Revolution 2.0

Introduction “By any means necessary.” New acronym, BAMN. This statement of intent has been associated with fringe groups like Antifa and white supremacy groups. We are now seeing it with everything from Supreme Court nominations to climate change claims to everyday politics. Here’s how current process works: I’m right, so you are clearly all wrong. You have no clue how important my beliefs, ends, are to everyone–everyone. The ends justify the means, so our means will be By any means necessary.  That is the subject of today’s 10-minute episode. Continuing Let’s start with the observation that the ends do not–do not–justify the means. Each end is a mean–a tool to get to another end, and so on forever. The means are ends in and of themselves. Ends and means are one in the same; it follows that the ends simply cannot justify the means.  Let’s hear from one of my favorites, John Wooden. “You never heard me mention winning. My idea is that you can lose when you outscore somebody

Introduction The vast majority of the time, cries of racist, sexist, ableist and ageist and on and on are the Politically Correct accusations hurled at individuals and groups. The intention is to completely remove these accused entities from being allowed to have any legitimate part in the public discourse. To cancel them as the new terminology goes. And to do all of this without a legitimate set of facts, or anything that looks like a logical train of thought.  At Revolution 2.0™ the point is not to out-insult and out-shout the ist-yellers; the point is to use verbal judo when engaged in these conversations, or when talking or writing about this type of dialog. Judo, the “gentle art” uses the opponent’s’ size and strength against them. In judo, we watch the other person, get a feel for what they are doing and what they might do next. When they move against us, we use their momentum against them to “gently” move them to the floor. At Revolution 2.0, we do something very similar. We listen to what the

Hello again, this is your host Will Luden with Revolution 2.0™. Welcome. Learn more and subscribe at http://revolution2-0.org/ (revolution2-0.org) Thinking Through Gun Control (EP. 166)  Introduction As sane people, we all want to reduce gun violence. No sane individual or group wants to allow kids to die so they can have the right to own an AK-47. If you are one of those, stop reading, unsubscribe and turn yourself in. AK-47s are already illegal.  The perfect solution, admittedly unattainable, would be to have perfect foreknowledge of who would and who would not use guns illegally. Those who would never do anything wrong with a firearm would be allowed to buy and possess them, and the known-to-be gun criminals would be barred. Perfect.  As with many issues, the perfect solution is unachievable, so let’s try to come as close as we can.  That is the subject of today’s 10-minute episode. Continuing Let’s think through gun control together, and as always at Revolutions 2-0™ with the overall goal of promot

Introduction “Never Forget” when voiced this time of year refers to the sneak attack on civilians on 9/11/01, killing almost 3,000 of us. The attackers targeted unarmed civilians. When I was our youngest son’s age, “Never Forget” admonished, equally loudly and passionately, for us to always remember the Pearl Harbor sneak attack–executed during pretend peace negotiations on behalf of the attacking Japanese–on our military base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 12/7/41, killing a similar number. For others of that time, Never Forget referred to the Holocaust. We have all but completely forgotten Pearl Harbor. The Holocaust was little known outside of the survivors and perpetrators until 15 years after WWII ended; it was the 1960 televised trial of Adolph Eichmann, the head of the SS who organized the Holocaust, that brought those lasting horrors to light internationally. Yet that memory also fades. And Never Forget about 9/11 will also be forgotten. Are these fading memories healing and beneficial, or

Introduction The venerable Merriam-Webster dictionary offers the following definition for compassion: “Sympathetic https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/consciousness (consciousness) of others’ distress together with a desire to alleviate it.” By alleviating it, we must–must–mean supplying the needed relief, stabilizing the patient in medical terms, along with helping the person, the patient again in medical terms, through motivation and training, to then live a full and independent life whenever at all possible. Promoting policies that would have any tendency to make people dependent upon either private charity or taxpayer largess is deeply wrong for that person, all the others like them, and all of society. And in the name of compassion, that is exactly what we are doing with increasing frequency and scope. And we are creating an ever-growing disaster.  That is the subject of today’s episode. Continuing Pause for key definitions: Hand-outs. This approach to so-called compassion

