Revolutionary Misfit

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The Globalist Conspiracy versus Neoliberalism

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The Globalist Conspiracy versus Neoliberalism

I’ve recently noticed a trend in my Facebook feed among conservative friends who desperately try to defend Trump against the onslaught of negative news surrounding his campaign and administration. It’s all a “globalist conspiracy” and Trump is apparently the hero they think will put an end to it.

They even mention specific families or groups who are behind this vast “left-wing” conspiracy. Those of the Rothschild family, the Trilateral commission, and the Illuminati, are usually pointed to as proof.

Well, I don’t believe in conspiracies. They tend to have at their heart a world view that’s often religiously tinged. In fact, these conspiracies are generally driven by the same sort of fanaticism they claim is lurking behind the evils they lament.

However, there is a “thing” that is behind the troubles we are experiencing these days. That thing is what many call neoliberalism. Neoliberalism is not a conspiracy theory, it’s a term used by intellectuals like Noam Chomsky to describe an ideology that has given rise to a systemic problem. The problem at its heart is one in which more and more power (government and economic) is concentrated in the hands of the wealthiest individuals and corporations, while being taken from society at large.

That might at first blush sound very much like the globalist conspiracy that I’m debunking. Here’s the difference. I am not seeking to blame anyone in particular for this. It seems that the right-wing conservatives who lifted Trump to power constantly want to cast blame…on immigrants, or muslims, and lately, these so-called “globalists.” However, the problem is not any particular group…the problem lies with an ideological and systemic change that took place about 40 years ago.

In the aftermath of the Great Depression and World War II, society gained power. In the U.S. that happened, for instance, under Roosevelt and the policies of his “New Deal.” That ushered in a period of prosperity. Then the 60’s came around and certain groups who’d been largely left behind, or exploited, began to rise up and cry foul. This frightened those at the top of the economic pyramid. This power struggle continued until the election of two important world leaders, Ronald Reagan in the U.S. and Margaret Thatcher in Great Britain. Those two are in large part responsible for setting in motion a new political philosophy of privatization as the path to prosperity. This trend has continued unabated until now. It accelerated greatly during the democratic administration of Bill Clinton, as well as the republican administration of George Bush. And to be honest, the administration of Barack Obama did very little to reverse the trend. And neither will Donald Trump.

Donald Trump rose to power using populist rhetoric. However, since actually taking hold of the reigns of power in Washington, he has moved in a decisively neoliberal direction. First by appointing very wealthy corporatists to his cabinet. Second by seeking to funnel more taxpayer funds to corporate seats of power, like the military-industrial complex and big oil, and away from programs that benefit society as a whole, especially the more vulnerable aspects of it.

And therein lies an ideological bent that has helped perpetuate neoliberalism. The idea that government is the problem and that the solution is more individual power and less societal power. What’s amazing is that people who are hurt by that ideology will seemingly fight to the death to defend it. They claim that government action that benefits society is socialistic. That the government is supposed to protect the ideals of capitalism and free enterprise, nothing more, and nothing less. However, the ideals of capitalism and free enterprise have at their heart more concentrated power in the hands of an economic elite…i.e., their so-called “globalists.”

This is not a globalist conspiracy problem, it’s an ideological one that has infiltrated our collective psyche and our government and has given rise to a systemic catastrophe. One in which the top 1% of society now controls more wealth than the bottom 90%.

Taking power away from society and giving it to the likes of Donald Trump and his corporatist friends is not the answer. Donald Trump will not take action against a fictitious “globalist conspiracy.” He will use the notion of such a conspiracy to cement his control over its adherents, while doing the same thing neoliberals have been doing successively for 4 decades now…increasing the power of the few at the direct expense of the many.

The answer is not to reduce society to a “sack of potatoes”, but to enhance its power, its voice in government and its share of the largess of our great nation and of the world.

Donald Trump is just not the guy to make that happen…

believe me.

The Secret of Success: As Revealed by a Loser

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The Secrets of Success

I have always tended to shy away from hardcore motivational posts, à la Tony Robbins. God knows, there are enough of those out there already.

But recently, I got to thinking (always a dangerous event) about the secret of success.

Mainly, I got to thinking about why success has been so damn elusive for yours truly.

