Capitalism, Communism and Cowism -
A New Economics

by Dr. Sahadeva Dasa

He's done it again -- written a great, short but comprehensive and compelling book about the failure of major global economics and the hope of natural economics, or Cowism. Sahadeva, who is also president of the ISKCON Secunderbad temple, has 5 other books about cows and cowism that we reported several years ago, and all of his books are available online for a free read at Scribd.com:

• Capitalism Communism and Cowism - A New Economics for the 21st Century

• Cows Are Cool - Love 'Em!

• Cow and Humanity - Made for Each Other

•  To Kill Cow Means to End Human Civilization

• Lets Be Friends - A Curious, Calm Cow

• Noble Cow - Munching Grass, Looking Curious And Just Hanging Around

  In addition to these he has written a book on the failure of the oil civilization for which he was awarded an honorary Ph.D.:

   

  Oil-Final Countdown to a Global Crisis & Its Solutions - Part1(The Problem)

   

  Last month an Indian national conference on ”Cow Based Agriculture, Health and Environment” was organized by the Gujarat Government. A first of its kind, it was held at Anand University and was attended by senior ministers, government officials, top scientists, religious leaders, university vice-chancellors, environmentalists, doctors, and cow protection activists (report here).
  
  
  In the inaugural address, Dr Vallabh Bhai Katiria, a senior politician and chairman of Goseva Ayog, read out Srila Prabhupada’s statement from Srimad Bhagavatam 3.2.29 :
  
  
  “Human society needs only sufficient grain and sufficient cows to solve its economic problems. All other things but these two are artificial necessities created by man to kill his valuable life at the human level and waste his time in things which are not needed.”
  
  
  Then he went on to read the complete preface of the book “Capitalism Communism And Cowism – A New Economics For The 21st Century” and reaffirmed the Gujarat Government’s commitment to the vision specified therein.

  The fact is that this planet didn't evolve by chance as so many atheistic people would have us believe, but was created with intention and purpose by the Supreme Lord, Sri Krishna. And it comes with an instruction manual called The Vedas. Every species of life in this world has its own economy that serves their purposes without stress or struggle--except man. Misled by materialistic leaders whose conceptions of life hinge on how much they think they can own, the world is headed toward an abyss, and the edge is fast approaching. All of this stress, suffering and trouble needn't be, and if we could hear the cosmic alarm clock ringing we would wake up and smell the reality. The simple life and agriculture, such as we write about on our Gitagrad blog, has been the natural economic system from day one. We are admonished by the Sri Isopanisad that there is no alternative to this way for man--no successful alternative that is, and we are now being shown how true that is.

   

  Cowism and Spiritual Economics are the way of the future, simply because the ways of the past, based on the modes of passion and ignorance, rajas and tamo-guna, naturally lead to destruction. 

   

  Please read Sahadeva's books, and if you haven't yet, read our own Spiritual Economics.

Even a Child Can Understand the Ruse

In the video below 12 year-old Victoria Grant explains why there is a debt crisis and how it can be solved. No, she is not reading from a tele-prompter (like most politicians do). The money system is not difficult to understand—even a child can understand it—and it is painfully obvious to anybody who takes the trouble to educate themselves about this important matter, that the people are enslaved to the banking interests. So what shall we do? Knowingly continue to live as slaves? Or shall we find a new way of living that allows us maximum freedom? 

The problem, that is not stated here, is not the banking system in and of itself (it didn't create itself), but the people behind the banking system—the bankers, and the politicians who have aided and abetted this theft, for a hundred years. 

What is going to be done with them? They are the problem and they are not just going to say "aw, shucks, I'm sorry" and promise to be nice. They are demonic and will find a way to exploit any monetary system that is created. If you need an education on this fact learn the diabolical history of money from Bill Still here.

The best solution to our economic problems (all of them) is the gift economy. Try to manipulate and exploit that! Of course we wouldn't be able to exploit such a system either, and many, many people, not just the bankers, are all too happy to do that. Well, we get what we deserve—it's called karma. As we give it will be given unto us. Our choice.

