Archive for the ‘World Peace’ Category

More Hope Than Ever

Friday, January 17th, 2014

When I first started crafting this blog and producing videos, it was because of a deep rooted obligation I felt. The system was broken and there were ways to fix it. If only more people saw what I saw, then the world would actually get better.

Now, things have changed.

I don’t know if it’s that people have awakened, or that they have always been there, feeling disconnected and isolated like I was.  But now I see there are millions upon millions of people just like you and me everywhere around us – people who see the grotesque flaws of an establishment that can actively perpetuate such injustice and inequality for the sole purpose of keeping control in the hands of a tiny group of insatiable people – and know that we can clearly do better than this!

If only the world’s electoral systems weren’t such utter shit. As democracy stands today – voting alone would never be enough to generate the change we need. Fortunately, that’s not our only political channel any more, thanks to the Internet.

The key is transparency. Putting it all up on the web in an easy to understand format. Budgets – let us track every single tax dollar coming in and going out. Cameras – put them on cops and soldiers while they work so we can judge what they do in our name. Politicians – put their private lives in the public, and hold them accountable to the masses, not the money.

Just imagine what would happen if the powers of the NSA were put under control of the public, and all that spying ability was used to keep our billionaires and top leaders in check. Finally, the system would work for us!

We already have the tools for this happen, it is just a matter of applying them correctly. It’s really not that much to ask, and it is the direction we are heading. By continually leveraging our numbers and voices through an unfettered internet against the established powers of old wealth and big business, we will shape the world and our future to where it ought to be.

So that’s why I am so optimistic. More than ever before. We are on the cusp of what could be the most remarkable transformation our species has ever undertaken – a mass redistribution of wealth and power culminating in a world of peace – and we draw closer with every new day.

Demand Transparency

Thursday, August 1st, 2013

So many of the faults which plague systems of governance around the world could be solved if only we had the means to hold those in power accountable for their actions. And there is no better tool to do this than transparency.

Malevolence, corruption, cruelty… this things can only persist in the shadows. Out in the open, under the scrutiny of a watchful global eye, the weight of the world’s people will inevitably stamp out these injustices.

Imagine if cops and soldiers, while they were working, had to wear an always-on camera that streams the video to a publicly controlled database. The feed could be delayed, but will eventually be made – unaltered – to the public.

An ever watching lens could be doubly beneficial to police, helping to hold wrong-doers accountable while weeding  weed out abuses of power. The military could also be helped as streaming cameras ought to deter crimes against humanity, capture their acts of bravery, and show the public what the true face of war is.

Or suppose we demanded that governments account for every single dollar taxed and spent. Lay it all out for us online, make it easy to navigate and simple to understand – not because politicians and civil servants want to, but because we demand it. Mismanagement of funds and institutionalized corruption will be excised as it becomes glaringly evident as to who is taking far more than what they’ve earned.

The same goes for the US Healthcare system. Why not completely expose what’s been going on? It would be a great way to fix the problem. Institutionalized corruption. Collusion between health care elite, insurance companies and the government,  all maximizing personal profits at the expense of the public.

We have the technological means to make these things happen. The only reason it hasn’t arrived yet is because there isn’t enough will among the people.

Politicians? The Mainstream Media? Few of them are going to spearhead a ‘show everyone in the world what we are doing behind closed doors’ platform, so it’s up to the rest of us.

Spread the word, make our demand for transparency a part of everyday discussion.

It Is Time to Start Suing the Defense Industry

Sunday, May 19th, 2013

On behalf of the soldiers who continue to lose their lives, their livelihoods or their sense of well being, discarded after use by a for-profit enterprise built on bloodshed.

On behalf of the children who continue to lose their lives, their families, their sense of wonder at the world, because some group somewhere else gave themselves the authority to remotely execute other humans without due trial, oversight or accountability.

On behalf of the richest and most powerful global population to date, torn apart by an industry whose very existence depends upon our staying divided as a people, when the money being wasted on warfare could finally lift the entire human race out of the grips of desperate poverty.