Introduction If given the same set of facts, people are going to have a much easier time having reasonable discussions and coming up with workable solutions to the known and enormous problems facing all of us. But we are not all working from the same set of facts. Media, politicians and others with agendas they value more highly than the truth are insidiously successful in creating wildly different pockets, echo chambers, of opinions, insults and accusations masquerading as facts. This is one of the most important issues of our day and is the subject of today’s 10 minute episode Continuing One of our responsibilities as citizens it to understand what the truth is, what constitutes a sufficiently comprehensive set of facts, before we start coming to conclusions. And even before we even start a discussion about coming to conclusions. The law asks for, “The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.” That should be our standard as well. In order to come up with workable solutions to the problems we

Introduction Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand has sold about 7 million copies to date. Published in 1957, it just recently fell out of the top ten annual best sellers. Rand imagined an America wherein the state is taking control of everything, basically stealing it from the people who were personally responsible for building companies and making things happen, giving it all away to “the people” and doing it in the name of compassion. All while accruing enormous power for itself. As the nation crumbles under the weight of incompetence and mis-placed compassion, a secretive John Galt (Remember the “Who is John Galt? line?) has been assembling all of the world’s leading producers, waiting for the right moment to re-enter society and make things right. Galt represented the Atlas that shrugged. At Revolution 2.0™, we completely agree about taking personal responsibility. And–and–we recognize that a fundamental part of our personal responsibility is to be our Brother’s Keeper. The core, driving principles a

Introduction There those who believe that our admittedly deeply flawed nation is the best, most prosperous and freest and nation on earth. Capable, as it often has, of rescuing other nations–other continents–from war and financial ruin. Martin Luther King was one of those believers. As am I. And there are those who believe that America has been flawed to the point of being evil ever since 1619, the beginning of slavery in the US. Not 1607 with the founding of the first settlement. Not 1775 with the beginning of the Rebellion. 1619. And they believe that America is irredeemable, and must be ripped down, and rebuilt from the ground up. That’s the subject of today’s 10 minute episode.  Continuing One of our responsibilities as citizens it to understand enough of American and world history to make sense of the many political statements and claims being that are tossed at us every day. To start, let’s go back to the Constitutional Convention of 1787.  Wait, Will, didn’t the Revolution end with Lo

Introduction Among many people, there is a belief that a Grand Unifying theory, a G. U. T., when once discovered, will be able to completely explain the universe in a way that eliminates any need for a belief in God.  I believe that the G. U. T. is God. That is the subject of today’s 10-minute episode. Continuing Part of our unique and exceptional role in America is to know why we believe what we believe about God–and to be able to communicate those thoughts clearly to others. Stephen Hawking, internationally known theoretical physicist, cosmologist and author, takes this thinking one step further; he believes that the G. U. T. eliminates the need to study philosophy, that science by itself can explain everything. Is this the height of arrogance, or is Hawking onto something? Søren Kierkegaard, a Danish philosopher and theologian, is known partly for his thoughts about a “leap of faith,” a concept that claims that man can come only so close to believing in God by the use of his reasoning mind. Af

Introduction Yup, let’s jump right in. For this episode, everything will refer to fatal officer involved shootings. All too many people and most of the media are acting as judge and jury, working to deepen our national divide for their benefit. Where are the people, where are the media, who seek the truth, believe in the basic rules of jurisprudence, including due process, and are willing to put the pursuit of truth over personal, party and identity group agendas? That is the subject of today’s 10-minute episode. Continuing There is a lot of appropriate attention being paid to the people who have been shot, as well as their families. There is shock, grieving, anger, a powerful sense of loss, and many more emotions in every shooting. The well known five stages of grief; denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance, clearly start with denial and anger.  I am guessing that the stages of grief are the same whether someone is shot in a gang war, or shot by law enforcement. I have to guess because gan

