The Rigged System: Capitalism

 by Craig Willms

Earlier I critiqued socialism, which I find to be dangerous nonsense, an unviable pipedream that's destructive to the human spirit. The opposing force is called capitalism. The word capitalism carries negative connotations for political purposes, but really, or I should say ideally it's a meritorious transactional free market system. Indeed, our 'capitalism' has its problems; it is an imperfect system for imperfect people. Socialism strives to create a perfectly fair system. Perfect sounds so good, but perfection does not survive its own corrupted elements. Perfect, it is said, is the enemy of the good. All we can reasonably expect is good, perfection is a fairytale. Socialism, communism or whatever you want to call it, seeks a pure system, a classless system but it always devolves into totalitarian control and abject misery for all but the powerful. In a capitalistic society powerful people do very, very well, and the vast majority willing to put their boots on in the morning and go to work do quite well. Quite well is not good enough, the socialists demand perfection. They will tear down what is good in service of their fairytale. 

It's the story of the haves and the have nots. The never ending story. In feudal times the haves were few and far between. The have nots were the vast majority. If not for the industrial age and the advent of steam power and the attendant wealth it unleashed, it was likely to stay that way forever. As human societies began to rely on the power of non-human energy in the form of fossil fuels and material scientific advancements to get work done individual wealth increased and spread rapidly. Those with capital, or those who could attract capital increased their wealth exponentially, and millions of people rode on their coattails. 

 It was during the early years of industrialism that socialism and communism rose up. The barons of industry would mercilessly exploit the workforce and try to crush laws and rules and uprisings that would try to curtail their monopolistic power. The collectivist movement was born out of the injustices the workers suffered to the early industrial giants. Today worker protection is quite good, but the socialists have turned the natural inequity inherent in all ventures into their sledgehammer. It's not completely without merit, but again they would destroy what is good and righteous for the ridiculous promise of perfection.

Those early wealth barons sought to protect their wealth. To that end they rigged the system to their advantage. In the normal churn of a dynamic free market the winners would win until they didn't then someone else would rise up. Something better would come along and take the place of what came before. In modern parlance it is called creative destruction. It is the natural ebb and flow of the human condition. The barons couldn't have upstarts and government rules supplanting their dominance. They used the power of their money to rig the playing field, to bestow advantages for themselves while keeping the upstarts out. There was push back from governments and eventually anti-monopoly laws emerged. Therefore, the "system" the barons developed over the decades that followed, diversified their holdings, and cleverly obscured their unscrupulous activities. They used their vast wealth to buy off politicians at all levels - as needed. That's where we are today. The barons morphed into a few dozen massive corporations that own and control hundreds and hundreds of entities that all appear to be independent businesses. 

It was the financial system the locked it all in. Using a revolving door the money men moved in and out of government positions making rules and paying the right politicians to ensure they remain uber-wealthy and all powerful. Wall Street and London's Square Mile is their homefield. Thus, a rigged system.

Despite this, along the way millions upon millions of people have generally lived good lives. Capitalism delivers the goods for the many. This is particularly true in the U.S. and the West. Ordinary people could buy into public companies and increase their personal wealth. It was good indeed, yet millions of people still live in misery. It's an imperfect world full of imperfect people.

The socialists rely on the ignorance of the populace, the sunshine they sell and the lies they tell. It is grievance politics based on the very real truth that everything is in fact imperfect. There is no shortage of the aggrieved. Envy is the balm they spread over the world. Still, the world capitalism built is the place where the fruit is sweeter, a fruit that is distributed to feed billions. Global poverty has never been lower, but that's not good enough for the socialists. They want government, preferably a global government to manage everything, to make everything fair. What could possibly go wrong? 

Obviously, this is a 30,000 foot reading of history, but it is beyond question that socialism is incapable of delivering prosperity and innovation and human well being like capitalism has. Beyond the pipedream there is no personal incentive inherent in socialism, and it is incentive that motivates humanity to build a better world.

Do people really think that a classless equity will result from a socialist system? Will the powerful simply disperse their wealth, and the world will alight in a rousing chorus of kumbaya? Did someone say pipedream. There will always be the rich and powerful, and thus under socialism we'll find ourselves in a new world of feudalism. Second verse, same as the first. Seriously, think about it, why would so many billionaires continue to fund socialist causes if they thought it would destroy them? They fund socialist causes because it will further cement their wealth and power. How can so many in this world indulge in such willful blindness?

