- Introduction to Concept of 'Conscious Politics': Leo Gura introduces 'conscious politics', a new type of politics that differs from what has been known so far. This new perspective provides insightful understanding into the problems of governments and politics. It is about specific policy proposals and a practical understanding of conscious politics.
- Prerequisites for Understanding Conscious Politics: A conceptual understanding of various topics like non-duality, spiral dynamics, self-deception, survival, collective ego, devilry and evil, ideology, relativism, systems thinking, and love is required for understanding 'conscious politics'.
- Ignorance in Politics: Leo highlights that the problem with current politics is not just about politicians deceiving people but also about them and the voters being self-deceived.
- Global Applicability of Conscious Politics Principles: Although the examples used in this discussion are based on American politics, the principles and ideas discussed are globally applicable, not limited to specific countries or political parties.
- Rejection of the Notion that Politics is Anti-Spiritual: Traditional spiritual schools often reduce collective problems to individual problems, but Leo emphasizes that solving the world's problems cannot be achieved only by turning inwards. Both individual and collective problems need to be addressed.
- Interconnectedness of Politics and Spirituality: There is interconnectedness between spirituality and politics. Making politics and spirituality two distinct fields is seen as a dualistic position. Politics plays a crucial role in raising the consciousness of society and individuals.
- Responsibility of the Enlightened: It is the responsibility of the enlightened or conscious individuals not to avoid politics. By avoiding politics, unconscious people prevail, leading to potential disaster. Therefore, conscious people should use their awakening to help others awaken.
- Importance of Engaging in Politics: Though politics can often be seen as dirty or divisive, avoiding it doesn't shirk an individual from its effects. Therefore, awareness and active involvement in politics help to influence and engage with these societal systems effectively.
- Importance of Government Infrastructure: Leo Gura emphasizes the inescapable interconnectedness of societal systems and the human reliance on them. He notes that individual lifestyles in developed countries, including basic living conditions, safety, and freedom, are possible largely due to government infrastructure, such as law enforcement, civil services, road systems, and electricity supply.
- Consequences of Ignoring Politics: According to Gura, staying uninvolved in politics can lead to adverse effects, like the proliferation of unconscious politics and, consequently, fear, exploitation, and oppression. He points out how the default state, without conscious political involvement, is dominated by unconscious selfish tendencies, which he refers to as "devilry."
- The Limitations of Traditional Teachings: Gura critiques traditional spiritual schools like Vedanta, Zen, Christianity, Judaism for not accommodating modern concerns and insights, such as ecology, systems thinking, and modern psychology. These schools, originating in eras with different problems, lack the comprehensive guidance needed for dealing with today's issues. He advocates for an integrated approach, like in ancient Greece, where philosophy and politics went hand-in-hand and complemented each other.
- Challenges of Conscious Politics: Discussing conscious politics, Gura indicates the deeply rooted challenges that unconscious biases, ideologies, selfishness, and partisanship present. Misinterpretation of these novel perspectives often results in further partisan conflicts which distract from pressing issues. Additionally, the lack of discourse on the conscious-unconscious spectrum of politics in media is highlighted.
- Undermining Government's Role: Gura explains how people, especially in developed countries, take government services and systems for granted due to their seamless operational efficiency. The rapid advancement of civilization over the last 5000 years has made it difficult for people to appreciate the evolution and significance of government, hence leading to a lack of political engagement.
- Value and Roles of Government: Government is a significant and complex technology responsible for societal cohesion and advancements. Its roles include ensuring citizens' rights, maintaining a fair judicial system, establishing a competent bureaucracy, supporting religious freedom, creating a social safety net, and protecting the environment.
- Abstract Concept of Government: Government is a complex entity, often understood by comparing it to a corporation. However, it deals with organization, consensus, and control orders of magnitude larger than corporations. With diverse ideologies, ethnicities, religions, and abilities, organizing hundreds of millions of people is a significant challenge, making the fact that government works as well as it does most of the time impressive.
- Diminishing Appreciation: In the 21st century, citizens often take the functionalities of government for granted, falling into complacency and adopting ideologies that label government as corrupt, problematic or oppressive. To dispel these ideas, understanding everything the government provides is essential.
