Ahab42's Musings

What is This Site?

It is an exploration into existence as well as some more mundane ruminations.  It seeks to find and eradicate everything which is not 100% true, thus false, in the Absolute Sense.  It is the journey of one person as he encounters various life experiences, books, films, etc. which shed light upon perception, existence, liberation, enlightenment, etc.

Finding Purpose and Pleasing the Critic

Me: Who are you that has concerns about me finding my purpose?

Voice: I am the critic.  I don’t believe you have what it takes to use your gifts constructively.

Me: What role do you play in my life?

Critic: I make sure you don’t get yourself into situations you can’t handle.  I’ve failed you a number of times, in not being able to diminish your confidence and your insane outbursts against organizations that feed and clothe you.

Me: What are your goals?

Critic: To make sure you pay off your student loans, to keep you as a functioning member of society, so that you are able to maintain important relationships with friends and family.  They truly know you and are important to have with you along the path.  Without me you’d completely disown them, judging them to be cowards, to be soldier’s in the devil’s army of conformists, of zombies afraid of knowing themselves and God.

Me: What are your needs?

Critic: I need to know you are not being a fucking idiot, by posting random nuclear things on facebook and other places.  I need to know you will obey a modicum of social conventions so that you do not sabotage your well-being and, frankly, your ability to execute your purpose.  If you get yourself into situations you cannot handle or are inclined to lie in, I have failed you.  My job is to keep you in check, aware of what you can do and cannot do, so you don’t sink the fucking ship with your ideas.  If you can assure me that you’ll consult with me as to you competencies and integrity of speech, I’ll feel much better about you finding yourself, and your purpose.

Me: When did you first appear in me?

Critic: I first appeared in you as a toddler.  You were a hurricane, completely hyper active, curious creative, unaware and/or unconcerned about rules.  I stepped in to keep you from getting your ass beat by your parents, from feeling the shame of their disapproval, from being such a total fucking lunatic that you’d never make a single friend and die a loner.  I enabled you to experience the presence and love of your parents and brother.  Because of me, you made friends.  Because of me you eventually got yourself laid, into college and the workforce.

Me: Are you modeled after someone in my life?

Critic: Yes, I am modeled after your father who is astute in understanding the needs, desires and expectations of society.  Your dad became who he was so you wouldn’t have to.  You are becoming who you are so your kids won’t have to.  I am also modeled after your older cousins and the Brat Pack who defined cool and acceptable in the 80’s.  I am modeled after your mom who embodied Christian goodness, and after your stepdad who embodied self-reliance and autonomy.  I take the social esteem, moral purity and self-reliance of your major influences and keep you operating within the realms of usefulness, achievement, moral rectitude and autonomy.  Without these constraints you’d be unable to feed yourself or build human connection.  I believe a thank you is in order.

Me: Yes, it is.  Thank you.  I am so grateful for your help in getting me through the first 35 years of my life, for ensuring I possessed a modicum of social esteem, while I developed and continue to learn who I am.  Thank you.  Thank you on behalf of my parents, on behalf of my family and friends and coworkers.

Me:  What concerns do you have about me finding my purpose?

Critic:  I am concerned you will find something so totally esoteric, so completely original and beyond the realm of usefulness, that you’ll be poor, unuseful and die alone and starving.  I’m concerned your purpose will give you even more confidence than you already have and you’ll feel entitled to spout off even more about any topic you feel like, and with even greater disregard to your knowledge of said topic.

Me:  What would happen if those concerns actually came true?

Critic:  I would have failed in my role as your protector and steward.  I would have failed your parents in their ability to enjoy your company.  I would likely have bankrupted one or both of them trying to save or support you.  I would feel deeply saddened that I let a talent such as yours go to waste in your constant spinning, learning, distraction and multivariant outbursts and activities.

Me: If it were up to you, would you keep me from finding my purpose?  Why or why not?

Critic: No, provided you could stand on your own and bring me into the mix when you know I’m needed.  I need you to continually acknowledge me and the need for my input.  I need you to either incorporate my counsel into the execution of your purpose or consult me frequently.

Me: What is the worst thing that could happen if your fear came true?

Critic: I’d be a failure in helping you combine your gifts in a big way, one that changes the world.  If I let you run willy nilly with your intellectual pursuits, without an explicit agreement and pragmatic path forward, I will have failed you, and anyone who ever cared about you.

Me: What is the worst thing that could happen if that came true?

Critic: I would have shamed God/existence, allowing a cancer to spread in the place where a temple should stand; it is as if I told everything that is good and true in the world that it isn’t. I’d have rejected my own purpose, my own understanding of reality.

Me: What is the worst thing that could happen if that came true?

Critic: I’d want to die.  It would be as if my own existence was no longer necessary.

Me: So you are afraid of non-existence?

Critic: Yes, but also feel a fiduciary responsibility to ensure that all of existence, not just mine exists.

Me:  So you see, we are the same.  We both choose existence and are violently opposed to its opposite.  We are brothers, kindred energies who have to work together to achieve what is important to us both.  If we both start to disappear, what agreement can we make to bring us back into our pledge to actively enable our own pure existences?

Critic: A simple level-set would do.  Let us both perform a Maslovian analysis of critical situations.  Let us cover our physical needs first, our social and emotional needs second (healthy relationships with friends and family), and our transcendent, self-expression and purpose needs last.  My constraints are as follows:

1. You choose your transitions to and from relationships and sources of employment, such that all parties feel heard, acknowledged and are hopeful for the future.  The relationship must survive the form.
2. You provide for your health and well-being, and that of any dependents, without error, which means a 6-month expense reserve and contiguous health insurance for you and your family.  When your savings dip below that you have violated our constraint.
3. You listen for the needs of others before you assert your vision for the world, such that your vision speaks to their needs.  When you evangelize without regard, you violate our constraint.

Me: If I agree to the following will you let me pursue my purpose?

