Revolutionary Misfit

Dare to be Inspirational

A Watched Pot

by 1 Comment

A Watched Pot

The old saying goes that a watched pot never boils. The obvious meaning being that the more impatient we are with seeing results, the more time extends before their arrival.

Let’s dig a little deeper into the meaning and how it might apply to any given life situation. In fact, I was thinking this morning about how it might apply to my current life situation.

I’m not at all satisfied with my life right now. When one feels that level of dissatisfaction it’s easy to mistake those feelings for failure.

But am I really failing? Or, could it be that I’m just simmering at some temperature below the boiling point?

I believe the mistake I sometimes make, perhaps you as well, is that we evaluate present circumstances as if they have some sense of permanency. They don’t, or at least they don’t have to.

Now, don’t mistake the folly of persistent present evaluation with the positive aspects of living in the present. We should “live” in the present, but that doesn’t mean we should constantly measure our lives, self-worth, or happiness against the present.

The present is a wonderful place. It’s the place where we can truly find the joy in living. After all, we can’t go back or forward in time. We’re stuck in the here and now, so we’d better learn to enjoy it. Rather than constantly evaluating how the present might be measuring up to our expectations for the perfect life, we should just get busy living in it.

In other words, we should enjoy the simmering, rather than impatiently watching and waiting for the pot to boil.

Getting back to how this might apply to me, as admitted, I am not satisfied with my life right now. I’m in the deep doldrums financially. My many aspirational “projects” have yet to become productive. I have allowed myself to accumulate a little too much me around my midsection. I could go on with other areas of dissatisfaction, but that would get boring. Needless to say, I’m in no way content with my life. But I am working on it, moving forward, and enjoying the process.

In other words, I may not be boiling just yet, but I’m simmering.

The trap I fall into, perhaps you as well, is failing to celebrate the discontent. Living in a state of “celebrated discontent” is one in which we patiently and joyfully simmer. When we strive diligently, patiently, and joyfully in the present we will experience even more joy when our lives begin to boil and release the steam of success. And we will have an inspiring story to tell about how we got there.

Yesterday I launched my Crowdsource Campaign, dubbed Looking for Light in a Dark Tunnel. That’s perhaps too gloomy a metaphor for the state of my life right now. Even though it feels like a “tunnel”, I know it really isn’t at all. There’s plenty of light all around me. I’m surrounded by the natural beauty of Costa Rica and by the unconditional love of friends and family. I am imbued with a strong sense of direction and determination. I’m motivated. I’m taking action. The results will come. The pot will boil.

You see, I’m not failing. I’m simmering.

If you’d consider helping me by turning the heat up a little, please check out my Campaign Widget below.

I’ll be writing about my progress in the coming weeks and months. I hope that my story can be an inspiration that might help you simmer with joy as you patiently wait for your pot to boil.

Check out the rewards section to see my various expressions of gratitude for your gracious gift of light.

image credit: Josh Sommers via Compfight cc

Looking for Light Crowdsource Campaign

by Leave a Comment

Looking for Light Crowdsource Campaign

The optimistic view is that there is always light at the end of every tunnel. Sometimes, however, the tunnels we enter in life can be quite long. It can take quite a while before we see any light. And sometimes, we need a little help. Sometimes, we need someone to lend us a little light just to make it through.

This Looking for Light crowdsource campaign is my humble request for some light to find my way out of the longest tunnel of my life.

Entering the Tunnel

It was sometime around mid-2012 that I began to notice a problem. I’d been operating a company in Costa Rica that designs and manages vacations, mainly for customers in the U.S., for almost a decade. After a shaky start the company, called Package Costa Rica, had been growing at a nice pace for the past 5 years. Our web site enjoyed a good ranking in Google searches for Costa Rica vacations and that drove a lot of traffic to our web site. And we were pretty darn good at turning vacation inquiries into sales.

My optimism got the best of me and even though sales were growing (from $160,000 in 2006 to almost $400,000 in 2010), I ramped up my overhead too rapidly. I wanted to build a company that perhaps I could sell eventually. I’d always had the idea that an entrepreneur had to have an exit plan.

So, in 2010 I decided to make a few drastic changes. I downsized the company from a team of 4 to just 2. I thought with this change I’d see better profitability.

A Little Background

After several years of practicing law I decided around 1995 that perhaps a career in business would suit me better. My first attempt at that was a failure. My second one, a boutique mergers and acquisitions firm known as Live Oak Capital, fared much better. The idea behind it was to help business owners implement exit plans. Perhaps that’s where I got the idea that I needed one myself. The keys to any good exit plan are growth and organization. You have to be able to build a business that has growth potential, but with an organizaton that can continue growing even in your absence.

I made the same mistake with Live Oak that I would later make with Package Costa Rica. I grew it too fast. When the internet deals I’d had some success with dried up, I was left with a company with too much overhead and little income coming in to cover it. I went on the hunt for deals. That search landed me in Costa Rica with the biggest deal of my life…the sale of Universidad Interamericana.

I provide that little bit of background to satisfy the curiosity of those who are wondering how I got to this amazing country in Central America. I’ve made a lot of mistakes along the way. I blame those largely for the tunnel that I’m in. No, it’s not all Google’s fault!

Meanwhile, Back in the Tunnel

The problem I began to notice back in mid-2012 was that our site had all but disappeared from the Costa Rica vacation-related searches on Google. At first I thought it was just temporary. It wasn’t. I had relied on “experts” to help me with things like that. They didn’t help that much. So, I decided to learn how to do it myself. That didn’t seem to help either.

My sales began to plummet from the $400,000 I enjoyed in 2010 down to below $200,000 in 2012. And they continued to fall in 2013 and 2014.

I panicked.

Groping for Inspiration

I downsized even further. I moved to my current home in the mountains of Perez Zeledon. I began to write about a topic called Impact Mindfulness. I wanted my life to be about more than just trying to make money. I was making barely enough to survive on the little bit of vacation sales still trickling in. I thought perhaps a career as a writer suited me better. I started the Revolutionary Misfit blog. A blog about Impact Mindfulness. I self-published my first book, The Revolutionary Misfit Manifesto. I really didn’t know what I was doing. The book went nowhere.

