Bleeding Edge

A bridge is a wonderful thing because it joins the past and the future. It brings the where you come from to the where you going … and joins the spatial dimensions of your Life.

A bridge is a great span that will also allow you to traverse time. From the near past to the present and the future all is a drivable terrain. I love crossing this bridge driving over the “golden horn” of the pacific ocean. That’s why it’s called the Golden Gate in San Fran.

It’s a great gateway that you can cross into the new world but you can’t make your home into the bridge. Nobody’s allowed to build a home on top of the bridge… This is somewhat akin to change. We need to engage in it frequently but we can’t make it our habit.

Yet we need to cross the chasm frequently, because Change can be deferred for a long time, but soon will come knocking and we’ll have no choice but to open the door…

New political ideas are tantamount to change. The time to change is always now. When the need for change hits the ether – we have to respond. That is the timing of change. This is how has always been and this is how it will be going forward as well…

New economic ideas are just that: CHANGE. Change has it’s time and agenda all figured out irrelevant of our wish to engage or not…

Popular change agents and leaders are putting the wheels in motion while also putting the powers to be, on notice of the imminent change they herald…

This is how we can adapt to the changing realities of today’s US “rigged system” of economic politics. Economics and politics always go hand in hand. Any disharmony and imbalances are always vetted out as issues to be solved imminently because they don’t serve the people. And the best example of this is how today’s economic political system doesn’t work for the vast majority of Americans.

Yet the complacent politics of today’s establishment — offer no way out.

It is a travesty of an Economy that defiles the middle, to push and inflate the extremes. An economy that has given the 1% of the 1% the same economic power that the 90% of the other American people have.

Inequality breeds contempt. Contempt breeds revolutions. Democratic reforms avoid the chaos of rebellion and bloodletting by reforming our Political and Economic landscape in order to allow for these things to vent and get taken care of…

And it is always inevitable that things will boil to a head before we actually do something about it. Just like a good coffee got to have a healthy head of foam.

Like when making a good espresso, the machine brings the foam up floating to the top. And now in America, both political parties have to figure out how to drink this espresso quickly because before the foam dissipates into rebellion. Otherwise the existing political parties will be treated like dinosaurs and may soon become irrelevant and get pushed into extinction.

We all now know that we need a New Deal.

So who is gonna bring this Change?

Not the satisfied elites. That’s for sure…

So now that the elites of both parties have been put on notice — they better figure out how to cut Americans a better deal, or Americans will have to elect a new dealer…

And that’s all the process that’s taking place now.

Bernie Sanders, is an outsider that happens to have been working for change all of his career. He is a good Leader because he fits much of what people want and understands their need to be led by an honest dealer…

And so am rooting for him.

I also happen to teach Leadership and I embody most if not all of what I daily teach, by example and practice. It happens to be also be the same stuff that I learned from my communion with nature, from my leadership environmental work for the Environmental Parliament, from biomimicry, and all that I’ve learned from creating and leading Innovative companies that disrupted established Tech and Science incumbents, and changed the lives of most human beings in this world…

And I believe that change is life. Life is a constant process of change and don’t let anyone tell you different. The pace of change is what we all argue about. Not the mechanics of it. The timing that we all ask to be true to…

Remember the tyranny of Time that I spoke about earlier?

Time has no bounds but it dares to create bounds for all it’s strict adherents.

And yet time cures all things… Even lies and death. But it doesn’t cure time.

Let’s look at the time constraints of the presidential politics of the United States today.

Now Bernie Sanders came from an anti-establishment position of No-Hopeville, to being within reach of Victory and indeed carrying the mantle of Democratic Leadership in the United States. Time has worked well for him… because he is an agent of CHANGE whose time has come.

And because he is an agent of change – people flock to his message.

And because people want a change, seek the Leader who would deliver this cahnge.

And now they vote for this CHANGE too.

And that’s a Miracle in and of itself…

Then again — Life itself is a miracle.

