Why Direct Democracy Now?

There is danger ahead for us,
with new forms of weapons and warfare,
and surveillance on steroids.
There are also big decisions to make as well,
with jobs going to automation,
scientists alarmed about climate,
and society on the verge of transformation.
And then there are troubling issues,
like a $22 trillion national debt.

Here’s what’s below…

Science and Technology
Weaponry
Surveillance and Profiling
Climate Change
Media Control
Compromised government
Chaotic Job Market
Genetic Engineering
Space
Water
National Debt

---- Science and Technology ----
The pace of change in our world is quickening.
In our historical moment, we have great grandparents
who used horses for transportation.
And now, our cars are about to drive themselves,
and the plan to inhabit Mars starts in the next decade.
Innovations in science and technology
exponentially increase with each new discovery.
Robots, trans-humans, clones, new species, space travel,
nano-technology, and Artificial Intelligence (AI)
are just the beginning.
Hold on to your hat… because it’s all really coming!
Does it matter who is in control of our world?

---- Weaponry ----
Weaponry as we know it has changed.
A human is no longer needed for a military.
You don’t raise an army… you build a drone or a robot.
Picture hundreds, thousands, or millions of armed drones.
It only takes money.
Drones can be small, even tiny, and
they can recognize faces and locations,
plus they can use AI to make decisions to attack.
Drones can be armed with poisons or viruses or explosives.
We don’t have defenses against them.
They can come from a country, a group, or a person.

Our own scientific discoveries make us more vulnerable.
We have enhanced our ability
to create new biological and chemical weapons.
Nerve agents and biological weapons like anthrax,
have been around for a while.
Now we can genetically create insects to deploy them.

Our electronics are vulnerable
to a simple Electro Magnetic Pulse in the atmosphere,
that even a small rogue nation, a terrorist group,
or a wealthy person might initiate.

Will we be manipulated amidst that crisis?
When the world gets chaotic,
the likelihood of a dangerous power shift increases.

---- Surveillance & Profiling ----
We are being watched, tracked, and analyzed to an astounding degree.
I know - who cares;

I’m not doing anything wrong;
It helps catch lawbreakers.
But keep in mind that if a different scenario arises in society,
we could become incredibly controlled by our government.
If you want an uneasy feeling, read this side article called,
“You are being tracked!”

See also: Who owns media?

---- Our political system is already compromised. ----
There are probably some things that we can agree upon.

Even the best intentioned politicians are under heavy pressure
from their political parties (Democrats & Republicans)
to follow an agenda that the individual politician
may not be fully on board with.
The larger political party has a power, usually money and support,
which we did not intend in our US Constitution.
So we have a mechanism that is seriously problematic.
Money is critical for a politician to get elected and then re-elected.
An unfortunate motive is then pressed upon the politician
and assuredly causes a conflict of interest for them.
Money in our society (e.g. corporations and the wealthy)
has found that it can influence our politicians
with campaign dollars and future jobs.
We don’t have much trust in our politicians and government,
when it comes to truthfulness.

We could likely add more to that list of problems,
but let’s stay simple to keep us all on the same page.

The point is that we as a people
lack control of our governmental processes.
We can vote back and forth from Democrat to Republican,
but the truth is that the lack of trust persists,
because we sense that much of politics is out of our control.

It has been like this for some time.
So what the hell.
Most of us are well fed.
Let’s just carry on.

But here’s the thing, the world is not staying the same.
We all know that.
And there are radical changes coming in society,
that might be dangerous if we (the people)
are not in control of our world.

We need control now, not later, when it may be too late.

---- The Job Market is going to be chaotic! ----
There are so many available trainable workers on this planet.
Most will work for very little compared to us Americans.
Slowly they are getting educated and more useful to companies.
Companies know this and will pursue those labor markets.
And nothing can stop this trend,
not even competitive tax rates for corporations.

Robotics has been here for a while in factories.
Soon, robots will be mobile and have dexterity.
Plus, they will think and learn.
We call it AI or Artificial Intelligence.
They will make decisions and learn and be accurate,
and never get tired or complain.
We won’t even have to pay them.

Your value at work is based on your experience.
Robots will be programmed with experience.
You use your logic skills on the job.
Robots will out-think you.
They will process information quicker and have a much better memory.
But you have good personable customer service skills.
Business no longer seems to value that fact.

A robot cannot walk in and replace you.
No, it will take a bit of time and programming.
But to save your $75,000 per year… it will be done.

Computers have already taken away many jobs.
Now with Artificial Intelligence,
it is computerization on steroids.
The computer will analyze the company, create reports,
detect trends, talk to clients, provide customer service,
make sales calls, keep schedules, monitor the equipment,
program new software, and on and on.
Think about your job and imagine
the robot or the computer that might do the work.
Virtually every problem you throw at the robot,
will be solved by a new way of doing things,
with different materials, new techniques,
and a wave of coming innovations.

Soon there will no one left,
who is averse to using online interactions.
Workers now employed to assist older customers,
will disappear.
Data entry is shrinking.
Customers do it themselves online.

Driverless cars will replace the taxi, bus, and Uberish drivers.
Drones and driverless vehicles will replace delivery personnel.
When science designs nanotechnology to clean everything,
employers won’t have to hire another janitor.
Good for us in one way,
but sorry about the loss of jobs.

So how does that apply to Direct Democracy?
A radical change is coming.
As it is, plenty of people sit around with not much to do.
Some are unemployed, underemployed,
or don’t have much to do at work.
What if that number rises significantly?
How will those people live?
How will that affect society?

Business has the goal of continuing to produce goods,
but they need customers.
As jobs decline, so do customers.
So business has a crisis coming too.
Maybe they solve it with overseas customers.
But where does that leave you here in America.
Won’t the unemployed get restless and angry?

So what’s their answer?
UBI – Universal Basic Income?
It is like a welfare check, but better.
Enough to live on and just enough to quell the discontent.
It’s an improvement for sure.
Many of us might like the extra time as long as we can survive.

But project your thoughts down the road and look at society.
It will be a deeply divided class society.
The very rich, the dwindling middle and working class, and the UBIers.
And if we continue on this path of a government in bed with business,
we won’t have any say-so about how it plays out.

Hopefully you have heard about the 1% of people
that possess so much of the nation’s wealth.
For instance, 1% own more than the bottom 90% of the US population.
There is a systemic mechanism in our economic system,
that will continue to funnel money to the top.
Once you accumulate some wealth (often by hard work),
investments, the stock market, and lending
start producing more and more money (not by work).
Wealth starts looking like a snowball rolling downhill.

The economic class system keeps widening.
And with a government influenced by the wealthy,
dependent on their money,
consisting of wealthy representatives,
with the 1%’s monopoly on media to manipulate our thinking,
we the people are somebody’s puppet.