It's capitalism that needs to prevail, but it won't if the blatant system rigging is allowed to continue. If socialism wins, capitalism will never reemerge, and the world will live in abject misery in perpetuity. That is, except for the powerful and the wealthy. At such time, no one will even be allowed to condemn socialism. Pay attention to what is happening in the UK today. That's what's coming to America, where capitalism and individualism will make its final stand.

Contentment or Dementia?

 

by Craig Willms

I had an epiphany the other day. I don't want anything anymore. By that I mean I don't have strong desires anymore. Most of the time I don't want to do anything. At the time of this writing I am 65 years old, old enough yes, but not ancient. I suspect most people at 65 still have wants and desires. It's a good thing to want, a good thing to strive, a good thing to want to get up in the morning and it's good thing to look forward to tomorrow as we lie down at the end of the day.

All this hit me the other day as I contemplated the eternal question we all have to deal with every single day "What's for dinner?" Indeed. As I ran through the options in my mind I skipped right past dinner into our nightly TV viewing hour. My wife will ask "what do you want to watch?" I always say "I don't care, anything." I always say that. The truth is I don't care. Then I thought, what can we do besides watch TV, play cards maybe, a long walk, a backyard bonfire?? Meh. It made consider a fact about myself, I don't want anything.

Is this normal? I think not. I have a friend who is always planning, always scheming (in a good way) always looking forward to the next thing, the next vacation, the next purchase - the next dream. He is my age. Why don't I do these things? Not only does he have these desires, he takes action towards achieving them. I don't do anything. Yeah, I might think ahead enough to go fill up the gas can so I can mow the lawn tomorrow, but that's about it.

I'm a musician, a professional one at that. By that I mean that I perform in front of an audience and I get paid. I have performed all my adult life. I've never lived off performing, mind you, it's a tough racket trying to make a living off of playing music. My closest friends are musicians, many still perform to this day. I say this to get back to the point of wants and desires. We musicians always want more, more more - more gear. There is always something we want that we don't have. Most of the time we don't need the thing we want, but we want it just the same. It's a sickness, it's called G.A.S. - gear acquisition syndrome. I don't have it anymore. Anything that had a strong pull on me I've already got. All the things that I used to drool over have lost their appeal. To that end I quit buying things a few years ago. That should have been a warning sign.

That leads me to today when I realize I don't want anything; I don't want to do anything. Obviously, I will do things, but they won't come out me, out of my mind. I follow along now. Nothing we do or plan to do is a result of my brainstorms or my desires. I will travel, reluctantly. I will go to the dentist, if my wife makes the appointment. I will take the dog for a walk, because the dog wants to. I will go to a concert, if a friend suggests it. This is weird, right? This is not fair to my wife, because she does want to do things, have new experiences, she has things she wants to look forward to. And... God bless her, she wants me to be there.

I looked into the future and pictured myself staring blankly out the window for long hours, doing nothing else. Maybe, a glass half full person would say, hey you're contented, this is good, right? Or the glass half empty person (me) will say, oh shit, I've got dementia setting in.

Considering my health problems I'm thinking it's the latter. I've heard old men, much older than me say, all I want is a good night's sleep and good bowel movement. I used to laugh, now I find I agree, that's all I want too. This is sad and it's kind of frightening really. 

I do believe that I am at the early stages of dementia. If I say this to other people they scoff and say you're just getting older, we all slow down, it happens to all of us. 

OK, if you say so.

P.S.  I shall have to amend this with something that slipped my mind at the time. A few years ago I took up e-biking. Quite often I find myself 'wanting' to go for a bike ride, as happened immediately after pushing the publish button on this post. I really enjoy it. So there, I do want do something every so often.

Craig Willms

Dangerous nonsense: Socialism

 

by Craig Willms

When the Revolutionary War broke out it was all but inevitable the locals - the Americans would prevail. Britain was a three month trip one away, resupply was difficult. And so the war was won. By the time the next big war came along this ragtag country spread from sea to shining sea. All countries in proximity to America were small and weak. The population was a broad mix of disaffected expatriates from Europe. They came to be free, free to succeed and build a better life in a country that codified such freedoms in it's founding documents. The American Dream was born.

This is all to say that it's obvious that free people would succeed in such a system, and were destined to be citizens of a great and powerful nation. America is the most powerful nation in the world because of those freedoms. So why is socialism, which is the opposite of freedom, ascending? Do people really equate free stuff with freedom, individual freedom? 

