Strategy Workshop
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CONTENTS:
Introduction
Worldview
Our Situation
The System

• Internal Methods of Control
  • The Stick
  • The Carrot
  • Conditioning
• External Methods of Control
  • Legalized Bribery
  • Divide and Conquer
  • Police Power
  • Racism and Imperialism

Changing the System

• Personal Growth
• Spirituality
• Community
• Health
• Families
• Environment
• Economy
• Education
• Media
• Internet and Computers
• Art and Culture
• Recreation and Sports
• Science and Technology
• Government

Summary and Conclusion

We need progress everywhere: personal, social, cultural, economic, environmental, and political. There won’t be a major breakthrough in one arena until there is a major breakthrough in every arena. Steady, coordinated, simultaneous, mutually reinforcing, comprehensive progressive change could place us on an upward spiral leading to the transformation of our entire society, ourselves included.

Too often, progressive activists, like most Americans, are too arrogant, judgmental, self-centered, power-hungry, fearful, angry, competitive, lifeless, intellectual, uptight, racist, sexist, domineering, and/or dehumanizing. These tendencies make us less effective than we could be.

A life-affirming movement rooted in joy, celebration, creative expression, compassion, and cultural enrichment could produce loving communities that help us become better human beings, without aiming to make everyone the same. We can welcome our differences, while discouraging actions that violate the rights of others.

For many people, personal growth involves “spiritual” growth. Progressives who do not consider themselves spiritual need to respect spiritual traditions that are not oppressive. And those who do consider themselves spiritual need to avoid insisting that others use their own language. The deepest realities can’t be expressed with words. By clarifying what we share in common, we can find language that makes sense to the greatest number.

Rather than spread fear and hatred, we can expand hope and love. Instead of blaming specific individuals or groups, we can deal with our underlying social system, which consists of institutions and a culture that work together primarily to protect the rich and powerful. Our major institutions – government, media, education, family, religion, economy, entertainment, sports, science, etc. – all support one another to serve that purpose.

And by planting its culture in our hearts and minds, this social system reproduces itself, regardless of who holds power at any particular time. The players come and go, but the game remains the same. We need to change the rules, our culture, and our selves, all at the same time. When we do, we will have changed "the system."

Steady change can lead to qualitative transformation. Adding heat turns water into steam. Biological evolution transforms one species into another. Likewise, human social evolution has moved humanity up to new levels of political and cultural organization. Now we need to move to a new stage and preventing problems by correcting root causes.

First of all, we need to clarify that our primary purpose is to serve the common good. Then we can restructure our institutions to serve that purpose.

We also must honor another American ideal –- that all people are created equal. Everyone therefore deserves a real voice in affairs that affect them. By expanding democracy throughout society, we can overcome the top-down propaganda that teaches people to submit to power without question. We can make it possible for everyone to be all that they can be.

By coming together, we can fulfill America's promise, reinforce our finest qualities, and insist that our institutions live up to their highest ideals. By applying the same approach in every arena with a nonviolent “middle way,” we can create a society that is truly democratic, just, loving, and peaceful -- and protects the environment.

We need not wait for crises to worsen. Current troubles should be all the motivation we need. The whole world cries out for action.

Major progress will require a unified, massive, nationwide grassroots movement able to mobilize millions of Americans in support of demands supported by a majority of the American people. Given the enormous number of issues on the table, the broad range of progressive-minded people must unite on occasion to accomplish together what we can never accomplish separated (especially in terms of national policy, which is critical).

We must learn how to support one another regularly with massive actions. When issues become hot, we must act quickly. So we need broad coalitions that stay together over time. With that unity, we could generate real momentum by winning victories.

Many progressive-minded Americans are discouraged. But when we can mobilize a million or more people to take united action regularly, we’ll inspire millions more to take action occasionally, because most people want to know that their efforts will make a difference before they invest their time, energy, or money.

To build this grassroots power, we need to agree on our long-term goals. We need a vision that is grand enough to inspire people who want major change and practical enough to attract those who want to make a difference in the short term. We need a vision that would help coalitions stay together over time by reducing divisive arugments about next steps. And we need a vision with clear, honest, coherent, stable goals so that members and potentials members will know where we're headed. Agreeing on long-term goals will help build trust, which will help recruit the numbers that we need.

This Declaration is offered as a framework for such a coalition of individuals and organizations. We hope that it will help build a truly effective movement for a new America.

Perhaps an existing organization will form a new coalition to achieve the goals expressed in this Declaration. Or it could lead to a new organization, or other possibilities. We’re not sure what the results will be.

But if you basically agree with the Declaration for a New America, even if you don’t agree with every word, please let us know. Together, we can change the world.

All life is sacred. As human beings, our responsibility is to nourish life, care for one another, help each other steadily become better human beings, and leave the world in better shape than we found it.

To fulfill these responsibilities, we need to develop partnerships rooted in humility and respect - partnerships with our lovers and spouses, partnerships with our co-workers, partnerships between employers and employees, partnerships between businesses and community, partnerships between teachers, parents, and students, partnerships with our fellow activists and friends, partnerships with other nations, and a partnership between humanity and Mother Nature.

The time for domination (and submission) is over. Top-down, one-way relationships don't work in the long run. We must stop treating each other and the environment like disposable objects.

Negative emotions get the best of us from time to time. Unruly children can prompt us to impose excessive punishment. Fear and anxiety can lead us to overreact or freeze up inside. Violations of our human rights and terrorist attacks can provoke anger and lead to the desire for revenge.

But we need to rise above these feelings, let them go, and not allow these impulses to lead us into irrational over-reactions that are counter-productive. Firm discipline, law-and-order, and self-defense are essential. People need a certain amount of security, comfort, and peace-and-quiet. But if taken to the extreme, pursuing these goals simply create more problems than they solve. We need to grow to a higher level rooted in love.

