This article speaks to how we mirror the story and movie, "The Wizard of Oz." It speaks to the politics of the corporations and their underling government. In writing the article, I hope those who realize what a mess we are in. It also speaks to our being empowered to get past the status quo (Munchkins) snd instead empower ourselves and our loved ones and friends. It is we, ultimately, who have the power.

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Bob Dylan wrote and sang a song called "Blowing in the Wind" in the 60's. One of the verses states, "how many times must a man look up, before he can see the sky?"

How many times, indeed? I ask. To listen to this classic, visit:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3l4nVByCL44

While there is a difference in the temperament and intelligence of the two major presidential candidates, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, the difference in how our country will go is negligible. George Carlin put our predicament beautifully when he said, "We have no choice; we have owners. They don't give a sh*t about you!"

He further states that our politicians are a farce. It's the "Man" i.e., corporations that own us.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dY4WlxO6i0

As Dorothy in Oz found out, the Man, in our case the politicians and corporations, is a horrid joke. The movie, Corporation, put this beautifully when the writers listed the diagnosis criteria for sociopath and found corporations meeting the criteria! This is who runs the country. Psychopaths i.e., murderers, criminals, people that don't care about the environment and the people. Is that ok?

It's the "man behind the curtain" (corporations and bankers) that we need to expose. We need to send him off in his hot air balloon. The Wizard exists on the other side of the curtain, where the Wizard puffs and moans and uses his technology (a smoke screen) to scare Dorothy and her friends. He realizes he is full of fear, knowing that he is a big-headed mirage. Yes, he sends up a lot of smoke to a horrified Dorothy (the human Soul). Yes, our politicians and corporations are a mirage. To get this metaphor, in your mind's eyes, picture Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

Both are personas that hide from our eyes the true Wizard, who is a farce sending out smoke and the image of a big head (no body, no heart). Yet, when Toto (Dorothy's dog, i.e., her instincts) revealed him, he was found to be a regular man like Rob Kall. All he really wanted was what Dorothy wanted, Kansas, i.e., home.

Yet, people in our culture fall to their knees for this man, be he in the form of a woman or a man. He imposes "shock and awe" upon his citizens as well as his enemies to keep us fearful, gullible, and compliant.

The Wizard is a farce. So are our politicians who are owned by the Wizard. While the "big headed" Wizard was scared of the Witch of the West (fear of death), he used her to keep his people in shackles. He also became a fear in and of himself. As such, he projects himself as a huge head emerging from magicians' smoke. Thus he states to the shaking Dorothy and her friends: the Scarecrow (brain), the Tin Man (heart) and the cowardly Lion (courage), that he would not help them until they killed the witch of the West (death, sunset).

Yes, Dorothy's "friends" (who are aspects of herself) appeared to be without the traits Dorothy needed to succeed in her task (not the Wizard's). Thus, it is the Scarecrow (intelligence) who comes up with strategies. It is the Lion (courage) who becomes courageous when needed, with tail in mouth. The Tin Man, (heart), the essence of Love, to the point that he cries at a dead insect and winds up rusting! How is it? Thus, all of Dorothy's friends reflect our courage (lion), love (heart) and intelligence (scarecrow). Yes, each one of these characters cried because they did not have courage, heart or intelligence. Yet, each one of them comes through for Dorothy through the power they thought they lacked.

The power is within us. We are all Dorothy!

As stated regarding the Wizard of Oz:

L. Frank Baum, the author of the book, "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz," was a role model for compassion and empathy enabled through his own personal experience with pain and suffering. We observe this with each of the main characters in the Wizard of Oz as an outcome of their own experience with adversity. What did the Tin Man teach us? "Express how you feel, have compassion, and others will follow"leaders need to lead with heart as well as thought and courage, along with all of the other elements of leadership"so if you want to be a leader, recognize that having heart, more importantly, sharing heart -- creates a reason for others to follow you. If your passion is felt out in the open, followers will not only follow, but they will carve pathways through forests for you"creating passion about our ideas -- or having heart -- shows that we care about changing the world and making a difference"We need to have heart to create heart. And we create heart by developing our disciples" (Fickenscher, 2013, Loc. 647-659). http://ceoworld.biz/2014/06/23/the-tin-mans-heart-leadership-lessons-from-the-wizard-of-oz-198169

We are all Dorothy, i.e., the Psyche or Soul. In us are our intelligence (Scarecrow), heartfelt emotion (Tin Man) and courage (Lion). Instead of God, use Nature in its place. Or, the World. Or even your Self. Whatever floats your boat! The idea is to awaken to who you truly are.

