Uncommon Sense, Unconventional Wisdom
So it is clear that the wealthy have done very well recently under capitalism. And while the wealthy and the stock market in the United States have recovered from the Great Recession, the lives of many people in America will never be the same because they will never recover the incomes they lost. Meanwhile, young people, even those with college degrees, are having trouble finding jobs that can support families.
I believe the best economic system for the United States and the world recognizes our common stewardship of the Earth and our responsibility to the poor and future generations of men and nature. This economic system does not see the wealthy as they want us to see them—as gifted people who made our prosperity possible—but, instead, as who they really are: People who were born into wealth, or people with the capital, skills, and knowledge that enabled them to take advantage of the infrastructure and political and economic climate created by society. I will discuss these two categories in more detail below.
10. Taxes on the wealthy are too high.
I think most Tea Party Republicans believe taxes on the wealthy in America are too high. However, in my book Seven Truths for a New Age, I wrote:
“It is often argued that wealthy individuals have earned their wealth through their hard work and creativity and that the world needs the wealthy because of their special skills. The truth is, many if not most wealthy individuals were born into wealth.
“Most wealthy individuals.…or their ancestors have acquired their wealth either through their control of land and other natural resources, which no individual can own, or through the labor of others in offices, stores, factories, fields, mines, construction sites, and other places of employment.
“Besides the fact that most of the wealthy have acquired their wealth unjustly, society provided the infrastructure and the political and economic climate that made it possible for them to accumulate wealth. By infrastructure, I mean such things as cities, roads, bridges, seaports, airports, water and sewage systems, gas and electrical power, the electrical grid, the communication system including the Internet and the mail and telephone service, the health care system, the food supply chain, and the educated workforce. By political and economic climate, I mean such things as stable government, the police, the judicial system including the rule of law, and the monetary and financial systems.
“Today’s so-called self-made millionaires and billionaires would be in an entirely different situation if they had been born in prehistoric times. Maybe they would have owned a few more cattle or horses or sheep or camels than the average man in their tribe or village. Or maybe they would have been a local chieftain or warlord. But they certainly wouldn’t have been able to live the life of luxury that the wealthy live today. My point is that no one today has gotten wealthy without taking advantage of the infrastructure and the political and economic climate developed by society over thousands of years.
“Since most wealth has been acquired unjustly and since society has created the conditions that make wealth possible in the first place, it is society’s right to decide how much of that wealth will be allowed to remain in the hands of individuals and corporations. In the language of business, it is society’s right to demand a return on its investment.”
Given what I wrote in Seven Truths for a New Age, I think it is fair to say: The wealthy don’t pay too much in taxes. They pay too little!
11. Government social programs have to be cut to balance the budget.
I think most Tea Party Republicans believe the federal government should balance its budget by drastically cutting social programs.
However, I believe government social programs need to be expanded within a budget that is larger than ever before. Let me explain why:
One consequence of the capitalist system is that a large percentage of adults in the United States are either without jobs or working in jobs that do not pay them enough to support themselves and their families. Only the federal government can fix this problem because business leaders have no motivation to act beyond what makes them a profit in the short term.
An economic system that I call “Everybody works, everybody wins” is my solution. Under this system, the federal government is responsible for making a good job available to every adult and also for making quality health care and education available to everyone.
With virtually every adult below the age of 65 working, tax revenues will greatly increase. But for “Everybody works, everybody wins” to have sufficient resources for all that needs to be done, two things must happen:
First, the top income tax rates will have to return to the more reasonable levels of the past. I think today’s high earners should pay income taxes at the same rate as the businessman during the Great Depression who said: “Why shouldn’t I give half my income to the American people? I took it all from them.”5
Second, the unjust and immoral concentration of wealth in the hands of a few must be ended. This can be accomplished through gift and inheritance taxes and a cap on wealth.
In order to tax all of the income of the wealthy and to redistribute their excessive wealth, an international system of financial disclosure for the wealthy will be necessary.
In some future time, governments may be able to wither away as men become more like angels, but for now government action is necessary to correct and compensate for the economic injustices of the past and present.
Part Five: Evolution, Science, and Psychic Phenomena
12. All life on Earth came about through chance genetic mutations and natural selection.
Science’s theory of evolution is considered common sense by many people, some of whom even claim it is a fact, not a theory.
It is obvious from the fossil record that living things have changed over time, but it is not obvious that chance genetic mutations and natural selection have been the driving force behind the changes.
