The Two Sides of Political Debate

  Political battles in America have long been considered to be between two sides, liberals on one side and conservatives on the other. Substitute the word progressive for liberal and we see the eternal conflict between the need for change and the need for things to remain the same. Paradoxically they both have to happen and it is in this conundrum that we struggle to correctly create the world. Frequently both sides are right. The more things change the more they remain the same. But things must do both. But how do you change and still maintain and hold onto the eternal values? It is often not easy.
  The problem now is that politics are no longer a battle between left and right but a battle between truth and  lies. Honest political debates must always be based on truths. Competing truths but always truths. It is with wrestling with these truths that good people reach consensus on how to shape the world. But when the debates become infected with untruths, when lies and falsehoods begin to gain footholds in the battles, it becomes no longer possible to reach any kind of healthy consensus. That is what has happened. The two sides in politics are now between truth and honesty, and lies and falsehoods.
  There are now forces in the world, mostly in the form of corporations, that have gained so much power that they are able to inject their own information into politics and they are all too often corrupt. They are all too often about both gaining wealth and power, and maintaining that wealth and power. They have, like cancers, become  monsters that can effect circumstances in ways that allow them to both hold onto and increase their wealth and power irregardless of the needs of humankind. They exist solely to ensure their own existence and growth.
  In doing so they by necessity lie and distort and mislead. Because their existence has become so far out of balance and so far removed from what we all need to survive and thrive they must lie and distort in order to survive.
  Then there are the other forms of power that also seek to ensure their existence even when they often actually do harm and damage to human affairs. It is often religions that fall into his category.
 Ultimately it is about power and those with it needing to hold on to it. Because power so often corrupts, in order to hold onto it those who possess it must use lies and deception to convince us that we must allow them to maintain and increase their power. This is why political debate has become now mostly about truth vs.lies. And we are now seriously threatening our very survival as a species. This is why it is very important to constantly struggle to find and tell the truth. This can be very hard work but it is very important.

wisdom and its importance

Let's start by defining wisdom. One definition that I found is...

"the quality or state of being wise; knowledge of what is true or right coupled with just judgment as to action; sagacity, discernment, or insight."
                                                                
 http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/wisdom?s=t

The quality of being wise. Or also... 

"having the power of discerning and judging properly as to what is true or right; possessing   discernment, judgment, or discretion."

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/wise?s=t

Another definition of wisdom...

: knowledge that is gained by having many experiences in life

: the natural ability to understand things that most other people cannot understand

: knowledge of what is proper or reasonable : good sense or judgment."                                    

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wisdom

 Plenty to discuss here but I think that the parts that I find most useful for my purposes here are these... "knowledge of what is true or right coupled with just judgment as to action", and "knowledge of what is proper or reasonable : good sense or judgment".

 My focus here with this is this world that we have created, or to be more exact Western Civilization.  And to be even more focused, why we are in the trouble that we are in, which many knowledgeable people are saying is very very serious. I am going to maintain that we are in this trouble because of our lack of wisdom in choosing how to design and shape our society. 

I do not know a lot about Native Americans. But I have heard that when they needed to make important decisions about how to shape the world they would make them based on the Seven Generations Rule. They would take a lot of time and think very carefully about how any decisions that they were to make would affect the next seven generations to follow. In other words, how their decisions and actions would affect their descendants hundreds of years into the future.

That is wisdom.

That is the correct way to get the "knowledge of what is proper or reasonable" and to find what is "just judgment as to action". 

What have the major decisions about how America and Western civilization have been shaped been based on? Very simply they have been based on what ever makes a few people really rich. If a particular course of action will, or seems likely to make some people a lot of money then it is deemed a good idea and it is implemented. 

This is not the way that many people in our society think or act. Many people try very hard to make truly wise and careful decisions. Even some people in powerful positions want and try to act with wisdom. But it has reached the point in our world that those who are willing to act carelessly and recklessly, with no regards to what is proper or reasonable, only what makes usually themselves a lot of money, have gained the power to enact their agendas and actions, overriding those who want to be careful and reasonable. They have gained so much wealth and power that they have become all powerful and by now almost  unstoppable. Those wanting to act carefully and with wisdom are crushed.

We are suffering the results of allowing some people to gain a whole lot of wealth and power. We see these results everywhere. Imagine if those making the important decisions about how our world has been built had been using the seven generations rule. We would never have built even the first nuclear power plant and would not now be faced with Fukushima. We would likely never have split the first atom. We would not have filled the air and earth and water with poisons. We would not now be watching the earths ecosystems collapse and species disappearing

 We have been acting literally insanely. How is insanity defined? 

"extreme foolishness; folly; senselessness; foolhardiness".

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/insanity?s=t

That definition unquestionably describes many of our decisions and actions over the last centuries. It will certainly be said that the world would not be what it is now if we had not acted as we did. That is obvious and goes without saying. But many people saying that will point only to the good that has come out of what we have created and ignore the bad. And there certainly has been good created. But if we acknowledge both the good and the bad we also have to admit that along with the good we have also brought humankind to the very edge of extinction. This reality obviously means that we are doing something very wrong. 

Finding the wisest courses of action is hard work. It requires time and careful thought. But it is work that is very necessary. We have to get back to doing it.