall Street. Ironically and absurdly, they shout the simplistic slogans of the Free Market Republicans/ Conservatives who helped create the situation in the first place! “Cut taxes and Big Government; sell off public assets; expand the military and Law and Order”. What this actually does is increase the power and control of Wall Street, since it replaces Big Government with Big Business, which goes unregulated. Big Business isn’t elected -except through your purchases -and doesn’t care for your quality of life…only for the benefits for Managerial Executives (who make the decisions) and subsequently Shareholders, who collectively own the enterprise, but typically get little say in its operation. Corporations are touted as the most efficient way to go, but that ignores the quite common occurrences of top execs skimming billions in expenses, “bonuses” or outright fraud, cutting short-term corners to boost profits and closing enterprises/ exporting jobs to cheap-labour countries.
Political observers/ experts tend to focus on leaders, policies, polls, trends etc but rarely question the System itself or the intelligence/ consistency of the Voters (who are also viewers/ consumers. If the voter is easily manipulated, how much is Democracy worth? We spot such manipulation in “under-developed” countries, but rarely question ourselves because we’re “developed” and “savvy”. A recent authoritative article suggested that “citizen resilience” is the best form of terrorist defense. The fear and panic that terrorists create is way out of proportion than any similar damage or death caused say by an earthquake or accident. Bin Laden clearly stated that his main goal was to create fear and panic. When leaders and media amp up the crisis rhetoric, they actually aid the terrorists, whichs doesn’t mean you don’t respond to terrorism with decisive action. Here are a few suggestions for wiser decision-making:
1. Learn to pay attention in each moment and build attention span (which is what a skilful meditation practice does). Listen attentively (not shutting off prematurely) to what someone is saying. It’s rarely necessary to make an instant judgement even though this is what opinion polls, social media etc encourage us to do. Over time, a person will reveal whether they are honest, consistent, intelligent or trustworthy. This applies to personal interactions as well as our evaluations of those who set themselves up as Leaders.
2. Look beyond surface attractiveness and charisma and remember most people are trying to sell you something. In the Entertainment/ Celebrity oriented society we have helped to create, we expect everyone to be Hollywood-like: attractive, youthful, perfect teeth, eloquent and more. What relevance has this to a person capable of intelligence, insight, compassion and strength, which are the minimum requirements of a good (national) Leader? It’s an absurd and illogical requirement, which voters and internet users nevertheless seem to want. This is not an accident, but has been crafted by the media/fashion/entertainment industries and political strategists for the past few decades. Opinion Makers aim to override the thinking mind and they overwhelming and factually succeed!
3. Quantity does not guarantee Quality. The fact that the Internet, media opinion polls or most of your friends (Facebook or otherwise) agree on a certain issue or perspective does not make it right! Profound decisions require that you can transcend the fleeting emotions of the moment, not elevate them into Truth! A recent article in the Toronto Star featured prominent Canadian pollsters warning about the effects of carelessly conducted opinion polls within a small time frames. How can we appreciate Quality – try formal and skilfully directed meditation.
4. Ask yourself what kind of life/ society you want? Do you want to work 12 or more hours a day in abusive circumstances? Do you want to be thrown on the Attractiveness/ Cool garbage heap if you lose some hair, some teeth and put on some weight as you age? Do you want to destroy agricultural land, trees and animal species so you can get a few more gallons of oil or build a few more suburban residential boxes? Do you want the majority of humanity to live in such squalid circumstances that they want to cut the throats (or blow up the malls) of the Affluent? Or perhaps you can settle for a few less tech toys, high fashions, cool cars, killer houses and holidays if you get peace, liberty and relative equality?