New Rules!

America could really use a few new myths, indeed, a whole new Story. Paeans to the rugged individualist recklessly braving the cutthroat competitions of life must give way to tales of groups, organizations, and governing bodies selflessly cooperating for the greater good. Celebrations of national independence should evolve into global celebrations of interdependence. The prevailing notion of personal profit as a fair and effective motivator in human endeavors needs the tempering influences of empathy, compassion, service, community, and a bottom-line concern for the most disadvantaged in society.

Money can no longer serve as the prime measure of a person's value or of the worthiness or lack thereof of social policies; instead, we need to view individuals and their governments through a universal prism of transcendent, ethical, and spiritual values. Nor can the use of force — power to the strongest, richest, and most capable of violence — continue as the primary way of making decisions and resolving conflicts. America needs to manifest nothing less than a genuine working democracy, where the most dominant force resides in the voice of the common people.

From P!