On Seeking Balance in the Contemporary World

The world in which we find ourselves during this period of history presents great challenges for anyone and everyone who seeks to tread the path of the middle way, avoid extremes, cultivate a balanced psyche, and pursue a life in harmony with the environment, with all life on the planet, with other people (both politically and economically), between and among cultures and nations, and within ourselves on a spiritual level. 

In the contemporary climate, people have been pushed into polarized political camps by politicians, commentators, pundits, and demogogues. Polarized opinions have widened the gap of disagreement and wrought vitriol in the public discourse. Pursuit of compromises which would reflect the best interests of the broadest segments of the population is no longer esteemed as worthwhile. Indeed, both sides exhibit such an unwillingness to bend that they prefer to block legislation which is drafted to promote the greatest common good. Polarized points of view, which are so common in the contemporary world, actually oppose the ideals expressed in the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution, which was created to, "provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure domestic tranquility." 

As wide as the political gulf has become, the disparities between the wealthy and the middle class and between the middle class and the poor have never been greater. The intensity and pervasiveness of individuals' focus on personal interests, accumulation of material objects, amassing of capital, and quest for social status has never been more pronounced and pervasive. This perverse fascination with personal gain to the detriment of the greatest common good inveigles contemporary culture with the notion that a competitive edge is the most valuable and desirable personal trait an individual can cultivate. Now, certainly, the individual nature can express itself in a very positive way when it's influence manifests itself as an individual's drive for personal excellence. However, when the sole motivation for competition reveals itself to be for personal gain at the expense of another (or others), then it's value diminishes commensurately with the reduction of others' opportunities and degradation of others' lifestyles. 

Humanity possesses a natural inclination for pursuing comfort, convenience, recreation, expression, and enjoyment. However, when those proclivities rise to the level of a desire for ostentation, an appetite for wealth, a devotion to notions of individual (as well as national and/or cultural) superiority, a hunger to accumulate possessions, an infatuation with status, and a yearning for power, then individuals debase themselves morally, ethically, and spiritually at the same time as they wreck havoc on the environment and consume the planet's resources without consideration for future generations' needs. 

As a consequence of the psychological and sociological divergences from a middle path of inclusiveness, cooperation, community, compromise, and the greatest common good, extremism dominates all aspects and all expressions in the contemporary world. We can no longer agree to be generous to the needy, merciful to the infirm, benevolent to our youth (who, as students, must receive adequate and affordable educations if they are to offer wise and sound leadership in the future), prudent in our stewardship of the environment, understanding toward one another, accepting of divergent viewpoints as being critical to cultural growth and making wise decisions after informed debate, and magnanimous to our spiritual natures by reducing our stress and increasing our dedication to humanity's highest ideals and the notion of the greatest common good. Instead, our vitriolic extremism advances enmity, undermines our climate, increases the likelihood for conflict, escalates war across the globe, engenders the continuing and increasing spread of extinction of planetary life, and devalues all notions of gratitude and respect commensurately with the exaltation of the cults of greed, wealth, power, entitlement, and superiority. 

In such a world, humanity, both collectively and as individuals, finds itself so attached to the illusion of material value, phenomenal accomplishment, and corporeal eminence that the balance required by any truly spiritual foundation has been forsaken. If humanity is ever to even aspire to, let alone actually achieve, universal peace, an all-inclusive affluence that honors the environment, value for the need for diversity of all life forms, and respect the rights of future generations to an equally harmonious and bountiful existence, then our individual, national, and cultural values must change: compassion must replace victory, altruism must supercede personal desire, cooperation must redeem competition, understanding must supplant antagonism, acceptance must displace intolerance, equality must overcome notions of superiority, and moderation must reconstitute entitlement. 

There is only one path to such a world. That path incorporates spiritual balance and a ubiquitous education concerning humanity's highest values. Such a redirection of human focus will take time, certainly multiple generations, but it is both a worthwhile and possible endeavor to pursue. 

Between the paths of extremes lies a middle way, the way of balance, harmony, and wisdom. Too great of a devotion to self will deny humanity the fulfillment of its greatest collective potential. Too small of a consideration for individual needs and opportunities will rob us of our liberties and all sense of meaning in life and personal value to the community and the world. Only by seeking a balance between the two can we eradicate the destructive forces inherent in either extreme. Only by understanding the true spiritual value that resides in balance and moderation will humanity begin to aspire to a more perfect, more harmonious, more bountiful, and more meaningful world. 

This balance is the expression of universal, altruistic love. By keeping the notion of love in mind as we pursue all our endeavors, we redeem ourselves moment to moment, fulfill our true destinies, and realize the value and meaning of life. It we operate out of love, we cannot inculcate divisiveness or engage ourselves in the destructive forces of extremism. 

We are born out of love to discover each of our own balanced pathways of love and, ultimately, to live our lives predicated on spreading as much love as possible during our lifetimes. In so doing, we fulfill and redeem ourselves with and through love's moral imperative.

