THE FOOL RULES#2. Waking up from Chaos.

Healing begins with facing the truth.

This is a meditation on leadership, politics and your role in this world. It’s about how to stay in touch with the essential, get rich with truth and serving our shared world with the best of you.

Three aspects stand out when we consider the work of our life. Love, Clarity and the ‘Whole’. When you include these in your work, it becomes important. When you further them, you add value. When you have them, you are rich.

Three aspects stand out as disturbed when we enter a world of trouble. Love, Clarity and the ‘Whole’. When you don’t have them, parts of life become invisible and unreachable. When you exclude others from it, you are not loving, providing for the whole and your existence. When you diminish them for others, you must lie to yourself to make it right. When you lie to yourself, you’re on your way to become poor. When dare to face the truth of the world you are part of, doors open. First pain and fear will enter, but trust me, beyond them lies love. For the deepest source of pain and fear is love that has been hurt. Getting to love means true wealth. It is attainable for everyone.

The problem with news, propaganda and politics based on interests.

When the actuals facts and truth are hidden, how can you solve real-world problems? When false beliefs are consciously spread to further certain interests, who is really served? Least of all the people. For if reality can’t be faced, and everyone lives a lie, then how to deal real issues?

How to progress when the system starts to crumble, or a hidden calamity reveals itself? Is it possible to keep things with even bigger lies and use of force together? When the conflict moves to fight between the power that lies, and those that fight it, victims fall while the real issue isn’t addressed. And always similar men obsessed with power and their own convictions will fight each other; and the world ends up with more of the same, or worse.

Leaders who lie, can’t face the truth. Leaders that can’t face the truth, let alone don’t want to act on it, are blowing up a bubble that will burst. That may even take some generations. What once was a lie defending an interest, becomes accepted ‘truth’ (like ‘Capitalism brings freedom, wealth and happiness for all.’ or ‘In communism everyone is equal, and must behave and think the same for our unity.’) ‘Leaders’ that have been raised on decades of propaganda, can only decide based on that bias. Hence all their ‘solutions’ will not address reality. A government that postpones dealing with current real-world issues, to protect their interests, is stealing from the future and therefore guilty of crimes against the people they swore to serve.

Whoever lies to further interests of a few, at the cost of the many, is a thief.

What this may mean for you in your work & life.

If at work you live a lie or don’t speak up for fear of getting fired, then both company and you suffer tyranny. You suffer because your light is diminished and the company loses its grasp of reality and thus damages its future. Yes men make the leaders go mad. Leaders who never hear contradiction will start to believe they’re infallible. In WWII they called yes men attitude ‘befehl ist befehl’. And after the war we said such is wrong. Thus so is helping your employer, lie, cheat, pollute.

The more your work place allows and embrace open dialogue about real concerns, the more your organization deepens its relation with reality. Therefore it can better withstand turmoil in the world it is part of. Therefore you can give it all you’ve got, because supporting it fully, makes sense for you and the world. And the clarity you use to distinguish stories from reality, to distinguish intuition from anxiety. The love you use to make more humane decisions and wisdom you use to make decisions, that serve you, your organization and the ‘whole’.

If you are allowed to shine your best self, the whole will grow. If you think your best self is you standing above the crowd, you’ve not understood the real meaning of shining your best self. How can you think seeking to outshine others, or even dimming their lights, makes you better? Such ego can never be your best self. Being self-absorbed does not make others grow. Your true best self just does for the sake of it, because it includes love for the ‘whole’.

Education, Nature, and Peace need love, future and being ‘whole’.

A country that doesn’t educate its children is throwing away its future.

Education must serve all, not only the leading class or system.

Governments that enforces teachings according to their preferred idea of reality are blinding themselves to reality. People blinded to reality can’t solve real-world issues. They’ll take biased decisions and blame the wrong ones for all failures. And like all humans they won’t allow themselves to see, they’re part of the problem.

