Posted by Click here to get a free newsletter Zen and a Way of sustainable prosperity: Balance, financial success, and sustainability with the secrets of the Japanese Omi-merchants.
As I said before, one of the reasons I created ZENWSP is to empower sustainable-minded people to get into influential position in society.
Since we had an election, I have been thinking about how we can apply ZENWSP to politics.
In the last post, I said that asking the right questions was important to think constructively.
Examples of the questions to ask are the following:
How can we turn it around?
What can we do to change the situation?
What is the list of things we can do to win the next election?
What can we specifically do in some of the things on the list?
Let’s take a look at the third question as an example. What is the list of things we can do to win the next election?
Let’s brainstorm it by writing down whatever comes to my mind.
1, If we could put up a joint candidate in every electoral district, which we were not able to do because we didn’t have enough time, we already have a high chance of winning in many of the districts.
2, That means, we need to maintain the joint struggle among 4 parties and keep an eye on the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan to stop them breaking the deal again. You know, the ex-members of the Democratic Party in the Party of Hope and the members of the Democratic Party are trying to reunite the members who once belonged to the DP including the ones in the CDPJ to create a different kind of joint struggle. They want to create a joint struggle excluding the Japanese Communist Party. We need to prevent it because it will be like the old DP who has no clear stand. They think they are in the middle, but they are just nobody having no policy. The reason many of the citizens supported the CDPJ was that they finally had a clear stand; they became liberal. The people in the old DP seem to have this fear that if they became too liberal or left, they will lose support from conservatives. So what? Let it be. They can get support from liberal people. They need to make a decision who they want to please.
3, This brings another point. We need to increase the number of voters in the liberal wing. If we outnumber the conservatives, we can eliminate the fear of DP members that they won’t get enough votes.
4, This also means we need to increase the number of the JCP supporters. It is the best solution; then we won’t need to depend on unreliable CDPJ members.
5, Another word, we need to increase the population of the people who are against the constitutional reform, the security laws, restart of nuclear power stations, TPP, or any other policies that are in favor of big corporation and not the citizens.
6, ZENWSP can play a good role in this since it can increase the number of people who have sustainable values.
7, It would be great if we can get the Green Party to reorganize itself and join the joint struggle. The Green Party will bring in the new color which is different from that of the JCP, and it can work as the mediator.
That’s enough for now. Then we can move to the next question.
What can we specifically do in some of the things on the list? Let’s say what people in Shiga can specifically do.
To increase the number of the JCP supporters, we can first talk to the JCP members to find a joint approach. Since we made connections with the JCP members during the election campaign, it can be done easily. There are things we can do, and there are things they can do; to be more appealing to people who have a prejudice against the JCP, for instance.
To increase the population of the liberal voters, we can expand Shiga’s Life and Politics Café to other prefectures and make it a nationwide movement.
http://kurasitoseijicafe.blog.jp/
I used the situation in Japan especially in Shiga as an example, but you can apply it to your own situation.
This is how we think constructively in ZENWSP, and it is better than being depressed or angry at the situation, isn’t it?
I’ll be speaking at Pechakucha night Kyoto on November 4th.
https://www.facebook.com/events/171365180106136
https://www.pechakucha.org/cities/kyoto
I am giving a 2-day workshop in Japanese on December 2nd and 3rd.
http://zenquest.net/index.php?zenwspworkshop
Omi-merchant's way of Sustainable Prosperity 