Humans live in groups, communities, villages, tribes. According to a study quoted in Peter Block’s book The Abundant Community, the greatest provider of safe and successful living for humans is not a powerful government or an intimidating military, but connection to a strong community.
Sadly, we have a global institution that weakens and severs our connection to our community. That institution is called government. Why work hard, compromise, succeed and sometimes fail in your community, when ‘big brother’ is promising the moon. Never mind that they are promising with the money and power we have given them or that the promises that governments and politicians make are 99% hot air.
So government is not the bad guy, the enemy. No, government is actually just a bunch of huge, inefficient, ego-driven, self-serving, redundant bureaucracies, which we have allowed. Let’s be honest – we’ve given them all that money and power because we don’t want to be bothered with owning responsibility for our lives. We don’t want to be bothered with the elderly, the unemployed and struggling, the training of our own children, making the hard choices in our communities, etc.
We have given and are giving our power and hard-earned money away. Only we can take it back. We can’t blame politicians and bureaucrats for accepting the money and power that we have heaped on them. But from a human standpoint this is OUR world. It belongs to all 7 billion of us, not to a handful of global leaders, presidents, prime ministers. Those people are (or should be) PUBLIC SERVANTS. NOTHING MORE. Whenever they exceed this role, bad things are going to happen and we (the 7 billion) are going to be frustrated, incomplete, angry, like caged animals in a zoo. And confined animals tend to get angry, hence constant wars, hate, division, terrorism, and prejudice.
When we return to living according to our design, our current social problems will self-correct. And living according to our design = living IN AND FOR our community.
An unintended consequence of governments is that they pull people away from reliance on their community. Why commit and work hard to create a happy, successful, vibrant community? Why do that when you can just focus on your favorite subject – self – and let someone else worry about your elders, your children, the poor and needy in your community? Never mind that the governments we rely on never actually DO anything, other than take your money and build their fortune.
Are we suggesting to eliminate governments? Absolutely not. But governments must return to their proper role – as PUBLIC SERVANTS. And we, you and I, must return to OUR proper role. We own our environment; we own the raising and training of our kids; we own the problems of the elderly, the widow, the poor and struggling and needy. And owning their problems doesn’t mean “fixing” their problems, but just to help in getting them back to where they can survive, thrive, flourish. “Give a man (or woman) a fish and they eat today; teach them to fish, and they eat forever.”
If you share these concerns, you CAN make a difference. Join our Global Grassroots Movement by clicking the Join button. As one of the non-profits working for global peace and development, we work to help communities grow stronger to be able to overcome the mess this world is in.