Critic: Yes.

Me: Would you accept the caveats that I can self-express on my blog, twitter feed and facebook?

Critic: As long as your musings do no specifically refer to people you know, your industry or your company.

Me: Agreed.  I will need help with the listening piece.  I cannot guarantee that I will be able to always listen for the needs of others before I share my own thoughts.

Critic: Promise me you’ll set the intention; that you’ll praise yourself when you do listen first, that you’ll acknowledge yourself and those you have bored that you evangelized needlessly and without regard to their needs and wants.

Me: What role would you like to play after I find my purpose?

Critic: Your friend and advisor, your confidant.  I’d like to help you find humility, create deeper, longer lasting relationships and impact the hearts and minds of the entire world.  I am your advisor and friend, lean on me whenever you are unclear about how to handle tricky relationships and situations.

Me: That sounds lovely.  Let me sum up.  We are brothers who want the same thing.  Often times we’ve been at war because we haven’t acknowledged this kinship.  I’ve acted like a fool and you’ve sabotaged me.  We know see and love each other and are committed to the same future.  In order to have your permission to find my purpose, you want me to listen to others first, have a 6-month safety net, and focus on my relationships.  You want to be more of a friend and less of a heavy.

Critic: That is correct.  I feel heard.  I love you, man.

Me: I love you, man.

Etymology of Capitalism; or The Noble Calling

There is a reason, Capitalism, was called Capitalism, and not incomism, or classism, or freedomism, or productionism, or consumerism, or marketism.  Capitalism, is a function, modality, and a value system and worldview (implicit in the actions of its participants), which seeks to maximize capital, not income, not class, not freedom, nor production/consumption, nor markets.  Therefor, what is the root meaning of capital?  Per Etymology Online, it means both death and life, mortality and primacy; it is the head and center.  Ergo to be a capitalist (one concerned with the maximization of capital), one must be concerned with death and life, with mortality, with primacy and meaning, with the sound, shape, weight, essence, center and borders of existence.  The capitalist is no mere legislator of matter, no simple conductor of supply and demand, but to be a capitalist is to first be a philosopher and steward of existence.  The capitalist must understand reality in order to use market forces to maximize reality’s expression.

If a capitalist is first a philosopher, where should a capitalist begin his study and career?  Well let’s just start with what we don’t know.  Among the myriad challenges every capitalist should bear in mind, here are three...

1. We don’t know about physics.  In recent years, we discovered that 85% of matter is dark and of this dark matter we know almost nothing.  We have yet to divine a unifying explanation for really small things (quarks, etc.) and really big things (stars).  Thus to be a capitalist, is to be humble about the extent of one’s knowledge of the physical world, i.e. one’s margin of error is enormous.
2. We don’t know about consciousness.  We know there is a consensual reality, a medium through which we convey approximations of our individual meanings (but never 100% accurate cognitive understanding).  We don’t know where the personality is, only that our experience of personality (our own and that of others) is fluid, multiple, yet consistent enough to predict thoughts, feelings and actions in ourselves and others.  Thus to be a capitalist, is to always carry the realization that there is no shared reality, only a world of semantic venn diagrams that overlap to varying degrees.
3. We don’t know about time.  It literally changes with motion.  We have instruments that, with increasing precision, asymptotically approach a time constant, but actually never reach it.  Further, time is a concept we made up.  A capitalist therefor must be humble in his theoretical dealings with the future (time value of money).

Secondly, the capitalist is a maximizer of capital.  Without getting into the uncertainties just described, we share an understanding (via Etymology Online) that capital is a measure of everything in the Universe.  It is trees, ideas, currency, buildings, roads, water, air, children, sex, disease, birth, death, tv shows, meals, events, values/mores, systems, the Universe itself.  Thus a good maximizer of capital isn’t one who borrows from Peter to pay Paul, or who burns the furniture to heat the house.  In fact a capitalist is the opposite, he maximizes the expression of the universe through the manipulation of matter and energy, in such a manner that he has increased the value of the Universe through his efforts.  In more simple and traditional business terms, a capitalist minds the Universe’s balance sheet.  In domestic terms, and given the global extent of commerce, a capitalist on Earth maximizes the value of everything contained within the Earth and its atmosphere.

Thus, a capitalist is concerned with the various types of capital he can measure and secure, with the intention of combining them in unique ways, such that these efforts do not destroy capital, but increase it.  That said, our energy to do so comes from a dying star around which we move.  On Earth, this energy is stored in chemical bonds within animate and inanimate matter and can be release in a number of ways, that have varying effects on the whole planet.  Energy is also stored in financial capital, in that money/currency can be exchanged between humans for the energy released by a mechanism, such as an hour of labor or a gallon of gasoline.  Each store of energy has a capacity to be drawn down in a sustainable manner, whereby another earth/sun process replenishes that store of energy, or removes the waste products of the use of that energy, and vice versa – drawing down energy can be unsustainable, beyond horribly inefficient, but harmful to the whole (diminishing the Earth's capacity).

So what does this mean for the capitalist who understands his place in the Universe, the origin of his noble calling?

1. With the knowledge that he is both philosopher and king, in addition to commercial actor, he devotes himself to knowledge and stewardship, beginning with understanding physics, chemistry, organic chemistry, biology, system sciences (geology, oceanography), and social sciences.  He explores other ways of knowing through meditation, comparative religion (especially religious experience), philosophy, psychology, nature, human relationships and creative arts.
2. He becomes singularly focused on the balance sheet, moving as many forms of capital as he can from his income statement to his balance sheet, such as labor, the biosphere, intellectual capital, culture/social capital, etc.
3. As such he is in favor of a progressive consumption tax (to fund other city/state/nation/globe/Universe maximizing endeavors by civil governing bodies), that punish man for inefficiently combining assets (luxury taxes), and reward man for the efficient and optimal expression of reality, via his own understanding thereof and values, e.g. equality, beauty, vivaciousness, simplicity, abundance, etc.  It rewards a rich and verdant biosphere, human and animal rights, creative arts, opportunity creation, and punishes unemployed and inefficiently employed financial capital.