All we need to do is perceive the language of change.

This is the basic language of life, because Life is Change — as the photons that pass through our bodies trigger the opening and closing of our DNA strands, and that is CHANGE.

Change is all the nutrients that we absorb every day and are converted through the sunlight [particle and wave] from provitamins, to vitamins, and through the process of photosynthesis — keep us alive and breathing.

Change is the universal carrier of all intelligence of which we are a part. Change in our bodies and ideas is the premiere job of adaptation. Through millions of years we learned to adapt, by being flexible to incoming change.

Tapping into this, all doings are possible.

So that’s how do we do this amazing “connecting” with the people, amid grappling with the issues, and while living and dealing with the challenges. We do this by being the jobs creators, and by addressing thousands of people seeking things that we can deliver — all around us.

We do this by getting in touch with the people. And we do this by staying relevant on the issues and by fighting the challenges we face daily. As an example, we stay relevant and strong by using Nature’s recuperative powers, not by destroying our nature. We strengthen our immune system, by walking in the gardens, in the woods, in the parks, and doing this occasionally throughout our working week in order to feel restored, connected, and refreshed. I take many of my meetings by walking in parks and the woods, or around the lake — and these are my most impactful moments, and offer the building blocks for my Business relationships.

I think that I’ve learned to control time well, although this is not what other people might say. Some even go as far as saying that I live on PST time. In my mind it is debatable if it refers to Pacific Standard Time, or Pano Standard time…

Still this is my domain expertise and between little sleep and meditation I manage to contain more things in my daily life, than most other living folks. And sometimes I get done on most of my tasks and take care of them, although my meeting time punctuality always suffers and I have to apologize often to my conversants and meeting partners.

So I’ve learned early on, that there is no pride, although some people get offended because they think my Life is about them.

Wrong…

Still we are all easily distracted by the clock whose tick-tock linear time marches us all around like an unsung God. Am often proud to be late for meetings and agreed upon services, because of the work that I accomplished instead, and because it is my little act of defiance to this non sensical measurement of space.

Still for physicists and philosophers time is relative, and as any reader of Einstein’s theory of relativity would tell you — for any kind of practice about time — you’ve got to meditate on the meaning of it all.

Even our ancestors understood that time is relative and our perception of time can be nuanced and manipulated. Take meditating as a discipline where by controlling your mind and breath, you can calm your mind, control your blood flow, and even slow the flow of time. Tapping into that place of “no time” in the empty moment of stillness is what I call Infinity. This is where everything happens and this is where you can tap into any information you desire.

Remember that you’re only a breath away from this infinite space/time…always.

To lead is to move from position to position, from place to place, from people to people, and from issue to issue… A quick solution to this is setting a timer to take a physical break every few minutes, and move to another task because every working day you’ve got to touch several important issues. Blend in some walks and that way, You’ll find yourself taking and accomplishing a lot more work along the way.

Having a hand in the cycle of life keeps us grounded and reverent.

Connect with like minded people, and reduce time with all others who challenge your beliefs and instead only prepare you for debates and legendary talks. Community is huge in Leadership and so it is in tribal politics, but you’ve got to be using it sparringly. Connect with your people and don’t let others distract you into a perverse worldview that pulls you into mindless consumption and conflict. You are on the right path so lock arms with friends and work together to hold the line. You work for the Great Power now.

Don’t take society so seriously ~ the modern world is grappling with an epidemic of stress. Flamers, haters and trolls all over the Internet are not what you should be paying attention to because although people are so busy running around believing shit that isn’t real, trusting everything that’s on the Internet, buying crap that they don’t need — that they don’t stop to realize they’re squandering their life on senseless junk.

Then they complain, and back bite about not having enough trust, money, time, or energy, and forget that they’d have all of these if they would stop believing the shit, and buying the crap that’s polluting our planet and choking us out in the first place.

