Moody’s Analytics 2020 Presidential Election Model is the best predictive model I’ve seen to date. This sophisticated and updated statistical model describes very well the political and economic factors operating in our American democracy. Furthermore, it reliably predicts a Trump victory if voter turnout is low or normal.

A maximum voter turnout is needed to defeat Fascism in the USA in 2020.

https://www.moodysanalytics.com/-/media/article/2019/president-election-model.pdf

The unfolding Trump impeachment inquiry will probably NOT significantly shift the support from his base. It’s the most stable since FDR due to the propaganda machine of Fox News. Even Nixon would have been acquitted if he had been able to control the mass production of alternative facts.

https://www.moodysanalytics.com/-/media/article/2019/president-election-model.pdf 

Therefore, I suggest that the major focus of our political meditation for the USA throughout this period until 2020 Election Day, particularly during the forthcoming Festival Week of the New Group of World Servers, would be to invoke the Triangle currently over-lighting the Christ (Lord Buddha, the Spirit of Peace and the Avatar of Synthesis) to inspire and move people to vote, producing the highest voter turnout in the history of the USA.

The principal strategy of the currently darkened White House is to discourage people to vote by obfuscating the facts leading people to cynically believe that wrong is normal, by surreptitiously using voter suppression tactics and by obstructing law enforcement in lengthy court proceedings to wear down the voters’ short attention span. A divided political opposition, without a clear and consistent message, is also playing into the hands of the Forces of Darkness.

The future of democracy is at stake, in the USA and worldwide. We urgently need the assistance of extra planetary Forces of Light, Love and Power.  With “massed intent,” we should use the Great Invocation, emphasizing its “bottom line.”

Aquarian Mantra of Synthesis

“May the liberating Light of Lord Buddha,
The infinite Love of the Spirit of Peace,
And the unfathomable Power of the Avatar of Synthesis
Restore God’s Plan on Earth.”

http://www.agni-yoga.org/AMS.htm

[EH 662] “The capitalistic spirit and the latent fascism of the United States are at this time a definite menace to world peace, and the capitalists are blocking the efforts of the men of goodwill … The healing will be brought about through the medium of the New Group of World Servers and by the men of goodwill, aided by the Hierarchy, from which planetary centre the healing energies will be drawn. Imperfection has been drawn to the surface; the evils to be eliminated are known to everybody, and this has all taken place under the influence of the Law of Perfection.”

Moody’s Analytics 2020 Presidential Election Model

Excerpts:

“The explanatory variables in our model specifications can be divided into two groups: politics and economics (see Table 1). Although economics are critical to deciphering the behavior of the marginal voter and thus usually the outcome of the election, political variables remain the most potent for predicting the large majority of votes on a state-by-state basis.”

“Voters who had not traditionally come out to the polls, particularly in the industrial Midwest and more rural counties, showed up in larger than expected numbers to support Trump, and many reliably Democratic voters did not turn out for Clinton. Thus, the inclusion of the turnout variable is intended to capture sentiment that may be unmeasurable by more traditional economic and political metrics.”

“… a shortening of voter attention spans in 2016, the second major factor that appears to have contributed to forecast error in the last election, outside of turnout.”

https://www.moodysanalytics.com/-/media/article/2019/president-election-model.pdf

[EOH 126] “The lines of cleavage have grown steadily until now they can be expressed in terms of a humanity which is oriented towards the higher spiritual and altruistic values and whose keynotes are sacrifice, group good and world understanding, and those whose focus is predominantly material and whose aims are selfish, animated by ambition and the spirit of acquisition.

