Uni­fy: Sub­chap­ter II.

Prana Power

Prana is a San­skrit word refer­ring to the breath, life force, or vital prin­ci­ple that applies to all mat­ter, ani­mate or oth­er­wise. This ancient con­cept has been applied not only with­in Hin­du phi­los­o­phy, but also in prac­tices of med­i­cine, mar­tial arts, and clas­si­cal yoga. The idea of prana, the breath of life—connecting our breath­ing and bod­ies to essen­tial mat­ter like the sun and life’s elements—represents a pow­er­ful uni­fy­ing force for shar­ing an eter­nal exchange.

Peo­ple nat­u­ral­ly share when shar­ing is an inte­gral part of their cul­ture or tra­di­tion. Economies based on giv­ing and shar­ing rather than tak­ing, will become the new stan­dard for com­mu­ni­ties of all kinds. Con­trol of the econ­o­my has been in the hands of a select few for far too long. We are past due for a rad­i­cal redis­tri­b­u­tion of pow­er and wide­spread cir­cu­la­tion of wealth.

Categories
Unify Prana Power

Find Commonality in Order to Bridge Divides

Some points of con­tention are too pro­nounced to be ignored. Nor should we shy away from con­flict. Much can be gained by engag­ing con­flict with a shared inten­tion of resolution.

The foun­da­tion­al ques­tion dri­ving much of mod­ern polit­i­cal debate is this: Why is our cur­rent soci­etal arrange­ment not work­ing for every­one and what should replace it? The answer to this ques­tion forms the major point of con­tention between the polar­i­ties of the polit­i­cal spectrum. 

At the root of a mod­ern left­ist world­view is the belief that long­stand­ing pow­er struc­tures must be chal­lenged because they have been unjust­ly estab­lished. The right, in con­trast, seek to hard­en exist­ing hier­ar­chies. Rather than rewrite a sys­tem designed to pro­duce win­ners and losers,

From the jour­nal of Alexan­der Gra­ham Bell, 1904
Marshall’s elec­tro­sta­t­ic lev­i­ta­tor, NASA, 2010

 

the right works to ensure that they, and their allies, remain in the group of win­ners at the expense of every­body else. Solu­tions that emerge from a left­ist cri­tique of the world are the most like­ly to effect real change as their opposition’s goals do not actu­al­ly include sys­temic change of any kind.

A pos­i­tive future depends on our abil­i­ty to cre­ate pol­i­cy based on inclu­siv­i­ty and open­ness. We must strive to cre­ate laws that fight for the empow­er­ment of the dis­en­fran­chised. Any sys­tem that entrench­es sep­a­ra­tion of peo­ple must be reject­ed in favor of sys­tems that are designed to bridge divides that harm­ful­ly keep peo­ple apart. In this bat­tle, opti­mism is our great­est moti­va­tor. We choose to believe in the wis­dom of an informed, empow­ered, and lib­er­at­ed collective.

Pow­er is most effec­tive­ly wield­ed when wide­ly dis­trib­uted. We can rein in our worst traits—like greed, hubris, and con­trol of others—to dras­ti­cal­ly cur­tail the exploita­tion of peo­ple and plan­et. We don’t need to be embroiled in end­less wars over pow­er and resources. We can live in peace through mutu­al aid. We can help all peo­ple to live healthy, sup­port­ed lives. These con­di­tions allow us to break down the bar­ri­ers to uni­fi­ca­tion and orga­nize along lines con­ducive to cooperation.

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