What's Wrong With Our World?

Source: Decline of the Empire

The BLS announced this morning that the economy added a whopping 18,000 non-farm payroll jobs. If you want to know why high expectations for jobs growth were not met, read yesterday’s post Where’s The Minus Sign? I see no reason to gloat today because the economy is just as bad as I’ve said it is. And I’ve said it over & over again. Do you want to hear that again today?

Let’s go in an entirely different direction. I will remind you that DOTE truly is the Reality Channel. If you’re interested in Reality, that is. (Most people are not.) Spread the word. Tell your friends.
   —Dave

Are you old enough to remember the Harmonic Convergence? Also dubbed the Moronic Convergence?

The Harmonic Convergence is the name given to the world’s first globally synchronized meditation, announced by José Argüelles, and which occurred on August 16–17, 1987, which also closely correlated to an exceptional alignment of planets in our solar system, see below (Astrological alignment).

The timing of the Harmonic Convergence allegedly correlated with the Maya calendar, with some consideration also given to European and Asian astrological traditions. The chosen dates have the distinction of allegedly marking a planetary alignment with the Sun, Moon and six out of eight planets being “part of the grand trine.”

The convergence is purported to have “corresponded with a great shift in the Earth’s energy from warlike to peaceful.”

Believers of this esoteric prophecy maintain that the Harmonic Convergence ushered in a five-year period of Earth’s “cleansing”, where many of the planet’s “false structures of separation” would collapse.

According to Argüelles, the event came at the end of these “hell” cycles and the beginning of a new age of universal peace. Adherents believed that signs indicated a “major energy shift” was about to occur, a turning point in Earth’s collective karma and dharma, and that this energy was powerful enough to change the global perspective of man from one of conflict to one of co-operation. Actress and author Shirley MacLaine called it a “window of light,” allowing access to higher realms of awareness.

The convergence didn’t work out. We can see the difficulty of  reconciling “a great shift in the Earth’s energy from warlike to peaceful” and Predator Drones. The “major energy shift” was supposed to be powerful enough to change the global perspective of man from one of conflict to one of co-operation.

I was reminded of the Moronic Convergence as I read a review of the documentary I Am: The Shift Is About To Hit The Fan. Tom Shadyac, director of movie classics like Bruce Almighty, The Nutty Professor, and Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, had a near death experience which changed him from a maker of shallow Hollywood movies to a maker of shallow documentaries on the Oneness of all Human Life.

Tom Shadyac [far right, with Morgan Freeman and Steve Carell] isn’t the first person to have a serious accident or near-death experience and vow to change his way of life.

He might be the only one, though, whose movies grossed more than $2 billion, who once lived in a 17,000-square-foot mansion and who directed the likes of Jim Carrey, Eddie Murphy, Robin Williams and Steve Carell.

A bicycle accident that left him with a broken hand, a concussion and, later, post-concussion syndrome altered how he sees the world, his work and himself.

So instead of wanting to churn out “Ace Ventura 4″ or another “Patch Adams,” the long-haired bespectacled director made a movie called “I Am.”

Not to be confused with the Hindi-language film of the same name, it’s a documentary that asks two questions: “What’s wrong with our world?” and “What can we do about it?”

Mr. Shadyac turns to religious leaders, academics, scientists, philosophers, authors and his own dad to try to learn the answers. Among the most famous faces: Archbishop Desmond Tutu; talk show host Thom Hartmann; linguist and political activist Noam Chomsky; and Howard Zinn, the Boston University historian and political activist who died in January 2010.

Here’s the answer to the question what’s wrong with our world?

It ends up being pretty simple: We are what’s wrong and we need to temper consumerism with compassion, and competition with cooperation to save ourselves and our world.

“People are driven, driven to accumulate, accumulate, accumulate without asking the question of, ‘Will this make me happy or not?’ ” Mr. Zinn says.

Well! That sounds good. What comes next?

“I Am,” which takes it title from G.K. Chesterton’s pithy response to the question of what’s wrong with the world, makes a case that we are hard-wired to be tender-hearted and our brother’s keeper and that everyone and everything is connected at all times.

One of the goofier scenes has to do with a petri dish of yogurt seemingly reacting to nearby human emotions…

Gee, whiz! I wish somebody would tell Giant Vampire Squid CEO Lloyd Blankfein this stuff. If Lloyd is hard-wired to be tender-hearted and his brother’s keeper, how did he get so fucked up?

Apparently, when Tom Shadyac had that bicycle accident, God was not yet ready to receive him. Instead, it was God’s desire that Tom continue to make bad Hollywood movies with Happy Endings.

The trailer speaks for itself — Co-operation and Democracy is in our DNA

Read more at Decline of the Empire