“It was the acuteness of this situation, and the wide extent of the cleavage, which induced the watching Hierarchy to permit a direct inflow of the Shamballa force (in spite of its attendant risks) to pour into the world. The objective was to stimulate the free will of the masses; the result upon them has been relatively good as it has led to the formulation and expression of the great world ideologies—Fascism, [Page 127] Democracy and Communism as well as that peculiarly distorted blend of Fascism and Communism which goes by the name of Hitlerism or Nazism. All these ideologies are fostered by the desire of the masses for the betterment of the condition in which the populace in any country lives and it has become focussed, expressive and creative by the force of the Shamballa influence. But another result of this inflow of the will-to-power has been to stimulate a certain group of outstanding personalities in many lands so that they have assumed control of the masses and can thus determine the policies and methods—religious, political and social—of the different nations. In every nation a relatively small group of people decide all important issues and determine all major national activities. This they do either by force, terror and deception or by persuasion, fair words and the application of ideological motives. Of this situation in the world the Lords of Destiny are availing themselves in order to bring the ancient conflict to an end and so enable humanity to pass into the new Aquarian Age relatively free and with a clearer understanding of right human aims, right relationships and man’s predestined future.”

###

Dear Fellow Workers on the Path of Light:

Sometime ago I called your attention to the MAGA slogan as a dog whistle to return to a supremacist white America.

Defeating the WASP Project

Ten reasons why we must defeat

the Make-America-WASP-Again Project

The New Face of America

https://hierarchicaldemocracy.blog/defeating-the-wasp-project/

[JB] More recently, I have advocated for esoteric scholars to become more engaged in the “battle for the enlightenment of the post-modern collective mind.” Occultism is being portrayed [as of 2017] as the “metaphysics of the dunces” and HPB is mispresented as an advocate for a racial hierarchy, rendered harmless if ignored but dangerous if studied by the uneducated.

The Nazis Were Obsessed With Magic

What can their fascination with the supernatural teach us about life in our own post-truth times?

In France, you don’t see the equivalent politicization and racialization of it. You have theosophy in Britain and America. But it’s a relatively harmless movement, where people get together in a drawing room and try to connect with spirits and write novels about Atlantis. But the concept of root races, which [H.P.] Blavatsky, the Russian progenitor of theosophy, talked about, never gets brought up as an actual basis for belief in “superior breeding” or race war among the liberal or conservative parties that run the government in Britain and America. It clearly is not influencing Roosevelt or Churchill’s view of social policy or foreign policy.

In the Nazi case,… when you look at how they argue about race, with the Jews being monstrous and the Slavs “sub-human,” while Indian, Japanese, and perhaps even Persian and Arab civilizations are deemed at least partially Indo-Aryan, it’s all this stuff that’s wrapped up with ariosophy, theosophy, anthroposophy—these major occult doctrines that were prominent in Austria and Germany. It had so little to do with actual empirical science, or even pseudoscience practiced elsewhere during the first half of the 20^th century, that it opened the way for all these fantastical policies.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2017/08/an-interview-with-historian-eric-kurlander-about-his-book-hitlers-monsters-a-supernatural-history-of-the-third-reich.html

https://www.amazon.com/Hitlers-Monsters-Supernatural-History-Third/dp/0300234546

[JB] The doctrine of the root races must be presented in a new light to the intellectuals of humanity.  Today’s NYT editorial, on the wake of the mass shooting aimed at Mexican-Americans in El Paso, confirms the urgency of my request to devote our minds and hearts, here and now, to reintroduce HPB’s Secret Doctrine, and AAB’s neo-theosophy, to the academic discourse devoid of any doctrine of racial supremacy, as it was originally intended.

It’s no longer only a generic problem of gun violence in the USA; it’s now also a specific and international “White Nationalist Terrorist Problem.” This is part of the “battle of democracy” currently being fought in the USA, as prophesied in the AAB-DK books. This “civil war” is now being waged worldwide.  -JB

NYT August 4, 2019 Editorial

We Have a White Nationalist Terrorist Problem

Mass shootings like the one in El Paso
should be condemned by Americaʼs leaders as terrorism.

EXCERPTS

White supremacy … is a violent, interconnected transnational ideology. Its adherents are gathering in anonymous, online forums to spread their ideas, plotting attacks and cheering on acts of terrorism.

