Why I have to write this book

Almost no one suspects it, but the opportunity to kick the blocks out from America's wheels and get it racing again has never been greater.

Few people imagine how easy it would be to make this happen because the entrenched political warfare of the past half-century has made people believe that our system is irreparably broken. Two whole generations of Americans have grown up watching their parents fight one another to a standstill over things that don't seem to matter that much anymore. They have largely turned away from politics because it seems to be nearly useless in getting things done to help real people live better lives.

But this appearance is false. The system isn't irreparably broken. It's just been in the hands of politicians who refuse to let it do its work out of fear that they might not like the outcomes. Take them out of the system, and it will roar back to life.

The very people who could make this happen, however, don't know they have the power to do so because they are deceived by the appearance that the system is broken!

These people are the Millennial Majority, who, as of 2015, now outnumber all previous generations. This book's mission is to reveal why the system isn't working and present an easy, actionable, and almost unstoppable plan to turn the whole situation around almost immediately.

The book also hopes to combat the disappointment that some millennials feel with the political process—namely, those who voted for Barak Obama and saw not much change for all the hope they invested. The truth about American politics is that no President, no matter how talented, can effect much change if the system is deadlocked as it is now. The plan presented in the book changes all that by opening up the system so that the president can get things done.

According to all surveys, today's young people want more than anything to make a difference in the world, to help others, and to live a meaningful life. It would be tremendously easier to fulfill those dreams if they didn't have to continually fight the gridlock caused by their parents' generation.

The benefits of turning America around are almost incalculable:

• It would usher in a new age of political action, in which getting things done to help people can take first priority—just what the Millennial Majority would be doing right now if they weren't being obstructed by political gridlock
• It would demonstrate to the young and energetic that their optimism, dynamism, and altruism can no longer be repressed by their old and depleted predecessors
• It would establish an inspiring example for the rest of the world—if the broken-down old jalopy that is present-day America can be renovated into a Formula One racer, there is hope for every nation
• It would finally make it possible to actually do things to stop the pain and suffering caused by poverty and want, and help more people seek the happiness of a life worth living
• It would unleash a youthful supply of creativity, generosity, and ingenuity that is now stymied by the unavailability of worthwhile channels for its activity
• It would allow us to rebuild, upgrade, or replace our crumbling infrastructure so that everyday life can run smoothly, which would open up even more channels for increased productivity
• It would allow us to create an innovation bank populated by young people whose imaginations are not infected by the limitation-mentality of earlier generations, ready to imagineer a new world beyond the wildest dreams of their parents

It seems to me that this is worth doing. But the opportunity will almost certainly evaporate if it is not grabbed soon. So I have to write and publish this book by March or April 2016 in order to get it into the hands of the people who can make all this happen.

Who is this book for?

This book is mainly for the Millennial Majority—Americans born roughly between the early 1980s and the early 2000s, although it may also be of great interest to older Americans who have been frustrated by dysfunctional politics of the second half of the twentieth century.

If you belong to the Millennial generation—even if you don't currently like that name—this book hopes to show you five things:

1. that the dismal current state of America was caused by your parents' acceptance of certain debilitating false beliefs;
2. that America's future depends entirely upon your willingness to reject those false beliefs and remake our system;
3. that you—and only you—can make this happen;
4. that you can do it very easily, without coordinating mass movements or gearing up vast fund-raising efforts;
5. and that you could even have fun doing it!

In fact, my claim is that you could do all this in just a few hours of your spare time spread out over three days.

Would you change the world if you knew that you could do it this easily and quickly?

The world hopes your answer is Yes.

Marketing Plan

The book will be marketed through an aggressive online campaign. While a detailed agenda has not yet been devised, current plans aim mainly at the ebook version, including, but not limited to, the following activities:

• A full-featured landing page for channeling traffic
• Pre-launch preparation of reports, audios, and PDFs for giveaways to create involvement
• A pre-launch promotion to establish a basis of good reviews before the book goes on sale
• Pre-launch preparation of Facebook Ads, Press Releases, and Articles for guest blogs
• Pre-launch preparation of Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Tumblr, email, and other media messages to be sent upon launch
• Pre-launch release of media messages to insiders (email lists, blog subscribers, etc.)
• Pre-launch book listings on e-book sites
• Pre-launch engagement with forums and chat rooms about upcoming release
• Pre-launch booking of online interviews to be done during the two weeks beginning on launch day
• Launch day coordinated release of blogs, ads, interviews, giveaways, etc.
• Intensive follow-up for at several months after launch

Outline

The book has been entirely outlined, and first drafts of most of the chapters have already been written. Here is the current table of contents, with brief descriptions of most items. (The Preface and Introduction have been included in the "Sample" following the Outline.)

