Today, I received in my feed a copy of a tweet by Shaun King, the leader of the Ferguson riots and a leader in BLM, who is now advocating the destruction of all stained glass depictions and icons of Jesus that are not black enough. Shaun’s own skin tone is white enough to have caused me to look closer to see whether he, himself, was white or black. Apparently he is mixed. And I wonder whether the actual skin tone of Jesus was more or less black than his. I don’t know.
If you think that destroying all European style Churches with Jesus tones below Shaun King’s own more white than black skin tone, you may be questioning whether the protests are headed in a direction we really want to take them. That’s too bad. BLM had so much good potential. With people like Shaun King at the helm, it only stands for destroying a country.
Because of the many people like Shaun King leading BLM, I am learning that the word “revolution” is not just a word describing a movement any more. It is not just a grass roots protest. It is more than a protest. It seriously violates the first amendment when it is not peaceable and it seriously violates the law, when it is not civil, when it destroys things and hurts people and when people loot. Worst of all, it creates the hatred that it claims it wants to eliminate. For those holding candles and praying, I pray with you that the light of discernment will shine in the hearts of black America, so they are no longer misled this way.
Given that there is no end to it until people like Shaun King have created a new anarchistic state in the name of the dignity of black lives, (which can and always will be held up as insufficient), it turns out that BLM is not a protest at all, though many thought that was what it was. It is a declaration of war. It is a permanent state of objection to the government itself and its rule of law in the name of overthrowing white rule. Black lives will always matter. Don’t get me wrong. Even if there was no more racism. But will the destruction ever end? No. Because Shaun King hasn’t destroyed all the churches and ended the Union yet.
If you’ve read my past blogs and peruse this web site, you will know that I am a solutions oriented person. I want to offer a better alternative. So here is an idea – let BLM become its own political party. It would win if it wasn’t led by anarchists. It has more popular support than either the Democratic or Republican Party right now. So d0 two things. First, divorce it from Antifa and the anarchists like Shaun King. Second, create a legitimate third political party. And I have a gift for BLM, because to me, black lives matter very much and I hate seeing what I’m seeing right now – as should you. Ready for the gift?
It just so happens that I have been thinking long and hard about an alternative political party for many years. Forgive me if I’m white in saying this, but I am a powerless caucasian, as white people go. I’ve never ruled over anyone and it has never been my intention to rule over that alternative political party. Even my wife and children seem to overrule me on a daily basis, so trust my sincerity in this. I am not self promoting. I am simply a visionary. I am looking for a diverse set of visionaries of all colors, ethnicities, religions, ages, genders, lifestyles and backgrounds to form a founding group.
I’ll cut to the chase. I’ve never held a political position, other than running for POTUS in 2016 against Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump to get what I called the Restoration Party started. What is important is not skin color or ethnicity, either mine or yours. What is important is vision. Other people need to be the operators of that vision. It’s my job to convey it. If you agree with the vision, you can have it. Let’s talk about the Restoration Party for a minute, which is the party I founded. And then I want to talk about the Visionary Party and why I gave the seven starred dolphin of the Restoration Party to the Visionary Party, to found that Visionary Party instead.
You will find links on this web site to the Restoration Party Manifesto. You will see in those pages that my main concern, expressed in 2016, was corruption by the rich and powerful. I saw a deceitful military industrial , technological and media complex leading America to war after endless war. Beyond that, I saw the fundamental problem was that America was not a government of, for, and by the people. These were just fake words that politicians used to pull heart strings. I wanted this new political party to be real. I really wanted to restore government back to the people – hence the name “Restoration Party.” So, I identified several things that I thought were keeping a wealthy status quo of leaders (most of them white) in power, systemically. As I saw it, this system was leaving America as a plutocratic, oligarchical corporatocracy – long words for the fact that a few rich people (mostly white) and big corporations, have been running our government instead of we the people. It was a systemic problem that the current two party system was never going to overcome.
I know what you are thinking. Third parties cause division and they never win elections. That is untrue. The Republican Party was created just before Abraham Lincoln was elected. The result was that over 200,000 white Americans gave their lives because they believed black lives mattered, alongside many black Americans in the Union army. Rest in peace, and may they never be forgotten. Over a million white people fought alongside them because they also believed that black lives mattered. And for Lincoln to win, a majority of white Americans must have believed that black lives mattered – enough to risk going to war over it.
To be sure, there were other reasons people fought – many soldiers were drafted and forced to fight under threat of treason, others fought because they wanted o keep the north and south united as one nation. That is why they were called the “Union” Army. This also is why voters supported the newly forming Republican Party, which simply had more power than the Abolition Party. It was a power question. A coalition was needed to win an election. Most abolitionists were aware of this, so they abandoned their own third party preference in favor of the Republican Party, which had more diverse interests.
