The Mayan calendar was supposed to predict that the world would end on 12/21/12. The Mayans obviously did not celebrate Christmas, otherwise they would have put the end off until after our after-Christmas sales are over. The Mayans were not that good at predicting especially when it came to the end of their civilization. They somehow missed that one.
Now that this day has come and gone with no more than the usual amount of death and destruction, we are told that the Mayans actually believed that this was just the end of a cycle and the beginning of the next. So what can we expect from this next cycle?
Here are my non-Mayan predictions. I believe that this date marks the beginning of the end of the following systems and institutions:
The right wing of the Republican party. The vast majority of Americans are against all of right wing core issues. Americans want the rich and corporations to pay higher taxes to afford government programs our civilized nation has come to expect. The right wing doesn’t agree. Americans feel that it should be an individual’s free choice whether to have a full term pregnancy that would result in injury or death. The right wing doesn’t. Americans believe that women should have access to birth control to avoid unwanted or unhealthy pregnancies. The right wing disagrees. Americans believe that certain weapons and ammunition magazines should be banned and that all gun owners must have a background check before getting a weapon to prevent future mass shootings. The right wing doesn’t. Americans believe that everyone should have health care coverage either through their employer, the government or affordable individual coverage, the right wing doesn’t. Americans want Social Security and Medicare benefits maintained. The right wing doesn’t. The right wing of the Republican party will become the do do bird of the new era. We will soon hear no more about Rush, Sean, Karl, Sarah, Michele B., Paul R., Eric H., and their ilk. Fox “news” will no longer have an audience. It can not be soon enough.
The National Rifle Association has proven itself to be tone deaf and morally blind to the inadequacy of their position. They stand firmly behind the second amendment wanting it to mean that there can and should be no restriction on gun possession by American citizens. They believe Americans should be able to carry concealed weapons, assault rifles even machine guns if they want to. Their solution to increased violence caused by increased gun possession is more gun possession to counter it with good guys with guns killing bad ones with guns. Even gun owners have become sickened by and ashamed of their lobbying organization. The N.R.A. will soon no longer exist having shot itself in the foot once too often while it was in their mouth.
Organized religion has also outlived its usefulness. Religion gave us a moral code to live by. It inspired great art, architecture and music. It gave us a sense of community and encouraged us to help our fellow man through acts of kindness and charity. But each religion has based its teaching on its assessment of G-d’s will. It is not logic or thoughtfulness that guide our actions, not intuition or instinct but a high priest’s pronouncement of what G-d wanted of us. Different religions offer different assessments. They are mutually contradictory so one has to be right and the others wrong. But which? It is always ours is the true one and the others are mistaken. People who strongly identify with their religion feel offended by the claims of those in other faiths. Wars break out. And all of religion’s beliefs and teachings are forsaken. Members of the world's largest and fastest growing religion have leaders who issue death warrants and encourage their faithful to commit suicide while killing as many innocent women and children as possible promising them eternity in paradise with 47 virgins or grapes, depending on the translation.
We now have government with social services and its support of the arts and sciences. We have established laws and traditions based on centuries of past human experience. We have a vibrant art and music culture supported by private as well as public resources. We have a vast array of spiritual, political and philosophical schools of though to attend, participate in and identify with. While some of the trappings of religion should continue - some of the great music like Ave Maria (Hail Mary), Hallelujah, the Kaddish, and Silent Night. The beautiful architecture reflected in many churches around the world should be maintained and used for community gatherings and weddings. And we wouldn’t want to lose Christmas with its trees, lights and loving feeling. We could perhaps cut back on the holiday toy spending to the tune of $600 billion during the holiday shopping season acquiring useless junk that even the kids don’t want but won’t admit.
Laws against marijuana will be revised making this beneficial herb legal but not mandatory. It’s about time.
We might start getting serious about waste in government including fraud. No one can be in favor of waste and yet so little is being done to prevent it. We waste money on foreign military bases that protect no one, on foreign aid that usually gets squandered and on a lack of accountability within agencies to ensure maximum efficiency and effectiveness. A recent large study found that we waste $750 billion a year on unnecessary medical costs. They are unnecessary either because the tests, procedures and prescriptions are unnecessary or because of actual fraud, billing for products or services that were never provided. Our tax code provides ample opportunity for false claims or intentional omissions. We might get serious about reducing waste when it becomes clear that it is the best way to cut the deficit. We could get rid of the penny and nickel both of which cost more to produce than their worth and are rarely used anymore. We could end Saturday mail deliveries since most of it is junk mail anyway. We could end travel by government workers for training or conferences since both can be done via video conferencing. We could end expensive publicity shows like the Blue Angels and Fleet Week.
There are some things that probably won’t disappear but should.
The abuse of animals from those subjected to painful and deadly diseases, to jungle creatures slaughtered for their tusks or their imaginary enhancements of sexual prowess, to the massacre of marine animals, to the endangerment of rare species, to the use of animals in fights to the death in bull fights, in cock fights or those involving canines should end but can’t soon enough.
The sale of children and adults into lives of slavery and their exploitation in factories with unsafe working conditions should not exist but does and will. American capitalism, our other great religion, has sent millions of factory jobs to third world countries where their workers are underpaid and subjected to unhealthy conditions. American companies should be persuaded to bring its work back to America paying decent wages and providing clean and safe working conditions even if it means charging more for the products and making less profit with fewer executive bonuses and generous dividends.
America’s large global military footprint should be dramatically reduced but probably won’t be. It has been 67 years since the end of World War II and yet we still have forces in Europe and Japan. It has be 60 years since the end of the Korean war and yet we still have 25,000 troops in South Korea. It has been more than 20 years since the fall of the Soviet Empire and yet we are still developing defenses against their possible invasion. We have been in Afghanistan for more than a decade and yet we are still there trying to build their country. Meanwhile the money we spend there is needed right here in our own country.
Our political system is being threatened by its need for ever more money from wealthy donors to survive. We have seen our national legislators act as handmaidens to big business interests who provide large donations for future campaigns. The bad situation has only gotten worse since the Supreme Court ruled that corporations were people and that political donations were expressions of free speech and therefore should not be limited. Our system needs to be changed to end all political contributions. Politicians would no longer have to spend much of their time raising money. They could focus on the issues and make their decisions based reliable data and the will to always do what is best for the nation. We should have much shorter campaign seasons and rely more on the candidates’ record and their plans for the future. There should be extensive interviews and some debates but no advertising or bus tours kissing babies and their parents’ asses. All this should happen but I don’t see it in the near future.
We should change the federal income tax code to make it much more simple while widening the base to include more taxpayers and by obtaining more from the very rich. The plan that I would love to see would eliminate all itemized deductions and credits (except for businesses) using instead a standard deduction. I would count all sources of income at their full face value and have just five or six tax brackets with the lowest at 10% and the highest at 30 or 35%. This also probably won’t happen because each affected special interest would fight to keep its most precious deduction.
The Congress should end the culture of pork barrel politics and earmarks. Bills should be written clearly with articulate one page summaries including costs and benefits and each bill should be limited to its specific area. The federal government should have less to do with grants to states to encourage them to follow federal policy.
There is so much that we can do do to make this a better country and world. We again have a chance to start a new chapter, eliminating the mistakes of the past and replacing them with realistic solutions for the future. We could do them all if we insist that they be done, and soon.