* * * * * * * * * *

Preface

Introduction

PART I: THE MAJOR MYTHS

Chapter One: The Myth of Scarcity

Our primal fear of shortages and enemies keeps us chained to the myth of scarcity. Why we need to overcome these fears and how we can resist the limited thinking of the scarcity mindset.

Chapter Two: The Myth of Self-Interest

The common belief that everyone acts for their own benefit keeps us shackled to the by of self-interest. Why this belief is destructive to society and impedes all collaborative efforts. How to rise above self-interested motivations.

First Milepost: From Production to Creation

Each of the five "mileposts" answers a question clarifying the changes that must occur in our thinking about the world in order to adopt the attitude that can fix America. This milepost discusses the change from the "zero-sum" mindset that characterizes production to the unfettered mindset that characterizes creation. It explains why abandoning self-interest generates creativity and dynamism.

Chapter Three: The Myth of Competition

The notion that we must constantly protect ourselves from rivalry keeps us mired in the myth of competition. Why competition is mostly unnecessary, why cooperation is far more useful, and how we can resist competitive pressures to free up energy for creative endeavors.

Chapter Four: The Myth of Independence

One of the most pernicious myths holding us back is the idea that the strong person can make it alone. Over-emphasis on the virtue of self-reliance makes us captives of the myth of independence. Why humans are, and always have been, interdependent, why the myth of independence makes true justice impossible, and how we must adjust our notion of freedom in order to build a new world.

Second Milepost: From Freedom to Virtuosity

This milepost discusses why we must shift our attitude about freedom in order to move into a new realm of activity. Too many people think that freedom means mastering others. On the contrary, as long as we focus on mastering others, we remain in the field of restraint. What we really need to do is master ourselves, to overcome the narrow, self-interested elements in our constitutions. Then we can do everything because we are no longer compelled by anything. We no longer worry about freedom, because we are virtuosos of living.

Chapter Five: The Myth of Religion

The belief that only religion can ground morality keeps us tied to the myth of religion. Why religion's beneficial effects on society are far fewer than most imagine, why contemporary religious attitudes are doing more harm than good in society, and how we must fortify our reliance on reason if we are to break through to a new way of living together.

Chapter Six: The Myth of Tradition

Over-reliance on past practices and beliefs as the ordering forces in society produces the myth of tradition. Why tradition cannot deal adequately with the continual necessity for change and renewal, why it cannot transmit sufficiently trustworthy rules of morality or decency, and how we need to think in order to benefit from it without being trapped by it.

Third Milepost: From Morality to Love

This milepost considers the question, How can we be moral without Religion or Tradition? The deceptively simple answer is to move our thinking away from Fear and toward Love. The more we bring our thinking and our feeling in line with Love, the less harmful everything becomes, and the more lightly we live with our creative energies.

Chapter Seven: The Myth of Capitalism

The idea that free-market capitalism is unquestionably beneficial and moral keeps us fettered to the myth of capitalism. Why capitalism is essentially immoral and must be restrained by government in order to yield its benefits, why it is time to change capitalism to make it more beneficial to the vast majority of people, and why the Millennial Majority must set aside complaints about current capitalism and create a positive vision of what a new economic system should look like.

PART II: HOW YOU CAN POLITICALLY CORRECT AMERICA

Chapter Eight: Step 1 • Align with the Force of the Future

The force that dominated the past is Fear. The force that will dominate the future is Creativity. This chapter provides simple steps for aligning yourself with the creative future and moving away from the fearful past.

Fourth Milepost: From Fear to Creativity

Why the change from fear to creativity is a profound paradigm switch, and why the creator is not fazed in the slightest by what the fearful person considers impossible.

Chapter Nine: Step 2 • Politically Correcting America with the Simple Power of the Vote

Why the American political system has three speeds: no progress, a little progress, and super-fast progress. Why the present time is especially favorable to shifting the system from no progress directly to super-fast progress. The three-day plan for making the switch to an America that is Politically Corrected.

Chapter Ten: Step 3 • Doing the Work

A longer-term strategy for keeping America corrected and for finding the creative activity that will fulfill you most in the new world you will build out of a revitalized society.

Chapter Eleven: Step 4 • Distributed Power and Joining the Politically Corrected Tribe

Why distributed power is the natural structure of a creative community, why joining a tribe instantly magnifies your voice, and how the Politically Corrected tribe can assist in bringing about the new Millennial Majority society.

