{"id":11068,"date":"2013-01-21T18:46:54","date_gmt":"2013-01-21T18:46:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nonesoblind.org\/blog\/?p=11068"},"modified":"2014-10-02T20:29:53","modified_gmt":"2014-10-02T20:29:53","slug":"swinging-for-the-fences-please-join-in-this-bold-new-effort","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abetterhumanstory.org\/pressthebattle\/swinging-for-the-fences-please-join-in-this-bold-new-effort\/","title":{"rendered":"Swinging for the Fences: Please Join Me in this Bold New Effort"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Hello again. It has been nearly a year and a half since I mothballed our NoneSoBlind to concentrate on my campaign for Congress. Now I\u2019ve brought NoneSoBlind back onto the web, complete with all its archives. <\/p>\n

And I\u2019m happy to return to you now to enlist your help as my mission enters a new phase.<\/p>\n

In the first two phases — the NoneSoBlind blogging community and my campaign for Congress — I addressed the immediate crisis in America stemming from the pathology that has arisen in the American political system. The emphasis now will be on our long-term efforts to create a better world.<\/p>\n

To acknowledge this project’s ambitiousness, I\u2019m calling it \u201cSwinging for the Fences.\u201d And what is its ambitious goal? To provide an integrated and fairly comprehensive framework for understanding how the human world works. And more specifically, understanding the forces over which we need to gain control if we \u2013Americans, humankind\u2014are to be able to create a desirable future. <\/p>\n

It is troubling that whenever our artists depict the future of our civilization, in films or fiction, those imagined futures are bleak, or chaotic, or soulless. It can say nothing good about where we are as a nation, as a civilization, as a species that the kinds of future we seem able to imagine are so unappealing.<\/p>\n

It is a sign, I believe, of our sense that we are not in control of our destiny. I see a way to address this dimness of vision.<\/p>\n

Troubling, too, is how many Americans have been slow to see, or have failed to see at all, what\u2019s been before our eyes in recent years as the most destructive and dishonest force ever to reach center stage of American politics has risen on the political right and degraded our nation. <\/p>\n

It is a sign, I believe, that too many Americans lack a mental map that contains a space for spiritually dark forces. I see a way to provide that deeper conceptual space with a deeper spiritual resonance. <\/p>\n

This project fits squarely with what I\u2019ve done over the past more-than-forty years. My whole life, I\u2019ve felt continually drawn to look at the big picture and discern the forces, unleashed by the dynamics of our systems, that shape our destiny often in harmful and destructive ways, and to try to devise ways to allow wise human choice to prevail. <\/p>\n

I\u2019m ready to put it all together in a vision that I hope will combine intellectual clarity with spiritual aliveness and moral passion. <\/p>\n

Ideas can move history. The American Revolution and its resultant constitutional government were the fruit of ideas that took generations, and much hard-lived historical experience. Today\u2019s world seems sorely in need of a vision, or ideology, that can inspire and empower people to fortify the power of goodness in its contest with the kind of destructive forces that have become so disturbingly visible in our country.<\/p>\n

I’m swinging to hit the ball over that fence. Getting the home run is a long shot. But I\u2019m confident we can at least get on base with a clean single or stand-up double. And who knows? Sometimes the long shot comes in!<\/p>\n

I\u2019m already beginning to construct \u2013in public– this ambitious edifice of ideas and vision. On my campaign Facebook page (www.facebook.com\/AndySchmookler<\/a>), I\u2019m starting to post small pieces of this Big Picture and to begin to put them together. As time goes on, these will be refined and ordered into finished works designed to have an impact on the world. <\/p>\n

I need your help. With so ambitious an undertaking, and with me no longer a spring chicken, I need all the help I can get. Will you swing for the fences with me?<\/p>\n

Here are some of the ways you can help?<\/p>\n

\u2022\tMonitor what I\u2019m posting there under the rubric of \u201cSwinging for the Fences.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u2022\tBolster the effort there by commenting with your ideas, your questions, your challenges, your advice, your encouragements\u2014whatever you feel able to add that will fortify the project and makie it more of what it should be.<\/p>\n

\u2022\tSpread the word to others about what we\u2019re up to. Think about the people you know who would value an integrated vision of how the human world works, and who care about whether the good, the true, and the beautiful triumph over the evil, the false, and the ugly.<\/p>\n

\u2022\tContribute funds, if you\u2019re willing, to help defray the at least several thousands of dollars of costs I envision for the project during this year. (I\u2019m still working for nothing, as I have since 2005 with NoneSoBlind and my campaign.)<\/strong>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Your help and support and encouragement will be very much appreciated.<\/p>\n

With thanks,<\/p>\n

ANDY<\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hello again. It has been nearly a year and a half since I mothballed our NoneSoBlind to concentrate on my campaign for Congress. Now I\u2019ve brought NoneSoBlind back onto the web, complete with all its archives. And I\u2019m happy to return to you now to enlist your help as my mission enters a new phase. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abetterhumanstory.org\/pressthebattle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11068"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abetterhumanstory.org\/pressthebattle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abetterhumanstory.org\/pressthebattle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abetterhumanstory.org\/pressthebattle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abetterhumanstory.org\/pressthebattle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11068"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abetterhumanstory.org\/pressthebattle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11068\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14081,"href":"https:\/\/abetterhumanstory.org\/pressthebattle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11068\/revisions\/14081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abetterhumanstory.org\/pressthebattle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abetterhumanstory.org\/pressthebattle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abetterhumanstory.org\/pressthebattle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}