IGNORANCE

AND ARROGANCE

Over 80% of adults in the world can read. But many stay ignorant. Many have stopped using their freedoms to question, reason, invent, speak out, think for themselves, and act on their own healthy thoughts to make things better. Some have become so overly proud they’ve become arrogant. Some have become so ignorant and arrogant they harm themselves and others.

Many don’t try to make things better. They think others will do this for them. They’re encouraged to believe the following. They don’t have power to help themselves. Others will do a better job for them. They don’t need to learn more, because they already are very smart. They should be afraid. And they’re safer when they do these things. They’re encouraged to be ignorant.

They’re also encouraged to believe the following. They already have the very best. And they’re much better than others. They’re encouraged to be arrogant.

Some ignorant people let themselves and their families stay filled with harmful thoughts. Many of these thoughts are from today’s mass media. Some of these thoughts are from speeches by corrupt leaders and some of the super rich. The ignorant don’t stop listening to these lies. They don’t try to legally silence those who lie. They don’t stop giving money to them. They don’t vote against them. They don’t find courage to learn through many sources. They stay busy with small-minded fun and games of every kind. They stay busy doing things that don’t make their lives better. They stay busy doing things that don’t make them ask questions or use reason. Some even stay busy doing things that harm themselves and others.

Many decide to be ignorant and stay ignorant. By doing this, they no longer truly live. They trade truly living for lies and cheap short term comforts offered by corrupt leaders and some of the super rich.

Corrupt leaders and some of the super rich want people to be ignorant, so they can gain more money and power. At times, schools, religious groups, and families want people to be ignorant. They fool people into doing the following. Giving unearned trust. Being afraid. Being weak inside. Being filled with too much pride. And blindly obeying.

Many free themselves from being ignorant by doing the following.

·   They become humble and curious like a child.

·   They learn and grow from everything.

·   They learn from many sources.

·   They learn from thoughts that are new and different.

·   They question what they’re told. They see life through their own eyes. They hear life through their own ears. And they know life through their own knowledge of things.

·   They use their powers to reason and imagine. And they make these powers stronger and better.

·   They make decisions based mainly on facts and reason. And they don’t make decisions based mainly on guesses and emotions.

Many stay ignorant by doing the following.

·   They accept the thoughts of others without question.

·   They watch people give dramatic and shocking news reports.

·   They watch people make dramatic and scary guesses about the future.

·   They listen to rumors and lies. And they believe them.

·   They mainly see life through the eyes and cameras of others. And they mainly hear life through the ears and microphones of others.

·   They mainly know life through the thoughts and words of others.

·   They receive many repeated, harmful thoughts of others through the following forms of mass media. TV. Radio. Movies. Video games. Recordings of music, talks, and books. Newspapers. Magazines. Books. The Internet. And so on.

Many think life is easier when others tell them what to think and do. Many don’t like leaders who want them to ask questions and think for themselves. Many are too lazy or uncaring to do these things. And some are afraid. They’re afraid of not looking smart. They’re afraid of others shaming them. They’re afraid they might find they’ve been wrong or ignorant for a long time. Going through life like this isn’t truly living. It’s more like being a robot.

Some schools and religious groups make people afraid to ask questions and learn by themselves. They encourage people to not ask too many questions. They encourage them to blindly accept what they’re told. And they encourage them to believe it isn’t easy for people to learn by themselves.

Many don’t question unproven ideas passed on to them by their families. They accept these ideas. They even blindly accept things that aren’t based on reason. They accept superstitions. They fail to use their sense of reason and their power to learn and grow.

Some give their time, money, health, and lives to people who want to keep them ignorant and arrogant. They give these things to people who make money from passing on superstitions. They give to people who encourage others to believe it’s wrong to question all things.

TV and radio programming is an honest way to say what most of today’s mass media does. Many of today’s programs don’t encourage people to question things or use reason. People watching — and listening to — these programs use only the part of their brain that accepts things without question. This is called passive viewing and passive listening. And their thoughts and feelings are changed without them knowing it. When people fall asleep with the TV or radio on, this change happens much faster. And it’s much stronger and lasts longer.