I think if you believe in a spiritual reality, it is more logical to believe some sort of a God or a nonphysical being or beings is behind the incredible complexity and beauty of life than to believe that life came about accidentally, without anyone’s intention or design. When you see an amazing feat of engineering, like the Golden Gate Bridge, or when you see a beautiful work of art, like Michelangelo’s Pieta, you don’t assume it was created without human help, do you? Why, with the more complex living things of Earth, would you assume they were created without some kind of an intelligence guiding their development?
Science’s theory of evolution only makes sense if you are an atheist or an agnostic.
13. Science deals with facts while religion deals with beliefs.
I think the conventional wisdom of the scientific community is that science deals with facts and truths while religion is based upon beliefs and faith.
Both science and religion are based on beliefs. Christianity is based on the beliefs that the Bible is the Word of God and that Jesus Christ is the Only Son of God. The belief of science is that the world can be explained materially—that a spiritual or nonphysical reality either does not exist or does not affect the physical world. Without this belief, science would have to rethink all of its major principles.
The mystic-philosopher Jane Roberts was speaking about scientists when she wrote this in 1979 in her Seth material: “Only lately have some begun to think in terms of mind affecting matter, and even such a philosophy disturbs them profoundly, because it shatters the foundations of their philosophical stance.” 6
14. Psychic phenomena, including telepathy and clairvoyance, do not exist.
The scientific community claims that the existence of psychic phenomena, including telepathy and clairvoyance, has not been proven.
But an open-minded study of the evidence shows that people do communicate with each other without speaking or writing or the use any other physical form of communication. And there have been numerous documented cases of people seeing or knowing what is happening in another place or in a future time. In fact, this study doesn’t have to be impersonal because if yo
u look at your life with an open mind you will find examples of telepathy and clairvoyance in it.
Part Six: Philosophy and Religion
15. Life is meaningless.
I think the conventional wisdom among scientists is that life is meaningless, although they would not say this in so many words.
However, two conclusions that can be drawn from science’s theory of evolution are that life is an accident in a universe that doesn’t care whether we live or die and that the individual’s only value is in advancing the evolution of the species by having offspring. In other words, with their theory of evolution, scientists are telling us that our individual lives are meaningless.
There is a better world view available to us that comes out of Jane Roberts’ Seth material, which I can the Seth philosophy:
The Seth philosophy teaches that God is within the world and is “aware of each sparrow that falls, for It is each sparrow that falls.”7 It teaches that all things are conscious and seek their own fulfillment, not at the expense of others, but so that all can achieve their greatest possible development. It teaches that we form our reality through the interaction of our imagination and our emotions with our thoughts, beliefs, expectations, desires, and intents. And it teaches that we live many lives on Earth and that before we are born we set goals for ourselves and choose our parents and the circumstances of our births. According to the Seth philosophy, each life is precious and meaningful.
16. The end justifies the means.
It is considered common sense by many people that the end justifies the means, i.e., that the results of our actions can make normally criminal or immoral actions acceptable or tolerable, especially if those actions are performed by nations or occur on a large scale.
The end does not justify the means. The sacredness of life cannot be violated or all life will suffer. As Jane Roberts says, “Those who sacrifice any kind of life…lose some respect for all life, human included.”8
Believing the end—serving God—justified the means, Christians in Europe in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries killed tens of thousands of people who had different religious beliefs than they had: Catholics killed Jews, Protestants, and unorthodox Catholics; Protestants killed Catholics and unorthodox Protestants. And though many people today say Islamic cultures are barbaric, it was in the Islamic world at this time, not in Europe, where Christians and Jews could live in safety from persecution.9
Believing the end—lifting the German people up to what they thought was their rightful place as masters of the world—justified the means, Hitler and the German people started a war that resulted in the deaths of tens of millions of people.
Believing the end—saving American lives—justified the means, American leaders at the end of World War II ordered the dropping of atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which led to the deaths of several hundred thousand civilians.
Wars for the sake of peace such as the Vietnam and Iraq wars, torturing prisoners, and the killing or harming of animals in experiments in order to prolong human life are other horrible consequences of the belief that the end justifies the means.
Jane Roberts, a Star Trek fan, wrote a new commandment in 1979 that she said should be a prime directive: “Thou shalt not kill even in the pursuit of your ideals.”10
17. The Bible is the Word of God.
Most Christians believe that the Bible is the Word of God. They have come to this conclusion because they believe God inspired the writers of the Bible.