Not knowing reality means you’re mad. Choosing to give the people a fake reality, to ‘protect’ them, as if they’re children needing fairy tales, or your own interests means you’re mad. Not treating people as mature adults makes people mad. Mad people do crazy things. Mad leaders take the wrong decisions. Wrong decisions lead to suffering. Intentional wrong decisions lead to terror. Therefore a government that lies to its students is harming the people and has taken the road towards terror.

A government that doesn’t educate its people is stealing from its people, and is therefore also weakening its own base. When education becomes too expansive for many, those many talents are wasted, read stolen from the community. The less people are awake, and dare discuss real issues realistically, the smaller your base of making sane decisions. This way you create a giant with clay feet. How much is your society as a whole weakened because of diminished quality of education due to high costs or propaganda?

Why conspiracy theories are a game that sucks your energy away.

Sadly, also resistance to governments that lie create alternative realities. And due to bad education they’ll be believed faster. Because people have no critical thinking skills any more. Then conspiracies and stories about higher powers will flourish. Since the government lies, these stories must be true. Such stories all say: “There’s a game being played with you. This is a secret game, we know about it. This is a matter of life and death. What you hold dear will be taken away. Trust us, and we’ll save you. Just do as we say. That will help.” End 20th century some sects committed suicide over such stories. The Balkan became a war zone, because of ‘Us versus Them’ stories. Millions got locked up for non-crimes because of such stories, or got lynched, or were persecuted for thinking different.

When the people are misinformed and lied to, in order to protect interests, or further flames on the fire of ‘resistance’ they will learn that power and manipulation is the ‘right’ way of politics. Misinformation and lies lead to a warped sense of reality and terrible decision making. It also means people will misinform and lie to you. They must, because they might be punished for the truth. Being lied to enhances paranoia and distrust. A distrusting society can explode in your face. To prevent such explosion, tyranny and fanatical resistance must be organized. Every reaction will demand more aggressive counter actions.

No leader in such a struggle is a serving leader, though they will lie to themselves ‘yes, I am’ and their yes men and financial backers will agree.

Whoever starts executing people based on these tenets, is a fanatic similar to all criminals mentioned above. Whoever lets them get away with it is complicit in the crimes described. In between lie the solutions towards a humane society in a healthy eco-system.

But best of all, don’t engage in such games. Leave such games and concentrate on love, clarity and the ‘whole’ in the here and now.

Why diversity is essential

Therefore good governments educate their people best and most truthful as they can. And great students seek to learn, as they please, freely investigate and become stars for those in the dark. A multitude of perspectives freely discusses options, not rattle all the same talking points, often spoonfed by those who defend their interests. Consider the bees here. All may share where they found flowers. The more enthusiast the dance, the more bees will investigate such ‘found flower spots’. Little enthusiast, will automatically draw less bees to investigate, to places where are less flowers: just enough for each spot. But imagine that certain places are forbidden to look, or considered ‘not our side’ politics. Then possible great solutions will be cut off. Hence they importance for open minds willing to investigate in divergent ways.

Seeing the light in everyone is the highest art and an essential skill for leaders towards a flourishing future. If people can’t shine their true potential, then who suffers? We get told it is only the individual, yet for each person stumbling in the dark, another star loses its light.

Basic Rules

Whoever makes a living that increases pollution or injustice is stealing from the future. Whomever trains youth to fulfill such jobs is stealing from life itself.

Whoever lies for companies (marketing, advertising, spin-doctors, researchers, lobbyists) to make the bad look good and the criminal look legal is stealing from society as a whole.

Whoever cuts a tree, without replanting three in the near vicinity is stealing from the future of the community and is harming nature.

Whoever removes a whole habitat to catch one fish or cut one tree, is a criminal, damaging our eco-system as a whole, for the profit of a few.

Whoever harms nature to further the interests of a few, at the cost of many, is a criminal (whatever legal contracts they have to show for).

