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istory is supposed to be an accurate, 

perhap

I see. You feel y

I see. You feel you have to lie to get people to like you?

Not lie, exactly. Just not tell them everything.

Remember what I said before. This is not about blurting out every little feeling, thought, idea, fear, memory, confession, or whatever. This is simply about always speaking the truth, showing yourself completely.

With your dearest loved one you can be physically naked, can you not?

Yes.

Then why not be emotionally

ndent), reminded us that we were only eight degrees distant from the equator.

denticulated and often columnar peaks traces of the most violent destruction. Northward the granitic chain of the Silla de Caracas and Porto Cabello are separated from the Llanos by a screen of mountains that are schistose between Villa de Cura and Parapara, and calcareous between the Bergantin and Caripe. I was no less struck by this absence of blocks on the banks of the Amazon. La Condamine affirms that from the Pongo de Manseriche to the Strait of Pauxis not the smallest stone is to be found. Now the basin of the Rio Negro and of the Amazon is also a Llano, a plain like those of Venezuela and Buenos Ayres. The difference consists only in the state of vegetation. The two Llanos situated at the northern and southern extremities of South America are covered with gramina; they are treeless savannahs; but the intermediate Llano, that of the Amazon, exposed to almost continual equatorial rains, is a thick forest. I do not remember having heard that the Pampas of Buenos Ayres or the savannahs of the Missouri* and New Mexico contain granitic blocks. The absence of this phenomenon appears general in the New World as it probably also is in Sahara, in Africa; for we must not confound the rocky masses that pierce the soil in the midst of the desert, and of which travellers often make mention, with mere scattered fragme

 of their own natural pars. Amongst those the vulva called from its form el morteba, the square one, and el mortafa, the projecting, is remarkable. This vulva has the peculiarity of projecting all round when the woman is standing up and closes her thighs. It burns for the coitus, its slit is narrow, and it is also called el keulihimi, the pressed one. The woman who has such a one likes only large members, and they must not let her wait long for the crisis. But this is a general characteristic of women. “As to the desire of men for coition, I must say that they are also addicted to it more or less according to their different temperaments, five in number,171 like the women’s, with the difference that the hankering of the woman after the member is stronger than that of a man after a vulva.”

“What are the faults of women?” Moarbeda replied to this question, “The worst of women is she who immediately cries out loud as soon as her husband wants to touch the smallest amount of her property for his necessities. In the same line stands she who divulges matters which her husband wants to be kept secret.”—“Are there any more?” she is asked. She adds, “The woman of a jealous disposition and the woman who raises her voice so as to drown that of her husband; she who disseminates scandal; the woman that scowls, the one who is always burning to let men see her beauty, and cannot stay at home; and with respect to this last let me add that a woman who laughs much, and is constantly seen at the street door, may be taken to be an arrant prostitute.

“Bad also are those women who mind other people’s affairs; those who are always complaining; those who steal things belonging to their husbands; those of a disagreeable and imperious temper; those who are not grateful for kindness received; those that will not share the conjugal couch, or who incommode their husbands, by the uncomfortable positions they take in it; those who are inclined to deceit, treachery, calumny and ruse.

“Then there are still women who are unlucky in whatever they undertake; those who are always inclined to blame and censure; those who invite their husbands to fulfil their conjugal duty only when it is convenient for them; those that make noises in bed; and lastly those who are shameless, without intelligence, tattlers and curious. “Here you have the worst specimens amongst women.”

Chapter xiv

Description of the Uterus of Sterile Women and Treatment of the same

Know, O Vizir (God be good to you!), that wise physicians have plunged into this sea of difficulties to very little purpose. Each one has looked at the matter with his own point of view, and in the end the question has been left in the dark.

Amongst the causes which determine the sterility of women may be taken the obstruction in the uterus by clots of blood, the accumulation of water,180 the want of or defective sperm of the man, organic malformation of in women that are very corpulent, so that their uterus stagnation of the courses and the corruption of the menstrual fluid, and the habitual presence of wind in the uterus. Other savants attribute the sterility of women to the action of spirits and spells. Sterility is common in women that are very corpulent, so that their uteurs gets compressed and cannot conceive, not being able to take up the sperm, especially if the husband’s member is short and his testicles are very fat; in such a case the act of copulation can only be imperfectly completed.

