Posts Tagged ‘aware’

Global Voting System Drawing Closer

Wednesday, May 30th, 2012

A few years ago I put forth a proposal for a Global Voting System, which is a tool for democracy that runs on all internet enabled devices, giving anyone a way to put forth ballots (either local, national, or international) and then let everyone else vote on the issue.

Of the few responses I received, only a few were positive. Most people didn’t see the potential, or worse, they saw the idea as pointless, irrelevant or impossible.

Now, it seems, a Computing Science Professor, Jeremy Hansen of Vermont, has seen the light and has announced his run for VT State Senate on a platform of digital polling and direct democracy. Hansen:

Having read pretty heavily on the topic, weighed the pros and cons, I wondered why an elected representative couldn’t use online and in-person polling of constituents to decide the way he or she votes. Though we are living in the ‘information age’ and have rich communications media and opportunities for deep and accessible deliberation, we are getting by (poorly) with horse-and-buggy-era representation. In the spirit of science and because I think it’s legitimately a better way of doing things, I recently announced my candidacy for Vermont’s State Senate in Washington County.

Amazing! Could it be that I’m not crazy after all? Maybe I’m just ahead of the curve. At least that’s what I like to tell myself when it comes to my bold predictions of world peace by 2020.

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Muslims are Us

Sunday, May 20th, 2012

Thanks to a rising rate of Internet adoption, our world is uniting faster than ever before. This is revealing how humans everywhere on earth, in every circle, in every society, are pretty much the same. The vast majority of us – everyone but the fringe minorities – could peacefully co-exist with anyone, anywhere else on earth.

The more we come to see this, the more evident it will become that modern warfare has grown obsolete. We don’t need wars anymore because we no longer see entire populations and foreign countries as a threat requiring an army to fight.

Combined with some other factors technology is making possible, like the eradication of poverty, this unprecedented interconnectedness puts humans alive today right on the brink of world peace. It’s only a bit longer until enough people see this to be true, and then make it happen.

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Oneness as a Path to Peace

Thursday, December 29th, 2011

By Guest Contributor Lexi Soulios

It used to be much easier for humans to see ourselves as independent, isolated, and separate. Now with modern technology like the Internet and recent scientific discoveries in the field of quantum physics, for example, it’s near impossible to live in the delusion that we are alone, unaffected by the plights and actions of others, or that our own behavior has no impact on the world around us.

For those of us who truly long for peace on earth, we need to begin actively living the realization of Oneness – of interconnection with everyone and everything – in our lives. This is the only way we can transcend the greed, violence and fear that arise naturally from the belief in separation and that have pervaded our planet.

We can start living the realization of Oneness by making it an absolute priority to cultivate peace in our own hearts and minds, to think and act in ways that increase the sense of love and harmony in our homes, families, communities and workplaces. This is so important because not only does it give us a stable base from which to interact with others, but when our own lives are peace-filled, we positively influence the vibrations of the larger world beyond us.

Additionally, if we truly want to create a peaceful existence on this planet, we must aim for peace beyond just our generation. We need to make a legacy of peace our goal, so that our political and economic systems are set up in such a way that peace will continue for our children, our grandchildren and beyond.

In order to do this, no one can be left behind. We are all connected. If the children of one country are starving, dying of preventable diseases and lacking basic education, there will be unrest in the minds and hearts of us all.

Lasting peace requires us all to stand together. It requires us to take responsibility for our own well being and our own capacity to feel compassion for others. Lasting peace requires us to expand our viewpoint from that of a separated, isolated individual to that of a beingness which is inextricably woven into the large, mysterious, glorious whole.

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Lexi Soulios is outreach coordinator for the Universal Flag Peace Movement. The Universal Flag Peace Movement is based on the principle that an erroneous belief in separation is at the root of all violence and greed. When we remember that we are all connected, peace will naturally result.

The symbol of our movement is the Universal Flag. The organization strives to raise consciousness through media, social networking, education and various programs in order to help people remember Oneness for themselves. Learn more at: http://www.universalflag.com

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VIDEO: Burning Injustice with Sunlight

Tuesday, July 5th, 2011

Sunlight can kill germs, but it can also kill monsters.

 

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We Are All Connected

Thursday, April 7th, 2011

As a great awakening transpires across the entire world, a truth known by some will be revealed to everyone: we are all connected. No human is truly alone. Every single one of us shares inextricable bonds with every other being on the planet.

Biologically

From a biological perspective, we are all part of the same extended family. All the life we see around us – plants, animals, insects – everything alive stemmed from the same primitive being.