Let’s compare this to the conditions we see right now. BLM support is greater than the support that existed for abolition. If it created a third party, it could de-politicize and define itself, choosing its alliances based on its actual values, the values of most black Americans. One of the greatest arguments for the continuation of slavery was the question of how freed slaves could survive after an emancipation. How would they get jobs? Where would they live? Who would pay them? Today, we are still struggling with these same questions but at least we don’t have a war to fight to overcome them. The remainder of the path is quite simple. Just set up the solutions in the vision, rather than continually fight for it, and then win in office. And the last battle, of course, is the end of racism. This will remain a core value of the Visionary Party I would like to bestow upon BLM activists to make this permanent, rather than a trending protest – one that doesn’t have to start burning down churches, as if that would end hate.
What is the goal of BLM? Fundamentally, the viewpoints of BLM supporters I have interviewed run in several directions. First, there are those who simply want racism to end so they are protesting. It is very straightforward. Second, there are those who want specific legal measures taken. There is a variety here. In this category, there is a strong movement to defund and even abolish the police. And in all of this there are several levels to the meaning of the word “systemic.” Clarifying meaning is important. I have explored this term in other blogs. I’ll quickly summarize here as I begin an introduction of the vision of the Visionary Party as a solution to the present dilemma.
Defining Systemic Racism
I have to preface by stating that it is other people who define what they mean by systemic racism. It isn’t me. All I can do is state what systemic racism means to the Visionary Party once the core group has worked to establish it. At that point, you will know exactly what the vision and goals of the Visionary Party are, and decide if you want to support it. My point of being concise here is to make the position of the party clear from the start so there isn’t any confusion about it later on. The initial party formation team, which will be diverse, will be in unanimous agreement about this vision. To begin the journey to a concise vision, let’s examine what it means to people when they use this term, “systemic racism.”
The first is the most simple but possibly the least concise. It is the idea that racism is built into society generally. The “system” is thought of the same same way as someone might use the term “world.” Yeah, that’s the way things are in this world. It’s a world system. It refers to the hearts and minds of people. It’s a system of sin. Racism is a sin. It’s part of the system of the devil. Racism is wired into a lot of people. We need to be aware of that. So let’s put up signs and get as much media attention as possible until people change and acknowledge that black lives matter. For many of those whose idea of “systemic racism” is simple like this, they are at a loss as to why anyone would disagree. Silence is violence. Anyone who doesn’t join BLM’s protests must be a racist. Non-participation means non-participants are the problem. It affirms itself. I talk to an average of forty people a day, mostly Afro Americans, as I drive people around the capitol building here in Tallahassee, Florida. I’ve had some great conversations with my passengers. I’ve encountered a number of protesters who’ve said this very thing as I’ve driven them to the protests.
But I digress. I need to add that this first way of thinking of systemic racism isn’t always couched in religious terms like “the world” and “satan.” Many BLM protesters are not religious. Many reject Western religion as part of the very system they oppose. That is why someone like Shaun King can actually reach many people favorably, black or white, as he suggests destroying churches. In the view of many, Western Christianity, in particular, is an oppressive product of white supremacy. Jesus is only white on stained glass because the artisans who created the stained glass did not value people of color, or the Jesus of color. It escapes their notice that the rich red, blue, green, purple and brown colors of clothes, mountains and land on the stained glass contrasted better with lighter skin complexions, or that this became an artistic genre, independent of any thought of domination by whites over blacks. But back to my point, the idea is just racism generally. Using the word “systemic” here is simply a blanket statement of fact. Racism exists.
The second use of this term “systemic racism” refers to institutions. If someone refers to “institutionalized racism,” this is usually synonymous with the idea of “systemic racism.” There may be an underlying feeling for the first definition above, but it generally refers to actual institutions – corporations, laws and policy.
I do believe that a Visionary Party that addresses “systemic racism” needs to make these distinctions and fully grasp what they are and then defeat them and form the proper political alliances necessary to actually make the change. This requires a win-win for all in the coalition. The current alliance is with the Democratic Party. If you took the black vote out of the Democratic Party, the Republican Party would presumably win instead. Although the Republicans have gained some of the black vote, the best bet for the majority black voice to be heard is through the Democratic Party in 2020. Not so much in 2024, if the Visionary Party rises up in that time and defeats both Democrats and Republicans. This very much can happen in the current climate, but it is never easy to beat an incumbent president. Before we discuss this, let’s look at the fundamental problems that would be classified as actually institutional.
First, there is the prison system. The prison system was privatized beginning in the Reagan years and the drug war was escalated at that time, creating a one-two punch to re-enslave black America through incarceration for possession of marijuana, various drug busts and street crimes. Some of this was violent because of gangs having territorial disputes – again, drug related. The result is many felonies. And the felonies, in turn, created a new system of second class citizenry. Trump’s “First Step” program aside, a felon still can’t vote, can’t get a job, can hardly have a family, can’t afford alimony or child support, and typically becomes a “dead beat Dad” to be despised. The word “Felon” is an “F” word similar to the “N” word. It is a denunciation of a class of people, that systemically, it is OK to hate. Fundamentally, institutionally, the prison system is a penal system rather than a remedial system. That needs to change.
It gets worse. When federal drug crimes occur, confiscation of property results in auctions of that property, which becomes money in law enforcement coffers. With or without the bribes that are probably reaching the corrupt city officials from prison system shareholders – city officials that are encouraging cops to have quotas, this is what is called a “system.” You can see how this is distinct from the general notion of racism and the human instinct to hate that I spoke of in definition one. And if we have two definitions, then confusion results when using the words “systemic racism.”
