I tried being an optimist and believing things can change for the better. I actively worked to make this a better world for everyone by protesting, organizing, preaching, teaching, networking, voting, and other big or small ways. I worked within the mainstream and on the fringes. Now, after over forty years, I am very pessimistic as I look at our current local, national, and global situation.
Locally, we passed a law making cannabis offenses the police’s lowest priority, but we are repeatedly told the police will not be guided by it, even though it was passed by an overwhelming majority of voters here on the big island. The police are addicted to DEA and other federal money to fly around in helicopters ripping off people’s plants, lives, and property. Where is freedom? Where is the consent of the governed? Where is government by, for, and of the people? Where is freedom to pursue happiness and freedom of religion? The police say they are short handed. They might take two hours to respond to a domestic abuse call, and by then, the woman is taken away in an ambulance. Yet, they have plenty of time to bust people for pot. Add to that, the new corrupt mayor who was inaugurated yesterday, and the rape of Hawai’i continues.
Meanwhile, as the robber barons get big handouts from the national treasury, the state budget tanks with cuts to services like education, health care, and libraries for ordinary people. Make it so people are scared and desperate, and they’ll be grateful for whatever crumbs they get. There’s plenty of money for the rich, for oppressing people, and for war, but not for basic human services.
As far as our new president-elect is concerned, I just see him as another pretty new face on the same old thing. Seems like they have two teams, the red team and the blue team, and when the people can’t take any more of one, they put in the other. Both teams have the same owners however and play the good cop / bad cop game. In the end, you’re still oppressed and ripped off because none of them are really on your side. I say to hell with them all.
I was part of the alternative, counterculture in the 1960s. I still am today. I tried working for change within mainstream society for eleven years as a midwest pastor. I tried making Universalist Radha-Krishnaism compatible with contemporary society. Contemporary society is collapsing from its own rotten corruption. I do not want to be part of it and never really was. I offer Universalist Radha-Krishnaism as an alternative to contemporary society and its ills.
I always believed a change in consciousness is required to change the world for the better. Universalist Radha-Krishnaism offers a spirituality of liberty, truth, and love to counteract the materialistic disease. It may be practiced by individuals in any situation, but rather than trying to fit into mainstream society, I recommend detaching from the mainstream and forming alternative community networks of spiritual persons from all paths who cherish liberty, truth, and love. We need to think globally and act locally to form sustainable communities that can survive the current collapse and perhaps take humanity in a new direction. God-dess help us.