The Fourth Pregnant Pause

There is a moment in any Learning Journey when you reach the magic State of “Cessation of Ignorance”. Some call it the “Ah! Ha!” factor. Others think in terms of a light bulb illuminating, as they once did in cartoons of old.
It can be an epiphany, a paradigm shift in your Attitude, or just a warm fuzzy feeling in the pit of your stomach.
But it happens, and, hopefully, it has happened to you many times in getting this far.
The simple truth about Making Peace is that it is a feeling, an Attitude, an intent, not a process. You may go through many processes in your efforts to make Peace, but when you have been successful, what will be left is FEELING!
The Thinkers and Directors amongst us shudder at this statement, desperately wanting physical proof – tangible evidence – that Peace has been made. As the Peacemaker, you have to help them to find this “proof”, by illustrating the Change of State that you have managed.
Look to the “Two Profits”, encourage them to explore how they feel about what has been done, and get them to verbalize their feelings.
Just as Profit has many components, so does Peace.
Peace to you may be tranquillity, harmony, balance, optimism, and a sense of both well being and euphoria.
Peace to someone else may well be the absence of things – anxiety, hopelessness, terror, fear, Stress, or malice.
Either way, Peace is the absence of Stress in a Person or a process, and achieving this State will extend your Life, and improve the quality of it.
Remember that when you make Peace for free up all the forces in the good Universe to work for you.
A balance between your Inner and Outer stance presents to your world a clam, engaging, and desirable Personality.
Your inner Peace will be reflected by all those around you as they try to mirror your achievement, and by helping them to make Peace you will be doing them the greatest personal favour imaginable.
Just remember HOT, be ready to RACE, SMILE, and always BREATHE!





Making Peace with Force Multiplication

The concept of force-multiplication is as old as the hills, but it still seems to confuse a lot of very good People. Without it, you can never develop your Peace making ability to the max.
Imagine for one second that you are a Roman soldier in the time of Pompeii, standing in the desert heat, massive shield on one arm, pointed lance proudly astride the other. Through the thin slits of your face-protecting helmet, a flurry of dust rising majestically on the far horizon briefly catches your eye.
Then, on the swirl of a welcome breeze, the faint pounding of horses' hooves reaches you, and you start to wonder.
You're wearing the very latest in soldiering gear - brass striped skirt-like armour, a brass chest plate, helmet, and leather boots with brass strappings. If you have to run, you'll be weighed down by the very things that are supposed to protect you.
Intuitively, you know you're no match for a soldier on horseback, but orders are orders, and you grit your teeth, gird your loins, and lean into your spear, ready to take the charge.
When the dust settles, the last shriek from a dying horse carrying the battlefield, smoke and the stink of death fill your nostrils, and shaking the hot, dry sand from your battle dress, you swear by all that's Holy that the very next day you'll take riding lessons, and hang the expense!
The reality is that which was supposed to most protect you, your brass armour, weighed you down, reduced your ability to move and run, limited your options, and dictated how you fought a superior, more mobile, enemy.
This is the exact same experience you will have every time you allow yourself to be limited by what you think you know.
Knowledge and experience are the two major building blocks in the development of your Peace making ability, but they can also be the cause of your downfall. The moment you assume something, you limit your potential, reduce your vision, filter your hearing, and dull your senses. You effectively pre-program your intellect to expect certain things, and automatically reject anything that doesn't fit your preconceptions.
The three most useless things in life are the knowledge you leave behind you, the experience you casually pass by, and the wisdom you never develop.
You must have the outlook and awareness of an observer, sensitive to all around you. You must be the seeker of knowledge, and you must constantly empower your intellect with new stimulus.
Thus went the foot soldier in favour of the horseman.
The realisation that the body armour was indeed necessary to prevent the arrow or the lance from easily penetrating your skin, drove you onto the back of a horse, so that you could regain your mobility. No sooner had you done this than a new challenge appeared on the horizon, one that effortlessly seemed to be able to cope with your new found power.
Enter the charioteer.
Not one man, but two. And anything up to six horses, frothing at the mouth, powering their stylish cart around at frightening speeds. And, seemingly, almost magically, these two charioteers had the killing ability of ten men.
They moved faster than anyone else on the battlefield, they protected each other from blind-side attacks, they used their horses and carts as shields, battering rams, and (horse-powered) steam rollers. And the blades they attached to their wheels carved the legs out from under the hapless foot soldiers thrown casually into their path.
Still only two men, but with enhancement of their synergist abilities, able to fight like ten.
The advent of technology saw spears and swords give way to bows and arrows, which in time were replaced (thanks to the Chinese) by bombs and bullets. An arrow is simply a flying spear, which is propelled further than a man can physically throw - a kind of force-multiplication effect that allows the "range", or killing area - to expand.
The bullet is just a faster, better, smaller arrow, that again extended the distance between the soldier and his target.
A thousand years later and we see the motor car breed the tank and armoured fighting vehicles of all shapes and sizes, the balloon giving way to the aeroplane, which motored along on pistons until they were eventually replaced with jets.
The creed of Technology - further, faster, higher! - ruled then just as it does today.
Now, the "Roman" soldier who stands in that same desert carries more personal firepower than did 1,000 whole Legions of ancient Romans. That's over one million men, all those years ago, easily replaced by a single foot soldier today.
This is just one aspect of force-multiplication, taken to the limits of modern technology, as we currently apply it to armed warfare.
Let one man do what 1,00,000 used to do, but with a better chance of survival. Interestingly, he stills relies on his "chariot" to get around the battlefield, which comes in many forms, from the humble motorcycle all the way up to the exotic helicopter.
But even with all this technology, the modern soldier is still limited by his personal reach. He can only hit what he or his weapons system can see; he can only see as far as the equipment he has will allow him to; and he will only last as long as the rations he carries, until he is resupplied. While his capacity to do his job has been enhanced many hundreds of times by modern technology, he is still dependant on others to multiply his personal force, and his sphere of influence.
Modern man (or woman), is in exactly the same position. No matter how well equipped you are, how much you think you know, how developed your intellect, or how much you have achieved, you will always be limited by the extent of your personal reach. You need other People to multiply your Peace making ability, so you can do things that would normally be beyond your personal limit.
Take the ancient Roman foot soldier and put him in a chariot, and he can wage war on a much wider front, faster, and more refreshed. Give the modern soldier expert intelligence about his enemy, fly him to his killing-zone by helicopter, and resupply him often with material and water, and you effectively extend his reach to wherever you need him to be. Within, of course, the limits of what a single man can achieve in a given period of time.
But give him one more man (or woman) to work with, and suddenly you have an effective force many times greater than just the two People.
Like the charioteer of old, where the two Romans in the cart were able to fight like ten men, coordinating their activities with deadly effect.