Philosopher Karl Popper frames it quite nicely: “We are all the primordial cell. The first cell is still living after billions of years, and now even in many trillions of copies. Wherever we look, it is there. It has made a garden of our earth and transformed our atmosphere with green plants. And it created our eyes and opened them to the blue sky and the stars. It is doing well.”

Ecologically


From an ecological perspective, our own bodies are extremely interdependent on the world around us. When we breathe, we interchange molecules with the world’s plants. When we eat, energy and atoms from plants and animals become part of our bodies. When we die, our physical selves return to the earth to become part of the next circle of life.

On top of this, every action we take, however miniscule, impacts the world in which we live. A sneeze in a Chinese airport can cause a cold in Brazil. A plastic bottle littered in North America could end up in the stomach of a Japanese sea turtle. An idling vehicle in the UK might magnify flooding in Pakistan.

Socially


It’s on the societal level where the most significant transformations – including the aforementioned awakening – are taking place.

The global consciousness, comprised of the world’s interconnected yet independent minds, is opening its eyes for the first time. Soon, as we further our operations as a species on the global scale, we’ll be set free to do incredible things:

  • Our common humanity is being uncovered, and it will soon be apparent how the vast majority of humankind can co-exist without murdering each other.
  • We’ll discover new tools and methods to address global poverty. Then, with our basic needs met, each of us is likely to enjoy a happier planet.
  • New channels of communication will increase awareness of important issues, like the distribution of wealth and the military industrial complex.
  • People power will reign, bolstered by new methods to enforce transparency and ensure democratic governance around the globe.

Together

We already have the means to take control of our world, and make our future everything we want it to be. It’s just a matter of realizing our potential. Like Che Guevara says, “We cannot wait for the apple to fall from the tree. We need to reach up and pluck it!”

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The Internet: We’re Here for You!

Saturday, April 2nd, 2011

(Oh intermittent wireless signal, why hast thou forsaken me?)

Abuse, exploitation or oppression got you feeling down? Don’t suffer in silence anymore! A whole world, full of eager individuals, is standing by to lend a hand. All you have to do is get your message out.

Grab a camera and start shooting. Spearhead a blog and let words be your weapon. Ignite a movement through Twitter and Facebook. Do whatever you can to make some noise.

With a compelling story that resonates with others, the global hivemind is sure to echo your cries. Then, as word spreads to someone in a position to provide assistance, there’s a good chance you’ll get all the help you need.

Whenever you experience injustice in your own life, or if you see it happening to someone else, the best thing you can do is muster up enough courage and speak out against it. Drag your woes out from the secrecy of the shadows where they draw their strength, and expose them to the truth.

Your problems may appear permanent right now, but they’ll crumble away underneath the might of a cooperating human race.

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War Was Soooo Last Millennium

Friday, January 21st, 2011

A recent NYT/CBS survey echos what other polling data has indicated: most Americans – like most people on earth – are sick and tired of war. Fortunately, we’ve never been closer to ending military expenditures than we are today.

The advent of instant social innovations, like Twitter and Facebook, are enhancing humankind’s hivemind and helping boost our self-awareness as a species. With a clearer lens into what is happening on earth, we gain access to new insights about our fellow humans.

For one, we’ll see how the vast majority of us – no matter where we come from – can co-exist non-violently with pretty much anyone else on earth. Knowing that the rest of the world shares our same desire and ability for peace will be integral to reducing politically organized violence. The more we collectively embrace the belief that war will end, the more we will actively seek to make peace happen.

As the peace movement grows, so too will awareness of the Military Industrial Complex. An interconnected world will expose war for what it really is: a business. More people will awaken to see that most of earths major wars are fabricated. Were it not for business entities entertaining shareholder interests, most of today’s large scale armed conflicts wouldn’t even exist.

Don’t believe me? Try taking the ‘profit’ out of war-profiteering. Imagine if the world’s biggest defense contractors were held financially accountable for the lives extinguished by their products… their passion for spilling blood would soon evaporate. All the cries of liberty, freedom, democracy, security, God or country would never lead to the scale of today’s wars if there weren’t big money to be made.

Yet since these huge financial incentives remain to drive it forward, we cannot simply wait for the war machine to shut itself down. The people whose very livelihood depends on armed conflict – not just the billionaires at the top, but the millions of regular people entrenched in the defense industry – all have a vested interest in keeping wars brewing around the world.

So why wait for anyone from the ‘defense’ industry to tell us when we can expect peace?

War will be over as soon as we – the world’s people – say it is over.

The onus for peace sits with anyone who wants to see an end to war – the world’s peacewarriors – to systematically dismantle military industrial complex. A challenging task, perhaps, but one for which we’ve never been better equipped to make possible.

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