The Age of Peace
Jesus Lived as a Socialist
by Jan Stephen James Cavanaugh, Ph.D. on 06/16/19
Jesus Lived as a Socialist
June 1, 2019jsc
To use the political parlance of our time the earliest Christians lived as Jesus lived, as socialists. Sharing for good of all was the primary concern of social intercourse and civil discourse. They lived the vision of applied love in justice. Communitarian. What community of nations on earth come nearer this vision? By the numbers, the socialist democratic Scandinavian countries do with low crime, fairness, equality, quality of life and care of environment. Our nation rooted in Christian values yet the socialist programs of Medicare and Social Security upon which so many depend is threatened for lack of funding at a time when 400 of us have as much as the bottom 150,000,000? What happened? Ironically the “make America great again” meme idolizes a time that is the socialist legacy of President Franklin Roosevelt. Yet by control of language and story line Conservatives of the Reagan revolution promulgated that the greatest generation, our great grandparents, had it all wrong in FDR. Socialism became a forbidden word and any criticism of capitalism akin to heresy. Newly elected Pope Francis took heat for faulting unenlightened capitalism’s greed and avarice. The money changers oversee the temple. Mainstream congregations’ Christian preachers take care not to preach Jesus is socialist for fear of loss of lunch and maybe worse. Perhaps millennials swinging back to our socialist roots? Perhaps Christians in support reclaim theirs?
America Awaits Millennial President 2024
by Jan Stephen James Cavanaugh, Ph.D. on 06/13/19
America Awaits Millennial President 2024
May 8, 2019
In my lifetime the elections of John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan represented sea changes in American body politics. Kennedy building on New Deal to become Johnson’s Great Society. Make America great again refers to that time when voters had a tax structure to pay for WWII, to rebuild Europe and Japan, the money to build first class infrastructure and world class educational system and a booming middle class, the envy of humanity. Tragically Lyndon Johnson wasted his moment for greatness and emptied the treasury on an unnecessary war. If he had stayed true, his head now on Mt Rushmore. Instead voters turned to Reagan’s vision which proclaimed the New Deal a Bad Deal … our great grandparents the greatest generation had it all wrong. Government and taxes and international agreements were all bad things. Profit is supreme. War is good. The results of that deal are in. 2020 electorate faces a government that can’t figure out how to pay the bills. Paralysis on resolving major issues of political divide, debt, climate change and war. To date in this election cycle both pollical parties stuck in their story which means it does not matter much who wins 2020, they’ll just change roles. Meanwhile millennials, fearing for their futures, seeing the mess we boomers and our children are leaving them, they lean into socialist and communitarian values. In 2020 lead up we see younger leadership testing their wings to catch the tide. Shall it bring a New Deal II Millennial Presidency 2024?
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Anti-War and Pro-Environment Do Two Step to Save Globe Earth
by Jan Stephen James Cavanaugh, Ph.D. on 04/19/19
Anti-War and Pro-Environment Do Two Step to Save Globe Earth
April 17, 2019jsc
Anti-war and pro-environment forces must join in common cause; the evidence is overwhelming; these forces are highly interdependent variables: a land, water, food and safe shelter challenged humanity, suffering horrific injustices, when the default position is war, is humanity headed for catastrophe. 2019 and Globe Earth is like the 737 E … all kinds of red lights and loud warnings … a globe Earth crash is unavoidable without change. The headlines are clear humanity is heading into a series of more and more serious events, culminating in an Event. [David Wallace-Wells, The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming]
This environmental “Iceberg” is coming as surely as the dawn. Will it be of such magnitude as to awaken global consciousness? Do we rise to be global family and build a global civilization ruled by law, or do we trust war and eat each other for lunch in the prolonged winter of globe Earth gone dark? In this way the two forces’ efforts are not just interdependent but two sides of the same coin.
In the matter global law the first big step has been taken … our grandparent’s work ours to finish, the Kellogg Briand Pact of 1928, the law against war is on the books unenforced. Building the global legal structures needed to enforce the law against war, not only removes this greatest of evil, but more so these structures become the foundation for enforcement of global environmental laws to save our planet from catastrophe, a two-step dance.
For academics and theoreticians committed to end war there is only one question. How to excite and motivate earth citizens to vote for leaders to put into place the platforms of global justice, like the excitement in 1928 regenerated in 2020 to enforce KPG. War will end when humanity votes to end it. How to generate the energy to make that happen what is now doable in human development?
How to change the story from war to peace is the 64,000 dollar question.
The really good news is while our grandparents were limited in enforcement reach because they did not have the tools to make it happen. We do: IT and global reach. Nothing spoke here beyond doing but for collective imagination and united will.
What is proposed is an end of war strategy in which the medium is the method to lay the legal and regulatory foundations for just stewardship of planet Earth. Collective injustices will require collective measures. The biggest challenges in ending war are psychological and spiritual: letting go and trusting.
What is needed to make change happen? Numbers to become the critical mass needed for change. Anti-war and pro-environment forces in large numbers in one voice in one occupied space chanting meme “End War Forever” will get the attention of media. Once the media’s attention and the story of ending war and more on the evening news, end of war is near. United in ending war, a billion strong across Gia in one occupied virtual space ready and able to vote for leaders to end war and war can end.
Occupy what space and where? In imago: Occupy virtual space in PeaceMonkPark2050 on the northeast corner of Avenue War and Peace Street. The goal is to march humanity down Peace Street and Age of Peace. Perhaps the Event the turning point, seeing the catastrophe unless a change of course, humanity ready to vote for leaders to build a global civilization ruled by law.
How to occupy? Guest Book, Your name and country is all that is required to occupy virtual space to be part of writing the story to end war. Your children’s grandchildren will sing your praises.
End War Forever Survey Attitudes and Beliefs
by Jan Stephen James Cavanaugh, Ph.D. on 04/01/19
The intent of this survey was to get a reading on beliefs and attitude of citizens of the United States of American in the matter of ending war in a time of unending war. They were presented with a meme “End War Forever” as the stimulus. To the degree this survey got a valid reading, to that degree the results of the survey can be projected onto the larger population. The major limitation of survey is sample size.
What seems clear is that even with all the reservations about the concept of end war forever expressed by this population, there is openness to an alternative to war. One might conclude that the ground is being prepared for a populace ready to embrace end of war, but they do not see a plan to make that happen. This implies they are unconsciously looking for a plan to make end war forever happen.
Peace through Justice does emerge as a unifying refrain, but there is a lot of work to be done to tell a story of ending war that jane and mary doe will find trustworthy. Most specifically, if law is to be the answer to war, who gets to decide what justice is … the overwhelming concern.
In the main at this time in our body politic ending war generates great ambivalence. Ambivalence can be a tool of change.
I was at No War 2016 Conference. I attended with mindset of Jane and John Doe. In the opening session of the conference a question arose as to what the “is” of war is. The tension in the room is deflected by agreeing to not to “go there”, to table resolution of what was clearly an uncomfortable topic. In my Jane and John Doe mind-set I was horrified. I observed a large group of seemingly well-intentioned persons agreeing to meet on ending war, but could not agree on what it was they were ending. And not agreeing on the what, offered no plan as to how.
It appears the major psychological issue to ending war is trust … building trust in justice and law to keep folks safe from war. And a plan folks can vote to support..
“The more peacemakers talk down war, the more people distrust peacemakers.” Jsc