- Unseen Benefits from Government: The government protects citizens from oppression, enslavement, genocide, and other forms of internal and external oppression. It guards against theft and ensures property rights. Furthermore, it provides court systems for settling disputes peacefully, prevents cruel and unusual punishment, regulates child labour, and offers emergency services like police, firefighters, search and rescue.
- Government-Provided Infrastructure: Governments build infrastructural necessities like roads, bridges, electric grids, and sewage systems. They also offer aid during natural disasters, emergency health care, and public education, thus lifting societal standards. The government ensures the preservation of national parks, and enforces regulations to prevent famines.
- Importance of Consensus in Government: Governments are tasked with creating consensus among people's diverse survival agendas. Good governance involves making decisions focusing on collective benefits rather than individual interests.
- Government's Evolving Role: Understand that notions like democracy, free speech, and rights were radical innovations in their respective times. Society needs to remain open-minded for radical new advances within governments as they continue to grow and evolve. Solutions to political issues should be sought by pushing boundaries and devising innovative methods, fighting the trap of status quo thinking.
- Threats to Government Effectiveness: Key obstacles to efficient governance include corruption, lobbying, military-industrial complex issues, excessively powerful corporations, and the unengaged nature of citizenry. Reforms directed towards combating these issues can improve overall governance.
- The Future of Governments: The aim of future governments should be to elevate citizen consciousness and love, which comprises principles of generosity, empathy, and understanding. This can be achieved by redesigning societies and governments to foster values that are currently underserved such as spirituality, while quelling greed, materialism, and power struggles. This approach to governancedubbed "conscious politics"can facilitate societal evolution, sustainability, progress, and unity.
- Importance of Government in Enforcing Minority Rights, Regulations and Essential Services: Government plays a crucial role in protecting minority rights. Without government, the most powerful group would likely dominate and oppress all minorities. Government also enforces crucial regulations like building codes, food and meat inspections, pollution regulation, market protection, and more. It undertakes important duties like historical preservation, business accountability, peace treaty negotiations, foster care and adoption services, certification and accreditation for professionals, and more. All these services could not be fulfilled effectively by the private sector as it is driven by profit motive, not public welfare.
- Criticism Against the Libertarian Philosophy: Many libertarians, who are often at the Spiral Dynamics Stage Orange level of psychological development, tend to have a utopian view of absolute freedom and free markets without understanding their limitations and the realities of human nature. They often incorrectly believe that privatizing everything can improve its functioning, without considering the potential for corporate exploitation. Absolute freedom without checks and balances can lead to the powerful abusing the weak, thereby defeating the very concept of freedom.
- Concept of Individual versus Collective Responsibilities: Libertarians often subscribe to an unrealistic fantasy of individualism, believing they are solely responsible for themselves and that everyone should be left alone. However, humans are innately communal creatures who need to live in groups to survive. The perspective that everyone is an individual without collective responsibilities is a modern notion made possible by millennia of societal evolution and infrastructures built by governments. Individuals are part of a collective and need to understand their role within it.
- Role of Private Sector and Corporations in Society: The notion that the private sector can replace all functions of government is fallacious. Although the private sector can fulfil some functions, there are many crucial duties like enforcing minority rights, regulating markets and providing essential services that it cannot perform, as they would not be profitable. Should the private sector amass too much power, it could lead to the rise of corporate dictatorship with the potential to exploit and enslave the less powerful, without any democratic accountability.
- The Non-Aggression Principle: The principle which proposes that aggression against the person or property of others is always wrong needs to be enforced with aggression this is the role of the government. The unchecked freedom that libertarian philosophy extols could lead to the powerful exploiting the weak, making it a power play rather than a free system. Therefore, government plays an essential role in moderating and curbing such abuses of freedom.
- Role of Humans in Establishing Government: Humans invented government when they became sedentary with developments in agriculture and resource accumulation.
- Traversal from Animal to Human Society: Animal kingdom operates on brutal and selfish survival instincts. However, humans advanced into a protected space from such brutality through government, which emerged as tribes began accumulating resources.
- Predatory Instincts Among Tribes: Tribes, powered by primitive survival instincts, often invaded other defenseless tribes for resources, enslaving them for personal gains.