Fifth Milepost: You, Creator

Why you must become a creator of your own life, why spreading the ability to create one's own life is the new vision that the Millenial Majority is tending toward, and how this new vision will push out the old vision rooted in the Major Myths.

Sample

Preface

To the Millennial Majority

You have lived your whole lives during a time in which America has made almost no progress on anything important. And during the last fifteen years or so, it hasn't even been able to get done the most basic things that need doing.

Everyone says that American politics is broken. Many think it can't be fixed.

I'm here to say that it can be fixed—very easily, and very quickly. The catch? Only you can do it.

I understand that most of you hate politics. You have good reasons to do so. Politicians waste time and resources on political warfare that would be much better spent on people. Many of them don't seem to be able to resist the pull of corruption once they get into power. And most important, they continually block action on the causes you support.

But that doesn't mean that beating them is impossible. Look at what you've done on one tremendously important front: you changed the laws of the land regarding marriage equality. You did that. Without your generation's steadfast insistence, it would not have happened. My generation's habits of thought couldn't motivate it to act, even though there were many in it who understood the magnitude of the injustice. What is more, you did it in the face of concerted resistance by nearly half the politicians in the county.

Now imagine what you could do if the politicians were helping you, rather than fighting you.

This book shows you just how easy it would be for you to make that happen. The plan outlined in Part II of this book cannot be stopped by big money, or the misleading advertising big money buys to promote its self-interested ends. It cannot be stopped by the vested political interests of the two major parties. It cannot be stopped by pundits, shadowy political front groups, voter suppression efforts, or organized efforts by any associations to deceive the public.

The plan does not require large-scale coordination, so it cannot fail for lack of coordination. It does not require any funding, so it cannot fail for lack of funding.

The only thing that can stop this plan is if you don't participate in this wonderful opportunity to change the world.

And when you see how easy it is to make this change, I hope that you will want to participate, that you will convince all your friends to participate as well, and—if you are inclined to be socially outgoing—that you will turn the doing of it into a nation-wide celebration for all who want to see a better world come into being as soon as possible.

Now let's get to it.

Introduction

Bleak outlook — Why your parents' generation messed up — The Major Myths that misled them — Myths rooted in Fear — The plan to fix America — Five crucial questions this book will answer

Bleak outlook

If you are between the ages of eighteen and thirty, you are probably sick of hearing the prediction that yours is the first generation in American history to have poorer prospects than the previous generation. I belong to your parents' generation. I have been watching the sad scene unfold for more than forty years as my generation plunged ahead, heedless of the future, and ran America into a ditch. It will be difficult to get out of that ditch, and I'm convinced that my generation, on the whole, does not have a clue about how to do it.

This book is a prescription for how the Millennial Majority can save America and, quite possibly, the world. Your parents' day is over. They screwed up their chances to fix things, and their continued attempts are just making everything worse. The Millennial generation is going to have to take over, climb out of the ditch, and save yourselves. In the process, you may even redeem your parents' follies.

You're probably thinking that this is not at all fair. I agree. In one sense, though, “fair" is beside the point. Life is about what you can create. If you start at a disadvantage, if you can find only inferior materials, if your environment challenges you at every step, but you nevertheless manage to create what you wanted, then your life will have been exciting, fulfilling, and meaningful. What does starting out from an unfair position matter if you can manage to build the life you wanted anyway? It may even be more satisfying that way.

Of course, in another sense, “fair" matters a lot. The unfairness that makes it impossible even to work toward a vision, the unfairness of oppressive poverty, unremunerative labor, and enforced ignorance must not be tolerated. That is why there are revolutions.

But your parents' generation is not oppressing you in this way. Sure, they have left you a shambles that they can't seem to clean up. But they didn't do this to oppress you; they did it out of ignorance and self-centeredness. Moreover, their ignorance continues to prevent them from helping you to fix things. So there is nothing to be done but for you to pick up the job and set to work on it. It's up to you to change the world and to show my generation what great things can happen when people turn their minds and their hearts to living well, rather than trying to live high on the hog.

Why your parents' generation messed up

Your parents' generation messed up because they inherited, accepted, and multiplied a collection of very dubious stories about how the world works—let's call them the Major Myths. These Myths penetrated their thinking, pervaded their judgment, and permeated all their choices and actions. Because they believed things that aren't true, they consistently made poor decisions. And when those poor decisions produced poor results, rather than correct their thinking, they kept explaining away their failures by blaming special circumstances or accidents. They went right on making poor decisions instead of confronting their mistaken beliefs and trying to change them.