My thinking certainly didn’t deliver any ground-breaking results, as it rarely does. I identified 5 key factors. 4 of them are the usual suspects: Discipline, Diligence, Preparation, and Consistency. As you can read, nothing monumental with that…

The 5th, however, might come as a bit of a surprise…

Luck.

The “luck” to which I refer in this post is of the positive variety. Bad luck, or misfortune, is more often the result of the application of physical or mathematical laws, such as getting hit by a truck, or spending more money than one actually possesses. But good luck seems far more nebulous and randomly experienced.

You must admit that good luck plays a key role in anyone’s success. If you aren’t capable of admitting that, well then, you might need to be a little bit more honest with yourself.

It could be the luck of birth, or just the plain old fall-out-of-the sky type of luck that some seem to enjoy more frequently than others.

Even though it seems that some enjoy it more than others, I believe we’d all have to admit, upon reflection, that we’re basically unlucky. Let’s put it this way, if you had to rate yourself in each of the 5 elements of success that I’ve identified above on a scale of 1 to 10, where would you put your luckiness?

I think anyone would have to say less than moderately lucky, or less than 5…wouldn’t you agree?

The problem is we can’t really control luck…or can we?

No, I don’t believe we can control it, but we can influence it.

How?

By increasing towards 10 our degree of the other 4: discipline, diligence, preparation and consistency. That is to say, if we scored a perfect 10 in each of those, our luck might well increase a bit…wouldn’t you say?

And if we can actually increase our luck, well now, that’s a recipe for success!

Some successful people say, rather arrogantly, that they “make their own luck.” What’s really a truer statement is that they work hard to increase scale in the other 4 elements of success and thereby their luck increases correspondingly.

Bottom line is that the secret of success lies in focusing on the things that we can control, our discipline, diligence, preparation and consistency, in order to make ourselves luckier.

However, there are two overarching constraints that should weigh upon all this effort put forth towards increasing luck…

And those are Balance and Compassion.

A healthy sense of balance is essential to emotional well-being. And if we don’t have emotional well-being, that is, if we’re out of balance, then our efforts to achieve more luck could very well backfire. That backfiring can result in serious consequences, like anxiety, depression, substance abuse, and even suicide.

We need to admit to ourselves that what we are trying to do, well, it just ain’t all that easy. We need to be a bit softer on ourselves. My title betrays the fact that often times, I am not so gentle, or compassionate, with myself. I’ll wager a bet that perhaps you aren’t with yourself either.

Life is hard enough just to get by, that is, to survive. But place on top of that a drive, or ambition, to be “successful”, however, you might define that term, and it becomes seemingly impossible. It’s not…with a bit of luck…impossible, which is the point of this post, but it can certainly seem so.

So, be a bit easier on yourself as you strive towards a higher degree of discipline, diligence, preparation, consistency, and luck. And also be a lot easier on others who are going through their own struggles in that effort.

And for those of you who are already “successful”, thank your lucky stars for it!

Now, some will read this and immediately notice that I left out a “key component”…talent.

However, that implies that one must have talent to be successful, as if talent is an innate character trait that only some are borne with. I’ve never really bought into that. I believe we’re all equally talented at birth. And that is at nothing much, other than being extremely self-centered.

We gradually develop talents as a result of our degree of effort with regard to the first 4 factors, with a bit of number 5 thrown in, again, depending on how well we do with the other 4.

And our quest for talent, in any chosen area of endeavor, need not wane with the passing years. It is part and parcel of our ongoing life’s effort to become luckier.

So there you have it, the secret of success revealed. Got it?

Buena suerte!

You can contribute to my luck (and success) by getting my book, reading it, and leaving a review…

Stories Run Deep in Colombia

My book, The Impact Revolution, is now live on Amazon. It was written to inspire empathy, to inspire connection. It was written to inspire the positive impacts that flow from empathy and connection. It was written to inspire an acceptance of the idea that we’re really all in this together.

Get the Book!

Wealth Inequality Run Amok

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Wealth Inequality Run Amok

I recently read with horror the 2017 wealth inequality run amok review by Oxfam, entitled, An Economy for the 99%.