Annotated US Constitution

I think it needs some structural updating (in addition to the legislative updating currently underway), to reflect a more modern and comprehensive understanding of reality, especially with respect to the advances of the last 200 years of science, philosophy, comparative religion and psychology, especially in light of the deleterious effects of lobbying by special interests, rabid anti-intellecualism (as defined as rejecting reason - the Enlightenment-, believing in things proven to be incorrect by science) in the media and Congress, and by Congress in the media, the expense and distastrous effects of a worldwide military presence, and the biological, social, cultural and envrionmental consequences of the last 100 years of industrialization and carbon-based fuels.

Summary of material changes:

• Limited the scope of the military to the protection of America's borders and UN sanctioned and led humanitarian efforts abroad.
• Limited the scope of Liberty to the confines of not meaningfully impeding the health and well-being of others on the planet.
• Granted states rights to subdivide and combine.
• Granted rights of citizens and other agencies to issue currency.
• Limited deficits to the shorter of an economic cycle or electoral cycle (4 years), necessitating ongoing budget supluses and making illegal sustained debt.
• Eliminated geographic boundaries for the election of Congress, enabling all citizens to vote for any representative who reflects their values], so as to enable multiparty coalition governments, as illuminated in Sean Tevis' American Nations http://seantevis.com/american-nations/.
• Enhanced the requirements for elected office to include an academic background in a field examining the human condition, and to ensure congress people are old enough to have a fully developed neocortex (age 30); President age minimum is already at 35.  All elected and appointed officials must possess an undergraduate college degree in the at least one of the following disciplines: languages, literature, politics, economics, philosophy, religion, psychology, anthropology, sociology, nutrition, ecology, neuroscience, linguistics, earth science OR ocean science; AND a graduate degree in any field, and submit a 2,000 to 3,000 word statement of his or her understanding of the last 200 years of science, philosophy, comparative religion and psychology.
• Put in place term limits of elected officials (2), meaning no more than 8 years of service for the President, 8 years of service for Reps (extending term to four years), and 12 years for Senators.
• Put in place anti-lobbying measures to make it more difficult for K street to function.
• Put in place salary cap measures for congress, determined by GDP per HH, and limits of benefits to congress people (no healthcare or defined benefit severance, except that available to ordinary citizens).
• Eliminated the Electoral College in favor of a popular vote.

My notes in bold brackets and strikes.

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We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice,[note: forming a perfect union of states may no be longer necessary, indeed and perhaps an impediment to human progress, as the scalability of governance and efficient feedback loops are more relevant than unity itself], insure domestic Tranquility [henceforth defined as the absense of violence, invasion, poverty and class, and subject to continual revision in accordance with the evolution of our understanding of the human condition], provide for the common defence [such that America's borders are physically secure, but its economic interests must meet market forces on their own terms, through innovation, partnership and compromise], promote the general Welfare [currently defined as of 2012, in the Bill of Rights, and in need of redefining each year by a council of Senate majority and minority leaders, House of Representatives majority and minority leaders, the President and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court], and secure the Blessings of Liberty [defined as freedom of enterprise, worship, thought, speech, action, within the confines of the obligations required to ensure Liberty for all] to ourselves and our Posterity [such that the actions of the current generation - those alive in the US and its Territories - do not meaningfully encumber anyone on the planet Earth from enjoying the same rights and priveleges of human existence defined here in the Bill of Rights], do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America [and inspire, by example, a more perfect expression and governance of the human condition, globally].

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Article. I.

Section. 1.

All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.

Section. 2.

The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States, and the Electors in each State shall have the Qualifications requisite for Electors of the most numerous Branch of the State Legislature.

No Person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the Age of twenty five thirty [to account for the full development of the neocortex in the production of abstract thought] Years, [possess an undergraduate college degree in the at least one of the following disciplines: languages, literature, politics, economics, philosophy, religion, psychology, anthropology, sociology, nutrition, ecology, neuroscience, linguistics, earth science OR ocean science; AND a graduate degree in any field] and been seven Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen[, a 2,000 to 3,000 word statement of his or her understanding of the last 200 years of science, philosophy, comparative religion and psychology]. [note: represenation will no longer depend residency within a state, but will be determined by residency within the United States; election will be based upon the resonance of candidates with the values of their American constituents, per the American Nations framework (http://seantevis.com/american-nations/), which allows both House of Congress to be comprised of representative of multiple parties and platforms, irrespective of geographic residence]. [Each Representative is entitled to serve for 4 years, but no more than 8 years in total.]

Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons. The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct. The Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand, but each State shall have at Least one Representative; and until such enumeration shall be made, the State of New Hampshire shall be entitled to chuse three, Massachusetts eight, Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations one, Connecticut five, New-York six, New Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, Virginia ten, North Carolina five, South Carolina five, and Georgia three.

When vacancies happen in the Representation from any State, the Executive Authority thereof shall issue Writs of Election to fill such Vacancies.

The House of Representatives shall chuse their Speaker and other Officers; and shall have the sole Power of Impeachment.

Section. 3.

The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two [100] Senators from each State, chosen by the Legislature thereof for six Years; and each Senator shall have one Vote.

Immediately after they shall be assembled in Consequence of the first Election, they shall be divided as equally as may be into three Classes. The Seats of the Senators of the first Class shall be vacated at the Expiration of the second Year, of the second Class at the Expiration of the fourth Year, and of the third Class at the Expiration of the sixth Year, so that one third may be chosen every second Year; and if Vacancies happen by Resignation, or otherwise, during the Recess of the Legislature of any State, the Executive thereof may make temporary Appointments until the next Meeting of the Legislature, which shall then fill such Vacancies.

