PR
New Era Conversations #53
– Leadership; Taxation
– Sept. 21, 2015
Teacher: Machiventa Melchizedek
Topics:
Leadership traits
Leadership at the local level
Importing the six core values at the local level
Social sustainability will develop at the grass roots level
The current political divide, both locally and nationally
Fix the old paradigm or create a new paradigm?
The question of devising an advanced nation with low taxation
Living together co-creatively and co-responsibly
Addressing the problem of debt of individuals and nations
Fix the communication network first
Meditate for guidance
Changes for our team in the near future
Closing words of wisdom
TR: Daniel Raphael
Team members: Roxanne Andrews, Michael McCray, and a student
September 21, 2015
The Great Invocation:
“From the point of light within the mind of God
Let light stream forth into the minds of men
Let light descend on earth.
From the point of love within the heart of God
Let love stream forth into the hearts of men
May Christ return to earth.
From the centre where the Will of God is known
Let purpose guide the little wills of men
The purpose which the Masters knew and serve.
From the centre which we call the race of men
That the plan of love and light work out
And may it seal the door where evil dwells.
Let light and love and power restore the plan on earth.”
(From the New Zealand Group, 1984.)
Leadership traits
MACHIVENTA: Good morning, this is Machiventa Melchizedek. It is a pleasure to be in your company once again.
(Group greetings.)
MACHIVENTA: Let us follow up the discussion we had on leadership the last time. You—the three here—are what you might call “ordinary people.” You do not rub shoulders with the giants of your societies, of the hierarchy of leadership and government, and society and economies, yet you have an awareness of leadership in your small repertoire of friends. Who would you like to be a leader? Who would you like to participate in leadership teams? Who has the skills that are needed for authentic, genuine, transparent leadership? You might want to consider the skills that these potential leaders may have. You may also want to list the traits of leadership, which you think are important. Some of you have a small list of friends, and a larger list of acquaintances, and an even larger list of individuals who you have seen or heard or read about through your years. Consider these individuals, even those you have not met, who have the traits and characteristics of leadership that you would like to see participate on a leadership team.
If you are thinking of participatory management skills, who would you like to have participate in the management teams that direct the course of your societies, for your governments and for your economies. Who would be amenable and open to the six core values of social sustainability? Who would be willing to incorporate those into their thinking? What kind of mind does the leader have? Is it a dualistic mind? Do they think in terms of dualistic orientations, or do they have a mind that is open and receptive to the variations of every topic? Those who are amenable to social sustainability would not be thinking in terms of either/or, positive or negative, black or white, at work or no work. There are gradients among all those options, and not all leadership minds are open to those gradients. Who do you know personally, who has the capacity and capability to participate in a leadership team? You may want to begin there, and then expand your list. We know that some of you have a very small coterie of friends who you trust, who you feel comfortable with and who have the capacity for leadership.
Leadership at the local level
We are not necessarily talking about leadership of a nation, or of a whole society, but leadership within, let us say, a local social sustainability design team. Who would you nominate to be a facilitator, or a recorder, or an inquiring member, or the consultant? Who has the capacity to organize and lead, and initiate a design team in your community? Maybe that person is you; maybe not. These are some of the questions and some of the options you should be thinking about in terms of leadership, for when the time comes and there is disarray in your city—or your state, or your local community or county—who could you count upon to be of assistance to help reorganize—or to organize—a design team and to begin thinking of sustainable options for the future?
Even if you do not form a team, the awareness in the minds of your local potential leaders, or assistant leaders, it would be useful for them to have in mind the six core values of social sustainability as the options for making good decisions. In the very beginning, you may not have a design team at all, and you may not have one for a long time, but if leaders and followers are thinking in terms of those six decision-making markers as criteria for establishing harmony, balance and stability in their community, tremendous progress will develop; we can assure you of that.
We are open to questions concerning this topic, or others, if you wish.
Roxie: Machiventa, in the subdivision that I live in, we do have quite a few people that would just naturally step in and lead when the occasion arises, but I am not sure that they would want to lead in the manner of a design team. I think they would have their own ideas of how to proceed.