My wife and I began to discuss the idea of my repatriation to the U.S. I thought that if I was going to go back it had to be to a place that meshed with my current very progressive mindset. It had to be to a place where I could perhaps make it as a writer and blogger. It had to be…Portland, Oregon!

I left for Portland on February 2, 2015. I had sold virtually everything in Costa Rica except what I could fit in my backpack. My idea was to make it with some kind of a job, sell a few vacations, and ultimately start making money with my writing. After all, Portland was full of successful bloggers. Why couldn’t I be one of them?

Little did I know that on that fateful day, the long dark tunnel would grow even longer and darker. Upon entry into immigration in Los Angeles, where I had a connecting flight to Portland, I was arrested. My ex-wife had gone to court late in 2014 because I’d fallen behind in support payments. I was never notified of anything. I had no idea of any outstanding warrant. I was taken to L.A. County Jail, one of the worst in the U.S., where I sat for almost a month before finally being extradited to Horry County, S.C. I was able to make a deal with my Ex and after a month behind bars, I was finally released.

By the way, always being one to try to turn sour lemons into some sweeter lemonade-like experience of growth and impact, I wrote a series of blog posts about my stint in “County.” You can read them here .

That was the nail in the coffin of Package Costa Rica, or so I thought. Despite these setbacks, I remained optimistic about my plan for Portland. So, I carried on.

I spent 5 months there, looking for a job unsuccessfully, writing, and still making a few vacation sales. My wife came to meet me, along with her daughter. She found a job in a beauty salon that catered to Latinos. My wife doesn’t speak a word of English, but she had much more success in finding a job than I did!

Nevertheless, she didn’t like the place and our economic struggles continued. She became fearful that we would not be able to move forward with getting residency for her and her daughter. She decided it was best for her to return to Colombia before her visa expired and they became “illegal.” I had no desire to continue living in the U.S. without her, so I decided it was best for me to return to Costa Rica.

A New Direction

One thing I did not sell when I made the decision to repatriate was my vehicle. I left it with my wife’s sister. So, as soon as I arrived I jumped in it and made a B-line to Perez Zeledon. I rented a little studio apartment in the mountains and began to devise a plan to get my life back in order.

After a brief attempt at a hydroponic gardening business that really didn’t go anywhere I joined the Coldwell Banker real estate team in Dominical. I’m still writing and I just self-published a second book, The Impact Revolution. Low and behold, I still get business with Package Costa Rica. I am trying to rehabilitate that business. I am also beginning to start a similar site for Colombia vacations. With the peaceful progress my wife’s home country is making, I feel that the tourism potential there is through the roof. My wife has returned to me.

I may still be in the tunnel, but at least I have a sense of moving forward in it!

Nearing an Exit?

This crowdsourcing campaign is my request for some light. I have direction. I am motivated and working hard to progress as rapidly as possibly to the exit of this long dark tunnel that began in 2012.

One thing that makes it exceedingly hard to make progress is that I’m starting from such a position of lack. When I returned to Costa Rica last year all I had was a car and the clothes on my back. I didn’t know how I would make things work. I had no credit lines, credit cards, or access to any credit whatsoever. I jumped at the first idea, the hydroponics business. That one just didn’t work.

Since I have a background in law, doing business transactions and tourism, I am confident that getting involved in something that combines tourism and real estate is the right path for me. I’ve started a site that markets Expat Tours and the agency is helping me to get the word out. These are tours, guided by yours truly, for people seeking a new life as an expat in Costa Rica. They need help. They need guidance. And I feel I am the right guy to give it to them.

I’ve also launched a commercial real estate site. Before mine went live there were none. I was amazed that I was able to acquire the domain for Costa Rica Commercial Real Estate with such ease. I am marketing the commercial listings of Coldwell Banker agents throughout the country.

I am now working on a new book about living the Costa Rica expat life. I plan to self-publish on Amazon at the end of September.

I have renewed motivation and my optimism still burns brightly.

My needs are both personal and business related…

  • My car is now 13 years old and has over 300,000 logged kilometers. It needs work. In the real estate business, a car is essential. In Costa Rica, a car that can climb a mountain is a necessity. Mine can, but like I said, it needs some work.
  • I have been holding back on certain real estate strategies with regard to target markets due to my pervasive lack of funds. I need to make my presence known in those markets and that takes a little money.
  • I need funds to continue rehabilitating Package Costa Rica. After 13 years in business, the leads just seem to come, mostly of the repeat and referral variety (which are the best kind). I still have no real Google search presence, but with time and a little money that could be turned around. I also need funds to help get Colombia Vacations from the idea stage to the income producing business stage.
  • I have personal issues that I need to take care of. To maintain my residency I have to pay into the Costa Rican social security administration, known as the CAJA. It also offers me government health care, which at my age, is pretty important. I have no medical coverage outside of that. I stopped paying when I went back to the U.S. and have not been able to catch up. That is an urgent and very important need. I also have some dental issues that are urgent. Other than that, my health is good and I am grateful for that.
  • I need to establish a new corporation in Costa Rica. With that I can open up a new business bank account and get a merchant service account that will allow customers to pay me with credit card. I lost my ability to accept credit cards when the problems befell me upon repatriation. I have been able to persuade customers to pay with bank transfers, but that is not the way people prefer to pay and it’s costing me business. I cannot afford to lose business.
  • There are other small items that need taken care of as well. For instance, I have been taking pictures of properties for new listings with my Iphone. I need a proper camera to do it right.
  • I’d like to pay back some dear friends who’ve helped me in this crisis.
  • I need a reserve for the future until I can get my economic engine humming again. I don’t have a crystal ball to know exactly how long that might take. In the meantime, I must keep moving forward.

