If I Were President...
This article originally appeared in Conscious Choice magazine.
As I write this, many progressives have lost hope that a Barack Obama victory will mean a real change in direction for this country. Obama now supports the death penalty as well as retroactive immunity for telecommunication companies that gave data on U.S. citizens to government intelligence agencies, violating our constitutional rights. Worst of all, Obama offers no far-reaching plan of action to address the dire ecological crisis -- resource depletion, species extinction, climate change -- that threatens our immediate future. At a time when we need leaders who speak truth to power, he is playing the old political game.
What kind of policies would offer a meaningful response to our current situation? Unfortunately, the changes we need seem so far beyond the limits of current political discourse that it might be laughable if it weren't tragic. With the earth's population expanding and burgeoning middle classes in China and India demanding a fairer share of dwindling resources, the American lifestyle needs to be radically downscaled. We are four percent of the earth's population consuming 25 percent of its energy, and this cannot continue.
Currently, the United States government borrows $2 billion a day to stay afloat, and spends an estimated $1 trillion a year on its military. This extraordinary sum should be used to transition to alternative energy technologies, develop sustainable eco-villages and eco-cities and deploy natural techniques of bioremediation. We need a national program to promote communal living and sharing of resources, along with a movement toward relocalization and decentralization of food, goods and energy production. We should reduce our dependence on the automobile and rebuild railways, trams, and other forms of mass transportation.
Around the globe, it has become clear that
"free market capitalism" (a protectionist racket, for the most part)
benefits a tiny elite and works against the interests of the vast
majority. A mix of capitalist incentives and socialized policies, as in
Northern European countries, can create a cohesive society that
protects the local environment. The U.S. model of endless economic
growth based on absurd indicators such as the Gross Domestic Product
should be rejected. New measurements can promote a higher quality of
life rather than a greater quantity of economic transactions.
The effort to secure oil reserves in the Middle East through military dominance is doomed to failure. We are in danger of seeing our overstretched military begin to crumble, much like the far-flung Roman Empire collapsed due to depleted resources and rampant corruption. The best option would be an immediate shift to a strategy of demilitarization and pacification. The U.S. could regain its stature by leading the world in the institution of nonviolent techniques. Our military bases could become training centers for meditation, permaculture and other skills useful to local communities around the world. A global culture of peace will bring true security.
Civil society must be empowered to oversee the development of all
research in science and technology, taking a long view that encompasses
future generations. The legal form of the corporation must be changed
so that profits no longer take precedence over people or places. We
should pay elected officials a modest, working class wage and make them
directly accountable to their constituents, who can fire them as soon
as they renege on campaign promises.
Creating a sustainable society requires a far more equitable distribution of wealth. Tax structures should be changed to reflect this. We may also require a deeper change in the structure of the monetary system, including a return to local currencies. The "War on Drugs" needs to end, with personal drug use decriminalized. The prison population can be offered employment in agriculture, as the shift to small-scale organic farming will require a large workforce, following Cuba's model.
Facing the severity of our ecological crisis requires a rapid development of collective intelligence and social awareness in the U.S. population. The Internet could provide a collaborative infrastructure to support rapid transition. The mass media could disseminate an understanding of critical issues around sustainability, and retrain people's behavior patterns. For this to happen, the corporate stranglehold on news and information needs to be broken. This will require a revival of public broadcasting and, perhaps, a partial nationalization of the broadcast spectrum.
The American diet must also change radically. Rigid limits must be put on personal consumption of meat, which requires massive inputs of water and grain, as well as fish, since the oceans are almost empty and aquaculture creates toxic waste. The materialism of America can be superseded by a new focus on creative expression and spiritual development, returning us to the "can do" spirit of earlier epochs of American life and reviving the Transcendental ethos of Emerson and Thoreau.
All of this may sound impossibly idealistic. However, it is far more idealistic to believe we can continue on our current path without massive social and economic breakdowns and increasingly severe ecological disasters. What we have been conditioned to want as individuals becomes immaterial when the planet is no longer willing to support our way of life.
Image by Scott Ableman, courtesy of Creative Commons license.
