I recently viewed a TV interview with Russell Brand where he made a believer out of me. For many years I have teetered from one side of the fence to the other. From apathy to involvement in our political systems. I've held just about every belief there has been. I thought, "why vote? it doesn't change anything." to "you must vote! It is your duty as a citizen! You must exercise the rights your forefathers fought to give you!"
But when I saw Russell Brand in the interview I was slapped in the face with a fact and it left me with one question. Why aren't we getting what we want out of our political system? our educational system? our economic system? our justice system? The fact is that it's not working. Russell was right, and it didn't take any amount of profound thinking to come to the conclusion. We have massive inequality. I'm careful not to use the word "poverty" here as many educated, studious people will argue that "studies show" that our quality of life is rising, that the poverty issue is getting better than it was 100 years ago. However, we do have massive inequality. The cliche applies, "the rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer".
Inequality. Inequality in pay vs work. Inequality in Justice vs crimes. Inequality in health vs wealth. Inequality education vs opportunity. There always seems to be a certain elite group of people that exude the most horrendous behaviour, some of it criminal behaviour, and never get the consequences that you or I would get. Politicians lie about spending, drinking and driving, abusing power for personal gain. Those same politicians get caught and walk away free. CEOs and Leaders of multinational companies get compensation nearly 500 times that of a regular worker and when they do a poor job, not only do they get fired, but they get multimillion dollar golden parachutes. Celebrities can commit murder, posses drugs on multiple occasions yet avoid jail time. Bankers can defraud entire COUNTRIES of trillions of dollars and be allowed to continue operating with bonuses instead of punishments. Yet if the average person, like you or I, would do any of these things we most certainly would wind up bankrupt, without a job and only a few months or weeks of money in the bank or in jail.
A famous quote "Stupidity is defined by doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result". And that's exactly what we're doing.
So Why are we not getting the results we desire? I believe it's because the system is delivering exactly what it was designed to produce. Voting doesn't matter when there is no real choice. Banking doesn't matter when you don't make enough money to pay the bills, let alone the interest rates. Using our courts does not matter when you need boat loads of money and time to get the smallest change.
The funny thing about revolution is it keeps coming around. Rome fell, the Ottoman empire fell, Britain fell, and the US will fall too. My question here is When will the next revolution come? and will it be just a political revolution in a country? or a geopolitical revolution that shakes our very world and it's systems to the core?
I believe that there are people and powers that seek to keep things from changing, but that only lasts for so long. We cannot live in a world where change is happening at an exponential rate without our systems changing along with it. When we can communicate ideas to the world in seconds, when we discover technology so fast that the latest and greatest equipment is outdated within days after it's discovered there is no way the systems of old can hold.
So what will the new world systems look like? Will it be even more and drastically inequitable? Will it be some sort of utopian state? What will our economic models look like if machines eventually do all the work for us? What will financial systems be like if noone uses money anymore?
What will you do when revolution comes?
But when I saw Russell Brand in the interview I was slapped in the face with a fact and it left me with one question. Why aren't we getting what we want out of our political system? our educational system? our economic system? our justice system? The fact is that it's not working. Russell was right, and it didn't take any amount of profound thinking to come to the conclusion. We have massive inequality. I'm careful not to use the word "poverty" here as many educated, studious people will argue that "studies show" that our quality of life is rising, that the poverty issue is getting better than it was 100 years ago. However, we do have massive inequality. The cliche applies, "the rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer".
Inequality. Inequality in pay vs work. Inequality in Justice vs crimes. Inequality in health vs wealth. Inequality education vs opportunity. There always seems to be a certain elite group of people that exude the most horrendous behaviour, some of it criminal behaviour, and never get the consequences that you or I would get. Politicians lie about spending, drinking and driving, abusing power for personal gain. Those same politicians get caught and walk away free. CEOs and Leaders of multinational companies get compensation nearly 500 times that of a regular worker and when they do a poor job, not only do they get fired, but they get multimillion dollar golden parachutes. Celebrities can commit murder, posses drugs on multiple occasions yet avoid jail time. Bankers can defraud entire COUNTRIES of trillions of dollars and be allowed to continue operating with bonuses instead of punishments. Yet if the average person, like you or I, would do any of these things we most certainly would wind up bankrupt, without a job and only a few months or weeks of money in the bank or in jail.
A famous quote "Stupidity is defined by doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result". And that's exactly what we're doing.
So Why are we not getting the results we desire? I believe it's because the system is delivering exactly what it was designed to produce. Voting doesn't matter when there is no real choice. Banking doesn't matter when you don't make enough money to pay the bills, let alone the interest rates. Using our courts does not matter when you need boat loads of money and time to get the smallest change.
The funny thing about revolution is it keeps coming around. Rome fell, the Ottoman empire fell, Britain fell, and the US will fall too. My question here is When will the next revolution come? and will it be just a political revolution in a country? or a geopolitical revolution that shakes our very world and it's systems to the core?
I believe that there are people and powers that seek to keep things from changing, but that only lasts for so long. We cannot live in a world where change is happening at an exponential rate without our systems changing along with it. When we can communicate ideas to the world in seconds, when we discover technology so fast that the latest and greatest equipment is outdated within days after it's discovered there is no way the systems of old can hold.
So what will the new world systems look like? Will it be even more and drastically inequitable? Will it be some sort of utopian state? What will our economic models look like if machines eventually do all the work for us? What will financial systems be like if noone uses money anymore?
What will you do when revolution comes?
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