“There is a purpose behind distorting history to make it seem like only great men achieve significant things. It teaches people to believe they are powerless and must wait for a great man to act” Noam Chomsky.
As I wrap up my advice on how to create a sustainable future through some key items of action, some final thoughts about why changing the way we think is crucial. This conditioning I have talked about so often is what captures us, and getting past it is the path to our future. We have been taught how insignificant we all are within a hierarchical system (OMG, yes, I said the ‘H’ word yet again). Scientific-Materialism is what keeps us trapped – it’s what drives the hyper-consumer mindset that is responsible for the state of the world today. We in the ‘affluent’ developed world are for now, largely insulated from the mega-global-changes from which so many in the less-developed world are already suffering. In the developed world, we are suffering from the hard consequences of corporate profiteering.
“When you realize that the two most profitable businesses are war and illness, it’s easy to understand what’s going on” Anonymous (although attributed to several over the years).
From the last post: what if human selfhood is really divine, then divine thought is a force for good. All sickness originates in the mind, and ‘right thinking’ will have a healing effect. If we hate so easily, then Love can be the cure for our individual and collective trauma’s. We’ve been infected with this idea that love is an emotion only between two people. But Love is universal. An energy. A contagious force. A gift. To offer money to a homeless man is to Love. To save a worm from the sun is to Love. To smile at a stranger is to Love. To be grateful, to be hopeful, to be brave, to be forgiving, to be proud, is to Love” Consciousreminder.com.
Our primary goal should be to set up parallel local systems for self-sufficiency. That way we can become autonomous from hierarchical control, and more importantly, it sets us up to be truly resilient should the shit really hit the fan, which I am seeing as highly probable at this time. Being locally autonomous and self-sufficient is a good idea even if globalization should somehow recover, because it frees us from things no one wants, e.g., war, violence, greed, etc…
We must train ourselves to be empathic to be able to adapt and be willing to help others. This is when we mirror ourselves into each-others experiences. Currently, antipathy and apathy are the most common emotions that cause us to ‘fear others’ and feel powerlessness to promote change. Empathy is seen when we mirror others; learn about them, becoming familiar with them and who they are; share experiences that are salient and relevant; enhance a group’s ability to thrive; and; that motivate group action and build alliances. Imagine living in a world where ‘Generosity of Spirit’ is prized’ and revered. “All you need is Love” The Beatles.
I conclude this part of the post for item one with the idea, that if the reality of this world isn’t working for us as it is, then perhaps visualizing a new world as we want it must be a better alternative than simply accepting a reality that fails us, and has done for millennia. When I tell people I choose Love in all situations, no one disagrees with me, but their belief that the world is a hard place to struggle through keeps them stuck in a rut of their choosing. It’s not that life doesn’t give us challenges. It’s how we respond to challenges with Love and Compassion, or react though negative conditioning that matters. Mindfulness is ALL.
Consumerism gives everyone lots of ‘stuff’ but traps most in a debt trap – it was designed that way since the 1950s, and probably earlier since the early 1920s. There is a way out of this trap, but as usual, it takes everyone to choose to select what really matters; and that isn’t ‘stuff.,’ which is what most realized from the ‘lock-downs’ of 2020. Since the 1980s, many psychologists and economists have been telling us the same thing, we are focused too materialistically on ‘stuff.’ The CURE – start decluttering and live more simply. Not giving everything up, but living more simply with less stress and NO debt. Living so well within your means, that you start to transform your values for what gives you joy and happiness all the time- a lifestyle that brings you true Quality of Life.
Decluttering – Getting past Hyper-Consumerism
Tim Kasser (The High Price of Materialism) and Tibor Scitovsky (The Joyless Economy) both argue that materialist consumerism is really a barrier to our desire for Health, happiness and overall well-being in a sustainable world. Materialistic values never have, and never can, solve our global problems because they force us to focus on the wrong things. When we do not have to worry about lack of resources, we can embrace abundance for all people instead of greed and hoarding fostered by our current economic system. What Kasser, Scitovsky and many others have shown repeatedly is that the accumulation of ‘stuff’ is self-defeating for a better world.
“Every marriage has one person who throws things out, and a garbage-loving chaos goblin who says, “But I was saving that!” This humorously captures the different approaches to decluttering and hoarding in relationships” Anonymous.
Simpler living and minimalism are the only cures that will allow a global population to thrive. I came across a Norwegian YouTube Vlogger called ‘Seve’ (Sunny Kind Journey). He has a good message that teaches, ‘minimalism,’ and what I like about his video posts is how it makes sense. As he says, decluttering for a simpler life, “It’s the only thing that really matters when you think about it. What else is there, except how we connect. How we listen. How we love. How we forgive. How we treat each other.“ You can still have fun and enjoy technology for entertainment, but it becomes a daily choice as an addition to a wonderful life and not as an addictive need.
Re-engaging Community in our lives
The other big choice we need now is to re-engage as community, and not simply neighborhoods of people we pass-by, not really knowing. If we are to thrive, we have to engage and learn about each other.
Public Work and Civic Engagement philosopher, Harry Boyte, emphasizes that communities develop, not in political halls of power, but on the ‘Main Streets’ of every community. This is where the cultural commons exist that bind people within a uniquely local learning environment – we learn from and teach each other. Every community that works has areas and places where people naturally meet and gather daily. These ‘meeting places’ may be the local post office, pharmacy, local shops, church meeting hall, the public house, local parks, cafes and local eateries. What sets these places apart is that they are locations where people dialogue and come to understand each other.
Hierarchical technocrats understand only the role of logistics for providing services. Meanwhile, the social problems they try to moderate continue to occur because local citizens are seen only as ‘clients’ and not as co-creators of the ‘public good.’ Local communities know what they ‘need’ and when mobilized can actually do a better job of meeting those needs more effectively. Sometimes all they need is to empower themselves.
Real community is about civic engagement – yes, being involved on a daily basis, not as a politician but as a co-creator of what is happening in your area. It is you expresses your personal sovereignty for the greater good. Building true community is not just ‘place enhancement.’ Community building develops around building ‘Capacity’ around community ‘Plurality.’ The aim is to encourage all local citizens as agents working together for a shared regenerative community purpose with ethical perspectives of all represented.
In another recent blog post, I offered this personal observation: When I travelled through the North West highlands of Scotland with the late Geoff Fagan (CADISPA), I saw first-hand how isolated communities felt and increasingly drifting apart. Post offices/Grocery stores everywhere were closing as part of centralized consolidation from technocrats in Edinburgh. Because of hierarchical political and financial considerations only, village life was diminishing what were once tight communities. Whether an isolated Scottish community or a large development in a large town, civic agency is a process of helping neighborhoods become communities by getting the community to empower itself. Even in large towns and cities, local communities can be built as self-sufficient and resilient enclaves. Each autonomous enclave supporting its neighboring enclave as a collection of Sustainable Living free from the tyranny of globalized economic systems. This now leads us to Item two ………
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