While its modern roots predate the Trump administration by many decades, white nationalism has attained a new mainstream legitimacy during Mr. Trump’s time in office.

Discussions of Americans being “replaced” by immigrants, for instance, are a recurring feature on some programs on Fox News. Fox hosts Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham, for example, return to these themes frequently. Democrats, Ms. Ingraham told viewers last year, “want to replace you, the American voters, with newly amnestied citizens and an ever-increasing number of chain migrants.”

“You will not replace us,” white nationalists proudly chanted at Charlottesville in 2017. (Mr. Trump himself proclaimed that there were “fine people” on both sides of that deadly event.)

In May, bemoaning an “invasion” of immigrants, Mr. Trump asked how immigrants could be stopped during a rally in Florida. “Shoot them,” someone in the crowd yelled. Mr. Trump gave a smirk and said, “That’s only in the Panhandle you can get away with that stuff,” as the crowd exploded in ghoulish laughter.

Far more Americans have died at the hands of domestic terrorists than at the hands of Islamic extremists since 2001, according to the F.B.I. The agency’s resources, however, are still overwhelmingly weighted toward thwarting international terrorism.

The nation owed a debt to the victims of the 9/11 attacks, to take action against the vile infrastructure that allowed the terrorists to achieve their goals that horrible Tuesday. We owe no less of a debt to the victims in El Paso and to the hundreds of other victims of white nationalist terrorism around the nation.

There can be no middle ground when it comes to white nationalism and the terrorism it inspires. You’re either for it or against it.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/04/opinion/mass-shootings-domestic-terrorism.html

###

Published 2019.08.05; revised 2019.08.05

Hierarchical Democracy, Agni Yoga and the Plan

The “ideology behind the democratic ideal constitutes a response to the universality which the love of the Hierarchy prompts it to express” (Destiny of the Nations, 22). Modern democracy is at present “a philosophy of wishful thinking and an unachieved ideal” to be superseded by the rule of “enlightened people” who “will not tolerate authoritarianism in any church or totalitarianism in any political system” (The Reappearance of the Christ, 164).

“True Democracy awaits the time when an educated and enlightened public opinion will bring it to power; towards that spiritual event, mankind is hastening.  The battle of Democracy will be fought out in the United States.” (The Rays and the Initiations, 746).

The Plan for externalization of the planetary spiritual Hierarchy and the reappearance of the Christ includes “the presentation of those ideas which will eventually lead to a fusion of those principles which govern a democracy and which also condition the hierarchical method—which is somewhat different.” (The Externalisation of the Hierarchy, 575). The fusion of these principles, and certain major and spiritual premises lying back of all efforts to formulate a “new world order” (ibid, 190), will be addressed in this talk, as well as how the revelatory yoga of synthesis, Agni Yoga, can support “the duty and the responsibility of the disciple, working under the inspiration of the Ashram, to “modify, qualify and adapt” the proposed plan of Shamballa (for which the Ashrams are responsible) in connection with the coming civilisation and culture (Discipleship in the New Age II, 278).

Slides:

#1: Title slide. Read quotes from abstract.

We are in CRISIS. How can the esoteric community assist the NGWS in solving it? Should we be a reflection of the divisions in our societies or should we set the example of unification? What’s our responsibility when faced with misinformation and mistrust?

#2-3: Flashback 1. Attending EIS conference in Atlanta this week. Identify myself as an EIS alumn (1985). My mission: serve as a bridge: English/Spanish; Science-Spirituality.

EIS logo: “By human hands; by human feet.” (AY)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7GYgM9esqg

#4-6: My forthcoming book (outline written Thursday morning at the conference; inspired by the uplifting talk by Dr. Hanna-Attisha on Wed afternoon). Her book “What the Eyes Don’t See” inspired my intro on the invisible worlds studied by esotericists; her activism on behalf of the community relates to my quest to discuss and engage in nonpartisan activities in the political field of service of the New Group of World Servers.

