For the
Re-Creation and Development of Individual, Collective, Local and Global Alternatives
The future is calling. Are you listening?
What You Can Do
It is widely believed - and also absolutely true - that great social
change begins with individual change. When people in large numbers
begin to transform, the impact can be astounding. This is why
revolutions of both the positive and negative kind often seem to take
place over night when in fact the conditions which made them possible
took years to develop.
Today, more than ever before, people are ready for transformation.
Pressures have been building for a long time and the realization that
the world (as we know it) is in fact ending has been like a seed cast
in the wind a few decades ago. The seed has now been spread far and
wide as the systems we rely on - spiritual, economic, environmental,
political and social - move ever closer to collapse.
Fear, stress and dissatisfaction with a world that increasingly seems to
make little sense, have created an explosive situation. Like a building
with a gas leak, we are now engulfed in the fumes of frustration created
by a world which is being run by a very few men for their own benefit.
Those fumes will eventually be ignited into a great social movement,
one which will either create a better world or a much worse one. It all
depends on how long we wait to realize that we have to take personal
responsibility and action - and who we decide to follow.
Little changes pave the way for big changes: personal changes on a
large scale can quickly become the catalyst for great social change on
a massive scale. So it is personal change that we focus on first.
As you are reading this, you may feel overwhelmed; you may start to
think "I can't do this" or "I'm not that kind of person". PLEASE don't
give up - Don't stop reading - Don't refuse to change - because it is
precisely that kind of internal defeatism which has got us into the
mess we're in. To fix it, we must overcome our fear of change - both
personal and social. If we don't, things will still change - as we have
seen. But the direction of change will be determined by a few powerful
men ("a loose affiliation of millionaires and billionaires" to use
Paul Simon's phrase).
The last thing we wish to say before we make some suggestions is this:
Some of you may already be doing many of the things we propose. The
ideas here are not targeted at any one individual personally but rather
at all of us collectively - and the fact is that we are all going to need
to change - me, you, everybody - and the fact that some people may
need to change more than others is not as significant as an
understanding that we are all part of the problem - we all must take
some responsibility.
So here we go...
Think
...about the signals you're sending to other people as you go about your
life.
Put some thought into the messages you send to people about the kind of
world you want to live in.
How do you conduct yourself towards your family and friends, your
co-workers and people you don't even know?
Are you kind and gentle? Or are you aggressive, irritable or even
malicious?
Do you give people the benefit of the doubt or do you assume the worst
possible motives?
Are you open to the possibilities life may be offering you? Do you
meet peoples eyes as you go through your life? Do you smile at people,
extend a friendly demeanor?
Do you allow yourself to see and treasure little moments of beauty every
day of your life? Because they are there, even on the worst days, if you
open yourself up to them?
And when those worst days occur, they can make the world of difference to
you - or to anyone else who is having a bad day - if you smile, allow
yourself to be happy, drop your inhibitions and be friendly and open. If
you're lonely, you have a much better chance of meeting people - whether
lovers or friends - by going through your life this way than by being
reserved and afraid to talk to people.
What if the answer starts with this:
Think about everything you do in terms of it's consequences and the
messages it out - to everyone. Everything you do. If you are so busy
that you can't take the time to do that, then you are too busy. You need
to slow yourself down - immediately.
Because if you are not considering that, you are evading responsibility
for your actions - no matter how small they may be. Everything
you do has consequences which ripple out to affect tens, hundreds,
even thousands of people. Your actions can hurt or heal you and others
as well - often in ways rarely suspected. Because every unkind or
discourteous act has both it's immediate impact as well as it's secondary
impact: It helps set the tone of things; it defines, more widely or
narrowly, the limits of what is acceptable behavior.
Thoughts work the same way. A mean-spirited thought is not seen by
anyone else, but you know that it occurred. This is what conscience is.
You know what happened. You make a choice: You can either push it
aside, thereby leaving the issue unresolved internally or you can
challenge yourself to address it.
Pushing it aside is not a good idea. It sends the wrong messages
internally, it weakens the mental and spiritual systems (conscience)
which say "Hey, hold on...", it becomes a habit. The next thing you
know, we're all running around saying and doing an awful lot of things
which are not good for the world we live in. And we wonder why it's such
a mess.
Now you can do internal confrontation by raking yourself over the coals
or you can do it the better way: Acknowledge that what you thought or
did was wrong, do what you can to make amends when necessary. and vow to
make a serious effort not to repeat it. That's all - it's that easy -
if you follow through.
Talking about conscience has become very unfashionable. As one who
personally believes that God (or Gaia) is something like the combined
force of all life and that God (Good) is therefore in all of us,
conscience makes a great deal of sense. But many of us have silenced
our consciences and we carry on through life, ignoring the voice within
until it stops speaking - or is so quiet that we don't hear it. It was
never that loud in the first place.