To separate the two definitions further, may I also point out that there is another systemic dimension – socioeconomics. When a culture is generally more poor, and has higher unemployment and is forced to live in a common community, what results is a poor neighborhood. A toxic mix of gang related territorial crime and language preferences and cultural bonding separates minority groups in poor neighborhoods. Several things happen at once here and all of it needs to be overcome. First, more robberies take place in these neighborhoods. Robberies are a form of violent crime. They often take place because when poor people are addicted to drugs, they have to steal, or suffer withdrawal. When more affluent people are addicted, they may steal also, after they’ve bottomed out as their addictions become unmanageable, but there is a greater lag. The result is that there is more violent crime in poor neighborhoods, usually drug related. This fact does not require a racist attitude to put a disproportionate number of cops into poor neighborhoods. There are several other factors – the residents are outside more often because they can’t afford central air and heat, they smoke their weed outdoors in the open so they reek. This makes discovery of crimes easier for police. Combine this with quotas for the cops to fill prison space because corrupt city officials are getting paid off, or boost budgets when confiscating goods, and whamo – it’s the perfect storm for what looks very much like racial bias on the part of police.
The whole formula for this socioeconomic condition that results in more arrests of black citizens is very much systemic under the second definition of systemic racism above. It may or may not fall under the first definition. The first definition is subjective. You have to get inside of people’s heads to verify it, especially since few people will admit to being a racist, unless they have a white hood over their head. Signs like people not protesting affirm the belief that racism exists in the minds of many and that it is rampant, so there is reason to keep protesting, reason to even justify the violence, the looting, the vandalism, maybe even a revolution in the traditional sense.
But where does all this lead us? To war? Is war what you want? Would war really help us? What are the alternatives to war? I told you, I am giving you a gift. I am offering you the Visionary Party. I am not offering it to BLM itself. I am offering it to those who see problems with BLM but wouldn’t consider withdrawing from it because of its downsides because they believe the good it accomplishes outweighs the problems it creates. These supporters recognize that violence tends to escalate, they know that somebody will have to pay for all of this damage, they understand that high unemployment will continue for blacks if businesses in black neighborhoods are afraid to open, lest there be more looting and vandalism.
When I offer the Visionary Party to BLM, I’m talking specifically about realistic supporters of BLM who understand that it has been hijacked by violent anarchists with a wider set of values that may be in conflict with their own, values they may strongly disagree with. They are advocating the destruction of churches now. Are we repeating the cultural Marxist revolution of Chairman Mao here? Karl Marx believed that religion was a mental disease. Vladimir Lenin called religion “the opium of the people.” Russian and Chinese prison systems were set up to declare anyone who was opposed to Marxist ideology was an enemy of the state. Over a hundred million people were killed. Were they all rebels against the state? Or were they merely opposed to having their churches burned down? Are you ready to support the destruction of churches that depict Jesus incorrectly? Are you ready to say that the congregants of those churches, who will most probably want to defend them and disagree with their destruction? Will you be agreeing that they are all white supremacists when some of them call on the police to protect them from vandalism, or when the National Guard has to do so? Will you blame them if some pick up guns? How would any of that heal anyone? How would it bring us closer together as a human family? If you don’t like what you see when you consider where that leads, then choose the Visionary Party. You can lead it. I’m offering it to you.
I would like the Visionary Party to be pragmatic and realistic. I want it to win elections. The opposite of pragmatism is “idealism.” Ideally, we could fully eradicate racism not just in our institutions, but even in our hearts and minds. Practically speaking, however, we all know this is not going to happen any time soon. In fact, if what I’m seeing in my newsfeed is any measure, racism seems to be on the increase rather than the decrease since the riots started. Worse, I think it could be reasonably argued that civil unrest is likely to piss people off. As I stated, this is starting to look more like civil war than a protest – a “revolution” in the traditional sense of that word. It is not rhetorical. And that means the government will weaponize. And its guns are bigger than those of the protesters. I strongly suspect that this is precisely what a person like Shaun King actually wants. He wants war. He may get it.
This brings me to a third type of “system.” It is the twin sister of systemic racism. It is the historical sociological system of systemic violence. Violence begets violence. Violence typically escalates. It’s like a pandemic. Fortunately, I have the antidote. In order to end violence, it is necessary to withdraw from battle at some point. But if there are those who profit from that violence, influencers like Shaun King, then that violence is guaranteed to continue, despite the cries of many saying “enough is enough” after the bloodshed of their friends, neighbors and family, hits home. How can this be confronted? By withdrawing from alliances with those influencers.
Who are those influencers? Well, unfortunately, it is certain members of the Democratic Party and the media who would like to see the American experiment end and turn into a Socialist experiment instead. There are many good reasons why they would want this. But at the heart of it, it is the fact that Marxist Communism and Socialism have long infiltrated and are now starting to dominate the ranks of the Democratic Party as it radicalizes. This is why people like Shaun King are in power over BLM. And he is not the only one. BLM is to some limited extent a pawn of Marxists, and to a larger extent of the Democratic Party. The Marxists want workers to take over the means of production, with America being altogether overthrown in an actual revolution. The Democrats just want to have their power back.