Since joy is contagious, the more you are turned on, the more I am turned on. Since my power depends on our power, the more powerful you are, the more powerful I am. We need to be partners in joy and power.

It's not all about you. It's not all about me. It's about us. It's about life. We are called to love all life.

The point of life is to perpetuate itself and to grow into higher and more complex forms. We do look after our children, grandchildren, ourselves, co-workers, neighbors and all of humanity.

We can love others at the same time and in the same way that we love ourselves. We can find a middle way between self-sacrifice and selfishness. We can take care of ourselves so that we can take care of others. We can inspire each other to achieve our personal best.

We can accept reality, change what we can change, and let the rest go, at least for now. We can fuly experience grief, pain, resentment, and anger, so we can get over it and move on with a positive love of life.

We can increase our awareness of being at one with the universe, our fellow humans, and life itself. We can learn to respect all people and be open, without closing ourselves off. We can trust our deepest selves and express ourselves freely and honestly, with freshness and spontaneity.

When a natural disaster wipes out entire communities, our heart instantly pours out with sympathy - not out of self-interest but because we automatically care. When children are born into lives of bone-crushing poverty, we care. When tens of thousands of children throughout the world die needlessly every day, we care. When a beautiful tropical rainforest is devastated, we care.

We care because we love life. In the back of our mind, we may understand karma: what goes around, comes around. But if we give in order to receive, the karma is minimized. If I scratch your back only so that you will scratch my back, our pleasure is reduced. Authentic love is not a calculation. As a backup argument, I may persuade you to scratch my back by offering to scratch your back. But I would prefer that you scratch my back because you want to.

If we come together as a human community rooted in partnerships, we can create a New America dedicated to improving the quality of life for all people. We can build a more loving, just, environmentally sound, and democratic society that treats other nations fairly as members of a global community.

This country is torn. On one hand, we hold high ideals and we have achieved remarkable progress. On the other hand, we do not fully honor those ideals. We need to be honest about our weaknesses if we are to grow as a nation.

All of our institutions are profoundly interwoven into a self-perpetuating social system that reproduces itself in our hearts, minds, and bodies. External injustice becomes internalized oppression. Until we change this system, we can only place Band-Aids on gaping wounds.

In 1912 Theodore Roosevelt stated, "Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people.... [an] unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics." We suffer the same condition today.

Aldous Huxley wrote in 1946:

The Bush Administration has clearly followed this script by increasing the unilateral power of the Presidency while waging its "war on terror."

Selfishness prevails. A majority of young adults expect to be rich some day. Because they care so much about getting rich, they care less about the common good.

Most Americans assume:

1. the super rich deserve their wealth - even if they got their money through luck, the advantages of birth, or unethical behavior.
2. the poor are to blame for their poverty - even though the number of living-wage jobs is far less than the number of workers who need them.

Moreover, many Americans don't question power in the public arena because they don't want their power questioned at home.

Too often, we become fearful and care too much about money and material goods. For the sake of security, we sacrifice our ideals, remain passive, and submit to power. We become ego-centered and selfish, and don't work enough for justice, fairness, and equal opportunity in the public arena.

We are in a downward spiral headed toward even greater disasters. To reverse course, we must change our selves, our culture, and our entire society. As Martin Luther King, Jr. said:

A system is a group of inter-connected elements that work together as an integrated whole to perform a particular function. The various components of a system interact to create a reality that is greater than the sum of its parts.

Systems adjust to maintain stability over time. A worker, for example, can cope with a bad job by getting sick, which enables the worker to escape temporarily. But after medical treatment or rest cures the sickness and the worker returns to the workplace, the work situation leads to another illness. The cycle repeats itself, the worker keeps the job, and the boss is satisfied. This pattern can last indefinitely.

A society is a social system. Since human beings are purposeful creatures, social systems are devoted to a common purpose. To endure over time, a social system must have a purpose.

Modern societies are based on formal public institutions (such as education, government, economy, media, religion, entertainment, sports, and science), informal social institutions (such as families), and a common culture whose ideas and values are embedded within individuals. All of these elements work together.

Understanding the social system that prevails in America at this time is important for the following reasons.

• Real solutions often require that we correct causes, rather than merely attack symptoms. Otherwise, our actions can make matters worse, or allow the system to re-create the same problem.
• A long-term vision of systemic change could help inspire people who want to do more than tinker.
• Agreement on a long-term commitment to systemic change could help hold the progressive movement together over the long haul.
• We need to talk about the System because we need to have the courage to face reality and speak the truth. As Martin Buber said, "One gains power over a nightmare by addressing it by its real name."
• We need to know what we're up against so we can be more effective.
• Understanding how the System operates reduces the risk that we'll scapegoat certain elements of the System - such as corporations, rich people, politicians, a particular President, the media, the ruling elite, the American people, the Republicans, or whomever.
• Understanding the System leads to supporting all forms of progressive change, rather than insisting that one's own approach is the best strategy. Simultaneous change throughout society can be mutually reinforcing, as the various components of the System are mutually reinforcing.
• Understanding the System helps to avoid the mistake of believing that self-improvement alone is sufficient. Changing the world and changing ourselves are complementary, and each is necessary. Political action can contribute to personal growth.
• Understanding the System can prompt progressives to correct personal and organizational weaknesses that undermine the effectiveness of political work.

For all of these reasons, we need to understand the System so we can transform it.

Americans intuitively understand comments about "the system." Popular culture and mass advertising often include references to it. We need to develop and clarify this base understanding.

As one can determine the purpose of a tree by its fruit, one can determine our System's purpose by the nature of our society.

Two central facts stand out concerning America today:

• One percent of the population owns almost 50 percent of the nation's wealth.
• We have "the best government that money can buy."