"Zeitgeist - Moving Forward 2011"

Promotes the Gift Economy

Peter Joseph is the writer, director, producer, cinematographer, composer, editor and narrator of the Zeitgeist films. Quite a guy that Peter Joseph. A real one-man show. His video is an amazing piece of work and have been viewed by more than 16 million people so far, all around the world. His first Zeitgeist, released in 2007, was viewed online by more than 100 million in the first year. He followed up with "Zeitgeist: Addendum" in 2008 that had 50 million views in the first year. Both films brought Joseph awards. 

His next step was to create the Zeitgeist Movement, now a half-million strong, that works to begin a transition of culture into a new sustainable economic paradigm and Zeitgeist: Moving Forward is, in part, a media expression of the same focus. “The Zeitgeist Movement” is an extension of “The Venus Project”- an organization established by industrial designer - Jacque Fresco - who and which are also featured in the film.

In his videos he explains what's going on in the world in such a way that anyone can see it and understand it. He explains the reality of money and the economy in a way that should leave the uninitiated dumbfounded and perhaps even angry. And I love that he brings the viewer to the conclusion that a gift economy is far better than a money economy. He doesn't leave it at that however, about half way through he begins to explain his solution to the problem. That is where we begin to disagree. Apparently following Jacque Fresco he believes that science can solve all the problems--and they present some interesting ideas of how science could solve these problems even today...only if...and that is the part that needs some help. 

If you haven't seen the video here it is, 108 minutes of it. See what you think of it. I will discuss my caveats in a future post.

AMERICA: Desperate Times Demand Revolutionary Measures Towards
Sociopolitical-environmental Collapse

by Prof. Peter Phillips

re-posted from globalresearch.ca

“Don't waste any more time or energy on the presidential election than it takes to get to your polling station and pull a lever for a third-party candidate-—just enough to register your obstruction and defiance—and then get back out onto the street. That is where the question of real power is being decided.” Chris Hedges, May 2012

Runway capitalism is moving unrelentingly towards sociopolitical-environmental collapse—cheered on by a two-headed single party machine known as US Congress. Activists, who see the coming disasters as catastrophic, are seeking revolutionary change through non-cooperation, and occupy disruptions. Yet, many are the still delusional hopefuls desperately fumbling with traditional responses; including "Kum ba yah" marches, and the futile support for progressive left-leaning candidates seeking positions of influence inside the Washington beltway.

Do we understand that habeas corpus is no longer a legal protection in the US or that the US president can torture and kill American citizens, let along anyone in the world? How can we ignore the inconvenient truths of warrentless wire taps and electronic monitoring for everyone? Why do we tolerate that US-NATO forces killing people in over one hundred countries in the world using special service operatives, private assassins and drones—a million civilians deaths in Iraq alone? How can we be so blind as not to see our corporate media is a propaganda fog machine for the one percent?  These questions, reflecting the reality of America today, are so far from the values of our traditions that accepting any aspect of authority from Washington DC is a sacrilege to our honor. We are in desperate times.

In Congress, wealth begets membership, and wealth is the reward for correct action. The members in the House and Senate have a collective net worth of $2.04 billion, up from $1.65 billion, in 2008.  While at the same time, Americans' household net worth has continued to declined and the number of people living in poverty has risen for the fifth year in a row.

The American Congress is in reality an artificial organization serving as cheerleader to the transnational corporate class of the world. Congress offers its members little more than a transitional path into the good life of corporate affluence as long as the members remain loyal to party discipline. Our legitimate electoral process has been completely usurped by the Supreme Court ruling that a corporation’s free speech rights allow unlimited campaign spending, and congressional lobbying knows no bounds. Any candidate willing to serve in the Democrat or Republican parties in the US congress today, even as a gadfly of resistance, is stepping beyond the pale of constitutional government.

Even if a Progressive Democrat of America—Moves On into the congressional circle, the magnitude of compromise demanded makes effective action impossible other than occasional symbolic votes of resistance. Those stepping out of party lines will invariably result in orchestrated opposition during the next selection cycle—Just ask Cynthia McKinney.