It is time to enact The World’s People V The World’s Top 100 Defense Earners, for all the pain and suffering they continue to enable. They can still make arms all they want, but the trillions they’ve been reaping in profits will be forfeited.

LifeBox : a 3D printed basic provider of life

Sunday, May 12th, 2013

If you are looking for a great reason to feel optimistic – another truly legitimate rationale for believing our world is undergoing remarkable and rapid transformations for the better – then consider the LifeBox.

The LifeBox is a deployable mini-building that provides the basic necessities of modern life: water, food, electricity, internet and a 3D printer. This single self-contained building, the size of a garden shed, can sustain and improve the lives of everyone nearby.

LifeBox uses both wind and solar energy to drive the entire unit along with public power outlets. Inside an atmospheric extractor and purifier creates several gallons of drinking water a day. As well, tanks housed within automated greenhouses grow Spirulina, a protein-rich, highly nutritious whole food. Of course, the entire unit doubles as a wifi-hotspot, connecting to the Internet as well as all nearby LifeBoxes.

The best part of the LifeBox concept is how the entire life-saving building can be constructed using nothing but local materials and a 3D printer, anywhere in the world. All it takes are the plans (which get updated from free sites on the web), access to a 3D printer, and the gumption to build your own.

Just imagine the impacts on global poverty and instability when, on every street corner in the worst slums or in even the most remote, despondent villages, these seemingly magic boxes – day in and day out – churn out the tools needed by those on the bottom rung to rise out of their dire circumstances.

This is exactly what our world craves! So much of the world’s conflict stems from societies living in desperate conditions, where people are at risk of starving to death every day. This desperation fuels the feelings that lead to violence, and it breeds the soldiers to carry it out.

When we could create a world where every single human has access to the most basic means of life – which will exist when everyone can get the things provided by a LifeBox, then we are set to see a world where wars get exposed as the unnecessary and unwanted travesty that they are. Peace can finally take hold of our world.

All the pieces are falling into place. Affordable, consumer-level 3D-printers are already on the market and producing incredible objects. Solar and wind generators are getting cheaper by the day. The Internet is forever expanding.  And the need for a LifeBox on every corner is as urgent as ever.

The end goal is in sight. How long it takes to get the basic necessities of life to each person on earth really depends on us. 5 years? 10 years? If we pushed hard it could happen. But no matter what, the day when every single human can get access to what’s in a LifeBox is clearly within our future.

Bill Maher Speaks Out Against War Machine

Sunday, April 14th, 2013

Hooray! A prominent voice from the US mainstream media finally spoke out against their Military Industrial Complex. And it was none other than the illustrious Bill Maher, someone who I once disparaged on this very blog.

Maher pleaded with the American people to do some well needed self-reflection on their own warmongering. After two centuries of perpetual war, it’s time Americans realized “We’re the gun country. Come on, we’re the war people.”

After breaking down the history and concluding the problem lies with America itself, Maher went on to say “America needs to start defining peace as strength. Do you know who the role model for every president should be? Jimmy Carter. He was the one out of all of them who figured out how to sit in office for four years and never fire a shot. And every president’s negative example,” he concluded, “should be Dick Cheney, who even shot his friends in the face.”

I cannot express how thrilled I was to hear these words on an influential US show. When a population of 313 million people – most of whom are surrounded by strife and a crumbling infrastructure – look to their sputtering economy, more and more people need to actively point out the giant elephant in the room.

Right now, America’s military industrial complex devours half of its government’s spending. It doesn’t take a rocket  surgeon to see that drastic cuts in military spending would likely yield equally drastic improvements for American families across the land.

But, for the most part, politicians and mainstream media sources remain chillingly silent. This is, as you may well know, due to the entrenched talons of the Military Industrial Complex itself. With billions of dollars to throw around, the war machine can buy both political parties and align all the major news channels, effectively keeping enough anti-war rhetoric from the ears (and off the lips) of the American public.