Tweet- 8-8-08
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Comments
Bravo
I've come across lots of people now who strongly believe that a radical transformation of society is necessary - even inevitable; people have talked about why it should happen, but not so much how it can happen. And here you have presented a kind of manifesto for a hypothetical "Radical Transformation of the World in Order to Avoid Calamity Party", which I think is long overdue.
I applaud your radical thinking and I agree with most of what you recommend. And we mustn't cast it as 'idealistic' as though we mean impossible: the first stage to being able to transform the world is to believe that it's possible. Which it is.
The measures that you suggest - do you really, really think that these are the measures that must be taken if we are to avert disaster and make a better world, or are they just the things you would do if you were president? The distinction is significant, given that you probably aren't likely to become president. And if it's the former, and if you aren't president, then how exactly are we going to instigate these changes? I for one believe that it's high time we had concrete answers to this question. (I'm writing an essay on this subject myself, as it happens.)
"Pinchbeck for President" has a certain ring to it, but I feel we need a plan B.
political solution
Personally, I don't believe the present political system can be reformed. Therefore, we must rapidly conceive and execute a new social and political structure. I see this happening as a "bottom up" movement which will include relocalizing of food and energy production, issuing local currencies. At the same time, global groups can form via the Internet (see Here Comes Everybody and Multitude) to pressure governments through mass nonviolent civil disobedience, etc. As Gandhi noted, government depends on the agreement of the people, and if that agreement is withdrawn, the government falls.
There may be a "fall of the wall" moment for the West in the next few years, as the bottom falls out of the economy and millions of people realize that both parties have screwed them and lied to them over several decades about almost everything that matters. If this happens, those of us who would like to see a humane alternative had better be ready with an alternative program that is not a bunch of ungrounded ideals but completely pragmatic in how it is executed on the ground. We will need the infrastructure to be in place, including media and networks, that support a rapid transition to a sustainable pattern of life.
This may sound improbable, but the biosphere is going to collapse and probably the human species will go extinct if we don't manage it. For those people who feel that it is not a big deal if our species goes extinct because that's what happens, I find that form of detached fatalism to be insipid. The earth spent billions of years creating these "marginally self-aware life-forms," with the capacity to evolve in consciousness, so let's do it.
"Will the transformation."-Rilke
Daniel- you are right
Daniel-
you are right that we need to be ready with a new paradigm when the walls collapse, and i absoutely agree with your insistence on relocalizing food production and energy, etc... but if we don't have a revolutionary program that offers not just pragmatic solutions to specific problems, but also a cohesive world-view - a new philosophy for a new social paradigm - that challenges -negates, in fact- the very legitimacy of capitalism and the state, a post-collapse world will likely just devolve into totalitarianism. we need to get beyond ideas of 'resistance', or 'putting pressure on governments'. we only legitimize their power that way, and strengthen it.
how about a 're-localizing' of political autonomy? how about 'direct democracy'? no social revolution can be achieved without radically reinventing the political process in a compelling and relevant way.
in my comment below on 'mystical anarchism', admittedly a pretty obtuse term, i was struggling to find a set of principles that might be inspiring enough to serve as attactors to a mass movement along the pragmatic social lines you have listed above, but one that promotes a philosophical and spiritual transformation as well. no doubt i failed to find a compelling enough alchemy of concept and expression. but someone is going to need to find the banner that can unite us and bring us to action.
xoxo D
www.myspace.com/thedeclineofthewest
havent read all the comments yet
but this is put brilliantly! why would the planet have evolved us if we were supposed to just die off. People who champion the opposite view seem to equate us to the dinosaurs, when we're humans, not dinosaurs. I know that sounds kinda stupid but seems an important point to me. I mean, what makes anything different from anything else other than its inherent differentness?
we owe it to ourselves and i personally agree with the idea that we need to create these new infrastructures from the bottom up. We can busy ourselves in preperation so that they are ready when the proverbial hits the fan. Or, hopefully prevent this from happening....
heading to playa?
Power Politics?
If I'm honest I have to say that sounds a little silly. Unless being pack mules is our power (totem)? Obamas' increasingly clear aspirations of rolling over and showing his belly once he steps into office have very little power over my choice. Obama's been planting seeds of hope all year long, tending them as he should but clearly he's to busy with corporate intrests to reap the hope he has sown.
