Nick Gould Family Therapy

Tyranny can rule through violence or dark money. Now that we have begun, or at least consider, saving democracy from violence, we must also save it from the dollar. All 3 branches of government must begin to de-corrupt themselves and our democracy from the super-moneyed individuals and lobbyist heavy cooperations. Cleisthenes, the Athenian, created democracy (507BC) specifically to limit wealth’s power over the poor. Maybe we need a constitutional amendment, like the women - #19 in 1920 - to bypass congress and the courts to get dark money OUT of our political system. Dark $ gives inappropriate power to such a small number of Americas OVER ordinary people.

Our institutions (like FBI, CDC, NIH, CIA, diplomatic core, etc. - the A-political ones) are vital to our way of life, our government, our democracy, our nation and actually to the entire world. Without these kinds institutions things don’t last and emotions and biases then control the future, which then becomes utterly insane. Without institutional integrity and continuity of such vital agencies and the values, policies and bureaucracies that maintain our democracy it becomes changeable by a single individual. Then our Constitution, our government and our way of life become more easily destructible. Yes it costs $, but without institutions (completely like the church and the family) we become barbarians - like we saw on January 6th.

When a man of color became president the power-brokers in the Senate and the House were determined to resist (Frontline PBS). That determination created Trump. Trump created the sedition of Jan 6 - ALL this looks like White Supremacy, the very intention of the Confederacy. It’s not just within some alt-right minority groups; it’s in our Congress. We should all be fearful that our own Congress has the ability to blow up our democracy - out of the un-American idea that Whites should be the Boss.

From the book Think Again - In a review of 32 studies on test-taking scientists found that in every study 3 out of 4 answers revisited were changed from the wrong answer to the RIGHT one. The belief that our first answer is the most likely correct is known as the first instinct fallacy. Gut feelings are often wrong! The fallacy is from our reluctance to RE-Think something. Our problem much of the time is if I’ve thought thru something once I don’t want to think thru it again. The old saying study-long study-wrong, is itself wrong. We might consider rethinking our position on ....

The distress that is expressed through White supremacy, BLM, Asian hate, suicides, gun violence, etc., over the past many years may actually be the result of our capitalistic enmeshed democracy. Our money driven democracy has ignored the pain in the middle class and in the poor. The American Dream - expressed as though everyone can have IT - has been structured and manipulated (by the tools of the moneyed) in a way that only the talented or gifted, or those with deep family resources, can access the dreams pathway. Everyone can see this injustice, but it is so well wrapped into our super-capitalistic system that it seems impossible to activate people TO justice without bodies and blood in the street.