“The Italian Marxist, Antonio Gramsci, writing from a fascist prison cell in the 1930s, coined a term – cultural hegemony – the process by which a ruling class maintains power not through violence, but through the control of ideas, values, and institutions. The ruling class doesn’t need to send soldiers or police to your door if it can get you to believe that your suffering is meaningful, that your poverty is temporary, and that the meek will inherit the earth – later.” Andrew Springer. We’ve been slaves for millennia, we just stopped seeing the chains, which today culturally bind us to modern forms of servitude. Living sustainably is a release to new ideas of personal and community sovereignty.
I read a wonderful comment about living well – ‘stop trying to control everything in your life. Treat life like an experiment and constantly make changes to see what happens.’ Change is exciting. It prevents stagnation, it prevents boredom. And why are we here if we don’t want to live all that life can offer us. For a lot of people change represents the unknown. And considering how human history, for so long, has been a parade of violence, wars and a succession of one oppressive hierarchy followed by yet another hierarchy, it’s not surprising how change can produce fear.
Normally we don’t like the unexpected, it can cause stress. So, we instead stress out over trying to keep unwanted things form happening, which rarely prevents unwanted things from happening. How you react to life’s unexpected experiences is totally under your control. It is possibly the only thing in life you actually do control. We are now in the throes of incredible change. We can ride with the change or we can suffer through it. I prefer the former, as I hope you all do. Embracing change that we create, means learning about new ways of being, and as importantly about ourselves, and more crucially about how we become authentic self-actualized human beings expressing Love and compassion.
The dependency trap that keeps us enslaved to failing global systems has been recently revealed in all its horrendous glory with events at the Straits of Hormuz. “Modern civilization is a house of cards where every card matters. We need specialized parts, global supply chains, and constant energy just to keep things running. You can’t just pull out a few cards and expect the structure to hold. Trying to “live simply” sounds nice, but when you have billions of people depending on complex food systems, electricity grids, and supply networks, removing pieces causes the whole thing to fail faster than you can adapt” Ricky Lanusse. Unnerving to say the least, but ‘contented slaves’ need to be woken up somehow to see their situation.
“Because, as Vaclav Smil says, our modern world relies on four key materials, crucial for everything we do: cement, steel, plastics, and ammonia. And here’s what these materials share: they can’t be easily replaced; we need more of them; and fossil fuels are the driving force behind their mass production” Ricky Lanusse. As I have said often, our new and better world will not be through technological innovation. Even going completely into a current renewable energy doesn’t solve the biggest problem. We can innovate as much as we want, but if we continue to consume as we do, the core problems remains. Until we transform ourselves and our worldviews, we are merely postponing the inevitable.
The new world won’t start with the flip of a switch and then we start localizing and singing Kumbaya around campfires and hug each other with sisterly/brotherly love. I’m sure we’ll get to that higher kind of consciousness eventually, but for starters we just need to learn to live with each other by not always countering others opinions with unconscious knee jerk reactions but responding more consciously with compassion and understanding. The big change and the first thing to do to change yourself: Be authentic. I have already talked quite a bit about this (see initial links 1, 2 and 3, to discussions about Authenticity in this blog).
To recap, what does Authenticity look like? We begin our inner change and in doing so change and recreate the outer reality. It starts with you being a sovereign person for starters. Many indigenous tribes have a simple belief about sovereignty – no one can ever tell another person what to do. That sounds like anarchy, but the next step is to realize that we must live together for mutual benefit – no one person is an island. There are just too many of us now, and with too much technology to go live in isolation like some neo-pioneer. We live together and in a truly sustainable world, that means any exchange must always be equitable and respectful. Authentic people stop caring what others think, and start caring what they think tobring in clarity and alignment with their inner selves. We can accept others differing views, but we do so with the intention of understanding where they are coming from and not to use ‘cultural hegemony’ to force people to live in a specific way. Diversity of viewpoints is essential, but it is important not to deny our own views just to please others. When we preoccupy our minds with what others think, we lose ourselves to populous expectations and deny our true selves.
So, the biggest step to creating change is an inward one. It is amazing how many people are angry at the world, because they are angry at themselves – they live out victimhood, blaming everyone and everything. First step, Be nicer and kinder to yourself. Life is tough enough without having to deal with everyone else’s crap. Mean and dishonest people create a lack of trust. So set your boundaries and start being nice toYOU regardless of others – be authentic – it builds inner trust and personal forgiveness. It’s not about being perfect.
No one has ALL the answers – no one. But collectively we all have ideas that when shared produce answers that work. So, stop being obsessed with the need to be right. Conflict occurs whenwe think differently and refuse to talk freely or try to compromise. There is no absolute right or wrong, just differences of the big picture, which most refuse to look at. Learn how to relax around rigid thinking; it can be hard, but the payoff is worth it.
Life is hard enough, but it isn’t supposed to be a daily grind. Unless you actually work laboring 15 hours a day with hand tools in a salt-mine, find something fun to do every day. As several psychologists have said, “Life isn’t meant to only be about responsibilities. We can become so locked into our to-do lists that we forget to give ourselves meaningful breaks. Don’t put off doing something fun; give yourself fun breaks throughout the day. You will be more productive in the end.”
And as I have said so often, Be who you really are – be yourself, not what anyone thinks you ought to be. In advising college students, and curiously some friends children. What came out for me was how often the individuals I was talking with were doing what their adults expected of them. For example, Biology students who wanted to be artists or musicians; Engineers and scientists who just wanted to be plumbers, electricians, or creative carpenters; Medical students who wanted to be writers and travelers, and; and of course, students told they were limited, so were never encouraged to look at more creative professional options – such as a brick layer who aspired (and succeeded because of his girlfriend’s encouragement) in becoming a creative architect. Doctors are no better than plumbers; indeed, if I have a burst pipe give me a plumber every time. Recognize that everyone, whatever the job, has their equal value in a sustainable community. I foresee that the specializations we currently see will yield to more people becoming Jack-of-all-Trade generalists, specializing in areas where they express greater talents.
The thing that our inner selves want us to do more than anything is to be ourselves. I don’t think we were born to be anything but ourselves. We just get conditioned to be otherwise – I think we were born to learn, grow, connect, expand, and evolve. We simply are not going to do that when we are inauthentic. Get back to what makes you happy, what makes you curious and passionate. I could have been an adventuring international mountaineer, but I made that my passionate hobby, while my inner self had me follow another passion to be a ‘sustainabilitist’ – no regrets, even if I often wonder how fulltime outdoor adventuring might have been a very different lifestyle. Travel and outdoor writing instead of teaching and writing about sustainability? I recall a line from the Doc Graham character (Field of Dreams movie) and his dream in his youth of being a major league baseball player, but with only 5 minutes of play before seeing that dream diminish as a tragedy, “Now, if I had only got to be a doctor for five minutes, now that would have been a tragedy.”
Around the world there are a growing army of peaceful spiritual warriors like myself. You could say we have a ‘warrior spirit,’ whose passion is not about domination or conquest — but about educating and dismantling systems that lack integrity. “Systems built on lies, corruption, or cruelty. Structures that reward conformity over truth. Environments that numb sensitivity rather than honoring it. We might find ourselves in direct conflict with authority, institutions, and even family systems. Not because we want conflict — BUT BECAUSE WE CANNOT UNSEE WHAT IS BROKEN” Sue Crielaard.
To Be Continued ………………..
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