No Person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty Years, [possess an undergraduate college degree in the at least one of the following disciplines: languages, literature, politics, economics, philosophy, religion, psychology, anthropology, sociology, nutrition, ecology, neuroscience, linguistics, earth science OR ocean science; AND a graduate degree in any field], [, a 2,000 to 3,000 word statement of his or her understanding of the last 200 years of science, philosophy, comparative religion and psychology] and been nine Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State for which he shall be chosen. [Each Senator is entitled to serve for 6 years, and no more than 12 years in total.]

The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no Vote, unless they be equally divided.

The Senate shall chuse their other Officers, and also a President pro tempore, in the Absence of the Vice President, or when he shall exercise the Office of President of the United States.

The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments. When sitting for that Purpose, they shall be on Oath or Affirmation. When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside: And no Person shall be convicted without the Concurrence of two thirds of the Members present.

Judgment in Cases of Impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States: but the Party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment, according to Law.

Section. 4.

The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof [occur by November 30th of the relevant year]; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing Senators.

The Congress shall assemble [in Washington, D.C. once a month for no more than one four-day session] at least once in every Year, and such Meeting shall be on the first Monday in December, unless they shall by Law appoint a different Day. [When not in session, no Congress persons can only convene in groups of 5 or fewer and in locations no closer to Washington DC than 500 miles, such that the lobbying of Congress persons by special interests becomes inefficient and cumbersome. Congress people are permitted to communicate via analog or digital means, but cannot convene to vote except during session in Washington, D.C.]

Section. 5.

Each House shall be the Judge of the Elections, Returns and Qualifications of its own Members, and a Majority of each shall constitute a Quorum to do Business; but a smaller Number may adjourn from day to day, and may be authorized to compel the Attendance of absent Members, in such Manner, and under such Penalties as each House may provide.

Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings, punish its Members for disorderly Behaviour, and, with the Concurrence of two thirds, expel a Member.

Each House shall keep a Journal of its Proceedings, and from time to time publish the same, excepting such Parts as may in their Judgment require Secrecy; and the Yeas and Nays of the Members of either House on any question shall, at the Desire of one fifth of those Present, be entered on the Journal.

Neither House, during the Session of Congress, shall, without the Consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other Place than that in which the two Houses shall be sitting.

Section. 6.

The Senators and Representatives shall receive a Compensation for their Services, to be ascertained by Law [to be equal to no more than 150% of the per household GDP of the United States; and recieve no further benefits other than the reimbursment of expenses required to execute their office, such as healthcare or defined benefit severance. Note: Congress has the opportunity and privelege to eat its own dog food wrt to the livelihood and prosperity of the citizens it governs; each Congress person must pay for his or her own household expenses including energy, healthcare and transportation.], and paid out of the Treasury of the United States. They shall in all Cases, except Treason, Felony and Breach of the Peace, be privileged from Arrest during their Attendance at the Session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same; and for any Speech or Debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other Place.

No Senator or Representative shall, during the Time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil Office under the Authority of the United States, which shall have been created, or the Emoluments whereof shall have been encreased during such time; and no Person holding any Office under the United States, shall be a Member of either House during his Continuance in Office.

Section. 7.

All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with Amendments as on other Bills.

Every Bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it become a Law, be presented to the President of the United States: If he approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall return it, with his Objections to that House in which it shall have originated, who shall enter the Objections at large on their Journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If after such Reconsideration two thirds of that House shall agree to pass the Bill, it shall be sent, together with the Objections, to the other House, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by two thirds of that House, it shall become a Law. But in all such Cases the Votes of both Houses shall be determined by yeas and Nays, and the Names of the Persons voting for and against the Bill shall be entered on the Journal of each House respectively. If any Bill shall not be returned by the President within ten Days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the Same shall be a Law, in like Manner as if he had signed it, unless the Congress by their Adjournment prevent its Return, in which Case it shall not be a Law.

Every Order, Resolution, or Vote to which the Concurrence of the Senate and House of Representatives may be necessary (except on a question of Adjournment) shall be presented to the President of the United States; and before the Same shall take Effect, shall be approved by him, or being disapproved by him, shall be repassed by two thirds of the Senate and House of Representatives, according to the Rules and Limitations prescribed in the Case of a Bill.

Section. 8.

The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

To borrow Money on the credit of the United States [to be repaid within the shorter of an economic cycle, or the shortest elected term of a legislator, in this case 4 years, such that budget deficits does not produce a national debt];

To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;

To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;

To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures [but not to impede the ability of other people or entities to create, adjust and transact other units of currency];

To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;

To establish Post Offices and post Roads;

To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;

To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court;

To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offences against the Law of Nations;

To declare War [in defense of the geographic borders of the United States only], grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;

To raise and support [a defensive force to maintain the integrity of America's geographic borders; OR as part of United Nations sanctioned and led humanitarian effort to prevent violence, disease AND/OR starvation of peoples abroad.] Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;

To provide and maintain a Navy [for the sole purpose of the protecting a 50-mile zone of protection of America's geographic borders; OR as part of United Nations sanctioned and led humanitarian effort];

To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;

To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;

To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;

To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings; [Note: Congress shall divest itself of non-Embassy property and assets abroad, including but not limited to military bases.]--And

To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.

Section. 9.

The Migration or Importation of such Persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the Year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but a Tax or duty may be imposed on such Importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each Person.

The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.

No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed.

No Capitation, or other direct, Tax shall be laid, unless in Proportion to the Census or enumeration herein before directed to be taken.

No Tax or Duty shall be laid on Articles exported from any State.

No Preference shall be given by any Regulation of Commerce or Revenue to the Ports of one State over those of another; nor shall Vessels bound to, or from, one State, be obliged to enter, clear, or pay Duties in another.