The combined skill is always greater than the two individual skills, because the synergy between two People has a force-multiplying effect.
Our modern soldier is superbly equipped, but until he is joined by another, he is but one person. The moment he is force-multiplied, he becomes many People.
Take the element of "Time". While one man sleeps, the other guards. Being able to keep watch during a sleep period gives the soldier a far greater selection of locations to work from. He can comfortably stay hidden closer to the enemy than he would be able to if he were on his own. And having someone guard your back gives you the opportunity to rest and relax, something you would be loath to do on your own.
With two People, you can see twice as much, but at the same time. You can cover ten times the same amount of area, just by spreading yourself apart. You give yourself many, many more options, because the second opinion helps sharpen up your decision making process, and you get a different perspective on a far broader range of subjects.
And then there's the radical advantage you get by suddenly having access to a range of skills that are very different to your own. The other person may well do many of the same things you do, but chances are, he does them completely differently. This gives you a chance to learn by observation, and assess the potential for changing your habits or attitude.
Now many of you will be positive in your own minds that you don't need anyone's help to achieve your life objectives. You look at your role models, and you see strong, resolute People who stand on their own two feet, and take the whole world on straight from the shoulder, no quarter asked or given.
The very essence of their Peace making ability seems to be their individuality, their self-containment, and their self-sufficiency. What you don't see are the legions of support People that stand behind and beside every successful one of them.
People who blend into the background, scurrying around like the army they are, multiplying their leaders' Peace making ability thousands of times over.
The legendary "secretary" who's smarter than her boss.
The magic "switchboard" person who's winning ways make People want to ring you.
The super efficient "personal assistant" who really knows more about the business than the Chairperson does. A husband, wife, lover or carer, who’s silent support is the keystone to your success.
And all the millions of different personalities whose paths we cross, drawing a little from each, without ever realizing it.
All this is, in effect, force-multiplication.
It's one thing to use force-multiplication, but quite another to understand and utilize its potential.
And it involves using all the very best of your People skills, because just as you can't get something for nothing, when you take, you must give back tenfold. The People you relate to and use as an extension of your Peace making ability must always be achieving what they want in life to best give you the benefit of their experience.
If they're not happy, satisfied, motivated, calm, centred, receptive, and giving, then you will never achieve either their potential or your own. In many ways, one of the most bewildering things about working with People is the sheer amount of energy they often seem willing to freely give you in the achievement of your endeavour.
Just as a smile is infectious, and almost impossible to ignore, an air of dedication, the stance of confidence, and the power of a positive attitude do more to motivate People than currency of any kind. People like to be around success, and all the trappings of success. They like to see achievement, both theirs and yours.
And they like to see the worth of their efforts, and be able to judge how they are going relative to what they want to achieve for themselves.
They like to be at Peace with their world, and all around it.
When you choose to use a person as a force-multiplier for your Peace making ability, you are accepting not only one of the great challenges in life, but one of the greatest responsibilities you could ever assume.
You know that Peace making ability comes from purity. Purity comes from inner stance, integrity, intellect, and wisdom.
Thus it is impossible to "use" a person as an extension of yourself in any way but a positive one, and one that is beneficial to both you and the other person. If you try to gain from them selfishly, you will quickly destroy the very thing that you are trying to achieve, for the Universe is very unforgiving, and like all true things, you get back not what you sow, but many times more.
Sow good, harvest a-plenty. Sow bad, reap a famine, and Life condensing Stress.
Because the learning process is so open-ended, and the intellect so dependent on new energy from discovery and experience, you need to constantly be receptive to everything everyone does around you. In the first pages of this book, the phrase "it's not right, it's not wrong, it's different" was used in relation to how you should view what others do.
This is a key concept, because developing the ability to allow others the right to do things their way, say things their way, and think things their way, is a tolerance not usually found in most People. In fact, the exact opposite is usually true. All too often we selfishly, and wrongly, limit the potential of those around us with preconceptions derived from our own experience or knowledge. We are not receptive to new thoughts and ideas, and we do not welcome input from others that is at odds with what we already feel comfortable with.
In allowing ourselves the luxury of swanning through life with our eyes, ears, and minds so forcefully closed, we deny ourselves the opportunity to learn new things, consider new probabilities, and smell the fresh, powerful scent of heart-quickening stimulation.
So how do you go about making force-multiplication a reality?
It's as easy as granting an interview with your "Self". Settle back, get comfortable, and let the taste buds of your mind consider this conversation :

Self - "Well, then, what is it that you really want out of life?" You think about this question for a while, rolling all the possibilities around in your mind, seeking them for the right flavour, like you would sample a series of fine wines. Finally, you decide.
You - "I want to be healthy. I want to be successful. And I want to make friends, enjoy life, and have all the things I need to do it with. And I want to make Peace."
Self - "I see. Well then, how are you going to do this great thing?" Again, you pause to consider your options, remembering all the different books you have read on the subject, and all the things you have observed in others who seem to have achieved great things with their lives.
You - "I'm going to open my mind to all sorts of different stimulus, I'm going to learn new things, and I'm going to do the things I think are important to me."
Self - "Excellent. Now you have some focus, and some commitment. Your willingness to open up your mind is an exciting possibility - frankly, I've been more than just a little bored with your attitude of late, and I look forward to being refreshed with new input. Now, not wishing to be pedantic, but how exactly do you intend to go about this personal development program you're so interested in?" You pause for the third time, pleased with the compliment paid to you by Self, and encouraged by his (or her) reinforcement of your new found goals and ambition.
How exactly will you go about this project? Good question. Then you have a flash of inspiration, and as if the flood gates of Time have opened up in your mind, you see as clear as the melodious peel of a Church bell the exact starting place for your life quest.
You - "Why, I'm going to use my greatest asset - you - me - my Self - and I'm going to achieve what I set out to do," You shout, excitement and enthusiasm bubbling over.
Self - "Well now, that's all very well. But tell me, what's in it for me? Why should I help You?"
You're stunned. You never expected this Attitude, or this question, from your Self. You just assumed that when the time came, your Self would be there for You, ready to do whatever it took for You to achieve your life goals. What to do?
Well, what to do is very much up to you. How you answer this question is about all that you can expect from someone else, were you to ask them to dedicate their lives to your success. And in truth, why should they?
This, then, is the crucial, pivotal consideration in achieving the benefits of force-multiplication, and being able to draw on the experience and knowledge of others to help you in your life quest, of becoming a Peacemaker.
What's in it for them, and what are you going to do for them, to help them achieve what they desire out of life, so that in turn their efforts can help you?
The moment you intuit this, you cement your relationship with your "Self", allowing both sides of your persona to power up, creating the spark that will ignite your intellect, stimulate your mind, and galvanise your attitude towards your ultimate success.