- Limitation of Predatory Survival Strategy: This predatory survival strategy was not sustainable in the long term as there was always a stronger tribe ready to conquer the weaker one.
- Emergence of City-states: This resulted in the rise of city-states, cities with a walled perimeter to protect its citizens from the brutality of other tribes' invasions. The walled perimeter was the only safeguard that prevented the common behavior that prevailed among tribes where men were slaughtered, women were raped, and children were enslaved.
- Importance of Government in Protecting against Brutality: Humanitys initial state of absolute freedom, as mentioned by Leo Gura, is brutal, characterized by survival of the fittest and extreme violence. The establishment of governments was a collective response to moderate this harsh freedom and prevent slavery, murder, and rape. Although early governments themselves were often brutal, they provided defense against greater brutality from others.
- Complexity of Freedom: Freedom is not an absolute good but a highly complex notion with counterintuitive components. Unlimited freedom, allowing all actions without rules, can lead to chaos and extreme brutality. Government acts to limit this unlimited freedom, effectively diminishing extremes of violence. It establishes a shared pool of rules for the sake of peace, security, and fairness among a diverse population.
- Essence of Government: The primary purpose of government is to create fairness and peace through side-lining the extremes found in an environment of unlimited freedom. Government's role is to protect citizens from harm and provide an environment where they can live peacefully, while adhering to mutually agreed rules, despite differences in ethnicities, religions, languages, and worldviews.
- Inception of Infrastructure and Expanded Freedom: Although people have to give up some freedoms to form a government, the collective efforts of government facilitate the creation of infrastructure, which ends up increasing overall freedom. Advancements like global travel, the internet, and modern conveniences are made possible by government. The balance between individualism and collectivism is necessary, and every member of a collective contributes to the greater whole.
- Misconceptions about Freedom: Freedom is often misunderstood as a state of absolute rights without restrictions, leading to a lot of confusion within our politics. True freedom would allow individuals to carry out harmful and destructive behaviors, hence highlighting the importance of setting certain limitations. The formation of governments helped reduce such absolute freedom, aiming to create fairness and peace among its citizens.
- The Balance between Individualism and Collectivism: Providing an effective governance entails balancing individual liberties with the collective needs of society. Although people had to forfeit some freedoms to form governments, this has enabled the development of infrastructure and advancements that have, in turn, increased overall freedom and enhanced the living conditions for all.
- Understanding of collectivism and individualism: Society and individuals are interconnected and have a relationship similar to a hand in a body, where the hand has its own unique functions but also needs to be part of a larger unit to serve its purpose. Society should acknowledge the importance of individual autonomy and forming communities.
- Interconnectedness in society: People often overlook that they are part of a larger community and not just individuals. This balance between individualism and collectivism is necessary for a healthy society. Relationships in society are likened to elements within elements all the way up and down. People sometimes act selfishly without any concern about their impact on the environment or others, called blind selfishness or devilry, leading to suffering.
- Politics and identity: Politics and survival are relative to identity, pointing out that everyone plays identity politics based on their individual or collective identities. This can be religious, racial, sexual, social status, and more. This identification plays a significant role in political dynamics.
- Division and unity in reality: Reality, on a metaphysical level, constantly divides and reunites itself causing divisions and clashes between groups leading to political problems and violence. However, after divisions, unification is necessary for sustainability and progress. This pattern does not follow a linear path but has ups and downs.
- Progress towards greater unity: Human political history appears to follow a trend towards greater equality, consciousness, complexity, freedom, and unity. This progress includes periods of war, violence, and disunity yet ultimately leads to an increased level of fairness, equality, and reduced suffering in the long run. The ultimate goal of government should include facilitating this trend.
- Identity and survival: Politics and government are fundamentally about survival, where survival is relative to an individual's identity. People should understand the need to ensure survival for all diverse identities that people hold.
- Role of government in regulating identities: Government is crucial in regulating these diverse identities, making sure that the needs of different groups of individuals are met. This includes religious denominations, political parties, corporations, clubs, sports teams, etc. This adds an additional layer of complexity to governing societies.