When people free themselves from ignorance, they make their sense of right and wrong stronger. And when they do this, they govern themselves better. They make their lives better by themselves. They need fewer police, judges, lawyers, jailers, and so on. They need fewer government workers to make and enforce laws.

People can become so ignorant that it’s easy for others to take freedoms away from them. Many are still learning that they can’t be ignorant and free at the same time.

Most of us must pay to fix problems made by the ignorant and arrogant. We pay with public taxes. And we pay in other ways. So we should help others learn and grow. We should help them be free of ignorance and arrogance. When we do this, we’ll have much more money to use on other things.

EXTREME GREED

People need healthy concern about themselves to survive. Having too much of this is greed. Having too much of anything usually harms the person having it. And it harms others.

Since the early 1900s, ignorance, weak governments, and inventions helped make the modern power of extreme greed. This power is felt at city to world levels. It’s led by corrupt leaders of big businesses, governments, and religious groups. It harms more people and things every day. It even harms those who’ll be born hundreds of years from now.

In a reckless way, it makes as much money — as fast as it can — for a few people. And it makes the following lasting problems as it does this. It consumes earth’s resources without having things to replace them. It uses them in ways that pollute land, water, and air. It treats animals with cruelty. It makes unsafe working conditions. And in some places, it treats people worse than animals. It starts wars and mass murders. It sells weapons to dangerous rulers and groups. And it uses money and mass media to take away people’s power to govern and protect themselves. The good news is that people can get their power back in peaceful, legal ways.

Extreme greed in big business is harming democracy around the world. It bribes and scares government officials. And it corrupts systems for choosing them. It does this by giving money to candidates for their campaigns to get votes. Extreme greed gets favors from them after they’re voted into office.

This means many officials get chosen if they’re dishonest enough to ignore the needs of regular people and mainly help some of the super rich. And it means many are selfish enough to want power at any cost. For many years, they also had to have a certain sex, skin color, religion, and national background. But now, they mainly need to be dishonest and selfish.

In many countries, this power buys up mass media to take away the public’s power to protest. This has happened in countries including those with histories of brave fights for freedom of speech. For example, Americans bravely fought for freedom of speech. But today, almost all of their mass media is owned by about five big businesses. This is described in the book The Media Monopoly.

In many countries, some people still think they have freedom of speech. They’re free to speak, but they’re not heard — because mass media has so much power. It has power over the thoughts of many more people than one person’s voice. Owners of mass media can even silence a loud protest march with thousands of people. They do this by having little to no news about it in TV, radio, newspapers, and so on.

Inventions helped a few people get much more power over the thoughts and feelings of others. This started in the 1400s when inventions made the printing press much faster. And this helped people spread thoughts faster through things like flyers, pamphlets, newspapers, books, and so on. Then in the late 1800s, sound recordings and radio were invented. Together, these were used to quickly spread repeated messages to millions of people.

The first time repeated messages were used to start war between nations was around 2700 B.C. Leaders of Iraq’s government had religious groups spread messages that Iran was making dangerous weapons and getting ready to attack. After enough people believed this, Iraq invaded Iran and stole many things. This first war between nations is described in the 1992 research paper Evolution of Warfare and Weapons by the Strategic Studies Institute of the United States Army War College.

In the early 1900s, the dictators Mussolini and Hitler used the new power of mass media to spread fascism. They were both very skilled in using propaganda. Mussolini was called the father of fascism. And many say he said this about it: “Fascism should more properly be called corporatism, because it is the merger of state and corporate power.”

In most countries, mass media is controlled by only a few businesses. In others, it's controlled by governments. So today, a few people have power over the thoughts of billions of others. This is how extreme greed uses mass media to harm democracy around the world.

Extreme greed gets richer from human misery. It does this by doing the following. It encourages people to be ignorant and arrogant. It encourages them to have more children than they’re able to care for. It takes and sells earth’s resources in an ignorant and selfish way. It encourages people to buy more things and borrow more money. And it starts wars to steal things.

When did extreme greed get so much power? Since the early 1900s, big businesses grew very fast around the world. As they grew, they took power away from people and their governments. Almost all big businesses are corporations. And a growing number of them have more money and power than countries. By 1999, 51 of the world’s 100 largest economies were those of corporations — the rest were those of countries.