The moon and the Monarchs tell me it's about harvest time. While we approach this change in the seasons a huge portion of the youth will be showing fruit, ready to be harvested. They'll line up in droves outside the large concrete institutions. They'll be told these institutions are "washrooms" in an attempt to ease the anxiety ridden tensions in the air. The kids know there's something wrong with this, but what?
The institutions have been carefully seeded. With a sterilize heirloom seed ala Monsato. The kids know there is something wrong, they can sense it. They are being harvested when it is they that should be harvesting the fruits of all they have sown. And here you come saying they should just walk away from all they believed possible? To roll over to a sterile future of pack mulery, carrying on their backs the world while just getting by.
I'm almost certain that in all the chaos of 'back to school' the youth will temporarily forget they are farmers. They will be busied with 'buy, buy, buy.' Will they forget that the same old way of being means the same old suffering? You certainly seem to "hope" so.
You can stick me in some imaginary box you keep inside your head but don't whip it out and claim it's truth, I'm no progressive.
"The radio's broken, it don't work anymore." -Zappa
White Knuckles
It pains me to play the pessimist, but I don't believe top-down government is inclined or even in a position to promote the kind of radical paradigm shift that is required to stun our obscene, oblivious economies. Also, the tenured political classes will not give up their hold on their right to decide, so easily.
I suspect the vast system of vested interests which has entrenched itself inevitably in our world, and insidiously in our collective parsings, maybe paying close attention to such 'sub'-cultural anxieties. The fences are going up, resources are being hoarded and martial plans are likely already written.
On the positive side, the memetic necessities required of such a paradigm shift, are slowly but surely establishing themselves credible at the other end of the political continuum. Let's hope our masters refrain from making too much of a mess in the meantime.
http://decontaminated-continuum.blogspot.com/
so HOW do we do it?
1.) Ignore the distraction that Government will address the problem, much less resolve it. Government/politics is part of the problem and turning to part of the problem for all of the solution is not rational.
2.)Identify/quantify the role government does play in society - then out-compete that role with a more efficient model. The role that government plays, or seeks to play, is one of administration. Administration is a distributive model that can be organized rationally and logically online.
a.)We can create a more efficient model by creating an online administrative order that can organize society into win win scenarios that are logical and rational.
b.)By creating an online dialectic, or process of communication between rational agents that only results in win win scenarios, we can out-compete the inefficient solutions proposed by the sluggish government bodies. (such a process is already in development and can easily be implemented. we can apply game theory to argument for hyper conflict resolution.
3.)We already have the knowledge and collective intelligence to create such a 'Human Union'. It's only outcome is win win solutions and scenarios. It is incapable of producing anything short of win win.
4.)Global Problem solving can be monetized, so each and every individual can go online and simply make money by solving one direct action problem at a time. 5.)Although the scope of what is mentioned above appears vast, it is actually not a very difficult thing to develop and organize. All of it's points can be explained simply and rationally.
To read more about the seeds of such ideas, have a visit over at http://www.highintelligence.com
OS 012 is an online dialectic that addresses this very issue in a very elegant fashion. All problems are solved effectively and for certain when all sides win in the conflict of idea. The conflict of idea, when modeled into a rational framework that has a ternary or non bivalent structure, is a natural win win framework.
Assuming resources are not an issue, I know how to begin to create such a network. I would rather do that than my day gig;-)
Wrong URL?
I'm curious to check out specific win-win situations on the highintelligence.com site -- but when I clicked on the link, no site. Please check the URL and let us know how to find it.
sorry, URL working
Ecology Forces
*** Blessings of the Bright Visions ***
The prospect of using the military for services such as growing natural food, providing green medicine, and undertaking bioremediation is a vision with historical and modern references, certainly very pertinent to our current situation.
When learning of Russia's Earth Consciousness movement, and that the people now grow over 50% of their food in small gardens, along with medicinal herbs, the notion developed that it is likely the majority of people in the USA/Canada would be much behind, lets say in their 'Earth Consciousness', to do what these Russian peoples are doing.