One of the remedies against sterility consists of the marrow from the hump of a camel, which the woman spreads on a piece of linen, and rubs her sexual parts with it, after having been purified subsequently to her courses. To complete the cure, she takes some fruits of the plant called jackal’s grapes,181 squeezes the juice out of them into a vase, and then adds a little vinegar; of this medicine she drinks fasting for seven days, during which time her husband will take care to have copulation with her.

The woman may besides pound a small quantity of sesame-grain and mix its juice with a bean’s weight of sandarach182 powder; of this mixture she drinks during three days after her periods; she is then fit to receive her husband’s embraces.

The first of these beverages is to be taken separately, and in the first instance; after this the second, which will have a salutary effect, if so it pleases the Almighty God!

There is still another remedy. A mixture is made of nitre, gall from a sheep or a cow, a small quantity of the plant named el meusk,183 and of the grains of that plant. The woman saturates a plug of soft wool with this mixture, and rubs her vulva with it after menstruation; she then receives the caresses of her husband, and, with the will of God the Highest, will become pregnant.

Chapter xv Concerning Medicines which Provoke Abortion

of the Amazon contains no doubt fragments of the same primitive rocks which constitute the neighbouring mountains; but the convulsions of which these mountains exhibit evident marks, do not appear to have been attended with circumstances favourable to the removal of great blocks. This geognostic phenomenon was to me the more unexpected since there exists nowhere in the world so smooth a plain entirely granitic. Before my departure from Europe I had observed with surprise that there were no primitive blocks in Lombardy and in the great plain of Bavaria which appears to be the bottom of an ancient lake, and which is situated two hundred and fifty toises above the level of the ocean. It is bounded on the north by the granites of the Upper Palatinate; and on the south by Alpine limestone, transition-thonschiefer, and the mica-slates of the Tyrol.

[* Leopold von Buch, Voyage en Norwege volume 1 page 30.]

[* Are there any isolated blocks in North America no

ommend it, however, for the rewards are great.

Well, You’ve certainly brought up some interesting ideas. Abolish hidde

“Jasper is no Mingo, Sergeant.”

“He speaks French, and he might as well be, in that particular. Brother Cap, can you recollect no movement of this unfortunate young man, in the way of his calling, that would seem to denote treachery?”

“Not distinctly, Sergeant, though he has gone to work wrong-end foremost half his time. It is true that one of his hands coiled a rope against the sun, and he called it querling a rope, too, when I asked him what he was about; but I am not certain that anything was meant by it; though, I daresay, the French coil half their running rigging the wrong way, and may call it ‘querling it down,’ too, for that matter. Then Jasper himself belayed the end of the jib-halyards to a stretcher in the rigging, instead of bringing it to the mast, where they belong, at least among British sailors.”

“I daresay Jasper may have got some Canada notions about working his craft, from being so much on the other side,” Pathfinder interposed; “but catching an idee, or a word, isn’t treachery and bad

 over all. There was a circumstance, just after we came on board this evening, that is extremely suspicious, and which may be set down at once as a makeweight against this lad. Jasper bent on the king’s ensign with his own hands; and, while he pretended to be looking at Mabel and the soldier’s wife, giving directions about showing them below here, and a that, he got the flag union down!”

“That might have been accident,” returned the Sergeant, “for such a thing has happened to myself; besides, the halyards lead to a pulley, and the flag would have come right, or not, according to the manner in which the lad hoisted it.”

“A pulley!” exclaimed Cap, with strong disgust; “I wish, Sergeant Dunham, I could prevail on you to use proper terms. An ensign-halyard-block is no more a pulley than your halberd is a boarding-pike. It is true that by hoisting on one part, another part would go uppermost; but I look upon that affair of the ensign, now you have mentioned your suspicions, as a circumstance, and shall bear it in mind. I trust supper is not to be overlooked, however, even if we have a hold full of traitors.”

“It will be duly attended to, brother Cap; but I shall count on you for aid in managing the Scud, should anything occur to induce me to arrest Jasper.”