#5-5: TB is SDG 3.3 (my work at CDC)

#7: Flashback 2. My childhood (~12 y/o) experience accompanying my father to social clubs. What is esoteric training good for if we can’t address nonpartisan politics? [Aristotle: affairs of the polis]

Spiritual DISCERNMENT (truth, falsity).

#8: First take home message

Why should the esoteric community abide by such rule (slide #7) after decades of discipleship training to develop spiritual discernment and the practice of harmlessness?

#9: A nonpartisan framework to discuss and engage in nonpartisan activities in the political field of service of the New Group of World servers.

#10: Transition slide to define the PLAN (a major point of the talk) and introduce three case studies for the application of the proposed nonpartisan framework. These are: a) the current (constitutional) crisis of democracy in the USA (Trump administration); b) Brexit and the emergence of the European xenophobic, nationalistic, fascist right (recently defeated in Spain), and 3) the neutrality of the LatAm political left on the current Venezuelan crisis of democracy.

#11-13: Framing the U.S. political spectrum according to the Labor of Hercules in the sign of Scorpio (November is when elections are usually held in the USA).

Principles. AAB-DK framework: spiritual values to live by vs personal opinions; read slides.

#14: Transition slide; reminder of the nonpartisan framework against which contrasts should be drawn (instead of arguing about personal opinions). Of course, the framework itself is subject to change based on the Teachings uniting the esoteric community.

NGWS: nonpartisan politics as a (First Ray) field of service; the center may appear as far right or left to those in the far right or left.

The “third party:” the Voice of the Center of the NGWS.

• The harmlessness of neutrality and silence. Pope Francis silence on Venezuela vs. Dalai Lama’s activism on Tibet. Silence can be complicit and harmful.
• Non-partisanship (DK quotes on USA racism, Nazism, Jewish “problem”, Russia, Hiroshima)

#15: Brexit. The UN is flawed, and so is the EU. Is disintegration the answer?

I authored the mantra shown, adapting stanzas from the Great Invocation and the formula for the dissipation of glamor (as practiced by the esoteric community). Is it a “partisan” use of the Invocation and the formula?

#16: Transition slide; reminder of the nonpartisan framework against which contrasts should be drawn (instead of arguing about personal opinions). Of course, the framework itself is subject to change based on the Teachings uniting the esoteric community.

#17: Venezuela. I insist in using the term “evil” (which is L-I-V-E spelled backwards). Quote on RESISTANCE to EVIL.

#18: Take home message #2

Here I explain (with a quote from the Teachings) my use of the term “evil” as a RELATIVE concept with respect to the TIME factor, a crucial component in the practice of Agni Yoga, the yoga developing the intuitive sense.

#19: Quote on how the INTUITION relates to acquiring the “right perspective:” a “right sense of VALUES and of TIME.”

Premature implementation of the Plan may derail it.

#20: Transition slide bringing us back to the title and subject of the talk.

Discuss my recently published books: how I integrated DK’s Technique of the Presence with VBA’s Second Ray approach to Agni Yoga (agniyoga.info) .

#21: Application of principles. Agni Yoga “the science of self-evident truths.” (a new definition dawning on me during the conference).

AY takes off from the final stages of Raja Yoga. Critical thinking skills (mind development) relates to Raja Yoga (the traditional meditation practice of sitting cross-legged to concentrate and meditate on seed thoughts achieving a contemplative state of mind). Agni Yoga (practice of the presence of mind or mindfulness) is the practice of constant contemplation (spiritual reading of life as a sequence of symbols, mindfully  applying Jung’s synchronicity principle) as we go in our daily lives.

Examples of practical exercises to hone our critical thinking and intuitive skills.

Test for discerning false equivalence … What’s missing is the constant of proportionality (normal variants versus outliers). Principle of ANALOGY and the development of the intuitive sense.