Fortunately, I have a gift to offer on this front too. Let’s talk not just about the Visionary Party, which I want to give to the right people in BLM, but about the HAND System. I want to give this away too. I think the HAND System should be part of the vision of the Visionary Party. It solves the problem of Marxism, Socialism and Capitalism. If you really think the problem is “systemic,” (I know I sure do), then let’s look at these prevailing systems and compare them with the HAND System, which is part of a vision that I outlined in the Restoration Party Manifesto, as I wrote it.
The HAND System
The HAND System is an acronym. It stands for Human Availability and Needs Database System. It is neither Communism, nor Socialism, nor Capitalism. It is an entirely different economic and socioeconomic paradigm and no revolution is required to get it started. It is a fairly elaborate system, with certain checks and balances that can be slowly introduced through a network of voluntary participants. It is vastly different than any other system. There are some new concepts here so it takes a little time to fully absorb it. I will describe how to transition into it peacefully below, as well, and how it would fit in with the Visionary Party over time, and why it is the only way to achieve free health care, free education, save the environment, end homelessness and hunger and solve a host of other problems we now face, not just systemic racism.
The HAND System has two main features – (1) a single database that handles voting, shopping, accounting and job hunting and (2) a unique currency that replaces all other currencies – privilege. Privilege is earned. These work together. Here’s how it works. First, you log into a computer and pick a job out of the database. You can do practically any type of work that you want and you are far more likely to be hired for that job if you are qualified than you would be searching for a job in the current Capitalist system. This is because the employer does not have to pay you in dollars. They pay you in privilege and they never run out of privilege to pay you with.
This leads to the question “where does privilege come from?” Privilege comes from you – the voter. Voters determine what products and services are in high demand by telling the system what they need and want. Supply and demand are determined by voter request into the system. If we need more hot dogs, we get more workers making and distributing hot dogs. Need more heart surgeons? We get more. But who wants to be a heart surgeon when they can be a hip hop artist? Everyone wants to be a hip hop artist full time. Right? Well, there is a thing called algorithms and quality control factors and variations, all of which is controlled by you, the voter. So not everyone becomes a hip hop artist and we get enough qualified heart surgeons.
So let’s take these two examples. What is the actual demand for rappers? The actual demand is for great rappers, not just any old rapper. So the QC factor for rappers has a very wide setting. Anyone can be a rapper, but the general pay for a rapper is set to the bottom of the scale. A person who decides to be a rapper can try it out and they get paid one of the lower privilege rates on the job scale. Let’s say the scale is from 1-100 and a rapper gets a 2/100. The people vote to determine that the QC factor can go up to 80. That means a rapper could earn a privilege of up to 82, if they were absolutely the best among all rappers. If the voters thought great rappers deserved even more, then they could determine it.
Before getting into heart surgeons, let’s see how the currency of privilege works. It isn’t spent. Privilege is a right. It is exercised. There is only one type of “transaction” in the HAND System. It is all on the earning side. You trade the work you do for the privilege you get. After that, your privilege is your right to exercise. When you go to a store, you don’t give away your privilege in exchange for goods or services. You have a right to obtain things so long as your privilege factor qualifies for it. The voters determine what privilege factors qualify for which types of goods and services. Privilege earns you prestige. Prestige is an earned set of rights. The government is by, for and of the people, the voters, who determine what level of privileges ought to belong to the various levels of prestige that is earned.
As you might guess, a heart surgeon would be highly valued by voters and deserves a certain level of prestige and concurrent privileges. Heart surgeons would likely receive a bottom privilege rate that was very high, say 70, with a QC factor of something like a 10 or 15. The best heart surgeon and the best rapper could earn about the same amount of privilege if that was what the voters wanted. If you disagree, then you would be able to vote for something else. These are just examples. You can see, though, that both have an incentive to work and do a great job. The heart surgeon, will of course, need an education that the rapper would not need. More heart surgeons who got that education would succeed than rappers, who are mostly not that good, so they might choose other professions where they could earn more privilege and enjoy greater prestige.
Medical educators would therefore be highly valued in this too, because they would be vital. And as I said, education would be free. No privilege would be required to receive education. However, to be either a heart surgeon or an educator, one would have to pass various tests and could not have a history of malpractice. The educational system itself would still have prerequisites. The difference is there is no student debt or cost to any of it. All one needs is time. And if a person takes time to get an education, that is time they won’t be able to work and earn privilege. But the playing field is entirely even. Anyone can get an education who takes the time. No one has an advantage over anyone else because of their affluence.
I won’t go into great detail about the HAND System here. I have links about it on the menu of this web site. I do need to offer a brief picture though, and then describe how we would transition into it without violence or overthrow and how the HAND System fits into the Visionary Party vision, as I’m seeing it.
