Are the spreading uprisings, revolts, and revolutions enveloping the Middle East/North Africa, part of a "shift in global consciousness"? Some people think so, this comment, written about the link for global uprising coverage, http://www.commondreams.org/uprising demonstrates what some "new-age" type people are thinking lately:
Feb 18 2011 - 11:36pm
"What is happening in the Arab world is part of a worldwide revolution of consciousness - the old paradigms of hierarchy, authoritarianism, corporatism, oligarchy, parasitic capitalism, materialism, etc. are breaking down .
America , being part of the world, will also undergo turmoil, chaos, revolt against the system.
The Wisconsin and Arab protests are intricately connected at a deep level. On the surface they appear isolated from each other, but they are both part of a morphogenetic field http://www.experiencefestival.com/morphogenetic_fields - a phrase coined by Rupert Sheldrake -sweeping across the world.
These upheavals will increase and spread worldwide and they are representative of a kind of awakening and a tectonic shift in human consciousness.
American philosopher Ken Wilber outlined how these memes of collective consciousness evolve in his 'Integral Politics" theory.
The monetary system, which is a house of cards designed to protect the few powerful corporate entities and the international banking system, will collapse and America will experience the same kind of unrest, riots, and upheaval as we are seeing around the world.
The thieves, the capitalists, the corrupt parasites have reached the end of the line . Their time is up. They will use deadly force to retain power but, in the end, their time is simply up because the old paradigms are fast becoming obsolete.
These events will move rapidly and probably accelerate over the next two years."
We do here at A.P.R certainly feel that some sort of shift is occurring, globally, and often do ponder the possibility that all humans and beings are linked on some level, and exchange information. That perhaps the way technology has developed over the last several decades with the "Information Revolution", and continues to, is to mimic what occurs in the other realities, before/after death, and during our dream states. Which is to say, having instantaneous communication with anyone, at any time, when we desire it, and instant manifestation of our desires and fears.
http://akprogressive.blogspot.com/2009/10/capitalisms-dirty-warssecrets.html
We have been greatly inspired by the events of the last six weeks across the Middle East/North Africa, which seems to have taken the World by surprise, much as did the fall of the Berlin Wall.
But these events were based on years of quiet, but increasingly large, collaboration of thousands, and then millions of people. And, like then, it is spreading now:
From Cairo to Madison: Hope and Solidarity are Alive
Here in Madison, Wisconsin, where protesters have occupied the State Capitol Building to stop the pending bill that would eliminate workers’ right to collective bargaining, echoes of Cairo are everywhere. Protesters here were elated by the photo of an Egyptian engineer named Muhammad Saladin Nusair holding a sign in Tahrir Square saying “Egypt Supports Wisconsin Workers—One World, One Pain.” The signs by protesters in Madison include “Welcome to Wiscairo”, “From Egypt to Wisconsin: We Rise Up”, and “Government Walker: Our Mubarak.” The banner I brought directly from Tahrir Square saying “Solidarity with Egyptian Workers” has been hanging from the balcony of the Capitol alongside solidarity messages from around the country.
My travels from Cairo to Madison seem like one seamless web. After camping out with the students and workers in the Capitol Building, I gave an early morning seminar on what it was like to be an eyewitness to the Egyptian revolution, and the struggles that are taking place right now in places like Libya, Bahrain and Yemen. Folks told me all day how inspiring it was to hear about the uprisings in the Arab world.
Some took the lessons from Cairo literally. Looking around at the capitol building that was starting to show the wear and tear from housing thousands of protesters, I had mentioned that in Cairo the activists were constantly scrubbing the square, determined to show how much they loved the space they had liberated. A few hours later, in Madison’s rotunda, people were on their hands and knees scrubbing the marble floor. “We’re quick learners,” one of the high school students told me, smiling as she picked at the remains of oreo cookies sticking to the floor.
I heard echoes of Cairo in the Capitol hearing room where a nonstop line of people had gathered all week to give testimonies. The Democratic Assemblymembers have been giving folks a chance to voice their concerns about the governor’s pending bill. In this endless stream of heartfelt testimonies, people talk about the impact this bill will have on their own families—their take-home pay, their healthcare, their pensions. They talk about the governor manufacturing the budget crisis to break the unions. They talk about the history of workers’ struggles to earn living wages and have decent benefits. And time and again, I heard people say “I saw how the Egyptian people were able to rise up and overthrow a 30-year dictatorship, and that inspired me to rise up and fight this bill.”
Solidarity is, indeed, a beautiful thing. It is a way we show our oneness with all of humanity; it is a way to reaffirm our own humanity. CODEPINK sent flowers to the people in Tahrir Square—a gesture that was received with kisses, hugs and tears from the Egyptians. The campers in Madison erupted in cheer when they heard that an Egyptian had called the local pizza place, Ians Pizza, and placed a huge order to feed the protesters. “Pizza never tasted so good,” a Wisconsin fireman commented when he was told that the garlic pizza he was eating had come from supporters in Cairo.
Egyptian engineer Muhammad Saladin Nusair, the one whose photo supporting Wisconsin workers went viral, now has thousands of new American Facebook friends. He wrote in his blog that many of his new friends were surprised by his gesture of solidarity, but he was taught that “we live in ONE world and under the same sky.”
“If a human being doesn’t feel the pain of his fellow human beings, then everything we’ve created and established since the very beginning of existence is in great danger,” Muhammad wrote. “We shouldn’t let borders and differences separate us. We were made different to complete each other, to integrate and live together. One world, one pain, one humanity, one hope.”