#22: Transition slide bringing us back to the title and the main purpose of the talk: the need to redefine democracy (using the principles of Raja and Agni Yoga) to prepare the world for the externalization of the spiritual Hierarchy of Masters of Compassion and Wisdom, and the imminent physical reappearance of the Christ in the outer world of human affairs (the Christ is an Office of the spiritual Hierarchy held by Lord Maitreya since he “overshadowed” Master Jesus 2,000 years ago in the Bethlehem-Calvary story narrated by the Gospels).

#23: Take home message #3.

Latest update in my efforts, in collaboration with others, to redefine a democracy suitable for spiritual (nonreligious) work. The highlighted terms are the changes from the previous version (presented at the same conference 2 years ago). Ray 3 (Light) is the keynote of the current conference).

Hierarchy (order) vs. anarchy (populism) vs. the rule of “enlightened people” (hierarchical democracy) by “enlightened leaders” (light will be etherically VISIBLE). Can we do this within the esoteric community?

#24: A summary slide.

#25: Personal contact info (I’ll be distributing my new presentation card at the conference this year).

Q: Perfect adaptability versus RESISTING evil?  A: Be ductile as water: relentless as the course of a river; adaptable to navigate obstacles, until you reach your destiny.

José Becerra, MD, MPH, FACPM.  Since his professional retirement, Dr. Becerra has become a full-time student of the four classical disciplines (Quadrivium) of number, geometry, music and cosmology applied to solve the problems of humanity. Since 1999, Dr. Becerra has devoted his esoteric work (http://www.ngsm.org/2017/home.html) to the study and practice of Agni Yoga, having recently translated the book Introduction to Agni Yoga by Vicente Beltrán-Anglada  (https://agniyoga.info/). Dr. Becerra has worked along with the New Group of World Servers in the fields of government, medicine, international health and mathematical epidemiology (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jbecerramd/).

Quotes: 

“Hierarchy is not coercion, it is the law of the Universe. It is not a threat, but the call of the heart and a fiery admonition directing toward the General Good. Thus, let us cognize the Hierarchy of Light.” – Hierarchy. Agni Yoga Series. 1931.

DN 22: Is it not possible that the ideologies which we have been discussing are the response — distorted and yet a definite and determined, sensitive reaction — to the energies playing upon humanity from the two higher major centres? I would like to suggest that the ideology which is embodied in the vision of the totalitarian states is an erroneous but clear-cut response to the Shamballa influence of will; that the ideology behind the democratic ideal constitutes a similar response to the UNIVERSALITY which the [Hierarchy’s (Aquarian?) principle of LOVE] of the Hierarchy prompts it to express, and that communism is of human origin, embodying that ideology which humanity has formulated in its own right. Thus the three aspects of God’s nature are beginning to take form as three major ideas and what we see upon the planet at this time are the distorted human reactions to spiritual impulses, emanating from three different centres, but all equally divine in their essential natures, and in their essences. Ponder on this.

KEYNOTE:  The balance of power in the Congress of the United States must shift to support the spiritual values of  Men and Women of Goodwill.

• A Love of Truth – essential for a just, inclusive and progressive society.
• A Sense of Justice – recognition of the rights and needs of all.
• A Spirit of Cooperation – based on active goodwill and the principle of right human relationships.
• A Sense of Personal Responsibility – for group, community, national and international affairs.
• Serving the Common Good – through the sacrifice of selfishness. Only what is good for all is good for each one.
• These are spiritual values, inspiring the conscience and the consciousness of those who serve to create a better way of life.

On PEACE and DIALOGUE

Venezuela 2019

https://hierarchicaldemocracy.blog/2019/02/28/on-peace-and-dialogue/

TRIVIUM

• Grammar teaches the mechanics of language to the student. This is the step where the student “comes to terms,” defining the objects and information perceived by the five senses. Hence, the Law of Identity: a tree is a tree, and not a cat.
• Logic (also dialectic) is the “mechanics” of thought and of analysis, the process of identifying fallacious arguments and statements and so systematically removing contradictions, thereby producing factual knowledge that can be trusted.
• Rhetoric is the application of language in order to instruct and to persuade the listener and the reader. It is the knowledge (grammar) now understood (logic) and being transmitted outwards as wisdom (rhetoric).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallacy

