I am one of the wealthiest people who has ever lived on planet Earth. By virtue of my citizenship in the Wealthy Society I have benefits, advantages, opportunities, resources, and riches beyond anything any king, queen, emperor or dictator ever had in any previous age.
To elevate and accentuate my wealthy status I have those notable marks of the wealthy – a higher education, influence, protection under the Law, a network of influential contacts and friends, mobility and opportunity. I have greater degrees of literacy as well as access to publicly funded health care which those folks in previous ages did not have.
They could not fly or drive or make a phone call or have an MRI, let alone blog about their political views in a Free and Open Society. I have all of this and so much more. So do many others. We live in a wealthy society and we are wealthy by virtue of this shared set of resources we call Canada.
Wealth without money is part of our daily culture in Canada. Even our poorest citizens have more than the famous rulers and despots and sages of all the ages past – cars, electricity, big wheel trucks and trailer parks, clean fresh water – indoors , plumbing and heating and air conditioning, light, credit, Internet, cell phones, mass communication, Rights and Freedoms, science and medicine and so on. These all make this society and our people wealthy beyond the dreams of those people of ages past.
Even people at the beginning of the 20th Century could not have conceived of anything so remarkable as what we have become and the world we have built. We are amazing and this gives us advantages as well as responsibilities for our more vulnerable friends, neighbours, families – for the whole world.
Together we can build this remarkable dream. Unified we can change the world into the Canadian Dream of peaceful stability with tolerance and shared wealth - Commonwealth. Divided we will fall for anything because “Nature hates a vacuum!” We can do this - just as Jack Layton urged us to do in his last letter to Canadians.
Why not reach for Excellence and Truth in all things? These two things were the core ideas in the emergence of the Golden Age of Ancient Greece in the age of Pericles.
These two simple and powerful ideas have driven Western Civilization for more than two thousand years. Let them drive us forward into and through the 21st Century.
This is the Golden Age of Canadian Culture.
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Showing posts sorted by relevance for query The Wealthy Society. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query The Wealthy Society. Sort by date Show all posts
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Saturday, August 20, 2011
The Wealthy Society – Tools for Responsible Citizenship
In Canada we have achieved some remarkable democratic benchmarks. As a result of what I call The Wealthy Society Canadians are [or can be] empowered to impact their own world and The Whole World in ways that are not within reach of most citizens of Planet Earth.
One Canadian can have more personal power than 1000 or 10,000 in the streets of Darfur or many communities in crisis around the world. This truth points to and describes our duty and responsibility to humanity and to the ecosystem.
Our peace and civility and stability and our policy of affordable health care have made so much possible. To throw it away or let it be torn from our grasp would be sad after the struggle to achieve it and the equally stiff one to retain those gains.
I think that when we act we should be clear about why we make choices. We represent those other ten thousand who cannot act for themselves and their families. They need us to act in their behalf and in their best interests.
We can easily help guide the world into a renewed and more hopeful world community. Hope still lives in Canada and we can export it. We have the resources. These are the same resources that have lifted so many Canadians out of poverty and helplessness and ill health.
This help has benefited everyone from Mr. Harper and his political team to the officers of our courts and ALL Canadians rich and poor. We all derive benefit from the common wealth.
Our people are our most precious democratic resource. It is with and through and for The People that I want to see Canada governed. I want to see us ruled only by our own unique democratic devices – Constitution, Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Law and Order, Parliamentary democracy and traditions of Freedom.
These collective virtues empower all individuals, all groups, all communities, all that we are in sum total as a nation and as The People. We are Canada!
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One Canadian can have more personal power than 1000 or 10,000 in the streets of Darfur or many communities in crisis around the world. This truth points to and describes our duty and responsibility to humanity and to the ecosystem.
Our peace and civility and stability and our policy of affordable health care have made so much possible. To throw it away or let it be torn from our grasp would be sad after the struggle to achieve it and the equally stiff one to retain those gains.
I think that when we act we should be clear about why we make choices. We represent those other ten thousand who cannot act for themselves and their families. They need us to act in their behalf and in their best interests.
We can easily help guide the world into a renewed and more hopeful world community. Hope still lives in Canada and we can export it. We have the resources. These are the same resources that have lifted so many Canadians out of poverty and helplessness and ill health.
