While I find politics interesting, I have always felt that less government is ideal.  In the Daodejing, it is said:

“If you want to be a great leader, you must learn to follow the Tao.  Stop trying to control.  Let go of fixed plans and concepts and the world will govern itself.  The more prohibitions you have, the less virtuous people will be.  The more weapons you have, the less secure people will be.  The more subsidies you have, the less self-reliant people will be.

Therefore, the Master says:  I let go of the law and people become honest.  I let go of economics and people become prosperous.  I let go of religion, and people become serene.  I let go of all desire for the common good, and the good becomes common as grass.”

Although I do not consider myself to be a political activist (mainly because I see politics as it is today to be a symptom of our societal ills, not a solution to it), I am prone from time to time to make comment on the subject.  What follows is my response.

I was not one of those who believed the recent cycle of U.S. government figurehead stood for change and moving away from “business as usual”.    A populace can never be fully represented by any form of government, nothing about any of this should be surprising.  The simple fact is politicians are just a means to provide an illusion that the public has a say in the government.  “For the people” is and has been stale rhetoric.

The problem is not the politicians, however.  It’s our own greed and sense of entitlement.  In other words, the nature of our society.  A revolt would only accomplish putting another group in control.  The end result will inevitably be the same.

This has been true for thousands of years.  No government has ever existed that was about absolute fairness to all.  They all support some groups at the expense of others.  To believe any government would suddenly become Utopian is the epitome of the “dreamer”.

Why is our system of health care so crazy expensive?  One of many reasons is because doctors run all sorts of tests that are not needed.  Why?  Because they are afraid that if they miss one little thing, the packs of slobbering lawyers will tear them apart.  Why are the lawyers there?  Because people expect doctors to be absolutely perfect and if a doctor makes a mistake, the patient thinks they have won the lottery.  We demand things as “rights” that are not rights.  Visiting a doctor is not a basic right.  It’s great that we have doctors and medicine, but our demands on their perfection and the threat of destroying anyone who misses the mark slightly is what ultimately causes the problems.

If we “revolt” it needs to be against ourselves.  The more demands we place on a government, the more we empower it. We have created the world we live in as a society.  So why do we need government?  Because without it, our greed and self absorption would run rampant.  People take advantage of each other at every slight opportunity.

There is no solution short of changing our intrinsic world view.  When we despise others because of where they were born, what color their skin is, where they live in relation to the invisible made up segregration we call boarders of countries, then we embrace the ills we have created.

Are we not all humans?  Is a cat born in Mexico or Africa to be looked upon differently because it was not born in the country we live in?  Are we superior to others because we were born in one country or another?  Are children born in China, Iran or the United States evil?  Are you surprised that our governments are designed to promote ineqality when the very concept of enemy countries is born in territorial hatred?

If we want a better world, we have to see ourselves as citizens of the world.  We have to look at ourselves and realize that it is our own beliefs that are the root of our problems.  We indoctrinate our generations in ancient superstitions of deities whose only common factor is to incite ourselves to killing  in the name of imposing these different beliefs on one another.

It’s easy to blame our problems on the actions of governments.  Much easier than letting go of the true devisive elements that motivate us: religion, nationalism, racism.  As long as people put themselves into groups (I am a white American Christian woman, I am a black Muslim male, etc.) we will never be able to work together as what we really are…humanity.  Every label you place upon yourself diminishes you.

If you want to see a better world, then we need to break down our self imposed separations.  Do you realize how many resources we devote globally to keeping ourselves separate?  If you are unwilling to see yourself as a citizen of Earth, and continue to harbor negative views of people based on such meaningless things as where their home is, what their predominant genetics are, what other consenting adults they have sex with, who they talk to in their prayers (or even if they pray or not), then the policy actions of one government in a pointlessly divided geographic region are the least of your problems.

The conflict has always been our desire to see ourselves as separate, our need to endlessly segregate ourselves.  The solution has always been, and will always be one thing: unity.  Imagine if we no longer squandered resources on fighting each other and hoarding things away from those who need them.  There truly would be plenty for all.  We could devote all of our research into improving the lives of everyone instead of investing truly unfathomable amounts of time and energy into ways to destroy ourselves.

Unity is the solution.  Globally.  We are one planet.  We are one people.  Anything that ignores this is part of the problem.