The unfoldment of this faculty will bring about a world recognition of the Plan and this is the greatest achievement of the intuition in this present world cycle. When that Plan is sensed, there comes the realisation of the unity of all beings, of the synthesis of world evolution and of the unity of the divine objective. All life and all forms are seen then in their true perspective; a right sense of values and of time then eventuates. When the Plan is truly intuited and at first hand, then constructive effort becomes inevitable and there is no lost motion. It is the partial realisation of the Plan and its interpretation at second or third hand by the ignorant which is responsible for the wasted effort and the foolish impulses which characterise the present occult and world organisations.
–DINA I, 25

GWP 171-72:

1. The Technique of the Presence. By means of this technique, the soul assumes control of the integrated personality and of its relations, horizontal and vertical. This technique involves the unfolding of the flower of the intuition, dispelling illusion, revealing the Angel, indicating the Presence, and opening up to the disciple the world of ideas and the door of the higher initiations. Through the disciple’s grasp and application of these divine ideas or seed thoughts, he becomes initiate and the third initiation becomes possible as an immediate goal. The intuition is the applied power of transfiguration. This technique is related to the little known yoga called Agni Yoga or the yoga of fire.

…the mode of handling world affairs, states of consciousness and conditions in the three worlds is one in which the disciple and initiate work from above downwards. The method is in reality a repetition of the involutionary arc in which—like the Creator, from a vantage point of exterior direction—energy, force and forces are directed into the world of phenomena and produce definite effects upon the substance of the three planes. This is a point which should be most carefully remembered; and it is for this reason that the Technique of the Presence must always be employed, prior to all other techniques. It establishes contact with the directing spiritual Agent and enables the disciple to assume the attitude of the detached Observer and an agent of the Plan. When this technique is correctly followed, it brings the intuition into play and the world of meaning (lying behind the world of phenomena) stands revealed, thereby dispelling illusion. Truth, as it is, is seen and known. Forms in the outer world of phenomena (outer from the angle of the soul and therefore encompassing the three worlds of our familiar daily living) are seen to be but symbols of an inward and spiritual Reality. -190

2. The Technique of Light. By means of this technique, the illumined mind assumes control over the astral or emotional body and dissipates glamour. When light pours in, glamour fades out. Illumination dominates and the vision [Page 172] of reality can be seen. This technique is related to Raja Yoga and its goal is the second initiation; it produces ability to tread the Path of Discipleship, and enables the man to “live a life, enlightened by divinity.” Illumination is the applied power of transformation.

3. The Technique of Indifference. By means of this technique, maya is ended; for the control of the purified astral vehicle is consciously and technically brought into activity, producing the freeing of the energies of the etheric body from the control of matter or force-substance, and bringing men in large numbers on to the Probationary Path. Where there is “divine indifference” to the call or pull of matter, then inspiration becomes possible. This technique is related to Karma Yoga in its most practical form and the use of matter with complete impersonality. The goal of this technique is the first initiation, which enables man to “live a life, inspired by God.” Inspiration is the applied power of transmission.

EP I, 359: I speak not of non-resistance, but of that positive attitude of mind which thinks no evil.

EP II, 691: Your major job at this time [re: NGWS]  is not to wrestle with the powers of evil and the forces of darkness, but to awaken an interest in and mobilise the forces of light and the resources of men of good will, and of right inclination in the world today. Resist not evil, but so organise and mobilise the good, and so strengthen the hands of the workers on the side of righteousness and love, that evil will find less opportunity.