Importing the six core values at the local level
MACHIVENTA: Yes, we would anticipate that in almost all communities, but there needs to be someone in that community who raises their hand and gives them the format, or the values—the six core values of social sustainability as options, as criteria for making decisions. It is important that that presentation fall upon the ears of most members of a community. We can imagine as you could yourself, that after a community is isolated by some catastrophe or some other situation, that the community would rally together and have a common meeting. At that meeting, the many options will be discussed. It is important that that community building and the six core values of social sustainability be brought forward as a topic or a means of making decisions that are in the welfare of all concerned. If you knew these things, and you were pessimistic about their leadership and the community of receiving that information, and you withheld that from them, then you have done a tremendous disservice by omission to your community.
[ Note: The 3 core values and 3 core value-emotions are: Life, Growth, Equality, Empathy, Compassion and Love.]
We know that there will be those individuals who are headstrong and who are egoistic enough to think that they can lead the community out of its difficulties; this is a natural development. We expect that would come from some dominant male in a community. It is upon the women that we know that will bring forward the values that will sustain families, and would help your community to grow into its fullness with transparency by following the effective criteria of sustainability.
Student: All that you have just said has really has brought things down to my level. With social sustainability I have been thinking more on a worldwide level and national level. But now that you are talking community I can relate so much more with it, and getting direction this way, with these ideas, I really appreciate it because exactly what you have said is that in these small communities, if anything ever happens, you are going to have people come together to form plans, and it is going to be a few people all know in their communities that are going to be more dominant than others. My thinking, like I said, has always been more on a national level, but when you bring it more into focus like this, I can really relate with it, that really helps; it makes more sense, and I know it affects everybody. It’s when you talk like this on a more personal level, a community level, that it really helps. Thank you!
Social sustainability will develop at the grass roots level
MACHIVENTA: You are most welcome. We have always said that social sustainability will develop at the grass roots level, and that it will not be hierarchy that brings about social sustainability in organizations, and then in cities and states; it will begin first with local individuals who know the rightness of these criteria. You have seen this clearly. This is the reason why the community building book, “Social Sustainability Handbook for Community-Builders” was given that title. This is a fundamental, simple and short book to describe social sustainability to local community people. It is available online as an e-book, so it will still be down loadable by most communities, even in times of crisis. Your comments give us an assurance from the mortal, local level that there is truth in what we have brought forward to you.
Student: Yes, definitely. Everything that you have said resonates within me, and it is truth—and I know that—but just because you started really talking on the local level, it brought it home, more so than thinking on the worldwide level. If anything ever does happen, the local level is where the communication has to really come in. I know it does grow up from there and become spread to a national level, but the local level is the one I really agree with. Thank you.
The current political divide, both locally and nationally
Roxie: Machiventa, our whole country is divided almost exactly down the middle in terms of the political parties, and we are having that same problem even at our local level of the City of Loveland. The school board, for example, is split in half and all they do is argue. It is having a disastrous effect on our school district because the school board is divided in half politically. Do you have any comments about how we can prevent that sort of thing from continuing on when we work through that in times of crisis?
MACHIVENTA: You will find that the superficial issues of community will be wiped away very quickly in times of crisis, as the cataclysms occur locally, as you have mentioned. This will give new focus to the function of governmental agencies and education. The “why” question of education will come up at that time: “What is it that education is meant to teach?” “What are the reasons for education’s existence?” And those questions will be examined because people will not have the skills or knowledge, information and education, to help themselves survive, or make contributions to the survival of the community. This again, is where leadership comes in. It may be that you raise your hand and you present these options: That is leadership!
Fix the old paradigm or create a new paradigm?
You may not become the leader, or the organizer, or be a participant on the team, but leadership begins by presenting ideas that work, ideas that are perennial, that are timeless—using criteria that are timeless. You will find that when the weeks wear on, as the community is in crisis, they will strive to reorganize themselves to become functional once again. The question then remains, “Do you fix the old paradigm, or do you create a new paradigm?” What you will find, and what you could present, is that these six criteria of social sustainability provide the timeless criteria for sustainability, that they provide the criteria for all decision-making that gives uniformity to the present to assist and support and sustain the future and future generations.
There has been no organizing criteria heretofore that could assist a community to become focused in its efforts and energies to support itself and sustain itself and generations into the future. When these six values are given examination by thinking leaders, they will find that this answers the “why of education?” because social sustainability is societal, it is civilizational, and it is individual and familial. Its orientation is to the future, but in order to fulfill that future, the present must be organized around consistent criteria to answer the questions to the social issues and public issues that come forward.