“I’ll not fail you, Sergeant; and in such an event you’ll probably learn what this cutter can really perform; for, as yet, I fancy it is pretty much matter of guesswork.”

ermined not to let me have the thing, I would not have dreamed of asking for it. It was for your own good as well as mine that I did so. Now, since you desire to turn me out, I will not force my presence upon you. But let us part friends.”

As he said this he advanced toward me with extended hand, leaning heavily upon his stick, according to his custom, and to all intents and purposes as pathetic an example of senile decrepitude as a man could wish to see. If he were going off like this, I flattered myself I was escaping from my horrible predicament in an easier manner than I had expected. Nevertheless, I was fully determined, if I could but once get him on the other side of the street door, no earthly consideration should induce me ever to admit him to my dwelling again. His hand was deathly cold — so cold, in fact, that even in my excitement I could not help noticing it. I had scarcely done so, however, before a tremor ran through his figure and, with a guttural noise that could scarcely be described as a cry, he dropped my hand and sprang forward at my throat.

If I live to be a hundred I shall not forget the absolute, the unspeakable, the indescribable terror of that moment. Till then I had never regarded myself in the light of a coward; on the contrary, I had on several occasions had good reason to congratulate myself upon what is popularly termed my “nerve.” Now, however, it was all different. Possibly the feeling of repulsion, I might almost say of fear, I had hitherto e

Remember when you talk about equality that we’re meaning equal opportunity, not equality in fact.

Actual “equality” will never be achieved, and be grateful that is so.

Why?

Because equality is sameness—and the last thing the world needs is sameness.

No—I am not arguing here for a world of automa-tons, each receiving identical allotments from a Big Brother Central Government.

I am speaking of a world in which two things are guaranteed:

1. The meeting of basic needs.

2. The opportunity to go higher.

With all your world’s resources, with all your abun-dance, you have not yet managed those two simple things. Instead, you have trapped millions on the lowest end of the socioeconomic scale and de

dignity is one of the basic rights of life. I have given you enough resources to be able to guarantee that to everyone. All you have to do is share.

But then what would stop people from simply wasting their lives, lollygagging around, collecting “benefits”?

First of all, it is not yours to judge what is a life wasted. Is a life wasted if a person does nothing but lie around thinking of poetry for 70 years, then comes up with a single sonnet which opens a door of under-standing and insight

Seeing that I was determined he should go, and realising, I suppose, that it was no use his staying longer, he also rose, and a more evil-looking figure than he presented as he did so Victor Hugo himself could scarcely have imagined. The light of the quaint old Venetian hanging-lamp in the middle of the room f

“Jasper is no Mingo, Sergeant.”

“He speaks French, and he might as well be, in that particular. Brother Cap, can you recollect no movement of this unfortunate young man, in the way of his calling, that would seem to denote treachery?”

“Not distinctly, Sergeant, though he has gone to work wrong-end foremost half his time. It is true that one of his hands coiled a rope against the sun, and he called it querling a rope, too, when I asked him what he was about; but I am not certain that anything was meant by it; though, I daresay, the French coil half their running rigging the wrong way, and may call it ‘querling it down,’ too, for that matter. Then Jasper himself belayed the end of the jib-halyards to a stretcher in the rigging, instead of bringing it to the mast, where they belong, at least among British sailors.”

“I daresay Jasper may have got some Canada notions about working his craft, from being so much on the other side,” Pathfinder interposed; “but catching an idee, or a word, isn’t treachery and bad faith. I sometimes get an idee from the Mingos themselves; but my heart has always been with the Delawares. No, no, Jasper is true; and the king might trust him with his crown, just as he would trust his eldest son, who, as he is to wear it one day, ought to be the last man to wish to steal it.”