Other than my dear wife and my 4 incredible kids, the one person who has shown me unconditional love and support through the long and dark tunnel is my mother. She has grown very sick. She is in a tunnel of her own right now. I do not want to burden her anymore with my plight.

So, I am doing something that goes against my pride and normal inclination. I am asking you for help. In return I’d like to offer something. I don’t have much, but I can offer something to express my appreciation for your helping me with a little light…

For a $25 donation – my deep expression of appreciation will be given on my Revolutionary Misfit blog and Facebook Page.

For a $50 donation – Everything mentioned above plus I will send you copies of my books The Revolutionary Misfit Manifesto, The Impact Revolution, and The Definitive Guide to Costa Rica Expat Living.

For a $100 donation – Everything mentioned above plus I will give you 10% off any of my Costa Rica or Colombia vacation packages.

For a $500 donation – Everything mentioned above plus I will send you a Boruca ceremonial mask.

Looking for Light Crowdsource Campaign

I forgot to mention above that I have long worked with the indigenous tribes of Costa Rica, helping them market their arts and crafts. That’s a business I’ve put on hold as I pursue the things mentioned above. However, I still have deep ties with the Boruca reserve, which is located about 2 hours from where I live. I will send you one of their hand-carved and painted ceremonial masks. They are simply amazing and sell in San Jose shops for $200 and up. I purchase these directly from a family within the reserve. The Borucas seek to perpetuate their ancient culture by encouraging tribe members to engage in creating and marketing their ceremonial masks and hand-made cloth goods.

For a $1,000+ donation – Everything mentioned above plus I will serve as your personal guide on any Costa Rica vacation you purchase.

My goal is to raise $12,500 with this campaign and I’ve set a deadline of end of November 2016 for doing so.

Approximately 1/2 of that will go to the immediate needs described above. The other 1/2 will serve as a “working capital” reserve to help get me to that exit and into the broad daylight of economic stability once again!

Thank You for making a profound impact on my life…

and as we say in Costa Rica,

Pura Vida!

Looking for Light Crowdsource Campaign

Blinded by Impact

by Leave a Comment

blinded by impact

In a sense it’s true that we are at any moment the sum total of what has happened to us in the past.

But that doesn’t have to be true.

What impacts have shaped you and your view of the wide-world?

Is it what your parents have told you?

Is it what your teachers have told you?

Is it what your pastor or priest has told you?

And how did their views take shape? The same way, I’d venture to guess.

Our views about the world tend to influence the actions we take in it. In other words, our views shape our impact.

If the impact of what has happened to us in the past shapes how we perceive the present, and that present perception weighs against the motive to take action to shape the future, then I’d say that we’ve been blinded by those impacts. That is, if the impacts of our past dissuade us from even trying to make a difference, or severely limit the scope of any attempt at doing so.

I have a special term for being blinded by impact in this fashion. I often say that one is suffering from “impact blinders.”

What exactly do I mean by that?

Let me give you an example. If you were brought up believing that the return of Christ is imminent, meaning at an moment. And that when the trumpet sounds his return, all “believers” will be caught up in the sky with him and the earth and everything left in it will be doomed to fiery destruction. Well, then, you’re probably not going to opt for a career as an environmentalist.

I guess you could, but I seriously doubt there are very many environmentalists who subscribe to that notion concerning the “imminent” fate of people and planet.

Similarly, if you were brought up in a home that believed in the superiority of the white race (and believe me there are many “respectable” southern homes teetering on that lunatic fringe), then you’re probably not going to take much action in support of racial justice.

Or, if you were brought up in a home that subscribed quasi-religiously to free-market principles. That the market is “free” and must be maintained free (from any government intrusion) at any and all costs to society. Then you’re probably not going to join any movements in support of economic justice.

The world is hurting right now. People are hurting right now. It is hurting because too many people are wearing impact blinders.

They probably never stop to think about how those things got there to begin with. My point is that they were surely placed upon (or in) your young and impressionable noggin. And you can take them off. You can take them off and when you do, your impact vision will be restored.

I believe that in order to maximize our potential for impact, we have to be able to see the opportunities that the universe reveals to us. In other words, impact mindfulness requires an open-mind. One that is open to seeing the world as it truly is, not as the impact blinded influences of your past might have taught you that it is.

Don’t be blinded by impact.

On Getting Back to the Garden

by Leave a Comment

On Getting Back to the Garden

A post I wrote quite a few years back, that still seems relevant, especially in light of recent tragic events…

We are stardust…
Billion year old carbon…
We are golden…
Caught in the devil’s bargain…
And we’ve got to get ourselves…
back to the garden.

Joni Mitchell, Woodstock, 1969

I’ve reluctantly come to the conclusion that the world “se fue para la mierda”…a crude thing to say, but since my readers generally don’t speak Spanish, I can get away with it.

But it wasn’t meant to be that way, was it?

If you believe that there’s a creative force behind everything our senses perceive, it’s just not logical to think that creation was meant to be this screwed up. The book of Genesis tell us that God created a garden (called Eden) where he placed the first two humans. This garden was perfect and they lived in complete peace and harmony between themselves and nature.

Sounds kind of nice, huh?

Then something happened. Since God had given these two creatures, made in His image, a dose of “free will”, they decided to exercise it to their detriment. And things haven’t been so perfect ever since…in fact, far from it.

So the question I pose this morning is this…how do we get “back to the garden?”

Moreover, what’s the force in this world that seems so determined to prevent that from happening?

It would seem that this force is what we sometimes refer to as evil. And even though some deny its presence, it certainly seems to exist and play an ever-present role in the daily affairs of humans.

Why else would a dude named Hitler adopt the belief that natural borne Germans should dominate and subjugate the entire world and in the process eliminate a race of people (the Jews) that he felt were a threat to that belief? If that’s not telling evidence of the existence of evil in this world, then I don’t know what is.

Much of the strife and conflict in the world has to do with opposing belief systems. Moreover, it seems that “evil” often resides in the recesses of such belief systems like a dormant virus. At the appropriate moment evil turns them to its own insidious advantage.

