The Best That Money Can't Buy - Excerpts

Many people throughout history have wondered why politicians don't act on the people's behalf. The reason is clear when one understands that, even in modern democracies, leaders are not elected to improve the lives of average people, but to maintain the preferential positions of those in the established order. There are growing indications of awareness on the part of people in various areas of the world that events have gone beyond the control of political leaders. Everywhere we see political figures and parties come and go, and political strategies adopted and then discarded for their inability to satisfy the demands of one faction or another. There is nothing to be gained from writing your congressman, or any number of governmental agencies, because they lack the necessary knowledge to deal with society's problems. Their focus is on preserving existing systems, not in changing them.


Change can come from disasters or from major technological advances. The introduction of agriculture brought a significant change in society, as did the Industrial Revolution and the introduction of money to the exchange process. From a historical perspective all of these appear positive. At the time of of their inception, however, people lost jobs, new skills were required, and entire ways of life disappeared. The direction change takes is not always for the better, and it doesn't always improve the human condition. Change is risky. Deprivation or scarcity that is artificial or real drives the economy. Power-seeking leaders command weapons powerful enough to annihilate entire populations and render our planet uninhabitable. Humankind's potential for creativity and innovation far exceeds its inclination to destroy, but every time we exercise destructive power, we take a thousands steps backward for every few forward.

J. Fresco