- Politics and Identity Intersection: The section discusses how politics gets irrational and heated due to the intersection of politics and individual identities. People are generally not aware that their identity is the thing that is being contested due to their lack of consciousness. Unconscious behavior is described as blindly acting out of selfishness, unconcerned about how a particular nation or group is extremely egotistical as a whole.
- Purpose of Politics and Government: The primary purpose of politics and government is viewed as moderating between different competing survival agendas, regulating the levels of selfishness to prevent extremity, which would be devastating to everybody. Politics is essentially a negotiation about the distribution of power and resources.
- Redistribution of Power: Every form of government and politics engages in the redistribution of power and resources. Most people, due to their selfishness, aim to maximize their personal power and resources, disregarding fairness or equality, causing collateral damage and suffering.
- Role of Government: Government plays a pivotal role in reducing brutality and oppression, creating a fair playing field for everyone, establishing infrastructure and systems that heighten freedom, allowing for greater intricacy and more engagement from the citizens. It fosters the sense of community and moderates agendas to benefit the majority.
- Evolution and Emergence in Politics: Evolution guides politics towards higher levels of organization and consciousness. Contrary to the perception that evolution ends with humans, humans are part of something much larger in the evolutionary process.
- Question of 'Best' Government: What kind of government or society is the 'best' is seen as a fallacious notion because 'best' is relative, depending on whose survival is in question. There are no absolute rules, decisions regarding what is right and wrong are subjective and are often influenced by individual survival agendas.
- Inclusive Government: Unlike other organizations, government has to be inclusive, making it more difficult to manage and organize. It's the highest structure developed by humans and must account for the interest of all, rather than exclusive to a particular group.
- On size and scope of societal units: According to Gura, communities, clubs, and gangs represent smaller subunits within larger organizations, such as governments and countries. These smaller units have mechanisms for dealing with troublemakers, such as exclusion or expulsion. However, for a society as a whole, these options are less viable due to the comprehensive nature of society.
- On fringe cases in society: Society faces the challenge of dealing with entities that pose significant problems, such as the poor, the disabled, the sick, and criminals, among others. Gura suggests that integration and the development of systems and infrastructure to handle these cases is a more effective approach than exclusion. This is because satisfied individuals are less likely to engage in destructive behaviors.
- On isolationist policies: Gura asserts that isolationist policies, such as walling off individuals, are ineffective in a globally interconnected world. He suggests that governments must take into account all people, including those that are not wealthy or highly intelligent. Excluding the majority can lead to their eventual revolt and the loss of power.
- On the subjectivity of reality and government: According to Gura, the difficulty of governing arises from the fact that individuals inhabit different realities due to the mind-dependent nature of reality. This challenge is compounded by the diverse survival agendas that people have. Additionally, government, being a highly pragmatic endeavor, has to address life-and-death issues rather than engage in intellectual exercise alone.
- On the conscious evolution of government: Gura points out that government evolves through a process of natural selection and trial and error. However, unlike biological evolution, human beings can consciously participate in the evolutionary process of government, thereby shaping its design and structure in a way that suits their needs. This represents a significant responsibility for individuals.
- Reincarnation and Choosing a Government: Leo Gura proposes a thought experiment where individuals can decide who they will reincarnate as, choosing any country, race, profession, or identity for their next life. He also highlights that after reincarnating as one identity, you will eventually reincarnate as everybody else. This awareness is believed to enhance the desire for a fair and equal government that doesn't favor one group over another, considering you could reincarnate into any of these groups.
- Ego and Conscious Politics: Leo argues that our inherent ego, individual bias, and focus on personal survival prevent us from supporting a fair, equal government. He stresses the importance of stepping outside our personal survival agenda to construct better governance, likening it to balancing in game design where diversity and equality amongst 'classes' or 'roles' provides a more satisfactory gameplay experience.
- Ultimate Aim of Government: According to Leo, the ultimate aim of government should be to elevate consciousness and love as these are universal desires that transcend individual identities and statuses. The current design of society, based on materialism, greed, and power, stands in contrast to this ideal. He clarifies that this suggestion does not endorse theocracy but rather envisions an underlying spirituality that supports governance and society.
