Bertolt Brecht’s quote “Grub first, then morals” (Grub – slang for food) suggests that people should prioritize their basic demands before they can concentrate on even more abstract principles, like morals. It is a suggestion that individuals must not neglect their standard needs in order to concentrate on greater ideals. This fits in well with needs psychology models, like Maslow’s that propose a hierarchy of needs – see link for very early post about this on this site. In that early post I argue that we don’t have to follow such a hierarchical way of thinking in order to think about higher ethical considerations, even as we face physical needs. Indeed, I would argue that it is going into survival mode that keeps us trapped in the conditioning. Something the hierarchical puppet-masters have done for millennia.
I argue that coming from a higher ethical position and working together, that when we start from a higher ethical and self-actualized place, we function better and behave more spiritually towards all life. We have been trained to fixate on a competitive mode of success of ourselves at the expense of others. This is a core idea of failed Social Darwinism – the theory that individuals, groups, and peoples are subject to the same Darwinian laws of natural selection as plants and animals. Now largely discredited, social Darwinism was advocated by Herbert Spencer and others in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and was used to justify political conservatism, imperialism, and racism and to discourage intervention and reform.
Our whole current economic system is set up to make us feel faulty. Just a look at advertising shows us that we are ‘imperfect’ and can only get better by buying into material things. “Accept yourself as you are. And that is the most difficult thing in the world, because it goes against your training, education, your culture. From the very beginning you have been told how you should be; nobody ever told you that you are as good as you are” Osho. Recognizing our true value is the difference between victim consciousness and being empowered (see linked graphic). When we can move past simply thinking we are the ego and find a place of connectedness, we find a healing place where our sovereign-self accepts life on different terms.
We stop worrying about trivialities like needing to be liked and what people think, and pick out the things that really matter to make us feel satisfied with who we really are. There is a great book that is quite spiritual but frames its message in a simple to understand way – The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson (2016) (see link). “The Subtle Art is all about coming to terms with all of the inevitable unimportant imperfections in life and then choosing to not give a f*ck about them. It’s about learning how to give a f*ck about the few things that truly matter.”
So, if like me you think the world, the global ecosystem and the people and all life that live on it matter, then giving it your prime attention is what really matters. Not whether you got liked enough from a Tic-Toc post. Getting back to what Brecht said. We all have to eat to stay alive, and unless you have been living in a bunker these past 4 years, you will have noticed that food, even the processed and pesticide laden junk shit, has been getting more expensive. That in itself is a good enough reason to give a f*ck about growing your own food. And even better, growing it in a community of like-minded people. Being spiritual is a natural part of who we are, even if it is buried in many at this time.
“All human beings are descendants of tribal people who were spiritually alive, intimately in love with the natural world, children of Mother Earth. When we were tribal people, we knew who we were, we knew where we were, and we knew our purpose. This sacred perception of reality remains alive and well in our genetic memory. We carry it inside of us, usually in a dusty box in the mind’s attic, but it is accessible” John Trudell (Native American Activist).
And this message is coming more and more from the scientific community. Names like David Attenborough and Jane Goodall have talked about it for decades. Maybe it’s time we stopped and thought more about what they have said and give it more of a f*ck.
Someday we shall look back on this dark era of agriculture and shake our heads. How could we have ever believed that it was a good idea to grow our food with poisons?” Jane Goodall. An echo of a similar game-changer from 1962 – Rachel Carson in her book Silent Spring (credited with spurring on the environmental movement). As we think about food from a higher perspective for ecological and societal health, we also satisfy the physical need for food. It is my hope that you see what I am getting at. When we think from a more spiritual perspective, we heal not only ourselves but also the planet as a whole, and address all our physical and psychological needs. We humans love to think we are intelligent, but we confuse intellect with intelligence. The natural world has a unique intelligence about it that will teach us better ways to do things. (I’ll talk about his more in the next post.) But for now, let me conclude this week’s post with why we should give a f*ck about the natural world though the quotes of great thinkers who recognized what is crucial for the planet’s ability, and hence humanity’s, to thrive.
“We need to realize we’re part of the environment, that we need the natural world. We depend on it. We can’t go on destroying. We’ve got to somehow understand that we’re not separated from it, we are all intertwined. Harm nature, harm ourselves” Jane Goodall.
“The living world is a unique and spectacular marvel, yet the way we humans live on Earth is sending it into a decline;”…“Every aspect of nature is magnificent;”…“The beauty of the natural world lies in the details;”…“Nature is not a place to visit. It is home;” and,“No one will protect what they don’t care about, and no one will care about what they have never experienced” David Attenborough.
“We must go beyond the arrogance of human rights. We must go beyond the ignorance of civil rights. We must step into the reality of natural rights because all of the natural world has a right to existence and we are only a small part of it. There can be no trade-off;”…”The great lie is that it is civilization. It’s not civilized. It has been literally the most blood thirsty brutalizing system ever imposed upon this planet. That is not civilization. That’s the great lie, is that it represents civilization,” and, “We’re all human beings and we all have feelings. And we all live in this industrial meat grinder where we don’t really understand love anymore” John Trudell
“Let us develop respect for all living things. Let us try to replace violence and intolerance with understanding and compassion. And love” Jane Goodall
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