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POLITICS: A case study
The monster we created and can no longer control.
If we sincerely and genuinely want to resolve the Palestine crisis, or for that matter many other similar crises across the globe, we need to examine our approach to solving these crises.
Clearly, many of these crises, be it Palestinians in Gaza, the Rohingyas in Burma, or Ulghur Muslims in china, the native Americans or African Americans in America, the Aborigines in Australia, the list goes on and on and can even continue backward to perhaps the dawn of men; it is the same problem over and over again.
Yet the problem persists while we delude ourselves by thinking we are making progress when we are merely changing its appearance, while the real problem persists and continues to inflict misery upon misery on humanity and innocent people.
The Analysis.
Before we can solve any problem, it is imperative that we fully understand the problem.
And one of the most common misunderstandings is to focus on the doer, not the deed. It is the deed that does the damage, the doer is simply the instrument. The deed is the gun and the doer, merely, the trigger. Because we focus so much on the trigger, whodunnit, that we lose sight of the deed. Which like the ‘Brook” in Tennyson’s poem says; ‘men may come and men may go, but I go on forever’.
So the first part of the approach we need to alter is to focus on the deed and not label the actors. It is not whether Netanyahu is evil but rather that he is committing evil deeds. It matters not whether Hitler was the devil or the saint but rather that he committed evil deeds and caused misery and suffering on human beings. It should not matter whether these human beings who suffered were Jews or Germans, or French Resistance or English Spies or American soldiers, they were human beings to whom the oppressor caused pain and suffering.
It is the Evil deed that matters. It is Oppression which is at the root of evil and causes misery.
All other discussions or debates are distractions, much of them deliberate to control the narrative When one group does evil deeds it is labeled terrorists, and another group that does evil deeds is labeled Defence Force is an example of controlling the 'narrative'. The purpose of controlling the narrative is to make possible arbitrators( or third parties) choose sides and make biased decisions. In this case, the US is that third party that has been blindly supporting Israel for decades. Both opposing parties in every conflict try to control the narratives to gain sympathy.
Those of us who are parents can perhaps, if we are honest, recognize this behavior in our children, when one child misbehaves, especially the oppressor, but blames it on the victim and gets away with it. Similarly, the educators among us may recognize this behavior among the bullies in the school, who are the oppressors but are always playing the victim and act innocent in public but are mean and evil in private. They do exist in every institution. In each case, the parents or the teachers are the enablers, without whom the damage would be minimal.
So it is with the US tax payer. For decades, Israeli people (not Jews) have been playing the victim, when in fact they were allowed to occupy land belonging to others and their oppressive deeds were labeled and continue to be labeled defending their right to exist, ironically at the expense of the Palestinians right to exist. And when the victims of this oppression protested and committed oppressive deeds they were labeled terrorists. Remember Yasir Arafat the terrorist and Moshe Dayan the defender. History will bear witness as to who committed more evil deeds. Again it matters not who but the evil deeds.
The undeniable fact of the matter is that over the past decades, Israel has gotten stronger, more prosperous, has occupied more and more land and built many more settlements and continues to oppress Palestine, funded in large parts by the Américan taxpayer.
Ever since the 60's Israel has been beating up on all its neighbors, terrorizing the palestinian people, the most recent Gaza invasion is by far the most blatant of its bullying deeds. All the time crying wolf, the big bad Iran is trying to beat up on me by trying to build a nuclear bomb, when Israel is the one with the nuclear bomb. Actually Israel has two. The other one is the USA.
Yes we, the Americans, have created this monster but we can no longer control it. Now, finally, the story of Frankenstein makes sense.
Again, Israel is just the most recent example of this phenomenon that causes so much misery to humanity. It is not really the main purpose of this article. Israel is just the trigger, the doer, the real evil is the deed ‘Oppression of one group of people by another group” no matter what the excuse or justification.
There is no, and never should be any, justification for any sort of oppression.
So let me try to articulate the problem, “the deed”, analyze it and offer a possible solution. And perhaps test the solution by applying it to the current Palestinian case.
The general global problem
The problem arises when one group of people try to oppress another group of people to gain some sort of an advantage. In fact underlying every such conflict are usually two motives, one public and one private.
Similarly in every conflict there are at least four players, the two opposing parties, a group of innocent victims ( collateral damage, they call it) and the bystanders who may or may not directly get involved in the conflict. This last category is the most dangerous, since once it starts taking sides, the conflict escalates and becomes harder to get resolved. This group is usually also part of the second motive. This second motive usually involves arms( as in guns etc) Energy (oil, gas etc ) and access to raw material. or territory. In other words this second motive is about money and usually greed driven. These private & hidden motives are usually disguised and frontended with Religion or Sovereignty.
This scenario is the evolution and characteristic of our current world order, which is fundamentally built on the notion of ‘free market and healthy competition’. And frankly this system has served us, or at least some of us well over the past few decades, especially during the times of depression.
In fact this system is most effective during such times, because ‘Competition is a good way to succeed for a few’ by definition.
And competition is not only effective but necessary when there is a scarcity of resources. And clearly during the times of depression , there is a scarcity of resources, hence it is effective and post depression we see the most growth and prosperity for certain sectors of the community.
I call this Economy and corresponding Economics, ‘Competitive Economy’ and ‘Competitive Economics’.
A novel approach.
And since;
While Competition is a Good way to succeed for a Few,
Collaboration is a Better way to succeed for the Many.
I propose the development of ‘Collaborative Economy’ and ‘Collaborative Economics’.
Furthermore this new ‘Collaborative Economics’ can be tested on a virtual global community, lifebahn.net.
Not only this, collaboration based, community can be used for testing and offer its members a better way of living and having a better life, it may also offer an alternate solution to many of the modern global conflicts.
To participate in this novel community, after January 1, 2024, please goto lifebahn.net and simply signup as a ‘subscriber’ to the community to learn how the community functions and experience being part of the community to determine if you would like to join the community as a member and at no point will you be asked for money.
What you get out of the community thereafter and how much you participate is entirely up to you.
Oh yes! About the monster we created that we cannot control!
Well! The fact is that we have created this monster. We need to recognize this reality and stop feeding it.
The rest of the world has to come to grips with the fact that this monster exists and wishing and hoping that it didn’t is simply a waste of energy, especially for Iran. We have to call its bluff and just simply walk away, the only weapon against monsters is to ignore them. They feed and grow on fear and engagement.
This monster, as monsters invariably do, has finally shown its true colors as the aggressor and oppressor that it is and no longer believable as a victim, also showing the American people how they have been used and now are being isolated by the world community. Thus presenting us, the world, the opportunity to LEARN from this experience and IDENTIFY all the other similar monsters, as, believe me, there are many and start exposing them one by one and no longer be used by them so that we can then preserve our resources to helping the REAL victims get relief and perhaps get on the path to prosperity.
And as a first step, come up with a plan, similar to the ‘Marshall Plan’, to help Palestine get on its feet and start rebuilding and ‘get their right to exist’ and pursue a better life.
Perhaps, it is time for the Arabs, with their enormous wealth, to step up to the plate and instead of wasting billions of dollars on LIV golf and such, help their fellow men and women and children not live in shame at the mercy of Israel.
And if the Arabs can’t even take care of their own, shame on them!