Why else would such systems, initially conceived with laudable ideals and goals, be later used to propagate such inhumane acts?

These belief systems offer differing ideas about our spiritual existence and how that should lead us to manage our material existence.

For instance capitalism says that since we’re endowed by a “creator” with inalienable rights, we should be free to exercise those rights and manage our own material existence free from government interference. Socialism, or Communism, on the other hand, directly opposes capitalism with the idea that our material existence should be handed over to a central governing entity, “the state”, that will make sure everyone gets an equal slice of the pie.

Proponents of each system hate those of the other. So each seeks to annihilate the other at all costs, even threatening the virtual destruction of the planet in order to do so.

Does any of this make the slightest bit of sense?

Why can’t we do away with the labels that separate us into different camps hell-bent on killing each other?

Should we be teaching our children to hate? Will that create a better world?

I don’t think so.

I say do away with the labels and open the mind to ideas that will serve to take us back to the garden, or at least in that general direction.

There are serious flaws with all man-engendered systems for managing our material existence…what we routinely call governments. None of them are perfect…in fact, they’re all far from it.

For instance in a capitalist system those that are “advantaged” tend always to take advantage of those who are not. There will always be such power imbalances inherent in such a system. In a communist system, the idea of replacing the “Creator” with something “created”…that is, “the state”… will always lead to tragic human rights abuses.

Could a system that recognizes and protects our creator-ordained freedoms, but at the same time creates a secure safety net for those left behind, or disadvantaged, for whatever reason, not be better?

And why do we rant and rail about every government program designed to help the less advantaged at our expense? Are we willing to step up and take up the slack without a government mandate?

No, of course we aren’t.

If we human beings got really serious about helping each other, regardless of our differences, it would end poverty and the evil reality of starving children in a moment.

If everyone were willing to be less focused on his or her own material existence and more on helping others with theirs, then we wouldn’t need those government programs…now would we?

And if we did away with the labels that foster hate and fear among nations, or groups within nations, then maybe we wouldn’t need to pour the trillions of dollars into creating a war-machine in the name of defeating the “evil of opposing beliefs.”

These are just some thoughts that occurred to me today in contemplating how society could march in a different direction…

one that takes us away from “the cliff” and back towards “the garden.”

Introduction to The Impact Revolution

by Leave a Comment

Introduction to The Impact Revolution

A lot has happened since I published the Revolutionary Misfit Manifesto and launched the blog some 3 years ago. Things in our country, and in the world, have deteriorated, although recently some hopeful developments have appeared.

The earth has gotten hotter. The banks have gotten bigger. The rich have gotten richer. The system has become more corrupt. The crazies have become even crazier…

People are still, by and large, putting their self-interest over their impact. They’re still primarily thinking in terms of the small us. They’re still wearing those god-awful impact blinders…two of which have become especially egregious…nationalism and religious sectarianism.

The rise of Donald Trump as the presumptive republican nominee in the 2016 presidential race is a case in point. Here we have a guy with a real chance of becoming president, i.e., the most powerful human on earth, and whose entire campaign has been waged along the lines of small us, or us against the world, thinking.

It’s scary stuff.

Trump’s most likely opponent, heir to the Clinton political dynasty, may be better, but not by that wide a mark, in my humble opinion. Hillary may take a more inclusive tone, when it serves her, but she’s enmeshed in the neoliberal mindset that believes the best way to run the country is at the behest of a small ruling class of extremely wealthy campaign donors. That as long as they get what they want, the excess of their largess will overflow to the benefit of us…regular folk.

Well, that idea hasn’t worked out all that well over the last few decades…now has it?

But, wait, hope is on the horizon. Hope in an old, well-worn, package. His name is Bernie.

Who would’ve ever thought that a 74 year-old, Jewish, self-styled “democratic socialist from Vermont, with unkempt hair and a curmudgeonly, yet grandfatherly, aura, could give the most powerful political machine in our recent political history a run for her SuperPac donated dollars?

Well, as of this writing, he’s doing just that. It’s a long shot, granted, but his emergence imparts hope.

So, what’s responsible for this “feel the Bern” phenomenon. Is it Bernie’s overpowering charisma, or unquestionable policy chops?

Not really.

Bernie has helped rouse awake a sleeping giant of youthful discontent.

Truth to be told, we’d already seen some fitful stirrings a few years back, in the wake of the 2008 financial collapse. All of a sudden people, primarily young people, began to notice that economic inequality is a real and pervasive problem in our society. And that the collapse was a symptom of that underlying disease.

And what better place to pinpoint as “ground zero” for the epidemic than Wall Street.

So a group of young people decided to make a stand against inequality right in the epicenter of inequality. Their effort was derided by the predominantly neoliberal establishment as futile and infantile…but they persisted.

However, the Occupy Wall Street movement was missing a couple of components. First, a coherent message against the evil they were protesting. In other words, it was missing a clear message of what a society with less inequality could and should look like.

Perhaps, even more importantly, they were missing a viable leader.

Well, that message and leader have emerged in the form of the 2016 Bernie Sanders presidential campaign. And the millennials, the ones derided as lazy, naive and basically inept, have risen to the occasion to give this guy an actual chance at the presidency.

In light of all these events, I decided it was time for a revision of the manifesto.

I still firmly believe in the principles of Impact Mindfulness first espoused. And I am enthusiastic to find such advocates as Pope Francis and Bernie Sanders. They may not couch things in the same phraseology as you will read in these pages, but their message is similar nonetheless…

And what is that message?

First and foremost, it’s that we humans have an obligation not only to ourselves, but to one another. We’ve gone astray with the mindset of me first…the mindset of rugged individualism, the Randian mindset, the neoliberal mindset of capitalism run amok. That’s really what has gotten us into deep doodoo.

The problem with self-interest, or greed, as the prime economic motivator are the power imbalances it inevitably gives rise to. Taken to the extreme, which is where we seem to be heading these days, these imbalances ensure that some will have it all, while others will be left with relatively nothing.