And then, along with the Cuban example, where the military is largely employed in growing organic food and structuring the nation to be self-sufficient in green medicine, there comes the concept that perhaps our best means of transition is to utilize our Armed Forces for various sustainability, health, and ecology services that can be provided to communities until the larger population has become eco-educated.
Though without comparison to the USA's $1 trillion annual military budget, I was surprised this spring to hear that Canada is planning to spend $30 billion in the next 20 years on various war machines like tanks and warships. Certainly most Canadians are lacking the values to have ever dreamed up such an investment, while it is likely they could see the value in putting an equivalent investment towards an Armed Forces branch devoted to Ecology Services, especially with rising issues like food security.
The possibilitiy exists that the military could earn $30 billion in the next 20 years by pursuing services in sustainability, health, and ecology. Through the development of ecological real estate, production of natural goods, and holistic health services, the military could actually become an economically profitable endeavour. Without knowing the stats, having Cuban military grow food and provide medicines means that they are actually economically productive to some extent.
So, the interest here in highlighting the affinity of thoughts is to consider the possibilities of bringing such an endeavour to manifestation. Whereas the military is upon such a different track in the present, we can discover the first steps towards this beneficient transformation. As with Cuba or Nazi Germany, utilizing the army to grow food happens in conjunction with the respective authoritarian leadership. Most likely that, for our society, the right information in presentable media is the do-able, first-step alternative.
Think Globally act locally
Towards a Mystical Anarchism
Hey Daniel! You may not remember me, but we've met a number of times. My wife and I hung out with you and Speed Levitch a few years back, and it seems like every other time we visit NY, we run into you. I've been following the recent posts on RS with a lot of interest lately, especially your pieces that are moving in a more activist direction. I feel like the pieces are beginning to fall into place, but that something fundamental - that has been there all along, but has not yet been clearly articulated - is being overlooked.
The question for us now is not how to solve the particular problems listed here (although clearly it is not by running for President) - there is enough creativity and ingenuity in the world that, if we were able to actually take a crack at them without the interference of Capitalism & the State, we would have a pretty good chance of solving a lot of them. The problem is one of participation. Those whose only 'vested interest' is in the liberation and betterment of humanity are blocked from meaningful action by our so-called 'representatives'. There is a seemingly impenetrable barrier between the people and the decision making processes that effect them. So, how do we unleash what Kropotkin, back in the 19th century, called 'the creative genius of the masses?' How do we dissolve the barriers between the people and the decisions that are being made?
In earlier articles, you have mentioned the possibility of a campaign of non-violent resistance to the policies that seem to be at the root of our problem. However, this proposal, like the ones above, lack a cohesive core, a clear 'philosophy' or central ideal (also, read Zizek's 'Resistance is Surrender' - resistance just isn't good enough, because it presupposes the continued existence of that which it opposes). In the old days, workers mobilized under the banner of socialism. They knew what they wanted - better living and working conditions, health care, education, etc. They also knew how to get it, ie. socialism. We know what we want, too. (Little has changed, in terms of our demands, except that we can now add the stark probability of ecological collapse to our list of grievances.) But, we don't know how to get it. We have no cohesive "ideology" (after all, we are told, we live at the 'end of ideology', the 'end of history' even, historical tensions having slackened in the narcotic stupor of unrestrained consumerism.) But perhaps there are the seeds of a new paradigm emerging right here, in this community, and all over the world.
Nobody really believes in the legitimacy or efficacy of government anymore. Everybody knows that 'governments lie' & that governments do violence and oppress - constantly and by their very nature. The very last thing we would want for you, Daniel, is the pathetic, indecent position of the Presidency. So, instead of fantasizing about what we would do if we were to be given carte blanche to remake the world in the image of our ideal, as if by decree, why don't we formulate a kind of 21st century Anarchism that could build into a genuine activist movement, one that could provide a practical and theoretical context in which to approach these issues? There is 150 years of Anarchist social theory & praxis to draw from, and there are innumerable examples of anarchic societies and thinkers, from the dawn of humanity to the present, that never consciously identified with the term Anarchy, but who nevertheless exemplified its central characteristics. Here is the first paragraph of the entry for 'Anarchism' as written by Peter Kropotkin in the 11th edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica:
"Anarchism (from the Greek αναρχω -anarcho- "without archons" "without rulers" ἀν (without) + ἄρχή (to rule) is the name given to a principle or theory of life and conduct under which society is conceived without government - harmony in such a society being obtained, not by submission to law, nor by obedience to any authority, but by free arrangements concluded between the various groups, territorial and professional, freely constituted for the sake of production and consumption, as also for the satisfaction of the infinite variety of needs and aspirations of a civilized being...."