Introduction We are offering all the wrong rewards in our ongoing process of nominating and hiring new leaders of the free world.  We offer poor pay, constant and stinging criticism, a frequently uncooperative Congress, and a Supreme Court that may undo any accomplishment. And enough lavish perks and ego strokes to make Nero happy. That’s why we keep getting a grab bag assortment of candidates.  That is the subject of today’s 10-minute episode. Continuing Let’s imagine for a moment that we owned a company enjoying revenues in the $10M per year range; The CEO of our company would make about $400K/year, exactly what we pay the President of the United States. And there would most likely be significant incentives for hitting desired targets on top of that. Our hypothetical company is well positioned in a growing market, with a history of innovation. We now need a new CEO; the current one is retiring, partly due to age, and partly for her health. She was a highly successful founding CEO, and now we need a gr

Introduction Perhaps you have heard of the concept of 6 degrees of separation. This view holds that we are all six, or fewer, social connections away from each other. A core belief here at Revolution 2.0™ is that if we are more than 2 degrees of separation away from actively participating in researching and implementing the solutions to the mounting issues our society, our nation faces, that we not doing all that we can to make a difference. And, no, being smarter or more strident than others on social media does not count. Neither does hanging out and agreeing with people you already agree with count. Even individual voting by itself does not do all that much to drive change. Voting every 2 years is a responsibility, assuming that you are a well researched, https://revolution2-0.org/americas-unqualified-voters-ep-89/ (well informed voter). But still not likely to move the needle to any significant degree. It takes finding common goals, doing the deep research into all sides of the issues to look for the m

Introduction Most of us have heard the piece of wisdom pointing out that if you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach that man to fish, you will feed him for a lifetime. Well, not so fast. In order for someone to want to fish for themselves, buying and maintaining the tackle, sometimes going out in the cold and rain, and occasionally spending most of the day and coming back with nothing, they must be motivated. Without motivation, they will still want the free fish.  Now, let’s add one more level to using fishing as a metaphor for feeding humanity. Teach a man to teach others to fish, and how to motivate them, and you feed a nation. Knowing how to fish is the how. Motivation is the why.  That is the subject of today’s 10-minute blog/podcast. Continuing America is a unique and exceptional nation. Part of the  equally unique and exceptional role we need to play in it is to understand what we need to do to help others to be personally responsible. Acting on that understanding is part of o

Introduction Q. Is healthcare a human right? A. No. Reasonable access to healthcare is a human right. Q. What about housing, food, clothing, employment and income, and so on? A. Same answer. That is the subject of today’s 10-minute blog/podcast. Continuing America is a unique and exceptional nation. Part of the  equally unique and exceptional role we need to play in it is to understand the right and wrong–and the cost–of the political arguments swirling around us.. “Human right” vs. “Reasonable access” is at the very core of what we are talking about here. If these things are indeed human rights, then everyone, all 7.5 billion of us humans in the world would be entitled to them. And even the most extravagant spender of US taxpayer money would admit that we cannot afford to supply those benefits to all of those around the world who are not now receiving them. So I suppose the “human right” phrase is more virtue signalling than a real position. It looks like we are talking about those who mana

Introduction Our–emphasis on our–national debt is skyrocketing. We are currently at $22 trillion, adding about $1 trillion a year. This is a bipartisan attack on our economic infrastructure. Profits are increasingly under attack, with at least two of the leading Democratic presidential contenders claiming that healthcare industry profits “rip billions from healthcare”, effectively stealing money from the people who need it the most. Put these two facts together, and this underlying economic philosophy is “Profits are bad, debt is good. That is the subject of today’s 10-minute blog/podcast. Continuing We live in a unique and exceptional nation; part of the equally unique and exceptional role we all play in our country is to understand how American healthcare should work, and to hold our politicians to that strategy.  My wife, Marcia, and I recently went car shopping. She had been wanting a Toyota Avalon for a few years now, and as her much used 2008 Subaru Outback needed more and more repair