I honestly can't understand how anyone could favor government controlling EVERYTHING over individual personal freedom. Someone should explain it to me, explain socialism on it's own merits. Explain it as if the next question is always "what is the incentive for that".

Simply put, human nature is based on incentive, 'what's in it for me?' We are individuals, we are not a hive. We work for ourselves. Anything short of that is slavery. Why would people be voting for slavery? 

If you really look at world history, you'll find most of the innovation that has enhanced human condition in the past two centuries has come out of the West. These innovations have raised the world out of abject poverty. Increasingly innovation is coming out of only one country, the United States of America. Why is that? Could it be that as Europe slides deeper into the abyss there's no incentive to create or innovate there. The exceptional people move to America as do the exceptional people from Asia. They thrive in America, their ideas thrive. They go on to become billionaires because they can, they are free to earn as much as they can in America. That's why they move to America. 

Other countries, particularly Japan have succeeded in refining and perfecting many of those innovations, and still other countries have taken those innovations and streamlined them to achieve maximum efficiency and maximum profit. All of this is based on the incentive to increase individual or national wealth. Where would China be without American and Western innovations? 

It's simple, innovation and progress does not come out of slavery or collectivist societies, it comes from free people. 

Are people entertaining socialism because the current form of crony capitalism practiced in the world today is grotesquely unfair? Yes, probably. However, you can't just hand the control over all enterprises to the government. The incompetence alone will remove not only incentive, but also all accountability. Where do you go to petition for change when the egregious party is the government? Private businesses and conglomerates are eventually accountable to their customers and the 'government' to some degree. Government is supposed to be a backstop; it's supposed to level the playing field. In today's world it's not doing that - and it never will under socialism because the government is the playing field. (I use the word socialism to categorize all collectivist forms of government including communism, authoritarianism and fascism etc, etc). 

The only solution that would preserve individualism and freedom and the incentive to be a high achiever is to pry the crony from the capitalism. The solution is most definitely not socialism. Socialism has failed in theory and in practice over and over. Why is it still around? It is dangerous nonsense. 

So, as Europe gets closer and closer to nanny state socialist slavery the worse their economies perform and the worse their societies become. Nearly 50% of what they earn as individuals is taken by the government. Taken from the productive and given to foreign loafers. It has lowered living standards all across Europe. That's approaching anti-freedom, I dare say it's approaching government slavery. The native populations in most European countries are becoming irate, and they have every right to.

I would ask Americans, "is that what you want?" I certainly don't. Perversely the crony system won't change until there is an incentive for that to happen. The current masters of this cronyized form of capitalism have every incentive to keep things the way they are. 

I don't know the answers, not all of them. The first thing that has to happen in my estimation is for someone to come along with the courage to challenge the system. By system I mean the cozy system that keeps our elected officials rich, fat and happy. We have to get corporate and special interest money out of politics, to stop allowing them to buy off politicians and write their own legislation. I've heard this all my life and it has never been more true.

The U.S. congress is utterly dysfunctional, and thus completely ineffectual. It has been for decades. They are incompetent grifters. Sure, they all go to Washington DC with all the piss and vinegar their high and mighty egos can muster, but soon they become puppets, very, very rich puppets. It's so lucrative they won't rock the boat; they can't rock the boat. It's frustrating for the rest of us. We all see it and yet there's nothing we can do about it.

It is this frustration that drives dissatisfaction, combined with the stupidity of the average ill-informed citizen it fuels the favor toward socialism. Yes, I said it, stupidity, or ignorance if you will... Our schools, universities and the dominant left-leaning media do not show us the truth about socialism and thus frustrated people are swayed by the bogus promises of collectivism. No one, not a one of them can point to a successful socialist country. They simply don't exist. Socialism is dangerous nonsense.

Errata: Sept 2026

 

by Craig Willms

1.) So, the President who rallied us against the forever wars has entered the perpetual fray in Iran. I suspect the president was so pumped about how well the Maduro capture went, he thought he could take out the Irani regime in less than two weeks. That's not what he got. What he's got here is a stalemate. He is mired down by the fact that his military can't decimate the regime without hurting the average Irani in the streets. Trump does not want to kill the innocent. 

