I had an email (my address on bottom of homepage) from a reader who said that sometimes it is hard to search my blogsite to find the earlier posts I quote, so I have added links to make it easier. Just let me know what I need to do to make it easy to read my blog and I will try to accommodate requests. Apparently the comments tag is missing – my apologies, I shall look into it.
With self-reliance comes responsibility. Yet, what does responsibility really mean? Back in January (2022 – Thinking Anew – Part 7 –Accepting Personal Responsibility) I talked about personal responsibility, but we all have a responsibility beyond ourselves. This is especially true if we are to create a new kind of society that values people and not things (materialism). What we have to be extremely careful of is crossing that fine line where our own personal sovereignty and that of others is negated. It’s why I am always cognizant of how the notion of the ‘greatest good’ (often called the common good in the media) is being applied to a population. Personal responsibility is being true to yourself. But it could also mean being dependable, being aware of your ability to keep promises you make and to honor any commitments you choose to take on. It is having self-integrity (see earlier post, Empowering ourselves to Change part 2 – A new Society through Self-Integrity {May 2020}).
I could add that you have a personal responsibility to do positive things with your abilities, talents and resources at your disposal. From a Maslow and Piaget perspective it also means developing our full potential to be self-actualized. People who are responsible don’t make excuses for their actions or blame others when things go wrong. It is also accepting the consequences for all we say and do, and alternatively for what we do not say or do when we know we should, to help others. While I advocate for personal sovereignty, I also advocate our responsibility for our connections with each other. Be the real you, but allow others to be themselves as well. This means tolerance but also in setting boundaries. Your personal agency is your ability to influence what happens to you.
We also have moral responsibility, which is central to any system of ethics that promotes healthy living. This means that one’s actions presuppose that any choice for which any action is taken arises from Free-will. Indigenous peoples don’t have legal systems that exist today, but they clearly have social norms and rules that implied a knowledge of good and evil (within whatever worldview they held), and of the connection between knowledge and action that helped them live together despite any differences. Today we rely a lot on legal and contractual obligations, and less on personal responsibility.
It’s a strange juxtaposition where I espouse personal sovereignty, but materialism espouses a ‘me-first’ attitude. The difference is that ‘me-first’ is mostly based on self-gratification and not self-integrity. Indeed, what I observed – as a broad generalization – from the profession class was a growing arrogance and obsession with self-importance and less about using one’s talents to improve the conditions for others. Just look at the past two years how the heads of most public health policy groups (and most corporate systems) ignored the true needs of the people and focused solely on profit. And these heads also took on dictatorial roles to impose what they say was for the common good (thus driving the actions of subordinates) while we ignored their vested interests in financial benefits for themselves and their puppet masters.
If you haven’t seen lots of conflict in your life since 2020 then you must living be in a social bubble, are giving up who you are to fit in with the social expectations, or have yet to awaken fully to the realities of a swiftly changing world. The chaos is your prompt to recognize that it is now the time to step up and find your role in creating a better and sustainable world. We have been conditioned to see a dangerous and cruel world. Look at most nature programs and you will see all manner of predation, like a lion pulling down an antelope, a crocodile snatching a zebra off the banks of a river, or a feathered raptor catching some prey in its talons. But what I notice that is rarely shown is how once a predator gets it food, the rest of the head or flock relax and carry on going about their business knowing that they have time before the predator gets hungry again. While there may be many prey species, for the most part they live together peacefully sharing the regions resources. Yes, even with herbivores there may be territorialism and resource partitioning, but just look at any bird feeder or grassy area with multiple herbivores grazing to see them peacefully co-existing. They exist in the moment, something spiritual people mention a lot, but notice how different they live from we humans.
One of my favorite spiritual gurus, Michael Roads says, “We too often interact negatively, seldom experiencing peace. We sulk long after the altercation, we continually react to each other, grumbling about anything that does not suit us. We criticize, blame and get angry, and never truly experience the freedom in the movement of the moment. We could learn a lot from Nature if we are open enough to observe and learn the required lessons nature gives us for living well.”
The current global chaos is highlighted by most media and concerns itself with ‘what’s wrong’ and if only the economy was better, we could solve all the problems. Since the current economy is run by the hierarchy, they convince us that we just need to wait for the ‘authorities’ to fix ‘what’s wrong.’ It’s the waiting for superman syndrome I have commented on several times. The Matrix movie is a great metaphor of how our society is run (see earlier posts for my extended thoughts about this, The Hierarchy 2 – Waiting for Superman {February 2018} and, Why we stay in the rut 2 – A Reality Check {February 2018}).
The numbers of people waking up is growing rapidly, but there are still many that still cannot see the plot of the narrative being pushed by the hierarchy. Most people have no idea of who they truly are, or where they are going. They just survive instead of creating the life they want. For them it is a materialistic frame where they wish “to be rich” but in reality, if they really think about it, they will realize that their wish is for something more profoundly deeper. What does ‘being rich’ imply? For instance, getting rid of the alarm clock and being able to sleep in; to be free from financial worry about paying any bills; to do more of what they love to do; to spend more time with friends and loved ones, and; to help people in need. In essence to live as if every tomorrow was a Saturday and not a typical workweek (see my post, Spirituality 3 {March 2018}).
As it stands now most people are going nowhere. While apathy is not good anyway, it has the unfortunate side-effect of allowing stagnation and corruption to occur in the larger culture run by a malevolent hierarchy. If humanity is to evolve as a biological species and not descend into some AI implemented version then this needs to be addressed now. It is our responsibility to push the power of Love and move away from the hate, greed, and fear that for so many millennia have been dominated human thinking. While modern times may be chaotic, this is our signal that it is our time to shine, for the old is crumbling. This chaos is good, it will allow us to deconstruct the failing old paradigm as we reconstruct the new one, to find the balance we need for living harmoniously with each other and the natural world (see earlier posts, Chaos as the Indicator of a New System Developing 1-3 {May 2019}).
We owe it to ourselves to be responsible and forge a new future that we want. The hierarchy won’t like it, but their power cannot withstand the actions of a people who no longer want to be subjugated. No conflict or fighting needed. Just a willingness to think and do things different. The next post will be examples of people from around the world who have already made this choice and created transitional communities.
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