Season 12, Episode Two July 6, 2025

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This is The Listening Tube.

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Hello. Thank you for putting your ear to the listening tube. I'm your host, Bob Woodley. Feel free to think of me as Big Beautiful Bob.

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You can text the listening tube from the homepage. If he says something stupid.

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On this episode, I'll have a conversation with humanist, socialist, and the bees and ease, Beth Green. We'll talk about brainwashing, society, and a new declaration of independence.

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But first, not the headlines.

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I was recently the lucky recipient of a cash windfall. One of the two clubs to which I belong has a daily gambling option, whereupon you sign your name, pay a dollar, and if your membership number is drawn at the end of the business day, you win whatever amount of money had accumulated from those who chose to play. The pot may build for several days or even weeks until a registered winner is pulled. I was lucky enough to win. The amount I won? $930. I was paid in cash, but I had to submit my Social Security number and sign a form because the amount was over $599, which is the threshold for reportable income when it comes to your taxes. So I will ultimately pay tax on that income. But what I did next is what inspired what I'm telling you now. You see, I decided to put $500 of those dollars into the checking account my wife and I share and keep the rest of the cash for playing pinball. So the next day I take the cash and the pre-printed deposit slip from the back of the checkbook, already filled out, and get in line at the bank. When I get to the next available teller, I slide the cash and the deposit slip under the plexiglass divider and wait. The teller asks me for ID. I asked him why I needed ID to put money into my own bank account. A modest sum by bank standards. With a preprinted deposit slip. As far as I'm concerned, it's none of his business who I am. But I told him it was my account, and my name's on the deposit slip. I asked again why he needed to see ID for me to deposit money into my own bank account. His reply was it's because of money laundering. I was insulted that he would assume I'm a money launderer based only on the fact that I was using cash. There is no other reason to suspect that Bob Woodley putting five hundred bucks into his checking account is laundering money. But I also knew I wasn't going to get anywhere with this guy unless I showed him my driver's license. So I take my license out of my wallet, like some kid getting carted at a bar, and slide it over. He looks at it carefully for what seemed like a long time. Then he hands it back to me and says, This is expired. I'm pausing for dramatic effect. Now in my head, I'm thinking, son of a bitch. It expired on my birthday, just a few days ago. I said, So you're not going to take my money? No. He refused to let me put money in my own bank account because my driver's license was expired. Feeling defeated, I took my money and walked out. I went home and signed on to PA.gov and renewed my driver's license. Took about ten minutes because I couldn't get my wife's printer to work, otherwise it would have gone more quickly. I went back to the bank with proper identification and my cash and my pre-printed deposit slip from the back of the checkbook and got in line. Again. While I'm in line, I can overhear an elderly woman at the same window and speaking with the same teller I had earlier, and she's clearly upset. As it turns out, she came to the bank that day to take out some cash. I didn't catch the exact amount, but it was around four or five thousand dollars. Instead of retrieving the cash the account holder requested, he informed her that she would have to make an advance request in order to withdraw that significant of an amount. What do you mean? she asked. The teller went on to explain that withdrawals over a certain amount have to be arranged in advance, and her request exceeded the minimum amount. So I can't get my money today? No, ma'am. She said, I think it's time I find a new bank.

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And you can hang your hat on that.

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I came very close to getting the same teller again, but by the time that old lady got tired of complaining, another teller opened up. I handed her my deposit slip in cash and held my driver's license renewal paperwork up against the plexiglass. She recorded my deposit and handed me a receipt. I said thank you and opined that I felt insulted by being asked for ID to make a deposit to my own account. She said, I saw and heard what happened this morning, and if you like, I'll file a formal complaint about the policy. I told her that I would appreciate it if she would, and thanked her again.

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And if that wasn't enough.