These conditions are not God-given. The System manufactures these realities -- because the System's primary mission is to increase the wealth and power of the rich and powerful. More than any other force, this dynamic explains how and why our society works.

America is not a land of equal opportunity. From childhood on, the super-rich use their enormous advantages for their own benefit and they pass on those advantages to their children and grandchildren. Less powerful individuals gain favors from the elite by doing their bidding. The federal government, global corporations, and the military are tightly interwoven, concentrating wealth and power in the hands of a self-serving elite. Absent any intervention from the majority of people, there is an inherent tendency for the few who are richest and most powerful to get richer and more powerful.

The process of selecting the managers of the System is somewhat open. Any adolescent can resolve to enter the upper ranks of power, but only a few succeed. The System selects its managers carefully, with a heavy bias in favor of the sons and daughters of the elite. The "old boys network" weeds out applicants who don't play the game properly, and it discards those who challenge the System too strongly. The overwhelming majority of Americans never rise much above the status of their parents.

The governing elite moves easily back-and-forth through the revolving door of big business, media, the military, and government, enriching themselves and their friends along the way. This elite consists of an identifiable group of people who share common values and characteristics. They circulate in the highest circles and collaborate closely to wield controlling influence over all of our major institutions. This elite manages and directs all of our major institutions.

The lust for power and the desire to make money have merged to the point that these two motivations are indistinguishable. Greed is critical, but so is the urge to dominate. Money is a way to keep score. Life has become a never-ending competition, as people strive for more money and more power.

The System perpetuates itself by treating people like objects and glorifying objects. Emotions and other inner experiences, which cannot be measured, are disrespected. Quantity rules; quality suffers.

Physical appearance, clothes, income, luxuries, cars, and houses are the gods of modern society. The material world supplants the non-material world. The mind is reduced to the brain. Lovers become commodities. Human beings become cogs in the Machine -- objects that worship objects and treat each other like objects.

The System uses three internal, or psychological, tools to get most Americans to buy its dream of upward mobility: the stick, the carrot, and conditioning.

The primary stick is the threat of poverty. Most Americans either live in poverty or face the threat of poverty. And the under-employed stand ready to take jobs when people are fired or laid off.

This situation is not necessary for economic prosperity. Many European countries with capitalist economies have productive workers even though they have full employment, long paid vacations, and social support programs to guard against poverty.

Most people naturally want to demonstrate their abilities and advance their position. Using fear, however, makes it easier to keep wages down and profits up (in the short run). So in America, the managers of the System limit the number of living-wage jobs. The System manufactures poverty.

So workers go along to get along, do what they're told, and hope to find a way to get ahead. They buy into the System and try to climb the ladder of success.

Another tool that the System uses to perpetuate itself is to seduce people with the carrot of upward mobility. By bombarding people with images of the rich and famous and the objects that they possess, Americans are led into being copycats. People devote their lives to "keeping up with the Jones."

A similar pattern is observed with regard to power. Americans tend to support the elite because they identify with and admire authoritarian power. Might makes right, or so it is assumed. For every Napoleon in the official corridors of power, countless little Napoleons try to dominate others in their own kingdoms. People assume that some one person must always be in charge, whether on the dance floor, at work, or in bed. The notion that "all men are created equal" is reserved for the ballot box. Relating as equals becomes an experience that is rare if not forgotten.

Instead, we dominate or obey, depending on the situation. We either presume to be superior, or we defer. We forget how to relate to others openly, fully, from the heart, honestly, mutually, as children do naturally. Productivity is idolized and people become workaholics, aiming to have their egos stroked with praise and respect.

We get hung up in our future-oriented, analytical mind. We internalize the values of the dominant culture, reduce reality to objects, and glorify productivity. We reproduce the System.

To perpetuate itself, the System must get inside our head. Our entire society is designed to get people to ignore the voice of conscience, accept unspeakable brutality as natural and legitimate, decline to challenge that brutality, and instead pursue an ego-centered life of comfort for themselves and their immediate family.

This indifference is not natural. When human beings see an infant drowning, for example, they instinctively want to save that infant. Yet more than 40,000 people die every day from a "silent tsunami" inflicted primarily by the American-dominated global economic order. Most of those deaths could easily be prevented. But the super-rich hoard wealth for themselves and most people proceed with their daily lives without lifting a finger. This blindness does not happen automatically or by accident. It is manufactured.

The conditioning begins at home, where children learn to stop asking why and to do what they are told simply because they're told to do it. In school, students learn that only a few will "win" and that everyone else "loses" and must learn to accept their "place" in the social pecking order. This tracking is key to the perpetuation of the System. Children learn to submit to people who have more power than they do and to dominate those who have less power. They learn to admire the powerful and disrespect the powerless.

The mass media, concentrated in the hands of a few mega-corporations, reinforces these messages with an unrelenting, repetitive onslaught of propaganda and myth making, with a constant undercurrent of fear-inducing news reports. The worship of celebrities. The glorification of luxury goods. Incessant advertising that is spreading into every nook and cranny. Entertainment that ridicules ordinary people and idolizes the wealthy and powerful. A sports industry that commercializes athletics. Increasingly, society is being turned into a meat market.

These diversions serve to distract people from real issues. When the corporate media does address reality, it usually does so in a very narrow and superficial way. Most importantly, it seldom reports fully on issues that challenge the profit-making interests of its owners. News organizations routinely allow the Administration in power to set the agenda and the terms of debate. To gain access to valuable leaks, reporters refrain from irritating their sources and basically become stenographers, reporting what the elites have to say rather than digging for actual facts. And their reporting seldom includes analysis of underlying social forces or hidden agendas.

The System, managed by a rotating governing elite, complements these internal methods of social control with various external methods of maintaining political control. Principal among these methods are legalized bribery, "divide and conquer," police power, and imperialism.

