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Something
hit me very hard once, thinking about what one little man
could do. Think of the Queen Mary--the whole ship goes
by and then comes the rudder. And there's a tiny thing at the
edge of the rudder called a trim tab.
It's a
miniature rudder. Just moving the little trim tab builds a low
pressure that pulls the rudder around. Takes almost no effort
at all. So I said that the little individual can be a trim
tab. Society thinks it's going right by you, that it's left
you altogether. But if you're doing dynamic things mentally,
the fact is that you can just put your foot out like that and
the whole big ship of state is going to go.
So I said,
call me Trim Tab.
--Buckminster
Fuller
I
would
like to make a couple of adjustments to what some very
thoughtful people have been offering, in an effort to change
the course of our ship of state. Many have pointed
out correctly that this ship we're on is headed directly into
the rocks. If we don't change course it will crash
and sink, and our ship will be lost along with its crew and
cargo. We need to change course, but trying to
communicate with the captain and his senior officers has
proved nearly impossible and very inefficient. But
we need to do something quickly or there will not be time
enough to move this ship before it comes to a dreadful end:
1.
There are those who say that it is not the job of visionaries
to seek leadership positions. I say this idea is
pure nonsense. What we have today is a world
turned upside down with our leaders being selected on the
basis of their fame or wealth rather than for their wisdom and
character. The best way to communicate with our
leaders is not to spend our energies trying to tell them what
we want or need, which they have demonstrated by their actions
are totally outside their ability to understand or feel.
Rather the best way to communicate what we want, is to spend
our time and energies locating individuals among us who have the wisdom and strength of character to
already know what
we want and need.
Find
these people and support them in applying for the job of public
servant.
What
we have now are people who want to rule or exploit rather than
to serve. They need to be replaced if we ever expect our
children to one day live in country that is truly striving for
universal peace, freedom, and economic security.
It's true that we can no longer depend on our
mainstream media to give such people a voice. In fact,
the system we are now operating under is designed to exclude
such people from ever holding office. But the
opportunity is not totally closed. We've been
indoctrinated into believing that the mechanisms for advancing
such people into leadership roles no longer exists.
But so far, no government official goes into the voting
booth with us when we vote on election day. That
means we still can, if we have the will and the foresight, to vote for
whomever we want.
What
I am suggesting is that we stop trying to influence
politicians who are not intellectually or morally mature
enough to lead, and replace them with people who are.
In other words, stop voting for Democrats or
Republicans. Stop voting for anyone who belongs to
a political party. Instead, find people who you
believe have the consciousness, character, and vision to serve
rather than to rule or govern. Stop wasting your time trying to influence an
institution that operates as an antithesis to its originally
intended purpose.
2.
Stop supporting institutions that don't support you.
When the bus system in Alabama refused to change their
practice of making blacks sit in the back of buses,
inspired citizens finally figured out that the best way to
change the minds of the bus company's management was to stop
riding the buses altogether. It was, to be sure,
an inconvenience to walk rather than to ride the bus.
But when the black community stopped riding the buses, the bus
company found that it was even more inconvenient for them.
They didn't like losing the income that the black community
was providing by using their transportation services.
Their company's income, it turns out, was more important to
management and stockholders than their prejudice.
Stop watching or listening to the news that's being offered by
the mainstream media. If we stop using their
services they will eventually change. Stop
watching all programs when they are offered, but instead tape
them, and watch them later when you can skip over the
commercials. Stop buying the products being
advertised. We don't need all those drugs and processed
GMO foods.
When the government adopts a
single payer healthcare system, like Medicare for all, and the
news and programming actually supports our dignity as
citizens, we can begin to use their services again.
Why should we accept a system that makes people slaves to
their
employers by forcing us to work for them on their terms in
order to retain decent health care for ourselves and our
families? Having decent health care is a
basic human right and should not be dependent on our
employment or income. Other countries have already proven
that universal heath care services can be provided at less
cost and with better outcomes than we have. Why not
learn from what others have already accomplished.
Governments and corporations in a
democracy are supposed to serve the People, not manage,
dominate, or enslave them. If we have the
courage and the fortitude, we can turn things around.
But we must have that courage, fortitude and self respect if
we expect to be treated with dignity. We don't
have to fight anyone. We only have to believe in
ourselves, even if it's a bit inconvenient (or maybe
even a great sacrifice) for awhile. If we don't respect
ourselves enough to value our own freedom and dignity, we are surely
going to lose it all. And if you're black, you're going to
lose it again, which is doubly tragic...
(wasn't 250 years enough?).
Last
time, a person could be made a slave simply because of the
color of their skin. This time it will be because our
civil rights and dignity will be (like most everything else in
our culture) for sale. It's already getting to the point where
these are things a lot of us can no longer afford.
Last
time the color of one's skin was only an excuse and strategy.
It always was about economics without compassion.
Exploiting
other people for personal gain seems to be a flawed state of
consciousness which too many of us in this culture find it
hard to outgrow. And as you can see, some of us can
remain very numb and cold as we go about taking advantage of
other people for what we believe is in our own best
interest. It isn't.
One
thing is for sure: Those who refuse to protect and
defend the rights and freedoms of others, are destined to one
day lose their own.
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