We are all born with an inbuilt sense of "right" and "wrong" – sometimes it’s called our “Moral Compass”. As we go through life, we taste both sides of the possibilities, and generally fall into a happy accommodation between the two. Most People enjoy the fruits of "right" most of the time. A few enjoy the superlative fruits of "right" all the time. In being true to yourself, and extending this "truism" to others, you are building the foundations upon which a relationship can be constructed.
And a relationship can only ever be as strong and powerful as the foundations upon which it is built.
Get the basics right - understand what others around you want - and you will soon find that no task is too hard, no question too difficult, and no effort ever spared on your behalf. Just the framing of your life quest in terms that others can easily understand and identify with, will provide you with the majority of your relational foundations.
Solid, empathetic foundations that will allow a bridge to be built, a two-way street between your personality and the personality of the other person or persons.
Now personality means character, identity, ego, individuality, nature, spirit, and soul, so it's a lot more than just the outside shell of the person you are hoping to relate to.
Personality is a many faceted, complex grab-bag of opportunities, all of which demand their own share of attention and stimulus. No one person is a mono-dimensional personality. You need to always be aware that as many divergent forces are working on the intellect of the ones you hope to influence, as there are working on your intellect. And about the same quantity of energy, if not more, needs to be applied to their correct application.
The "People" element is the single most important aspect of the development of your Peace making ability. You can't ever hope to achieve great things with your Life until you can easily, repetitively, and consistently build lasting, worthwhile relationships with the People around you.
And no one will ever do something for you for your reasons. They will only ever do them for their reasons. So everything you want to achieve through the force-multiplication process of using other People must always be couched in their terms, not yours.
And that means that you have to take the time and effort to clearly establish exactly what it is that they wish to achieve for themselves, and how you can help them to achieve it!
Technology in itself will only ever let you be more efficient. Just like the bullet is no more than a faster moving, smaller version of the spear, technology merely lets you go faster, further, higher. It can help you to condense the learning process, expedite the execution process, and remove much of the mechanical drudgery from everyday life.
The advent of the computer seemed to promise great leaps in ability and process, but in reality, all it has done is give us a greater reach - a better ability to discover things, and do things by remote control. Understanding still has to be acquired by hard work, and even the fastest, biggest, most expensive computer system in the world is useless unless it is programmed by a human being to do something.
And in many, many situations, the computer has had a pronounced negative affect on the human race. It has taken away a lot of our humanity, and a lot of our drive to achieve things for ourselves. We are only just starting to realise the enormous pitfalls of growing entire generations of information-hungry children on unfiltered, raw television images. Many of the basic skills like reading, arithmetic, and mental process are being subjugated by the desire to push buttons.
Educationists are horrified at the trend towards the "30 second grab" - where knowledge and opinion are only palpable if they come in half a minute, synopsised or paraphrased chunks of dehumanised data.
As with everything in a living, dynamic Universe, eventually a balance will be struck with Technology, and mankind will move on to the next order of development. And who knows, it may well be a computer-based, television screen led advance to the Stars!
But Technology in itself does not make you smarter - you still have to do the work to understand all the information Technology now provides. It will not make you successful - you still have to actually do something with your God-given abilities before you will ever achieve anything. And it will not make you rich - you still have to control it, program it, oil it, and finally, understand it, to ever hope to cope with all the possibilities opened up by the intelligent application of Technology.
It is but a tool, albeit a very powerful and exciting one, that is there to do your bidding. It is an important relationship, but a replaceable one - Technology is there to do your bidding, not you to do it's.
If by magic, every machine in the Universe ceased operation at 5PM today, after the ensuing chaos settled down, the Human Race would pick itself up, and start all over again, and quickly find a new, different Technology to help advance the development of Mankind.
It may well be vegetable-based, or micro-organic. It may even be a single-cell structure, but believe it as you believe in yourself, it will take precious little real time for the innovators, the scholars, the doers amongst us, to get us all started again.
Perhaps you may be one of them?
After all, it's a very simple concept.
Your real ability to make Peace lies in understanding how to multiply your abilities thousands of times over, by understanding and using the help of those around you, every day of your life.
Real Peace making ability comes from dreaming the possibilities, then making them come true, by dint of hard work and the intelligent use of your intellect.
Now how hard is that?






Making Peace with Your Abilities

If there are two characteristics that set the really successful person apart from everyone else, they are "Stickability", and "Reliability". Without them, you have nothing but the empty promise of your potential.
Nothing stands out more sharply than an unfulfilled promise. Nothing hurts more than someone you love and respect demonstrating unreliability. And nothing, but nothing, is more frustrating, than someone who quits before the final siren has sounded. Yet, in today's modern environment of computers and high-tech whiz-bang technology, excuses are manufactured by the millions, often at the expense of the simple effort it would take to get a favourable conclusion, just by doing what you said you would do.
Loss of face is to be avoided at all costs, and accountability is a thing of the past, as no one cares to assume responsibility for their actions. It's as if we can no longer be blamed for our shortcomings, because of the fear of the potential negative influence it may have on us. The social scientist is King, and all men shall be average, and therefore equal, no matter the real difference in their God-given talents, or in their attitudes.
Take the most recent "serious" War to grace our news media. Post Gulf War research indicated strongly that the average man in the street believes that Sadam Hussein actually won at America's expense, simply because the Allied war machine stopped short of razing Baghdad, and bombing Hussein into ashes. In a little less than 100 hours of ground-based warfare, the brilliant American-led Allied Armies routed the enemy on every front but one - the Public Relations table.
"One day short!" has been the catch cry in the years since official hostilities ceased, and the political future of all involved has been essentially negated by what most People believe to be a lack of will on behalf of the President to "see things through" to the bitter end. Even today, a full decade after the last shot was fired, aircraft still bomb and rocket emplacements in and around the “no-fly” zones on a regular basis.
History tells us that the call was probably a correct one, as the only thing to come out of a continued action would have been a continuation of the massacre of the Iraq troops and civilians, by a vastly better equipped, and some say, unnecessarily superior force.
But most of us firmly believe that President George Bush lacked the "Stickability" to see the War through to the bitter end. He had the guts to start the conflict, to enlist the help of European and Arab nations, to eventually free an oil-stained Kuwait, while protecting a tense Israel. But when the time came to finish the job, and "take out" Hussein once and for all, he hesitated, and called a halt.
A humane, politically and morally correct decision by many People’s lights.
But his credibility has suffered ever since, and his Presidency has been somewhat harshly judged by History because of it.
And his failure to be re-elected as the President of the United States was in no small way a direct result of this negative perception held by many of his fellow countrymen. Even now that his son has been elevated to the highest office in the land, and has Colin Powel serving in his cabinet, many believe that the Gulf War could have been finished once and for all.
