How does one maintain a sense of self and oneness with the universe at the same time? This may be obvious, but to contribute to one's fellow creatures in a sane and healthy way, one needs to be secure in one's self, one's ego needs to be intact. We speak about 'destroying' the ego--does that lead to destroying one's self?

I have been thinking about the words community, communal, communism, without the baggage of history. I may be stating the obvious here, but what's happened in the past 20 years is that capitalism has taken over the world. We have been brainwashed by the corporatocracy to believe that 'life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness' can only be achieved by individual gain.

I cannot spend the time I have left on this plane of existence supporting paradigms that have led us to where we are now as a species. From my perspective, I look ahead and I see chaos and turmoil for those unprepared. The shared notions and ideals expressed on this network have little relevance to the realities we were born into.