AN INDEPENDENT AUDIT

October 8, 2004

For the past twenty eight years of my life I have been engaged in an independent audit of the human condition. I initiated this study with the most pervasive and all embracing definition of culture that I could find, that it is the 'conscious and unconscious premises for thinking and action.’

As with any audit I established two categories, not the examination of assets and liabilities that an accountant would apply as he examined the books of a company, but what I attempted to do was to decide what worked and what did not work.

I base the claim that this is an fair, objective and independent audit on the fact that the auditor, me, practices the discipline of truth, that I tell the truth most of the time, and therefore was able to subordinate my interests to the existing reality.

I found that human culture was a vehicle designed to satisfy the wants, whims, needs and desires of those who had power, the small percentage of human beings who made decisions for the group. As I traced the evolution of power I discovered that the first leaders of human tribes were hunters, who treated with others of their group as they had become accustomed to interacting with the game they pursued, and that these attitudes became the premises for Absolutism, the world view that dominated human existence for most of unrecorded and recorded history.

This culture was based on fear, the most powerful human motivation, and this was the intrinsic cause of its efficacy, durability and immutability.

Ironically, the evolution of ethics did little to change that status quo, confronted with the choice of making fundamental changes in the design for existence that had been so efficient at achieving its objectives for several millennia, human beings opted to pay lip service to moral imperatives, to use these as a facade that decorated and obscured the sere reality of brutal tyranny. Kings were anointed and appointed by Gods, they were elevated by pomp and ceremony to a super ordinate status, to conceal and excuse their unjust, irrational and bloodthirsty proclivities.

It became clear to me that attempts to create governments of the people, for the people, by the people had changed the forms, but not the substance of Absolutism. That after two centuries or more of the ‘practice’ of democracy, the unchanging monolith of Absolutist attitudes and behavior patterns continues to pervade every social system, continues to crush in its traditional, unrelenting vise the legitimate aspirations for freedom of the vast majority of human beings.


In every pretend democracy, five per cent of the populace continues to control ninety per cent of the wealth. After a brief respite in the long march of history, sons once again have begun to follow fathers, or in India, mothers, to fill the offices of Prime Minister or President, offices which are currently invested with the power, rights and privileges of the traditional monarch, and are happily engaged in the task of creating new political dynasties; rank inequalities and injustices are once more on the rise; the value placed on human life is rapidly decreasing; the quality of education offered to citizens has begun to decline everywhere; and, poverty, hunger and crime are once more on the increase.

The rich once more have the power to decide who inherits power in either of the two parties, which to the exclusion of all others, dominate the political arena in each and every nation; political movements have begun to be institutions that perpetuate the status quo, and have rejected their sacred missions to be agencies of change. As have media houses, who have become tame, passive instruments of state policy and propaganda.

All that has changed are the labels, Absolutist culture has successfully resisted and overcome every impulse to change. There is a new tyranny abroad, the subtle endemic systemic hegemony of the mindless and uninformed.

Absolutist culture is displaying the resiliency, the vitality, the vibrancy of a powerful social and political institution that has withstood the test of time. It has worked, it was, and is, supremely functional in achieving its elitist objective, to concentrate power and privilege in the hands of the few.

But the human race has committed itself to a new objective, that of creating a certain minimum quality of life for all citizens within the borders of the state, it has dedicated itself to giving power to the people, OR HAS IT?

We, every one of us, are ambivalent, we are trapped between the ways of thinking, attitudes and patterns of behavior that we have been conditioned to over many millennia and those that would be required to create functioning democracies.

I have concluded that what is required to create a bright future for the human race is a complete break with the past. One valid rule of thumb as we create the brand new world is that whatever we did in the past we should do the opposite in the future. And we have to begin with the most fundamental issue and choice that a human being may make, the means used to motivate the other, we have to decide whether we wish to coerce the other, or rely on positive reinforcements in our relations with the other?

So much of this can only be learned from experience, from actually doing it. It is so easy and so traditionally comfortable and appropriate to coerce the other, life is so beautiful when your child is an infant and can easily be imposed upon. It becomes so difficult as that child develops a mind of its own, and a will of its own.


Consider the transition required for those who utilize labor. The slave could be forced to work eighteen hours per day, or more, as was required. He did not have to be paid, straight time or overtime. He shared the lodgings and foodstuffs of his master, or, in the best case scenario, he cultivated his own food. His employer did not have to provide medical care or a pension plan. One slave owner in Jamaica when his slaves got too old to work threw them off a nearby cliff.

Everyone of these currently necessary benefits for any worker increases the cost of production and reduces the profit of the owner of the enterprise.

The worldwide economic malaise should convince everyone that we cannot continue to reduce the extent and degree to which coercion in any form can be applied to workers without substituting an alternative form of motivation to release the creativity and productivity of labor. We have only two viable alternative the whip or the carrot. In effect what we have done is to remove the whip - without replacing it with the carrot.