First, look at the sub-title of the Restoration Party Manifesto. It refers to “pre” and “post” apocalyptic alternatives. We can either develop the HAND System now, or we can try it later, after life is utterly miserable for everyone. It is easy to say that a system like this is impractical because it lacks popular support. Nobody knows about it yet. Of course. But look at how fast BLM came into prominence. It formed over several years. Igniting it required only a single video, making it go viral, and then everything changed. If the same BLM protesters took up the mantle of the Visionary Party and became a formidable permanent force, sans the violence, the HAND System could become a part of it just as rapidly. The right BLM protesters could embrace a larger vision that addressed not just the first definition of systemic racism, but also the types of institutional racism that I also identified under the second definition. I can’t help but seeing Capitalism itself, and its arch-nemesis, Socialism, as underlying the systemic problem as a whole. Take away the financial incentives for politicians, to confiscate property and to enslave prisoners, and only then are we free of the system.
Contrast this with the Marxist solution, which is to continually rely on class struggle for survival, pitting employers against employees, on the one hand, and race against race on the other, until war breaks out and whole governments can be overthrown. Marxists don’t want peace. Their goal is to overthrow a country. They need war to accomplish this, which begins with grass roots discontent boiling over into violence – much of what we are currently seeing. The HAND System, by contrast, is just a web site. Anyone who wants to participate, just registers on the site. When there are enough participants who’ve signed up to make a small economy work in any location, they opt out of the other monetary systems and form HAND System associations. So let’s talk about the transition to the HAND System for a moment.
How Transitions Work
One reason Marxism always means war is that the ownership class must be overthrown. Soft Marxism is Democratic Socialism. This may be voted in, but it always involves the resistance of the owner class to higher taxes, which essentially amounts to a confiscation of their property and assets. Whether large corporations or wealthy individuals who own shares in them, no one wants to lose their wealth. The result is war or struggle of some sort. Now multi-billionaires come in a variety of shapes and sizes here. Some are more progressive. Most progressive billionaires have found tax shelters and calculated how much higher taxes will affect them in the long and short term. None of them has voluntarily forfeited seventy percent of their wealth to the IRS because they believe the US government would better know how to spend their money than they would. Not even Bernie Sanders has done that. They would impose a tax rate like that on others only if they themselves were exempt. Take it to the bank. The struggle is real. There are no exceptions.
The HAND System transition plan does not involve overthrow. It involves invitation. And it allows wealthy people to keep everything they have. Nothing is ever confiscated from them. And when an entire state or nation decides to covert to the HAND System, they don’t even have to pay taxes any more because there is no longer such a thing as taxes. In lieu of contributing time and talent to the HAND System, a very wealthy person may choose to offer some of their property. This boosts the resource availability in the system, which is something the voters like and would want to reward.
You can see from the chart above that there are two types of resources – limited and renewable. Resource management is one very important job in the system. The job of those on resource management teams is to make sure that there is always enough stuff to meet demand and to identify non-renewable resources that need to be protected from consumption.
The very wealthy may be extremely helpful to HAND System communities by offering vital resources. Wealthy people are therefore invited and grandfathered in. If they choose to work and earn more privilege, then they can, but if they are independently wealthy now, they would probably be independently wealthy as volunteers in the HAND System. In other words, they wouldn’t have to work if they didn’t want to. They don’t have to contribute their assets either and their assets are protected. Private property is a protected right in the HAND System. So the wealthy can just enjoy their property or they cab contribute portions of it if they choose not to work. Basically, their lives are unaffected, normally enriched by the HAND System. So … Marxist way – cease their assets, probably kill them or put them in jail in the process … HAND System way, invite them to participate peacefully and let them keep everything they have, land and all.
The only difference, is that the wealthy can’t trade their assets internally within HAND System communities. There is no trade in the HAND System except the one trade on the job – quality work for privilege. There may be trade outside of the HAND System, but not within it. Naturally, this means there must be protections in place to make sure that none of the goods and services received by those who have earned privilege, are sold outside of the community. Otherwise, the community will drain. To prevent this, any goods and services either contributed to the community or produced by them, cannot be traded. They can only be distributed to members who have qualifying levels of privilege. Violators loose privilege and may be jailed or banned.
To fully understand this, it is necessary to see how prestige works with privilege. Privilege is what is exercised. Prestige is akin to a class. Prestige is earned. Privilege is the exercise of that prestige. That is why the two words are somewhat interchangeable. As an example, a Prestige factor of 10, may allow a person to have one compact car, a cheap bicycle, and a small townhome in an inner city. Some people might be content with this. It probably won’t require much to earn a Prestige level of 10. That person would have the right to go to any 10 and below factor store and pick up 10 and below factor stuff. They can eat at 10 and below factor restaurants and pick up 10 and below factor fast food. They lack the earned Prestige to do more. They will be able to go to entertainment venues and vacations less frequently and in fewer places than people with 20 factors and so on. Laws exist against hoarding and against trade. Violators lose prestige, hence privilege, so you don’t want to break the law by hoarding or trading.
