The Consciousness Revolution

In our time the ultimate group of conscious beings would be an authentic, global democracy that preserves nation-states not as sovereign military powers but as local administrations that protect and represent the interests of racial, ethnic, religious, cultural, and linguistic identities.

Each human identity group, and each individual, offers unique contributions to the further evolution of life on Earth. The oppression of any peaceful, fair-minded human identity by special interests calls for a level of consciousness that, firstly, makes us aware of the extent of existing injustice, and secondly, puts forward a reparative strategy that will put an end to the alternations of power and influence that continue to be so destructive of the ends of humanity taken as a whole.

Human survival is primary, but implicit and explicit bias that divides humanity against itself is directly related to the issue of human survival. We therefore need a strategy for moving to a level of consciousness that minimizes such biases as racism, sexism, ethnocentrism, and the various quests for religious supremacy. Unique identities, excluding those biases, must continue to be valued.

The Reparative Divide
Without an active period of education and reparations for past crimes against humanity and redress for current racist-based discrimination, there will likely be no relief from ongoing preoccupations with current insults and injustices in the relations among different Identity groups. [An Identity Group is defined here as any human grouping with a distinguishing characteristic and with which an individual can freely choose to identify.] Thus an Identity Group may be based on race, skin color, religion, gender, ideology, class interests, sexual preference, language, cultural history, hobbies, intellectual interests, concern for the environment, etc.

The “reparative divide,” we could argue, was initiated in the modern era with such historical precedents as Germany’s apology for the Nazi-based holocaust and payment of reparations to Israel, the U.S. Government’s apology and payment of reparations to Japanese-Americans, and the Truth and Reconciliations process in South Africa. For the consciousness revolution to progress, we must—as quickly as possible—do much more in the 21st century.

Apologies and reparations will never be adequate, but when combined with forgiveness and improved understanding between Identity Groups as well as constant institutional training in cultural and racial sensitivity for avoiding future injustices between Identity Groups, they offer the best way out of the cycles of revenge based on “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” that would, as Gandhi pointed out, eventually leave the whole world blind and toothless.

Here we will outline briefly our program for reparations in the United States. The program can be generalized and applied elsewhere if needed. Our recommendations are based on our assessment of universal human needs and probabilities of wide-spread acceptance.

1. No cash will directly pass involuntarily from the pockets of one Identity Group to those of another Identity Group.
2. Incentives for voluntary participation will be established.
3. A Reparations Council (RC) will be established consisting of one-third First Peoples (Native-Americans), one-third descendants of slaves (African-Americans) , and one-third other disadvantaged minorities, including the unemployed, with gender representation being fifty-fifty male and female in each group. The RC can be initiated by the executive order of the President if legislative support is lacking.
4. If support from neither is available, leadership from organizations representing the aggrieved populations will be encouraged to come together to form the necessary organization and to build political pressure through mass demonstrations and nonviolent resistance until the federal and/or state governments are forced by both moral and political persuasion to act. The RC will have responsibility for the organizational process of reparations, for allocating funds provided by the Reparations Bank for the length of the reparations period, roughly estimated to require between 8 and 16 years.
5. An Employment and Reparations Bank (ERB) will be established for funding programs initiated by the RC. The Federal Reserve will monitor and regulate the ERB in a manner consistent with achieving the goals of the ERB. Contributions to the Employment and Reparations Bank will be tax-deductible. Disbursements, loans, and micro-loans to support education, housing and food allowances, access to healthcare; training programs in law enforcement agencies and in all corporate and government bureaucracies; small-business start-ups, special economic zones, and environmentally friendly clean-ups as part of a balanced reparations strategy will be made available. The amounts to be dispersed will be determined by a Disbursement Council consisting of two members of the Federal Reserve, two members of Congress, and three members of the RC.
6. Job training and placement, infrastructure-upgrading contracts, Special Economic Zones, etc., regular Advanced Integrative Living Seminars, and Truth and Reconciliation Conferences will be held in every state throughout the period of reparations. Social media and mass media will facilitate large-scale participation.
7. Although initiated by the need to compensate for past and current crimes against humanity, all Reparations Programs shall also be made available to all unemployed persons displaced by technological innovation, business failures, trade policies, globalization of production and services, gender considerations, and physical or mental disabilities. Unemployment is thereby defined as an injustice for which compensation is due.

More details will be found in our forthcoming book, The Consciousness Revolution. 

In the next installment of our series on the Consciousness Revolution we will address concerns about the human spirit, unify faith-based and secular forms of spirituality, and lay out a map that may be useful to individuals and families interested in joining this journey to the center of the human mind. 

Meanwhile, the Consciousness Revolution is underway. Send us your suggestions for how to bring about a better world. We will publish them if they seem to fit coherently into this inherently democratic movement for peace, prosperity, and progress in human affairs. The nonprofit organizations that support the consciousness revolution are also in need of financial support. Contributions can be made by contacting us at info@syntropix.net.