EA: The Law of the Universe (and what is law but the working out of the purposes of these all-embracing Lives, of Their impulses and Their plans?) is to all eternity the good of the whole and naught can arrest this happening; for who can arrest the impact of these energies which play upon and through our planet. When I say this, I would at the same time point out that the attitude of many students, inevitably participants in world events, that “such is the Law and such is the Karma of people and nations and such is the pre-determined destiny” [Page 444] is far from right. They believe—sometimes sincerely—that all that should be done is simply to wait for results to appear and for karma and destiny to fulfil itself. Then and not till then, all will be well. But they forget that karma fulfils itself in relation to the form nature upon which it expends its energy and that where there is a static condition and a quiescent attitude, the process moves but slowly; the life then within the form fails to experience the needed, forceful awakening; inevitably then there lies ahead a repetition of the process until the time comes when activity and response is evoked. This then leads to resistance to the apparent karmic necessity and this brings about liberation. Only through resistance to evil (and in this world period and in this kali-yuga, as the Eastern teachers call it, it is an essential basic attitude) can karma be brought to an end. The law of matter still governs in the three worlds of human experience and “fire by friction” must burn up that which veils the steadily increasing brilliance of solar fire. It is the recognition of “solar fire”—as it shows itself in a transcendental idealism and radiance—by the unintelligent idealist, and his simultaneous refusal to cooperate in this period of karmic necessity, that is prolonging the difficult and cruel situation and leading him individually to sink deep into glamour. The simplification of the world’s problem in terms of matter comes through a recognition of the essential dualism underlying events. I commend this thought to all students, suggesting that they base optimism on the long range vision, endorsed by the Heavens and corroborated by the activity of the stars, and thus feel sure of the ending of this immediate tragic situation.

BBC: DEEP CIVILIZATION – The long view of humanity

When politicians fail to look beyond the next election – or even the latest tweet – they are neglecting the rights of future generations, argues public philosopher Roman Krznaric.

http://www.bbc.com/future/story

Roman Krznaric argues that we need to reinvent democracy because “politicians fail to look beyond the next election – or even the latest tweet – neglecting the rights of future generations.” Krznaric’s proposed solutions range from benevolent dictators to giving voice to future generations of voters, failing to answer the question: what’s wrong with our educational system which promotes individual self-interest at the expense of the Common Good?

If the educational system doesn’t change, we’ll keep producing generations doomed to be slaves of material values, worshiping the narrow present at the expense of the emerging future, neglecting the spiritual dimension of human beings. It’s in this (nonreligious) spiritual dimension — preserved in the Ancient Wisdom of past generations — that a set of values can be recognized by present and future generations to fix democracy.

There has always been a minority of visionaries in each generation warning about the danger of neglecting the future impact of our current decisions. However, the savers have always been in the minority compared with the spenders.

Democracy seemed to work in the past because we were able to elect the right mix of savers and spenders for political leadership. But no more. On average, most people want to spend their most precious resource – their own lives – in the pursuit of the narrow, materialistic present. Therefore, this majority elects politicians serving their narrow self-interest.

The democracy of self interest, also known as unregulated capitalism, is doomed to failure, collapsing either into chaotic anarchy or into despotic authoritarianism. The wise middle way is the democracy of the people, by the people and for the people devoted to the Common Good. And this object of devotion can only be accomplished when the spiritual dimension is restored to the education of present and future generations.

True, Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg has inspired schoolchildren to protest and strike against climate inaction. But does Greta Thunberg represent the majority of her generation? Don’t we already have Greta Thunbergs in our current generation? Why are their voices drowned, as Greta”s will probably be when she reaches voting age? Because, I think, the educational system will keep producing a majority of individuals looking after their narrow self interests. We need to fix the educational system causing the syndrome of temporal exhaustion.

Short-termism is civilization’s greatest threat. Modern society is suffering from “temporal exhaustion”, the sociologist Elise Boulding once said.

As long as the myopic media of short-term news cycles sets the educational agenda, democracy will fail to accomplish its lofty purpose of self-government.  We can’t regress to despotic authoritarianism, even if apparently benevolent. In order to avoid anarchy, a new democracy must be founded on a new educational system.