Of course, I know that Anarchism, called by that name, has about as much chance of successfully mobilizing the American people as does Maoism or the Church of Scientology (LRH might even have the upper hand). However, the paradigm described in the encyclopedic definition above, divorced from its heading, seems to be exactly what is emerging on this site, and in the organizational forms that are coming out of the ecology movement, from workers and farmers and students and neighborhood cooperatives around the world, & from web-based theories like peer-to-peer, and the 'online dialectic' described above (though it is a painful irony that, having just exhorted the superior administrative efficiency of the 'web dialectic' to government beauracracy, the website linked to by the writer as an example is "suspended for non-payment". Which begs the question: If we do not have a radical paradigm whereby we take back our democratic & productive power from the State and Capitalism, won't we - in our efforts to build our ideal world 'off-the-grid' - run into the roadblock of 'resources being an issue' at every turn? Perhaps we will soon find ourselves with 'Police repression being an issue', as well.)
Spontaneous, libertarian self-organization, and communalism (what Kropotkin described as an innate human instinct - an evolutionary impulse - toward 'Mutual Aid'), these are as natural to humanity as breathing. What is unnatural is the world of economic and state coercion & exploitation that has been projected quite deliberately on the natural world by so-called 'vested interests'. The problem is that, in their ignorance of their own 'creative genius', the people participate in perpetuating this unnatural world. So how do we access and awaken their 'creative genius', their innate capacity for freedom and engaged participation in the real world?
Millions of Americans, hundreds of millions world wide, are awakening to a kind of Unitive spiritual consciousness, the notion that we are all One, not just with humanity or the earth or the cosmos, but with the all-pervading 'being-consciousness-bliss' that is often called 'God'. 'There is nothing which is not Shiva' says the first Shiva sutra, a standard text in the Tantric tradition, which is basic to the Yoga practices of millions of people. As for the traditions of the West, Christian, Jewish, and Muslim spirituality is transforming as well, & people are rediscovering the mystical traditions of Kabbala, Gnosticism (decidedly against the 'archons'), Alchemy and Sufism. Even mainstream Christianity has plenty of room to be radicalized, both spiritually and politically, and there are countless other mystical paths to be explored. In addition, the radical claim of the artist Joseph Beuys, a green 'Social Sculptor', Anthroposophist and agent for Direct Democracy, that 'Everyone is an Artist', is today being realized. How many millions of so-called 'culture-workers' are there in the world today, variously engaging their 'Creative Genius'? From this platform of experiential spiritual knowledge, it must follow that a new social paradigm will emerge. The 'masses' are already awakening. We just don't realize it, because WE are the masses (perhaps we're more comfortable thinking of ourselves as some kind of 'bleeding edge' or 'vanguard'. However, these ideas are as old as time, and accessible to anyone.)
Doesn't Obama quote the "we are the ones we've been waiting for" line all the time? Why don't we listen to him? Where is our DIY attitude? The American Transcendentalism you invoked - Emerson (Self-Reliance), and Thoreau (Civil Disobedience), is a good starting point. And didn't Thoreau say something to the effect of, "the government which governs best governs not at all"? Kind of like Chuang Tzu, the mystical-anarchist, par excellence: 'Do not let the artificial obliterate the natural. Do not let the will obliterate destiny'. (Anarchy, as I think Peter Lamborn Wilson observed, is a lot like the Tao. But then, what isn't?)
.....