The wise Leader understands this is insane and holds court for the good people in his/her life. Let them see how happy and peaceful you are and, then by example, they can learn of a better way to live…

In times of economic change – steadfastednness and resolute leadership is paramount and as our economies sag and the central banks are dismayed with financial bubbles growing, the nature of financial risk morphing, inequality worsening, and non-traditional – and in some cases extreme – political forces continuing to gain traction, the calming influence of unconventional monetary policies is being stretched to its limits. The prospect that such policies will be able to keep the economic engines humming, even at low levels, looks increasingly dim. Instead, the world economy seems to be headed for another crossroads, which I expect it to reach within the next year or two. At most three years out we’ll reap what we sowed — and the best way to survive is to build resiliance in our Societies through more cohesive equality and strong well kept Middle classes to absorb all the incoming shocks.

Without the strengthened and empowered middle classes we have to admit defeat… like we now see in EU in China and elsewhere.

In the early days of 2009, the “new normal” was on virtually no one’s radar. Of course, the global financial crisis that had erupted a few months earlier threw the world economy into turmoil, causing output to contract, unemployment to surge, and trade to collapse. Dysfunction was evident in even the most stable and sophisticated segments of financial markets.

Yet most people’s instinct was to characterize the shock as temporary and reversible – a V-shape disruption, featuring a sharp downturn and a rapid recovery. After all, the crisis had originated in the advanced economies, which are accustomed to managing business cycles, rather than in the emerging-market countries, where structural and secular forces dominate.

But most astute observers already saw signs that this shock would prove more consequential, with the advanced economies finding themselves locked into a frustrating and unusual long-term low-growth trajectory. And with frequent recessionary events that make this recession not just a W shaped one but a WWW like the world wide web of recessions has caught on and doesn’t let go… as in Europe and in Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal and all over. In 2009 this became the “new normal” and we are all living through it.

The “new normal” was given short shrift because of the strong conditioning to “think and act cyclically” as espoused by the central banks and by the leading economic classes. No economic or political leaders were ready to admit that the advanced economies had bet the farm on the wrong growth model, much less that they should look to the emerging economies for insight into structural impediments to growth, including debt overhangs and the massively excessive inequalities.

But the First World’s economy was not bouncing back. On the contrary, not only did slow growth and high unemployment persist for years, but the inequality trifecta (income, wealth, and opportunity) worsened as well. The consequences extended beyond economics and finance, straining regional political arrangements, amplifying national political dysfunction, and fueling the rise of anti-establishment parties and movements.

Asset prices in all classes of assets are unduly elevated. Bubbles are everywhere and deflating them would take a bit of time. Working through our slow growth debt will also take time. And how we get the time we need to do all of these things?

By changing course and strengthening our Societies and not seeking the quick fixes from the fruits of war because these highs are just that. Cocaine for the economy. Short term jolts of hyper-activity that evaporate as if there were never there when peace ensues and there is no dividend to hold and grow with…

But nobody through of calling for a Change because CHANGE is an anathema to the banker-wankers and their minions, the store bought politicians like Hillary Clinton and the slew of GOP flunkies. No change is coming from that room full of Marie Antoinettes… especially from the Queen Bee herself that thinks she deserves the Democratic nomination because her hubby bedded half the female populatin of the country.

So we need the political change soonest, and we need it from another quarter, because the alternate path, onto which continued political dysfunction would push the world — leads through a thicket of parochial and uncoordinated policies to long term economic recession, severe extremities, far greater inequality, and amazingly deep and uncoordinated financial instability.

And trust my words here, that beyond harming the economic wellbeing of all current and future generations, this steady same policy maintainance of the status quo will lead to nasty outcomes that would undermine social and political cohesion.

Today that the American voters are taking to the preliminary voting across this great land on a state by state basis to elect the contest leaders between the two great big parties, we must admit that there is nothing pre-destined about which of these two paths will be chosen by the people and indeed taken by the winner to become the new President.