We have proven, time and time again, that change of ownership in the modes of production does not motivate labor. What I have proved, if only to myself thus far, in the one successful project I was responsible for in Jamaica, is that what will motivate labor is open ended systems of rewards. That it is the basis for cooperation between labor and management, and that when this cooperation becomes strong enough other mal adaptive and counterproductive practices like pilfering will be reduced.

The spread of democratic ideas and the strengthening of democratic institutions has also become a major disincentive to investors and entrepreneurs because of the tendency for these ideas to stimulate the development of welfare states. Governmental corruption and inefficiency has been a reality from the beginning of time, vast increases in government revenue and government spending driven by the social welfare ideology have failed to produce the anticipated returns because of inefficiency and corruption, in turn made necessary increased spending funded by increased taxation, creating a vicious circle.

The inability of governments to admit that the failure of social programs was a consequence of corruption and pork barrel politics, and, the tendency to blame this failure on a lack of funds, has combined with the view opportunistically held by many politicians that the flow of revenue is an endless and eternal stream, has tended to move many ‘free’ economies beyond their taxable limits, to a point where the level of taxation has become a disincentive to investment and economic development.

The two party system, which is widely held to be one of the strongest guarantors of liberty, has accelerated this process because each side could blame the other for the abject and palpable failure to successfully implement social welfare programs, and, after achieving an electoral victory, create its own record of inefficiency and dysfunction, causing the cycle of governmental ineptitude to repeat itself interminably.


These major inhibitions to economic growth are never frankly discussed even while more and more fanciful and esoteric causes for economic decline are bandied about, creating apathy and the feeling that events are spinning faster and faster out of our control.

We can manage the economies of our respective countries, we can overcome poverty, hunger, disease and crime. None of these things are beyond the capacity of a race that split the atom and harnessed its awesome power for peaceful purposes, it is beyond the capacity of those who are agents and perpetuators of Absolutist culture.

After twenty eight years of wrestling with the problems of positive development I have concluded that the key log in the logjam of progress is the way human beings feel about each other. To illustrate this hypothesis we might examine the difference between two commercial transactions. In the first transaction, a used car dealer is selling an automobile to his favorite child. Everyone would accept that any dealer in that situation would find the most reliable and serviceable automobile in his fleet, at the best possible price and lowest interest rate for that customer. In the second hypothetical transaction with a complete stranger, that same dealer will attempt to palm of any lemon on his lot, for the highest price and the highest rate of interest.

To reinforce the impact of this hypothesis may we dare to imagine a situation in which one of the children of President Bush or Vice President Cheney was a member of the occupation forces in Iraq. Would either of these gentlemen be so cavalier about the loss of life in that theater of war?

To explore this hypothesis even further, let us examine the incident which extinguished the lives of thirty five children recently in Iraq. These children were killed by suicide bombers after they had been lured into the area by American soldiers handing out sweets. I have said in a previous article that Americans soldiers were handing out sweets on that particular day at the opening of a sewage facility to create the spin of normalcy and progress in the reconstruction on the eve of the Presidential debate.

But suppose this were not true, that the soldiers did not have any hidden agenda. Should they have been able to connect the dots, should they have foreseen that the concentration of children might have been a magnet for suicide bombers and taken the security precautions that would have saved thirty five immature lives? Suppose there had been a visiting dignitary, suppose the opening of that sewage facility had been graced by a speech from Secretary of State Powell or Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, would barricades have been erected screening off the area so that no suicide bomber could detonate an explosion that would have taken the life of these personages?

In the brand new world that I envisage used car dealers will no longer see any customer as prey to be victimized with upside down deals. Politicians or soldiers, or ordinary men and women will value all lives, not the lives of their children, not American lives, but all lives to the extent that they will not mindlessly or opportunistically risk any life. To attain this mental and emotional approach each of us must cleanse our minds of the biases and prejudices against strangers to which we have been conditioned for all of our lives.
We must become capable of acting with love to strangers. Would this be as I have suggested another benefit of accepting the discipline of truth?

My rent is due on the fifth of each month. The price I pay for doing a job that does not conflict with my principles is that date is always an ominous cloud on the horizon of my existence. This month I combined the pay for the week, with a payday advance, and the remaining balance on my single remaining credit card, and still fell short by Thirty Dollars. Because some bill I thought had been paid some weeks ago was belatedly debited from my credit card account. Luckily my rent check did not bounce because the bank honored it, despite the shortage.

The point I am trying to make is, could I use my knowledge of this social system and my skills as an political activist to successfully compete for the increasingly scarce resources of the social system in which I have a poverty stricken existence?

When I write, in my view, I am consigning my ideas on this social reality to the empty and endless void of ignorance and interest. Could I use my knowledge and skills to evoke some response to my efforts?

I have contributed to the Social Security Fund for twenty years. Were I to file an action in the Supreme Court stating that the action of the Executive Branch of Government acting in concert with the Houses of Congress to use the surplus from the Social Security Fund as revenue is unconstitutional, moreover, that this conspiracy to defraud a minority, senior citizens, is an impeachable offense, that this qualifies as a high crime, if I were to file such an action would I receive a hearing? Would this result in my ideas achieving notoriety - if not popularity?