Introduction There is very little presidential about the candidates, and virtually no real debating. Insults, attacks and posturing, yes; debating, no. Note that I did not title this podcast the Democratic Presidential Debates; the Republicans are just as guilty. Hey, 2016 was not all that long ago. When https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_F._Kennedy (John F. Kennedy) successfully ran for President in 1960, his slogan was “A Time For Greatness.” That is the subject of today’s 10-minute blog/podcast. Continuing We live in a unique and exceptional country; part of the equally unique and exceptional role we all play in the US is to understand how to identify and solve problems, instead of making ourselves or our fellow believers right, and everyone else wrong.  When I was a kid, I used to hear my Dad, a Republican, and my Step-mom, a Democrat, talk about politics. Dad, a quiet and thoughtful man, said that he voted a “straight ticket.” Even at a young age, that confused me. How could my thoughtful Dad vote

Introduction Hard core activists want attention, applause from sympathizers, the ability to claim the moral high ground through a bullhorn, and a place in society that grants them a type of street gang respect. And all this without the inconvenience and anonymity of having to support themselves with, well, a real job. The last thing they want to do is actually solve the problems they are pretending to address. That is the subject of today’s 10-minute blog/podcast. Continuing We live in a unique and exceptional country; part of the equally unique and exceptional role that we play in the US is to understand who is actually trying to solve problems, as opposed to the people who prop up the problems to their advantage.  Almost everywhere you look, things are getting better and better in our country, America. And the activists are getting louder, angrier and more physical. They are feeding the fires of racism, sexism, and you-name-it phobia in order to advance their own interests. The last thing they can stan

Introduction If the goal is to have lasting peace in the Middle East, with as much economic success and freedom as possible for both Israelis and Palestinians, a one-state solution is likely to be the best way to achieve those goals. That is the subject of today’s 10-minute blog/podcast. Continuing We live in a unique and exceptional country; part of the equally unique and exceptional role that we play here is to understand what is going on beyond our borders, and to hold our politicians accountable for doing the right things internationally as well as domestically. The Middle East has been in turmoil since the beginning of recorded history. Let’s take a look at what has been happening in recent decades. Modern history in the Middle East began with the final collapse of the Ottoman Empire at the end of WWI. They had sided with the Kaiser, and the Ottomans suffered fatally when Germany lost. Post WWI, Jews began to immigrate, in small numbers, from various countries to Palestine, then a https://en.wikiped

Introduction Parents play an increasingly vital role in today’s more and more complex and dangerous society. At the same time, many are abdicating their responsibility to the state in the form of teachers, law enforcement, and fundamentals including food and healthcare. Parents are primarily responsible for everything in their children’s lives. That is the subject of today’s 10-minute blog/podcast. Continuing Your role, our unique and exceptional roles in our shared unique and exceptional nation, includes being there for our children, and doing the hard work–the consistent hard work over many years–of raising them. Parents are primarily responsible for everything in their children’s lives. Logistical things like food, clothing, healthcare and transportation. Eduction. Moral development. Physical development. Learning the basics of how to succeed as a person and in the world.  In order to meet this responsibility, parents need to: Be there. I know that may seem obvious, but with all the mis

Introduction Having an easy life is not a human right; quite the opposite, it is a dysfunctional way to live. And structuring government policy to make things as easy as possible for people is simply wrong. Wrong for the taxpayers, yes, but more deeply and terribly wrong for those afflicted with an easy life. That is the subject of today’s 10-minute blog/podcast. Continuing I believe that America is a unique and exceptional place, and that you–you and I–have an equally unique and exceptional role to play in it. Yes, you have heard that from me before, and you will hear it again. That’s what drives this podcast. Your role, our role, includes knowing how to live so that we can learn and grow, and help others to grow. There is no learning or growing that comes from easy; learning and growing come from facing hard times and hard things, and succeeding. And only in that way.  This evil, yes the evil thought process life must be made easy thought process that is being perpetuated in exchange for v