Despite pervasive cultural conditioning, the American people still hold progressive positions on most issues. Consequently, the System employs legalized bribery to insure that our elected officials enable those who are already wealthiest and most powerful to preserve and increase their wealth and power.

Controlling the government is key. As Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said, "We have a system that is designed to corrupt politicians and to deny any politician who refuses to be corrupted a place in power." Some exceptions do occur, especially on the local and state level, but getting a progressive voice in the Senate is rare indeed and the White House is even more remote.

The enormous cost associated with campaigning for federal office leaves candidates beholden to wealthy donors. Once elected, highly paid lobbyists who serve the interests of corporate and financial power brokers swarm upon our elected officials. When they leave office, legislators who benefit powerful special interests are often rewarded handsomely with well-paid positions in the private sector. And while they're in office, they know that those jobs are waiting.

Rewards are seldom handed over immediately after or prior to a specific vote. The parties involved always claim that they were only buying "access." But fat cats spend all that money for one reason: it works.

Historically, colonial empires separated ethnic groups, selected one group as surrogate ruler, and manipulated resentments between groups to provoke conflict and undermine opposition. Our founders who wrote the U.S. Constitution knew this history and adapted it to their situation. In a 1787 letter to Thomas Jefferson, James Madison wrote, "It may be asked how private rights will be more secure.... Divide et impera (divide and conquer), the reprobated axiom of tyranny, is, under certain qualifications, the only policy by which a republic can be administered on just principles."

The founders concern about "private rights" was prompted by keen awareness of serious threats from "levelers" who wanted to equalize wealth and power. So they allowed individual states to limit voting rights to white male landowners and they carefully crafted a "separation of powers" with "checks and balances" that made it difficult to change the status quo.

Congress is divided into two houses, with each holding the power to block legislation. Senators are elected only every six years, which makes them less responsive to popular pressure. A Senate minority can block bills with the filibuster. When the President vetoes legislation, a two-thirds majority is required to pass the law. The judiciary can declare legislation unconstitutional based on questionable interpretations. Powers not explicitly granted to the federal government by the Constitution are reserved to the states, which makes united action nationwide more difficult.

This dispersal of responsibility protects elites by blocking majoritarian popular movements aiming for significant change.

In addition to these structures, political leaders have often inflamed divisions and conflicts among the people. In particular, they've used racism to divide whites and people of color. As President Lyndon Johnson told Bill Moyers, "If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you." John Erlichman, chief domestic-affairs advisor to President Richard Nixon, acknowledged that the Nixon campaign used racism in its successful electoral strategy. "It was subtler than code words. It was, 'I'm on your side,'" Erlichman said. "I know he saw Johnson's embrace of blacks as an opportunity. He exploited it."

In recent years, with detailed computerized analysis, electoral strategists categorize individual voters into countless sub-groups based on individual preferences and characteristics. This data enables them to cobble together a slight majority by pushing "hot buttons." This politics of "intense minorities" turns groups against each other and makes it more difficult for them to unite for the common good.

Only the government can legally use force to jail people. This monopoly on violence is essential to governmental power. Always lurking in the background is the threat of police action. Police power helps keep the general population in line and all societies need stability. Rooted in community involvement, nonviolent conflict resolution, social justice, and the use of force only as a last resort, effective policing protects people against criminals who violate the rights of others.

Unfortunately, however, police forces often violate individual rights and deter social and political reform. Throughout the history of this country, agents of the government have used violence against political agitators to weaken legitimate rebellion. It is not unusual for police forces to attack nonviolent demonstrators with excessive force, which provokes violent reactions that escalate into a spiral of increasing violence.

These incidents discourage participation in political demonstrations by people who prefer to avoid threatening situations. In addition, initial public sympathy for protestors often decreases as the general public, concerned about the loss of law and order in general, become outraged by the violence of the protestors. On many occasions, paid "agent provocateurs" directed by the government have escalated confrontations, presumably as a way to jusitify arrests and discredit rebels. In these ways, police violence radicalizes protest movements, which isolates the protestors from the mainstream and renders them less effective.

The use of police power to maintain the status quo is also reflected in our criminal justice and psychiatric institutions, where (mostly poor) people are locked up, brutalized, and neglected. Percentage wise, the United States has several times more people incarcerated than is the case with most other industrialized countries (the other exception being Russia). Once released, inmates are largely left on their own to cope without adequate support services, as are homeless people, foster children, and impoverished senior citizens. It is probably no coincidence that the two most highly militarized countries in the world, the United States and Russia, also incarcerate the most people. Faith in violence spreads throughout society. And, in the short run, it works. Progressive change is suppressed.

These conditions, well known by the general public, send a clear message: toe the line or else you could end up there yourself. An undercurrent of fear serves to promote conformity.

From its founding, American prosperity has been based on overlapping racism and imperialism. The enslavement of Africans was central to this country’s early economic growth. Westward expansion, sanctioned by the Indian Removal Act, required the coercive removal of Native Americans from their homes. And a series of wars and military actions have enabled the United States to seize foreign lands and/or directly dominate other countries for the benefit of American business interests. This exploitation has consistently been justified with racist rhetoric.

Land grabs were vindicated in the name of "Manifest Destiny," the belief that naturally superior white Americans had a divinely inspired mission to spread their form of civilization to lands populated by people of color.

In 1823, the Monroe Doctrine proclaimed that the United States, rather than Europe, would dominate South and Central America.

Starting the Mexican War in the slave-holding province of Texas, after Mexico abolished slavery in 1824, enabled the United States to seize half of Mexico's territory all the way to California (and gave the South two key pro-slavery votes in the Senate).