“Fine talking, fine talking!” said Cap; “all fine talking, Master Pathfinder, but d —— d little logic. In the first place, the king’s majesty cannot lend his crown, it being contrary to the laws of the realm, which require him to wear it at all times, in order that his sacred person may be known, just as the silver oar is necessary to a sheriff’s officer afloat. In the next place, it’s high treason, by law, for the eldest son of his majesty ever to covet the crown, or to have a child, except in lawful wedlock, as either would derange the succession. Thus you see, friend Pathfinder that in order to reason truly, one must get under way, as it

t. In the next place, it’s high treason, by law, for the eldest son of his majesty ever to covet the crown, or to have a child, except in lawful wedlock, as either would derange the succession. Thus you see, friend Pathfinder that in order to reason truly, one must get under way, as it might be, on the right tack. Law is reason, and reason is philosophy, and philosophy is a steady drag; whence it follows that crowns are regulated by law, reason, and philosophy.”

“I know little of all this; Master Cap; but nothing short of seeing and feeling will make me think Jasper Western a traitor.”

“There you are wrong again, Pathfinder; for there is a way of proving a thing much more conclusively than either seeing or feeling, or by both together; and that is by a circumstance.”

“It may be so in the settlements; but it is not so here on the lines.”

“It is so in nature, which is monarch over all. There was a circumstance, just after we came on board this evening, that is extremely suspicious, and which may be set down at once as a makeweight against this lad. Jasper bent on the king’s ensign with his own hands; and, while he pretended to be looking at Mabel and the soldier’s wife, giving directions about showing them below here, and a that, he got the flag union down!”

“That might have been accident,” returned the Sergeant, “for such a thing has happened to myself; besides, the halyards lead to a pulley, and the flag would have come right, or not, according to the manner in which the lad hoisted it.”

“A pulley!” exclaimed Cap, with strong disgust; “I wish, Sergeant Dunham, I could prevail on you to use proper terms. An ensign-halyard-block is no more a pulley than your halberd is a boarding-pike. It is true that by hoisting on one part, another part would go uppermost; but I look upon that affair of the ensign, now you have mentioned your suspicions, as a circumstance, and shall bear it in mind. I trust supper is not to be overlooked, however, even if we have a hold full of traitors.”

“It will be duly attended to, brother Cap; but I shall count on you for aid in managing the Scud, should anything occur to induce me to arrest Jasper.”

“I’ll not fail you, Sergeant; and in such an event you’ll probably learn what this cutter can really perform; for, as yet, I fancy it is pretty much matter of guesswork.”

I wasn’t speaking of your planet.

Oh.

Or even your solar system.

OH.

Seeing that I was determined he should go, and realising, I suppose, that it was no use his staying longer, he also rose, and a more evil-looking figure than he presented as he did so Victor Hugo himself could scarcely have imagined. The light of the quaint old Venetian hanging-lamp in the middle of the room fell full and fair upon his face, showing me the deep-set gleaming eyes, the wrinkled, nut-cracker face, and the extraordinary development of shoulder to which I have already directed attention. Old man as he was, a braver man than myself might have been excused had he declined the task of tackling him, and I had the additional spur of knowing that if he got the better of me he would show no mercy. For this reason alone I watched his every movement.

“Come, come, my foolish young friend,” he said at length, “in spite of my warning, here we are at a deadlock again! You really must not take things so seriously. Had I had any idea that you were so determined not to let me have the thing, I would not have dreamed of asking for it. It was for your own good as well as mine that I did so. Now, since you desire to turn me out, I will not force my presence upon you. But let us part friends.”

As he said this he advanced toward me with extended hand, leaning heavily upon his stick, according to his custom, and to all intents and purposes as pathetic an example of senile decrepitude as a man could wish to see. If he were going off like this, I flattered myself I was escaping from my horrible predicament in an easier manner than I had expected. Nevertheless, I was fully determined, if I could but once get him on the other side of the street door, no earthly consideration should induce me ever to admit him to my dwelling again. His hand was deathly cold — so cold, in fact, that even in my excitement I could not help noticing it. I had scarcely done so, however, before a tremor ran through his figure and, with a guttural noise that could scarcely be described as a cry, he dropped my hand and sprang forward at my throat.

If I live to be a hundred I shall not forget the absolute, the unspeakable, the indescribable terror of that moment. Till then I had never regarded myself in the light of a coward; on the contrary, I had on several occasions had good reason to congratulate myself upon what is popularly termed my “nerve.” Now, however, it was all different. Possibly the feeling of repulsion, I might almost say of fear, I had hitherto e

first step on the ladder, where these two fundamental guarantees are ac-corded everyone . . .