In a world where abundance reigns, it just doesn’t seem logical, and certainly not sustainable, for a handful of rich people to own more of the earth’s resources than almost half the entire world population. It doesn’t seem right because it’s not right.

The millennials are beginning to take notice of this anomaly…they are taking a stand against it. And that gives me great hope for the future.

The millennials are beginning to adopt the principle of impact over self-interest and therein lies their potential to change the world.

The Donald Trumps of this world want to lead us to believe that the small us is the only one we should pay attention to. The Fox News driven ideology of “American Exceptionalism” has helped elevate Trump to his startling status as presumptive right-wing nominee.

But the truth is that the world’s a very big place. There are exceptional humans in all corners of the globe, regardless of the particular national boundaries that encapsulate them. One is not made exceptional by birthright or birthplace. One becomes exceptional by impact. And all of us humans have that innate potential.

The idea of the BIG US is to see ourselves, as Bernie often likes to say, in this thing called life together. It doesn’t matter where you live, what color of skin you have, or which god you worship. We are all part of the human race towards a more dignified life for all members of our species. Impact Mindfulness suggests that we should be about expanding those opportunities for everyone, not hoarding them for the benefit of some human subgroup.

There are still some major barriers getting in the way of our impact. Gradually they seem to be eroding, but they are putting up a grand fight in the process, kicking and screaming as they fade from consciousness.

I call those impact blinders. The two that seem to be screaming the loudest these days are nationalism and religious sectarianism.

The Trumpet calls for “America First”, banning the entry of all Muslims, building a wall along the southern border, or deporting 11 or 12 million undocumented immigrants, wreak of misguided nationalistic fervor. Horrible things have been done throughout human history in the name of nationalism. Do I need to remind you that Hitler rose to power voicing similar extreme calls towards nationalism that we’re now hearing routinely from Donald Trump.

The U.S. has made some strides eliminating religion as an insidious impact blinder. The recent Supreme Court decision that same-sex marriages be given the same legal respect as heterosexual ones is a major step in the right direction. Not surprisingly, the religiously blinded, the so-called “constitutionalists”, have declared war on such notions of freedom. Now we’re seeing state after state enacting “bathroom access laws” to make sure that a person goes to the bathroom that god intended him, or her, or whatever, to go to.

Impact blinders may be gradually falling to the way-side, but they still have potential to do quite a bit of damage before they’re done.

So, I am writing this as a revision of my manifesto, both to commend the progress of progressive millennials and to encourage and inspire them to continue on with the fight. The movement that began with Occupy Wall Street and that has found momentum with the Sanders’ campaign transcends the political.

This is not about power, it’s about what’s best for people and planet.

I hope the words on these pages encourage you to stay in the fight.

This will be the introduction to the new book: The Impact Revolution: How Millennials Can Change the World with Impact Mindfulness.

image credit: JenniferMedia via Compfight cc

There are No Victorious Victims

by Leave a Comment

There are No Victorious Victims

I’ve gone through some serious changes over the last decade.

Lately I’ve been making some assessments…questioning where I am and how I got here…

and wondering how much those changes played a role in the transportation.

A little over ten years ago I was one motivated mofo. I took decisive action towards achieving goals. And I did achieve many.

Then something began to happen. I, over time, began to identify myself as a victim.

A victim of what, you ask?

Of my own poor choices. Of hardline, my way or the highway, thinking on the part of others. Of a rigged society. Of luck, most of it bad. Of the economy…the government…the establishment…of Da Man…

I’ve always been a rebellious, quasi-revolutionary, sort of dude. And living in Costa Rica, and deeply identifying with the people here, really brought that nature out.

But, here’s the problem with rebellions, quasi-revolutionary, dudes…

We often wander into victimhood. We often succumb to the idea that the problem is out there…and not in here.

We often find ourselves, turning on, tuning in, and dropping out, as Dr. Timothy Leary infamously exhorted during the counterculture-era in 1966.

Now, I’m not saying that there are no victims. Certainly there are…

All of us still here, alive and kicking, are victims of life…

However, I’d rather be a victim of life than a victim of evolutionary chance (as in, my birth number never came up), or of evolutionary struggle (as in, my death number did).

Life’s tough…make no bones about it…tough as hell.

But as soon as you begin to IDENTIFY yourself as a victim…as in, that’s who I am…

then you’ve just lost a whole lot of your inner strength to change your situation, as well as being of any use to change that of others…

you’ve lost your impetus for impact.

And I firmly believe that lately I’ve been wandering in that wilderness of victimhood.

A big problem with all this is that I can see myself spending more time blaming than I do really getting down to the business of making positive change actually occur…

in my life as well as the lives of others that I might be able to touch, or to influence.

Simply put, there are no victorious victims.

Right now there’s a lot of blaming going on in this hyper-political environment leading up to the November presidential election.

Trump blames every minority group or foreign power for America’s problems.

Sanders blames the 1%.

I still haven’t figured out what Hillary’s doing, other than trying to stake her apparently inherited claim to assume the most powerful position on earth.

Of course, if you pay attention to anything I say here, you know that I agree wholeheartedly with Sanders.

But the danger with all this blaming is the temptation towards assuming victim status…and thus relinquishing our own power to be impactful.

As victims we tend to sit around and wait for change to happen…

We feel disempowered to really do anything ourselves about what we perceive as less than desirable.

Victimhood is not a highly motivated state of mind from which to take action.

I know…I’m there…and I feel anything but motivated. I sometimes feel like curling up in bed and just staying there until my situation improves.

One can be quite comfortable in victimhood, since it’s far easier to not take action because you believe the cards are stacked against you…

But inaction will never make a situation better, and may very well see it deteriorate towards uncontrollable levels.

That’s kind of where we’re at with global warming, now isn’t it?

So, what’s the core message of this post?

If you’re feeling victimized…great! Let it make you angry. Let it get under your skin. Let it make your blood boil. Let it provoke rebellion. Let it bring out that revolutionary spirit…but don’t let it lead you to assume the role of a victim…

Don’t wander into the wilderness of victimhood.