SPEAKER_02 6:08

Just the other day I saw a social media post from a man who wanted to withdraw a couple thousand dollars from his bank account to buy his son a motorcycle. Not a brand new Harley or anything, more like a 200cc dirt bike, and probably some protective clothing and a helmet. The bank wanted to know why he wanted to take out that sum of cash. When he told them he was buying a motorcycle for his son, they wanted proof of the transaction. His argument was that he didn't have to prove anything to the bank to use his own money to buy whatever he wanted to buy. I'm not sure how that one turned out, but it's demonstrating a clear pattern of banks becoming more intrusive when it comes to our personal lives. All they do is try to find ways to keep us out of the branch, but then find new ways to meddle in our own homes. Speaking of which, do you know what else the second teller I saw that day told me? She said I could always go to the drive up ATM and make a cash deposit without having to show ID. Of course, you have to put your ATM card in and enter your PIN, but your ATM card isn't sufficient ID if you walk inside the building. Go figure. So is it a law that the bank has to see your ID in order for you to make a cash deposit into your own bank account? As it turns out, no. Banks are only required to verify who their customers are. That happens when you open your account. Otherwise, the only responsibility a bank has to combat money laundering is to assess the potential risks associated with the transactions of their customers. In other words, report suspicious behavior. How suspicious does it have to be? Banks are required to report any activity involving $10,000 or more. If they think there's something fishy going on, the threshold drops to $5,000. There is no law that says a bank has to ask for ID to make a deposit. But my bank did. Because they're lazy and don't want to do their due diligence to root out people who are using their institution to break the law and instead assume everyone is. Here's Bob Woodley, whose paycheck is automatically deposited into the same account every couple weeks for years now. Honestly, I don't even know how much money I make. It's different every month, and my wife handles our finances. But if I try to put $500 cash into my own bank account, my bank assumes I'm a money launderer. And if I want to take out a few thousand dollars cash, they want a week's notice and a note from my mom. So what's really going on here? Well, the banks were told to do what they can to inhibit illicit transactions, and they took that order and ran with it. They use money laundering measures as justification to control more of our transactions. Specifically, cash transactions. Sure, they're harder to track, but that doesn't give the banks the right to question our transactions. They act like they're allowed to pry into our private lives and what we're doing with our cash, but they're not. They're not following the law, as they may claim. They're following their own made-up rules, which they try to pass off as law. Asking me for ID to put 500 bucks into my checking account or making a great grandmother wait a week to get a few grand out of her account is not preventing any kind of money laundering. The problem is the banks don't make any money on cash transactions. Even though most of us associate banks with cash, the truth is they don't want anything to do with it. Why? Because they don't make 3% on cash transactions. And they're too paranoid about federal guidance, so they overreact. Instead of looking for patterns or using data to compile evidence of wrongdoing, which is mandated by the government, they treat all of us as if we're money launderers and keep track of every transaction we make, be it with cash or otherwise. The banks already know the otherwise, our debit cards and credit cards and checks, as well as electronic transactions, so it's the cash they despise. They don't make a profit from it, yet they are obligated to distribute it. They don't make any money when you pay cash for something, but they have to supply the cash. So they try to make it more difficult by coming up with rules that they claim are laws to make using cash more of a bother. Banks know what money laundering looks like. There has to be another reason for them to be so intrusive when it comes to an individual just trying to put some money into his or her bank account. I opened a savings account at another bank this week and asked about some of the experiences I've just described. When it came to cash deposits, I was told that they need to know who's making cash deposits, but couldn't explain why. When I suggested it might be because of money laundering, she didn't necessarily agree. She said there were laws they had to follow. When I prompted her on the laws, she said she didn't want to argue about it. So I didn't push it. When it came to withdrawals, she basically said the bank only keeps a predetermined amount of cash on hand, and it's first come, first served every day. Clearly, there are different policies for different banks. If you don't agree with your bank's policies, you can try to find another bank that conforms more to your needs and beliefs. You might have a hard time finding one. Perhaps credit unions are a better option. What's important is that you understand that banks are taking what they consider to be the law too far. They'll tell you it's the law, but it isn't. That doesn't mean they're not allowed to do it, but it's up to the consumer to draw the line where the banks can cross into our personal lives. Maybe it's time we tell the banks that they are merely a service provider and not a mechanism to control how we use our money. Oh, sorry, booth announcer lady. We don't have time for history this week. Odds are nothing happened anyway.

SPEAKER_01 13:11

The listening tube will return at the speed of sound. Send email to thelistening tube at outlook.com.

SPEAKER_02 13:22

My guest this week is an author and activist named Beth Green. She spoke with me from her home in the Pacific Northwest and brought her unique perspective to the listening tube. You're Beth Green. You're an author, activist, convict, and uh sort of a guidance counselor. Is that accurate? Well, is there anything you'd like to add or subtract from that description?

SPEAKER_00 13:50

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I was never convicted of anything. I was just arrested a bunch of times. Um I uh I'm a spiritual activist. That means that I'm trying to combine activism and spirituality because I've been an activist and I've been a spiritual teacher, and I think this is the time where we really need to bring them together. Um, I'm a musician and I'm intuitively guided in everything that I do and have been since 1980. So I just tune in and but I'm not fairy fairy. You know, I'm very down to earth. Um, I believe that what we really need is consciousness on the planet, and that we need to overcome the domination of the ego in every way.