Reform is not an option. The only action possible is a complete and total return to the social justice values of our US Constitution and the Bill of rights. We cannot allow extrajudicial killings, privacy invasions into our homes, and police state interceptions in the commons. We cannot allow global capitalism to continue to kill and impoverish billions of people and destroy the planet

Protecting and even rewriting our Constitution and our Bill of Rights will require revolutionary acts. We must retool our elections and eliminate/ignore the dark clouds of corporate media. A mass movement at this level requires grass roots action by a core of at least ten percent of our population. Getting one out of ten people actively involved is not at all impossible; this is where our traditional values meet human rights. We are a people of hope that only need to overcome our fears and find the voice of our values by using radical democracy for human betterment for all.

The right to vote is a long held value. We are often asked, “Why waste your vote on an independent third party candidate, they will never has a chance to win.” Can voting for a candidate who reflects your own political values and beliefs be a wasted vote? It seems that voting for your true beliefs is a self-actualizing act, and compromising one’s values to pick the lesser of two evils is self-alienating. Therefore, we urge all to continue to vote, but find candidates outside of the two party oligopoly. Maybe someday, self-actualized voting will be fashionable.  

Peter Phillips is a professor of political sociology and social movements at Sonoma State University. He is the president of Media Freedom Foundation/Project Censored, and co-host with Mickey Huff of the weekly Project Censored Show on KPFA.

Stopping the Activities of Kali

Maharaja Pariksit, who could fight one thousand enemies single-handedly, thus pacified the personality of religion and the earth. Then he took up his sharp sword to kill the personality of Kali, who is the cause of all ir-religion. (Srimad Bhagavatam 1.17.28)

PURPORT by A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

"As described above, the personality of Kali is he who deliberately commits all kinds of sinful acts which are forbidden in the revealed scriptures. This age of Kali will certainly be full of all activities of Kali, but this does not mean that the leaders of society, the executive heads, the learned and intelligent men, or above all the devotees of the Lord should sit down tightly and become callous to the reactions of the age of Kali. In the rainy season certainly there will be profuse rainfalls, but that does not mean that men should not take means to protect themselves from the rains. It is the duty of the executive heads of state and others to take all necessary actions against the activities of Kali or the persons influenced by the age of Kali; and Maharaja Pariksit is the ideal executive head of the state, for at once he was ready to kill the personality of Kali with his sharp sword. The administrators should not simply pass resolutions for anti-corruptional steps, but they must be ready with sharp swords to kill the persons creating corruptions from the angle of vision of the recognized shastras. The administrators cannot prevent corrupt activities by allowing wine shops. They must at once close all shops of intoxicating drugs and wine and force punishment even by death for those who indulge in habits of intoxication of all description. That is the way of stopping the activities of Kali, as exhibited herein by Maharaja Pariksit, the maha-ratha." (here for the rest of the story)

Sometimes I am asked why I write about such mundane topics as economics and do not focus exclusively on the topics of the Lord. In this commentary Srila Prabhupada clearly states: “above all the devotees of the Lord should not sit down tightly and become callous to the reactions of the age of Kali"—and those reactions are becoming severe.

Indeed, instead of keeping our collective heads in the clouds, callous to the reactions of this age, the devotees need to take action. The only solution to the problems of this age are the principles of religion and those principles are only explained sufficiently in the works of His Divine Grace. Someone is needed to explain how the Bhagavat philosophy applies to, and can solve today’s problems, and that is what I am attempting to do here.

There is no material solution to the problems that are manifesting in today’s world. They are the work of Kali, and he has the upper hand right now. It is a fact that unless the devotees of the Lord begin to take action to rally against the actions of Kali the situation will be lost. The global rulers have everything in their grip and they intend to squeeze it for all that its worth. And people are being squeezed. Who is going to help them? Who can help them except the Bhagavat and the persons Bhagavat? Spiritual Economics explains what is going on and what to do about it. We need you to play your part. Get in the game. 