When you fail to see something through to its conclusion, you, too, are judged harshly. If not by yourself, then by others around you. The pity of it is, that in today's essentially "soft" social environment, the very People who are losing their respect for you, will be the very same ones who offer you a range of excuses to choose from!
This very human trait has been addressed by the study of Human Dynamics, particularly as it is applied to Sports Science and elite performance.
The concept that has evolved is called "Overloading", and is essentially very simple. For example, if you are a golfer, and have difficulty tuning your different muscles to perform at the same peak level for the four days of a major event, then you are encouraged to create a training program where you do in one day what you would normally do in five.
In effect, you "overload" your normal system with a vastly increased demand, building up your ability to deliver endurance and consistency.
To a champion golfer, this means walking 25,000 metres, (or completing the equivalent aerobic and anaerobic exercise), and hitting 350 to 500 golf balls. This is done day in, and day out, until the golfer can hit his one hundredth shot with the same degree of consistency and control at the end of a 1,000 metre sprint, as he hit his first shot of the day with.
By training the body's systems to cope with dramatically much more than will be required under competition conditions, the whole process of completing one professional round becomes many times easier. But does this "overloading" help the golfer to "stick" at it, even when things are not going well for him?
Yes, and no.
In the first instance, performance on demand is a very different requirement to practicing in your own time, and under your own dictated conditions. Perfect practice makes perfect, and in the case of a would-be-champion golfer, once he has the skills, the very best practice is match practice, where he is exposed to the many variables of a real match. Variables such as climate, altitude, the course, the actions of his fellow competitors, and the pressure that he allows to be brought to bear on himself.
But there is a growing body of evidence that the golfer who trains by overloading is not only physically more capable, but mentally more capable. And it is well established now that the mental health, or difference in mental attitude, is all that separates the top fifty golfers in the world on any one day. So if our player knows in his heart and soul that he can hit the ball well no matter how pressured he may be, then there is a very good chance that he will do so.
The negative aspect of this process is that is overlooks the prime ingredient necessary for true "stickability" – commitment, no matter what. Doing what you say you will do. A golfer is committed to finishing, no matter how embarrassing his score, simply by walking out onto the golf course. Custom dictates it.
You, in your daily lives, are not so bound.
You can elect to practice your life skills by using the science of Overloading, and you will definitely enhance your intellect, your wisdom, and increase your Peace making ability. But without commitment, you will always be able to find an acceptable excuse for not completing things that you start, and you will lack true "Stickability".
Commitment means your ability to execute, affirm, devote, contract, pledge, and entrust your body, mind and soul to the appointed task. Commitment means your ability to see something through no matter what the outcome might be, no matter how hard it becomes, and you do what you say you will do.
Commitment comes from personal discipline - and a heavy desire to be a winner, and a Peacemaker, and not a loser.
At the end of the day, the winner is the only person that doesn't have an excuse. Winners don't need them. Even when they lose by other People's standards, winners still smile, secure in their internalised knowledge that they did their very best under the prevailing circumstances, and that they stuck it out to the bitter end. They did what they said they would do.
In their minds, they did everything possible to deliver on their promise, to utilise their skills to the fullest. They did not quit when the going got tough, and they did not take the easy option - make or accept an excuse for their failure to win.
They had the mind and the commitment of a genuine Peacemaker.
One of the greatest "minds" to ever live, Albert Einstein, who is still rated as probably the greatest genius of the twentieth century, often said "I am wrong nearly ninety seven percent of the time. It is but the quality of the correct three percent that allows me to do my work, which I judge to be, off times significant".
Ninety seven percent of the time wrong, and only three percent of the time right.
What's your batting average? Better than Albert's?
What it comes down to is this. If you are going to be a winner, in every sense of the word, then you have to allow yourself to fail at least ninety seven percent of the time. And like all good batters, to get your average up, you have to be at the plate, bat in hand, thousands of times more than those around you, if you are to succeed at what you want to do with your life.
Every good salesman knows that success is all to do with numbers - you call 1,000 prospects, you get 100 responses. From those 100 People you get 10 interviews. Of those 10 prospects you finally get to work your magic on, you will sell four. If you need to sell eight People a week, then you need to start with 2,000 prospects!
Here comes the science of Overloading.
By doing many, many more things, and allowing yourself to fail just like Albert, you will build up your life experience faster, the quality of what you learn from life will be better, and you will be right more often than anyone else simply because you are wrong more often! And when you finally believe that you can see anything through, no matter how tough, even to a bitter end, then you will discover how easy it is to have real "stickability", one of the two most important ingredients in your ultimate success.
Stickability is an attitude, one that is based on knowing what you can do, and what you want to do. Often, you will attempt things that you know you can't probably do. How else are you to learn the necessary things for you to develop your potential? The key factor is that you stick with it, no matter how much it hurts, right up until some conclusion has been reached, right or wrong.
If it's wrong, then regroup, retire, and consider what you have experienced, learn from your mistakes, and move on. Anything you don't understand can be temporarily discarded into one of the two baskets, to await your attention in the future.
If it turns out right, then you will have expanded your potential, empowered your intellect, and cemented the relationship between your ego and your skills, moving the two into closer proximity.
It's interesting to discover just where the saying, "to the bitter end", came from. It will give you heart in your journey, and fire your soul with determination.

In the days of the great sailing vessels, powered by the trade winds, the only reliable way to stop was often as simple as chucking a huge anchor over the bow, and letting massive quantities of chain and rope run out. Eventually, when the anchor took hold, the ship was stopped in its tracks. The skill of a Captain and his crew was judged by the timeliness of this action, and many a wooden wharf around the world bore testimony to a poor sense of timing!
The chain attached to the anchor was always spliced to a "rode", a massive hemp rope, which terminated in what was known as a "bitter end". It got this name because of the wax that was used to fuse the spliced loop into itself, at the point where the hemp terminated. When the sailor doing the splicing pulled the various strands taut, sometimes using his teeth, the taste of the wax was less than joyous, hence the name "bitter end".
If a vessel ran its anchor, chain and rode out to the "bitter end", and didn't achieve its objective, the ensuing crash was usually spectacular, and well worth the effort of clambering down to the jetty to watch the boats dock.
But you can see where the saying came from - the crew had run out everything they had, right to "the bitter end", and still failed in their quest. Better to get there and fail, than to fail and still have rode with its "bitter end" in the chain locker!

Now, everyone likes to be liked. You like your peers and friends to respect you, pay attention to you, and think highly of you and your skills. That's why you promise them so much - you not only want them to be impressed with what you are going to achieve, you want to hold onto their attention, using your promises of great performance to bind them to you. You want them to see you as a Peacemaker.
This is a very human, sometimes socially necessary, trait.
But it can also be the single most destructive habit you can ever develop.
