Human Beings Are Not Cogs In A Wheel
By: Dhyana Stanley
Tags: Andrew Yang, Politics, Basic Income, 2020 Presidential Race, Humanity First

Human Beings Are Not Cogs In A Wheel

A Call to a Different Way of Thinking

by Dhyana Stanley

Just for a moment consider this — there is a sinking house built on sand and someone tells you that the problem will be solved if you replace the broken heating system. Another insists that the foundation is the issue and you only need to add some gravel to the sand and all will be well.

This is a good example of — if our thinking is off about either the problem or solution then things will not get fixed.

No amount of money we throw into fixing the heating system or shoring up the foundation with gravel will do the job.

We may be a bit more comfortable for a while sitting in a warm house with an efficient heating system but the house is sinking none the less.

All of the 2020 presidential candidates seem to recognize that ‘our house is sinking’ but only Andrew Yang has clear thinking about both the problem and solution. The other candidates focus their attention on fixing symptoms without seeing what is underlying them.

Yang is very different. He addresses the symptoms, such as a broken healthcare system and corporate corruption, but he also sees that what is underlying those symptoms is a distorted way of thinking.

He points out that it’s as if we’ve been brainwashed to believe in scarcity and that human value is based on economic value.

This way of thinking distorts everything.

How we feel about ourself and others is then distorted. And how we treat each other is also distorted.

Fear, divisiveness, corruption, greed, racism run rampant and over time many of us become numb into thinking that it’s completely normal to treat each other the way we often now do.

There is nothing normal about what is now happening in our society.

Yang’s ‘Humanity First’ phrase is like a mantra or Biblical refrain waking us up out of the trance of divisiveness into the possibility of so much more.

Corruption and corporate greed are not at the root of what has a stranglehold on our democracy — they are the effects of a distorted way of thinking. If we throw money at eliminating the effects without addressing our fundamental mindset we may be a bit more comfortable for a while with a somewhat better healthcare system but ‘the house’ is still sinking none the less.

When our thinking is free from what we’ve been programmed to believe then all else will follow.

Repeatedly, Yang points out that every human being has innate value and that there is an abundance of resources. Human value is a given — not earned — and scarcity is simply not true.

From this fundamental mindset of abundance and our innate human value, Yang then builds a scaffold of rational and humane policies that fit together like a puzzle creating a society in which every human being shares and contributes toward its well-being.

Parenting, care-taking, volunteering, journalism, the arts are valued just as much as the career paths of science, math or business. Rather than our nation’s success only being measured by economic indicators, Yang proposes that GDP be a measurement of our overall well-being in which each one of us has a stake.

Based on the understanding of abundance, Yang points out that his policy for each adult American to receive universal basic income of $1000 a month is not at all a hand out. It is a dividend which acknowledges each one’s contribution toward our shared well-being as a nation — the stay at home mom or dad is valued for their contribution just as much as the CEO of a multi-million dollar company.

It doesn’t make any sense for billion dollar tech companies to get rich off of our data while closing our stores and taking our jobs and paying zero in taxes.

And I feel that when those who run these companies get a sense of the type of human centered capitalism Yang is proposing, most will gladly come on board and ask, “How can I help?”

When we finally begin to work together in this rational and humane way, solutions to problems we long thought unsolvable will begin to surface.

There is no telling what this country is capable of when we the people, the true value of this country, are trusted and unleashed to fulfill our highest potential.