The second guest post from John H.
John’s first guest contribution, Clarity of Thought, was published on the 20th September and attracted a collection of very thoughtful comments. To give you a sense of that first contribution, it started thus,
The Passion of Enlightenment
Enlightenment includes deep grief and a passion to leave life a bit better than we found it. Enlightenment has little practical value in a growing and constantly consuming cultural demographic. Consumers tend to spiritually disconnect when faced by a need for change or when morality becomes inconvenient.
To set the scene for these musings from John, Highway 87 that runs South-North through Payson, where John lives, is called the Beeline Highway and there is, indeed, a Beeline Cafe in town.
Over to John now.
Voices from the Beeline Café
Americans are the best entertained and the least informed people on earth.
Combined commercial and investment banks have become a global casino.
No one can afford to run for political office without corporate approval.
—ooOOoo—
Political campaigns are celebrity theaters devoid of content or reality.
Climate change is a planetary constant exacerbated by human activities.
A twenty-four hour media drumbeat of fear encourages human divisiveness.
—ooOOoo—
Education, history and science are marginalized.
Facts are systematically denied.
People are confused.
—ooOOoo—
Global totalitarianism is immensely profitable.
Corporations do not care about democracy or humanity.
Economically stressed voters are disenfranchised by corporate government.
—ooOOoo—
The rule of law has lost equity and become the tool of oppressors.
Firefighters, policemen, nurses and clergy have become political pawns.
Corporate supported criminals control a majority of the nations of the world.
—ooOOoo—
We have lost the rudder of human morality.
Material well-being is considered the greastest good.
War is a highly profitable form of corporate enterprise.
—ooOOoo—
The flag and cross are employed to demonize opposition to corporate authority.
Politics worth supporting begin and end with service to God and nature.
God grant us each the grace to make a transformative difference.
—ooOOoo—
an old lamplighter
Learning from Dogs 
Paul, the simplicity and power of John’s poetical layout is very striking. Thanks must go to you both.
As you know, I have been reading James Hansen’s Storms of my Grandchildren (now nearing the end) and, even as a non-American, one of the most striking arguments made in the book is that by reference to the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution: That is to say that, whereas the Founding Fathers sought to ensure the liberty of the people from tyrany, in modern times we have allowed ourselves to be enslaved by politicians who are – irrespective of their party or background – totally controlled by special interests once in office (Obama being a case in point).
It is, in my opinion, entirely analogous to the way in which they are powerless to prevent financial crises – because they have granted too much power to credit ratings agencies, money-lenders, and the financial services industry in general. Our entire global political class is behaving like a herd of lemings blindly charging towards a cliff – they are no longer in control of their actions and they cannot see the insanity of allowing a “buisness as usual” strategy to be pursued.
As Hansen says, we have wasted 20 years trying to reduce emissions by means of cap-and-trade agreements, when what is needed is a universal carbon tax (with no exceptions) – with all monies rasied being re-distributed to individual taxpayers (not kept by government), which would encourage individual reduction of carbon footprints and corporate investment in non-fossil fuel business models.
I had promised my readers that I would stop posting items based on the content of Hansen’s book. However, after a brief diversion (on Monday) responding to the current financial chaos in the EU, I think that this is what I will be doing next week…
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Martin, fabulous commentary from you. Many thanks, Paul
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I have to say that the first comment from the “Voices from the Beeline Café” caught my attention. Well, to a great degree, I agree with the “Voices.” Although, we are not alone in this befuddlement, I see Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal also have our same concerns. I have to therefore assume they also are the “least informed people on the earth,” why else would they be in our same predicament? I would still rather be a citizen of the United States of America and muddle through our problems. My only comfort is that I continue to have great faith in our country and believe we can turn ourselves around. I do admit that I, being an American, am easily entertained, but consider myself well informed. And as noted, with God’s help, we do have the ability to “make a transformative difference.” Can I count on the “Voices from the Beeline Café” to join those in the rest of the world to do their part?
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Yes indeed, the people behind the voices at the Beeline Cafe are in the process of building an eco-friendly transition town with support from a new branch of Arizona State University. We live in a time when there is an opportunity for everyone to make a positive difference. Our planning includes state of the art environmental technology as well as the natural wisdom of the indigenous people of our region.
an old lamplighter
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Merci, I think there is an underlying and swelling realisation from millions across the world that the next 50 years have to be very different from the last 50. Truly a period of great transition. P.
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My dear OL and P,
Hallelujah and Amen! Count me in! Faith and a strong conviction is awesome! I love it!
M…
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