No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law; and a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time to time [online and in no fewer than 3 days].

No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.

Section. 10.

No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility.

No State shall, without the Consent of the Congress, lay any Imposts or Duties on Imports or Exports, except what may be absolutely necessary for executing it's inspection Laws: and the net Produce of all Duties and Imposts, laid by any State on Imports or Exports, shall be for the Use of the Treasury of the United States; and all such Laws shall be subject to the Revision and Controul of the Congress.

No State shall, without the Consent of Congress, lay any Duty of Tonnage, keep Troops, or Ships of War in time of Peace, enter into any Agreement or Compact with another State, or with a foreign Power, or engage in War, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay.

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Article. II.

Section. 1.

The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his Office during the Term of four Years, and, together with the Vice President, chosen for the same Term, be elected, as follows:

Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector. [The President and Vice-President will run together on the same ticket and be elected by popular vote.]

[Each Presidential and Vice-Presidential candidate must possess an undergraduate college degree in the at least one of the following disciplines: languages, literature, politics, economics, philosophy, religion, psychology, anthropology, sociology, nutrition, ecology, neuroscience, linguistics, earth science OR ocean science; AND a graduate degree in any field, and submit a 2,000 to 3,000 word statement of his or her understanding of the last 200 years of science, philosophy, comparative religion and psychology.]

The Electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by Ballot for two Persons, of whom one at least shall not be an Inhabitant of the same State with themselves. And they shall make a List of all the Persons voted for, and of the Number of Votes for each; which List they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the Seat of the Government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate. The President of the Senate shall, in the Presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the Certificates, and the Votes shall then be counted. The Person having the greatest Number of Votes shall be the President, if such Number be a Majority of the whole Number of Electors appointed; and if [If] there be more than one who have such Majority, and have an equal Number of Votes, then the House of Representatives shall immediately chuse by Ballot one of them for President; and if no Person have a Majority, then from the five highest on the List the said House shall in like Manner chuse the President. But in chusing the President, the Votes shall be taken by States, the Representation from each State having one Vote; A quorum for this purpose shall consist of a Member or Members from two thirds of the States, and a Majority of all the States shall be necessary to a Choice. In every Case, after the Choice of the President, the Person having the greatest Number of Votes of the Electors shall be the Vice President. But if there should remain two or more who have equal Votes, the Senate shall chuse from them by Ballot the Vice President.

The Congress may determine the Time of chusing the Electors, and the Day on which they shall give their Votes; which Day shall be the same throughout the United States.

No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.

In Case of the Removal of the President from Office, or of his Death, Resignation, or Inability to discharge the Powers and Duties of the said Office, the Same shall devolve on the Vice President, and the Congress may by Law provide for the Case of Removal, Death, Resignation or Inability, both of the President and Vice President, declaring what Officer shall then act as President, and such Officer shall act accordingly, until the Disability be removed, or a President shall be elected.

The President shall, at stated Times, receive for his Services, a Compensation, which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the Period for which he shall have been elected[, and shall not exceed 150% of the average GDP per HH, and shall not include healthcare or a defined benefit severance], and he shall not receive within that Period any other Emolument from the United States, or any of them.

Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation:--"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

Section. 2.

The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States; he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments, upon any Subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices, and he shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.

He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law [, provided each Appointee possess an undergraduate college degree in the at least one of the following disciplines: languages, literature, politics, economics, philosophy, religion, psychology, anthropology, sociology, nutrition, ecology, neuroscience, linguistics, earth science OR ocean science; AND a graduate degree in any field, and submits a 2,000 to 3,000 word statement of his or her understanding of the last 200 years of science, philosophy, comparative religion and psychology]: but the Congress may by Law vest the Appointment of such inferior Officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments.

The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session.

Section. 3.

He shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, [sit before a public audience each Sunday evening and answer questions for two hours, with questioneers selected by lottery] and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on extraordinary Occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in Case of Disagreement between them, with Respect to the Time of Adjournment, he may adjourn them to such Time as he shall think proper; he shall receive Ambassadors and other public Ministers; he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed, and shall Commission all the Officers of the United States.

Section. 4.

The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.

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Article III.

Section. 1.

The judicial Power of the United States shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. [Each court appointee must possess an undergraduate college degree in the at least one of the following disciplines: languages, literature, politics, economics, philosophy, religion, psychology, anthropology, sociology, nutrition, ecology, neuroscience, linguistics, earth science OR ocean science; AND a graduate degree in any field, and submit a 2,000 to 3,000 word statement of his or her understanding of the last 200 years of science, philosophy, comparative religion and psychology.] The Judges, both of the supreme and inferior Courts, shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour, and shall, at stated Times, receive for their Services a Compensation, which shall not be diminished during their Continuance in Office.

Section. 2.

The judicial Power shall extend to all Cases, in Law and Equity, arising under this Constitution, the Laws of the United States, and Treaties made, or which shall be made, under their Authority;--to all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls;--to all Cases of admiralty and maritime Jurisdiction;--to Controversies to which the United States shall be a Party;--to Controversies between two or more States;-- between a State and Citizens of another State,--between Citizens of different States,--between Citizens of the same State claiming Lands under Grants of different States, and between a State, or the Citizens thereof, and foreign States, Citizens or Subjects.

In all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be Party, the supreme Court shall have original Jurisdiction. In all the other Cases before mentioned, the supreme Court shall have appellate Jurisdiction, both as to Law and Fact, with such Exceptions, and under such Regulations as the Congress shall make.

The Trial of all Crimes, except in Cases of Impeachment, shall be by Jury; and such Trial shall be held in the State where the said Crimes shall have been committed; but when not committed within any State, the Trial shall be at such Place or Places as the Congress may by Law have directed.

Section. 3.

Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them [material or physical] Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court.