SPEAKER_02 14:38

I understand you've been accumulating knowledge and wisdom for a long time.

SPEAKER_00 14:45

I've been trying.

SPEAKER_02 14:48

Any thoughts on which of those two things comes in handy more often?

SPEAKER_00 14:54

Knowledge or wisdom. Wisdom is always the the best. You know, knowledge, uh people may be surprised at this idea, but knowledge is really opinions. You know, we have we have hypotheses, then we believe them, and they become beliefs, and then we hang on to them whether they're true or not. And so wisdom is looking beyond what we think and trying to integrate experience, observation, intuition, and common sense and always be open to learning, growing, and transforming. So I think part of our problems is that we're too attached to what we believe. And what I've been guided to is that beliefs are just beliefs. They don't mean anything. They're just sometimes they come in handy, sometimes they get in the way. For instance, it's a it's a useful belief to think that there's going to be um uh a sidewalk when I walk out the door, because then I put on my shoes, right? So that's a useful belief. Now, one day I may walk outside and there is no sidewalk, right? But a lot of beliefs are foolish, are detrimental, are painful, and are destructive. And we need to get rid of those and we need to bring in wisdom instead.

SPEAKER_02 16:12

Which are you more likely to share?

SPEAKER_00 16:15

I hope I share wisdom.

unknown 16:18

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 16:19

I may share opinions, but then I know they're just opinions.

SPEAKER_02 16:24

Now you say um opinion or knowledge is is basically opinions, but what what if that knowledge is based on on verifiable fact? Is it true an opinion?

SPEAKER_00 16:36

How many verifiable facts have we changed over the years? Like you get all this medical information based on experimentation and this and that, and then five years later say, oops, we made a mistake. It's not like that, it's like this. So we need to always be open. It's what the universe has told me is hold your beliefs lightly. See, here's something that I think is important. Uh, there's the perspective of the ant, and there's this perspective of the eagle, right? And each one sees something different, and the opinion of the ant is based on their ability to perceive what is right there on the ground, and the perspective of the eagle is what they're seeing from a higher dimension, but they all have value and they're all a piece of the puzzle. And if we had a little humility, we would realize that none of us knows everything, and that we're we need to integrate all our awarenesses and always be willing to open, be open, and it also reality changes. So when we get stuck in a particular belief system, then we're lost. And I did that in the political movement, you know. I got very stuck. I there was a lot of truth to what I was teaching and and act advocating for during, you know, until I was in my mid-30s. There was truth to that, but it wasn't the only truth. And I had to start opening up to seeing what else was there.

SPEAKER_02 18:12

And what did you find?

SPEAKER_00 18:15

A whole universe that I didn't know existed.

SPEAKER_02 18:18

One of the reasons that I was looking forward to our conversation is because you believe we're all being brainwashed.

SPEAKER_00 18:27

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 18:28

I've spent a lot of time on this program explaining to people how the media writes stories and chooses which stories to share in an attempt to manipulate us.

SPEAKER_00 18:38

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 18:39

To what other sources of brainwashing are we being subjected?

