Tag Archives: zero sum game

Centrifuge

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Posted by on in Assistance, collaborating, Community, Historical, Inner Struggles, Personal Values, Social, Spiritual, Striving

March 2, 2026- Humanity seems like it is in a vessel that is spinning and separating people according to various qualities or elements. Those who took chemistry or physics in high school or college know full well that I am referring to a centrifuge. They can imagine, correctly, that the feeling is uncomfortable at best and shattering at worst.

Neoliberals argue that this “us against them” process is simply the way of the world- “just the way it is”, as the President of the United States said yesterday. Their whole premise is that the other side started it, and besides, the other side is “seeking to divide us against each other”-a centrifuge operating inside a centrifuge.

Depending on the historical record cited, this is indeed how it’s largely been for the past 6,000-10,000 years. It has been a slugfest, fueled by testosterone, territorialism and a scarcity mentality (zero sum game). “If you have power, I don’t”, however, no longer works well in a world that is more connected than that of Nebuchadnezzar, Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Chingiz Khan or Napoleon Bonaparte. Hitler, cited by the ignorant who look wistfully at a past they barely comprehend, was in fact a poster child for the limits imposed by impulsivity coupled with simplistic blame-casting. His centrifuge tossed virtually everyone to the edges, leaving a sour cream of faux perfection to try and hold his fading Reich together.

The substrate of money plays a heavy role in the present exercise. Notice how those taking action against some countries, but not against others, seem to be acting mostly against those whose countries are rich in resources, and therefore a potential source of ever more revenue.

The centrifuge needs to be turned off. We are in a world that needs justice, far more than it needs to fuel ambition.

The Road to Diamond, Day 179: The Last Full Measure

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Posted by on in Assistance, collaborating, Community, Education, Historical, Inspiration, Personal goals, Personal Values, Social, Spiritual, Striving

May 26, 2025- As close to 150 people listened, Dale Enlow, a member of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, recited President Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, in the latter half of yesterday’s Memorial Day commemoration at Prescott National Cemetery. With his recognition of the ultimate sacrifice paid by those who fought on behalf of the unity of our nation, Mr. Lincoln also called upon those present, and those of us yet to be born, to give our all towards both preserving, and extending, the concept of freedom: “It is rather
for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored
dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of
devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this
nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

There will always be differing views of what freedom means, who gets to enjoy it-even as to who deserves it. These can stem from one’s view of what is sacred, of just how much a person ought to share with others, even from one’s view of what constitutes humanity.

Yet, the arc of history, overall, bends towards a more inclusive society. However much it may move forward in fits and starts; however often a temporary backtracking or retrenchment may result in a loss of human rights, often out of fear that one’s position in the world will become lost, if others are given an equal share; however widespread that fear becomes the basis for a communal or national decision-making, the human race is destined to evolve towards an inclusivity borne of the maturity of the species.

That principle explains the eventual victory of each and every movement towards national freedom, since 1781; of each civil rights movement, across the globe, since 1921; of each cautionary tale that has come from revanchism, since the European royalists of the mid-19th Century were removed from power. We have yet to achieve a balance between individual initiative and group-focused identity, and thus will continue to witness a battle of wills between progressives and conservatives. The preservation of the work ethic, however, does not depend on playing a zero sum game of exclusion. Likewise, the expansion of opportunity to the marginalized does not require a reinvention of the wheel. As a wise speaker noted, at last week’s seminar on psychological well-being, everyone-whether right or left, is looking towards safety and security.

Our last full measure of devotion surely takes in the well-being of everyone in our midst.

Click to access Transcript-of-the-Gettysburg-Address.pdf