A healthcare system that isn’t based on solidarity but on individual responsibility and capability, doesn’t believe that sickness can happen to the capable, or that the return of health of one can mean the strengthening of the whole.

A healthcare system where you can make more money on people staying sick isn’t a healthcare system. It’s theft from the health and power of society as a whole. Healthcare that heals everyone enriches and strengthens society as a whole.

Facing a Crisis Together.

A whole society can face trouble. A society where people feel free to face trouble, because they feel protected when things go wrong, can overcome the biggest crisis. When this is lacking, people will first seek to save themselves. When that is the case, inner and outer poverty will rise. Outer poverty for everyone meeting bad circumstances. Inner poverty for all the anxieties to not miss the boat. Thus our societies need to keep everyone safe to act and help and feel supported doing so. Thus governments know what they have to do, as bottomline.

An economic system where you can make money by destroying natural resources for short-term profits is a losing bet in the long run. We currently have such a system right now. It’s theft from the future of society and our living planet as a whole. A healthy economic system will prepare for the future, will stimulate resilience and cooperative attitudes to face trouble together. A healthy system helps nature and people to flourish. We need to create such a system and let go of the damaging one. The dinosaur companies will use millions to prevent such. And yet, it is not even in the interest of the people working there, if we destroy everything.

An economic system where you can get rich by harming others, ignite a war, or pollute land and sea allows theft from our ‘whole future’. It allows crooks to run the show. It allows lies to become truth. It allows the pain of disconnection being blamed upon the innocent. It allows slavery for profit. It allows prison time without justice. It allows might making right. It allows for leaders who are blind pretending they can see. And people who can see will be locked up, for exposing their leaders are blind. Stay away from patterns that include this madness. Recognize such madness when it happens.

If you think you are powerless in the face of such madness, go out and help others with kindness and love. A 100.000 kind people in your community bring trust and restore order. Your political convictions matter not, when you speak through the heart to those you meet.

Leadership Becoming ‘Whole’.

Leadership means being in touch and taking responsibility. Leadership means facing the real and seeking how to heal wounds made in the past. Leadership means seeking profit where it serves love, future and ‘whole’. Because wealth does that.

Leaders who seek to make a difference, through fierce action, can’t be sensitive enough to know the ‘whole’. Leaders who speak big words can’t see all the little threads of interconnectedness. Leaders who solve issues with power, destroy relationships.

Leaders who seek to ‘win’ must make losers. Leaders who seek to beat others, have war within. Leaders who get you emotionally riled up about an issue, are about the emotion, not the issue.

Leaders who rile against that what is in the way, are blocking the way. They are like the inquisition claiming to carry love. Leaders who fight fanatics with power will become fanatics. Their symbols and language may be different, their hatred and punishing the ‘others’ is the same. Leaders who point out enemies, who should be destroyed, are the enemy.

Friends are all those who don’t enhance towards a Future where Love can be felt by and through the ‘Whole’. The ‘enemy’ can’t be beaten with power or fight. The enemy needs to be embraced by love, future, and whole in order to dissolve and become ‘whole’. Those who disagree need listening, opinions need to be weighted, not dismissed out of hand. And this is very difficult.. even here I make such mistakes. Sorry. Be willing to self observe and say sorry. ;)

About the Choices of the People (voters).

Many people like strong leaders, because they feel insecure. Understand insecurity is the negative of sensitivity. We don’t need ‘strong’ leaders. We need sensitive leaders who have clarity, love and heart for the ‘whole’. They will hurt the fewest and help the most.

People who prefer to vote for winners are the losers. People who prefer to vote their own interests alone, damage relationships. People who vote for promises vote for someone who wants to win, not someone seeking to serve the people. The best one to vote for, is someone who already does the best they can to make a difference.