SPEAKER_00 18:44

That is a great question. We are brainwashed from the time we're born. We are brainwashed by our families. Have you ever seen a family where there you see the father and the son, and the son is imitating the father? You can hear it in his inflection and his attitude, and the girl may be imitating the mother. She has been brainwashed, he has been brainwashed to think that that is the way to be. Well, I have a whole theory about how the ego comes into being. Like we're born with a survival instinct, and that that's very, very strong. And so we start out like, oh, all of our needs are taken care of, we're in the womb, and you know, we could just like lay back and relax, usually. And then suddenly we're out, and it's like, oh my God, I've got to take care of myself. No, you know, I've got to yell and I've got to scream and I've got to breathe on my own. I've got to do all this stuff by myself. And so we very, very quickly learn that we have got to fight for ourselves. And that's the ego is, in my estimation, the awareness of individual existence. I now know that I am not you, right? I am differentiated from you. But I forget that I am you. That's where we get brainwashed, that we really exist as a collective, we're all aspects of the collective, and we only think we're individuals. I always laugh when people say, I am an individual, I want to do everything myself, right? You grow your own food, you lay the asphalt out that you built your car, you make your clothes, and you think your ideas are yours. But from the time you're born, you're being formed by your experience and by the beliefs of your family, and then you go to your school, and then you try to merge with your friends and you pick up on their beliefs and what the teachers say. Look, when I was very young, I started reading, and I discovered that American history wasn't exactly the way they were teaching it to us. And I realized that there was a certain perspective. I in 1954 I became a radical or a socialist, what I call a socialist, which is not what people think socialism is. And because I read about the Spanish Civil War and fascism, it made me sick. I saw McCarthy, I actually saw McCarthy on television because I'm 80 years old. I I saw this, right? I saw the House on American Activities Committee, I saw the throwing the communists out of the labor movement in order to keep people down. I saw all of that. And I said, whatever when I saw McCarthy, I was gonna say, I was nine years, I don't know where it came from. It didn't come from my parents. I don't know, I was born like this. I said, uh, whatever this guy is against, I'm for it. You know, because it was so oppressive. And so I realized that there was so much more, and I started looking at capitalism and saying, is this really? The best way to organize society? You know, is this the best way to organize the economy? You're not even allowed to ask that question. The minute you ask that question, you know, you're anathema. They try to expel me from elementary school when I was nine years old because they added the words under God to the Pledge of Allegiance. It wasn't always in there. Under God doesn't belong in the Pledge of Allegiance. We have a separation of church and state. You know, it's not that I'm not a spiritual person, but I don't believe in that. And uh, but people don't know that. They think, well, this is the way it is, this is the way it's always been, this is the way it has to be. You know, if you study history, you know you didn't always have a capitalist system, and it didn't always look like this.

SPEAKER_02 22:48

Well, we didn't always have a two-party system either. No, no, no, any parties. George Washington didn't have a political party, and some of our early leaders actually uh professed and warned against uh political parties.

SPEAKER_00 23:04

That's right. So exactly, but you have to know history to know that. And we are not taught history, we are taught propaganda. Talk about brainwashing, and if you are if you are thinking outside the box, it's uh it's hell to pay.

SPEAKER_02 23:24

I'm I'm kind of having a a hard time differentiating between what you describe as brainwashing and what we often just think of as normal uh learning and adapting.

SPEAKER_00 23:38

Perfect. Yes. Socialization. What is socialization? Socialization is teaching you how to behave within the context of that society. Women are still allowing their daughters to experience female genital mutilation. They're socialized into believing that that's what they need to do in order to make their daughters sellable on the marriage market, right? There is there any truth to that? Is that not damaging? So that is, they have been brainwashed into thinking they need that. Women were brainwashed into thinking they were supposed to be obedient. Well, a lot of us kind of like broke that mold, but it took a lot of struggle because a lot of women still believe that the man is supposed to be on top. I've met men who I was interviewed by a guy, I swear this is the truth. He said that um I I said, you know, they they used to say that women can't vote because uh we're irrational when we're menstruating. And the and the interviewers say, you mean women aren't irrational when they're menstruating? Where where did he right? Somebody told him that. But it's more than that, it's that we have been taught how to survive. And see, this comes back to the survival instinct. We know that it's safer to be in the mob than to be the one who stands out, and so we find ourselves merging with the consciousness of the people who seem the most powerful to us. That is a general, I'm not saying everybody is like that. Of course, not everybody is like anything, but it's you see it with the kids, you know. I want to be with the popular kids. Oh, I'm going out with the football hero or whatever it is, right? Is you pick out the people who you think are most successful and you want to be identified with them, and so you merge with them. How do these ridiculous clothing praises happening? All of a sudden, everybody's pants are you know under their butts, right? Because people merge because they're looking for safety. See, our egos are about self-protection, and we're always looking for safety. What is the safe thing to do? And so we convince ourselves that that's okay. Uh young men are trained to behave in a certain way to act tough or whatever it is that they're supposed to be doing. They believe they have to make enough money to support the woman. They're crushed if the woman makes more money than they. Why? What's wrong with a society where a woman makes more money than the man?

SPEAKER_02 26:32

Well, that's I I'm not sure that's true anymore. That may have been true in the past, but I see a lot of women now who make more than their husbands, and I I don't know any husbands who really care about that. I think they're proud and happy with them.