The Spanish-American War (1898), also initiated by the United States, grew into a conquest of Spanish territories throughout the Caribbean and the Pacific, including the Phillipines. As Senator John M. Thurston of Nebraska stated, "War with Spain would increase the business and earnings of every American railroad, it would increase the output of every American factory, it would stimulate every branch of industry and domestic commerce."

From 1890 to 1932, the United States military intervened 47 times in countries south of its border or on the Pacific Rim. After World War Two, with the weakened European empires unable to maintain their colonies, the United States expanded its reach into Africa and the Middle East. As of 2004, the United States had engaged in more than 125 military interventions in foreign countries.

Most often, these interventions were intended to establish client states friendly to the economic interests of American businesses. In many cases, these military actions involved overthrowing democratically elected governments that challenged America's efforts to exploit their countries.

In addition, the United States has assisted, encouraged, and supported numerous brutal military dictatorships friendly to American corporations. Since the Vietnam War, training and assistance in torture has been a central element in American foreign policy. The techniques exposed recently in Iraq, to the horror of the world, had been utilized for decades by the American military and its allies throughout the world.

The United States has military bases in more than 100 countries throughout the world and spends as much money on its military as the rest of the world combined. This enormous military spending, which benefits well-connected corporations such as Halliburton, wastes money that could be used more productively by meeting more pressing needs elsewhere.

While this projection of American military power, or "hard imperialism," has been central, "soft imperialism" has also been essential.

In particular, through its control of the control of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, the United States has imposed Structural Adjustment Programs and the "Washington Consensus" that have pressured developing countries to adopt economic policies favorable to the United States in exchange for loans and financial aid.

In addition, partly as a way to discourage other countries from following suit, economic embargoes and sanctions have been used to punish countries that have resisted American policies, even though those embargoes and sanctions have imposed severe hardships on the people of those countries.

These methods have enabled the United States to establish the "American Empire" -- an informal network of legally independent countries that have been largely obedient to the United States (at least until recently when Argentina refused to pay back an IMF loan in September, 2003). As a result, the United States gained access to cheap labor and natural resources in foreign markets, which has primarily benefited American wealthy elites.

These efforts to exploit other countries, often rationalized with appeals to racism, have provoked enormous anti-American sentiment in many regions. The emergence of these forces hostile to the United States has enabled the American governing elite to consolidate its power, for in the face of threats from abroad, Americans tend to support their President.

At the same time, racist ideologies have been utilized to justify the exploitation of poorly paid workers within the United States. Following the abolition of slavery, legalized segregation continued the oppression of African-Americans in the South and de facto segregation has seriously limited opportunities for African-Americans and other people of color elsewhere. This pool of under-employed and unemployed workers willing to work at poverty-level wages out of desperation has proved highly beneficial to employers, while politicians excuse the situation with racist code words that blame poor people for the lack of living-wage jobs.

At the same time, however, these efforts to dominate and exploit other countries has provoked enormous anti-American sentiment in many regions. And the emergence of these forces hostile to the United States has enabled the American governing elite to centralize its power, for in the face of threats from abroad, Americans tend to support their President.

All projects need to begin with a short mission statement. The Preamble to our Constitution provides a good starting point. In only one sentence, it opens:

The phrase "promote the general welfare" is key; it summarizes the complete sentence. "General" means "everyone." No one is disposable. We are called on to love all people. We should assure that all people have a fair and decent opportunity to be all that they can be.

By re-stating that opening to the Constitution's Preamble, we can extend that mission statement for our government to our entire society by making it clear that as a people, our primary purpose is:

After agreeing on a mission statement of this sort, we need to define what it would mean and work throughout society to achieve those goals. In every arena, we need more democracy and less domination. And we need a government that reflects those values and encourages all of us to live accordingly.

We can change the rules of the game throughout society.

In the personal sphere, we need to constantly become better human beings. Given prevailing patterns, we need to be:

• More engaged in the here and now and less wrapped up in our head.
• More trusting and less fearful.
• More positive and less cynical.
• More respectful and less racist, sexist, and elitist.
• More humble and less arrogant.
• More self-critical and less judgmental toward others.
• More open and honest and less secretive and deceitful.
• More responsive and less controlled.
• More spontaneous and less calculating.
• More real and less artificial.
• More compassionate and less selfish.
• More cooperative and less prone to cutthroat competition.
• More forgiving and less revengeful.
• More accepting and less judgmental.
• More peaceful and less violent.
• More joyous and less spiteful.
• More willing and able to ask for helpful support when we need it and less prone to "rugged individualism."
• More willing to give helpful support and constructive criticism when asked, and less prone to impose unwanted advice or assistance because we think we know what's best for others.

We need to treat each other as human beings rather than objects. We need to listen more closely to one another rather than engaging in monologues designed to impress or persuade. We need to communicate our feelings more fully and be less caught up in the world of ideas. We need to tap more fully our entire range of intelligence and creativity and be less stuck in our analytical mind. We need to respect God's creation rather then exploiting it with no concern for the future.

We need to pay more attention to the quality of life rather than just trying to make as much money as possible without really thinking about it. Elaborate

For most people, personal growth involves spiritual development. The varieties of religious experience are enormous. Each individual's faith is unique. Apart from the language we use, however, we need to respect all spiritual paths, encourage believers to refrain from claiming that their tradition is the one true religion, find common ground in universal truths that transcend particular traditions, and support one another's striving to reach higher levels of spiritual awareness. Even those who do not think of themselves as religious or spiritual recognize the value of certain non-material realities and experiences that are difficult if not impossible to explain, including:

• Feeling amazed and humbled by the vastness of the universe.
• Feeling at one with the world and all humanity.
• Sensing that everyone shares a common source (the "Big Bang" or "God").
• Sensing that all life shares a common structure or order.
• Being awe-struck by beauty and joy.
• Feeling the "life force" coursing through one's body.
• Feeling that life is fundamentally good.
• Being a participant, or co-creator, in the mysterious process of natural and human evolution.
• Being aware of how one's mind, or soul, cannot be measured or touched because it is more than one's body.
• Fully appreciating the many non-material realities that give life meaning.

