Time for a new majority!

Move over Moral Majority, it’s time for the Wise Majority!

I was excited to hear the discussion this morning on Morning Joe (MSNBC). Everyone was talking hope and an increase in wisdom. What we stand to gain by the current hardships was reviewed, and needed changes explored. The common theme in it all was an increase in wisdom and acceptance of certain realities.

At this point, I think:

• The Moral Majority gave us, faith-based irrationality, faith-based elitism and bigotry, faith-based discrimination, faith-based fear of sexuality, faith-based fear of diversity, immoral evangelists, faith-based confusion of church/state issues, faith-based justification for hate/envy and faith-based election of very incapable people to run our nation. Use of the term “moral” has led us down a destructive path. The morality of the moral majority has been a destructive, foolish, hurtful and divisive thing—anything but “moral.”

• Members of the Wise Majority have been frustrated by the lack of a leader speaking wise approaches to solving problems. We have sat back waiting for an Obama-like leader to arise and excite us with the reality that it is finally time to learn from our mistakes and move forward, finding growth and the chance to truly solve problems by dealing with causes not symptoms.

• The upswell of support for Obama indicates that we have learned from the past and it is time for a Wise Majority to arise.

A Wise Majority movement can offer the following:

Accepting responsibility instead of excuse-making and blame-laying. We the people are responsible for the problems we now face. Let’s stop spending so much effort laying blame and more effort solving problems. We the people knew we were going down a destructive path, at least the wise among us did, and we did not stop it. There are a host of reasons we did not act and this is not about teeth-gnashing and self-blame either. We now stand to learn so much by accepting OUR failure to act and solve the problems.

Seeking out and addressing root causes of problems. Treating the symptoms and castigating those who merely acted in ways congruent with the zeitgeist do not solve the problems. We can now go back to basics and discover the real reasons for our struggles.

Recognizing “conspicuous consumption” for what it is. This morning the Morning Joe crew reviewed the issues arising from our consumerism. We have crippled our children and led them to expect that the world owes them everything. We seek “to have” not “to be” (see Erich Fromm’s excellent book To Have or To Be.) We have lost the ability to rejoice over the truly joyful things, like discovery, knowledge, wisdom, nature, and our selves. Instead, we find joy in “stuff”. We are in a position now to learn from this and shift to a more wisdom-based rejoicing.

Wisdom-based offense taking. We can now move past the non-productive PC BS. Wise people take offense wisely. As I walked past the TV this morning (a commercial during Morning Joe) I caught a glimpse of someone pounding the face of another human-being. This is nuts. We can be so offended if a body part is displayed, but we can flippantly display incredible violence and then punish a second grader for hitting his classmate. WHAT?!? A common story re: the guy who is offended and complains about a dirty joke, while not being able to wait to tell it to his buddies, can inform us about faith-based offense taking. A wise person is not going to be offended by a body part. A wise person is not going to be offended at a painting depicting Robert E. Lee. That wise soul recognizes that Lee was a part of our history; a part we have learned from and moved on. Wisdom-based offense taking will allow us to be outraged at the appropriate, destructive things that merit offense. We can then take appropriate action.

Wisdom-based valuing. One example; it was mentioned this morning that one third of our recent economic activity was merely the swapping of assets to achieve profit. Nothing of value was created. We can learn that this is unwise; it leads to where we are now. A wise majority values productivity not bank account. As long as we the people value “dollars in hand” more than ”handiness” we will have an endless procession of Bernie Madoffs, corrupt CEO’s and wasteful government spending. It is when we the people value the ability to accomplish something that we can start to turn things around. When we the people value someone who educates our child above someone that can put a ball in a basket, we will see big changes. As long as we remain unchanged in our values (the values WE THE PEOPLE hold) no amount of regulation, laws and prisons, or overseers will change a damn thing.

Wisdom-based choice of officials. I spent many painful moments pondering the difference between George dubya and Thomas Jefferson. Go ahead take a look at that discrepancy. I know many people who voted for dubya because “he is a prayerful man”. He is also an unwise, greedy man (in my opinion). Wisdom-based election of officials can end so much abuse. Officials elected because they can solve problems regardless of whether or not they attend church, because they have the compassion to act for the collective good whether or not they belong to the right club will be the ones to lead a wise majority.

Addressing how and why we lost the principles of wise founders. A wise majority can seek out and apply the marvelous notions of the founding fathers/mothers. How, when and where, did we lose the dialectical process, for example. There can be no bi-partisanship without it. This morning the Morning Joe crew touched on this one (finally, I heard it from pundits). True bipartisanship demands valuing someone who honestly and respectfully disagrees with me. I agree whole-heartedly with the statement this morning relative to how Obama’s desire for true bi-partisanship was muffed by Pelosi, et.al. Being “right” is not important, solving the problem is. I hear so often people vaunting the “founding fathers” and then totally misconstruing what the founding fathers were about.

Wise education strategies. Education must involve more than educating the brain. Wisdom-based education recognizes that people act more often out of what they feel rather than what they think. Wise education strategies will need to address emotional education in the future. We see this beginning but it has a hard time gaining foothold. Wise education will also promote understanding the child’s need to learn, not our need for them to learn.

LONG LIVE THE WISE MAJORITY.