Since we only are able to write our articles weekly, or semi-weekly here, we can't keep you instantly abreast of all the latest developments, in this amazingly rapid transformation, in so many areas. But we will do our best to put them all in perspective, and talk to others, so they can help provide us and you with insightful information.
To that end, we have a special feature coming soon, an exclusive A.P.R. interview that occurred two weeks ago with an internationally-known progressive figure, who has written many amazing books, and is involved with many important causes. Stay tuned, and we will have that out as soon as we can. It takes some time to professionally edit, and transcribe a studio-recorded interview, so bare with us. Cheers.
p.s. I just came across this interesting chart today. It shows how low the US rates in many measures of quality of life, of the "industrialised" nations. Clearly, there is alot of work to be done. Only Hong Kong and Singapore outrank the US in terms of wealth inequality, and as mentioned before here, thanks to sentencing disparities for possession of different kinds of drugs in the senseless and useless "war on drugs", we have far and away, the highest per capita and actual number of prisoners, than any other of these nations.
This is why it is so imperative, that we "Just Say No" to the sociopaths in both political parties, but especially of course, the Republicans, who want to turn back the clock to the year 1900.
So it’s time for all of us to say it loud: 
p.s. I just came across this interesting chart today. It shows how low the US rates in many measures of quality of life, of the "industrialised" nations. Clearly, there is alot of work to be done. Only Hong Kong and Singapore outrank the US in terms of wealth inequality, and as mentioned before here, thanks to sentencing disparities for possession of different kinds of drugs in the senseless and useless "war on drugs", we have far and away, the highest per capita and actual number of prisoners, than any other of these nations.
This is why it is so imperative, that we "Just Say No" to the sociopaths in both political parties, but especially of course, the Republicans, who want to turn back the clock to the year 1900.
This article below, by Ms. DeMoro, the head of the largest professional nurses union, puts everything in great perspective, about just what working people are up against, and what needs to be done. Spread it around! http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/02/22-13
There should be two lasting lessons to emerge from the heroic labor-led protests in Wisconsin.
First, working people, with our many allies, students, seniors, women’s organizations, and many more, are inspired and ready to fight.
Second, we need to send a clear and unequivocal message to the rightwing politicians and those in the media suggesting further concessions from working people.
Working people did not create the recession or the budgetary crisis facing Washington or state or local governments, and there can be no more concessions, period.
What should be very apparent is that the right wants to scapegoat workers and their unions, and are trying to exploit the economic crisis for an all out assault on unions, public employees, and all working people in a campaign that is funded by far right, corporate billionaires like the Koch Brothers.
Their goal is no less than to break unions and silence the voice of all working people who fight for better working conditions and improved standards for all working people.
For example, while demanding major cuts in public pensions, the right also wants to make sweeping cuts in Social Security, even though Social Security is in sound economic shape.
What all working families should know:
1. Who caused the economic crisis? Banks, Wall Street speculators, mortgage lenders, global corporations shifting jobs from the U.S. overseas.
2. Who is profiting in the recession? Corporate profits, 3rd quarter of 2010, were $1.6 trillion, 28 percent higher than the year before, the biggest one year jump in history. Meanwhile, average wages and total wages have fallen for all incomes, except the wealthiest Americans whose income grew five-fold.
3. Who is not paying their fair share? In U.S. states facing a budget shortfall, revenues from corporate taxes have declined $2.5 billion in the last year. In Wisconsin, two-thirds of corporations pay no taxes, and the share of state revenue from corporate taxes has fallen in half since 1981. Nationally, according to a General Accountability Study out today, 72 percent of all foreign corporations and about 57 percent of U.S. companies doing business in the United States paid no federal income taxes for at least one year between 1998 and 2005
4. Are public employees overpaid? State workers typically earn 11 percent less, local public workers 12 percent less than private employees with comparable education and experience. Nationally, cutting the federal payroll in half would reduce spending by less than 3 percent.
5. Would pay and benefit concessions by public employees stop the demands? The right has made it clear it wants A- cuts in public pay, pensions, and health benefits, followed by B- restricting collective bargaining for public sector workers, followed by C- prohibiting public sector unions.
6. Will the right be troubled if cuts in working standards make it harder to recruit teachers and other public servants? No. Take public teachers many of whom have accepted wage freezes and other cuts in recent years. Many in the right have a fairly open goal of privatizing education and destabilizing public schools to make it harder for them to function serves this purpose. The right also salutes the shredding of government workforce, part of its overall goal to gut all government service and make it harder to crack down on corporate abuses or implement other public protections and services.
7. Will the right stop at curbing public workers rights? Employers across the U.S. are demanding major concessions from private sector workers, and breaking unions. Rightwing governors and state legislators are seeking new laws to restrict union rights for all private and public employees.
8. Does everyone have a stake in this fight? Yes. It’s an old axiom that the rise in living standards for the middle class in the 1950s was the direct result of a record rate of unionization in America. It is of course unions that won the eight-hour day, weekends off, and many other standards all Americans take for granted that are now often threatened with the three-decade long attack on unions spurred by that rightwing icon Ronald Reagan. The corollary is that increased wages and guaranteed pensions put money into the economy, with a ripple effect that creates jobs and spurs the economy for all.
So it’s time for all of us to say it loud:
- No More Cuts in Public Sector Pay, Pensions, or Health Benefits
- Balance Budgets By Closing Corporate Tax Loopholes, Restoring Fair Share Taxes on Corporations and Wealthy Individuals
- Guarantee Retirement Security and Healthcare for All