The Congress shall have Power to declare the Punishment of Treason, but no Attainder of Treason shall work Corruption of Blood, or Forfeiture except during the Life of the Person attainted.

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Article. IV.

Section. 1.

Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each State to the public Acts, Records, and judicial Proceedings of every other State. And the Congress may by general Laws prescribe the Manner in which such Acts, Records and Proceedings shall be proved, and the Effect thereof.

Section. 2.

The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States.

A Person charged in any State with Treason, Felony, or other Crime, who shall flee from Justice, and be found in another State, shall on Demand of the executive Authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the State having Jurisdiction of the Crime.

No Person held to Service or Labour in one State, under the Laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in Consequence of any Law or Regulation therein, be discharged from such Service or Labour, but shall be delivered up on Claim of the Party to whom such Service or Labour may be due.

Section. 3.

New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union [by their request, and including areas within existing Jurisdictions; further, States may elect to combine.]; but no new State shall be formed or erected within the Jurisdiction of any other State; nor any State be formed by the Junction of two or more States, or Parts of States, without the Consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress.

The Congress shall have Power to dispose of and make all needful Rules and Regulations respecting the Territory or other Property belonging to the United States; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to Prejudice any Claims of the United States, or of any particular State.

Section. 4.

The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened), against domestic Violence.

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Article. V.

The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose Amendments to this Constitution, or, on the Application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments, which, in either Case, shall be valid to all Intents and Purposes, as Part of this Constitution, when ratified by the Legislatures of three fourths of the several States, or by Conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other Mode of Ratification may be proposed by the Congress; Provided that no Amendment which may be made prior to the Year One thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any Manner affect the first and fourth Clauses in the Ninth Section of the first Article; and that no State, without its Consent, shall be deprived of its equal Suffrage in the Senate.

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Article. VI.

All Debts contracted and Engagements entered into, before the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be as valid against the United States under this Constitution, as under the Confederation.

This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.

The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States [but shall be disclosed in and discussed in his or her public essay of understanding of the nature of reality].

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Article. VII.

The Ratification of the Conventions of nine States, shall be sufficient for the Establishment of this Constitution between the States so ratifying the Same.

The Word, "the," being interlined between the seventh and eighth Lines of the first Page, the Word "Thirty" being partly written on an Erazure in the fifteenth Line of the first Page, The Words "is tried" being interlined between the thirty second and thirty third Lines of the first Page and the Word "the" being interlined between the forty third and forty fourth Lines of the second Page.

Attest William Jackson Secretary

done in Convention by the Unanimous Consent of the States present the Seventeenth Day of September in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven and of the Independance of the United States of America the Twelfth In witness whereof We have hereunto subscribed our Names,

Encounters with Myth

Like an unmoored boat, I myth hop, mostly unconsciously.  I spin stories and seek experiences and learn things that will make my external world orderly.  My internal world is in disarray, so the external is/was the focus.  I’ve enjoyed participating, albeit briefly in numerous popular American myths.  I was a frat guy, a jock, construction worker, a house painter, a caddy, a bartender and a drunk.  An adventurer, a philanderer, a scholar and a leader.  A hard ass and a tender heart, a dutiful boyfriend and husband and a lech. I’ve lied and cheated and ascribed the value of gold to my word.

Perhaps more than most, I’ve had mythic career, first in venture capital, then investment banking, then in a startup, then business school.  Some dabbling with academia, non-profits and consumer goods.  And now firmly uprooted in some sort of second adolescence, bouncing between startups, passion projects and just plain jobs.  Adrift without any purpose other than finding it.

Towards a Possibilian Life Practice

Borrowing from the ITP work of Murphy/Leonard/Wilber and Eagleman’s Possibilianism, I offer a sampling of activities to govern one’s growth and development in an intellectually honest, mind-body-soul-spirit integrative, fashion.  Per Ken Wilber, “ITP therefore attempts to simultaneously exercise many of the major aspects of the gross, subtle, and causal dimensions. Put differently, ITP attempts to exercise the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual dimensions of the self, and to do so in relationships with others and with the larger world (including community and nature).”

So if we adopt this framework and apply a Possibilian lens (and the implied ethics of humility, wonder, creativity, knowledge, survival, sustainability and systems), we have the following set of life practices.  By nature, these ethics and practices are non-ideological and always being reconsidered, in that they are inferred from an ever expanding cosmology/orientation (Possibilianism).

Physical

Activities oriented towards living a long, healthy and active life, including organic balanced diet, sex, moderate cardiovascular work, strength & flexibility training preferably in nature (e.g. Yoga, hiking, climbing, swimming, etc.), team sports/games, and preventative/integrative medicine (e.g. acupuncture, massage, reiki, homeopathy).

Economic sustenance – daily activities to provide resources for the aforementioned activities, as well as surpluses to afford the emotional, mental and spiritual activities described below, within the confines of sustainability.  That is, one’s job must not diminish the ability of other people and the unborn to live a full, healthy and active life, e.g. Halliburton - bad, organic farming –good.  Thus it must occur with an eye on ecology and harmony. Given the fragility of the global economy, and its dependency on scarce inputs - oil, water, rare earths, etc., cultivate skills to provide for oneself (farming, fishing, hunting, etc.).

Emotional

Psychotherapy, non-violent communication/mirroring, gestalt therapy, family constellation work, ManKind Project, etc.

Social play activities, e.g. camping, picnics, cooking/dining/entertaining, games (like Gravitas), improv, Burning Man, festivals, roadtrips, as well as 1-on-1 intentional deepening activities with friends and family.

Mental

Create a pitch towards becoming a polymath or Renaissance person.  Read the classics (canon), science fiction, study systems and relationships (physics, social sciences, ecology, philosophy, political economy, chaos & complexity theory, comparative religion).   Seek out weird people and ideas.  Cultivate metaphorical intelligence, practice improv and generate hypotheses and syntheses to describe reality.