Is through two shifts, two changes—one in your political paradigm, one in your spiritual.

The movement to a unified world government would include a greatly empowered world court to resolve international disputes and a peacekeeping force to give power to the laws by which you choose to govern yourselves.

The world government would include a Congress of Nations—two representatives from every nation on Earth—and a People’s Assembly—with representation in direct proportion to a nation’s population.

Exactly the way the U.S. Government is set up—with two houses, one providing proportional representation and one providing equal voice to all of the states.

Yes. Your U.S. Constitution was God inspired.

The same balance of powers should be built in to the new world constitution.

There would be, likewise, an executive branch, legislative branch, and a judicial branch.

Each nation would keep its internal peacekeeping police, but all national armies would be dis-banded—exactly as each of your individual states dis-banded their armies and navies in favor of a federal peacekeeping force serving the entire group of states you now call a nation.

Nations would reserve the right to form and call up their own militia on a moment’s notice, just as your states each have the constitutional right to keep and activate a state militia.

And—just as your states do now—each of the 160 Nation States in the union of nations would have the right to secede from the union based upon a vote of the people (though why it would want to do so is beyond Me, given that its people would be more secure and more abundant than ever before).

And—once more for those of us who are slow—such a unified world federation would produce—?

1. An end to wars between nations and the settling of disputes by killing.

2. An end to abject poverty, death by starvation, and mass exploitation of people and resources by those of power.

3. An end to the systematic environmental destruc-tion of the Earth.

4. An escape from the endless struggle for bigger, better, more.

5. An opportunity—truly equal—for all people to rise to the highest expression of Self.

6. An end to all limitations and discriminations hold-ing people back—whether in housing, in the work-place, or in the political system, or in personal sexual relationships.

Would your new world order require a redistribution of wealth?

It would require nothing. It would produce, volun-tarily and quite automatically, a redistribution of re-sources.

All people would be offered a proper education, for instance. All people would be offered open opportunity to use that education in the workplace— to follow careers which bring them joy.

All people would be guaranteed access to health care whenever and however needed.

All people would be guaranteed they won’t starve to death or have to live without sufficient clothing or adequate shelter.

All people would be granted the basic dignities of life so that survival would never again be the issue, so that simple comforts and basic dignities were provided all human beings.

Even if they did nothing to earn it?

no longer be a living hell for so many because a greater sense of equity, fair play, and appropriate compensation would automatically come to the workplace.

Tell your customers exactly what a product or serv-ice costs you to provide. Put those two numbers on your price tag: your cost and your price. Can you still be proud of what you are asking? Do you encounter any fear that someone will think you are “ripping them off” should they know your cost/price ratio? If so, look to see what kind of adjustment you want to make in your pricing to bring it back down into the realm of basic fairness, rather than “get what you can while the gettin’s good.”

I dare you to do this. I dare you.

It will require a complete change in your thinking. You will have to be just as concerned with your custom-ers or clients as you are with yourself.

Yes, you can begin to build this New Society right now, right here, today. The choice is yours. You can continue to support the old system, the present para-digm, or you can blaze the trail and show your world a new way.

You can be that new way. In everything. Not just in business, not just in your personal relationships, not just in politics or economics or religion or this aspect or that of the overall life experience, but in everything.

Be the new way. Be the higher way. Be the grandest way. Then you can truly say, I am the way and the life. Follow me.

If the whole world followed you, would you be pleased with where you took it?

Let that be your question for the day.

Part 2 Chapter 17

I hear Your challenge. I hear it. Please tell me more now about life on this planet on a grander scale. Tell me how nation can get along with nation so there will be “war no more.

There will always be disagreements between na-tions, for disagreement is merely a sign—and a healthy one—of individuality. Violent resolution of disagree-ments, however, is a sign of extraordinary immaturity.

There is no reason in the world why violent resolu-tion cannot be avoided, given the willingness of nations to avoid it.

