Building a Compassionate Society with Marianne Williamson
Join us for an enlightening and thought-provoking conversation with Marianne Williamson, renowned author, spiritual leader, and 2024 presidential candidate. In this episode, Marianne discusses a wide range of topics, including the power of love and compassion in politics, the need for economic reform to address poverty and inequality, and the importance of nurturing relationships and community. She also shares her insights on the partnership between the heart and the brain, the role of the president in driving meaningful change, and the urgency of addressing climate change and environmental toxins. With her unique perspective and unwavering commitment to making a positive impact, Marianne Williamson offers a fresh and inspiring vision for creating a healthier, more equitable society.
More on Marianne williamson
Website: https://marianne2024.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/marwilliamson
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Quotes:
“I think we’re good people. I’m not saying we’re better than other people, but we’re not worse. And I think the average American is a very decent person.” -Marianne Williamson
“The power is not really in the hands of the people right now so much as it is in the hands of corporations. The undue influence of money on our political system has turned our system into little more than a system of legalized bribery.” -Marianne Williamson
“My experience, I believe that Americans have an instinctive understanding that this country matters.” -Marianne Williamson
Show Notes:
Marianne Williamson: all four of my grandparents were immigrants. They came through Ellis Island, the pretty traditional story.
Marianne Williamson: I was raised in Braes Heights, a Jewish home, went to Beth Yeshurun, which you probably know. The synagogues there grew up in a very liberal Democratic home.
Marianne Williamson: I went to Pomona College, dropped out in my junior year, told my parents I was just leaving for a semester, took classes elsewhere, but never actually graduated when I was in college because I graduated high school in 1970.
Marianne Williamson: Aids burst onto the scene, and many, many people, particularly among the population that was stricken by Aids at that time, began coming to my lectures. Somebody suggested I write a book based on my lectures.
Marianne Williamson: When that book came out. Lightning struck and that lightning was in the form of Oprah Winfrey reading the book and liking it. So at that time, she didn't have a book club yet, but she was certainly. Oprah was Oprah.
Marianne Williamson: A Course in Miracles has been referred to as a self-study program of spiritual psychotherapy. It's not a religion. It is based on universal spiritual themes that are at the heart of all the great religious and spiritual teachings.
Marianne Williamson: You could look at any religion, any great spiritual, philosophical tradition or any secular tradition these days when people are recognizing living a better life, being a better person is the point of it all.
Marianne Williamson: My third book was called Healing the Soul of America, and I was fascinated by applying spiritual principle to what is happening in the country. And also, from the beginning of my career, I was very involved with nonprofit work, particularly when my books were successful.
Marianne Williamson: in the 1970s, the average worker could afford a car, could afford a house, could afford a yearly vacation and could afford to send their kids to college. So when I started working with people with Aids and people who had terrible things happen in their lives, these were moments that even though it felt like a privilege and a blessing to work with people whose lives were in trouble, it felt as a member of our society that people whose lives were in deep trouble were the exception rather than the rule.
Marianne Williamson: 18 million Americans can't afford to fulfill the prescriptions that their doctors give them. And also not just because my daughter moved to England, but also I'm traveled enough to know that's not the case in other countries.
Marianne Williamson: Say whatever you want because the insiders aren't listening to you anyway. But if you're an insider, we don't talk against one another.
Marianne Williamson: my political campaign is not based on the principles of a Course in Miracles. My political campaign is based on the principles of the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration of Independence is one of the most profound spiritual as well as political documents that has ever been written. And I think part of what's gone wrong in America is too many generations have lost our emotional connection to that document.
Marianne Williamson: Eisenhower said that the American mind at its best is both liberal and conservative. There are high minded conservative principles. There are high minded liberal principles, the yin and the yang. Nobody has a monopoly on truth.
Marianne Williamson: I think we're a good people. I'm not saying we're better than other people, but we're not worse. And I think the average American is a very decent person. And my experience, I believe. That Americans have an instinctive understanding that this country matters.
Marianne Williamson: The power is not really in the hands of the people right now so much as it is in the power of corporations, the hands of corporations, the undue influence of money on our political system has turned our system into little more than a system of legalized bribery.
Marianne Williamson: I mentioned that in the 1970s things were different. And I'm not romanticizing American capitalism. I'm not romanticizing America before this period. But there was a sense that corporations were supposed to try to be good. Just try be ethical.
Marianne Williamson: CNBC did a report recently 70% of Americans report feeling chronic economic stress. This, you know, debt. Like I mentioned before, 1 in 4 Americans. Live with medical debt. Debt is crippling.
Marianne Williamson: it's become a dog eat dog world. Too many Americans are having to live on a level of economic survival. You have one third of the workforce in America lives on less than $15 an hour. They can't find a place to live. Even 15 isn't a living wage and most of the big cities in the United States. And so people are in this survival mode. Well, you don't have time for your family, for your kids, for your spouse, for your community. And and then we wonder where the like, the mental health crisis comes from.
Marianne Williamson: A presidential campaign is a platform where we get to talk about things that matter. What a privilege. What an honor.
Marianne Williamson: I think we need to make an economic U-turn in this country. We have had over the last 50 years a massive transfer of wealth, $50 trillion into the hands of 1% of our people.
Marianne Williamson: We were brought up at a time where the ideal was, if anybody works hard enough, they can get into the club and we are in denial or delusion if we pretend that that's the case now. Look at how many children are locked out of the club. By the time they're ten years old. And so that has created an unsustainable level of income inequality and disparity in this country.
Marianne Williamson: I'm running as a Democrat and the people who say to me, Marianne, don't you understand how important this is? And you shouldn't be offering another alternative because we've decided as Biden. I say to them, with due respect, let me guess, you have adequate health care. Let me guess. You can afford to send your kid to college, can't you? Let me guess. You work on you live on more than $15 an hour, don't you? Let me guess. You don't need more than one job, do you? I just feel that. This is hyperbole, but it's not. It's almost pre-french revolution here.
Marianne Williamson: There's a lot I can't control. But what I can control, as long as I'm in the race is I can know that I am presenting the American people with an option. And that option is an agenda for a genuine economic turnaround
Marianne Williamson: I've had a 40 year career trying to inspire people, I think that right now, faith in our not our government, because I don't think faith in our government is that justified right now. But faith in our principles, faith in our principles, faith in the power in all of us to to change our government, because that's what civic engagement is all about.
Marianne Williamson: I want to create a situation where people can say, well, she's on every Wednesday night and every Sunday night. Go listen to her.
Marianne Williamson: One of the things you might remember that I said on the debate stage last time was that we didn't have a health care system. We had a sickness care system.
Marianne Williamson: I want to, as president, be a president who is dealing with the proactive effort to create health in our society, not just an effort to treat sickness once it comes. There are too many elements in that do derive from public policy which are almost bound to make people sick.