Multinational corporations have factories, offices, and market places in many countries. Because of this, many don’t have to obey laws of any one country. Some of them use much money and power to control governments. Some are openly arrogant about how they disrespect and harm people around the world.

How did extreme greed get so much power? Several things happened. Starting in the early 1900s, there were more inventions every day. These helped many things move faster. There was plenty of cheap oil and coal. And some inventions made it easier and cheaper to get these fuels out of the earth. More money — and more power to spread messages — made it easier to corrupt governments.

Inventions helped the following things move faster.

·   They helped people, raw materials, and products move faster through world networks of travel ways for cars, trucks, trains, ships, and airplanes.

·   They helped oil and natural gas move faster through networks of pipes — and electric power move faster through networks of wires.

·   They helped thoughts and information move faster through networks of telegraph and telephone wires. Later, inventions helped them move faster through wireless networks of radios, TVs, and computers.

·   Inventions helped spread messages faster and farther. And mass media’s power over the thoughts and feelings of people grew. Today, it has power over what billions think, feel, and do.

Corrupt leaders of some big businesses helped selfish, dishonest people become government officials. They used bribes and mass media to do this. Then the corrupt leaders of some big businesses and governments used mass media to make people weak. They encouraged people to be ignorant, arrogant, selfish, and uncaring. Many people started to feel more distant from their governments. The corrupt kept doing these things until they took away most people’s power to govern and protect themselves. Many people who tried fighting this became tired or afraid. Many finally stopped trying. This is how extreme greed got so much power.

How does a business become a corporation? People make a legal paper to do this. The paper is called a corporate charter. It defines the rights and duties of a business. And it keeps investors safe. Investors are people who put their money in a corporation to make more money. They do this by buying parts of a corporation. These parts are called shares, stocks, and shares of stock.

Modern incorporating started in the mid 1800s. It started when some of the super rich wanted to make very big businesses. And they wanted to protect money they invested in them. So they had their governments make laws about the legal body of a business. This isn’t like the body of a person. It’s more like the moving body of a dead person. It’s like a living corpse with special powers. Making this kind of body is called incorporating. And the body is called a corporation.

Back in the 1800s, the first duty in corporate charters was to protect the public. Their second was to protect investors. And only a congress could give power to charters. Then during the early 1900s, big businesses grew in size and power. And they used this power to make many governments change their laws on charters. Soon the first duty in most charters was for corporations to protect investors. And charters could get their power simply by being filed at government offices. Soon people around the world lost power to govern and protect themselves.

Problems started to happen right away for the public, investors, and the earth. This is because the first duty in charters is for corporations to make money for investors. And usually they must do this forever. But they can’t. Earth’s resources are limited. So it gets more difficult and costly to find and take earth’s remaining resources — and change them into things people use. Also corporations compete by using earth’s resources in ways that make the most money. Some do this in ways that harm people, animals, and the earth. Others must then do the same to compete and stay in business. All of these problems are getting worse as earth’s resources are consumed.

Most charters also give corporations the powers of people to do some of the following things.

·   Sue and be sued.

·   Own property — and other things — in their name.

·   Hire and fire people.

·   Make and sign contracts.

·   Make laws that govern actions inside the corporation.

·   Keep going after their makers leave or die.

But many charters don’t give corporations the following good things people have.

·   A sense of shame when they harm people, animals, and the earth.

·   A sense of right and wrong.

·   A sense of unselfish concern for the health and happiness of others.

Charters protect investors in corporations. They protect them from being forced to pay for the problems corporations make. Charters do this in the following ways.

·   If a corporation owes much money — or goes bankrupt — investors don’t have to pay the debts.

·   If a corporation commits a crime, investors don’t have to pay fines or go to jail.

·   If a corporation harms people, investors can’t be sued or arrested.

Many charters give the legal bodies of corporations the powers of living corpses. They give them powers of Frankenstein monsters to do the following.

·   Power to take from others, so they can give to their makers and investors.

·   Power to consume and damage earth’s limited resources without care — and power to do this without having things to replace the resources.

·   Power to harm people, animals, and the earth with almost no worry or shame.

·   Power to protect their makers and investors from the people they harm.

·   Power to live forever.