One would think that the massive toil in death and destroyed lives would be enough to produce such willingness, but among primitive cultures such as yours, that is not so.

As long as you think you can win an argument, you will have it. As long as you think you can win a war, you will fight it.

What is the answer to all of this?

I do not have an answer, I only have— I know, I know! An observation.

Yes. I observe now what I observed before. A short-term answer could be to establish what some have called a one-world government, with a world court to settle disputes (one whose verdicts may not be ignored, as happens with the present World Court) and a world peacekeeping force to guarantee that no one nation—no matter how powerful or how influential—can ever again aggress upon another.

Yet understand that there may still be violence upon the Earth. The peacekeeping force may have to use violence to get someone to stop doing so. As I noted in Book 1, failure to stop a despot empowers a despot. Sometimes the only way to avoid a war is to have a war. Sometimes you have to do what you don’t want to do in order to ensure that you won’t have to keep on doing it! This apparent contradic-tion is part of the Divine Dichotomy, which says that sometimes the only way to ultimately Be a thing—in this case, “peaceful”—may be, at first, to not be it!

In other words, often the only way to know yourself as That Which You Are is to experience yourself as That Which You Are Not.

It is an observable truth that power in your world can no longer rest disproportionately with any individ-ual nation, but must rest in the hands of the total group of nations existing on this planet. Only in this way can the world finally be at peace, resting in the secure knowledge that no despot—no matter how big or pow-erful his individual nation—can or will ever again in-fringe upon the territories of another nation, nor threaten her freedoms.

No longer need the smallest nations depend upon the goodwill of the largest nations, often having to bargain away their own resources and offer their prime lands for foreign military bases in order to earn it. Under this new system, the security of the smallest nations will be guaranteed not by whose back they scratch, but by who is backing them.

All 160 nations would rise up should one nation be invaded. All 160 nations would say No! should one nation be violated or threatened in any way.

Similarly, nations would no longer be threatened economically, blackmailed into certain courses of ac-tion by their bigger trading partners, required to meet certain “guidelines” in order to receive foreign aid, or mandated to perform in certain ways in order to qualify for simple humanitarian assistance.

Yet there are those among you who would argue that such a system of global governance would erode the independence and the greatness of individual na-tions. The truth is, it would increase it—and that is precisely what the largest nations, whose inde-pendence is assured by power, not by law or justice, are afraid of. For then no longer would only the largest nation always get its way automatically, but the consid-erations of all nations would have to be heard equally. And no longer would the largest nations be able to control and hoard the mass of the world’s resources, but would be required to share them more equally, render them accessible more readily, provide their benefits more uniformly to all the world’s people.

A worldwide government would level the playing field—and this idea, while driving to the core of the debate regarding basic human dignity, is anathema to the world’s “haves,” who want the “have-nots” to go seek their own fortunes—ignoring, of course, the fact that the “haves” control all that others would seek.

Yet it feels as though we are talking about redistribution of wealth here. How can we maintain the incentive of those who do want more, and are willing to work for it, if they know they must share with those who do not care to work that hard?

First, it is not merely a question of those who want to “work hard” and those who don’t. That is a simplistic way to cast the argument (usually constructed in that way by the “haves”). It is more often a question of opportunity than willingness. So the real job, and the first job in restructuring the social order, is to make sure each person and each nation has equal opportunity.

That can never happen so long as those who cur-rently possess and control the mass of the world’s wealth and resources hold tightly to that control.

Yes. I mentioned Mexico, and without wanting to get into “nation bashing,” I think this country provides an excellent example of that. A handful of rich and powerful families control the wealth and resources of that entire nation—and have for 40 years. “Elections” in this so-called Western Democ-racy are a farce because the same families have controlled the same political party for decades, assuring virtually no serious opposition. Result? “The rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

If wages should Jump from $1.75 to a whopping $3.15 an hour, the rich point to how much they’ve done for the poor in providing jobs and opportunity for economic advancement. Yet the only ones making quantum advances are the rich—the industrialists and business owners who sell their commodities on the national and world market at huge profits, given the low cost of their labor.