Because the very first time you fail to deliver on one of your promises, you start the cancer of doubt growing in the minds of the very People you most want to impress. Do it again, and you loose that most valuable, bankable, irreplaceable quality called "credibility" – Trust - the ability to be taken at your word. You will still be loved, you will still be liked, but you will not be believed, or taken seriously.
And if you lose your credibility, it is almost impossible to get it back, and a deep lurking suspicion often prevents your most ardent believer from actually committing to your promise - because it is often too personally painful for them when you fail to deliver.
They would rather not be hurt again by your failure, than believe you when you say that you will do something.
If your peers, or those around you with whom you share your life, lose their belief in your ability to carry through on your promises, they end up loosing respect for you - the very thing you were trying to generate with your promise in the first place! And they loose Trust.
When you make a commitment, you must do so in the clear knowledge that circumstances might intervene and change your ability to deliver. You must take into account every conceivable possibility, and closely examine how you will deal with each and every one of them. If you genuinely believe that you can deliver, that you have got all the angles covered, then you can offer an unconditional commitment.
But beware!
It is better to offer a conditional statement, and deliver on the promise, than it is to make the promise, and not deliver.
In simple terms, most People would rather you be totally honest with them, and tell them the absolute truth, even if it is hurtful or aggravating, than you tell them something that delivers false hope.
In many instances, when you promise something to somebody, it starts a chain of events based on mutual dependency. Your promise becomes the first link in a long chain of probable events, involving many other, mostly unknown, People. In a sense, your promise of performance is passed on like a baton in a relay race, perfumed and shaped by the different personalities whose hands it passes through.
You fail, and it's like a row of dominos collapsing. Everybody in the link is let down, and made to look foolish by your failure - which they will have no hesitation in passing back to you. Everyone else will condemn you, blaming you for their inability to perform. Their failure will be seen as believing in you - but your failure will be seen as a non-performance.
Do this once, and you might get a second chance. But do it twice, and your credibility will be reduced to a polite "yeah, sure," at the very best.
All you need to do to understand this phenomenon is to place yourself in a similar situation, and imagine that someone you respect and believe in has made a firm promise to you. On the strength of what you have been promised, you have in turn made a promise to someone else, and you eagerly await for the first promise to be executed.
Then boom! No delivery, and you're left standing your ground pointing over your shoulder at the original promiser, feeling hurt and let down. Who do you blame? Do you allow those to whom you promised, to blame you for the failure of the first party?
No.
Which brings us back to the concept of a conditional promise.
When you are relying on other People to do something before you can execute on your promises, you must make it clear that you cannot deliver until this is done. You cannot assume responsibility for events that are outside your control. It is not only stupid and counter-productive to do so, it is unreal, and unworthy of an aware intellect. And it always leads to Stress, in you and in others.
The second great 'ability you must develop is dependability. There are many aspects to this one word - reliable, sure, accountable, honourable, reputable, secure, solid, trusted, upstanding, dedicated, devoted, faithful, loyal, resolute, true, and authoritative.
The crux of the argument is as simple as this.
Just as you need to be able to trust and rely on other People for the full potential of you Peace making ability to become a reality, so do they need to be able to depend and rely on you.
Again, like so much in life, dependability is an attitude of mind, and as such, is totally controllable by you.
When People depend on you, they are seeking your strength, your wisdom, your compassion, and your intellect. You credibility is at its highest when People depend on you the most. Dependability is a quality that goes beyond mere execution of your normal responsibilities, and the very act of being dependable breeds its own confidence and success.
Positive People attract other positive People, because People group themselves by their attitudes. If you have the attitude of a looser, then you will accumulate negative, down, lost People to your cause.
If you are positive, only the best will turn up, force-multiplying your Peace making ability. Because energy flows downwards, to get some from the People around you requires that you be highly charged to start with. The negative side of dependency is that if you become dependant on others, you are sacrificing your power to someone else. So you must be the dependable one, the person to whom others look for guidance and stimulation.

If you are accountable for your actions, you are taking responsibility for your Life, and you will make of it what you choose. Being accountable means that you need no excuses for failure, and you seek no refuge in self-delusion or public succour. When you stand up, and allow yourself to be identified, you are summoning all the power of others to you, by the very process of taking control of events, and not becoming a victim of them.
People who avoid responsibility, avoid accountability, and need excuses to explain away their failure, are weak and transparent, and lack credibility and respect. You don't like People like this, so why would you expect someone else to like and respect you, if you demonstrated these attributes?
In essence, the difference between a victim and a victor is the tiniest slip in attitude. If you take control, assume the responsibility, stand firm and tall, and orchestrate events around your persona, then the very process of being accountable will empower your intellect.
But if you whimper around, duck the flying accusations, and point the finger at everyone else, you will suffer whatever fate others determine for you. Being a victim is letting everyone else dominate you, control you, and absorb all your energy for their purposes. If you allow this, you are no more than as the fool who fishes at the empty well.
And in the mocking laughter of others, or worse, in the condescending care of a handful of excuses, you will see yourself for what you really are - a lost persona, out of control, and no control, no power, lots of Stress.
Great loyalty demands great strength, for often the process of being loyal to a person or a cause forces you to transcend your own common sense. You will often do for others that which you would never contemplate doing for yourself. But loyalty is a great attribute, one that is admired long after the event has passed into history. Respect is a many faceted dimension, and loyalty forms the very core of what respect is generated from. The loyal People in your life stand beside you no matter what - and when your time comes, you must do no less.
Being authoritative is like walking on the edge of a razor blade. On side is fame and fortune, the other, ridicule and distress. Because authority is an assumed poise, one that comes with wisdom and respect. You cannot hope to motivate and prosper with a group of other People unless you have the authority to act. They must give you their permission to take control, and trust you in the execution of that control.
You must give them permission to be critical of your authority, so that you don't overstep your bounds.
The Military have developed authority to a fine art - for a military machine to function, obedience must be immediate and total, or precious lives could be lost by indecision and confusion. A highly structured command process is implemented, with clear and precise lines of Communication, layers of responsibility, and ultimately, limits on each individual's authority.
This system can only work while every person agrees to abide by the standing orders. Something which individuals, civilians like you and I, are most unlikely to do.
For us to be able to use our authority, or take an authoritative stance, we must have the voluntary respect and compliance of those around us, or we end up like Captain Blight, adrift on the high seas of mutiny, in a leaking boat of discontent.
Authority should never been confused with strength of purpose, or desire to succeed. True authority comes from knowledge and experience, and leadership qualities that all owe their existence to a positive attitude.
If you are perceived as having "dependability", and you also demonstrate "stickability", and you always make good on your promises, then you will find that those around you automatically give you all the authority you crave or require.
The power of the abilities is awesome, just like the potential of your Peace making ability. All it takes is your total commitment to make it all work, and doing what you say you will do.