- Evolution and Government Design: Leo puts forth an evolutionary perspective on government design, arguing that if we're not consciously aiming to maximize consciousness and love, we're by default designing a society centered on 'low consciousness' elements like fear, greed, and division. He states that society is an extension of universal evolution, a force that is naturally geared towards maximizing consciousness and love. The need to understand this gives a fresh context to politics and government and how to reshape them beneficially.
- Materialism and Corruption: Leo criticizes the rampant materialism and profit orientation of society, which he links to low consciousness and a myriad of societal problems. To counteract this trend, he advocates for a non-ideological form of spirituality to underpin government and society not a theocracy, but a spiritual groundwork rooted in high consciousness and love.
- Challenges of Implementing Conscious Politics: Leo acknowledges that materialistic, reductionist mindsets might resist the concept of implementing spirituality in politics. However, he argues that without some spiritual foundation, society becomes excessively focused on scientism and materialism, which are proving disastrous. He asserts that building a government based on a deep consciousness and love is not an airy-fairy ideal, but the actual trajectory of universal evolution.
- Government as technology: Leo Gura explains that government, like the internet or electricity, is a form of technology that has enabled advancements in society. He highlights features of government like democracy, free speech, minority rights, and social safety nets that were once seen as radical ideas. He warns against complacency in politics and advises an openness to radical new ideas.
- Individualism vs. Collectivism: Gura discusses the balance between individual and collective responsibilities. He criticizes the focus on personal responsibility, arguing it overlooks systemic issues. He mentions the negative effects of excessive individualism and cites the importance of quality bureaucracy in a first-world society.
- Government and societal structure: Gura emphasizes the function of governments in societal evolution. Using historical examples, he illustrates how societies have progressed from brutality to the relative safety provided by governments. The ideal government, according to Gura, serves to limit extreme brutality and protect citizen's rights while providing vital societal infrastructure, thus fostering peace and fairness.
- Debate on privatization: Gura criticizes libertarian ideas of privatizing everything. He argues such a removal of state control could result in corporate exploitation and loss of accountability. He cautions against the misunderstanding of freedom at this political stage, prompting a need for government regulation to enforce the non-aggression principle.
- The importance of accountability in government: Gura emphasizes the importance of public education, participation, and vigilance in maintaining a responsible government. He highlights the problem of corruption and self-dealing in government, urging citizens to take responsibility for electing transparent and accountable public officials rather than undermining the government.
- Evolution and Conscious Politics: Gura outlines the concept of Conscious Politics, explaining that aligning with evolution (defined as the trajectory of the universe) involves raising the consciousness and love of all beings, instead of self-serving motives. He emphasizes the link between individual and collective consciousness, and the influence of societal structures on one's ability to raise consciousness.
- Reform over creation of new organizations: Gura emphasizes the importance of improving existing government structures over creating new ones. He likens this process to human evolution and urges citizens to actively participate in this gradual reformation.
- Emphasis on Consciousness in Governance: Gura argues for the necessity of a government that focuses on elevating consciousness, and love in society, rather than materialistic gains, power, and greed. He proposes the spiritual underpinning of government and society, a move away from current consumption and power-oriented models.
- Role of Government to Cater to Basic Needs: Gura emphasizes the role of government in providing infrastructure and basic needs to people for them to raise their consciousness. Attributes a vicious cycle: low consciousness government leading to low consciousness citizens. Proposes high consciousness government as a solution.
- Elimination of Self-dealing: Gura calls for the elimination of self-dealing in government rather than reducing government size. Identifies the need to use tax money productively for societal upliftment and for citizens to hold the government accountable.
- Corruption as Primary Problem: Gura identifies white-collar crimes, lobbying, the military-industrial complex, political favors, and the revolving door phenomenon (public sector employees transitioning to private sector roles) as dominant corruption sources, outweighing welfare issues.
- Repercussions of Corruption: Gura notes that corruption contributes typically to wealth and status accumulation, favoritism, influence peddling, and scams. The solution he provides lies in active political participation, consciousness, and an informed and engaged citizenry.
- Stay tuned for more: Gura closes this section by promising a follow-up discussion about the practical insights and principles of conscious politics.