As we were celebrating (not) Indigenous Peoples Day yesterday in the District of Columbia, I kept my ear on the news of the world, and got madder and madder at everything I heard. Then it occurred to me. What we really need is an Indignant Peoples Day. Maybe that is in fact what No Kings Days are (the next one is this coming Saturday), but it goes well beyond being indignant at Donald Trump. I am mad at every one who identifies with today’s Republican Party. And that includes the Jews who are supporting Republicans because some left wing Democrats question Israel’s right to obtain unlimited weapons support from the United States. And it even goes beyond that. I am mad at every nationalist and militarist, world wide. And that includes a lot of people.

You have to see the bigger picture here, and the bigger picture is that there is only one known planet with life on it (much less, human life), and that planet is endangered by a growing population and by personal, national and religious rivalries that sap progress and lead to destruction and environmental chaos.

All great empires have fallen. That is just the way it goes. And if the United States wants to be a great empire, it too will fall. And if Israel wants to dominate a section of the Middle East with a mixed population, it too will fall. And the more there is an America First or an Israel First attitude controlling political decision making, the more likely it is that we are simply feeding our own destruction.

I obviously have no proof of this, but if history tells us anything, this is what it tells us.

In such an interconnected world, only international cooperation at all levels can work against the dangers of an over emphasis on nationalism and religious/ethnic hierarchies.

I grew up being told in schools that the pen is mightier than the sword. I don’t know that that is at all true. In the short run, at least, the sword seems to hold the power. Perhaps some ideas stick around longer than most armies, but their influence may not be spread as widely.

Am I making any sense at all? Perhaps, not. I don’t know.

Let me do this another way. There are a lot of bright people in this world. There are those who are bright intellectually, and those who are bright in their understanding of how to help their fellow humans. But these days, everyone seems to be working in relative isolation. You read about people running a marvelous food bank, or writing a remarkable oped about glorious future possibilities. You read or hear about them, and you become a tad optimistic. But in 10 minutes, you are on to something else. Everything you read or hear about progress seems operating in its own cocoon.

Who are the future oriented intellectual leaders in the United States today? Who are the most influential activists? I would guess you are hard pressed to identify them, and I guarantee that those you name will be different from those named by your closest friends and family members.

We are living in an extraordinarily interconnected world. We are also living in an extraordinarily fragmented world. Dickens:

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”

Dickens was talking about 1775, the dawn of the French Revolution. What came next was ideological hubris, change, and then complete destruction and chaos that only led to more of the same. Dickens could have been talking about 2026, the dawn of the ________________ (?).

We need people who see the forest, not the trees. The United States and Israel are both only trees. Yes, they may give shelter and nourishment, but when a forest vanishes, the trees disappear.

Not quoting Dickens, but thinking about today’s political leaders: They are the strongest of national leaders, they are the weakest of national leaders……and so on. We can and must do better.

I think we are learning that individuals, no matter how bright or well intentioned, are limited in what they can accomplish, given the world in which they live. I wrote that we went to see Woody Sez, a bio-play about Woody Guthrie. He was a stalwart supporter of unions. You needed unions, dedicated people working together for the common good. Perhaps now, we need a different sort of union – one not bound by national or religious or ethnic or racial characteristics, but one thinking about, writing about, planning, and carrying out a new supranational vision of world society. And, perhaps we are learning that, without some form of organization, people working in a fragmented manner and in semi-isolation are unable to have sufficient influence to really accomplish anything.

I would propose calling this organization (or movement) The Solution. To start, there would have to be a organizational (movement) platform (it is outlined above, quite simple), and a public sign up sheet. I don’t think it needs a bureaucracy. Maybe not even a CEO. Just self-identification with a group to foster international cooperation, and to ensure that international cooperation is not made subject to the national, ethnic, or religious differences that govern us today.

Now, have I made more sense? If your answer to that is “no”……., then we don’t stand a chance.