Really there is no need to hoard. You will always be able to go pick up what you need to live on. Why crowd your dwelling with stuff, when you can shop and pick up stuff as needed? As for trade, if there is nothing you can’t pick up at the store by exercising your rights, then trade is simply unnecessary. If you want more stuff than what you currently have, just earn a higher privilege. You can’t trade to get it but you can work to get it. Some things you can’t have at all. This is akin to not being able to buy things you can’t afford. If you do possess something that is greater than what your privilege level allows, then you must have acquired it prior to the transition. You can either keep it, or you can contribute it to the resource base. In doing so, this earns you prestige so you can exercise your privilege at a higher rate. In essence, you can trade to the system if you really want to trade the old Capitalist way. You just don’t conduct your trade directly with other members in the system because doing so is subversive to the social economy. If you want a nice house on the shore, shoreline properties are limited. You’ll have to either own that house before joining the HAND System or earn it through high prestige.
Why the HAND System Works Better
Now that I’ve described how the HAND System works in itself, I should take a moment to explain why this system works more effectively than our present Capitalist system and why it works better than any Socialist or Communist system.
It boils down to the difference between direct and indirect benefits. A direct benefit is something that you can enjoy directly – a hot bath, a juicy strawberry, a ride at a fair, a nice new sports coat. An indirect benefit is something that only serves as some potential for enjoying a direct benefit. Capitalism is filled with such things. Primarily this is money. We work to get money, not because money directly benefits us, but because indirectly, when we are ready to enjoy something, it allows us to have the privilege of enjoying whatever that money can buy. Similarly, let’s say we buy a ticket to a game. The ticket itself is not the enjoyment of the game. It is an indirect benefit. It is not direct. Watching the game is the direct benefit.
The reason the HAND System is superior to Capitalism is that 19 of 20 jobs provide indirect benefits rather than direct benefits. The HAND System repurposes human work to direct benefits, thereby making its economy 19 to 20 times more productive. You may wonder where I get these numbers. It comes from studying the square footage of office space in various cities. For the most part, offices do not produce direct benefits. Only restaurants, theaters, arenas and industrial plants, production studios and development firms do. And when it comes to software development, which can be done in offices, only entertainment is a direct benefit.
Other work like architecture can be done in offices too. Obviously, there are exceptions. We might consider social networking and news as direct benefits, but exclude things like money management. Some software development produces direct benefit and some software development doesn’t. The HAND System does not convert every single job to a direct benefit job. As software, it produces only an indirect benefit itself, except to the extent that it may be entertaining.
The HAND System is highly efficient though. And it solves our systemic problems – because it renders unnecessary industries like insurance, advertising, stock and bond trading, banking, accounting and so much more. Anyone who works in any of these industries, and most people do, can learn a new trade, producing something that is of direct benefit to consumers. In and of themselves, these types of jobs only benefit people if Capitalism is a reality. Capitalism is not a reality in HAND System communities. Almost every job produces direct tangible benefit to consumers by either making things or delivering them. That is why it works. And when automation kicks in, the replacement of human jobs is not a problem. We can have more stuff at that point without having to work so hard. Job replacement in a high tech age is a good thing rather than a threat. Imagine a life in which you never had to worry about losing the roof over your head, or wondering if you could keep the lights on, the water running and food in the refrigerator. Your car could never be repossessed and repairs and maintenance would come with it.
Transition in the Visionary Party
A Visionary Party does not have to incorporate the HAND System. Like many of my visionary ideas, the HAND System is way ahead of its time. What I’d like to do here, is begin to outline what the Visionary Party would be in terms of an initial landscape, given our current condition. I want to discuss the values of the party. And then talk about implementation. How far away are we?
When we speak of systemic problems such as a private prison industry and drug trade, I see no difference between how far away we may be from changing that than I do transitioning to the HAND System. None of these goals can be achieved immediately. All of these goals are worthy of inclusion in our vision. More importantly, there is literally no way to actually address the fundamental problem in systemic racism without addressing the fundamental problem with the system as a whole, which is Capitalism. There is a historical dialectic between Marxism and Capitalism that is continually manifesting itself in class struggle and oppression. No vision is worthy of pursuing that does not root out the most fundamental problem of all. Capitalism is flawed. Marxism is ruining it. The HAND System solves the problem. Plain and simple. We will not have a fixed systemic problem without it.
Still, we do have to take things one day at a time. This is why the HAND System is just a web site, hoping for enough people to sign up to put whole economies together with. The more participants, the more resources. It will happen when it happens. In the meantime, we should discuss all of the values, and the entirety of the vision. So far, I’ve only addressed systemic problems. I also spoke of the need for a coalition. What coalition?
Well, I don’t mean aligning with either the Democratic or Republican Party. I mean asking BLM members who don’t want violence to be part of their modus operandi to distance themselves from the Democratic Party and its Marxism, as well as from the Republican Party and its Libertarianism. The Visionary Party is not a middle ground. It is a place of peace and visionary value, where members can believe in things they all agree on and hold a common vision for a better future. It can be created in such a fashion that its goals are clear and it is internally protected from abuse through intelligently designed nomination processes that vet bad players. It can stop wolves from entering in sheep’s clothing the way we now see two party system doing, with its media partners and the giant war mongers, corporations and the plutocrats that they both sleep with to create a power structure that serves the few and uses the many. I believe that a well designed political party can put all the necessary preventative measures into place so that never happens. I think Visionary Party members can win an election the very same way that the Republican Party formed a new third political party and won the presidency under Abraham Lincoln. I think that the Visionary Party can become a lasting formidable party even as the Republican Party did, lasting centuries.
