The question is whether there can be a shift in the collective consciousness of Europe, a shift that is willing to recognize cause and effect. True cause, true effect, instead of confusing the two, as has now been taking place on this continent for so many centuries that one must wonder when the common man, so to speak, will begin to awaken and realize that something cannot be right in the way they look at life, the way they look at the world.
A great challenge for democracy
What is one of the greatest challenges to democracy as a form of government? It is the apathy of the people. Where does the apathy come from? Well, from a perversion of higher awareness of course. Consider the attitude so commonly found among many people in democratic nations, where they look at current conditions – whatever those conditions may be – and they shrug their shoulders and say, “That’s just the way things are” or “That’s just the way things have to be.”
Well, there is nothing on this earth that just is the way it has to be. Whatever is manifest on this earth is the effect of a cause and that cause is human beings. Someone, some group of people, set in motion a cause that created the current effect you see in society, and they set in motion that cause in their consciousness. And thus, it is time to awaken to the reality that has been proven by science for over a century, namely that energy is a more fundamental level of reality than matter. And therefore, what happens in the realm of matter does not matter, for it is caused by something in the realm of energy. And of course the human mind, the human consciousness can interact with energy.
Since all matter is made from energy, consciousness can ultimately create or at least shape matter. Without this realization, democracy cannot survive, nor can it reach its highest potential, and thus if you look at the E.U. as a whole and you look at where the greatest economic challenges are found, if you look at the nations that have the greatest financial troubles right now, you will see very clearly that the nations where you find the greatest amount of financial problems, are the nations that have the highest level of corruption in all branches of the government. And thus, the biggest challenge to democracy – or at least to the re-establishment of some fiscal progressive state – is indeed that corruption must be exposed for what it is, a direct threat to democracy.
Why corruption is a threat to democracy
What is one of the founding ideas behind democracy? Well, it is first that we have a society based on principles, based on laws. This of course is not unique to democracy, for Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union had laws. But what is unique to democracy is that everyone is, or at least should be, equal to the law.
No one is above the law. No one is a privileged elite, who can get away with things that the ordinary citizen cannot get away with. For once you allow the creation of such an elite, then you have undermined democracy, and you might call a society a democracy, you might have people go to the voting booth every four years, but if there is an underlying system that has created an elite and if that elite can buy privileges from the elected government, well then you cannot say that this is a democratically elected government. For it is not a democratic government and it was elected by default, because the people had no real alternative to this corrupt government.
That is precisely why the people – when they see this happen, over and over again and when they grow up in this system and this consciousness – they shrug their shoulders and say: “That’s just the way things have to be,” and they believe that there is nothing that can be done to change the mindset. For they see that even though democracy may have been instituted in their society at some point, nothing has really changed, as many of the people in Russia see that nothing has really changed before communism and after communism. For it is still the same corrupt privileged elite that runs the country, and it does not really matter whether you vote for this presidential candidate or that presidential candidate, for there are those who consider themselves to be above the law and who will, for that matter, create laws so that they themselves can get back into office or stay in office longer, and therefore in essence become a dictator who is not truly elected, except through a mock democratic process.
A modern version of the feudal societies
What you see here in Europe in several nations, including of course Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal, is a high level of corruption in all levels of government, where unless you know somebody or unless you have money to pay, you cannot get through. You cannot create a business, you cannot expand a business, you cannot sustain a business. You cannot get anywhere beyond the level of whatever level the ordinary person is relegated to, by the current level of the economy in that country. What you have even here in Western Europe, in many of the southern nations, is indeed a state that is not so different from the feudal societies of the middle ages.
Surely, you have democracy on the surface, but you do not have a true democracy for all people are not equal under the law. There is still a privileged elite. Yes, by numbers the elite is bigger today than it was in the feudal societies, where a relatively small number of landowners and noblemen could control a nation. But nevertheless you still have an elite that is only a small percentage of the population, and through their influence, their connections, and their money, they control the country regardless of the democratic process, which really is not a process but is just a façade.
Is it right that other nations – that have long ago made an effort to at least transcend the worst forms of corruption – is it right that these nations should bail out nations, where the people have not been willing to stand up and demand true democracy? For when, indeed, you have a society that has a democratic constitution – and where the people have the opportunity to vote, have the opportunity to speak out – then the people cannot get away from responsibility by shrugging their shoulders and saying: “That’s just the way things are, there is nothing we can do about it.”