And indeed, as it stands, the choices are frustrating and impossible to predict. But in the coming months, as both the people and their leaders the policymakers, face intensifying financial volatility, hardship, and nagging concerns — the voters in the United States will face up to the power. They will surely rise to the occasion and choose wisely amongst what seems to be drastically different choices of Leadership.

This I am counting upon as we start seeing all of the clues concerning how things will play out, starting to literally rain down from the sky…

So now the analysis is in order. Let us take these early clues today, analyze them and formulate good choices that will lead us into the voting booth’s intimacy, because the hope is that the clues will point us to a more systematic pathway to CHANGE and thus to a more effective policy approach — through the choices we’ve made in the polls.

My fear is that the existing policies will not only fail to pivot away from the excessive reliance on the interplay of the central banks, and the big systemic banks and financial institutions, bit also on the 1% that is dividing us all with it’s amazing concentration of wealth and power.

It is not the banks that are holding us together. It is the Social Cohesion and the strength of our humanity towards each other. That’s what we have to build more of. Otherwise if we leave it up to the bankers, and their minions, we’ll crash the boat all over again onto the rocks, and go swimming into the ice cold sea.

Remember the Titanic?

That’s the Ship of State and every time it’s beached we all suffer mightily… and certainly worse than the 1929 Great Depression. And if you don’t believe me – ask the Greeks today what the hell they are going through…

And then we’ll end up looking back to the “new normal” with all of its stagnant economics, it’s watery and elusive growth, and all of it’s limitations and frustrations — as a period of relative calm and wellbeing.

So let’s change things NOW that we have the CHANCE to Change.

Let’s support someone for the White House that understands what the Hell is going on, and how to help the people survive.

Do you want to improve your lot in this World? Do you believe that the future is good? Do you even want to have a Future?

Then go ahead and vote.

And when you vote — think Bernie.

Think Bernie and vote for him because methinks He’ll make a good Captain and I trust that he’ll deliver what we need to get us through the shoals and the black rocks of these treacherous waters we are coursing through.

He’s a Good Captain. I know. We need a new Good hand at the tiller. A steady hand and a Man of integrity. A person that wants to bring about the Change we all seek.

And if you want to adapt to the forces that seek to sink us all together with the ship of State — you’ve got to change. And the easiest way to do this is by voting your conscience.

So…

Be the Change you want to see in the world.

Don’t preach…be.

And also make sure to have a Big Fat Dream.

Dream Big and carry a big wish list…

That’s why I love Bernie Sanders. Because He is not afraid to dream and dream big…

And what am saying is that we need to control the dream ~ the media paints a picture of a world filled with conflict wherein we need to give up our liberties and powers to forces that protect us from “them” but we know better than that. We know that we Love Life and all that’s in it and we don’t sow hate in our hearts…

So love all life and don’t buy into such petty sassiness, because we are different than our enemies…

And we know what to choose, what to buy, and what to let go of. Because every time we buy into somebody else’s hate — we fulfill the hate within our heart.

Why do you want to carry all that negative baggage?

Same thing goes for our choices of Life’s victuals, necessities, and frivolities.

Consumerism is Politics and Economics in action. And so is Investing too. The inevitability of Change drives my Life and so it should drive yours too because I’ve had to think long and hard about it, what is it, this shift, these opportunities that will be part of this new revolution within our societies?

We all hear about new peoples political movements, new economic movements, new green business shifts, less consumerism, sustainable futures — but we don’t know what is this shift in our society, or what this revolution happening now is all about.

Everyone agrees that there has been a drastic change happening since the beginning of this century, be it from communication advances, climate change, the rise of the millennials, or for the sustainable use of our natural resources, and our reaction to Climate Chaos.  It is truly hard to pin change down and probably to mix all of it up in this revolution taking place within our society.

Yet after a bit of thought, I looked at how we are transitioning our own lives and our Economies as an Investor and I can’t say if this is a revolution or a much needed evolution.