Every day, extreme greed takes away the freedom, health, and lives of more people. And it harms animals and the earth. It does this at city to world levels. It does this the most in countries where people have lost most of their freedom of speech. And extreme greed keeps growing. But over time, things will change. And people will regain their power to govern and protect themselves.

GROWING

POPULATIONS

The world had 4 billion people in 1974, 5 billion in 1988, and 6 billion in 2000. If it keeps growing like this, there’ll be 9 billion in 2050. When there are too many people, the following things start to happen. Wages get lower for many people. Prices rise for limited supplies of things needed to live — like food, fuel, housing, and so on. In some places, resources run out. Land, water, and air get badly damaged. Crowding gets worse. And the following things people pay taxes for and share get overloaded. Roads. Schools. Public hospitals. Police and fire protection. Water, sewer, and garbage services. And so on.

The number of people in poor countries is growing the fastest. And in almost all countries, the poor are having more children than any other group. Many of them are having more children than they are able to care for. Some of them are getting sick, starving, and dying. It appears that the number of people in the world will keep growing until many get sick, starve, and die.

At times, corrupt leaders — and some of the super rich — encourage fast growing populations. They do this for the following selfish reasons.

·   They get more people to rule over.

·   They get more people to be in their religious groups and give them money.

·   They get more people to give them money for things they sell.

·   They get more people to work for very low wages.

·   They get more people to be so poor that they’ll do very bad things to themselves and others for money.

The following chart shows how fast the number of people in the world has grown.

The number of people in the world grows faster every day. In 2007, it grew by over 200,000 per day. In 2008, it grew by over 233,000. And in 2009, by over 272,000.

The fast growing number of people makes the following problems get worse.

·   Every day, over 840 million people go hungry.

·   Over one billion people live in severe poverty. This means they struggle to live on less than €0.70 Euro per day ($1.00 U.S. dollar).

·   Over three billion people are poor. This means they struggle to live on about €1.40 per day ($2.00).

·   The world’s farm land divided by its population averages about 0.4 hectare (1.0 acre) per person. This isn’t enough for a person’s basic needs of life.

Around the world, there’s a growing gap between the rich and poor. The following are some examples.

·   Since the early 1900s, the gap between the world’s poorest 20% and the richest 20% grew almost three times bigger. Today, the world’s poorest 20% use less than 2% of the world’s goods. And the world’s richest 20% use over 80%.

·   Minimum wages start at about €0.17 per hour ($0.24) in poor countries — and they go up to about €6.00 ($8.50) in rich countries. Even though these wages are 35 times higher, their buying power is falling. Each day, more people in rich countries can’t afford the rising costs of housing, food, fuel, and other things needed to live. Poverty is growing. But the super rich keep getting richer.

·   The world’s seven richest countries (America, Germany, Japan, Canada, France, Italy, and England) have less than 12% of the world’s population. But they use more than 40% of the world’s oil, coal, and other fuels.

·   Poverty is growing the fastest in the poorest countries. Most rich countries are investing less in them. And they’re giving less free aid to them. This is because they’re spending more to fight war, crime, and public unrest.

·   The middle class of most rich countries is shrinking faster each day. Their way of life needs good paying jobs and cheap oil. But their elected officials let these jobs move to poor countries. And the cost of oil keeps rising. At the same time, they’re encouraged to spend more and have larger debt. And their elected officials let lenders raise the cost of borrowing. So each day, more of them go bankrupt, become homeless, and fall into poverty.

LIMITED RESOURCES

The earth’s resources are limited. And more people are using them as world population grows — and as people in industrializing countries can afford to consume more. Today, China and India are using many more energy-consuming machines as they industrialize and become wealthier. Together, they have over one third of the world’s population. Smaller countries are also starting to industrialize. Also, the number of poor in the world is growing very fast. And in fully industrialized countries, people with extra money are using more comforts and luxuries. All of these things are consuming earth’s resources — like oil, coal, farm land, clean water, metals, and so on. Because of this, it’s getting more difficult and costly to find and take earth’s remaining resources — and change them into things people use.