Making Peace.




Making Peace with Politicians, Priests, and Lawyers

The school bully was someone you always hated, and probably never quite managed to cope with. Even now, there are those amongst us who use their superior education to terrorise those less informed than themselves.
The concept of the "Specialist" is as old as mankind. Five thousand years ago, in feudal times, it was the Sage, the Mystic, and the Religious Man who controlled our destiny, with mumbo-jumbo and vague threats that could never be proven. Discipline was maintained by fear, and little or no true respect, other than that afforded to the person because of their exalted position, was forthcoming.
The spirit of the average man was dominated by superstition and fear, and the so- called Wise Men took great advantage of this, working their earth magic to protect their status.
The loudest voice, the most informed opinion, and the person who could scare the hapless ordinary man on demand ruled the earth. These People eventually ensconced themselves behind the various seats of power, and used the Kings and Queens, the Clan Leaders and the Village Chiefs, the Emperors and the Dictators as their means of gaining respectability, and as their protectors and promulgators.
A King had awesome power over life and death, and the Mystic or Sage had absolute power over the King. Challenge the Mystic, and you challenged the King, and all he stood for.
The Law, as such, was the King's Law, and very much framed to represent and protect the Sage or Mystic who "advised" the King. Rules were framed (as they are today) to advantage the King and his family, and all of humanity was seen as the fodder and the breadbasket for the King's every desire.
What was explainable, was the doing of Man. What was unexplainable, was the doing of God (or one of the many hundreds of different Gods thought to be controlling the destiny of the world in those early times).
But the King's Law was the politic form that governed the average life, and the politics of the King were taken as those of the immediate area, or of the land, depending on his area of influence.
Slowly, through the centuries, the King's Law took on a new perspective, and like a triple-headed snake, split into three mutually compatible components, representing the vested interests of three very different types of personality predominant in those times.
The King's Law, Political Law, and Religious Law evolved from the necessity of Kings having to meet, fight, and enjoin with each other. This cross-culturalization of Law and Religion led to many conflicts, as did the vast difference in perceived politics from area to area.
A veritable multitude of discordant Religious Sects grew up like an outbreak of measles, all over the known world during this phase, spreading the corner stones of what would become the five major, dominant forces - Christianity, Buddhism, Confucianism, Islam and Judaism. Each one believed that they were the "one" true Religion, and all the others based on heretical beliefs. In time, even these five were to be split into shards of differing cultures, as strong men fought to retain the essence of their beliefs, while even stronger men fought to change them.
Interestingly, even today, the greatest conflicts still revolve around perceived religious differences.
While never officially separated as we know them to be today, the parallel development of Law, Religion, and Politics were all used for the same general purpose - the unashamed domination of the masses, by the born-noble, and the educated and literate few. The Religious Sects saw their role in life as gaining as many converts as possible, to swell their ranks to a size that gave them influence in the corridors of power. The larger they were, the more likely they were able to influence the politics of the day. The stronger their King became, the more likely that their vested interests would be spread throughout the known world.
It was no so much a fight for souls, as a fight for seats!
Many Kings found great advantage in assuming the mantle of these Religious Sects, as it increased their power and their influence far beyond their traditional boundaries, allowing them to dabble in the politics of another King's domain. It also gave them the ability to fuel emotional hatred of the foe, by positioning the chosen "enemy" as non believers and a threat to their Religion.
History books are filled with the stories of their conquests, wars, and the spread of these cultures by force. Empires came and went, and domination became a fact of everyday life. But the simple truth is that Religion was the focus of conquest for many hundreds of centuries, and the political systems that developed in various cultures owe their existence to the power of the Religious convert.
You only have to read a newspaper now to see that, in this respect, nothing has changed in over seven thousand years! There are at present two hundred and seven wars or areas of embattlement around the globe, and all but two of them involve differences in Religion. Today, the greatest empires to survive this bitter History are those controlled by the Holy Roman See, the children of Mohammad, and the students of Confucius.
How this came about, is a matter for Historians, but a quick look into the past will show you that the Chinese Han emperor, Wu Ti, in 136 BC, actually adopted Confucianism as the model for his civil service, and committed the future development of China to the principles of this religion. This situation continued for over 2,000 years. China was the first country to adopt a single religion, and make it part of the persona of the general populace by Law. Others followed, but never on the single scale that China managed to achieve.
For example, during the second century AD, Japan adopted the "Bushido Code" or Code of the Warrior, from the Shinto-Buddhist religion as their focus, and eighteen hundred years later effectively changed the modern world as we know it today, even though their system was partially polluted by the importation of Christianity during the eighteenth century.
The Church of Rome, while not only being the wealthiest single entity on the globe, was also the greatest exponent of exporting both culture and Religion all over the world. Even today, the Roman Catholic Church boasts a significant presence in every country in the world, and still manages to dominate its subjects with fourth century Church Laws.
The Roman Age ushered in the first real signs of the assertion of Law as a supposed force of God, and of course "true" Religion also started to rear its ugly head around that time. Roman Law was the Law of the Senate, an august body of informed People, who were dominated by the emperor, many of whom became dictators. The concept was a simple one, the emperor was the divine messenger of the Gods, who were many, and conveniently different enough to allow him total control over every facet of Roman existence.
And as mankind evolved in this classic era, the continuing fight for supremacy and the Mind of Man started in earnest, as education and literacy spread their tentacles beyond the shallow edges of the Temples and the Government.
Back then, the Temples, which were considered the centre of civilised life, were the repository for the wealthy, the educated, the literate, those that could read and write, and those that could count. Those that could not, held these structures and the People in them in awe, and accepted the mantle of subservience as a matter of fact.
This "civil service" was very much an instrument of the government, the seat of all power, and formed the third level of political influence, as it does to this day.
Predictably, a scribe who kept the books of account was viewed as vastly more important than one who just wrote letters and documents. Even then, keeping an accurate account of who had paid their tithes and levies, and who had not, was a crucial activity. What no one foresaw was the rapid escalation in the power of the men who kept these books of account, and the tragic human consequences that would evolve, as a direct result.
Wars and conquests needed to be funded, and Kings and Emperors alike, liked to live well. That takes money, and as no King or Emperor actually worked at anything other than being "divine", the masses were taxed heavily to support their lifestyle. When a man could give no food, property, or money, he was impressed into the ranks of the Legions as a common soldier.
If they couldn't take your wealth, they took your blood!
And take it they did (and still do) in vast quantities. With no protective system other than distance from the throne, whole families were decimated, generation by generation, for causes little understood, and rarely achieved. And still the accountants of old marked up their columns, using red ink to show a deficit, which, in a terrible way, is symbolic of the blood that was (and still is) spilt in making up any shortfall in the Government's demands.