Obviously, there are many aspects of this 'action' that we the general public are unaware of. It's becoming increasingly clear that Iran - the IRGC - is holding out for the American midterms hoping Trump will lose congress and will be forced to end this war. It's also increasingly clear that the Iran 'action' is but one thrust in Trump's grand plan. That plan is to end British control of the world economic order that has been in place since the end of WWII. America has been London's attack dog and a hedge against the current Russian oligarchy and the Soviets before them. Not anymore. Venezuela and Iran are (were) key to the control of middle east oil and the vast narco money laundering scheme. There's a deep dive going on here, and don't think the Greenland acquisition is not part of it. The American media is so complicit in the globalist world order and/or so unsophisticated they can't and won't explore it credibly.

Back home life just seems to go on, but these rising energy costs are stinging everyone. Record high prices at the pump is not winning by any stretch of the imagination. It's a mess. Does Iran possess nuclear weapons? Probably not - that's one good thing about this.

2.) It's hard for me to square with the criminal-as-victim narrative in this country. I know there have always been women who fall for confessed murderers and profess their love for the criminal convict. The speculation is these women have a mental disorder and some weird, misplaced compassion for a man locked (safely) behind bars. But when it becomes an increasing segment of society that rallies for these obvious murderers before the trial even begins - it all becomes truly unfathomable.

Lindsey Clancy murdered her 3 children in cold blood and 11 of 12 jurors voted to exonerate her. The claim was she was the victim, a victim of post partum depression. The jury wasn't done, they began a very public campaign against the one hold out juror. I wouldn't even have given this trial a second's notice if it had been 11-1 for a conviction. That I could have understood. This travesty following on the heels of the Luigi Mangione affair exemplifies this truly bizarre cultural trend. Mangione murdered the CEO of a health insurance company in cold blood on camera and admitted it. Still thousands of women have expressed their support for him. They show up at his court dates by the hundreds as if to worship Saint Luigi. 

These things are indefensible. One can fairly examine both sides of an issue, and they should, but to fervently rally behind an admitted killer is a sickness, a cultural sickness. There I said it, someone had to. We've sunk so low. In the past the idea of killing children was so abhorrent that no one would ever seek a reason to condone it. How has it come to this? Killing children is now being celebrated. Ruminate on that for a while.

3.) It's a women's world! At least in the West it is. How many of you realize that women now outnumber men in employment? Women outnumber men in college and university. Women completely control the publishing industry, including authors and male-oriented genres like SciFi. Large cities and increasingly state and federal governments are being controlled by women. In my city, a capitol city we are ruled by an all-women city council and a female mayor. Men need not apply. 

With all this so-called progress for women you'd think the fairer sex would be ecstatic, right? Nope. Women report being more unhappy than they've ever been. That doesn't even make sense. Why, you might ask, well, that would be men's fault too. Obviously.

Men have been so beaten down in this society by a culture that paints all men with the same brush. It's a tiny percentage of men who perpetuate crime and practice sexism, but it gets applied to all men. This modern notion that men, all men, are toxic, just by the mere fact they are men is simply ruinous. So, men are checking out. Millions of men are giving up on women and marriage and fatherhood. Unless they are 6' 2" or taller, make more than six figure salaries and have six-pack abs women don't seem to be interested in them. Fine, they say, have a shot at Chad, good luck getting him or keeping him.

This is not good for the West; this is not good for the world. Men without good jobs don't marry and don't have children. Women either become single mothers or have no kids at all. The declining birth rate is proof of that. Yes, it may be some odious grand plan to decrease world population to "save" the planet. The fact that without men to maintain and build our infrastructure and do the hard things they've always done, it can and probably will doom civilization. Or worse, allow masculine foreign men to overrun the West. We can see it happening all around us. It's time to open our eyes.

America Love: Europeans open their eyes and their hearts

 by Craig Willms

I have been blown away by the sentiments coming from foreigners, especially Europeans upon visiting the USA for the first time. I can't be the only one scratching my head over this...

When the soccer (football) World Cup was slated to take place in North America I barely took notice. I'm not a soccer fan. I may be in the minority, but the generation born in America in the 1960s was not exposed to soccer at all. It just wasn't on the radar. Therefore I never understood the game nor the fanaticism for it. Fast forward to the 2020's and soccer is everywhere in the USA. Still, when the tournament started here 2026 I didn't care at all. The highlight reels didn't attract my attention - because - I didn't care at all. For me the World Cup could have come and gone with barely a thought. It was the hundreds of YouTube videos made by Europeans that made me take notice.

I began seeing these videos in my YouTube feed within weeks of the opening of the World Cup tournament. The titles would draw me in because I'm not used to ANY praise for America, especially in the Trump era. These videos showered high praise on some rather unremarkable aspects of American life. I began to wonder how "modern" Europe actually is. They constantly remarked about how huge America is. They marveled at how big our stores are and how beautiful the stadiums are.  They were amazed by the utter scale of our infrastructure. It was fun to see the things of our everyday lives through the eyes of strangers.

