Conversations with leaders who bring people from all sides together in purposeful dialogue so we can develop a shared vision of the world we want to live in.
Steve Bhaerman and Michael Maxsenti conduct interviews that will work to deepen and expand our understandings.
These conversations will get us off the political battlefields and onto cooperative playing fields. There we can create the new story that our hearts know is possible.
“The best way to overgrow the ‘deep state’ is by cultivating a deeper state.”
-- Swami Beyondananda
Here is the oxymoronic political contradiction of our times. We seem more polarized than ever, and yet the vast majority of us long to work together for mutual benefit. Perhaps the resolution of this seemingly impossible “shituation” can be found in the “real” American dream of our founders: individual freedom AND collective wellbeing.
The accentuated polarization of our times has put these two universal aspirations in conflict with one another. But what if they need to co-evolve together? Is there a way to transform these dueling dualities into dynamic-duo dance partners?
Our guest this week on Front and Center, Foster Gamble (www.freetothrive.com), has spent his adult lifetime seeking what he calls a “universal morality” that is not imposed from the top down, but realized from the individual on up. Growing up in privilege – he’s a Gamble as in Proctor & Gamble – Foster’s journey to extend political and economic wellbeing to all has led him to the “consciousness” movement and through the “truth movement”, to exo-politics and suppressed inventions. He and his wife Kimberly Carter Gamble have produced two hugely successful Thrive movies, and created a worldwide Thrive platform that has informed millions of people. And today, his work boils down to just one idea – the Non-Aggression Principle, which states simply that no one is allowed to defraud another, or initiate force, except in true self-defense.
As the Swami has said, he is proposing a sane world – he must be crazy!
Seriously, is there a way to turn that ideal into the real deal?
This freewheeling Front and Center “conversation for possibility” leads us to some surprisingly practical ways to use the “adjacent possible” to bridge us, step-by-step from where we are now to where we want to go.
It’s been said that the truth will set us free – but more accurately, it will UPSET us free first. In producing the outside-the-official-narrative Thrive movies, Foster has confronted the challenge of presenting inconvenient truths when people would much rather believe convenient lies. He is heartened however, with how the consciousness movement and the various “truth” movements have interacted in recent years to “transcend the fake polarity of political rulership, and actually come together on truth and freedom and harmonious collaboration.”
And while his notion of a noncoercive universal morality may seem out there in some distant future, Foster’s approach is eminently practical. It involves activating truly independent forces in our political system – like the Common Sense and Forward Parties – to slow the spread of what he calls “turn-key totalitarianism”, where what used to be called the military-industrial complex has now metastasized into the military-industrial-pharmaceutical-media-tech complex with the unchecked, unbalanced power to monitor and control every aspect of our lives.
In keeping with the Swam’s prescription for sanity, “turn off your TV and tell-a-vision instead,” Foster shared his vision of the prize he has his eye on:
"It’s a planet where every individual has the opportunity to thrive, and no one is authorized to encroach on anyone else's person, or property. It's a planet of truly voluntary exchange, where people can feel happy in their pursuit of happiness and also feel secure that that their community has their back, where they can be productive through the unleashing of the creative their natural creativity. That would happen as people know that their individual freedom is the key to liberating all of us. And as we master love of ourselves, of one another, and our environment, we can be welcomed into the cosmic community.”
Can we step off the political battlefield and cultivate a cooperative playing field together? Can we confront the true evils facing us, rather than project them onto some convenient “other”? Can a critical mass of the heretofore uncritical masses unite to “overgrow” a global domination agenda? As the great philosopher / centerfielder Willie Mays said, “That’s what we’re going to play the season to find out.”
“If a speech falls freely in the forest and there is no one there to hear it, is it still free speech?” – Swami Beyondananda
In 1974, the satirical troupe, Firesign Theatre, put out a comedy record, Everything You Know Is Wrong.
Now, 50 years later …looks like they were right.
When we think of censorship, we think of overt repression of views, like book banning, or even book-burning. But in these times, where so much of what we think we “know” comes from digital sources, the censorship is so silent and stealthy that we haven’t a clue how the information we receive has already been filtered and focused by someone unknown to us. And how we are convinced we are “thinking our own thoughts” but are in fact parroting planted narratives.
On this episode of Front and Center, Michael and I review and unpack an eye-opening interview with psychologist and journalist Dr. Robert Epstein, on what he calls the Search Engine Manipulation Effect (SEME). Epstein, a former editor of Psychology Today, has ...
“It’s not vicious lies they are looking to censor.
It’s those vicious truths they’re worried about.”
– Swami Beyondananda
Last week I wrote a post suggesting that free speech censorship was the gravest existential threat to democracy. I was heartened by the positive response, although I found something very curious about the few pushback emails I got. Not one of them objected to any of my points about free speech, or even addressed them. All of the negative feedback boiled down to: “Donald Trump is worse!”
That’s the problem with “lesser evil-ism.” We accentuate and amplify the evil on the other side (in this week’s podcast you can view the contrast between what mainstream media said that Trump said and what he actually said), while refusing to acknowledge the lies and contradictions on our own side.
That’s how evil prevails.
So I want to try a thought experiment.
Imagine there’s no Donald Trump.
(Imagine there’s no Donald …
It’s easy if you try …
No red-hat wearing MAGA’s
The red team runs another guy ...
Conversation with Author and Propaganda Expert Mark Crispin Miller
“Who needs conspiracy theories when we have con’s piracy facts?”