So where is all this today? It stands as an invitation. I have set aside the VisionParty.US domain to update the public on what we are doing. I have created a private Facebook Group for leaders to discuss that set of values before publishing that web site. Click the link above to join that group. That black lives matter is a certain part of its vision. That it disapproves of violent protest is a second part of it. That it sees systemic problems as standing in the path of justice, this also is a part of it. Civil rights generally for all identities will be part of it. We will create a Visionary Party mission statement and manifesto and will spell it all out. We will design a comprehensive program that addresses everything from Congressional term limits to voting reform, tax policy, lobbyist corruption, environmental policy, dovish yet ready national defense, protection of the right to opinion and freedom of speech and more. I offered many ideas in the Restoration Party Manifesto. Once we come to agreement as to all that the Visionary Party must stand for, we will go public with it and recruit supporters. A coalition means putting a diverse set of minds together. It is a Party. It is not an imposition of ideas. And I am not its leader. I am simply a person with ideas who cares. I am a visionary. I know the change I want to see. I know that it is achievable. I promise you that, although it involves much work, it is achievable.
The Essence of Coalitions
So that’s the idea. This is an open invitation. Come one. Come many. Second, let’s look at what we are doing and who all we’re inviting. The violent are not welcome. That’s for sure. And this is not the Democratic Party. Certainly, we are not climate change deniers seeking to sustain an antiquated fossil fuel industry. How tolerant and supportive of LBGQT concerns is the black community? Personally, I’m neither black nor LBGQT, but I care about people. I don’t see the Visionary Party as being specifically one religion or another. But many African Americans are fundamentalist Christians. Many are against abortion. How would a Visionary Party stand up for LBGQT rights?
Are there any areas where LBGQT activism goes too far? I haven’t seen it get violent. Some are worried about a slippery slope. They are concerned about people marrying animals, about polygamy and about pedophelia becoming a legal and protected right through organizations such as NAMBLA. Others are concerned about religious institutions being forced to accept values that they believe their Bibles and traditions are clear about. My own view, for what it is worth, is to live and let live, on the one hand, and protect religious liberty, on the other. You can’t tell me how I have to live. I can’t tell you what you have to believe. This means backing off, to some extent, on what constitutes “hate speech.” But what in comes to activities involving more than one person, this is where the line could be drawn. Therefore, rape is not a right. It violates the will of one of the people. Pedophelia is not a right. It violates the adult will of a child.
Maybe you can see where I’m going with this. It is possible to create well defined perimeters to what a political party allows and supports from the start. The Democratic Party has no such perimeter. If NAMBLA grows, it may well one day be advocating for child molestation rights as a lifestyle.
The abortion debate is also something that must be addressed as a party starts. Such things can’t be afterthoughts. I have many thoughts on this issue, including some creative ideas, that I won’t go into in this article. Suffice it to say here that, as I conceived of it, the Visionary Party would transcend progressivism and conservatism, on the one hand, and have a clear purpose and list of priorities, on the other. Women’s health and career challenges take on a very different flavor in HAND System communities. No one gets lost in a security net. There is little crisis in any pregnancy. Furthermore, there is no more profit in performing abortions. As a whole, I would suggest then that a variety of views on abortion would be acceptable in the Visionary Party. It will not aggressively pursue either the advocacy for further abortion rights, or against it. Neither does it look for a middle ground. Individual Visionary Party candidates can be either pro-choice or anti-abortion. This is actually a necessary condition of what the Visionary Party needs to be. It is a matter of fundamentals. Lobbies and industries are systems of influence. The Visionary Party can’t be controlled by them. It is our core function to root out systemic problems. The Visionary Party can’t have an organization like Planned Parenthood or a Gun Lobby, or an insurance industry or Google, Twitter and Facebook, funding us. We will not be anyone’s puppet.
Positioning on Issues
Seeing then that this is not a coalition with women’s rights advocates, nor with anti-abortion advocates, nor is it advocating a middle ground, what would we have left? And who will support us? What we have left is creative solutions to problems and win-win situations. This is not a moderate compromise solution. The left and right always appeal to the middle after their primaries. To position in the middle is suicide for a third political party because only real power is respected by voters in general elections in the current electoral system. However, when the value is the divorce from extremist lobbies, this becomes a tangible vision worth promoting in itself. It is something that neither Republicans nor Democrats can embrace in a general election. Furthermore, both political parties are thoroughly corrupt and aligned with specific media right now. We don’t have to do this because I have a solution for this too.
More gifts. Get ready!
The Visionary Party can BE the emerging media. I have already purchased a number of domains that were selected for this purpose. Facebook, Twitter and Google can all be replaced with our media. We can also buy satelites and broadcast with enough support. Being positioned away from lobbies would make our news genuinely independent. The nice thing about this is that coalition forming and overall goals can be quite sweetly positioned using the “Z Axis” as a more reliable fact checking system than what any of the present networks are offering. I wrote extensively about the Z Axis in The Restoration Party Manifesto. I will summarize briefly here.