The reality check, the activities of Kali, is in the next (above) post. And there you will see that the good professor wants to use whatever measures are present in his worldview. The problem is that the Western worldview is too limited to clearly understand the problem, to say nothing then of the solution. There is no understanding of the vices of Kali in the Western worldview. There is no understanding of the divine and demonic natures. There is no understanding of the Yuga dharma, the power of the maha-mantra, etc., etc. 

Only the devotees of the Lord have the knowledge and understanding to foil the demon Kali. Maharaja Pariksit did once at the beginning of the age. He needs to be dealt with again. Tell me please, what you are going to do to stop Kali?

Tales Too Terrible to Tell, But They Must Be Heard

In my book “Spiritual Economics” I write about economics under the influence of the material energies: goodness, passion and ignorance. These words should not be confused with the English equivalents, but they are the closest translation from sattva-guna, rajo-guna and tamo-guna. Tamo-guna, the mode of ignorance, brings the influence of any bad quality that we can think of (which is the influence of tamo-guna): greed, envy, cheating, stealing, duplicity, graft, violence, destruction and so on.

One of the examples that I use to demonstrate the influence of tamo-guna in economic activity is slavery. In that section I presented a number of examples of modern slavery. That’s a shocking pair of words for most people to hear. We somehow think that slavery is a thing of the past dark ages before people became ‘civilized,’ (whatever that is). But the fact is that more people are enslaved today than at any other time in the past—more than 24 million according to some estimates. Slavery for anything and everything that a human can be used for, but they fall mainly into two categories: sex and labor. What gives some people the the idea that they can own and control others? Tamo-guna. And it's influence is increasing day-by-day.

Today I was writing about slavery again, this time for the new book I am working on—Change the Karma! In preparing I again viewed websites that I looked at about 5 years ago doing the initial research. And not surprisingly I came across a good deal of new information that didn’t exist five years ago, such as the fact that slavery of all kinds is increasing, not decreasing. The government agencies are passing laws to punish the evil-doers but that is simply dealing with the symptom and not the disease. To be honest I am starting to get annoyed at this. The SYMPTOM is not THE PROBLEM! C’mon people! The fact that some people are enslaving others is not the source of the problem! It is a spiritual problem and is due to the influence of evil or tamo-guna in this world. I’ll explain it all in Change the Karma! so be sure to stay-tuned and get that book for all the answers.

Any day that one has to hear about how terribly others are treated is a difficult one. These are such sad stories, but they need to be told so that everyone can wake up and realize what is going on in this world—even if its not going on in your world. That is good because that means that you have the ability to change the world, which is something that these slaves cannot do. To change the world we must eliminate / reduce the evil, or eliminate / reduce the tamo-guna. The best and easiest way to do that is to chant the names of God. Any bona fide name of God will do. The Hindus have one thousand, and so do the Muslims. The Jews have almost a hundred as well. But the best is called the Maha-mantra. Maha means great, so the maha-mantra means the great mantra, the best, the most powerful. The maha-mantra is the Hare Krishna mantra—Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. If you want to see and hear some great chanting go here, or here, and there is plenty more where that came from. By giving some time to this, even ten minutes a day, you will benefit and the entire planet will as well.

To encourage you by helping you realize what this world is becoming, and what, if we do not take measures to change, will soon be coming to a neighborhood near you, I would like you to watch this TED talk given by Lisa Kristine. She is an anthropologist who has made it her purpose to tell people about modern slavery. I am sure you will be impressed. I was...even after I was reading about slavery a good part of the day. If it touches you then please do something to Change the Karma! – chant the Hare Krishna maha-mantra—all day, every day. Don't stop. You will become happy and help to make this world a happier place.

(p.s.: I got he link for Lisa's TED talk from www.freetheslaves.net. It's a good place to start if you want to know more about modern slavery.)

Things Seem to Work the Same Everywhere These Days:

Received from my Russian friends (obviously). Everybody has their price it seems, but one wonders what kind of world we will have if everybody is paid to overlook things that should not be overlooked.