America’s rich know this is true—which is why many of America’s rich and powerful are rebuilding their plants and factories in Mexico and other foreign countries where slave-la-bor wages are considered a grand opportunity for the peasants. Meanwhile, these workers toil in unhealthy and wholly unsafe conditions, but the local government—controlled by the same few reaping the profits from these ventures—imposes few regulations. Health and safety standards and environmental protections are virtually nonexistent in the workplace.

The people are not being cared for, nor is the Earth, on which they are being asked to live in their paper shacks next to streams in which they do their laundry and into which they sometimes defecate—for indoor plumbing is also often not one of their dignities.

What is created by such crass disregard for the masses is a population which cannot afford the very products it is manu-facturing. But the rich factory owners don’t care. They can ship their goods to other nations where there are people who can.

ou have to lie to get people to like you?

Not lie, exactly. Just not tell them everything.

Remember what I said before. This is not about blurting out every little feeling, thought, idea, fear, memory, confession, or whatever. This is simply about always speaking the truth, showing yourself completely.

With your dearest loved one you can be physically naked, can you not?

Yes.

Then why not be emotionally naked as well?

The second is much harder than the first.

I understand that. That does not fail to recommend it, however, for the rewards are great.

Well, You’ve certainly brought up some interesting ideas. Abolish hidden agendas, build a society on visibility, tell the truth all the time to everyone about everything. Whew!

On these few concepts entire societies have been constructed. Enlightened societies.

I haven’t found any.

I wasn’t speaking of your planet.

Oh.

Or even your solar system.

OH.

But you don’t have to leave the planet or even leave your house to begin experiencing what such a New Thought system would be like. Start in your own family, in your own home. If you own a business, start in your own company. Tell everyone in your firm exactly what you make, what the company is making and spending, and what each and every employee makes. You will shock the hell out of them. I mean that quite literally. You will shock the hell right out of them. If everyone who owned a company did this, work would no longer be a living hell for so many because a greater sense of equity, fair play, and appropriate compensation would automatically come to the workplace.

Tell your customers exactly what a product or serv-ice costs you to provide. Put those two numbers on your price tag: your cost and your price. Can you still be proud of what you are asking? Do you encounter any fear that someone will think you are “ripping them off” should they know your cost/price ratio? If so, look to see what kind of adjustment you want to make in your pricing to bring it back down into the realm of basic fairness, rather than “get what you can while the gettin’s good.”

I dare you to do this. I dare you.

It will require a complete change in your thinking. You will have to be just as concerned with your custom-ers or clients as you are with yourself.

Yes, you can begin to build this New Society right now, right here, today. The choice is yours. You can continue to support the old system, the present para-digm, or you can blaze the trail and show your world a new way.

You can be that new way. In everything. Not just in business, not just in your personal relationships, not just in politics or economics or religion or this aspect or that of the overall life experience, but in everything.

Be the new way. Be the higher way. Be the grandest way. Then you can truly say, I am the way and the life. Follow me.

If the whole world followed you, would you be pleased with where you took it?

Let that be your question for the day.

Part 2 Chapter 17

I hear Your challenge. I hear it. Please tell me more now about life on this planet on a grander scale. Tell me how nation can get along with nation so there will be “war no more.

There will always be disagreements between na-tions, for disagreement is merely a sign—and a healthy one—of individuality. Violent resolution of disagree-ments, however, is a sign of extraordinary immaturity.

There is no reason in the world why violent resolu-tion cannot be avoided, given the willingness of nations to avoid it.

One would think that the massive toil in death and destroyed lives would be enough to produce such willingness, but among primitive cultures such as yours, that is not so.

As long as you think you can win an argument, you will have it. As long as you think you can win a war, you will fight it.

What is the answer to all of this?

I do not have an answer, I only have— I know, I know! An observation.

Yes. I observe now what I observed before. A short-term answer could be to establish what some have called a one-world government, with a world court to settle disputes (one whose verdicts may not be ignored, as happens with the present World Court) and a world peacekeeping force to guarantee that no one nation—no matter how powerful or how influential—can ever again aggress upon another.

