Obama’s health care legislation is an historic achievement to be joyously celebrated, but that battle is not yet over and many other challenges loom. The systems that have served America so well in the past are broken and corrupted.  Politics are polarized, with bully tactics and outright lying now common; corporate lobbyists have become part of everyday government.  Often “religion” is no longer about compassion and open-mindedness, but condemnation, hard-heartedness and even the espousal of violence and war.  “Free enterprise” has become synonymous with the absence of government regulation and unfettered corporate power, even as this system corrupts, out-sources jobs, increases debt to China, widens the gap between the super rich and the increasing poor, and devastates the natural environment.

In addition, Humanity now faces unprecedented global challenges, which require unprecedented global cooperation and trust.  These include global warming and volatile climate changes, shortage of water, energy and food, and the mass, desperate migrations these will trigger.  Species of flora and fauna are becoming extinct at a rate not seen since the dinosaurs disappeared. Technology has enabled small groups of terrorists to inflict major casualties and damage.

Sadly, America seems to have its collective head stuck firmly in the sand, oblivious to what others think or do, which is bizarre for a country that sees itself as the world’s leader. Over the last 6 months, I have travelled across the planet and have read and listened to diverse, informed views on the USA and its global role. A surprising number of people, especially in Europe and Asia, thinks not only that the American Empire is already over, but that the USA is acting like a second tier country.  They watched in bewilderment at the false war in Iraq, spurred by the absurd “talking points” of the Bush administration; they have seen the USA sabotage international efforts to combat global warming and introduce torture as an instrument of policy; they are puzzled at the vehement resistance to health care reform, especially since the USA is one of the few developed countries not to have a comprehensive health care system and since objective, international bodies consistently rate its health care system as mediocre, despite all the money that is (wastefully) spent. They do not understand Americans’ obsession with guns and how hundreds of billions are spent on its military without any protest from its recession ravaged population.  They laugh at Creationism and the revisionism of history in schools (recently prominent in Texas) as crude Communist Cold War era brain-washing.

Perhaps the biggest blow to American egos will be the ascendance of China.  This acknowledgement has already been made by many outside of America, but would be political suicide for any American politician.. so the Hollywood, Wild West fantasies continue.  Any novice student of history will tell you that empires rise and fall and that they rarely acknowledge when the fall is happening. This is particularly true of the American Dream, wherein “winning” is paramount.

So what are America’s choices apart from trying to make outmoded, obviously failed strategies work?  Any addictions program (and the USA is addicted to power and the American Dream) will tell you that step #1 is the acknowledgement that there is a problem.  The problem is that current thinking, aspirations and attitudes are not working.  If American chutzpa were somehow to prevail, what kind of future would we be looking at?  More wastage, unsustainable living and throw-away people?  More corporate power, Big Brother surveillance and military interventions?  While America (and Canada) is still trying to rev up the old Oil based economy, Singapore, China and several European countries are racing ahead with green technology.

The Chinese classic, Daodejing (Tao Te Ching), which is at least 2500 years old, advises that the apparent Opposites (conventional “enemies”) are in fact interconnected and that flow and change are the norm for the universe; rigidity is a characteristic of dying, not of living.  The Buddha said that we suffer because we are attached (rigid).  Jesus said that, “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone”.  The Muslim Sufi classics talk in the language of Love.  All these spiritual World Teachers point to change, compassion, flexibility and Oneness/ Interconnection… not to power, subjugation, exploitation and violent suppression.

For America, the choice seems to be continuing investing in failed policies and ideas or readjusting their priorities… just as the Brits have recently adapted since their own empire has disintegrated.  What kind of world do we want?  An inclusive, cooperative one or an “every man for himself” one?  If the former, it necessitates a spiritual, transformational shift of the kind that the Global Spiritual Citizenship (GSC) is advocating and trying to enable on different levels.  If you agree with this initiative, please sign our Call (www.globalspiritualcitizenship.org)and let us know what kind of practical initiatives you would like to see happen.

Andy James
Follow my other blogs at www.torontotaichiandmeditatiocentre.com and www.globalspiritualcitizenship.org