We, you and I, have the ability to impart change…to make an impact…in our lives and in our world.

So, get out of bed…get out of victimhood…and just do it!

And remember that there are no victorious victims…so, simply refuse to be one.

Sanders is a Step in the Right Direction

by 1 Comment

Sanders is a Step in the Right Direction

To keep doing the same thing over and over again while expecting a different result is the definition of insanity.

It’s also the reason why the system of oligarchy, or rule by the rich, has grown such deeps roots in American society.

Today the nation, the world, is faced with grave problems that cannot be dismissed. And, as a matter of fact, neither ISIS, nor immigration, are in the top three.

Economic inequality has grown to monstrous proportions in our country and in the world at large. In our country the richest singly family owns more wealth than the bottom 40% of all Americans. In the world, the richest 62 people own more wealth than 50% of all people on planet earth. Let me put that another way, 62 people own more of the earth’s resources than 3.5 billion!

Now, some might say, so what?

Well, if you don’t think that all that concentrated wealth carries with it concentrated power, then you’re just not being honest with yourself.

It does matter. And it is creating an unsustainable situation in our country and throughout our planet.

It is creating a dangerously unstable situation.

The reality is that the conflicts throughout the world might just have more to do with inequality than with anything else, including religion. The disaffected are looking for answers and the siren song of violent reaction, whether sounded by Trump or by ISIS, can be very alluring.

But thinking people know that violence is not the answer.

Right?

The capacity for influence that all that concentrated wealth carries cannot be lightly dismissed. It has become quite acceptable to the American populace that only the most wealthy among us share the privilege of leading us in government. And it’s become perfectly acceptable to many that only those with access to billions from wealthy contributors (or from their own pocket books) should be capable of successfully running a campaign for national office, like president, congressman, or senator.

But that access comes at a price…and that price is oligarchy.

Government does not work for the people.

Government works for the rich. If that’s not the case, then why can’t it take action that the people want?

Do the people want health care as a right, not a privilege? Should we not live in a situation in the richest country on earth, where the prospect of a health crisis does not also lead to the inevitability of a personal financial meltdown? The citizens of virtually every other developed country on this planet have that…but not here, not in the U.S.

Why?

Because those in power don’t want it, either because they fear they’d have to shoulder the lion’s share of the burden of paying for it, or because they know it will hit them where it hurts the most…their beloved bottom lines. The wealthy have a vested interest in keeping health care costs soaring and making sure the populace keeps paying the price for it.

Do the people want their kids to have the chance to get a start in life with a college degree without the added burden of crushing debt? Debt that they may be paying back for the rest of their lives? Is it not reasonable to expect that the wealthiest nation on earth could provide that benefit to its youth in the same way that most other developed countries provide theirs? Of course, but those in power don’t want that.

Why?

Well, because either they fear they’d have to shoulder the lion’s share of the burden of paying for it, or because they know it will hit them where it hurts the most…their beloved bottom lines. The wealthy have a vested interest in keeping education costs soaring and making sure the populace keeps paying the price for it.

Global warming is a scientific fact. If you’re reading this and don’t believe that, the only thing I can suggest is…do a little unbiased research. The scientific evidence is overwhelming…along the lines of gravity, or evolution.

Not only is it a scientific fact, but it’s a very real and current threat to humanity. The negative effect of global warming on our planet and our lives is not some distant danger…it is a present danger. They are taking place throughout our planet now, from disappearing species that some are calling the sixth mass extinction of life on planet earth, to the melting polar icecaps and rising sea levels.

So, why can’t we seem to get our collective act together and do something about it? Because those in power don’t want that.

Why?

Because either they fear they’d have to shoulder the lion’s share of the burden of paying for it, or because they know it will hit them where it hurts the most…their beloved bottom lines. The wealthy have a vested interest in ignoring climate change and making sure the populace keeps doing the same.

Make no mistake about it, the reason the government doesn’t work for the people is because it works for the wealthy.

And we keep voting for that reality.

We keep voting for oligarchy.

We are facilitating the problem.

It is madness to think that someone who finances his or her campaign with donations from the 1%, will then take office and govern for the 99%. Tweet it out!

Ain’t gonna happen.

But, wait, a solution has arrived on this event horizon, just in time for us not to go careening over the edge into the black hole…

His name is Bernie Sanders.

Now, am I saying that Bernie Sanders is the answer? That he will be the proverbial magic wand whose waiving will vanquish all the grave problems we face?

No, I am not and I do not believe that.

But, I do believe this…he’s the best chance we’ve got at this point in time.

His election does not guarantee success. It does not guarantee that the people will get what they want.

But he does increase that probability.

Bernie Sanders does not guarantee success.

But…Bernie Sanders is a step in the right direction.

On Ayn Rand and Neoliberalism

by 8 Comments

On Ayn Rand and Immanuel Kant

Lately I’ve been delving a bit deeper into the underpinnings of this neoliberal philosophy that so dominates american politics and government these days.

Neoliberalism is a political philosophy that supports extensive economic liberalization policies such as privatization, fiscal austerity, deregulation, free trade, and reductions in government spending in order to enhance the role of the private sector in the economy.

As an economic theory, neoliberalism is the product of economists like Frederick Hayek in Europe and Milton Friedman in the U.S. However, its philosophical underpinnings, or the manner in which it has taken deep root in the American psyche, appears to be at least partly due to one person in particular, a lady named Ayn Rand.

You may know of her. She wrote two widely popular books, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. She also is the originator of a philosophy called objectivism.

Here’s part of the definition of objectivism from Wikipedia…

Objectivism’s states that the proper moral purpose of one’s life is the pursuit of one’s own happiness (rational self-interest) and that the only social system consistent with this morality is one that displays full respect for individual rights embodied in laissez-faire capitalism.

Rand’s philosophy of objectivism is rooted in the idea that reality and consciousness are separate things. Reality is something we perceive through our consciousness, but not something created by consciousness.

