If you want to make the world a better place, start with the funny face in the mirror.

It’s no different for nation states. If you want a better world, start with the stupid country you’re living in. It’s great to shoot for the stars – but pick the low hanging fruit on the way up!

Yes, I mix metaphors for a living.

Okay, so let’s get the easy stuff out of the way. There is no energy crisis. There is no climate crisis. No population crisis. There is no Ukraine crisis – unless you live there. There is no China crisis. No Russia crisis. No dedollarization crisis. No wokism crisis. There are no crises. PERIOD.

There’s just stuff to be handled. All the ‘crisis’ talk is just clickbait. The media makes money when you pay attention to them. Scaring the crap out of you is the easy way to get your attention. If you don’t need to deal with the problem immediately, it is not a crisis. The media doesn’t tell you that bit so that they can keep making money on your hyped up attention span.

Stop giving them your attention unless they give you excellent value. Did they tell you something that you needed to know or that improves your understanding? Great, keep watching. Did they just tell you for the millionth time that Trump is going to destroy the world – or Biden is going to get us into a war in Ukraine? Click elsewhere.

Garbage in, garbage out.

The first step in fixing what ails this great country of ours is fixing us. Remember that ‘We the People’ thing? Well, it ain’t just a meme. We actually do control this crazy country of ours – just not very well at the moment. Sorry, but Blackrock and Big Tech do not run this country. We do.

Believing that ‘THEY’ control everything – whomever you think ‘they’ are – is self defeating. the more convinced you are that THEY have control the more convinced you become that you can’t do anything. IT’S A LIE.

Sure, there are bad actors and some of them are way too powerful for our own good – but none are invincible. THEY have feet of clay. We own the footbath!

But, but no one cares!

Really? You just listened/read/watched through three minutes or so of my rambling so obviously at least one person cares enough to try to find out how to fix this country. If there’s one, there’s another. Probably a lot more than you think.

Also, don’t get hung up on ‘no one cares about x’ because that’s almost always temporary. Humans can’t process everything all at once and a lot are convinced they can’t handle political stuff. Same way they convinced themselves they couldn’t do math but worked as a cashier a few summers. No one can pay attention to every issue all the time so there is going to be ebb and flow as to which issues take center stage at any given moment. Just get the word out or start the conversation. This is a long game.

Okay, so once we get started on ourselves, what’s next? Your state.

Do you even know what your state government is up to? Don’t feel bad, most people don’t. Find some local sources and use them. Get informed. States are much easier to understand and to impact than the Federal government – and they can themselves impact on the Federal government. Long game, remember.

Use that information to decide who you are voting for in the primaries weeks before the primaries occur. Yep, that’s the work part. In most states the primaries are where the general election is actually decided. If you hate only having two choices, you’re gonna love primaries. Remember, these people have impacts on your life and the lives of people in your community – so choose wisely.

If they don’t work out, choose someone else in four years. Simple, really.

You don’t have to wait until you get your state all straightened out to start on the Federal government – which is good since it never gets to perfect. Just take it one step at a time.

As you become better informed, decide which issues or parties you have the most interest in and join some social media groups about that. Lurk if you like or jump in the deep end but get more involved in political and civil life at all levels.

No, you don’t have to run for office – although there’s nothing wrong with that – or even become an activist. Being involved and well informed makes you a better voter and a better donator. Put your money and your vote where they will do the most good.

Hey, wait a minute! You’re still telling us to fix ourselves!

Kinda but not really. Being nearly totally ignorant means you’ll fall for any suggestion that comes along no matter how silly. Being well informed and more involved means you will be better able to decide if a change sounds like a good idea or not.

Okay, okay, concrete example. I think term limits are just silly. The idea is to keep politicians from gaining too much power over time and being captured by special interests. Those are excellent goals but the means won’t achieve those ends. We just end up with lame ducks and poorly trained legislators. We get rid of them just as we get them trained – that’s dumb. Besides, those rare few that truly do a good job are penalized just the same. Think about it, how hard would you work for a company that is gonna show you the door no matter how well you do?

So, we’re stuck? Not hardly. There’s a different systemic issue that causes those problems – seniority. Since we’re amending the Constitution either way, why not eliminate the actual problem, seniority? Make Congress use fairer methods to assign committee memberships – Congress will improve overnight.

You’ve probably heard of term limits but not of seniority. Now, am I right that seniority is the bigger problem? Odds are, you have no idea.

This isn’t complicated, high bar stuff – the news mentions seniority in passing every day. But you were educated in a warehouse for kids and then told to watch the news – gee, how could that go wrong?

Relax, none of this stuff is hard. It’s just getting into the habit of finding out what’s really going on and how things really work. Admit it, you aren’t really sure why I said we had to amend the Constitution either way, are you? Public edumacation at its finest. Literally, they taught you this in government class. It wasn’t that long ago – the Earth had already cooled and everything!

So, are you going to click on the next video that screams China is collapsing in two days or are you gonna do a quick search for why ending congressional seniority would require a constitutional amendment?

That’s how we fix this country. One step at a time.