The constant refrain that revealed the biggest surprise of their American experience was our friendliness. It was genuine friendliness, they insisted, not a put on. Strangers would just strike up conversations and ask questions of the obvious foreigner. Offering advice or directions with a smile, Americans treated the visitor with respect and curiosity. Apparently Europeans were not expecting this. The folks from northern Europe were most surprised by this as they are unaccustomed to open public friendliness. They expressed some disbelief at first, but it happened all the time, day after day. Americans truly are friendly. In particular the visitors would comment on customer service, how great it was, how unexpected it was. The servers at the restaurants were attentive, genuinely friendly and helpful. Apparently you can expect a different experience in a European eatery. 

The reason any of this is surprising is because the picture painted of America in the eyes the the European media and intelligentsia was that America was an awful place, a dangerous place, a place to be avoided at all costs. Alas, the draw of football, World Cup football, was too great and Europeans came to America anyway. They were blown away. 

It is sickening to me that the media and the elites in these other countries would paint this awful picture of everyday life in America. But then, I thought, our own media and elites do the same thing everyday and in so many ways. America, like anywhere else, has it's dangerous places and should avoid areas, no argument there. To portray the whole country, every city and town as a wild west shoot'em up is unconscionable. Europeans visitors felt safe when they were here, often commenting on things they would do here that they would never do in their own countries for safety reasons. The fact that the 'news' media lives by the old adage that if it bleeds it leads can explain the perception of violence and disfunction in our streets, but it's far from the real everyday experience of life in the United States.

The likelihood that this brief encounter here in America by Europeans will have any lasting effect on perceptions overseas is low, but the real America will stick with these visitors as they watch their slanted news programs. I have already seen backlash by European podcasters (the ones who haven't moved to the U.S. already) that the friendliness of our servers in our restaurants is because they have to rely on tips for their wages. In oh so perfect Europe they pay the waitresses and waiters so much better than Americans do. Yeah, and they get terrible or indifferent, even unpleasant service every day. In the U.S. a good, attentive server can double their pay in many circumstances, and thanks to President Trump they are not taxed on their tip money - a secondary bonus. Not to mention most sit-down restaurant meals are a pleasant experience for us patrons. 

Across Europe there was also an expectation that millions of Americans were milling about the hospital doors because they didn't have universal health care. The the dying and indigent are piling up, wailing and gnashing, denied entry into hospitals, while the rest of us stepped over them to get inside. Yes, of course it's ridiculous, but that truly is the perception Europeans and Canadians (Australians too) have of American health care. The system here is far from perfect, I concede that, but no one is turned away at an American ER. Lost is the fact there are numerous systems and avenues for those uninsured through their employers to get publicly backed insurance, people are not dying on the hospital steps here. Canada is a perfect example of a great public health care system. Except for the fact that just over the border in the United States an entire health care system has been built to serve Canadians who need health care in a timely fashion because they can't get it in Canada. Not to mention - hell, I will mention it - the solution the Canadian government has for expensive public health care is to offer to kill its suffering citizens for free. MAID, medical assistance in dying is not just some end of life 'service' for the terminally ill, it is the first move suggested when someone calls a suicide prevention hotline. Oh you're depressed, let me connect you with MAID. Oh, I'm sure there are nuances I'm papering over but it is not far from the truth, and it's sickening. I'm assuming Europeans and Australians have some similar aspect of their wonderful health systems.  

All in all, it was a very pleasant surprise to watch hundreds of videos of Europeans singing the praises of their American experience. It was a rare feel good viewing window into our own country that we are not used to seeing. Maybe it will have some lasting effect in Europe on the false representation of America, it's hard to say. What is telling is the dozens of Europeans who declared that they didn't want to go back, that they wanted to stay in America. That should make us feel a little better about the country we live in.

Why Donald why? Bad Donald!

 

by Craig Willms

President Trump is 80 years old. At 80 years old can one be petulant? We usually pair that word with the word child; a petulant child. I want to be a supporter of the President because he opposes the socialists and the woke as much as I do. He does things that are designed to thwart the hard-core leftists, and because of that it's good for the country. You know what isn't good for the country? Trump's petulant mouth. He says stupid shit.