Rand eschewed altruism stemming from a sense of duty, or moral obligation. She believed altruism was only proper if the provider received something valuable to him or herself in return. And that the state should never be in the business of enforcing altruism, or taking away the property of an individual so as to enhance the “greater good.”

On Ayn Rand and Immanuel Kant

Rand saw as her arch enemy the 18th century German philosopher, Immanuel Kant. Kant believed that perpetual peace could be secured through universal democracy and international cooperation. He did believe that each individual is possessed of a duty owed towards others, expressed by Kant in the categorial imperative…

Act only according to that maxim whereby you can, at the same time, will that it should become a universal law.

To better understand how the categorical imperative functions as a logical argument, let’s take suicide, for instance. A single, depressed, person might believe that suicide is justified whenever there is a risk of future suffering, but once that idea is run through the rigorous test of the categorical imperative, the error of that logic becomes clear. If adopted as a universal law, the idea of suicide being so justified would spell the end of humanity, as everyone would have to commit it!

Kant believed that the duty implied in the categorical imperative, what many have likened to the “golden rule”, supplies the impetus for moral action apart from any need to turn towards religion.

Both Rand and Kant believed religion to be unnecessary as a guide for human action. However, Rand’s philosophy is a market-based one in which self-interest is the individual’s guide and in which any sense of duty is eschewed.

I believe that Rand’s philosophy of separation is a dangerous one. In fact, I believe it is at least partly to blame for many of the problems we face today.

For starters, her philosophy defies what science now tells us, especially the science of quantum physics. We actually do play a part in the creation of the reality we perceive. In fact, reality responds to our perception of it. This has been shown in the experiment by which particles, the building blocks of all nature, appear as waves in the moment they are measured, or observed. In other words, our perception actually changes the basic nature of reality.

The reality of manmade climate change had yet to become a global issue by the time Rand passed away in the early 80’s.

However, let’s take Rand’s ideas and apply them to the case of the global warming problem. Yes, in doing so, we do have to admit that it is a problem. If you are one of those who still wants to defy science and say that it is not…perhaps you might want to skip further reading and continue on with your Randian neoliberal nonsense…

Rand of course would say that the “oilman” has every right, in fact, the moral obligation, in the pursuit of self-interest, to drill and pump as much of that substance from the ground as humanly possible. And that government should not have a damn thing to say or do about it.

However, now that science has told us, unequivocally, that doing so threatens the very planet we live on, is it still morally repugnant for government to step in and apply some regulation to this endeavor?

If so, then we’re all doomed.

If you take Rand’s objectivism and run it through the categorical imperative you quickly see the flaw in her logic. If every individual, separate and apart from any notion of duty to any other, pursues his or her self-interest to the utmost, then the world must ultimately run out of resources. We can see this in the sheer fact that if the entire world consumed at the same rate as the U.S.A., we would need 3 more earth’s worth of resources to sustain it!

The fact is that no government has ever been instituted on a level playing field. When the constitution was first adopted, only those who owned property were given the right to vote.

There will always be some who have advantages over others…in terms of genetics, property, relationships, etc., etc. Those advantages create power imbalances.

According to Rand the government should be unable to do anything to help level the playing field. In that scenario, those power imbalances grow to monstrous proportions. That is exactly what we are seeing take place today in america, where one family owns as much wealth as the bottom 40% of all americans, as well as in the fact that our government seems to operate exclusively at the behest of the most powerful economically.

I believe the truth is that we do owe a duty to one another. That duty springs from the fact that we are all in this thing, or boat, or whatever metaphor you choose, together.

I like to call that a duty for impact.

That what I do does have an impact on others. And once you think of it in terms of the categorical imperative, you can quickly see the full extent of those impacts.

If I choose to act in a universally harmful way, yet not directly harmful to any other particular person, by, say, disregarding the environment, the impact becomes clear if you consider what would happen if everyone acted the same way.

The bottom line, we cannot act in ways that promote self-interest, or national interest, but that are destructive of the very things that connect us…our humanity and the one planet we have to live on!

It’s time we let go of Ayn Rand and neoliberalism and recognize our duty and connection to our fellow humans.

It’s time we started paying attention to our impact.

 

 

On the Pursuit of Property

by 1 Comment

On Property and its Pursuit

Wouldn’t you tend to agree that there’s a general sense “out there” that something’s wrong?

People are angry…fed up…but can’t seem to reach a cogent consensus about what…

Some are mad at too much government…

Others at too little.

We’ve been through times like these, you know. During the 1920’s happiness was equated with the pursuit of property. Some people pursued wealth and became quite good at acquiring massive amounts of it…

The specter of massive inequality is not a phenomenon confined to this day and age. Back then it was just as unequal as today, perhaps even more-so.

Then came the great crash and the great depression. The pursuit of wealth was converted into the pursuit of just a meal and a roof.

So, the government stepped in…in the form of a “new deal.” People were put to work rebuilding our nation. Meals and roofs became less scarce commodities. Regulations were put in place to put the brakes on greed.

On Property and its Pursuit

And this worked fairly well for the masses over the ensuing 4 decades, albeit with the usual cyclical ups and downs. But no crashes. And, guess what else? The U.S. was not such a society of inequality, as it was before and as it is again now!

Nevertheless, the hard-core property pursuers were discontent. For them the inalienable right of happiness is, in fact, property. Only if allowed to pursuit it and then given the unfettered right to retain it, protected against the will of the masses, could the true virtue of our great constitution be realized.

They found their champion, their knight in shining armour, their western sheriff who would ride into town and blow away the bureaucrats…

His name was Ronald…Ronald Reagan.

Reagan was given a mandate to reverse the new deal and he did it with patriotic fervor. And the propertied loved him for it. They lauded him as their saviour and king…the messiah who had come down from the Hollywood Hills to save them…

On Property and its Pursuit

and restore their precious and coveted right to the pursuit of property in its fullest and grandest extent.