These experiences are generally considered "spiritual." Regardless of nomenclature, however, they are experiences that we need to cultivate, for they can provide a solid foundation for our life and work.

In the social sphere, we need to develop families, friendships, community organizations, and workplaces that empower the greatest number of people to the maximum degree feasible. To the maximum degree possible, we need to take care of each other directly, and call on the government to step in only when necessary.

Hierarchies are necessary, for society needs structure and authority. In many situations, certain people need to give directions and trust that those directions will generally be followed. But the legitimacy of power depends on whether power is exercised wisely. Power needs to serve the common good and not just selfish gain. Power needs to be willing to delegate. Power needs to listen. Power needs to follow as well as lead. Power needs to treat people as the human beings that we are.

Human progress has been characterized by the spread of democracy throughout society. Democracy consists of more than an occasional election. Democracy affirms the equal value of all people and insists that everyone should be free in all aspects of their life -- while recognizing that in certain ways we must agree together to accept some coercion (such as traffic lights) in order to maximize our freedom.

Democracy, and its principle of equality, does not assume that everyone is identical, should have the same income, or vote on every issue. But democracy does assume the right of self-determination and that all people should be equal before the law and have a real voice in affairs that concern them. Democracy is based on the proposition that because all people are equal in the eyes of God, we should treat each other as equals and help each other become more fully empowered. Consequently, we need to maximize democracy and empowerment in all of our institutions.

In health care, we need to move beyond the notion that doctors should make decisions, but rather should develop partnerships with their patients. We should move beyond the biological model that sees human beings as the passive victims of pathogens to be cured merely by the administration of drugs. Rather, we need to develop holistic, integrative medicine, recognize the effect of the mind on the body and the effect of social and cultural conditions on the mind, and advocate social and cultural change as one way to promote health and prevent disease.

NOTE: Talk about Exercise and diet

In our families, we need to move beyond the notions that the father should be the supreme authority, that children should simply learn to obey, and that severe punishment is the best way to teach children self-discipline. Rather, in two-parent families, both parents should be co-equal partners, while dividing responsibilities as needed. All families should involve children in decision-making as much as possible, encourage the curiosity and self-determination of their children, and involve children in community service and political action. And each immediate family should be the center of a large extended family of relatives and friends that is a vibrant, rich, diverse community that exposes everyone to a variety of information and perspectives.

Without community, the individual withers. Our entire society should be a network of overlapping supportive, democratic communities that provide people with opportunities to overcome isolation and engage in meaningful social activities. Our schools, religious institutions, neighborhood centers, recreation centers, parks, community centers, labor union halls, civic associations, and libraries should be devoted to facilitating the development of participatory communities that foster the formation of mutually supportive friendships and social engagement. We need to constantly invent new forms of community that encourage cooperative problem solving, self-help, and mutual support.

A healthy natural environment is also essential to individual and social fulfillment. With the looming threat of multiple catastrophes induced by global warming, the environment is increasing in importance. Immediate action to deal with the risks associated with human-caused climate change is imperative. And we need to move rapidly toward using renewable resources -- such as water, soil, forest products, and marine life -- without exceeding the rates of regeneration for those resources.

NOTE: Talk more about Nuclear energy

In the economy, we need to change corporate charters and other laws to establish that private businesses must be responsible to the long-term public interest, the environment, and the welfare of their workers -- as well as earn profits for their owners. Workers and community stakeholders must be included on corporate boards. Consumers need to use their power through boycotts and the threat of boycotts to persuade businesses to operate responsibly. Workers need to insist that their pension funds be invested in a socially responsible manner. Shareholders need to assert their power within corporations. All of these forces need to converge in support of workers' right to organize, form unions, and maximize workplace democracy, including the development of collaborative work teams in contrast to traditional, authoritarian hierarchies. And we need to promote worker-owned businesses with workers electing representatives to the boards of directors on the basis of one person, one vote -- partly because worker-owned businesses are less likely to shut down and move to another country. In short, we need truly democratic capitalism.

A healthy society requires a healthy educational system. From the moment of birth to the moment of death, human beings are constantly learning, naturally driven toward becoming ever more effective, productive, and creative. Society needs to enhance that life-long learning experience to the maximum degree possible, rather than primarily serving to "socialize" and adjust students to the dominant social order. Though guided repetition is an essential element of learning, self-directed exploration is also important and must be supported as a way to nurture self-determination. The joy of learning, which comes naturally to young children, must constantly be reinforced, rather than stamped out with rigid authoritarianism. The willingness to question authority should be cherished, not resented. And educational systems must always remember that both children and adults learn as much from their peers and from their own self-inquiry as they do from their teachers and parents.

NOTE: Talk about Importance of education from the cradle instead of putting all the responsibility on the school system: interacting with kids, elimination of physical punishment of infants and children, exposing kids to a wide variety of experience, importance of giving them affection, attention, and discipline
cultural inequality

In the modern world, the mass media is key to the educational process. Much of what we learn comes from radio, television, newspapers, and magazines. Reliability, richness, and diversity of information are essential. Consequently, it is very encouraging to see growing, widespread resistance to the increasing consolidation of media ownership in the hands of fewer global corporations. A democracy requires a free marketplace of ideas that provides a diversity of opinion, analysis, and interpretation. Learning and growing require the rough-and-tumble of exposure to contrasting and conflicting realities. If news is managed by the elite and people are herded down a pre-determined path that serves the elite, creativity flounders. So investments in community-based, non-profit, democratic media outlets is critical.