The other problem with conscience is that is it is defined not just
internally (psychologically) but also socially. And we have come to
accept that what is lawful is right. And that is wrong.
The law is one thing; often the law allows (accidentally or otherwise)
for the commission of terrible acts. What is right and what is wrong
goes far beyond the law.
And most people have every desire to be good and decent people; they
believe in morals and ethics. They do their best in a world in which
often a little good seems to have only a little impact while a little
evil goes an awfully long way.
Often the definition of good and bad is confusing; to live in a world
which is not always easy, we find that we must tell lies; but lying,
we've been told, is bad. In fact, if you are a person involved in
organized religion, its' a sin.
On the other hand, there is apparently nothing wrong with buying products
from corporations which engage in acts of unspeakable destruction - for
profit - thus supporting them by giving them the life-blood of business:
Money.
More on that later, but when you listen to the news, consider which
people you hear about are worse - those who makes millions or billions
through destructive and anti-social behavior made justifiable because it
is "good" for the "economy" or those who engage in peaceful protest of
those very activities.
Thinking - every moment of every day - about what it is we're doing, why
we're doing it and what it's results will be, allows good the opportunity
to have great impact as well.
If you judge people by how they look instead of by how they behave, take
some time to reconsider your priorities. There is the obvious stuff
which can generate prejudice in all of us - skin color, weight (too much
or too little), age and we all find ourselves doing it sometimes. Be
aware of your response to people; if it is based on appearance, resist it.
Fight it.
There is the other stuff we too often judge people by - their hair is too
long or too short; they are (or are not) wearing a suit; they appear to
have more (or less) money than we do; they are gay or straight, they are
this or that; they are somehow different than we are.
But in all likelihood, they aren't much different than we are. And by
allowing ourselves to think that way, we further the cause behind one of
the truly big problems we face: Human division. We are all divided up
by race, by religious persuasion, by age, by gender, by sexual preference,
by geographic location and by so many side issues like whether our
clothes are neat enough or too neat, whether we have (or do not have
earrings/tattoos/different hair color/too much of this/too little of that.
And while we're busy being divided by all those side issues which say
nothing about the kind of people we are, the world carries on with wars,
economic devastation, environmental destruction...and son on...and the
collapse continues.
Meet the world with a smile. See each person as someone with whom your
similarities may far out-weigh your differences even though the
differences may be more immediately apparent.
Don't judge people by how they look; to the degree that we judge people
at all, it should be by how they treat others, by their attitude towards
life (not being alive but that which is alive).
Assume the best about people, not the worst - until and unless you have
concrete reasons to believe the worst - and even then allow for the fact
that (contrary to popular myth) people can and do change.
Meet peoples eyes. Talk to strangers. Break down the walls that stand
between yourself and the rest of the world.
We're all talking about the lack of community we all feel but we're
afraid to talk to "strangers" - people we haven't yet met.
Half of us are so lonely we put advertisements in newspapers or go to
dating services (nothing wrong with either of those) but we won't talk
to people we don't yet know - in the grocery store line or the elevator
or, for that matter, on the street.
What if everyone went into the world every day with that kind of attitude
and more? What if we all said, upon the start of each day:
Today I will not think or speak harshly about another human being. If I
"catch" myself doing it, I will immediately stop.
Today I will try to do nothing which is mean, unkind or would cause pain
to another living being and I will try to find opportunities to be kind
which I might not have otherwise found?
Today I will be patient with my family, my friends, my co-workers, my
employees and/or employers, with strangers - people I don't yet know.
Now I'm not suggesting that everyone will do that - they won't. But what
if you and I do? What if other people start to? It doesn't matter if
some don't do that, if enough of us do. It is a beginning and
others will join and it is a concrete way in which each if us can have a
positive impact on both our own lives and on the world at large.
It is the beginning.
The hard work here is forcing yourself to think about everything you do
and say - and forcing yourself to follow through with it.
Just because it is hard work doesn't mean it isn't worth doing. It is
hard work and it is both worth doing and necessary: You really must do
it - for yourself, for you spirit (soul), for the world, for survival in
the coming transformation and to make sure that transformation happens -
starting with me and starting with you.
I challenge you to take a pledge now that you wll begin or continue the
process of change now. Vow that you will re-think and re-define your
picture of reality; the way you think and speak and act. Start it now.
Send us a message telling us you've taken the pledge and we'll provide
you with email support.
I vow to make every action I take and every word I speak a positive step
towards a better world
There is much more to come - soon. So keep coming back!
(To be continued)
We would love to hear from you.
Please feel welcome to send us your
comments,
suggestions
ideas
or request
more
information.
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