Oxfam is an organization that fights against world-wide poverty. They are the ones that Christoper McCandless (aka Alexander Supertramp) donated his Harvard tuition to before he set out for the wilds of Alaska in the incredible movie (and true story), Into the Wild.

The most salient fact in the report is that 8 of the world’s richest human beings now own as much wealth as the poorest 50% of all humans. That’s right…8 own as much wealth as 3.5+ billion.

That’s not the 1%, that’s the .00000023%.

That degree of wealth concentration has increased greatly over just the last few years. The last time Oxfam reported the figure it was 62 of the richest owned more than 1/2. So, it’s evident that wealth inequality is rising rapidly and exponentially in similar fashion to global warming. Together these are the twin threats that might just do us in once and for all as a species.

I read an interesting article on Vox (Ezra Klein’s blog) this morning written by an entrepreneur, who, despite the fact that he had done well, refused to take full credit for it. In fact, far from it. He attributed his well-doing primarily to privilege (and luck). It was refreshing to read about someone admitting as much, as opposed to grandiose boasting about bootstrapping his way to success.

The fact is that our entire economy is largely based on a privileged class of capital-hoarders-cum-job-creators who exploit the less fortunate and thereby amass increasing levels of concentrated wealth and power that pass from privileged generation to privileged generation. That’s our “American” neoliberal-infused style of capitalism run amok folks.

And we just elected the poster man-child of this f’ed up system as president of the United States!

I was watching one of those CNN “town-halls” the other day where they had good-ole Bernie Sanders answering questions from the crowd. This Trump supporter stood up and lofted what he thought was a doosey at Bernie. You see, he was a “small business owner” who hated regulations. So he asked Bernie, what about that?…what about guys like him drowning in the regulatory tsunami? Bernie asked him very plainly what particular regulations he was referring to.

Most of the time, they are referring to the tax code, which is, admittedly, ridiculous. But do you know why it is that way? Because of guys like Donald Trump.

Yea, that’s right, Donald Trump!

The guy who won’t even release his tax returns to the public. The guy who we know used a yuuuuge net operating loss carryover to wipe out years of taxes. The guy who, despite his billions, pays no taxes! So who does pay them? Joe Blow small business owner who’s standing there trying to trip Bernie up, that’s who.

Guys like Donald Trump pay millions upon millions to lobbyists who little by little, layer after layer, convince the Federal government to turn the U.S. tax code into the morass of complexity that it has become. They do so for a reason, to benefit themselves at the expense of YOU.

The result, they keep getting richer, while the rest of us keep getting poorer. And the worldwide effect of that is exactly what Oxfam is reporting.

It is amusing and alarming to me that there are so many Joe Blow small business owners out there who actually think Donald J. Trump is the solution to their problems, when, in reality, he is the cause of them!

What’s the solution to wealth inequality run amok? Well, this entire blog, with its message of impact mindfulness, I believe qualifies as an idea to combat the problem. The Oxfam report certainly lays out similar ideas pretty well. You can read a summary of those here. In fact, I would consider it “required reading” for any fan of this blog.

The next 4 years may be our final wake-up call. The impending failure of the Donald Trump presidency might just be the lesson we were destined to learn…the one we desperately need to learn.

Perhaps that’s the one good thing that can come out of this fiasco.

That, I’m afraid, is my best hope for the near future.

What Does it Mean to Be an Expat?

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to be an Expat

I’ve been an expat in Costa Rica for a long time now. From a physical perspective being an expat means absence from one’s home country and presence in some foreign country.

However, to be an expat has more than simply physical connotations.

Let’s first discuss what it certainly does not mean…

To be an expat does not mean one is unpatriotic in any way. Some may feel that it does, but they’d be dead wrong.

In some ways I’ve grown more patriotic as a result of living out of the country for many years now. I believe that in large part stems from my being an observer, or someone on the outside looking in. I’ve been able to observe with a heightened sense of objectivity certain things about my country of birth that concern me deeply.

For example, I’ve been able to observe how U.S. interventionist or imperialistic polices have affected certain people negatively, which in my case means Latinos. I’ve been able to discern that if that has been the case in Latin America, perhaps our interventions in other areas of the world, such as the Middle East, have also been less than laudable.

