Yet Another Revolution

This week we see on the news stories about the Obama administration giving over $500 million of taxpayer money to the Solyndra company, whose major investor raised $10 million for Obama's 2008 presidential campaign. Continued information emerges about a program called Fast and Furious that the Department of Justice and ATF carried out whereby they allowed foreign nationals to purchase thousands of firearms that were supplied to the Mexican drug cartels. Protestors around the country are involved in a movement called Occupy Wall Street; they are angry about the corporate involvement in campaign contributions, effectively 'buying' the White House. The economy is in terrible shape with millions of home foreclosures and the unemployment rate over 9% - an underestimate of the number of actual Americans who are without jobs. Tens of millions of illegal aliens in the country competing with American citizens for the jobs that are available with no effort by the federal government to address the issue. Social, economic, and political chaos.

It isn't that the country hasn't been through these kinds of chaotic situations before - mass protests about the military involvement in Vietnam, the corruption of the Nixon administration and the Watergate scandal, and of course, more recently, the sex scandals of the Clinton administration. The U.S. military has been involved in military operations all over the world since World War II, much to the dismay of the majority of American taxpayers and voters. For today's young people, though, it feels like something new. They feel driven to take to the streets and protest the greed, corruption, and perceived hopelessness and helplessness. Their anger is preferable to complacency and apathy, but it does lend an air of turmoil to society.

Middle age taxpayers want the protestors to shut up, get a job, save some money and take advantage of the low cost of housing and home loans. The elderly are fearful that the chaos will result in the loss of safety net programs that they rely on to provide income and health care for them now that they can't get out there and earn money.

Underneath it all, a few voices can still be heard suggesting that the external chaos will come and go but that what is really important is for each of us to pay attention to our own soul development through meditation and contemplation. The chaos will continue long after each individual has departed this earthly exixtence.

Individual revolution is of the highest importance and not mass revolution. - Krishnamurti