Human behavior is accurately seen as resistant to change. There are perfectly good reasons why this is so, not the least of which is belief in the sensibility of doing what we are doing because it works, or appears to work, given our net life experience. Our readiness to entertain change is thus dependent upon our belief that what we are doing doesn't work any longer, and that there is a well identified, desirable and achievable direction of change we can take to improve our wellbeing.

Individuals and entire societies operate from a fundamental set of beliefs regarding achievable ideals. In short, we follow ideologies, and we attribute societal problems to others for not taking responsibility to operate under our ideology seriously, or in a committed way. However, when enough people become disenchanted with results in their own lives, they are politically ripe to force a new or alternate ideology. If they have one and have been out of power, they attempt to force their old ideology, via a political platform, upon the society to "fix" current problems. Seldom do you find individuals ready for change based on perceptions of a new ideology when the old one appears to work. It is like the saying, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." But that type of limited thinking is, of course, foolish, for it ignores our potential to develop a much better life.

The political process is the mechanism for people to express their views in a non-violent manner, both to promote their own beliefs and especially to provide legislation for what they think will give them the best results as individuals. All this is understandable, but it also is one of the prime reasons why the problems of history recur in each civilization. We oscillate between periods of enlightenment and economic progress and periods of knee-jerk reactions when the activities that sustained us no longer work.

The mechanisms that we have designed to operate our societies are, like the cosmic concepts of our ancestors, the best we have been able to create, so far. They are grossly inadequate if we are to evolve in a more regular and rapid manner as a species. To look at our present institutions as more than a partial solution on the way to the future is very shortsighted. We need to operate from a common, widely understood and supported ideology, instead of continuing our antagonistic, prejudiced views on what old ideology or political party is the best. The old ideologies are not great, as measured by a rational assessment of results.

Later you will encounter a series of recommendations for the use of technology to improve vastly our effectiveness in government, particularly with regard to our criminal and civil legal systems. Such technology carries with it the potential for abuse of power. Therefore, the repeated theme in Destiny is for checks and balances to avoid abuse of power. That can occur, but only if we insist on distributed power while we are "growing up." Technology alone is not enough, for we must learn to apply it equitably to the benefit of all humans, not as a club to beat each other down via government or business or religion. In short, we must learn to relinquish aggregations of power as we become more capable individually. That activity will have to be built into legislation and reviewed and updated regularly to keep technology from being used wrongfully to oppress us. Recall the earlier example of the FBI forensic fraud.

Think of democracy, feudalism, fascism, communism, socialism, capitalism, etc., as major experiments Humanity has undertaken with great investment of people, their lives and their labor, each of which were believed by their originators and followers to be the best way for society to operate. Note that we tend as individuals living within one of those systems, to look at the dominant system in our geographic location and period of history as the correct one, at the expense of the others. We learn to accept and not seriously question that system into which we are born, unless we are forced to change via war or economic disaster.

Yet, it is clear that not everyone can be right, as we have seen major failures in history for various and contrasting applied ideologies. We do not know that what we are doing now is best either, only that it is what we are now doing, wisely or unwisely.

Letting go of the past does require a new ideology. The book, Destiny, is an example of applied philosophy for human development. However, the Destiny chapter and the later supporting chapters identify a new ideology. Destiny differs radically from the social systems named above, while retaining some pieces of each. Destiny contains a new ingredient, the active pursuit of the future, the evolving of the human race, first into what we could call super-humans and then gradually into non-human life forms in our distant future.

This means that a Destiny view necessitates elimination of the problems in each of the above systems so that our evolution can proceed unimpeded by them. Thus, Destiny must first be understood in terms of the other systems for purposes of comparison, so that individuals will understand topic by topic the Destiny ideology. The coming chapters identify short term (next 20 years) responsibilities of governments, educators, religions, businesses and individuals to set the stage for Destiny. It is within those and later chapters that you will see detailed examples of our mistakes and then, prescriptions for direct change. You can also review the Appendix articles to understand the Destiny ideology and philosophy about sentient life, love, sex, racism, values and a variety of other topics.

It is somewhat annoying to introduce Destiny in the context of older political systems, business practices and religions to develop action plans for letting go of the past. Yet, there appears to be no better way. Destiny is such a significant departure from our current ideologies that it does take on aspects of religion. It is idealistic and future-oriented and defines our purpose for life in the cosmos. It has both current and distant goals that empower the human race. That means all of us. And it does not preclude a later change in our belief structure regarding our origin or destiny; simply that we unshackle ourselves from our repressive past and present to find out the fundamental answers about our existence.

For those of you with deeply religious beliefs about a God, think how wonderful it could be to discover concretely that you are right in the process of our species growing up. Must your God receive you in your present ignorant state, or is it okay for you to find your God directly, face to face, by honoring your God through your own growth? Do you act to keep your children helpless, or do you provide them means to learn and grow? When they excel, are you pleased or angry?

For those of us who value loyalty, and believe strongly in democracy and/or capitalism, is it wrong to use some of those very good concepts as part of the foundation for yet a better ideology? Is it not most sensible to remove the reasons for class struggles? Is it not time as a species to grow up and discard war of all kinds?

Destiny is very much an actionable ideology. There is nothing ethereal about it. It does not allow for a static view of human potential or the society in which humans will live. Perhaps most important, Destiny is legacy oriented, and thus conceptually easy to support, for we do care about our children as well as ourselves, and we would like to think we can impact the flow of history. We can and we will, provided enough of us are willing to let go of the past and replace it with a Destiny cosmic view, a Destiny value system, and a lot of hard work with meaningful results.

You can let go of the past by using it and what you can learn from it to help manage the present and develop the future. Your support of the fundamental Destiny value areas for education, development and use of technology, and applied checks and balances to our political and business processes are essential. Later chapters explain what needs to be done in our current timeframe. However, Destiny does not have a chapter like the book of "Revelations," for I understand the errors of the ignorant in our history and choose not to make the same mistake. Human progress will define the future. We decide what we become, wisely or unwisely, but the choice is ours to make.