The question of devising an advanced nation with low taxation
MMc: Machiventa, last time we were together, you asked a question, a little teaser, and the question was: “How would you devise an advanced nation with low taxation?” I believe I have an answer for you: You would organize individuals into self-sustaining communities and organizations. Individuals would then, within the communities, work for the organizations and the organizations would provide goods and services to the individuals for a fee. They would be mutually supportive within the communities. I wondered if you would… first of all, is that a reasonable answer to your question, and second of all, I wondered if you would speak to us about this a little bit more?
MACHIVENTA: Your answer is not anything different than what you are doing now in your society by paying for your services and products that you need in your life, which does not address the aspect of taxation. One of the potential scenarios for a low taxation in the future of your societies would be for corporations or businesses to become more socially responsible, while still making a profit. Those are two criteria that are essential for the continuance of commerce. Through some mechanism, companies and corporations, even sole proprietorships that have employees, will be encouraged to provide services to their employees that are in accordance or in alignment with the six core values of social sustainability. This would make it easier for government to reduce its services, and to make government smaller by corporations or companies providing services to their employees and to their client base, or customer base, in ways that support the three core values, there would be less need for hierarchical control of social programs.
This is a far different scenario, or different paradigm of doing business than exists in your society now. However, you have one political party that continues to espouse smaller government, but there is no means available to that political party to think of how to reduce the dominance and participation and control of government in the personal lives of citizens. These three core values, qualified by the three core value-emotions would be able to provide the basis for reinventing social supports of your society at the local and regional basis by local companies and national and international companies. It would go a long way in assisting the investment of social sustainability into your societies. How companies would be compensated would be through a tax credit, if they adhered to these local and regional programs that they initiate themselves with their employees, they would avoid higher taxes during the transition period to a new tax structure. This is one very brief example. It seems nebulous, it seems fuzzy to you, but it uses the six core values to qualify the programs.
Obviously, in order to change the equation of commerce, the whole thought of profitability and dividends and disbursement of income must change radically. The investment process must also come from the employees; it must come from those who participate in the operation of the corporation. In other words, that for social sustainability to become operational on an ongoing basis, there must be the reciprocal or symbiotic relationship between responsibilities and income and privileges, that employees would become co-owners of the organization of the corporation or company that they work for. They would be in receipt of dividends much as the current dividend structures exist. You would be concerned about the divestiture of current dividend holders, of stock holders; that is an issue that must be resolved and one that is amenable to current investors. In other words, citizens become stockholders in the corporations where they work, and they become stockholders as social assets in their own communities and society.
Living together co-creatively and co-responsibly
Attendant to that must be greater responsibility on the part of the individual to make wise decisions that support the social sustainability of everyone. This, of course, would require that your educational systems be reorganized to also teach individuals at a very early age, how to live in a socially sustainable community. Enculturation obviously must begin in the family; it must begin with those individuals who are now pubescent and who are pre-procreational, before they have their own children, so that when they do come together and they have children, that they will enculturate those children with the values of personal responsibility for living in a shared society. The gross individualism of your American society is a very detrimental aspect of your American history; it has served its purposes, now you must learn to live together co-creatively and co-responsibly.
Addressing the problem of debt of individuals and nations
Roxie: In looking for an answer to that question that Michael just brought up, I checked out the “Government on a Neighboring Planet” paper in the Urantia Book, and in that paper on the section on taxation, they list: Import Duties, Royalties from patents, Inheritance Tax, Leasing Military Equipment, and Income from Natural Resources, and that one day’s earnings per month from each employed person goes to the Old Age Insurance program. I find that with our huge debt that our government holds right now, that would be very difficult to use on our society until after the debt is paid off. Your comments, please?
MACHIVENTA: The debt structure of your nations on your world is something that will cause the next economic and global recession and depression. It is a man-made phenomena, it is not actually part of the socially sustainable economic structure. Borrowing money is an anticipation of success in the future. However, by using the Schematic for Validating Social Sustainability you may find that in the last column, the criteria for performance, is that there is failure, that individuals are unable to pay their mortgages, or pay the interest on their debts. We are speaking of individuals; we are also speaking of nations. You have seen this same situation previously in Argentina, and you have now seen it in the nation of Greece. This situation will continue as there are so many nations that are very deeply in debt, and do not have the commercial capacity to pay the interest, let alone pay down the principle.