I’ve been able to observe with a heightened sense of objectivity how the form of capitalism run amok that prevails in my country of birth has widened the inequality gap. It has also led to a reckless disregard for how the pursuit of money and material has taken a heavy toll on the well-being of people and planet. Sometimes those effects aren’t as readily apparent to those on the inside of a wealthy nation like the U.S. as they are to those in the so-called 3rd world.

These observations have not caused me to have contempt for my country, but rather to long for it to be the world leader for positive change that it historically has been.

The U.S. has in large part lost its way in that regard. And the entire world is suffering for it. The world needs the U.S. to lead in positive directions, away from soaring income and wealth inequality, and away from dependence on fossil fuels. But the U.S. refuses to lead. And the recent election of Donald Trump only strengthens its resistance to assume the role of positive leadership in the world at large.

To be an expat means to have one’s eyes opened. To get the chance to really see things from the perspective of others who are very different. It provides ample opportunities to exercise the empathy muscle and to improve one’s capacity for altruism and impact. I call that expat mindfulness.

To be an expat does not have to mean permanent physical removal from presence in one’s country of birth. The ability to go back is always an option. Of course, one can also be a part-time expat.

I believe time in a foreign country can truly heighten one’s ability to make an impact in one’s country of birth. It sensitizes you to things you might otherwise be desensitized to. It heightens your sense of awareness. You become a more well-rounded human being. And all those are very positive traits from undergoing the expat experience and increasing your expat mindfulness.

I’ve written much in the past in my blogs and books about how being an expat in Costa Rica has changed me. It has made me a more humble and compassionate person. Some of my former friends and family members in the U.S. will say that it’s turned me into a left-wing loon.

Well, it has made me more progressive. It has made me more inclusive. It has allowed me to see the error of capitalism run amok in ways that I probably would’ve never detected without the expat experience. It has made me care more about my impact than about my economic self-interest. It has allowed me to see things more from the perspective of the Big US. It has removed many impact blinders that I came to Costa Rica wearing.

In short, it has been responsible for implanting impact mindfulness as my current mindset and worldview.

In that sense, I guess it has turned me into what I like to call, a Revolutionary Misfit. However, I don’t view that transformation in any negative light.

If you’re thinking of taking the plunge and moving to a foreign country, perhaps motivated by the recent election, remember this…no matter where you go, you’ll still be an “American” by birth. If you love your country it can actually make you love it more, albeit for different reasons. It will make you long for change and might even provide the motivation to be a catalyst for that change yourself.

To be an expat and thereby increase one’s expat mindfulness can be an intensely patriotic endeavor. [It’s Tweetable!]

You can read more about Expat Mindfulness, Impact Mindfulness and Being an Expat in Costa Rica in my books.

Click here to go to my author page.

The Politics of Political Expression

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The Politics of Political Expression

Isn’t it true that we tend to live our lives in the “grey areas”, while we express ourselves politically in stark black or white terms?

Why is that?

Perhaps it’s because politics, in the U.S. and in other countries throughout the world, is like a team sport.

Think about it. Political parties market themselves much like sports teams…with colors, logos, slogans, heroes and such.

It would seem that the explosion of Donald Trump onto the political scene has only increased that “team” aspect.

And we like being part of a team, don’t we?

That need for “team” solidarity is embedded in our DNA. We feel secure as part of a team. There is strength in numbers, right? We like the popularity we experience with other team members. We like the solace of being part of a like-thinking tribe.

We believe it increases our chances of winning.

Even so, in the reality of our day-to-day lives we live shoulder to shoulder with opposing team members. And so far, we’ve been doing a pretty good job of it. Your co-workers aren’t all team members, are they? And yet you get along with them…at least well enough to get the job done…right?

But all that “kumbaya” is quickly tossed out the window as soon as politics enters the discussion and the polarization of team membership kicks in.

It seems that so far we’ve done a pretty good job at separating real life from politics. We’ve been managing the politics of political expression fairly well in the hum-drum of daily life.

Now, that’s actually a semi-facetious statement, since our real lives are governed to a large extent by what transpires, or fails to transpire, in politics. Nevertheless, the point is that we normally get through Thanksgiving Dinner without throwing a turkey leg at uncle so-and-so.