I propose a mass movement based on these two fundamentals:
1. All are One, and the One is Divine and Eternal (ie. Limitless, ie. Anarchic).
2. We must not do violence to Divine Humanity by imposing an Unnatural and Obscene Authority (ie. Limitations, ie. Government) upon it.
From this standpoint, a program of autonomous 'Self-government' or 'direct democracy' follows naturally (we can think of the 'Self' here in terms of the Universal 'Atman', as well as in the sovereign, individualistic sense). We can make a long list of practical proposals to follow these initial statements of principle, and we can start acting on them immediately, in as much as we are able under the present paradigm. But we must mobilize to bring on the new paradigm, in which our genius will truly flower. An infinity of innovative solutions to our infinite problems will begin to flow naturally, spontaneously, once the Walls of the Law have fallen. The many articles here on RS describing the imminent collapse of civilization as we know it, seem to suggest that they are already falling.
Do we have the creative genius now to reach the millions who will need to be mobilized to realize this new paradigm? Are we willing, as bona-fide spiritual 'non-dualists' to realize that if everything is God, then nothing is profane, not even politics? Are we willing to politicize our spiritual practices? Our Art? Our social interactions? Our work? Are we willing to get off the fucking internet long enough to realize that the world is not 'virtual' and that the 'meathook realities' of food production, energy, water, waste, housing, can not be solved online, but only on the ground, in our actual communities? Are we willing to make common cause with the thousands of community activists who are actually DOING SOMETHING but who have never heard of Ayahuasca and probably think you are crazy to travel thousands of miles to take a drug that makes you violently ill in a shitty rainforest hut so that you can 'see god'? Are we willing to leave off our obsessive preoccupations with ufos, intergalactic rosicrucian conspiracy theories, the calendar projections of extinct totalitarian priest-hoods, long enough to get some real work done? Believe me, I love this stuff as much as the rest of you, but we have to get serious. Borges evaluated his favorite weird cosmologies on the basis of aesthetics. He didn't bother to actually believe in any of them. Because none of it is important, not yoga, not psychedelics, not shamanism, not religion, not politics - except in its efficacy in helping one to realize the truth - which is formless, unnamable, which is Unitive, which is a real, experienced Union with the Eternal. From there, forms emerge spontaneously, freely, and those forms will help us build the world we're all working toward.
Glad to have this forum. I think we may actually be getting somewhere.
xoxo D
www.myspace.com/thedeclineofthewest
nice - thanks!
Hi Devon,
Of course i remember you - thanks for the good thoughts. why don't you write a feature for RS on how a workable anarchism is possible using new social technology? That is one of my great interests as well. You have already written some of it here.
"Will the transformation."-Rilke
ufos etc
By the way, I take occult conspiracies, ufos, etc., extremely seriously. Without a shared understanding and coherent articulation of these phenomena, I don't think meaningful transformation can happen.
"Will the transformation."-Rilke
shared understanding of unknown phenomenon
cannot be achieved not because of limitations of human society as much as limitations in how our communications and dialouge is structured.
Until there is a logical and rataional acceptance of a third value in truth considerations/discussion, there can never be any shared understanding of any unknown.
Unknown itself is an embodiment of the third value. For all of you out there unfamiliar with the terms, the three values of objective discussion are true, false, and mystery/unknown.
Our basic semantics we default to currently is bivalent, being either true or false. Without articulation of the third value and it's relationship logically to true and false no meaningful transformation can happen, unless by grace.
This is very relevant, I suggest to solving global problems and avoiding creating more problems.
For example, the entire debacle of the War in Iraq was due to national and global dialouge unable to allow for a third value in trouble shooting. Consider; if Weapons of Mass Destruction were allowed to hold a third value consideration in 2002 the entire invasion may never have happened.
Daniel, As to the
Daniel,
As to the feature, consider me on assignment! that is something I have been wanting to do for a long time.
As to the ufo's, I may be the only person on Reality Sandwich who thinks we are (most likely) alone in the universe, and that it actually would be a good thing for us as a species to get into that fact and its ramifications for our colossal responsibilities as human beings. As for occult conspiracies, I have no doubt that they are being perpetrated by ignorant and ill-intentioned rich men with heart problems and sexual dysfunctions world wide. Do we deal with these people by getting bogged down in the lurid details of their disgusting escapades, or by getting down to the serious task of removing from them their power to dictate our lives?