This help has benefited everyone from Mr. Harper and his political team to the officers of our courts and ALL Canadians rich and poor. We all derive benefit from the common wealth.
Our people are our most precious democratic resource. It is with and through and for The People that I want to see Canada governed. I want to see us ruled only by our own unique democratic devices – Constitution, Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Law and Order, Parliamentary democracy and traditions of Freedom.
These collective virtues empower all individuals, all groups, all communities, all that we are in sum total as a nation and as The People. We are Canada!
...
..
.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Canada – More Than An Economy
Canada is far more than a raw economy – GNP, market trends, stock prices, real estate and so forth. We are also a unique society, a culture, a dream, a land mass, a set of resources, relationships, values, AND people.
We are more than natural resources to be sold on the stock market and torn from the ground at any cost. We are more than water to drive the enterprises of foreign and domestic businesses. We are more than money and precious metals and base metals and lumber and manufactured goods and coal and salt and bauxite and electrical generation and wheat and potash and hi-tech ideas.
****************************************************************************
Unique in history and in the world
We are leaders in innovation and science and media and Law and Human Rights and Justice and security and business and Aid and medicine and powerful peaceful nuclear technologies and applications. We are more than buildings and urban sprawl and planning and big box stores and forests for destruction. We are more than the sum of all of these.
We also are a history [many histories combined] and a geology and an Idea and a Dream and a set of Values and Principles that is universally respected. Chief among these Principles is our belief in The Rule of Law and Equality under Law, Constitution, and Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
We are educators and intervenors in places with trouble and we are friends to the whole world from which our people are drawn. We are citizens of the world and people of this hour in history.
We are partners with people everywhere who wish to build a better world and a safer world community. We are Canadians and we love our nation, our children and our place in the hearts of the world's nations and peoples.
We cherish our freedoms and Rights and privileges and duties and responsibilities and our amazing and diverse nation. There has NEVER EVER been a place or society like Canada. We are a miracle.
****************************************************************************
The Economics of Leo Strauss
Our current Prime Minister wants to reduce us down to banks and stocks and bonds and budgets and GNP and strategies to confuse one another and maintain control. He does not see the remarkable and wonderful thing that we have become. So he has no interest in advancing it or preserving it.
How can he possibly see our potential when he does not even see the amazing thing we are now? Our social safety net has made us remarkable and now Mr. Harper [who is well named btw] wants to destroy it and dismantle it for the sake of a few more dollars in profit for those who always profit most.
Mr. Harper thinks these wealthy people are his friends and that they will accept him as their friend once he has helped them to destroy our collective Dream. He is in for a BIG surprise when they throw him aside and find another flunky.
****************************************************************************
How far is too far?
Will we let him get that far? We need to recognize the danger we are in and act together to pull ourselves out of the tailspin into which Mr. Harper's government has thrown us. This man is not our friend.
He is the friend of America's interests and cannot see the wonderful potential in our beautiful nation and people and society and culture. He is blind to our unique qualities, characteristics, strengths, gifts and potential in a world that badly needs our help.
America will benefit most if we act independently and do what no other nation can do...not even our friend America. We can help them in ways that they cannot help themselves at this point. America in under great pressure and we should help them in our own unique way - The Canadian Way.
A national economy includes people and values and jobs and a Vision or direction – a dynamic. It is activities and so much more. Harper only sees dollar signs and misses the human signs of success: health, well-being, happiness, opportunities, freedoms, dignity, choice, Liberty, democracy, and more...much more than just money. All Canadians are wealthy because of our society and culture – that is, because of our complete economy which was built democratically by our people for our people.
Harper believes that our great Canadian experiment must fail and he has set out to prove his theory...even if he must trip and deceive us in order to do so. This is not the kind of leadership we need and want.
****************************************************************************
Quantum Economics 2.5
Mr Harper fancies himself an economist because he studied macro economics in university for a few years. There he was sold on a foreign agenda by foreign operatives in our midst who do not appreciate our hospitality and inclusiveness enough to mind their own business.
As we drift, foreign and corporate powers are moving in to grab and own our heritage – Canada with all of her wonderful qualities and resources. Harper wants them to have what we own collectively as if we had no right to possess wonderful and amazing and lucrative resources that help all Canadians. It verges upon treasonous action. At best it is a betrayal.
