"Within the next ten years, America will experience a renaissance or a catastrophe. Something is going to happen to take us back to who we are. We have lost our spiritual rudder, and without it we have neither individual nor collective wisdom. Our culture has lost its sense of sacred connection to any power or authority higher than ourselves. Our national conscience is barely alive as we slither like snakes across a desert floor toward any hole where money lies. Nothing short of an internal awakening will heal this wounded nation.

Both major political parties now steer the discussion of what truly ails us away from that which actually does, seeking to lodge us where they are lodged: in dangerous denial. They have no context for a more psychologically or morally pertinent discussion. They are now more alike than different, and neither one of them is any longer home to truly serious political alternatives. Our political renewal will not come from our political system as it now exists. It will come from deep within us.

There is a new prophetic voice in America, saying, as do all prophets, that we must repent - which means literally to "re-think". This new prophetic voice is not a soloist but a choir. This time it will not be possible to silence one prophet, or even a few, and thereby stymie a broad-based social impulse for decades. This time, a prophetic calling is seizing the hearts of a critical mass. It is a voice of group conscience and a redefinition of citizen activism in American democracy.

It is time once more for the average American citizen to turn to the dominant power structure of our time and say, as did our Founders over two hundred years ago, "We have a better idea."." 

"In a nation of 266 million, our healing is actually extremely personal. We must mature into a deeper understanding of our lives and why we're living them, for such understanding is the womb out of which will come new life for American culture."

"Noting a spiritually motivated political activism now emerging in America, Marianne Williamson claims that traditional political activists increasingly look to spiritual wisdom for inspiration while spiritual contemplatives are increasingly eager to extend their service to the world into political realms. The convergence of the two impulses forms what Williamson calls a "holistic politics".

With the publication of "The Healing of America", Williamson becomes a powerful voice for social conscience in American society. While citing the virtual abandonment of social justice as a dominant political theme since the 1960s, Williamson notes historian Arthur Schlesinger's contention that Americans express renewed political interest every thirty years. This is a time, according to Williamson, for Americans to return once again to our first principles - political and spiritual. In this landmark work, Williamson draws plans for the transformation of American political consciousness and the reemergence of powerful citizen involvement in a genuine healing of American society.

While unemployment has declined, Williamson claims that Americans should not be lulled to sleep by Labor Department statistics. People of faith and conscience must focus on the huge amounts of human suffering that still plague large portions of the American population who play no part in America's upswing. Broad-scale social dysfunction throughout America - in large part stemming from institutionalized social and economic injustice - is met at present by political policies no more creative or enlightened than that of building more prisons, more quickly.

We can no longer expect - or wait for - either major political party to adequately address the causal level of America's pain. We will reap what we sow, collectively as well as individually, and if God is watching any of us then he is watching all of us. The morally concerned American must now take an active stand in turning America away from its current identity as a nation obsessively in love with its money to a nation more seriously invested in all of its children and the potential brilliance of every American.

According to Williamson, we need a new paradigm of political understanding, a moral commitment to express it, and a new kind of activism to bring it forth. "The Healing Of America" is a blueprint for all three." 

"Imagine a politics infused with the following principles:

1. The power within us is greater than any power outside us.

2. Government should concern itself less with how to allocate our external resources and more with how to harness our internl ones.

3. The source of our wealth is our capacity for genius. Creation of wealth through the stimulation of creative thinking is thus the primary source of economic recovery and stimulation.

4. The highest political dialogue is not adversarial but rather a synergistic conversation between high - minded liberal visions for the country and high - minded conservative ones.

5. The politics of hate is a branch that does not bear fruit. That is why another branch is starting to grow. Love is a more powerful political and social tool than hatred.

6. We will not move forward as a nation without repenting for our lack of righteousness toward other Americans in the past and present, and all other nations of the world.

7. We must acknowledge the power of the inner life, the wisdom found in silence, and the primacy of the voice of conscience. Otherwise, the American experiment will end. It will have failed." 

In her book "The Healing of America", Marianne Williamson proposes an interaction of the spiritual and the political in America for a new resolution of our problems and conflicts. The spiritual implies a consideration of desired ends, while the political involves the use of current power. Williamson recognizes the power of love and decries the effects of hate in America today, and hopes to use love to overcome hate. She deplores inaction and hopes to stimulate action on the part of our citizens. Love, hate, inaction and action are all psychological in character, and deserve some further psychological consideration.

Most mental states are the result of previous events in the experience of the individual. When a child has had experiences of honesty and acceptance, that child is likely to have feelings of confidence and trust, and a willingness to be be active in the family and in society. Conversely, when a child has had experiences of lies and rejection, that child is likely to have feelings of doubt and fear, and a desire to leave the family and society.

Such leaving can be in the form of political inaction, as in America today. A change in attitude is needed, but is not easily achieved. Somewhere, there has to be honesty and acceptance to replace the lies and the rejection.

Many lies remain hidden in America today, but Williamson is determined to be honest. For that she deserves our acceptance, and even our action. Love will come through the further spiritual and political actions of our citizens, but some hate will also come, as we come to recognize the scope and causes of our problems . We must convert that new hate into new action and new love. It will not be a smooth course, but a necessary one, as in the healing of any illness or injury.

Politics means the interaction of powerful forces. As Noah Webster said in 1785:
"Tyranny is found in the power to oppress, and Freedom is found in the power to defeat oppression."

Reviewed by: John H. Frenster, MD 

"In the words of Francis Bacon, "Knowledge is Power." There are universal laws of consciousness that apply to social change. I think of them as the Rules of Renaissance.

1. It is always our prerogative, as individuals and as nations, to choose again: to say no to a direction we've been moving in and yes to a new one. Our greatest power is our capacity to change our minds.

2. Alignment with higher principle is always supported by invisible forces.

3. If an energy is not in alignment with divine Truth, it is ultimately temporary. It will not last forever, and it is more vulnerable than it appears.

4. The universe is impersonally invested in evolving toward goodness, and uses any available conduit for the purposes of doing so. Willingness to be so used, activates the conduit. You're as good for the job as anyone else, and you past is totally irrelevant.

In the words of Dr. King, "Even though the arc of the moral universe is long, it bends toward justice."

5. Don't expect the old order to like you.

6. A life of love and effort on behalf of the collective good promises the satisfaction of knowing that you are doing what you were born to do. You are not, however, promised specific results as you might define them.

7. Your happiness regarding the reality that's coming is a more potent method of social conversion than is your anger regarding the reality now.

As my father used to say, "You know. Now do.""

From Page 349 of the Book:

"The American Renaissance Alliance

If you are interested in more information concerning holistic politics and its principles in action, please contact:

The American Renaissance Alliance
1187 Coast Village Road, Suite 1-492
Santa Barbara, CA 93108
(805) 565-8757
Visit: http://www.marianne.com