What does this mean to us today? Easy--the story spoke out in metaphor about the dollar being taken out of the gold standard, represented in the Wizard of Oz as the Yellow Brick Road. In other words, he was warning us through metaphor, in a child's story, about bankers, corporations, and their underling government. And what about the Munchkins? Oh, they so worshiped and feared the Wizard, didn't they?

Yes, we put our faith on our leaders, i.e., The Wizard. We are the Munchkins. Ah, how we idealize our so-called leaders! Yet, in this day and age, people are getting wise to how they are being manipulated by (a) their fellow Munchkins (the population) and (b) the Wizard.

Who is the Wizard?

He is our government, and their boss (corporations).

Who is the Wizard scared of?

It's the Witch of the West, death and scarcity. Yes, she keeps us in Scare City. All of us fit this, don't we? But what if we, like Dorothy, confronted our fears? Mm, Mr. Scarecrow!

That means we need to be the change we wish. Change entails a death. We need to die to what we have become.

We can't continue giving our power over to the Wizard.

Who is the Wizard? He exists in the personas of the Rothchilds, Kochs, and others who make billions on the backs of all of us. These are the big players of a real life game called Monopoly. Yes, the person who designed that game also knew what was going on alongside Baum, the author of the Wizard of Oz.

While there is a difference in the temperament of the two major presidential candidates, that difference will play out only in how our poison will be delivered.

Political personalities serve global corporate interests. They do not serve us!

So when do we get past this fiction in our lives that we live in a free society? Can we see how we reflect Dorothy in Oz?

Where are we today? How does our current day speak to Dorothy in Oz? Yes, we dally around the "Yellow Brick Road," (seeking riches). Yet we don't set our sails on Kansas (peace and unity).

And what is money? It too is a hallucination.

We are thus living a fiction, a hallucination. The Wizard of Oz is a reflection of our day-to-day life. Indeed, the story is about us. We are all Dorothy living in Oz.

Who we vote for doesn't matter. Corporations and billionaires own Trump and Hilary. It's the Wizard, i.e., our corporations and politicians who are full of hot air.

What is the Wizard's fear?

His fear is death, which is the metaphor of the Witch of the West (sunset). It is this witch that he wants Dorothy to kill! What are we all most afraid of? Death? Perhaps in this case the fear of death is about how we are living and not just literal dying? Oh, how we fear the end of what we have.

So, do we continue bowing to the Wizard, our politicians who are owned by corporations and banks? And who is the wicked witch that scares them all? It's the witch of the West; death and scarcity. And the Wizard told poor little Dorothy to go kill the wicked witch. What a slime bag he is! I mean a young girl!

The Wizard reflects the likes of Rothchilds, Kochs, etc. How does he manipulate us? It's by fear. Thus the Wizard arises from smoke and makes people fall to their knees in adoration of his "Big Head" with no body. Sound a lot like our politicians and other rulers of our world, i.e., corporate owners?

What does the Wizard of Oz mean to us?

Easy, we need to let go of our desire to be reborn, i.e. the Witch of the East. We also need to let go of our fear of death, i.e., the Witch of the West. The reader can also consider this witch as being the death of how we see the world and how we act upon it.

(Kansas, by the way, is Heaven, non-dualistic and bliss. It is grey and flat, reflecting the idea of non-duality among mystics).

I don't believe the reader needs to take this literally. When I say we need to let go of our trying to stay in the current paradigm that we live in, that entails our letting go of our fear of death, i.e., change. Perhaps letting go of this fear will result in a "new world?"

It's going to take our labor to bring forth that world. Not the Rothchilds, not Hillary, not Trump (definitely not Trump) and not even a savior be he or she a priest, president, or multi-billionaire.

We each generate and pass on to our children our own courage, intelligence, and love. We can reap the abundance Earth offers us and tend to its source. Not only don't our wizards help us; they destroy the planet, including us.

The answer is in us. We need to empower ourselves!

It is we that need to change, not our politicians. Like Dorothy, it is by her power (her instincts, Toto the dog) that the Wizard is sent off in his "hot air balloon."

So Dorothy, what are you going to do about this? We are all Dorothy!

Authors Bio:
Burl Hall is a retired counselor who is living in a Senior Citizen Housing apartment. Burl has one book to his credit, titled "Sophia's Web: A Passionate Call to Heal our Wounded Nature." For more information, search the book on Amazon.

Burl's philosophy entails the idea that "everything effects and causes everything thing else." His spirituality of Sophia i.e., Wisdom is universal as well as within each of us. He also sees the idea of Chaos as not being "all over the place" but as infinite relationships.

The question I present in my articles speak not so much towards the politicians, but how WE the people can empower ourselves within a planet that is healthy, wealthy and wise.