I know that the Public Utilities Commission of Florida is discriminating against renters because it is exclusively concerned with setting the rates paid for water and sewage by homeowners. I know this because the Management Company for an apartment complex in which I resided billed me for water and sewage at a rate they established through a Company which is registered in Georgia. I speculate that this Management Company which has its headquarters in Denver, Colorado offers its services to numerous apartment complexes, and, a component of this service is the scam of collecting for water and sewage at a rate that increases the profitability of the complex even as it pays the regulated rate for the provision of these services.

I have suggested that a major airline moving its operations from New York to Florida, signed an agreement with the Union that represented its employees in New York that covered its projected work force in Florida, who had no say in that negotiation, the traditional taxation without representation approach that precipitated the Boston Tea Party. I was fired for this raising this issue. I spent ten years as a Union Officer in Jamaica, does anyone labor under the misapprehension that I am incapable of righting this rank injustice, one of many that I have suffered?
I have stayed my hand, though sorely tempted, because such assaults on the status quo, no matter how emotionally and economically satisfying would be in the long term, distractions and obstacles to the communication of my message, ergo, that telling the truth will make us free, individually and collectively.

So no matter what the personal cost I turn the other cheek. I know that this social system cannot be changed piecemeal, by righting one injustice at a time. It can only be changed one human being at a time, by one human being at a time hearing the siren call of my appeal to their consciences, to their intellects. I am aware that this appeal is not neglected to the wretched of the earth prostrated and blinded by their woes and cares, those who would benefit most from the application of my ideas, but primarily I am trying to reach those who have their hands on the levers of power. I am asking them to make the ultimate sacrifice, to preside over the dissolution of their power and privilege.

I must make them see, with blinding sight, that used car dealers can give the best deals possible to their customers, that these customers would then spread by word of mouth the good news of their honesty and the fact that they provide great value for the money they receive, expanding their business, creating a virtuous circle to replace the vicious circle of upside down deals.

I must make a bare majority comprehend that politicians can, simply by doing the right thing, ensure their reelection, and dispense with their reliance on pork barrel politics.

But no matter the greatly increased efficacy and efficiency of this new approach it is most difficult because its implementation requires the breaking of ancient and traditional habits and changing deeply ingrained patterns of behavior.

I know I cannot create social systems whose ethos is cooperation by engaging in the competition, the intense and unprincipled competition, for scarce goods and services.

I know I can never adopt any of the traditional roles of Absolutist culture, that I can never become Messiah, or martyr, or prophet, or hero. Because none of these of these have worked, or can work, to cause a bare majority of individuals in any society to commit to accepting the discipline of truth. If I become the Messiah I would ascend the pedestal constructed by human beings, and become someone to be adored and exalted, not someone whose example can be emulated by anyone and everyone.

If I embrace martyrdom, vested interests after my death will capture and distort my message, and use it for their purposes, as the Roman Catholic Church has prostituted the message of Jesus, instead of the truth will make you free, it became perverted into the supernatural and traditional call to be possessed by the Holy Ghost. I cannot become a prophet or hero because this is simply a variation of the messianic theme.

So I do what I must if I am to have any hope of succeeding, I tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth no matter how distasteful and offensive this may be to those who hear it.

I am fully aware of the experience of Dr. Jocelyn Elders, who was fired for her radical views on sex education and other issues, many of which I share. Like her I must preserve my equilibrium even as I struggle forward against a hurricane of rejection, like her I must never lose my sense of humor:

Dr. Elders was still able engage in levity about her experience, "Masturbation, never got anybody pregnant," she said," and you know you’re always having sex with someone you love."

When everything is said and done, that is what all this is about, being able to love the other, being able to express that love in your actions toward the other. The word, everlastingly and eternally, is love.

And it is because of the love that I hold for human beings that I ask Americans to contrast and compare your reactions to the wardrobe dysfunction in the most recent Superbowl when the breast of an entertainer was bared, and your reaction to the death of thirty five children in Iraq. One incident ignited a firestorm of controversy and protest, the other was swept under the tattered, threadbare, dirty carpet of history, without a whimper or wail of protest and grief at the senseless, untimely death of these children.

In the movie "Notting Hill" the male lead played by Hugh Grant was asked why his wife left him and replied, "She saw through me."

After twenty years of living in the USA, at last I have got a fix on the true nature of American public opinion, as a totality it is uncaring, insensitive, self interested, mindless, gutless and completely hypocritical. It is the plaintive, whining voice of a low, filthy animal.

But even this can be changed by the practice of the discipline of truth.

This will force individuals to confront the fact that they are deluded, will make them capable of love, and give them the power and will to change their circumstances, to leash the skills and efforts of vested interests to the cause of freedom, to win the war on poverty, to create peace on earth.

Who will be the first to stand up and be counted as a man or woman of truth?

Copyright retained, all rights reserved

William E. Virtue

voiceofpeace.net
vox_pacis@hotmail.com