What actually is this change?

Let’s see how it affects our politics, our economics, our ways of work, and our businesses. And also it’s changing surreally fast what the politicians and business leaders get up to, and what we allow all of them to do in our name about all those issues that affect us.

This constant change is affecting our daily lives, the way we live, the way we work and the way we communicate. All things are changing.  Things are changing far more than what has been discussed in the recent World Economy Forum’s events in Davos in January 2016, because their focus was on a 4th Industrial Revolution. How pedantic…

I only want to point out that industrial change is nothing but Societal change as a whole.  It should also be pointed out, that the industrial revolutions since the early 1700s have caused the current predicament in our climate, and our wasteful use of resources, and so I propose calling what is happening now, a Societal  Revolution.

This revolution is one where there is a fundamental change in how we live and interact, with each other. This is a revolution of how we become more sustainable in the use of resources and how we treat our fellow inhabitants on this planet. This is a Revolution about the way people interact with each other and how we fix what we have broken. This is not only about our survival, but about how our children and the future generations will judge us in reality and in our history.

The new buzz terms that are now been used in political and business circles, like Big Society, Circular Economy, Green Economy or the Blue Economy are only part of this revolution.  There are already changes that can be seen at the international level, the Paris Agreement and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals are just a few of these changes and that shows there is now a Societal Revolution.

There are resisters to this change, ones who don’t understand and ones whose livelihoods depend on the current status quo; but they are becoming less and less, yet, they still have a major impact on the speed of this change. We need to understand resilience as well as risk should be now the benchmark, incorporating not only mitigation, but adaptation and the means of implementation (MOI) into our investments. Societies are moving on and unless the investors do too, their business plans and investment portfolios will become stranded assets, and they themselves will become obsolete — far sooner than they think.

I do not think this Societal Revolution is advocating turning our backs on business and the markets — nonetheless the shift towards inclusion of the whole of society to make opportunities for all, is what Change is right now and this is what is happening right now.  One example of this is the the argument towards inclusive stakeholder ownership. that has been shown to be more effective in getting things done on time and on cost than the normal ways of business. This societal revolution is about joined up thinking in combining the workings of business, society, and resources in a sustainable way.

As this Societal Revolution is happening there is also a warning; as even though there are currently paradigm shifts in politics, in industry and in society, we have to be careful who is leading some of them and in what direction.  Are some these shifts in the best interest of society or just serve the few?

This is what should be at the forefront of the conversation the average person has with the politicians and those who want to become leaders. Incidentally this is what’s happening right now and this is how it will affect how our children and how all people will live in the future.

This is not another industrial revolution or a societal revolution that will surely lead to a balanced future. It is our Life expectancy as a species defined by our choices.

What is happening across our society today, is not changing how we adapt to this change, but how we will adapt to what is going to be our life and death. It will not just be our legacy — it will either be our swan song, to be played again, or our epitaph.

Keep in mind that every time that you engage in politics and in economics — you vote. Each trip to the supermarket is a political multiple question test of choices. We vote whenever we purchase something. You are voting with your money and your choices of patronizing products and services. You are giving away your power in the form of currency, to a company that is either helping make the world a cleaner, safer, healthier place, or to one that’s driving us in the other direction.

Choose wisely.

Investing in the wrong type of companies is self destructive too. You already know all this but it’s good to divest from planet killing companies, and people killing concerns.

Invest in Life if you want to live…

That’s the Right to Life.

Yours,

Dr Kroko

PS:

A leader travels and understands his or her role in this world, and only allocates mind space, money resources, and belief space only to people and companies that deserve it. Travel through life leaving a light footprint. Leave no tracks behind…

Travel and educate yourself. This way, we vote on the places and on the practices we want to see and we work to make the world a better place with every single action.

Do this, because that’s how we create the world we want to live in.

We build the Future through today’s actions.

And whatever future we create its truly up to us…

Good or bad.