People who vote in the hope of getting something are buyers. Their vote is a business transaction. They will be swayed with advertising. They think what they buy comes for free. They should realize in business they pay for for a product that will boost profits of the ones they are buying from. Voting like this makes you poorer.

Politicians who offer you a sale to vote for, are crooks. They make a transaction out of what should be a shared destiny. They see you as cattle, that can be manipulated for ends. The more they speak to your emotion, the lower they think of you. The more they share their own emotion, doubts and worry, the more vulnerable they seem, the more reliable they’ll actually work on what they promise. But better still is to work for your highest vision.

Vote for the highest better vision. Better still is to work for the highest vision.

He, who damages relationships, disconnects deeper and becomes poorer. When such poor are in power, they’ll use might make right, money buys conviction. When those rich in relationships (much deeper than the ‘well-connected’) are in power, you feel heard and can address them. Leaders who can be addressed can deal with reality. If a leader can live among the people and doesn’t have to fear them, he is truly a leader.

When you work for the world, ask yourself: Am I facing the truth or work for false interests? Am I building our future or stealing from it? Am I strengthening the whole, or taking from it?

When you act towards such a society, ask yourself: Does this help love? Does this help more beauty into the world? Does this help nature to heal? Does this help humanity to prepare for whatever may be coming?

Whatever group you’re in, embrace Love, Clarity and the ‘Whole’

For those who are religious, the love is the divine. Clarity is having a open relationship with divine . The ‘whole’ is the divine unfolding. You can’t get there, however, if your religion distinguishes certain peoples who are exempt from the Divine. You can’t get there yourself, and this will hurt, as you think, it is others and not you who will have to transform.

For those who are corporate, the ‘whole’ is your bigger market. Love is adding real value. It’s clarity, when this clarity including you and your family. You can’t get there when you think your profits are separate from the world they were made in. You can’t get there when you think your status, beautiful house and wealth are the true value made, nor find true life.

For those who are criminal and rebel full of anger, the ‘whole’ is that what you think rejected you. What really rejected you were other ‘criminals’ and you yourself. The whole is what embraces you. Love is when you feel small, yet people show kindness towards you because of it. Our world is a safe place when you are free and feel supported. You can’t get to a safe world when you think forcing others to get yours is necessary.

For those who are a minority and are suppressed or persecuted, the ‘whole’ doesn’t mean revenge, it means becoming fully accepted. The ‘whole’ is the world where you can shine with everyone else. Love is you too letting go of hatred, for the moral high ground. Integrity can make you invincible and win many hearts. Our future is your future too. The one can’t exclude the other, as it would leave a stench that can last centuries, as we all know. Love means working for a future that doesn’t have that smell.

For those who are real leaders, the ‘whole’ is what you really serve, if you want to be a real leader. Love is what really drives you if you include everyone. The best possible future, is the one your heart knows, or hopes, is possible*. You can’t get there unless you serve that bigger whole. When you lie, cheat, steal to get there, you are part of the problem, even when you think it’s necessary to get there. The goal doesn’t justify the means. To do so would mean you’re not serving the whole, but a power that steals from the whole.

For those who are ‘normal citizens’, the whole is everyone and everything in this world and the universe. Love is what warms your heart over time. Our future is seeing your grandchildren grow up with confidence and possibilities. You can’t get there when your ‘leaders’ lie, cheat and steal from your future and let you pay the price. You can’t get there when you think voting is enough. You have to become more active part of the whole to see it grow.

The Gentle Revolution, for a world that flourishes and where people can fly.

Comment of the Sage: “If you didn’t get it, you’re still asleep. If you don’t know what to do next, you haven’t tuned in deep enough. If you feel driven to act, I see your true self shine.”

Comment of the Fool: “Yes, you see me shine? Wow! Shall I climb on stage, full in the lights? Does that help even more? If you applaud me, dear Sage, I’ll tell you, as your new leader, what your next actions are.”

*) taken from Charles Eisenstein: “the better world our heart knows is possible.”