Of course, politicians on opposing teams hardly ever get along. And that often renders them basically ineffective. But we can’t live our lives that way…can we? If we did, boy what a mess that would be!

However, it also seems more and more these days that political expression is seeping into our day-to-day lives. That might be largely due to the time we spend living them on social media…don’t you think?

And perhaps for too many people, the politics of political expression translates into spending too much time posting polarizing memes on Facebook, or “mean tweeting” insults about the opposing team.

What happens when this polarization becomes such a predominant aspect of our lives that we as a society can no longer get along?

Can society survive that? Is it sustainable? What does it mean for future generations if society suffers complete breakdown as a result of the politics of political expression?

Kind of a scary scenario, isn’t it?

We could be headed in that direction. There are some strong indications that we are.

My message this morning is only this: maybe we should give that some serious thought.

The Impact Blinder of Black or White

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The Impact Blinder of Black or White

This has been quite the month in the life of one David Scott Bowers (aka Costa Rica Guy)…

For starters, my most ardent supporter, and defender, for the last 55 years passed away at the beginning of it…my mom.

Right on the heels of that came the election of my “platonic” arch-nemesis, Donald Trump, as President of the U.S. Now I realize that’s not a good use of the adjective, but I use it only in the sense that, thankfully, we don’t have any actual relationship (never met the man). Otherwise, I’d surely be the subject of some seriously spiteful tweetings.

Finally, just in the last week, we’ve seen the passing of a larger than life figure who cast a shadow on all 55 years of my life on planet earth. I’m speaking of the passing of Fidel Castro.

I’ve long been inspired by the story of Fidel Castro, the revolutionary. You know the Cuban revolutionary misfit who, along with a ragtag group of around 80 men, set sail from Mexico to Cuba on the leaky yacht, the Granma. There was also a guy onboard named Ernest “Che” Guevara. I’ve written quite a lot about Che Guevara in this blog.

They were ambushed upon arrival to Cuban shores and out of the 80 some odd men that originally set sail, only around 18 made it up to the Sierra Maestra mountains in the interior of the island. From there they spent two years amassing a revolutionary force of peasant farmers who were successful in taking control of the island country and resting it from the hands of the U.S. backed and brutal dictator, Fulgencio Batista.

The revolutionary government of Fidel Castro started out pretty good, with laudable aims. Some of those were actually accomplished. For instance, did you know Cuba has one of the highest literacy rates in the world and that it produces more doctors than any other country of its size? It also is quick to come to the aid of other developing countries, as was witnessed recently with the Ebola epidemic in West Africa a few years ago.

But we also know that Castro gradually morphed from revolutionary hero to oppressive dictator. He suppressed the free speech of the Cuban people and jailed thousands as political prisoners.

What’s for sure is that Castro’s death is showcasing the tendency for us to think in black or white terms when it comes to anything politically tinged. I believe that’s not only true in the U.S., but throughout the world. If you’re a democrat, then all republicans and their ideas are bad…and vice versa. For people whose passions have been inflamed by Castro’s passing, he was either a monster or a saint.

However, the truth is that we don’t live our lives in those stark black or white terms. We rather tend to live them in the grey areas.

Thinking in this polarized way is at the root of many of the problems we face in American society and throughout our world. The election of Donald Trump certainly seems to have exacerbated this type of thinking.

I would call this mode of thought the impact blinder of black or white. It blinds us from the truth. The real truth is rarely found in the black or white of political propaganda, lately expressed in mean tweets and non-factual Facebook memes, but in the grey areas of actual facts.

So, a lesson we can and should learn from these momentous events of the month of November 2016 is this: always step back and ask, what are the facts? What is the truth?

The truth is that Castro did some good stuff and he did some bad stuff. He did stand up courageously against the imperial inclinations of the world’s greatest superpower. He also failed miserably in the human rights department, especially in terms of upholding the rights of his own people.

We will get along with one another and progress as a society when we stop thinking in terms of the black or white nature of political propaganda and instead embrace the actual truth. The truth that applies across the board.

You see, the truth is the truth and facts are facts. They bear no political or ideological affiliation. They are not democrat or republican, capitalist or socialist.

Why not remove the impact blinder of black or white thinking and instead wilfully embrace facts and truth?

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