Stances & Statements
POWER / INSTITUTIONS - Part 4
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C.I.A.
The Central Intelligence Agency is arguably the most powerful organization on the planet. It has the greatest responsibility. It is a contradictory organization in that it does both very significant activities to help the United States and the world, but it also conducts operations that are destructive. The CIA was the successor to the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). Both the CIA and Air Force were officially formed and recognized in 1947, only months after the Roswell incident. There are levels of the CIA, from lower-level spying on adversaries whose information is available to the Director of the CIA, to managing reverse engineering of spacecraft technology, which would be in most cases not available to the official publicly known leadership. It’s an organization we need to deal with existential threats, but to do that in arguably the best way I believe we need an updated version that has a much greater level of integrity. The CIA has been linked to the JFK assassination, the very reason the public has yet to get a disclosure of the topic despite being almost sixty years since the event. The CIA has had a long history of drug smuggling, ultimately bringing about the crack epidemic in the late 1980s and 1990s. The CIA has overthrown multiple democratically elected governments and replaced with violent regimes. When the U.S. Senate select committee (Church Committee) investigated the abuses of the CIA in 1975 they found that the CIA did mind control experiments (MKUltra) on unwilling individuals. To this day the CIA continues to use various forms of torture. While originating within the Department of Defense, Operation Northwoods called on the CIA to commit terrorist acts against U.S. civilians, as well as on military infrastructure and personnel. While speculation, it is not hard to imagine the CIA being involved in orchestrating domestic terrorist events like that of 9/11. The CIA has a dangerous amount of influence in our world far beyond the United States borders. Power needs checks and balances; the problem is it's a selfregulating organization. In short, the CIA is an essential organization that has a history of highly unethical and illegal operations. With that said, it’s not all negative, just like how the entire Catholic Church is not considered completely negative because there are some bad people at both the higher and lower levels who have abused children. The CIA cannot be trusted under any circumstance, and it should be reformed as much as is needed to build trust in the American experiment of democracy. The equivalent of the CIA in other countries needs to be watched and regulated just as much if not more.
National / Global Security
National security as well as global security are incredibly important. Global security has greater importance as it affects more people and in some cases everyone. There are real threats in our world, ones that are created by human beings, and ones that are not. We need to protect our country and our planet. To do that we need to first understand what threats we face to protect against them. The threats related to human beings as we have seen are often created in the pursuit of power. This combined with issues of ego, ignorance, selfishness, drug abuse, and mental illness, it’s no wonder how these and other aspects aid in the great human dysfunction that we see contributing to the many problems happening across the globe. This human problem is largely the greatest threat we have, as we cannot fight the other threats as effectively without addressing this first. When we can end global poverty, educate the masses, and have Utopian culture permeate through into the global culture, then hopefully we will be able better contain the human threat to national and global security. This will help to tackle arguably larger problems collectively and effectively like climate change. Outside of our human challenges, there are other living things that are a threat to our existence. We often forget that our home, as Buckminster Fuller would refer to as “Spaceship Earth,” is in the cosmos, and there are many cosmic threats to be concerned with.
Nuclear Power
Nuclear power, like other energy infrastructure, if done correctly could be very beneficial. The problem is we have seen nuclear disasters such as Chernobyl and Fukushima occur that were both devastating to the environment and the health of human beings. We have learned a lot from these events, and the reality is we could have prevented both disasters from occurring. Overall, nuclear power can be helpful in the fight against climate change and is something we should use with great caution while we transition to better alternatives. With that said, nuclear power from a financial perspective is more costly than practical solutions like wind and solar, and significantly slower to implement. Many billions were spent on the Manhattan Project and subsequent research. It would be a shame to have only used the knowledge that was gained for destructive purposes as opposed to helping our society thrive. As a result, we should continue using nuclear energy as we already are doing, but there are clearly better, more practical options that don’t have disasters involving dangerous levels of radiation. Energy Technology The way human beings have generated energy for personal and economic needs has led to our current existential threat of climate change. Governments and companies have controlled energy for power, money, and legitimate national/global security reasons. We are getting to a stage of climate change where the global community cannot allow our energy production to continue as it has. The reality is governments and some companies within the military-industrial complex have advanced energy technologies that are currently being suppressed so as to not be available to the masses. It is evident that some technology is far too powerful for the general public to have access to, but there are more practical technologies that can still provide clean renewable energy for the entire human population, whether that means a device in every person’s home, or a large energy generating station that serves millions of home’s needs. The USF believes these practical energy technologies need to start being integrated as soon as possible as we are running out of time to solve the threat of climate change. Globalization Globalization is the natural progression of a successful society. As a result of working together with the international community we learn more, create greater economic opportunities, and we become more connected as a human species. Our collective cultures are coming together in a “melting pot” to create what might be considered a global culture, one culture that takes the best parts of all cultures. Currently, we have what is referred to as a “salad bowl,” in which cultures maintain their unique features, yet contribute to the whole flavor of globalization. Sports Sports are a favorite pastime of many people. It is fun and exciting to participate, whether an athlete playing in a game or a spectator watching in the audience on location or from home. Sports embody the competitive nature of human beings, creating opportunities to push the boundaries of human potential, mentally and physically, in a relatively safe and controlled manner. The USF advises that anyone interested in participating in sports like American football, hockey, boxing, and mixed martial arts, among other sports, be aware of the risks involved such as the potential for longterm injuries, concussions, traumatic brain injury, etc. The USF does not support the idea of young kids participating in sports that are known to be considerably dangerous.