Very few, if any, questions were asked about this system, as it evolved from within the centre of the political power base, and was taken for granted. The Religious Sects, once they had struck an accommodation with a particular King or Emperor, were virtually powerless to change this system, even if they had wanted to, for to interfere was to risk losing their influence, and their assumed power over the People they dominated.
Thus the tripartite relationship between Religion, Law, and Accounting developed, each mutually dependent on the other for their survival within the political arena.
The talented People who made this system work were very arrogant, and very privileged. They enjoyed better food, better wine, the use of slaves and navvies, lived in better houses, and commanded salaries many hundreds of times greater than the common man could ever hope to achieve.
They were isolated from the pragmatic realities of the day, given that they were responsible for keeping the wheels of privilege and advantage turning smoothly. If they saw poverty and depression, it was passed off as the fault of the common People, for choosing to live such a squalid life. If they saw fervour and discontent, the squashed it like they would kill a cockroach.
Skills were passed from Father to Son, and family dynasties grew up like mushrooms in a wet field. As each "profession" achieved critical mass, they formed Guilds and Societies to propagate their vested interests. Getting into one of these professions from outside the families was almost impossible, marriage being the most popular of the few real alternatives.
Long lines of singular thinking, honed through centuries of Stress and fighting for survival evolved, generally speaking, into the four dominant professions we see today - The Accountant, The Lawyer, The Priest, and The Politician.
Interestingly, in the Western world, a recent survey of Politicians from sixty countries showed that an amazing eighty nine percent of all Politicians are either Lawyers or Accountants before they take up politics! So it's not all that hard to see why history seems to repeat itself so often.
As in days of old, once again these Professions are looking after their own vested interests, and making sure that their dynasty survives.
If this seems a harsh judgement, then consider the following.
Accepting that the Politicians are on top of the pile, and given that the Government rules the roost, who is it that determines the size of the Government - the number of Politicians, the number of Government Departments, the number of Civil Servants, and the number of support personnel?
The Politicians do.
Who determines what privileges, rights and payments the Government servants will receive?
The Politicians.
Who determines what the Law of the Land will be - how many Statutes, how many Acts of Parliament or Congress will be promulgated, and how many decrees will be issued?
The Politicians.
And who are the only People qualified, and therefore allowed by Law, to interpret these Laws of the Land for the ordinary folk?
The Lawyers and the Accountants.
Who determines what the Tax rate will be - and what will be paid for, and by whom, and who is exempt, and who is not, and how much the Country will owe, and what the balance of payments (and therefore our standard of living) will be?
The Politicians.
And who is qualified, and therefore the only People allowed by Law to interpret these high-order money matters for us simple People?
The Accountants.
And who, in every level of social endeavour, has the final say as to how and when our souls will or will not be saved, for our eventual trip to eternity?
The Priests.
Every session of Parliament, every sitting of Congress, every conclave of the Law Courts, is opened with a prayer, seeking wisdom and justice. Every Government building is blessed and sanctified, so that those that work in it may do so without fear of ghosts, or evil spirits. Even in today's high-tech environment, the trilogy of power is firmly held by the Lawyers, Accountants, and Priests, who support the entire political system, and the Politicians within it.
Is it reasonable for the average man to feel (and this is well documented by volumes and volumes of independent research) that he is utterly powerless to change this situation?
And is it reasonable for someone to go from the cradle to the grave, never feeling in control of their own lives, or their destiny? Simply because they have a Government that is dedicated to its own survival, at the expense of the ordinary man?
What does any of this have to do with someone seeking the path to developing their Peace making ability?
Everything, and nothing.
For there is much to learn from the Politicians, Lawyers, Priests and Accountants, and their mysterious, sometimes dubious, ways.
Like the lessons of the Fox, it is not necessarily wrong that they should take advantage of their situation, it is often the way in which they do it that is of prime importance to us.
No one liked the school bully, because he took advantage of your immaturity, your lack of awareness, your lack of physical development, and your lack of self-esteem. He embarrassed you. He dominated you simply by terrorising you into submission, mostly by what he threatened to do to you, rarely by what he actually did to you.
He used your ignorance and fear as a weapon, subjugating your will, and trampling your spirit. He left you feeling confused and empty, but somehow dependant. The very process he put you through so lowered your self esteem, he actually created a mild form of dependency in your mind, almost as if you weren't worth much if he wasn't bothering to bully you.
This phenomenon has been seen many times in recent years, in victims of highjackings and kidnappings. The victims seem to bond with their abductors, generating strong feelings of comradeship, even though they are often faced with losing their lives in the process! It is believed that the fear level gets so high during these tragic escapades, that when a person realises that they may survive, their gratitude towards their terrorist captors is overwhelming, creating the relationship that is perceived as dependency.
And it is this dependency that you, as a truth seeker and Peacemaker, must come to grips with. Just like in school days, it is your ignorance and your fear of the unknown that will hold you hostage, and allow you be dominated by a Lawyer, Priest, Accountant, or Politician.
Let's take them one by one.
A good Lawyer is someone who knows where to find the Law, not necessarily one who practices it.
But every text, case study, judgement, proclamation, judgement and verdict is always written in a language that is only interpretable by "one who knows". In this way, the Law Profession is able to propagate itself. By what it does, and how it does it, it guarantees its very own survival.
The majority of Western Law is based on precedence, or that which has gone on, and been adjudged, before.
In dealing with a situation that requires a Lawyer, you must understand the vested interest. It is not with you, or with your particular case. It is about keeping the Profession in the good light it thinks it presently enjoys, and in keeping you in the dark for as long as is acceptable.
Much to do with Lawyers is about "opinion", and all too often opinions differ with every new personality involved in the process. Television has made a science out of the presentation of Law, and the truth is, unfortunately, the performance is almost always more important than the facts.
Short cases earn small fees. Lawyers are paid by the hour, by the phone call, by the diary entry, by the meeting, and by the opening of a book. Win, lose, or draw, you pay. And in all but the very simplest of cases, you will have very little to judge your progress by, or the quality of the service you are receiving, or the value of your investment.
In the first instance, the very best way to deal with this situation is not to have to involve Lawyers at all! But sometimes, this is not practical, or in your best interests. If you have to use a Lawyer, then you have to have control over the process. You must document your case, your questions, your opinions, and your objectives. You must get the Lawyer to resolve your issue only along the lines of your brief. And you must learn to approach the Lawyer as an equal, and meet them on common ground.
They don't understand the concept of customer service, and they are scared by anything that appears to be outside their immediate area of control. For you to control them, you must be in control of yourself, and your situation. You must have the facts, and expectations that are reasonable. And you must always ask for reference material from similar cases, so that you can better understand your true position.
You must never be in a position of dependency, where they are in control of your future. To do that, is to allow the school bully to bluff you yet again.
