Conversation with Peter McWilliams, Part 3

Last excerpts from the Interview by David Jay Brown and Sherry Hall:

We are so far away from what the constitution was written as, we as well just tear the whole thing up. It's a sham. It's ridiculous. The constitution was based upon the fact the federal government had exceedingly limited powers. It was only allowed to do eighteen very limited things--the enumerated powers, period. And everything else belonged to the states and the individuals to regulate.

Now It's become such that if the constitution doesn't specifically guarantee you can have It, It's okay for the government to regulate It or make laws against It. That Is putting the constitution on Its head. It's like saying, If a woman doesn't carry a sign on her back that says you can not rape me, she has permission to be raped. It Is that. And boy, has lady liberty been raped--repeatedly.
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Roosevelt's New Deal, which Is normally presented as this wonderful thing that saved the country, was In fact the thing that destroyed the constitution. All those medial programs had absolutely no basis in constitutional law. None.
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If you notice, most of the constitutional decisions have been against the states, not against Congress. The Congress can pretty do whatever the hell It wants to and got away with It. However, state laws are what we are told are unconstitional. Very seldom do they declare something In Congress unconstitutional. When they do, they usually let Congress go back and take another shot at It. So there have been few things that Congress has wanted to pass that the Supreme Court hasn't said, sure go ahead. Essentially Congress can expand the federal government, and has expanded the federal government In Infinite ways.
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David: Oh, you see the Inverse relationship between sex and violence everywhere--like when you compare bonobos to chimpanzees. Chimps are the exact opposite of bonobos. Bonobos are egalitarian. There's no male dominance. They solve their conflicts with sex. The chimps have an alpha male ruling. They have wars against each other. One male controls the sexual Interactions of the whole group, and they all have much less sex. You can see those same two patterns In human cultures too.

Peter: But the bonobos are closer to us genetically than they are to chimpanzees. I saw two different documentaries on them, and my mouth dropped open. This Is what Is natural. I have no problem being a high bonobo. I have no problem being a bonobo gold edition (laughter), a bonobo plus, a bonobo version 6.0. (laughter) I have no problem with that. It makes perfect sense In my awareness.

So the question Is, when a bonobo dies, does its consciousness go anywhere? Doubtful. (laughter) When a fly dies, does its consciousness go anywhere? Doubtful. So you ask me how I can be so certain of this. The answer s, it's much easier for me to imagine that there ain't nothing that's going to happen to me, and that there ain't nothing going with all the people who have been before, and all the animals that have been before. Because If you're going to give humans a soul and some kind of afterlife, or persistence of consciousness, you got to give it to the bonobos (laughter), and you got to give It to the parrots, etc., etc. So you have to give It to everything, and I don't give It that.
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We live In a country populated by religious extremists, criminals, and entrepreneur. And If those aren't the three main themes that still go right through our culturereligious extremism, entrepreneurs, and criminality.

David: Wasn't there supposed to be something to do with freedom here?

Peter: Yeah, people are free--(laughter) criminals, religious extremists, and entrepreneur. If you look at the constitution, and the separation of church and state, you'll see that the constitution Is a document based upon supporting business. No doubt about It. All the founding fathers were business people. Every single one of them. By the end of the war George Washington was the richest man In America. Before the war it was John Hancock. They all had enormous business interest to gain by getting rid of Britain.
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Now, I'm a capitalist. I'm a freemarket believer in the Milt Freedman school of thought. And there's bad capitalism, no doubt about that. But at the same time most of the bad capitalists get away with being bad capitalists because of government control. So if you get that government control out of the way, you end up with not very many bad capitalists--a whole lot less bad capitalists than you end with now.

Sherry: What do you mean when you say bad capitalists?

Peter: Well, you used the example of pharmaceutical companies who then suppress medical marijuana. But they get to do that through the government. If the government wasn't there, then all sorts of alternative therapies that worked would come to the surface, and the pharmaceutical companies wouldn't have as much power as they currently have. Pharmaceutical companies have their power not because they compete in the market place fairly, but because they are a specialinterest that lobbies Congress for laws to put them In a privileged position.
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One of the worst things that happened was that I outed Arianna Huffington's connection to MSIA [John-Roger's Church of the Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness]. Michael and Arianna Huffington were In the same group I was with John-Rogers the guru. In 1994 I let the press know that she was involved In that group, and, frankly, she handled it very poorly. She denied it, which was foolish.

She used up all her credibility with the press with that denial, because the denial was not true. Because of that airing Michael Huffington lost the election, and Diane Flensteln Is senator. Now Arianna Huffington is talking about the hopeless War on Drugs, and Diane Flenstein is the most virulent democratic anti-war senator In Congress.
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Actually the fundamental teaching of Jesus was was really quite brilliant. His fundamental teaching was: until you make yourself absolutely perfect, don't judge another. Don't take the speck out of your brother's eye; take the beam out of your eye first.

David: Let he who Is without sin cast the first stone. Everybody must get stoned. (laughter)

Peter: Exactly. Let he who Is without sin cast the first stone. Then he lays up the attitudes, which is this Incredible system of people being perfect that no one can actually achieve. Therefore no one Is going to be perfect according to Jesus's plan, and no one has the right to judge anyone. So they have all these people not only judging, but also using It as the basis for laws, which is a complete perversion, a 180 degree distortion of what Jesus taught.