SPEAKER_00 26:48

I do. I see, I'm a counselor. I'm a counselor. I do intuitive counselor, but I'm I'm like a therapist, but I work intuitively. And men struggle. I I've seen it over and over. They really have a belief that they are supposed to be on top. And they may say they don't believe that anymore, but it's built in. They've they've learned that from childhood. You can't help it, and they feel bad about themselves, so they have to try to assert themselves in other ways. And you see misogyny, you see violence against women. A lot of that is because men really believe they've been brainwashed into thinking they are supposed to be more powerful. We've been brainwashed into thinking there should be power in society. My belief is that the purpose of any society, I don't care what it is, from you know, the cave days to now, is to meet the needs of people and the earth. That is not what we generally say, believe, how we act. We believe the purpose of society is to make money and to get power. And people are always trying to be more powerful than somebody else, more powerful than immigrants, more powerful white people being more powerful than blacks, black men being more powerful than black women, and so on and so that we're in a society that really uh puts us in that headset that the only safety comes from being powerful rather than from being cooperative, brainwashing.

SPEAKER_02 28:31

Well, Bethy, I uh I agree with you in in uh in many respects. However, there is always an element in society that will take advantage of the others. And it's only power that keeps that bad element in check. So, you know, if if everybody was if everybody was a good person, we could probably live like that. But unfortunately, there are those among us who are not good people. They are bad people, and they will take advantage of the power less. Try to get power in order to take advantage of other people. It's great if you have power and you use it for good, but we can't always count on that, can we?

SPEAKER_00 29:16

Well, here's the way I see that, and I totally understand and appreciate what you're saying. But I see it differently. I see it as we are taught to go for power, and those people who you call bad, many of them are just traumatized people who believe that they need power in order to survive. You see, it is when power is a value in society. See, if cooper, I'll tell you something. I I started a program called Unleashing the Power of Kids. And in that program, we had kids doing service, uh, developing critical thinking and being and having cooperative games. They, the kids loved it, the parents didn't. It was amazing. The parents stopped bringing the kids. The kids had a ball. They loved cooperative games. You know, the closest we get to that is when you have a team. Okay, the team cooperates. Sometimes the team isn't even cooperating, you know, they're trying to outdo each other. But there is that team cooperates, but it's only against somebody else. Kill, kill, kill, right? When you give people an opportunity to be cooperative, it changes them. But this is from childhood. Look, you go to school, what's the first thing you do? You start competing. Who's got the A? Who's got the B? Who's got the D? Who wins the prize? Who you can't separate your conditioning from your beliefs because you've been conditioned into having those beliefs. People who feel insecure go after power, but everybody is in that power dynamic universe that we have learned from childhood. They'll say, Oh, dad is dominant, or mother is dominating, or mom is dominating me, or we all learn that if we don't have the power, someone will take advantage of us. But that is a way of structuring society. You can structure society differently, and then children will learn differently.

SPEAKER_02 31:34

What would be the goal?

SPEAKER_00 31:37

To meet the needs of people and the earth.

unknown 31:40

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 31:43

Women's role in society, because you know, I was the West Coast coordinator of the Wages for Housework campaign in the 70s, and the purpose of that was to get a recognition of the value of women's work, right? And women's work is the work of nurturing. You don't get much value out of being a nurturer. That's why people who are like caregivers and do not make, you know, nurses, they don't make the money that the CEOs of the Boeing are gonna make, right? Because the women's work is devalued. Now, why is that? Because women are expected to do that work for free. It's not even seen as work. And I have to say one good thing about the wages for housework campaign. It woke people up to the fact that housework is work. And what is it the work of? It is the work of reproducing and regenerating the working class. So a woman was supposed to take care of her husband when he came up. This is of course very the antiquated, but I grew up with this, by the way. This is not so antiquated.

SPEAKER_02 32:54

Prior to the two-income household.

SPEAKER_00 32:56

Right. Well, and the well, there used to be two-income households. Uh, you, as being, you know, a studying studying history, you know that there was a day when women were working in factories. Working class women, there were no working class women, full-time housewives. They were working in the tobacco factories, and and the slave women were working in the fields. We were just doing double duty. We were also taking care of the children. But what what did then they try to stuff us back into the homes after World War II because women were getting too uppity. Women had taken men's jobs rather than saying women had taken jobs, they were men's jobs. And then women get, you know, they really started this campaign to get women to go back into the home. It was so obvious. So uh that was the that was the good old, and they're trying to do it again. They're trying to do it again. So this is all nonsense. All the work that we do, whether it's taking, if we take care of the husband or we take care of the wife, or we raise the children, we are taking care of the working class. We are the creating and regenerating the workers so they can go back to work. When you had the guy who went into the factory and came home and the wife fed him and uh ironed his underwear and did all of that stuff, you know, they were taking care of the man so he could go back to work, but the woman didn't get paid for that work that he was supposed to just support her. And as a result of that, who had the power? The men. They had all the control over the money.