A truly competent economist will see the whole picture – lock, stock and barrel. If I can see it with my visual limitations perhaps others can too. Stephen Harper cannot! He lacks the Vision, the Courage, and the Imagination that is required to do good economics and governance in the real world of all Canadians.
.
.
We are more than natural resources to be sold on the stock market and torn from the ground at any cost. We are more than water to drive the enterprises of foreign and domestic businesses. We are more than money and precious metals and base metals and lumber and manufactured goods and coal and salt and bauxite and electrical generation and wheat and potash and hi-tech ideas.
****************************************************************************
Unique in history and in the world
We are leaders in innovation and science and media and Law and Human Rights and Justice and security and business and Aid and medicine and powerful peaceful nuclear technologies and applications. We are more than buildings and urban sprawl and planning and big box stores and forests for destruction. We are more than the sum of all of these.
We also are a history [many histories combined] and a geology and an Idea and a Dream and a set of Values and Principles that is universally respected. Chief among these Principles is our belief in The Rule of Law and Equality under Law, Constitution, and Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
We are educators and intervenors in places with trouble and we are friends to the whole world from which our people are drawn. We are citizens of the world and people of this hour in history.
We are partners with people everywhere who wish to build a better world and a safer world community. We are Canadians and we love our nation, our children and our place in the hearts of the world's nations and peoples.
We cherish our freedoms and Rights and privileges and duties and responsibilities and our amazing and diverse nation. There has NEVER EVER been a place or society like Canada. We are a miracle.
****************************************************************************
The Economics of Leo Strauss
Our current Prime Minister wants to reduce us down to banks and stocks and bonds and budgets and GNP and strategies to confuse one another and maintain control. He does not see the remarkable and wonderful thing that we have become. So he has no interest in advancing it or preserving it.
How can he possibly see our potential when he does not even see the amazing thing we are now? Our social safety net has made us remarkable and now Mr. Harper [who is well named btw] wants to destroy it and dismantle it for the sake of a few more dollars in profit for those who always profit most.
Mr. Harper thinks these wealthy people are his friends and that they will accept him as their friend once he has helped them to destroy our collective Dream. He is in for a BIG surprise when they throw him aside and find another flunky.
****************************************************************************
How far is too far?
Will we let him get that far? We need to recognize the danger we are in and act together to pull ourselves out of the tailspin into which Mr. Harper's government has thrown us. This man is not our friend.
He is the friend of America's interests and cannot see the wonderful potential in our beautiful nation and people and society and culture. He is blind to our unique qualities, characteristics, strengths, gifts and potential in a world that badly needs our help.
America will benefit most if we act independently and do what no other nation can do...not even our friend America. We can help them in ways that they cannot help themselves at this point. America in under great pressure and we should help them in our own unique way - The Canadian Way.
A national economy includes people and values and jobs and a Vision or direction – a dynamic. It is activities and so much more. Harper only sees dollar signs and misses the human signs of success: health, well-being, happiness, opportunities, freedoms, dignity, choice, Liberty, democracy, and more...much more than just money. All Canadians are wealthy because of our society and culture – that is, because of our complete economy which was built democratically by our people for our people.
Harper believes that our great Canadian experiment must fail and he has set out to prove his theory...even if he must trip and deceive us in order to do so. This is not the kind of leadership we need and want.
****************************************************************************
Quantum Economics 2.5
Mr Harper fancies himself an economist because he studied macro economics in university for a few years. There he was sold on a foreign agenda by foreign operatives in our midst who do not appreciate our hospitality and inclusiveness enough to mind their own business.
As we drift, foreign and corporate powers are moving in to grab and own our heritage – Canada with all of her wonderful qualities and resources. Harper wants them to have what we own collectively as if we had no right to possess wonderful and amazing and lucrative resources that help all Canadians. It verges upon treasonous action. At best it is a betrayal.
A truly competent economist will see the whole picture – lock, stock and barrel. If I can see it with my visual limitations perhaps others can too. Stephen Harper cannot! He lacks the Vision, the Courage, and the Imagination that is required to do good economics and governance in the real world of all Canadians.
.
.
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