May 7, 2006 at 23:00:00

The Good Life

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By Bill Burkett (about the author) Page 4 of 4 page(s)

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Within this and all challenging Worlds, leadership must insure that distribution of opportunity, justice, safety and security are never hoarded by the powerful few. Otherwise calamity and chaos follow and create a world that is filled with instability � the World in 2006.

Placing Americans in inner competition; under a belief that everything is limited, exclusive or otherwise is in short supply is also a contrast to the historical teachings within the Old Testament of the Bible that so many have placed on their desktops to provide an image of fairness in business, but have as yet failed to ruffle the pages until that book is torn, tattered and worn. A little off subject, but appropriate. Daddy never trusted anyone with a new Bible. He saw it as imagery rather than use and now I understand why. He listened far more intently when he saw ruffled and feathered pages, with notes and bookmarks, and I'm sure that's the same way the old Rabbi's and Islamic leaders also feel.

Yes, even the Old Testament histories acknowledge that within the land of Kings, one should study the directives of those kings in times of famine. Slavery was acknowledged, but being good to slaves was something else. And from this came the justification used by the American Old South for slavery; a revision of the old King and Fiefdom rule even down from twenty previous centuries.

Social order is an old problem as we see. Abraham faced it, and the principles of the Jewish community face it today as well. I refuse to speak to something that I don't know, but I'm sure there must be a parallel also within the teachings of the Koran concerning wealth and social structure.

Within those contexts, don't forget that religion as we know it today actually grew out of the impoverished segments of each population. Religion became a coping mechanism; a Faith for believers to counter their poverty, and strife in this life and on earth. For in every faith, it is the Faith that �there will be a better place� that is the flame from which the impoverished and oppressed moth gravitates.

Each of us, I included, am prone to believe that we have reached an ultimate milestone in which our nation � or society has defaulted � a new low. But within the wide expanse of history, reflection shows that these were simply the rise and fall of civilizations.

Is there a true strategic need for a major economic correction � a recession or depression to alter the course? Will there be a choice?

And how will it alter the balance within the societal structure; who will weaken and who will strengthen?

When will this �bubble� or that burst and who will rise and who will fall because of it.

We've led entire college courses and the field of investment to believe they can predict that future. We've established entire professions which now drive pricing � the futures markets � which gamble in this every day.

But the futures markets, securities and politics in general can not forecast everything. They did not forecast major 'acts of God' such as Hurricane Katrina. They do not forecast Tidal Waves. And as we find, they are very vulnerable also to the �fluff journalism� and spin of corporate profits and losses; hence WorldCom and Enron.

We are at an interesting time and I tend to believe it can go either way.

Regardless, living in excess fuels the end. In every teaching from religion to history we find that a generational rise in excessive living spurred the meltdown leading to change. Maybe it was the accelerator that caused the car to simply go too fast for the blind curve ahead. To me, it was the person whose foot was on that accelerator who was ultimately to blame.

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