It has never been proven that God inspired the writers of the Bible. In fact, historical research tells us that the Bible was written by many different men over thousands of years and that these men often had an agenda that had nothing to do with the truth. For example, biblical scholars know that, perhaps to make it appear that Paul was not a Gnostic, early Christian leaders forged some of Paul’s letters.11
Another reason the Bible could not be the Word of God is that the Bible’s Book of Joshua tells us that the Jewish people slaughtered entire cities “as the Lord the God of Israel had commanded.” How could God order whole cities to be slaughtered?
A third reason the Bible could not be the Word of God is that the Bible contains numerous contradictions. How could God contradict himself? And yet the Gospels of Matthew and Mark disagree as to Jesus’ ancestry. And the four gospels disagree as to whether someone helped Jesus carry the cross, and they disagree as to Jesus’ last words.
18. Jesus Christ is the Only Son of God.
Most Christians also believe that Jesus Christ, as God’s Only Son, came down from heaven and died for our sins in order to open the gates of heaven to us.
I have no doubt that Jesus Christ was a truly advanced spiritual being, but he was also a manufactured historical figure. There is no evidence that he was God’s Only Son or that he did all the things the New Testament says he did. Besides, if Jesus were God’s Only Son, would he tell his apostles that the end of the world was coming in their lifetimes? How could the Only Son of God make such a mistake?
I am reminded of what Gandhi wrote about Jesus:
“It was more than I could believe that Jesus was the only incarnate son of God, and that only he who believed in him would have everlasting life. If God could have sons, all of us were His sons. If Jesus was like God, or God Himself, then all men were like God and could be God Himself.”12
Given what we now know about the universe but didn’t know at the time the Bible was written, it is possible there are billions of planets in the universe with advanced forms of life. Did God send Jesus down to each of those planets to die for that planet’s sins? I think Jesus’ head would be spinning from all the being born and dying. Maybe it would be better if God had many Sons and Daughters to help spread the word.
The Future of Man and Civilization
Great opportunities for personal and spiritual growth and incredible advances in science and technology await us if the past is any guide. For who imagined two hundred and five years ago, when even the President of the United States, Thomas Jefferson, thought that blacks were intellectually and emotionally inferior to whites and could not be assimilated into American society, that in the twenty-first century a black man would be elected President who was intellectually and emotionally superior to many of his predecessors?
Who imagined one hundred and fifty-three years ago, when it took ten days for mail to cross the United States by Pony Express, that in the twenty-first century people would routinely travel across the country in six hours?
Who imagined seventy years ago, at the time the first electronic computers were being developed, that computers would one day be able to perform many trillions of calculations in one second? Who imagined then, when only governments, universities, and corporations could afford computers and when a computer took up the space of a large room, that in the twenty-first century everyone (it seems) would be carrying around pocket-sized computers more powerful than their 1940s’ predecessors? Who imagined then that, by connecting computers in our homes in a world wide web, we would make our homes into virtual Libraries of Congress, with vast amounts of information available at our fingertips?
Who imagined fifty-six years ago, at the time of the launch of the Earth’s first man-made satellite, Sputnik, that in the twenty-first century satellites, television, computers, and mobile phones would make it possible for us to be instantly aware of what was happening in every corner of the globe?
Who imagined twenty-two years ago, just before the breakup of the Soviet Union, that our connectivity would inspire a desire for truth, justice, peace, freedom, democracy, and opportunities for fulfillment in every corner of the globe?
Before we can enter a peaceful and prosperous new age full of fantastic possibilities, we must deal with the greatest challenge man has ever faced: We must reconcile our need for energy, space, and food with the limitations of the Earth, the rights of other species, and our responsibility to the poor and future generations. If we do not deal with this
challenge, our civilization could face a future that will be known not for personal and spiritual growth and other great achievements, but for environmental disasters, famines, riots, territorial conflicts including water wars, and the return of walled cities.
The choice is ours. No one can force on us the direction the world will take. As Abraham Lincoln said, “If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and the finisher.”
Peace.
1https://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/16/world/us-practiced-torture-after-9-11-nonpartisan-review-concludes.html?ref=opinion
2 https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/22/aclu-drones_n_2926785.html
5 I read this in one of Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.’s books on Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal.
6 The Individual and the Nature of Mass Events, Session 846, by Jane Roberts.
7 The Seth Material, Chapter 18, by Jane Roberts. Note that this book should not be confused with Jane Roberts’ whole body of work involving Seth, which is called the Seth material.