A spiritual democracy — an ethical democracy in which what’s good for one must be good for all —  can be invented, not as a state religion or theocracy, but as an instrument for the Common Good: past, present and future. The selfish gene must mutate to an altruistic gene in the genome of humanity, not as a result of chance, but rather, by the thoughtful planning of humanity facing the dire consequences of inaction.

• The transcendental nation: The overlooked spiritual dimension of political polarisation

Much of the debate surrounding the contemporary political realignment is dominated by a purely rational conception of politics. However, our political system, Julian Göpffarth writes, is based on the transcendental idea of the nation and the redemptive character of democracy. Failure to acknowledge this will further strengthen far-right parties and movements.

• In defence of hierarchy

As a society we have forgotten how to talk about the benefits of hierarchy, expertise and excellence. It’s time we remembered.

Let’s heed the voices of the few in the past, the current and the new generations warning us of the imminent danger confronting humanity. We must correct our course now, or else.

-JB
2019.04.07

“USA. UK. Venezuela. I rest my case. Democracy doesn’t work.” -a Disciple of the BL.

“Well done, my son. Very well done, indeed!” -a Master of the BL

Two Lodges are fighting. The outcome of the warfare will determine if humanity will be enslaved by material self-interest or liberated by a spiritual vision of service for the Common Good.

Malagant: What I offer you is freedom; freedom from Arthur’s tyrannical dream; freedom from Arthur’s tyrannical law; freedom from Arthur’s tyrannical God.

King Arthur: “In serving each other, we become free.” That is the very heart of Camelot.

Do not be confused by their names. What appears to be white is black. Black, donning white, disguises its true color.

White is transparent and, thus, is rendered dark. The spiritual darkness of the midnight sky makes the light of the stars visible.

Do not be confused by their creeds, either. One promises the utopia of materialism in exchange of human freedom. The other offers the liberating discipline of the spirit in exchange of the sacrifice of material self-interest.

The mission of the disciples of the BL is to corrupt all ideologies. “Corrupt liberal democracy with self-interest,” a phalanx is directed as it’s deployed for battle. “Corrupt social democracy with dictatorship,” another one is directed, as they converge in the battlefront to strangle the adversary.

“Resist evil,” the disciples of the WL are summoned. “We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.”

The battle is fierce; exhaustion closes in. At the darkest hour, a chant is heard:

LITANY (of the Feast of Union)

I. There is no more any parting of the ways.

II. All the different paths are become but the one path.

III. I am but a part.

IV. I am but one stone in the Great Temple.

V. I am a soldier in the army, and from the one who is next me I cannot swerve by ever so small a fraction; for if I did, march of the whole army would be disordered. I remain, therefore, immovably associated with my fellow soldiers.

VI. I know that I take upon myself the responsibility of the whole when I pass consciously into union with it.

VII. I am ready, without complaint, to be cast down from the place in which I stand, should I swerve or flinch under any trial falling on those next me; for I know that my strength can never be exhausted, since my comrades also stand unswervingly by my side; and while united we can not fall.

Source: When the Sun Moves Northward by Mabel Collins

And then, they remembered their sacred Pledge at the Feast of Love,

LITANY

I. Love is the only King; The only Ruler; The only Creator.

II. Hate and Satan one; rebel, anarchist, destroyer.

III. Love’s action is what men call charity.

IV. The action of hatred is known as malice.

V. Love has only one punishment for the sinner,and that is forgiveness.

VI. To live according to the law of love is a hundred thousand times harder than to live according to the law of hatred; to this great effort I pledge myself. To live according to the law of love means the acceptance of every evil as a good. By that acceptance, if it is done in the spirit of love, the evil becomes good. It is to the conversion of evil into good in our natures, in the natures of others, and in the affairs of life, that we devote ourselves. Henceforth we do not avoid evil, we love it and transform it. By loving it we make ourselves a part of the creative principle which is love.

VII. To this great effort the disciples pledge themselves during the Feast of Love, and bind themselves together to unite in it. It cannot be done alone.

To the Glory of the One!

ΔΔΔ

LIGHT ON THE PATH II

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