Because there is something you can do about it. You can rise up in sufficient numbers and demand true reforms, true changes. What do you think that people in other parts of Europe did to overcome elitism and corruption? They stood up, they demanded changes. They were willing to make changes themselves, and they have been willing to be alert and be vigilant and demand that their countries do not slide back into corruption, as of course, there is always a danger that a country will do.
The division in Europe
The reality is simply that you have a certain division in Europe, between nations where people have taken responsibility, at least some degree of responsibility for their nations. And then you have other nations, where the people have not been willing to take this responsibility, partly because, when truth be told, they are looking for an easy way out. There are so many people in those nations who are hoping that they themselves can get to the point, where they are paid off by somebody because they have gotten themselves into a position where they can be paid off. Or they know somebody in their family who is in such a position, and thus they do not want to overthrow the system.
Yet, nothing will change until the people stand up and acknowledge one very simple fact, namely the principle that you will have a multiplication of your talents and that what you will receive is a multiplication of what you give out. And therefore, when you realize this eternal, universal principle, you must be willing to make an effort, and then you will be rewarded accordingly when enough people do so and when things cycle through to the physical octave.
But as long as the majority of the people have the idea that they want an easy way out, that they want a handout from the government – that they want an easy life, where they do not want to multiply their talents, whatever talents they have – well, then how can a country transcend corruption, when everyone silently agrees with corruption, because they are just waiting and hoping that they or someone they know will get in a position, where they are on the receiving end of the flow of corruption?
How corruption limits the economy
But why not make yourself on the receiving end of the universal multiplication that the universe will provide in abundance for those who multiply their talents. The reason why there are certain nations that have a much lower level of economy than others, is precisely that the people are not willing to multiply their talents. They sit there and wait for some money to come their way. But in a corrupt economy, there is only a certain amount of money and there is no way that the country can transcend that level of abundance.
What is it that the corrupt system does? It creates a situation, where there is only a fixed amount and therefore everybody is trying to get a bigger and bigger slice of the cake for themselves. Whereas when you have a system where people are willing to multiply their talents, then you are constantly increasing the amount.
And thus, there is no need for people to be corrupt, because they see that by putting forth an effort, by taking an initiative, by starting a business, they will receive a more abundant return from the universe than they could ever receive through some kind of payoff. This is the situation you have in many northern European countries, including Germany, where the people are willing to work. They are willing to work hard. They are willing to take responsibility for their personal finances and not go into more debt than is reasonable.
The artificial inflation of real estate prices
This is what needs to be changed in other nations. Even some other nations that are still doing well financially need to recognize that the boom cycle, leading up to the bust of 2008, was also a form of corruption only on a much higher level, where those who have formed the financial elite have managed to create an inflationary cycle that especially inflated real estate prices beyond all rhyme and reason.
Yet the people thought that if their house kept going up in value, they could one day sell it with a profit, or they could take out a loan on the free value and use it to finance their lifestyle. But you need to recognize that this is also a form of corruption. For what is it that corruption does?
It steals the value of people’s labor. But this financial corruption steals the value of your labor by degrading the value of the money system of the entire currency of a nation. For when you inflate real estate prices to three times a sustainable level based on salaries, then you are stealing people’s money, because they have to pay so much more for their homes, for their mortgages. And this is not that much different from when they have to pay somebody for protection of their store, or they have to pay to get anything done.
When you think there is an easy way out; you are not multiplying the talents. It really is that simple. This should be economics 101 taught in every college and every high school in the world. For there is no other way to grow an economy, than for the people to multiply their talents, whatever those talents may be. And truly, any nation has talents, any people have talents that they can multiply.
It is only by multiplying what you have that you increase the total, the sum, the whole, so that the whole can be more than the sum of the parts. Whereas in a corrupt system, the whole is less than the sum of the parts, and this can only be changed in one way. You cannot force this upon people. It can only be changed by the people themselves recognizing the reality explained here. This has been in the collective consciousness now for a very long time, and there is a collective momentum that has been growing steadily since the feudal system was broken not so long ago. Nevertheless, long enough that several generations have passed, where people have grown up when there has been a collective momentum of realizing that, “What we sow, we will reap!” And the more we multiply the talents, the more we reap, the more we receive as a return.