One World Day

One World Day - an idea whose time has come, baby, can you dig it? One World Day: an event enlisting all of you, the roughly 6.6 billion people on the planet, to unite with the voice of one human peace-army for a day – telling it like it is, telling it like you really want it to be. One World Day sings the demands for world leaders to heed the voices, needs, wishes and agenda of you, the people, for peace, sustenance, comfort, cooperation, understanding, fulfillment and opportunity instead of promoting the mad money mania the world has been forced to endure for ages!

One World Day – an expression by you, the people of the world, who, through your sheer numbers, your power as you mass in the streets, your willingness to engage in or refuse to perform work and services, and the power of your willingness to pay or withhold payment of taxes to governments – can shock politicians and corporate Machiavellians with awe as you demand from contemporary leaders, with the same strength demonstrated by the people of India in their quest for independence from Britain and by the people of Eastern Europe as they extracted independence from Soviet domination, a new world reflecting your real, common interests, the interests of people everywhere.

The idea for One World Day flowers as the child of two events which occurred in the 60s. One of those psychedelic, parental seeds was the Our World broadcast on satellite to 26 countries, watched with rapture by some 400 million viewers on June 25, 1967 in what was billed as the first worldwide, satellite television broadcast. The other spiritual parent of One World Day played minor havoc with corporate profits and political agendas as the Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam elicited a mass, popular strike from work and school on the 15th day of October and November of 1969 by people who supported ending the war.

The BBC commissioned The Beatles to provide the UK’s contribution to the Our World show. In response, John Lennon wrote the song All You Need Is Love (officially credited as a Lennon/McCartney composition). The then recently psychedelicized mop-tops performed the song live, with a large, participatory audience present. The lyrics embodied Lennon’s statement to the world that, through love, altruism, community, togetherness, cooperation, understanding and unified will, the great mass of average, working class people and student youth movement could build a better world, without divisions and bigotry, without the kind of competitive antagonism which disunites people, creates classes and castes, and yields, ultimately, to a hierarchy pitting people and groups against one another as they struggle to accumulate the dreams for wealth and power which always remains outside their grasp, while simultaneously taking away even the opportunity for the poor to eke out meager sustenance and survival.

The star studded audience present incorporated their energy, symbolizing a united world joining The Beatles as they performed – everyone, everywhere lifting their hearts in one voice crying out the paean that All You Need Is Love! Well, my beautiful friends, the time to make that symbol a reality arises, this moment presents itself as an opportunity to get 6 billion people out in the streets together, spontaneously singing with one voice that, indeed, All You Need Is Love. With the internet, the word can be spread immediately, along with the agenda, the list of demands and the program to be presented.

The Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam drew up a blueprint for how to make a mass movement of voices the world over heard and felt. That antiwar movement got together on the 15th of the each month and stayed out of work and school. They didn’t buy anything. The only thing they did was go out of their homes wearing black armbands and participated in demonstrations against the war.

It is obvious that there is big money made in war. The Moratorium intended to attack the war by creating a desire to counteract the profitability of war, the real reason for waging war, not because of the bullshit platitudes and phony political excuses men in monkey suits read on TV. Those Moratorium idealist participants sought to remove the incentive for waging war. Those demonstrators understood that as long as war remains profitable, it will be waged. It’s the profits, baby. Follow the money and you'll see the causes and desires of any political action. The protesters also understood the bottom line of all corporations contributing to the war effort could be dramatically cut if a concerted effort was made to boycott products made by those corporations intimately enmeshed in the military-industrial complex. The antiwar movement realized the only way to make a point was to put a dent in corporate profits. Shut businesses and commerce down for a day per month became the theme of dissent.

One World Day can change the future. John Lennon told you that you can have anything you want if you want it badly enough and are willing to work for it. He said, "If the world wants peace, they'll have peace. But they have to want peace more than another television set."

Listen groovy babies, here’s the secret, all you’ve got to do is be dedicated, persistent and determined. But you have to start and you can’t stop once you do start. Pick a day, any day of the month. Start with 50 people in one hamlet, somewhere. Somebody must prove brave enough to go first. Step out into your street and sing All You Need Is Love. Refuse to go to work or school that day. Don’t buy anything. Don’t spend any money. Let everyone you know in on your subversive little plot. Enlist volunteers across your little corner of the world. Plant the seed and watch it grow.

Keep meeting on your street on the same day every month like the cabal of revolutionaries you are, brothers and sisters. Like a vine, the movement will catch on and spread out over fertile soil. More and more people will catch the fever, just like a wave at a ballpark or a cheer at an arena. You no longer possess a reason to keep serving masters!

Why let a few thousand politicians and corporate monkey suits tell you what to do, how to live your life, determine who will live and die, who will eat and go hungry and who will sleep in the dirt or in a palatial home? There’s too many of you, and they need you too badly for their profits and their votes and their taxes to ignore you if 6 billion of you walk outside on the same day and sing All You Need Is Love together everywhere across the world, all refusing to work and go to school that day, and all refusing to buy anything that day. Can you dig the power in that?

