Humor for the day: Since he was a Texan being tried in New York, the young man felt he didn’t have a prayer in beating the murder rap. Thus, shortly before the jury was to retire, he bribed one of the jurors to find him guilty of manslaughter. The jury was out for days, after which they returned a verdict of manslaughter. Cornering the bribed juror, the Texan whispered, “Thanks a million. How did you manage it?” “It wasn’t easy,” admitted the bribed juror. “All the others wanted to acquit you.”
By the time you read this article, you should know and realize the various forms of violent rhetoric by both major political parties (Republicans and Democrats). In cooperation of this violence of language, there is the making of money under the guise of campaign fundraising. Who makes this money, the media and corporate partners of the media? I contend that both parties reflect what I consider the proponents of an “economy of violence.” Of course, this is leveraged by our existing media systems. The truth is, crime does pay in our society and is advertised to pay.
It pays in the various venues of the following: guns, prisons, drug companies, corrupt politics, stock markets/banks, religion, etc. All these venues have an unending record of violence. Think about it: Our economy makes billions of dollars on all the above venues of our society. And, do not forget the money made on the violence of war.
But most important is the political scene this year; there is that violence of our language and expressions of negatives done by persons who wish to be legislators, senators and president. There is a pleasure to foster negative and harsh language and ridicule against each other; it is all volatile!
Again, it is the love to fear and the fear to love. Interesting enough, Muhammad Ali seems to have overcome that “curse.” That is another story I will write about in the future. My point is, the tools of fear in our USA societies are guns, drugs, poverty, bigotry, racism, sex, entertainment of violence, etc. The bottom line is these tools of fear produce lots of profits. Fear also gives jobs to maintain its presence and purpose. Violence is power. Fear is power. This may seem to be unfortunate and certainly needs to be changed.
How we do this is the great challenge for the 21st century. I recall doing a series of lectures on non-violence, and I often heard educators and so-called professionals referring to teaching “survival skills.” This statement never sat well with me. For me, life is not about survival. Life is an experience of meaning and self-realization of one’s mortality and immortality. Therefore, our education systems need reformed purposes and goals. As an educator, I often wondered why there was no course curriculum that dealt with principles of love, non-violence, self-respect, truth, family values, spiritual values and human relationships, just to name a few.
All the above, as related to the meaning of life, should let us ask the question, where do we go from here? This question was posed by Dr. M.L. King Jr., and the answer to the question was the statement “to community or chaos.” King’s premise was we had to become the “beloved community”; if not, we shall perish together as fools. Certainly this year, we have witnessed much foolishness of the politicians and the campaigns’ volatile madness.
I suggest our economy of violence in our society is on the verge of moral bankruptcy. Our nation as a whole is preparing our younger generation for a journey of destruction. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could develop an economy of love? Better yet, we could replace our economy of fear with an economy of love. Just maybe our political leaders can define to you and me what is the meaning of life and not the meaning of money, wealth and power. Money, wealth and power all seem to be driven by violence. Just maybe our politicians will come to the realization that the meaning of life is about truth, equality and love.