Fortunately, computerized devices and the Internet provide a democratic counter-weight to the growing centralization of media. These new decentralized networks enable ordinary citizens to engage in self-directed research and communicate their findings and analysis, as well as mobilize grassroots political action. Ironically, the computer, once the symbolic epitome of mass dehumanization, has become a tool for liberation. New technologies enable large numbers of people to engage in focused debate and decision-making. Collaborative software makes possible the pooling of collective intelligence in the joint authorship of documents. Open source software is based on trusting co-creation. It is essential that we keep this exciting creative process open, decentralized, and affordable, rather than controlled by giant corporations as profit centers.

Artistic and cultural enrichment is also essential to building a more just and democratic society. The highest purpose of art is to inspire - to induce experiences that enrich the inner life, provide new insights, increase awareness, and prompt people to take action to improve the world. Often rooted in inter-disciplinary, participatory collaborations that build supportive communities as a by-product of the creative process, the arts enable individuals and communities to communicate their sense of identity, concerns, and hopes for the future and to increase broad understanding of those issues. A rich, diverse array of cultural expression is essential to a healthy, vibrant democracy, for it enables all significant segments of the population to have a voice and be heard in the "marketplace of ideas." Yet increasingly, the dominant culture is reducing arts to passive entertainment geared first of all to making money for the wealthy global corporations that invest needed funds. Culture is becoming uniform, monolithic, and formulaic - as epitomized by top-40 radio and network television. The "masses" become objectified consumers whose tastes are manipulated with sophisticated techniques. To counter these trends, we need to strengthen the vibrant community arts network that is dedicated to art-as-action involving ordinary people in artistic expression, collaborating with community-based organizations to give voice to the disenfranchised, making art through the lens of diverse cultures, and creating new tools that integrate, synthesize, and articulate knowledge toward the goal of promoting social justice and personal empowerment.

The current pattern of objectification - turning people into objects -- is clearly reflected in youth athletics. Children are reduced to cogs in machines devoted to winning at any cost. The steroid controversy in professional baseball is only one symptom of a widespread epidemic of cheating in sports (and throughout society). Driving these trends is the enormous money that can be made from sports-as-entertainment. Shoe manufacturers even send agents to public playgrounds to make connections with promising child athletes. And the sports industry relies on passive consumption rather than active participation.

Transforming society, therefore, needs to involve the development of a new approach to sports and recreation. Children should learn valuable life lessons from sports rather than the proposition that winning is everything. We need to restore the maxim, "it's not whether you win or lose but how you play the game that counts." We should affirm the notion that one's "personal best" is good enough. After-school programs, parks, and recreation centers need to be greatly expanded and improved so that young people will be able to participate in rewarding activities. We need to encourage various forms of "cooperative sports" that involve teams competing against their own previous records. We should encourage "couch potatoes" to get outdoors and experience the re-creation that can come from communing with Mother Nature. Vacations can be more than just an escape or a time to vegetate; they can be educational and enriching experiences.

The need to control the profit motive is also seen in the world of science and technology. Increasingly, the pressure to make big bucks quickly is corrupting science even further. Drug companies, biotech firms, weapons labs, and countless other technology-based enterprises, subsidized with tax money that favors commercial research projects, are turning science into profit-generating mechanisms. Conflicts of interest permeate drug testing and scientific journals. Commercial pressures undermine the traditional scientific process of trial and error, peer review, and open debate. Public trust in scientific authority is weakening.

Science reflects the need to develop holistic thinking, examine ultimate goals, and remember that the scientific method will never explain the purpose of life. The public should require ecological screening, or assessments of long-term health and environmental risks, before allowing the sale of new products that emerge from scientific research and development. And public funds should be devoted primarily to research that bears promise for improving the quality of life for all people, not special interests.

With regard to government and politics, creating a New America will also require that we:

• Reform our governmental structures to strengthen democracy.
• Clearly establish that the government is a valuable partner in community-based solutions.
• And build a grassroots force capable of holding elected representatives accountable to the popular will.

As a country that emerged from a rebellion against colonial domination, Americans resist the notion that America should be an Empire that controls other nations. As we want peace in our neighborhood, we want peace in the world. As we want to give needy Americans a helping hand so that they can stand on their own two feet, we want to assist the economic development of other countries. Consequently, our purpose as a nation needs to incorporate not only a commitment to Americans. We also need to accept our responsibility to help improve quality of life for all people.

NOTE: Talk more about Nuclear weapons

We need to implement electoral and lobbying reforms to:

• make elections more competitive,
• give greater voice to a wider range of opinion,
• elect representatives who will be more responsive to the public interest,
• and insulate elected officials from the corrupting influence of well-heeled special interests.

These reforms include:

• public financing of campaigns,
• instant runoff voting,
• a national holiday on Election Day,
• assuring all ex-felons the right to vote,
• requiring that television networks broadcast full debates on the public's airwaves,
• requiring full disclosure of all lobbyists' contributions,
• and preventing elected officials from taking lobbying jobs for at least two years after they leave public office.

These principles especially apply to the federal government. Only the federal government controls movement across its borders (state governments do not), which means that the federal government can generate more tax revenues than states can. Only the federal government prints money. Only the federal government can set national standards that minimize states competing with one another by cutting taxes with deadly "races to the bottom." These unique powers of the federal government give it a special responsibility for the general welfare.

Doctrinaire conservatives believe that the business of America is business. They argue that we should shrink the government and let corporations and financial institutions do whatever they want so that they can make maximize profits without limit as quickly as possible. With this "supply-side economics," they say that if we first enable the super-rich to increase their wealth, the benefits will eventually trickle down to ordinary Americans. With this approach, they make primary that which is secondary, for the common good should come first. As Jim Hightower has said, we need "percolate-up economics."