What do we want as people?

We want human dignity.

We want to know we will be fed everyday and that the food will be healthy, nutritious and tasty.

We want to know we will have a place to sleep every night.

We want to know that when we are sick, we can see a doctor and be properly cared for as opposed to being turned away or have some insurance company say we aren’t covered or we cannot have the medication a trained and professional doctor prescribes for us.

We want to know we will be able to find meaningful employment in a career of our choice, finding fulfillment and satisfaction through contributing to our communities.

We want to know our children will be properly educated.

We all want a fair share of the abundance harvested from commerce.

We want sufficient time to share with our families and loved ones and to enjoy a reasonable quality of life rather than spending nearly every waking moment devoted to earning obscene amounts of profits for the corporations employing us.

We want to know we will live in a world free from pollution and pass that clean world on to our children.

We want to live in a world where weapons of mass destruction do not exist.

We want to live in a world without standing armies and huge military arsenals.

We want to live in a world that will allow us to get along with our neighbors.

We want to live in a world where there is real equality and equal opportunity for everyone, everywhere, and without special treatment for the rich, famous and powerful.

We want to live in a world where we can feel like a vital, honored, respected, valued and integral member.

How do we get all that?

Go out and stand in your street and sing All You Need Is Love. When someone asks you what you are doing, tell them you are preparing the world for unity, love and understanding. Tell them you are participating in One World Day. When they ask what that means, tell them what you want, or write down your list from what is suggested above.

Then, tell them you won’t buy any products that day and you won’t work that day as a protest against the world you’ve been forced to accept. This isn’t the world you made or wanted, it’s the world monkey suits have bequeathed you. Tell them you don’t want the monkey suits’ world anymore and won’t participate in it anymore. Then, month after month, go out and do it again and again. And don’t stop!

This is your world and your life. Stop settling for what you’re given. Take what you want. But do it non-violently. You cannot create change if the change is based on violence. Violence will only beget more violence. The result of using violence would be a reactionary cycle of violence. Any violent actions you exhibit will provide the monkey suits with an excuse to beat you down with their clubs and their tear gas and their bullets and their tanks.

But if all you do is stand there singing All You Need Is Love, what can they do? If all you do is refuse to go to work and boycott purchasing products one day every month while you sing a song in the streets with your family, friends and neighbors, what can anyone do to you? Even if you decide to stop buying any and all products from specific companies because those companies are linked to the military-industrial complex, what can any legitimate government do about it?

Not a damn thing flaming groovies!

Leaders talk about bringing change. They buy you off with words and platitudes and dreams which they will never deliver and cannot deliver because the monkey suits won't allow it. When politicians are bought with money from men in monkey suits – corporate CEOs, lobbyists, promoters, advertisers, TV moguls and newscasters who are paid to represent the interests of those monkey suited money interests and campaign donors – they owe those monkey suits favors and loyalty to the agenda those monkey suits think up and pass on as their agenda.

Change gets lost in the day-to-day operations of business as usual. Change will never come from the silver-tongued plastic-fronts funded by the monkey suits who sit in elected offices. Change will never come clothed by the plastic money that the monkey suits’ use to tempt and buy the leaders and elected officials of governments. Neither Demoncrat nor Repugnican in the US, neither Slavours nor Consneervatives in Britain will ever bring you change, because they are owned by the monkey suits and devoted to the monkey suited mania they call the economy.

Change will only come from you! Change will only come when you demand it and force both your leaders and the men in the monkey suits to accept it. Change will only occur when people stand up together, holding hands across the boundaries of all nations, and sing together in one voice the paean of their shared desires and mutual interests. Change is your birthright: all you have to do is take it. To take it, all you have to do is sing All You Need Is Love together, one day a month, every month, in one voice, until 6 billion of you are brave enough to all sing it together – holding hands across all national borders – so loudly that your voices will be heard in the heavens and even the monkey suits will have to take notice. All you have to do is take that one day, call it One World Day and boycott commerce in every way. All you have to do is boycott all products made by corporations involved in the military-industrial complex. All you have to do is, as Gandhi said, "be the change you want to see" – be love, give love, feel love and sing love. Then, love will fill your world. Then, the world you live in will really be your world.

One World Day is your day, dream it, plan it, practice it, demonstrate it, and perpetuate it though persistence and insistence. Bring One World Day to every street corner. Become one loving mass of humanity, and create the most significant historical moment in the annals of time! History is waiting for all of your beautiful souls, all of your loving hearts, to set the world aflame with your passion, your wisdom and your caring to become a Unity of Love and seed the clouds with a rain of love that will create a Reign of Love upon the planet that can last forever. That would be so psychedelic! Can you dig it?

This article is reprinted and was originally published by The Glasgow Review in their Fall issue.