SPEAKER_02 34:31

Uh, other than your repeated use of the of the phrase women's work, I imagine you're a feminist. Is that correct?

SPEAKER_00 34:40

No, I am a humanitarian. I believe that all people need to be treated with love and affection and need to be nurtured. I believe that when you say feminist, you know, what does that mean? I don't want to be pushed back into housework. Uh, first of all, I'm disabled. See, I grew up differently. I I've been sick my entire life. I couldn't do women's work. What is called I I don't believe it's women's work, but I mean that what is called women's, I couldn't do it. But then I couldn't do much. I can only work with my mind. And that was my mind went into overtime trying to figure out what was going on in the society. But why is it that if you happen to be born as a woman, that means you're a natural nurturer, you know, and this hurts men too. I have seen the most beautiful men who are natural nurturers and really should be taking care of children, and that should be respected equally to anybody else who's making money. So it's the it's the value that a capitalist society puts all the value on making money, and that's what gets the the respect. And you can see it. How many parents say to their son, you know, I want you to be a street musician when you grow up?

SPEAKER_02 36:01

None.

SPEAKER_00 36:04

You see, they say, oh no, you gotta make money, you gotta make it in the world. I mean, the pressure on every one of us to fit a social mold rather than a mutually supportive society where we all come together to support one another.

SPEAKER_02 36:23

Now, you have uh what you call a new declaration of independence. From whom or what are we being encouraged to declare independence?

SPEAKER_00 36:38

Great question. Independence from the society, the government, the administration that we currently have. That we have a right, you know, if we remember what the original declaration, and I have to tell you, honestly, I didn't remember, but I have no memory. It's as I was born with a defective memory. I went back and I reread it because I heard this inner voice said, Write the new Declaration of Independence. And I said, Okay, so I guess I better read it. So I read it, and it's about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, right? And if you have a government that is abridging your right to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness, you have a right to get rid of it, right? No more kings. That is exactly what the what the original declaration of independence was. And it says we have a right to institute a different government and a different society. So I look at the government that we have, the oppressive nature of that government, the misuse of force, but the accumulation of power in the hands of fewer and fewer and fewer people, which you know has been going on for decades, and it didn't start with the current administration. This this disparity of income has become obscene. And you have things like citizens united, and you know, you have money in politics, so there is no real freedom. And uh, so I say, okay, let's get rid of it. Let's get honest. This is not working for us. And what should we replace it with? And I believe it's we need to replace it with a cooperative society.

SPEAKER_02 38:17

And how much support is your new declaration of independence gathering up to this point?

SPEAKER_00 38:24

Not a lot, but some. And because people, you know, people like you can let people know about it. You know, I don't have vast resources, but I'm trying to get it out. And you're hearing more and more people are saying, you know, we need a positive vision. I believe that deep down inside we all need the same thing. We need a society that nurtures us physically, that nurtures us intellectually, that nurtures us emotionally, that nurtures us spiritually. We need that. Everybody needs that. Everybody is in pain. Bob, the CEO, I worked for corporations because I've been a slave laborer, right? I worked in factories, I worked in offices, and then I started my own, you know, business uh as a counselor with no intention of making money. That has never been my goal. It's just like, what can I do to help? And I've seen how everybody suffers and how people who make a lot of money are under so much pressure to make money, to satisfy the shareholders, to satisfy the boss or the owner, or they're gonna be, or they get bought by somebody else, and now have to they they they have to satisfy the people who just bought their company. They're all, I mean, I see it. I see the drinking, I see the drugs, I see the womanizing, I see the breakdown of the human soul. I don't care who you are, you are not thriving in this society. That is my belief, anyway. I think we need to come together around a program of that our society and our economy need to meet the needs of people on the earth. And we need to ask, how would we do that? So I believe in supporting cooperatives, I believe in supporting that as they have in some countries, uh, workers on the board of directors. I believe in limiting the amount of money that CEOs can make. I believe in social programs that are give people some kind of safety, feeling of safety that we desperately need. I believe that all of these things and more are going to reduce our stress, and I'm open to expanding our our new declaration of independence.

SPEAKER_02 40:48

You can learn more about Beth Green and the new Declaration of Independence at thestream.info. Since our chat, Beth has had some health-related issues, and I wish Beth a speedy recovery and many more years of good health. Thanks to Beth Green for spending some time in the listening tube. The listening tube is written and produced by yours truly, copyright 2025. Thank you for putting your ear to the listening tube. I'm your host, Bob Woodley, for Val at Infinitum.