Yet understand that there may still be violence upon the Earth. The peacekeeping force may have to use violence to get someone to stop doing so. As I noted in Book 1, failure to stop a despot empowers a despot. Sometimes the only way to avoid a war is to have a war. Sometimes you have to do what you don’t want to do in order to ensure that you won’t have to keep on doing it! This apparent contradic-tion is part of the Divine Dichotomy, which says that sometimes the only way to ultimately Be a thing—in this case, “peaceful”—may be, at first, to not be it!

In other words, often the only way to know yourself as That Which You Are is to experience yourself as That Which You Are Not.

It is an observable truth that power in your world can no longer rest disproportionately with any individ-ual nation, but must rest in the hands of the total group of nations existing on this planet. Only in this way can the world finally be at peace, resting in the secure knowledge that no despot—no matter how big or pow-erful his individual nation—can or will ever again in-fringe upon the territories of another nation, nor threaten her freedoms.

No longer need the smallest nations depend upon the goodwill of the largest nations, often having to bargain away their own resources and offer their prime lands for foreign military bases in order to earn it. Under this new system, the security of the smallest nations will be guaranteed not by whose back they scratch, but by who is backing them.

All 160 nations would rise up should one nation be invaded. All 160 nations would say No! should one nation be violated or threatened in any way.

Similarly, nations would no longer be threatened economically, blackmailed into certain courses of ac-tion by their bigger trading partners, required to meet certain “guidelines” in order to receive foreign aid, or mandated to perform in certain ways in order to qualify for simple humanitarian assistance.

Yet there are those among you who would argue that such a system of global governance would erode the independence and the greatness of individual na-tions. The truth is, it would increase it—and that is precisely what the largest nations, whose inde-pendence is assured by power, not by law or justice, are afraid of. For then no longer would only the largest nation always get its way automatically, but the consid-erations of all nations would have to be heard equally. And no longer would the largest nations be able to control and hoard the mass of the world’s resources, but would be required to share them more equally, render them accessible more readily, provide their benefits more uniformly to all the world’s people.

A worldwide government would level the playing field—and this idea, while driving to the core of the debate regarding basic human dignity, is anathema to the world’s “haves,” who want the “have-nots” to go seek their own fortunes—ignoring, of course, the fact that the “haves” control all that others would seek.

Yet it feels as though we are talking about redistribution of wealth here. How can we maintain the incentive of those who do want more, and are willing to work for it, if they know they must share with those who do not care to work that hard?

First, it is not merely a question of those who want to “work hard” and those who don’t. That is a simplistic way to cast the argument (usually constructed in that way by the “haves”). It is more often a question of opportunity than willingness. So the real job, and the first job in restructuring the social order, is to make sure each person and each nation has equal opportunity.

That can never happen so long as those who cur-rently possess and control the mass of the world’s wealth and resources hold tightly to that control.

Yes. I mentioned Mexico, and without wanting to get into “nation bashing,” I think this country provides an excellent example of that. A handful of rich and powerful families control the wealth and resources of that entire nation—and have for 40 years. “Elections” in this so-called Western Democ-racy are a farce because the same families have controlled the same political party for decades, assuring virtually no serious opposition. Result? “The rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

If wages should Jump from $1.75 to a whopping $3.15 an hour, the rich point to how much they’ve done for the poor in providing jobs and opportunity for economic advancement. Yet the only ones making quantum advances are the rich—the industrialists and business owners who sell their commodities on the national and world market at huge profits, given the low cost of their labor.

America’s rich know this is true—which is why many of America’s rich and powerful are rebuilding their plants and factories in Mexico and other foreign countries where slave-la-bor wages are considered a grand opportunity for the peasants. Meanwhile, these workers toil in unhealthy and wholly unsafe conditions, but the local government—controlled by the same few reaping the profits from these ventures—imposes few regulations. Health and safety standards and environmental protections are virtually nonexistent in the workplace.

The people are not being cared for, nor is the Earth, on which they are being asked to live in their paper shacks next to streams in which they do their laundry and into which they sometimes defecate—for indoor plumbing is also often not one of their dignities.

What is created by such crass disregard for the masses is a population which cannot afford the very products it is manu-facturing. But the rich factory owners don’t care. They can ship their goods to other nations where there are people who can.

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