Dealing with a Priest is different. Here you are in an excellent position to meet them on equal terms, because every Religion has its own guide book - The Bible, the Koran, and such like. Your opinion is worth the intensity of your study. Whatever you put into learning about your chosen (or inherited) Religion, will only further your cause, and enlighten your life. Spiritual health is every bit as important as physical and mental health. Some say more so.
Knowledge is power. Understanding is power. Fear is banished by knowledge and understanding. You only fear what you don't know, so open the pages, and soak up the context of your relationship with your God.
Priest's acknowledge and respect People who know their own minds, are secure in their own beliefs, and take the time and energy to learn what is important to them. Of all the Professions, they are the most in tune with the common man, but they still have a time honoured tradition of siding with the King to protect their Sect, when push comes to shove.
Again, understand the vested interest. It is most unlikely that you will ever be a real threat to a Priest or his Church, but should you be, you can expect the wrath of the most devastating political and military machine on earth to descend on your head with all the force of Heaven and Hell.
After all, that's the business they are in.
Many of today's Accountants should still be kept in their temples, counting dinars and goats teeth. Few, if any, ever contribute to the welfare of mankind, or push the boundaries of knowledge beyond their own limited horizon. They are often referred to as "bean counters", and judging by many that you meet, this would appear to be a perfectly adequate description.
Yet today is the era of the Accountant, as the world scrambles for the magic saviour called "the bottom line". People and loyalty are seconded to the all important dollar, as company after company sheds staff in an effort to return profits.
It was the Accountants who developed the skills necessary to purchase companies, sell off their assets for more than their cost price, sack all their staff, then close them down, taking the ensuing loss into account, to the direct benefit of their next wealth-generating scheme. It was the very same Accountants who decided that farmers should be turfed off their land, and their properties sold out from under them, reducing generations of love and toil to a single red entry in a dusty book of Life.
Unfortunately, with the Tax Act - the gigantic mishmash of numerical numb nuts that it is - you need an Accountant to make sure you have complied with the most recent interpretation. So, once again, you find yourself in the position where if you are not properly prepared, and in control, you will be dependant on someone that does not have your best interests as his vested interest.
Prepare, and prepare well. Leave nothing to chance. Document everything, and follow the Law to the absolute letter. Take a long-term view, and plan for the future, and be sure that the commercial or personal advice you receive is something that you can live with morally, ethically, and most importantly, spiritually.
Cutting corners with money destroys People. Money in itself is not real wealth. It is what you do with it that gives you wealth and happiness. Money is just little bits of paper, plastic, and metal that you trade to others for goods and services. Money is but a way of measuring your progress and worth by other's standards.
The happiest man you will ever meet will have very little money, but much wealth. He will be wealthy with love, wealthy with companionship, and wealthy with health and success. And his smile will be infectious. He is the true Peacemaker.
The Accountant mentality, unfortunately, is what often drives us to pursue money at all costs. To become greedy, addicted, and selfish. The need to have it, see it, touch it, and been seen to have it, can become overpowering influences in our lives.
But there is one attribute of the Accountant that gives us hope for our future as a united People. And that is their ability to cope with a dichotomous situation that baffles many, and we should learn from it.
You see, in accounting terms, a debit or a credit can be posted to either side of the ledger, depending on its category. This means, in very simple terms, that something that is to be deducted from a sum, can have a positive value. In your perspective, then, it is possible to be going through a negative experience, but with a positive outcome.
Who said accounting was easy to understand?
But what you must understand about Accountants is that, by profession, they are literal, numerate, and often pedantic. They tend to live in the bottom left hand quadrant of the grid – Low Involvement, Rational Behaviour. They will not usually share your great vision, your energy, or your wonder at all things possible. They like certainty, money in the bank, and creativity limited to selecting the correct restaurant for lunch.
Understand this, and they can never put you in a position where you might become dependant on them, to the detriment of your Peace making ability.
And power is what Politicians are all about. Lots and lots of it. But not the type of power you seek.
Politicians crave dominance, position, authority, and influence, at the expense of the common man.
Politicians have taken the art of compromise to a high-order science, in their frantic race to manipulate everything around them.
And Politicians have single-handedly destroyed the concept of representation and fairness in the community, in their ruthless pursuit of Irresistible force. They speak like Gods, act like Gods, condescend like Gods, and command like Gods. They live in isolation, happy to be segmented from the reality of normal life, and their sole contribution to the welfare of their constituents is that they always claim to be pushing their cause.
It is often said that we, the People, get the Politicians we deserve. If that is true, then we are surely being punished for the sins of our fathers. But the reality is, that many of today’s Politicians were good People before they were corrupted by the system.
Now, companies don't do things, People do. Parliaments are huge buildings, which are dormant and hollow until People give them life with their presence. So what is it that goes so tragically wrong in the corridors of power?
Absolute power corrupts, absolutely.
Power - force, authority, control, influence, leverage, prestige, command, rule, might, and mastery - is like a drug. The wielders of power become addicted to what they have, and they don't want to let it go. It is the greatest ego trip in the world, sitting on top of a huge pile of humanity, deciding how they will live, and how they will die. It is the very same force that the Kings of old used so poorly. And Politicians, like the Kings and Emperors before them, have no greater God-given gift or ability to deal with this than you do.
Remember, most Politicians are Lawyers and Accountants before they become Politicians. And you now understand a little about both those Professions. So it is logical to assume that many of the characteristics of the Lawyer and the Accountant are present in the Politician.
Language used like a subterfuge, to disguise what is really going on. Proceedings always under the privilege of Parliament or Congress, so the ordinary person has no legal redress against what might be said. Self-appointed committees of review, whose reports are tabled, then consigned into the dusty tombs of the archives. Statutes of limitation on what is revealed to the public, and when it might be. All in all, what we have is close to the perfect form of self control, and self containment.
If you aren't part of the system, then you don't "need to know". And unless you are prepared to marry a Politician's son or daughter, there's almost no way in for the ordinary person. Just like the privileged families from the Temples of old, in classic times.
We have all seen a grown, mature man, literally turn grey in four short years, under the weight of responsibility that goes with the top job in the land. But grey hair doesn't necessarily mean wisdom, and often it is the Stress and pressure caused by ignorance and confusion, and the perception that they are really not in control, that ages them, not the job. That, and the pressure to compromise almost everything they believe in, often the very things that got them elected in the first place.
Understand this, and you will get a beneficial perspective on the development of your Peace making ability. Without it, should you succeed in your Life quest, you will quickly dissipate your real power, without ever knowing how or why you did so, and then your quest will have been for nothing.
Make Peace with the Accountants, Lawyers, Priests and Politicians, on your way to perfecting your ability as a Peacemaker. They need all the help they can get!