Ethical Compass

As someone whose spent years navigating waters, prior to GPS, I thought it might be enlightening to review the similarities between navigating life and navigating travels.  We often refer to moral or ethical compasses.  There are many similarities to using a moral compass and a magnetic one.  Both rely on a definition of Truth.  One defined by the rotation of the earth, the other defined by the Highest Power.  The connection between the Truth and the compass is corrupted by forces called “Variation and Deviation”.   For the traveler, Variation is caused because the magnetic north pole moves constantly and is in a different spot than the True North Pole.  As you travel around the globe, the amount of variation changes due to simple trigonometry.  Moral compasses have this same variation feature: Abortions are repugnant to many while an acceptable form of birth control to many others.     Deviation is the bug bear of navigation.  On a boat it is caused by iron close to the compass.  It’s deviation that allows criminals to live with themselves and rationalize that they are still good people even though they do disgusting things.  The times we live in today remind me of a trip from Knife River  to Two Harbors when I could see we were progressing in a straight line, but my compass was swinging as much as 20 degrees either side of my real course.  The iron on the North Shore was causing the compass to swing in a sort of combination of variation and deviation.  Our leaders have this same ability to “deviate” our compasses.

Money and/or Power

We tend to split politically down lines that pay attention to our beliefs about money.   The left seems to never have much money and its’ accumulation isn’t an important part of their lives.  The right seems to have adequate to a lot of money and fear of losing it is an important part of their lives.  One belief about money that runs down both sides is that you should be able to buy whatever you want, including political office.  We see this on both sides of the aisle.

The ability to achieve power without money is one of the things that made our country great.  Power in all the other governmental systems rely on money as its’ driving factor.  Those with the money, have the power.  This ability to separate power from money has been under steady assault by those with the money.  The Citizens United decision is the last assault that led to the last election and its’ irregularities.   

Your guy is worse than my guy

I keep hearing “your guy is corrupt” when discussing politics.   It seems to go along with the “your guy is worse than our guy” argument that is very common today.  It’s easier to discuss individual corruption than systemic corruption, so that is what we do.  If you look at why almost every politician can be accused of corruption, it’s because the system allows almost any source of funds for campaigning.  Pharmaceuticals , Health Insurance, the plaintiffs bar, and the NRA  have bought off our politicians.  If we are really concerned about “draining the swamp” we have to pay attention to where our politicians are getting their money and support.  We currently have three Presidential candidates who are only accepting money from individuals; Warren, Sanders, and Klobuchar.  If you’re interested in filling the swamp more, vote for someone else.

The Status Quo is the Goal

Much of the difference between Republicans and Democrats is one of process.  While jobs, foreign affairs, education, immigration, military and global warming are indeed real important issues.  Many believe that nothing can be accomplished on these items until we have a functioning government where respect, integrity, honor, and truth prevail.  Both parties are intent on telling us what the other party is doing to destroy America, placing blame, hurling insults and ignoring or berating solutions to problems.    We have to realize that the hatemongers’ agenda are to keep the status quo.  As long as everyone is yelling at each other nothing will get accomplished.  Big Pharma will keep raising prices, health insurance premiums will continue to go up, and education and prisons will continue to be privatized.  Democracy’s biggest asset is the separation of money and power.  It appears we have lost that.

GOP needs to end Democracy

In this time of shiny objects and short term distractions, it’s important to realize that the GOP is facing a demographic crisis which challenges all the power that they wield.  Their only chance of retaining that power over the decades is to defenestrate democracy.  By making it not work as designed and telling us it is full of flaws, they want us to believe its demise is good for America.  Instead of fixing the flaws they want to be able to exploit them.  The attitude that you should be able to buy anything you want in America, including political office and politicians, is just plain wrong.  We must lose our obsession with money and think about the world we want to live in.