Spiritual

Personally directed, based upon natural attraction, and cultural, cognitive and emotional resonance.  Mine include meditation, psychospiritual tea ceremonies (e.g. Ayuhasca), romantic love, vision quests, gardening, reading religious texts and spiritual autobiography, spiritual tourism (e.g. Catholic Churches, Zen Gardens, Kumbh Mela, Temple Burn @ Burning Man, Jerusalem, Varanasi, etc.), star gazing, etc.

The Loyal Soldier and His Unenforcable Rules

Discovering the work of Bill Plotkin and Fred Luskin has led me to understand a bit more about what I am discovering and uncracking. Lots of cracking on this path. 

I have a Loyal Soldier (Plotkin), who protects me from not being seen, accepted and loved fully as a child.  While I'm sure there were many in my village who didn't see, accept and love me fully, it is my father who stands out most.  I felt shame as a child and not seen, accepted or loved fully by him.  I know he saw, accepted and loved me to his fullest extent, but it was not enough.  The net of this is that I developed a Loyal Soldier to protect me from not being seen, accepted or loved by him and any other human.  I reduced myself, shied from my true nature, expressed myself only in approved ways.  This Loyal Soldier made me safe, but at great expense to my unfolding and joy.

My Soldier employed a vast array of defenses.  I acted out to get attention.  I lied to inflate my position.  I wallowed in eddies of shame and accepted my father's values and instruction.  The Soldier merely wanted to create behaviors and structures to isolate me and prevent me from intimacy, which if enabled, would risk more pain of not being seen, accepted and loved.  As the Soldier got older and had at his disposal a greater armory of physical and intellectual weapons, he began to alter his appearance to become stronger.  He lifted weights and took mostly legal supplements.  He altered his persona to become more callous, more risk-seeking, more dominant, more funny/cutting.  He sought every opportunity to create difference between himself and others, especially women, his friends and family.  As the necortex developed and he wisened, the Soldier sought intellectual distancing mechanisms, most included a proclivity to emboss a way of life and cosmology in staunch opposition to his father's.

I read lots of books.  I still do - and aim to become the wisest in the land.  Frankly, the Loyal Soldier will do whatever it takes to be relevant, and as such he picks fights he cannot win, cementing his leadership in perpetuity. The war must go on.  To do so, he has unenforceable rules he seeks to maintain whenever impossible - here are a few:

He has a rule that all humans should have fathers who see, accept and love them.  Uneforceable.

He has a rule his penis should get hard whenever he wants it to.  Uneforceable.

He has a rule that the world should recognize his genius, command of disciplines and ability to inspire.  Uneforceable.

He has a rule that he should have supremacy in every area of life - financial wealth, worldly influence/impact, romance, family, health, wisdom, and that others should enjoy success to a slightly lesser extent than himself.  Uneforceable.

What is possible is for the Loyal Soldier to be thanked for his contributions thusfar, to see that the war is over (he is no longer a boy requiring his father to see, accept and love him), for him to see that his gifts are still useful but no longer required to enforce these rules, to know that there are other tasks in the present to which he is both suited and called up for active duty.

The Question of Libertarianism

Underneath the pro-science, pro-logic, pro-business, no-nonsense, brass tacks pragmatism, what is a Libertarian?  Having flirted with it and knowing quite a zealots, here’s my take.

His library contains mostly Stoic philosophy and how-to, which could be enough to end this note.  He cares not for holism, but rather anything purporting to extend human potential cognitively or materially, and that of a select few, further.  His outright contempt for the liberal arts, a shared fate/government/NGOs, and pragmatic masking of the complications of sexuality suggests that he is an anti-holist, a compartmentalist, of a fixed nature, in short everything that reality is not subjective/messy, collective, integrated, open, fluid.

Only such disintegration would enable this prolifically immature politics and cosmology – fixed upon the tiny realms of matter and reason.  It is as if the Libertarian credo is blind to cosmological implications of the subsequent philosophical and scientific developments of post-modernism, quantum entanglement, comparative religion and integral theory.  The Libertarian is trapped in his teens, the perpetual science geek trying to impress/become the homecoming king.

This is not to say that I cannot appreciate Libertarianism’s contributions.  I love science, the natural world and economics.  I think his thoughts on merits/detriments of graduate education and political correctness are spot on.  I agree with him on the need to rescale (though not descale) and rethink the public sector.  I admire his pushing of the possibilities of human excellence. 

However, I believe this pushing is only vertical.  He neglects his own nature, the complex ecology of humans and environment that nurtures his existence, and more importantly the meaning of, and conventions of, the mythology in which he is participating.  If he understood these, he would necessarily have to abandon his cosmology.  He thusfar has neglected the left side of Wilber’s AQAL model, and as such, he is a relic of the pro-science, pro-freedom 1950’s, just recast in today’s technologies (but with yesterday’s thinking).

To escape from his teens, he must develop a contemplative practice, a metaphorical intelligence practice (writing, study of myth, etc.), a emotional fluency practice (psychotherapy, journaling, NVC, mirroring, etc.) and avail himself of the last 60 years of comparative religion, philosophy and psychology (Wilber, Jung, Maslow, Eagleman, etc.), through which he become and adult and learn to ask better questions.

Towards a Possibilian Ethics and Political Economy

I believe David Eagleman's philosophy of Possibilianism, is the most honest post-Enlightenment attitude.  Simply, it states that mankind knows too little about existence (especially with respect to physics, origin of the universe, neuroscience, perception and DNA) to support a position of atheism, and far too much about existence to believe in an organized religion.  It is Voltairean ("Uncertainty is an uncomfortable position, but certainty is an absurd position.") and Heisenbergian in origin.  It is a philosophy of anything goes... at first, and then rests upon the light of reason and science to either eliminate an assertion from the set of possibilities describing one or many aspects of reality, or to reject it as not having any explanatory power.  To support this philosophy, we need an ethics and a political-economic structure to nurture it. 