Even as millions of us think the same thing we know innately and wisely not to say every single thing that crosses our minds. Nothing good will come of it. Why doesn't President Trump know this? 

So, he gets in a tussle, rhetorically and substantively, with Mark Carney of Canada and the next thing he does is formally rename Lake Ontario to Lake America??? WTF. Why Donald why? It's just stupid. Even if it is some kind of psyop play it's stupid.

Mr. Trump, please think before you speak. Be just a little bit diplomatic. It's hard to defend a man who runs his mouth like a child. You can hit back at your detractors with some wit, some measured discipline. Anything but your impudence - all the time. 

Reflections on a choppy sea

 

by Craig Willms

What are we, and more importantly why are we? We are in fact an infinitesimal fragment of an infinite universe, a universe that is utterly incomprehensible. Each of us mill about in the space we occupy, struggling to carry on an existence that means something. Means something to whom? Good question.

Meaninglessness is a conundrum. If life, our life, is meaningless as so many clear-eyed materialists believe, then what is the point? If at the moment one discovers that his or her life is devoid of any meaning the real mystery is why they would carry on at all. Why bother? Why not just end it? Yet the enlightened, those who believe their life and the life of everyone who ever lived is ultimately pointless don't just kill themselves, do they? No, they succumb to a biological imperative despite their absolute certainty that nothing really matters - they marry and have children and live into old age. Why? Simple, they know deep down that life is not pointless, even as they preach to the unenlightened masses that nihilism is the ultimate truth. They are hypocrites.

The universe as far as we know is endless. Our scientists can speculate that the universe is a certain age and possibly even a certain size, but they do not know beyond their mathematical calculations. It's entirely possible "we" will never know. We speculate that the Earth is billions of years old, and it very well may be, and it will probably go on for billions more. In a billion years from now we will all be long gone. Did it mean anything?

Yes.

Yes, because we are one. We are the universe; we have been, we are and will always be one part of the whole. We are reflections on a choppy sea.

Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger is best known for his famous thought experiment known as Schrödinger's Cat. He designed this thought experiment to illustrate a paradox of quantum superposition wherein a hypothetical cat may be considered both alive and dead simultaneously because its fate is linked to a random event that may (or may not) occur. In this speculation he states if you seal a cat in a box with something that can eventually kill it, you won’t know if the cat is alive or dead until you open the box. So, until you open the box and observe the cat, the cat is simultaneously dead and alive. 

Schrödinger, besides being a Nobel Prize winning physicist was also a philosopher. His thinking went down to unusual depths about what the mathematical formalism of quantum theory was actually telling us about the nature of reality. He was not satisfied that science could explain with equations and calculations the depths of meaning, there needed to be a deeper interpretation. Quantum theory describes sub-atomic specifications like the mechanic rattles off the horsepower, displacement and the timing of a high-performance V8 engine, but he can't tell you with these specs what it feels like to sit behind the wheel and push the accelerator pedal to the floor.

Eventually Schrödinger concluded infinite consciousness is what underlies all of reality. It's not that your mind and the universe's mind are separate things. At the deepest level, the mind that looks out through your eyes and the mind that constitutes all being are one and the same. One mind. He came to find the concept of Brahman, the Indian notions of ultimate reality, the eternal, conscious, irreducible, infinite, omnipresent, and the spiritual core of the universe, to be the one truth. One consciousness, one Brahman.

This is, in a sense what dovetails with the Dao in the Far East and the Judeo/Christian God in the West? Clearly there is overlap. Each is a different aspect of the ultimate. 

There is one sun shining on the ocean, but we see a thousand points of light, each an individual reflection of the one light. It's a simple way to conceptualize the collective consciousness of the 'one' mind. 

What does this have to do with the meaning of our lives? Well, that is the ultimate question, isn't it? It's not even a what question, it's a why question. Why? Why are we here at all? Experience. We are here to experience the universe, to add our personal experiences to the whole. In that regard every single life is important and meaningful. Even those whose lives are short and brutal are ultimately meaningful. The why of it points to the one mind growing and evolving. There is no telling if we, our little piece of the whole, reincarnates again and again to experience again and again, but there is no reason it couldn't be possible. Think of being a tiny drop in the ocean being tossed above the waterline and existing apart from the ocean for a short time, eventually you will return to the depths.

Obviously, there are a million unanswered questions, ones that may never be answered in this incarnation. Maybe when the veil is lifted as this tiny slice of consciousness expires, we become enlightened, maybe we meet God? We will all find out, won't we.