So, as with all great movements, the struggle to rid our world of war falls on the shoulders of those outside the established seats of power. While it’s great when the Bill Maher’s and John Stewart’s of the world finally vocalize some anti-war sentiments, until there are millions and millions of us doing this every single day, the war machine will keep on rolling.

Fortunately, uniting against war is exactly what we are doing. All it will take is the right spark, the right catalyst, and a Occupy-esque movement can rise against the Military Industrial Complex, and the struggle towards peace will become the latest trendy battle for the masses, maybe even earning the privilege of being trivialized by the mainstream media.

Why Aren’t Americans Ending War?

Sunday, January 20th, 2013

Americans spend trillions of dollars on warfare every single year. This is an absurd amount of money to spend on anything, let alone using it to blow up your fellow humans on an industrialized scale. With that kind of cash, you could end extreme poverty the world over, give every person a home and an education, and dramatically lift the tide which raises all ships.

Ask the average person in America, and they would tell you they want the fighting to stop. The barely-adult people sent overseas to kill or be killed would sure as shit rather be home with their families and friends. And the people in Yemen and Pakistan? I imagine they could stand fewer innocents being killed by drone assassination.

The financial costs are an incredible burden, and the emotional scars would take generations to heal even if war ended this very second. The longer these large scale conflicts get prolonged, the worse off our entire world is.

So why aren’t Americans ending war? If the US people, much like the rest of us, just want to live and prosper in peace, why don’t their politicians listen to them and give them what they want?

The sad truth is that they can’t.

The entire American system has, to the detriment of the world, fallen victim to what can only be described as a parasitic entity, a beast that has been around in one form or another for thousands of years.

Whether through anesthetizing concepts like pride and security, the unfettered power of wealth, or, when all else fails, brute force, the war machine of which I speak has been able to keep countless populations within their grasp – and right now their prey is the American public.

In the United States, mainstream newsanchors all dance around the issue ending war, and ‘radical’ concepts like bringing home the troops rarely arise. Politicians are no better, for they too are in the pockets of the military industry, as made evident by a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate who intentionally escalates wars around the world.

So even when the vast majority of Americans want peace, a political system which is mostly theatre combined with a deliberate lack of guidance from the media makes it hard for the anti-war movement to gain the momentum needed to make a significant impact.

But peace-loving Americans won’t stay down for much longer. They simply cannot. Fueled by a crumbling economy, driven by global awareness, and united by social media, a multi-million person strong movement will prove more powerful than the entire military industrial complex. Or so we shall hope.

The world is changing faster than even those who sit atop can control. Unprecedented technology is causing new concepts like transparency and global solidarity to crash down on our world. As the old guard falls away, a newfound democracy is sure to bring to fruition the civilization our species has been cultivating for eons.

The Spark Project

Sunday, November 11th, 2012

In early 2013 a tool by The Spark Project will help concentrate people power into a force so powerful that it can counterbalance giant institutions like corporations and bad governments, even rivalling the biggest scourge of the earth – the military industrial complex.

The Spark Project was started 1 year ago by a group of Redditors who were inspired by the site’s amazing ability to filter through nonsense while bringing the best and brightest ideas to the top. They thought, ‘why not take this effective formula of crowdsourcing and use it to foster a true democracy?’. And so they did.

While still looking for funds and volunteers, the team have made tremendous headway and will likely release their tools early in 2013. Read more about the project at thespark.org.

It is tools like these which, once refined and widely adapted, can truly reshape the world. By channelling the voices of millions (and billions) of people into practical political clout, we’ll finally be able to enact real changes to the global establishment. We can finally make our world what we want it to be.

No more gross inequality where billionaires can hoard more for themselves while billions of people are left to starve. No more rampant exploitation of weaker nations by the more powerful in what is no less that modern-day slavery. No more politically or corporately organized armed conflict, meaning world peace will finally be upon us.

All this, and more, can and will be ours once we truly start working together as one people. Awesome!

Automated Greenhouses – Soon to be a Reality!