Many see the fast rising prices of the following. Gasoline. Heating oil. Electric power. Food. Housing. Medical care. Medicine. Education. And transportation. They see the fast rising prices of almost everything they buy. And in many places, the costs of things are rising faster than wages. As prices keep rising, many get poorer. Usually when many are poor, there’s more crime, more violent public protest, and more war. In many places, people already see more fighting over resources. In some parts of the world, entire countries are starting to use resources much faster. They’re doing this for many reasons.

Some countries with many poor people are using many more machines that use oil, coal, and other fuels. This is called industrializing. Today, it’s happening in the world’s largest countries — China and India. Together, these two countries have over eight times as many people as America. China has over 1.3 billion and India has over 1.1 billion people. Most of their people are poor. And they want better lives.

Some countries with many poor people aren’t yet industrializing. But they’re using more oil. This is because the number of people in them is growing faster every day. So they need more food, housing, clothing, and other things needed to live. And they need oil and other fuels to make these things.

Countries with people living in great comfort are already industrialized. Their comforts use much fuel. And they’ve consumed most of their own. At the same time, many more people around the world are starting to earn enough to buy comforts and luxuries. All of these things are consuming earth’s limited resources. So prices are rising everywhere.

Since the early 1900s, the number of people in the world has grown very fast. And the demand for things has grown even faster. To meet this demand, extreme greed has taken and sold the earth’s resources as fast as it could.

Extreme greed takes and sells earth’s resources in a very selfish way. It does this without much planning for what to do when resources run out. For example, it takes and sells earth’s limited resources of energy like oil. It does this without making other fuels ready to take its place. It does the same with natural gas and coal. It does this will all kinds of earth’s resources.

Because of this poor planning, people around the world see fast rising prices of fuel and electric power. And they see fast rising prices of almost everything they buy. This includes all things that are made, moved, or stored using energy — like food. Only a few countries planned ahead to have new kinds of energy to replace the old ones. They get much of their electric power cheap and almost pollution free. They get it from sources like sun, wind, geothermal, and water wave energy.

Each day, it gets more difficult to find, take, and change earth’s resources into things to sell. So the world’s fastest possible speed of taking and selling resources is starting to slow down. And prices are going up. Some believe this problem started with oil in 2004.

For many years before 2004, more and more oil was taken and sold almost every year. After 2004, the amount taken and sold each year stayed about the same. From 2004 to 2007, many more people saw fast rising prices of gasoline, heating oil, and electric power. From 2004 to 2007, the price of gasoline more than doubled in many places. Each day, the world’s demand for oil grows.

Oil isn’t only used to make fuel burned by cars. It’s also burned in power plants to make electricity. And it’s turned into things like plastics, weed poisons, and fabrics. In some ways, oil is used in making, moving, and storing most of the things for sale. Extreme greed did a poor job managing the world’s fuel resources.

Extreme greed also poorly manages how it makes our food. It does things as cheap as it can to make the most profit. It uses chemical poisons to make unnaturally huge amounts of food. It fertilizes crops with chemicals. In some places, it uses sewage water as fertilizer — and this spreads disease at times. Extreme greed also uses chemical poisons to kill insects and weeds. And it uses large amounts of antibiotics and hormones to make unnaturally huge amounts of meat and milk. All these things become part of the food we eat. And most people can only afford to buy this kind of food. Some places sell “organic” food without poisons. But only a few can afford to buy it. Some of it costs up to twice as much as poisoned food.

Extreme greed also destroys farm land. It does this by farming in ways that speed up how fast soil is eroded by wind and water. And it does this by building poorly planned cities and roadways that sprawl over more farm land each day.

Many times, extreme greed pollutes air, water, and land when it makes things in the cheapest way. It does this when it takes raw materials out of the earth and makes them into products. And it does this when it makes electricity by burning coal and oil, and by using radioactive materials.

The following are more examples of how extreme greed poorly managed earth’s limited resources.

·   Almost one fourth of the earth’s land is in danger of turning into desert.

·   Every year, over 25 billion metric tons (28 billion U.S. tons) of topsoil are lost to erosion and pollution.

·   Every year, over 200,000 square kilometers (100,000 square miles) of earth’s forests are cut down.

·   Air and water pollution are very big problems. They’re the worst in places like Eastern Europe, the former Russian Empire (Soviet Union), and China.

·   15 of the world’s 17 largest fishing areas are overfished or have other big problems.