The Z Axis as the Definitive Value Perimeter
I am personally no Libertarian. While, I generally support economic freedom and less regulation for a stronger economy so long as we are under Capitalism, Libertarianism, to me, is both socially and environmentally irresponsible because by intent, it is a self-defined slippery slope. There is a place for government control. The private prison system is an example of why Libertarianism fails. So is global warming. But one thing I do like about the Libertarians, is they invented something called the “Y Axis.” Here’s how it works.
The Libertarians have created tests that you can take online to see where you fall on the X axis and on the Y axis. The X axis is something you are probably already familiar with. On the left side of the spectrum, you have increasingly progressive values until you get to the radical extremism of militant Marxism and the type of anti-white supremacy of a Shaun King, who would obliterate all things even reminding him of a white dominant culture. He is the new Chairman Mao. On the right side of the X axis is conservative values. Free markets. Strong defense. Less welfare and government support for the underclass. Anti-abortion. Less restriction on guns. On the extreme right are conspiracy theorists, militias, gay bashers and the KKK. You might find some of these same extremists on the far left. They are not all Democrats or Republicans. They might be something else entirely. Good arguments can be made that fascism is as much a far left phenomenon as it is a far right phenomenon. I won’t go into it here. I just want you to know what the X axis is. Got it?
The Y axis is where Libertarianism kicks in. Libertarians can agree with Democrats or with Republicans. They find themselves always compromising. On moral issues, the Republicans want restrictions. On economic issues the Democrats want restrictions. What Libertarians want is no restrictions. They want freedom from regulation and freedom to engage in commerce and freedom to live as they want. On the negative side of the Y axis is restriction and government control. On the positive side is freedom. Wherever they may be on the X axis, a Libertarian is somewhere on the positive side of the Y axis. The higher up, the more extreme in their Libertarian attitudes. I don’t think there is any militant Libertarianism, but there is some idealistic Libertarianism at the extreme, which in its opposition to government, crosses the borderline into anarchism. Should people be free to tear down statues they don’t like and burn down churches? Should they be free to injure one another? A person doesn’t have to be a moderate to oppose extremism on either the X or the Y axis.
Then finally we come to the Z axis. The Z axis is about who is actually controlling things. On the negative side of the Z axis is who is currently running the show – very rich people, unelected government insiders using their positions as weapons against elected officials to control them, large corporations and their shareholders, the media, lobbies, huge tech companies, military and industrial profiteers destroying the environment and making sure we are always at war so they can sell their weapons to both sides, clean up companies like Halliburton, the mafia, drug dealers, especially pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies, banks, traders and law firms representing their and other special interests, etc. Basically, this can be summed up with words like “plutocracy,” which is rule by the wealthy, “oligarchy,” which is rule by the few, and “corporatocracy,” which is rule by corporations. All of this, and all of the disgusting stench of corruption that goes with it, exists on the negative side of the Z axis. On the positive side of the Z axis is its opposite – rule by we the people.
Visionary Z Axis Media
I’m sure you will agree that the Z axis is a value that almost every American would agree with. The Democrat and Republican Parties have been promising forever that they would get rid of corruption. And their respective media, Fox on the right, and just about every other outlet on the left, have been attempting to portray the other side as corrupt. They want you to hate on their opponent so they slant the news to demonize any opposition in every way possible, 24 hours a day. Viewers, are expected to listen to both sides and decide for themselves and mostly wind up comforting themselves with the news sources they trust most. Now that you are attuned to what it is, you will see that the Z axis is at the top of the news almost on a daily basis. The problem is that it is skewed and it isn’t identified as such. When Donald Trump ran with the chant “drain the swamp” he was addressing the Z axis. Unfortunately, it looks like he merely sank into it.
Having a healthy start with an expressed set of values, as I am outlining in all of the above, the Visionary Party could be entirely unabashed about having its own media channels. Therefore, take a look at the “Bucket List” on the main page of this web site. This list includes several news web site names. All of them, and more, would be developed, draw large audiences, and be controlled by the Visionary Party, quite simply. These news sources, not being controlled either by Democrats or Republicans, not being controlled by lobby groups, offering fair fact checking that’s not skewed by these groups, ought to be considered fair and balanced and having the public’s true interest in mind as it reports because the Visionary Party has a simple mission, to make the world a better place for everyone – the very same mission that a good journalistic organization actually ought to have. There is every reason to believe, that if handled right, these sources would become the world’s new trusted news sources for that reason.
Timing and Implementation
I mentioned above that the 2020 election cycle will be missed. If a Democrat is elected in 2020, which I think is likely, this will put a Visionary Party on hold because I suspect that a lot of our supporters would be Democrats in a choose the worst of two evils choice. Strategically speaking, I think it is fair and practical to seek to place Visionary Party y candidates into local offices throughout the country by 2022. If we are well positioned with Visionary name by 2023 because of this, then in 2024, we might be positioned to dominate. It can happen that quickly, even faster.
Or it can happen more slowly. One thing is certain. It can happen and it should happen. If you want it to, you should share. I’m not going to suggest who you should vote for in 2020. There is only one political party I believe in – the Visionary Party. We need to get this party started.