-- Swami Beyondananda
If you’re like most Americans I know, you are watching the train wreck that is American politics chugging down the track to oblivion, and wondering how it is that the likes of Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln have devolved into the (dis)likes of Trump and Biden? How is it we have hunkered into angry rival political camps spending our fury on one another rather than coming together to face our multiple crises together? As the Swami has noted, we are no longer rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. We are now throwing them at each other.
If this toxic “shituation” has left you feeling baffled … disheartened … enraged, then you will find this week’s Front and Center conversation with author, NYU professor, and propaganda expert Mark Crispin Miller illuminating and elucidating, as he shines a light on how entire populations are ...
An Interview With Pioneering Black Journalist Glen Ford
“It’s time to move past identity issues and focus on the IDENTICAL issues we all face – clean air, clean water, clean food, and clean government.”
-- Swami Beyondananda
Bamboozlement. Isn’t that a great word?
According to Wiki Politiki guest Glen Ford, pioneering black journalist, that was a term Malcolm X used to describe how the power structure has used race politics – most recently the #BlackLivesMatter movement -- to keep folks from poking around the real issues.
The son of famed disc jockey Rudy “The Deuce” Rutherford, who was the first Black man to host a non-gospel television show in the Deep South – Columbus, Georgia, 1958 – Glen was reading newswire copy on-the-air at age eleven. Glen’s first full-time broadcast news job was at James Brown’s Augusta, Georgia radio station WRDW, in 1970 – where ‘The Godfather of Soul” shortened Glen’s surname to “Ford.”
Sadly, Mr. Ford passed away ...
An Interview With Pioneering Black Journalist Glen Ford
“It’s time to move past identity issues and focus on the IDENTICAL issues we all face – clean air, clean water, clean food, and clean government.”
-- Swami Beyondananda
Bamboozlement. Isn’t that a great word?
According to Wiki Politiki guest Glen Ford, pioneering black journalist, that was a term Malcolm X used to describe how the power structure has used race politics – most recently the #BlackLivesMatter movement -- to keep folks from poking around the real issues.
The son of famed disc jockey Rudy “The Deuce” Rutherford, who was the first Black man to host a non-gospel television show in the Deep South – Columbus, Georgia, 1958 – Glen was reading newswire copy on-the-air at age eleven. Glen’s first full-time broadcast news job was at James Brown’s Augusta, Georgia radio station WRDW, in 1970 – where ‘The Godfather of Soul” shortened Glen’s surname to “Ford.”
Sadly, Mr. Ford passed away this ...
“There are no sides, only angles. And when we see it from the right angle, we’re all on the same side.”
-- Swami Beyondananda
Part 1 of 2
Here is an “irony supplement” to munch on.
America is in the midst of the most politically polarizing times since the Civil War … and yet, a 2018 Pew Research Center poll found that nearly 80 percent of Americans in each party believe it’s important for Republicans and Democrats to work together on issues.
Huh? How could that be?
Are we that schizophrenic … or, is there a deep longing to find our sane and sacred center at the heart and soul of who we are?
On August 25, 2020 Wiki Politiki interviewed family therapist and author Bill Doherty, co-founder of Braver Angels, an organization dedicated to bringing the polarized sides together to find a new angle – where instead of dehumanizing the other side, we re-humanize the other.
In December 2016, Braver Angels co-founders David Blankenhorn, Bill Doherty, and David Lapp brought ...
“When you find yourself on a vicious cycle, for goodness sake, stop pedaling and get off.”
-- Swami Beyondananda
From Steve Bhaerman:
One of the biggest challenges for me in the wake of the election results has been speaking into the field of grief, anger, profound disappointment, hopelessness and despair so many of my progressive co-hearts have been experiencing.
And …I’ve been watching this slow-motion train wreck for nearly four years, so I was not surprised.
I began this election day by taking my own advice and following my conscience. I abstained from voting for President. My choice was neither of the above. My prayer was for the American people to make the wisest choice possible – and I let it be with that.
I went about my business peacefully, spent time in nature, watched inspiring, entertaining and educational programs Tuesday night and went to bed without following the “hearse-race.”
In sharp contrast to my rage and horror when it happened in 2016, I...
“They’ve taken the Bill of Rights and boiled it down to just one.
You have the right to remain silent.”
– Swami Beyondananda
In December 2008, Bruce Lipton and I were writing the final chapter of Spontaneous Evolution. Barack Obama had just been elected President, and I had just returned from a trip to Washington, D.C. – where people were literally dancing in the streets.
And why not?
We were done with Bush and Cheney, the Iraq War, and the neocon con. It was time for hope and change.
So in this last chapter, A Whole New Story, Bruce and I proclaimed that Obama’s election was a sign that “evolution” was at hand. Made sense to us. We were, however, completely surprised – shocked actually – when one of Bruce’s colleagues told us that it was a mistake, that we were limiting our audience by taking a political side.
We looked at each other incredulous. That woman – she must be … a REPUBLICAN!
Although we softened the ...
“To make things simpler, they have taken the Bill of Rights and boiled it down to just one – you have the right to remain silent.”
– Swami Beyondananda
Join Steve and Mike as they discuss Mike’s recent trip to Washington, D.C. to be part of the Rescue the Republic rally, an independent political gathering convened by Bret Weinstein, and including luminaries like Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Tulsi Gabbard, Matt Taibbi, Jimmy Dore and many others. Says Mike, “I could never in good conscience ask anyone to vote for Donald Trump – but I can ask them to vote for the only chance we have to end egregious government censorship, put an end to forever wars … and make America healthy again.”
Independent journalist Matt Taibbi, who helped release the Twitter files on government-sponsored online censorship adds, “Trump is such a blinding figure for people, just not able to see past the trees of Donald Trump to see the forest that lays behind it. It’s a shame because we are on this continuum of ...