The situation of nations is no different than that of an individual, and that is that there is the expectation and planning for expansion of a business, or a nation’s economy to increase income and standard of living, and so on. Going further to the left of this schematic, you will find that beliefs—there is the belief that the economy is stable, assuming that it will continue so, that the economy is stable and the belief that by investing money, you can make more money to improve standards of living, and so on. The unspoken assumption that underlies that belief is that this will continue on without failure. This is not realistic. The realistic understanding is that economies are always very fragile and very fickle, and can change radically.
Ten years of prosperity is not an indicator that there will be another hundred years of prosperity. In fact, your history of economics has demonstrated that ten years is almost the longest era by which economies can sustain their growth. The assumption is that human nature would not seek to hoard income or be greedy to skew the whole process. The values, of course, of everyone are very similar: To have an improved quality of life, to experience growth, and to do so equally as those who are very wealthy and powerful and financially independent. As you can see, the assumptions are what bites you in the end. Assumptions support the fallacious decision-making that eventually causes economies to collapse—or family incomes to collapse.
Who makes the decision to buy a house worth five times as much as the house you are living in? You do. Who makes the decision to buy a car that costs five or ten times more than the used car that is now paid off that you now own? You do. Your civilizations, your people, your populace does not enculturate children, or learn from the wisdom of history. One of the wonderful elements of your species is that you are ebullient, you are expansive, and you are extremely assertive to move forward with the assumption that progress will always be evident. You, as a species, have also forgotten the many hundreds of times you in your personal lives have made erroneous decisions, small and large, that cause you great difficulty in the future.
Social sustainability is not about the lows and the highs; it is about the normal range that brings social stability and peace. Your nations would be hugely different if the military budgets were shrunk by 90%. Your governments do not know how to operate in such a positive cash-flow situation; they would once again see that positive cash-flow as a means to expand, and so on, causing more difficulty. You are seeing once again, a repeat, a repeat, and another repeat of history of expansion and failure, and now they are coming more closely together.
Roxie: Do you think it is possible to make these changes that you are talking about if we don’t have a calamity or catastrophe to be the impetus, and a reduced population to put it on an easier level of achievement?
MACHIVENTA: No.
Student: Roxanne and Michael have given their answers to the question you asked about lower taxation, I must admit that after you gave us the question, after the session was over, I thought about the question and the only thing that came to my mind—and I didn’t go any further than that—that it would only possibly work if everybody, the country, the communities, whatever, were really working on social sustainability as their goal, and eventually you would maybe see lower taxation. But unless that was implemented throughout the country or community, it wouldn’t happen. That was my thought. Your comment?
MACHIVENTA: Yes, you are absolutely correct. However, in the beginning, let us say that there is such a social and societal collapse in your nation that the function of government is almost nil. Then you would be able to invent what you wanted to. It will also be such that there will be an acknowledgement that the old paradigm failed, once again, as prior nations and societies and empires and dynasties have failed throughout all of human history. There must be an appreciation by many, particularly at the grass roots level that the old paradigm is not working. Many citizens of democracy rail against their government, but they do not have a better answer. Personal responsibility must become increased significantly for a stable society to work, let alone a socially sustainable society.
Fix the communication network first
There must be “a change of heart” for your nations to change the way they do business. There must be a means by which millions of individuals at the local level can voice their opinions that they want to do something different, that the old paradigm does not work. You wonder how that might be possible when there have been cataclysms, and so on: You will find that if there is a will, there is a way to communicate, and mortals are always so communicative and want to improve the means and speed by which they can communicate. You will find that even in times of disaster and difficulty that communications will be one of the parts of the infrastructure that will be replaced or repaired first. This is necessary to carry forward the old paradigm as well as institute a new paradigm. Someone must come forward and say, “There is a better way. There is a new way. There is something that is sustainable.”