And that’s the way it’s pretty much been ever since. It shouldn’t really come as a great surprise that inequality has reared its head once again. And it shouldn’t have come at a great surprise that our economy crashed in 2008, again.

So, back to the issue at hand…the anger of the masses…

What really should be the focal point of all this anger?

Is government really the problem?

Why yes…yes it is. But, it’s also the solution, well one of them…

A government who rigs the rules for the propertied will tend to be mistrusted by the un-propertied

What’s ironic is, that mistrust has been of great benefit to the propertied. They’ve used it, exploited it, fomented more anger with it…and have drilled the mantra for less government into the consciousness of a large portion of the un-propertied class.

On the other hand, perhaps two things really need to change here…

First, the idea that government can do no good. It can and it has. Just take an objective view of history. No, don’t take my word for it…do your own research.

Government can make things better for the un-propertied. Those efforts may come at some expense to the propertied. But, I can assure you, it won’t put that big a dent in their glamorous lifestyles.

Second, the idea that happiness should be equated to the pursuit of property, or even its successful attainment.

We did not come forth from the womb with property in tow and we won’t go forth to the pearly gates with it either.

Granted, it is a necessary “evil” in the world we live in. And it can be fun. Property imparts power and power is sexy.

We want more power over our own lives, as well as over the lives of others. The unfettered right to private property ownership can grant us that power.

But do the power enhancing “properties” of wealth make unfettered private property ownership a god-given and inalienable “right?”

Is it a “right” for one family in the U.S. to own as much property (wealth) as the bottom 40% of all americans? And to control the largest corporation, that pays wages to its employees so low so as to keep them in an impoverished state?

The idea of the unfettered right to private property as being ingrained in our constitution leads us exactly there. And the idea of property being at the root of happiness motivates many to go there…

It motivates greed.

The point I’m making is perhaps we should change our ideas about what government’s role is in protecting and preserving the right to private property…

and also change our ideas about the efficacy of basing the entirety of our conscious lives on the pursuit of property…

perhaps…

What do you think?

Bernie Sanders is a Revolutionary Misfit

by Leave a Comment

Bernie Sanders - Honorary Revolutionary Misfit?

If you’ve paid any attention to this blog recently, you might’ve noticed my support for this guy named Bernie Sanders…

But does Bernie really qualify as a “revolutionary misfit”?

Let’s examine that question thoughtfully…

A revolutionary misfit is guided by the principles of impact mindfulness, namely…

  • He or she will prioritize impact over self-interest…
  • He or she will embrace the concept of the “Big US” – that we are all in this together…
  • Lastly, he or she will seek to remove “impact blinders.”

Let’s examine each principle to determine once and for all if Bernie is a revolutionary misfit.

1. Does Bernie prioritize Impact over Interest?

More than anything else, the campaign of Bernie Sanders is a campaign against greed. Greed is the antithesis of impact over interest. The current neoliberal political and governing philosophy, that actually prevails on the right and the left, the so-called “establishment, is a greed promoting one. And the result has been dangerous levels of inequality that are now erupting in one of the most momentous anti-establishment presidential elections in my lifetime spanning 5.5 decades.

If you notice carefully, the anti-establishment candidates are gaining ground, while the establishment ones, like Bush and Rubio, are being thrown under the bus!

I believe Clinton will ultimately meet with the same fate. I just hope that happens during the nomination process and not in the general election.

Back to the point, Bernie has a pretty darn good plan for fixing the inequality problem. Just check out his site to get the particulars.

And, more than anything else, it has to do with reigning in greed.

Here’s what Bernie recently had to say on the issue of greed…

So, yes I believe Bernie passes the test for impact over interest with flying colors.

2. Does Bernie embrace the concept of the Big US?

It seems that much is always made of the religious leanings of our presidential candidates. We make it a big deal about knowing whether or not they believe in god and which god they actually do believe in.

Bernie has been a tad evasive on this issue. He is Jewish by birth, but doesn’t seem to adhere to that, or any other, religious dogma, or faith.

However, he did say this…

Well, you can’t get much closer than that to this fundamental principle for revolutionary misfits.

And, after all, Bernie has battled his entire political life for racial, sexual and economic equality.

3. Does Bernie Sanders seek to eliminate Impact Blinders?

Bernie’s candidacy is remarkable on many levels. The fact that he has raised a lot of money, on an equal level with the establishment, and he has done so, not with Super PACs, or large donors, but with some 4 million individual contributions averaging $27 apiece, is a revolutionary political feat in itself.

But, even more than that, he has risen to national prominence despite having labeled himself as a “democratic socialist!”

How can it be that someone willing to even label himself in such a “derogatory” manner could win the hearts and minds of a vast swath of the electorate?

Perhaps because Bernie doesn’t deal in labels, but in solving problems. And he believes that the way other countries have solved problems, such as providing health care and affordable education to all their citizens, can also be implemented in the richest nation on earth, despite the “socialist” label that the neoliberal establishment wants to place on such solutions.

Labels, as I have written before, are the most insidious of impact blinders and Bernie couldn’t give a hoot about them.

Bernie is removing impact blinders faster than you can say “feel the Bern” and that is a good thing for America. We can do better and we will do better when we stop pigeonholing efforts out of this irrational fear of labels, especially that one that begins with the letter “S!”

If case you haven’t noticed, this is perhaps the most important presidential election of our lifetimes…

Why?…

Because we have a chance of changing the way things are done in america. We can either change them in a good and progressive way, or we can change them in a destructive way that leads us down a very dark path.

But one thing’s for sure, things are going to change with this election…

“Status-quo-ism” will not rule the day this time…

I strongly believe that if we want to see change in a positive direction, we’d better get behind that revolutionary misfit named Bernie Sanders…

Because, truthfully, he’s the only one in this race that has any will to implement real and positive change.

With all that said, I wholeheartedly dub Bernie Sanders a very honorary Revolutionary Misfit!

Connect with RM

Revolutionary Misfit social media connections...