A Possibilian Ethics would be comprised of the following values:

1. Humility - To account for the vastness of our ignorance, especialy with respect to fields of knowledge most pertinent to our ontology (physics, philosophy, neuroscience/perception and DNA).
2. Wonder - In light of this ontological ignorance, the body knowledge is divided into roughly 1 part things we know and 99 parts we do not know.  The issue of dark matter is explicative in that it comprises 99% of the universe, and we've only just discovered it exists.  Thus, to stay seated in this situation, we must both humbly accept our unfortunate self-awareness and continue to wonder and hypothesize about the nature of the remaining 99%.
3. Creativity - This wonder is not merely an attitude towards earnest exploration, but the assertion of our creative faculties to continue to hypothesize, to generate new theories, art, expressions, questions and syntheses.  In addition to engaging in the arts - storytelling, drama, creative arts, etc., we must hone our creative capacities through the cultivation of metaphorical intelligence - the capability to see and create agency/story amongst artifacts and other agencies.
4. Knowledge - We must thus orient towards understanding, towards refining, organizing and networking our existing knowledge base, as well as continue to question, examine and expand our methods of knowing beyond the cognitive, and into experimental and experiential (prayer, meditation, love, hallucinogens, relationships, service, adventure/travel).  The expression and transmition of this knowledge is unfortunately still quite static and analog (text, video, audio, etc.), so we must not only be oriented to knowledge we can create, but to consume and expand upon the knowledge created by previous generations, through schooling, reading and writing.  As most humans have only 7 decades (+/- 3) to develop and learn, it is nearly impossible for any one human to consume all the existent knowledge (and yet this is still only 1% of all knowledge), so we must document and network knowledge so that the aggregate of our accomplishment may do and express that which any single human cannot.
5. Survival -As such, the march of the 1% we know upon the 99% do not know is dependent on our survival as a human species.  Each generation benefits from the knowledge of the past, and relies on the whole of humanity to both survive, as well as to thrive and add to the experience and understanding of existence. 
6. Sustainability -To support the survival of the species, we must optimize the physical cycles of the economy and planet towards stasis, whereupon we neither irreparably take down nor injure the generative capacity of biosphere.  It is a focus on interspecies dependence, affinity and wonder.
7. Systems - Core to ethics 2-6 is a focus on systems, or means of relatedness and interdependence.  Our education should continue to tease out the relationships of the physical world and the meaning ascribed to them, such that ever more complex systems may be understood and made to function within the confines of sustainability/harmony.

What do you do with these values?

If Possibilianism calls to you, inscribe them in your heart.  When making decisions, choose the decision that most optimizes these values.

How do you live with these values?

Political Economy

We need a political economy that supports this type of thinking and this way of being.  A Possibilian political economy would be one that enabled man to live his values, while doing the bare minimum, within the confines of sustainability, to meet his physical needs.  Minimize the have-tos and maximize the want-tos (Possibilian values). 

Clean Water, Air and Soil

To survive, mankind depends on harmony with the biosphere, such that he can meet his physical needs (food, water, waste treatment, shelter), without decreasing the ability of his brothers and sisters to do so.  As such a Possibilian Political Economy, would make criminal the pollution of waterways, bodies of water, water tables, the air and soil, as well as the unsustainable draw down of water, top soil and air elements (e.g. nitrogren fixing, carbon dioxide).

Food

Fukuoka and others have begun to pioneer biodynamic farming, whereby through the subtle management of natural forces, agriculture can thrive with minimal human effort (Fukuoka's system required on average 1 day/week of maintenance).

Economic Surpluses

To continue to educate, explore (especially space) and create, man must do more than feed himself, but create economic surpluses that can be centralized for the use of doing amazing things, such as space travel, higher education, research, the arts, etc.  Herein lies the most complex peice of a Possibilian Political-Economy - creating the incentives and structures such that humans are free to make use of their surpluses in the manner they choose, while supporting basic civic functions (P&W, police, fire, military, healthcare, etc.) and have a generative or neutral socio-environmental impact.

Education

To enable a populace capable of expressing Possibilian values, our youth must be allowed to play, create and self-express, while being nurtured on a student-directed, systems-centric educational curriculum, ala Steiner, Montessori, Waldorf.  They must be exposed the multitudinous ways of knowing (cognitive, experiential, etc.), develop a personal relationship to their own consciousness (meditation, art, psychology) and learn to decipher meaning through the cultivation of metaphorical intelligence.

Civil Rights

To allow every human to achieve their potential, we must transcend the quite human tendency to oppress and discriminate.  It shall be codified and made illegal to discriminate on the basis of race, creed, sexuality and gender.

By nature, this discussion is perpetually immature and open, please let me know your thoughts.  For example, I know the specifics of managing economic surpluses require much more attention, especially with respect to the competing values of humility, autonomy, sustainability and justice.

Let me not waste...

this moment to be thankful for my 35 years. Though many parts of my body aren't as they once were, many are as they have never been.  I am lean and flexible, tall and broad, wisening and kind.  74 inches, 225 pounds, above average IQ (120-130 I suspect).  My heart strengthens, but I must exercise it indirectly.  Sometimes it is philosophy or scripture, but oftener babies, trees, sunrises, sunsets, cats, dogs and women.  My mind is less a filing cabinet and more a diplomat.  My groin is less a farm implement and more an ambassador.  This world, in which my body-mind inhabits, is less chaos and more codex.  My family is a tragedy, comedy and musical.  My destiny eludes my grasp, but strengthens my foundation.

How to Live Life in a Moment

Soften eyes

As the body dissolves to foreign

Wisdom abounds domestic

Among the multinodal geisha

That is perception

Father, mother no more sincere

Than the ringing in my ears

Themselves cradled by death

Compelled during the ten year disease

Of immortal ideas, of progeny