Meditate for guidance
You must, of course, leave many of the arrangements to the Most Highs, and to your Melchizedeks, and to your teachers to assist you in these times of need. It may seem odd that when there is chaos all around you, it is time to meditate; it is time to become still and enter the space of ‘no thought’ and contemplate what you can do, or just simply live in the open space of ‘no thought’ and let spirit speak to you, and then you will awaken within hours or days and realize that you have an idea that could be helpful to your community. We say, once again, that the New Era of socially stable societies will begin at the local level. We will do what we can, and endeavor to do as much as possible before then, to make the grass roots level of citizens throughout the world aware of social sustainability. This is a challenge for us; it is a challenge for you. It has never been done before in such a manner in all of Orvonton. This is the beginning of participatory social evolution on a grand scale, beginning with the individual, the family, and the community. The challenges are mighty for us and the challenges are as great for you, as well.
Student: Thank you, Machiventa. Yes, absolutely, and thank you—it makes much more sense to me when you explain it that way. Thank you very much.
MMc: Are there any more questions for Machiventa today?
Roxie: No more questions from me.
Changes for our team in the near future
Student: Can I ask one more, please? It’s regarding the fact of when you talked a while ago about the different cataclysms happening and what will happen to communications when this comes about, and there is once again communication for our team, that we will go to weekly communications. My question is: Would you be speaking more specifically as to the grass roots level of people who are going to be listening or reading these communications when they come out? Will you focus more on those things?
MACHIVENTA: Yes, most certainly. We anticipate that developments and unfoldments concerning social sustainability and the needs of the public will arise before then. Your societies, your world is in tremendous flux right now; there is much chaos in Europe and elsewhere due to many wrong decisions in the past. There is an ongoing cataclysm in your world now, concerning your nations, and particularly the people of nations. The established citizens of Europe are highly concerned about their own welfare, and very concerned about their welfare in the future, given the influx of these new migrants that are entering their nations.
The disintegration of the Middle East continues to go on. Yes, we will be much more involved with you at the local level, but at that time, you will be assisted—particularly those of you who are TRs and who are clairaudient channels, to become aware of personal direction and guidance and direction for your local community. You will find that our teachers who are in huge abundance will become more as mentors to you in the co-responsibility of renewing the sustainable roots of your society and your community. These are eventual developments; there are some things which even we cannot change, but certainly that we can affect for an outcome that benefits both Christ Michael’s Correcting Time and you as individuals.
Student: Thank you, Machiventa. I have no more questions.
MACHIVENTA: Michael, do you have any more questions?
MMc: No, I have no more today for you, sir.
Roxie: I would like to say one thing, Machiventa. We felt very badly the last time we met on the 7th, because we didn’t sign off properly and allow you a chance to say any closing words that you may have had. We are sorry that we neglected to do that.
MACHIVENTA: We realize that your enthusiasm sometimes may overwhelm the procedures of our meetings. This is something that we have anticipated, and something that you should anticipate in your own design teams. This is something where the recorder would take note of the diversion from the course of discussion to an adjacent topic of discussion, and having noted that would bring the team back on course after that secondary discussion has been completed. You are finding yourselves now to be acting in many ways as a local design team, with similar behaviors. Thank you, and your apologies are certainly accepted. You must know that this is part of the team process, and that it will happen, and that you will strive to improve your behavior, but nonetheless, when great ideas come forward, they need to be discussed and recorded and developed eventually, and then the team brought back to the original line of discussion. Your comments are very timely and very much appreciated. Thank you.
Roxie: Thank you for your understanding.
Closing words of wisdom
MACHIVENTA: Thank you for your presence here today, and as you can see from our discussion, that we are entering into new phases of your planetary development and its social, political and economic evolution. We are seeing outwardly in your world the necessity of change, the positive change that is guided by underlying, consistent criteria that will bring about positive results. You are beginning to see that the values of social sustainability are the values of all of humanity, not of just a few people, and that when you begin using these, the results benefit everyone, not just a few people. This is the benefit of using values that have sustained your species, and which are part of your whole being. When people begin to understand how they are intrinsically and innately wired with these values, they will begin to see that they make tremendous sense for a more positive future.
Yes, you will have continued difficulties with debts that you made during exuberant, prosperous times that are unsustainable, and you will see this at the national level, international level and at a personal and family level. You must bring forward in your thoughts the necessity of understanding the wisdom of stable, consistent, and positive growth and development in your life, without those spikes of enthusiasm both up into the positive realm and deeply in the negative realm where there is so much destruction that occurs. Your Master told you many times to live a life that is modest of means, and is consistent and rewarding. Good day.
Roxie: Thank you very much for coming today, we appreciate your words of wisdom.