Friday, October 12th, 2012

Picture a greenhouse that continually produces food all by itself, with little to no human interaction. This autonomous mechanical marvel – built from low cost materials and powered by renewable energy – could truly mean a sustainable source of fresh food all year round.

Sound too good to be true? Well, it is right now. But not for much longer. Automated greenhouses are fast becoming a reality, and these seemingly magic structures will give humankind a permanent solution to world hunger.

Consider the Horto Domi project, which aims to take the labor out of running a garden at home. Their working prototype can regulate soil and atmosphere conditions, runs on the economical Arduino micro-computer, and can be monitored remotely via web App.

So it’s not yet a magical box. But over the coming years, teams will hash out the remaining pieces of the puzzle. Atmospheric water collectors will provide all the fresh water needed to irrigate the crops. Wind and solar will provide the necessary energy to heat and run the system. The structure itself will be built from some kind of abundant material, shaped into whatever form works best. And all that will be left is to figure out how to mechanize the entire crop cycle safely and effectively.

The implications of this will be astounding! No one will be starving anywhere on the planet. Incredible, right?

If you think about all the wars and chaos in our world, so much of it is rooted directly in poverty. People in desperate situations are willing to do desperate things. When no mouth goes hungry, when everyone’s needs are met, there won’t be this fundamental drive towards violent conflict.

Automated greenhouses – and the incredible boon they’ll offer- give us one more reason to believe that world peace is just around the corner.

American Drone Strikes Found to be Illegal and Ineffectual

Tuesday, September 25th, 2012

A recent Stanford/NYU Law study analyses the United State’s growing reliance on unmanned aircraft as remote executioners, and they’ve found out what many of us already know: the use of drone strikes needs to be halted immediately.

Interviewing 130 people in Pakistan about their personal experiences with U.S.-led drone attacks – 69 of which had either survived or lost family to a strike attack – the report builds on findings by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, which counted ‘474 to 884 civilian deaths since 2004, including 176 children’ while ‘only about 2% of drone casualties are top militant leaders.

The report also shows that American UAV attacks violate international law, making them illegal war crimes. Obama is now complicit in human rights violations and should stand trial alongside the Bush Administration.

Furthermore, the team found drone strikes to be ineffectual  and counter-productive, stating: ‘Evidence suggests that US strikes have facilitated recruitment to violent non-state armed groups, and motivated further violent attacks. One major study shows that 74% of Pakistanis now consider the U.S. an enemy.’

So that settles it, right? No more need to prolong the injustice. Tell everyone you know about how wrong drone strikes are, and together we can finally put an end to long distance murder.

Human Immortality Coming Soon!

Wednesday, August 1st, 2012

Who wants to live forever? Who doesn’t??? Maybe you’re one of those people who’d still like to be able to die… but what if you didn’t have to worry about kicking it until you’ve crossed off everything on your bucket list. And for the rest of us, why not live forever? Sure beats croaking like a mortal.

You’d be around long enough to explore our entire universe, but why stop there. Computer game makers are already giving us vast, alternate universes to play around in and there’s always more to come. Imagine when we have incredibly lifelike computer simulations, accessible in our own dwellings, indistinguishable from actual reality. Yes!!! I’ve always wanted my own Holodeck.

That humans will transcend biology is an accepted notion amongst many futurists, like Aubrey du Gray and Ray Kurzweil, who’ve long seen the fountain of immortality approaching. And now, a leading team of Russian scientists predict that the tools to extend our lives indefinitely will be upon us in about 30 years.

Yes!!! I love to hear it! Such brazen optimism is exactly what our world needs more of.

For a while now I’ve been preaching about the coming human revolution, where we rise up as a species to restructure our world’s economy and power structure. And one by-product of this great upheaval will be the end of institutionalized warfare, meaning we finally find world peace. Plus, to top it all off, I believe humankind’s most monumental achievement – this impending insurrection – is due to happen within a decade or two!

So it’s always nice to see when other people – scientifically minded industry leaders – also agree that good things will continue to happen for us on a planetary scale.