Why do people do things like this? Because it's nearly impossible for many people to admit they are wrong—especially when the things they are wrong about are crucial to their image of themselves or to their image of the world's inner workings. On a personal level, failure to correct one's mistaken beliefs can wreak havoc on an individual or a family. But when a whole generation refuses to set itself right, it leads to large-scale disruptions in society. Such a disrupted society is the unfortunate legacy that my generation has left to your generation.

The Major Myths that misled them

In order to clear the debris and build a world that could be even better than it was before your parents' generation took up the reins, you need to know what led them to make their poor decisions. You need to know the Myths that subverted their judgment, the mistakes that caused them to make such poor decisions.

There are a large number of such Myths, and to catalog all of them would be a huge task. So I chose seven Major Myths, and in Part I of this book I have dedicated one chapter to each of these Myths. They are:

1. The Myth of Scarcity
2. The Myth of Self-Interest
3. The Myth of Competition
4. The Myth of Independence
5. The Myth of Religion
6. The Myth of Tradition
7. The Myth of Capitalism

As you become familiar with the Major Myths, you will also begin to see signs of what needs to be done in order to reverse the hold they have on the world. Indeed, you will begin to see that you Millennials have already begun to make corrections, and that you just need to focus on your strengths in order to take the future back from the last generation and remake it on your own terms.

The Major Myths are rooted in Fear

From the very first, you will notice that all the Major Myths get their energy from Fear. Fear is a debilitating passion. It makes us react rather than act. We give our free choice over to the thing feared, we allow ourselves to be manipulated by it, and consequently we make poor decisions. The Major Myths intermix like the ingredients of an impotence potion. They generate a world view in which people have little power while the scary forces out there have nearly all the power. It is no wonder that your parents, immersed in this fearful world view, have left you with a dismal vision of the future.

So as not to be misunderstood, I must point out that I am not talking about the kind of fear that warns you of imminent impending danger. I have to say this because young people are all too prone to downplay the dangers of being preyed upon by the unscrupulous. You must learn to listen to that type of fear—the kind that tells you something is very wrong, that singles out someone acting suspiciously, that warns you when it's time to run. That is the survival instinct speaking, and you owe it your allegiance.

I am talking about a different kind of fear—fear of an unknown, imaginary threat, fear that something bad might happen sometime in the future, fear that someone wicked might try to rob you or attack you sometime in the future. This kind of fear can seriously warp your sense of reality. It can make you timid and apprehensive because you start anticipating dreadful future scenarios instead of simply taking things as they are and either enjoying them or dealing with them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life. You don't need the reactive and defensive reflex actions that such negativity produces, and you don't need the poor decisions that such reflexes induce. Life can go much more smoothly than that.

Again, so that I'm not misunderstood, I have to say that I'm not counseling against prudence and planning. It's wise and intelligent to rationally assess risks and devise strategies for hedging them. I'm talking about carrying the fear of future risks throughout your everyday life, so that everything that happens has to be evaluated and judged according to your level of fear. That attitude produces an utterly false interpretation of events since the vast majority of occurrences have no reference to you whatsoever.

So, as you become familiar with the Major Myths, keep an eye out for they ways in which they both depend on and generate fear, and look out for ways in which the fear can be neutralized. Curbing fear is the groundwork on which you can build a world that your parents cannot imagine.

The plan to fix America

In Part II of this book, you will find a strategy for repairing the damage that has been done by my generation. The whole plan takes just four steps.

First, you will find a way to dump the fears that have crippled progress in the past and get in touch with the creative force that will change everything in the future.

Second, you will see how, in just three days, you can demolish the logjam that has prevented America from moving forward and how you can reset the table for a transformation of our society.

Third, you will learn how to move steadily in the direction of creating a fulfilling and satisfying life for yourself and your loved ones.

And fourth, you will be introduced to the concept of distributed power and the kind of community that will be needed to transition from the centralized power of the past to the decentralized power of the future.

Five crucial questions this book will answer

As you read through this book, you will come upon five “Mileposts" interspersed among the Chapters. These sections provide the answers to five questions that are crucial in explaining your role in the process. The questions are:

1. Why does abandoning self-interest enhance creativity and dynamism?
2. Why does mastering yourself lead to greater freedom than mastering others?
3. How can we be moral without religion and tradition?
4. What force must you harness in order to reclaim your future?
5. What one thing must you do in order to help save the world?

When you have learned the answers to all these questions, you will be ready to help the Millennial Majority do what must be done to get all our futures back: create a politically corrected America!

Now let's get to work.