Conservative orthodoxy makes the means into the end. But money is a tool, not the be-all and end-all. The economy is a mechanism, not the purpose. Rather than making money for the sake of money or in order to establish status or enhance personal power, economic activity should serve to help us improve the quality of our lives, enrich our inner experience, and form relationships that are more fulfilling than is the case when people are struggling to make ends meet.

If given a voice to translate their highest ideals into public policy, the American people would hold the government responsible for regulating and managing the economy. We believe that businesses have moral responsibilities beyond the bottom line, including obligations to their workers, their communities, the environment, and future generations. We expect the government to hold businesses accountable to these obligations. We expect the government to act on our behalf to meet pressing needs that would otherwise be unmet (partly because there's no way to make a profit in meeting many personal and social needs). And we consider it only fair that wealthy people who have relied so much on society's support give back to society in the form of taxation based on the ability to pay.

But the government has not lived up to its obligations. Rather, the government has facilitated the corruption of our society and culture.

If public policy reflected public opinion, this country would be much different and greatly improved. Yet our elected representatives routinely ignore the opinions of their constituents. We must correct this lack of accountability by building a new national organization, or coalition of existing organizations, powerful enough to persuade our elected officials to honor the public's will. Doing so will expand the horizon of what seems possible and pave the way for needed changes not yet endorsed by a majority of the American people.

For these reasons, we need to build a national popular movement powerful enough to insist that the federal government uphold its responsibilities, assure that all Americans can earn a living wage, manage the economy for the common good, reduce the gap between wealthy and low-income people, maximize security against foreign attack, and safeguard the environment.

Our society works together as a well-integrated System. Although there are exceptions to every rule, and progressive changes are underway in many arenas, certain patterns hold true.

By law, corporations are required to maximize profit. So they neglect the public interest, treat workers like objects, destroy the environment, and mislead consumers with false advertising.

The government, corrupted with legalized bribery, primarily serves the interests of the elite and manipulates the public with smoke-and-mirrors.

The mainstream media, concentrated in the hands of a few giant corporations, limits the communication of vital information and primarily serves as an advertising vehicle for private business.

As they increasingly become vehicles for advertising, schools "track" students, teach them their place, de-personalize them, and teach them to submit to power, whether or not it is legitimate.

Higher education and science are becoming captive to big business, conflicts of interest in research are becoming rampant, and scientists who are supposed to help the government regulate industry and protect the public interest are using their positions for personal gain.

Families teach their children to submit to power so that they can be "successful" and fulfill their parents' dreams.

The workplace treats workers like objects with few rights, requires them to follow orders blindly, and disposes of them at the drop of a hat.

Our religious institutions indoctrinate believers to accept dogma and submit to authority.

Doctors treat their patients like mechanistic objects and teach them to do what they are told.

The criminal justice system locks up large numbers of the surplus poor, treats them like objects, and tries to persuade them to submit to power by imposing cruel and unusual punishment.

The entertainment industry glorifies wealth and power, inducing people to envy and identify with carefully selected symbols of "success."

The sports industry teaches people that "winning is everything," regardless of the costs involved or how much cheating is involved.

As individuals, we reproduce these patterns and reduce ourselves to objects in the social meat market.

The common element in each of these arenas is that the System reduces human beings to objects who accumulate objects and treat other people as objects. We use each other until we use each other up. We dominate others when we can. Otherwise, we submit. Our entire society is top-down, geared toward getting people to want to be King of one Hill or another. And our culture is highly individualistic and materialistic, discounting moral and spiritual values.

Based on a merger of the economy and the government and the interweaving of the lust for power and money, the System is a top-down authoritarian machine that reproduces itself throughout society by spreading an individualistic, materialistic culture that is rooted in a negative, cynical view of human nature and propagating the belief that people must forever prove themselves by constantly making more money and gaining more power.

The elite's ability to dominate relies on the submission of the people. If most Americans did not remain passive, the System couldn't get away with its crimes against humanity and the devastation of the environment.

In these and other ways, the System perpetuates itself. The various top-level managers of the System, including the President, are not the main problem. They are replaceable. The major problem is the System.

We, the American people, have sold out to a seductive System that buys us off and bullies us into staying in line. The System co-opts us with the myth of upward mobility - the lure of more money and power. Even progressive activists get corrupted by the rewards of careerism and ego-stroking.

But like any addiction, the myth proves to be an illusion. "Chasing the dragon" fails to deliver. Eventually we return to the simple, fundamental truth that power, money, status, and ego cannot gain us what is really important: love, happiness, and being at one with the universe (or God).

Starting with awareness of this reality, we need to re-form the System by:

• redefining (or affirming clearly once and for all) the primary purpose of our society;
• restructuring all of our institutions to serve that purpose by changing the rules of the game;
• enriching our culture so that it is more life-affirming and inspiring;
• growing caring communities and families;
• steadily improving ourselves so that we become wiser and more effective.

By working on all of these tasks at the same time, we can forge a new national identity that draws on the best from all of our traditions. It's not a matter of either/or. It's both/and. We can take a middle way that is a higher path. We can find balance.

It's not all or nothing. The goal is not utopia or being perfect. We can acknowledge and accept our weaknesses without allowing them to control us. We can allow private businesses to make a profit without neglecting their responsibilities to society, their workers, and the environment. We can pay attention to the present without forgetting about the future. We can be aware of future threats while being immersed in the present. We can use our rational mind while staying in touch with our feelings. And we can have a government that exercises authority wisely without being authoritarian.

We can take care of ourselves -- and care for others.

We can face our fears -- and shore up our faith in the future.

We can provide for our selves financially -- and participate fully in caring communities.

We can love our selves -- and love all humanity, life itself, and the Source of life.

In loving partnership with the rest of the world and Mother Nature, grounded in nonviolence as a political strategy and a way of life, we can create a New America.

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11/05/05 Draft