Bubblefish's comments about 'the third value' are interesting, too. I don't think you are wrong about ufo's, i just don't think you are right, either, and considering the evolutionary bottleneck we are trying to squeeze through right now, I don't think it is a question of much importance. Jettison all unessential baggage! Not to mention that the more we insist on the validity of our wierder points of view, the easier we are marginalized and dismissed. I would be surprised if encouraging these lines of thinking was not an active policy of government agencies like the CIA.
Peace,
Devon.
www.myspace.com/thedeclineofthewest
Agreed!
Great post, Devon. Would like to hear from you more on the site for sure! I also liked your music.
How do you answer the obvious critiques of this position...like, anarchy=chaos because as resources get limited, people fend for themselves, etc...
Can we argue that all of humanity remaining after 2012 would be prepared for personal responsibility to the Other as One? Didn't Christ and all the great spiritual leaders teach this basic fundamental principle? Why haven't we "gotten" it yet?
It seems to me that this is due to having a currency-based system, and if we moved to a bartering paradigm, we may curtail much of the greed, selfishness, and malice and replace it with co-operation. So, co-ops for everything?
Regardless, is that not really what we're faced with, and what human consciousness has been violently avoiding for centuries....social justice and responsibility? Treating others as we would like to be treated?
wanderlust
In a sense, Anarchy does
In a sense, Anarchy does equal Chaos. Its just a question of how you feel about chaos. Someone once said that 'chaos is the sum of all orders'. Proudhon, who coined the term Anarchy for his social ideal, said that 'Anarchy is Order.' The analogy to the Tao of Chuang Tzu is instructive. The Tao is the inherent, immaculate order pre-existent in the universe. Our attempts to regulate it create disorder, disharmony:
'There has been such a thing as letting mankind alone; there has never been such a thing as governing mankind.' - Chuang Tzu.
However, all ontological, semantic definitions aside, a mass movement organized around anarchist principles would have to dispense with the term 'anarchy' as its first order of business, if only for public relations reasons. 'Libertarian Socialism' is a fairly accurate, if fairly innocuous & uninspiring, synonym for anarchism. But we can do better than that.
As far as violent chaos erupting in the wake of severe resource shortages, that will occur no matter what. The main perpetrators of violence will, however, be the police and military employed to safeguard the hoardings of the rich. Also, to date, we still have enough essential resources to go around. Scarcity, at least until our life-giving ecosystems collapse, is a manufactured phenomenon. The current food crisis is a pretty good example of a manufactured famine. Where did the food go? It is suddenly more valuable on the 'free market' as bio-fuel than as food, so people go hungry and liberals in rich countries consider themselves 'ethical consumers'. This kind of disconnect is one of the dangers of engaging in issue-based activism, like environmentalism, without first having a broad, overarching, revolutionary shift in political philosophy. Good intentions have unintended results, and are manipulated by those in power, whose own intentions are all too obvious...
As for the 2012 question, I don't think anything in particular is going to happen in 2012, unless WE MAKE IT HAPPEN. How about setting Dec. 21st 2012 as the date for a worldwide uprising, and working backward from there, as if it had already happened? That date has already proven successful as an attractive meme. Why don't we make use of it? Didn't Daniel mention once that the Zapatistas plan their actions around the Mayan calendar?
Perhaps the crisis we are currently experiencing is the necessary catalyst for a widespread experience of the 'Other as One'. Near-death experiences in individuals very often results in such revelations. Perhaps this is a global near-death experience, an inevitable stage in our spiritual development.
Finally, co-ops, gift economies, barter, skills-pools
(see http://www.geocities.com/theskillspool/), etc, etc, these are all ideas that could help us find better ways of living - once we have the freedom to actually make the decisions that effect our lives. That is the point I am going to keep making. None of it amounts to anything if we continue to operate as if global capitalism and the modern nation-state are the inevitabilities that their apologists in the corporate media and the universities make them out to be. As Slavoj Zizek points out, 'you can't have the revolution without the revolution'.
Peace,
D
http://www.myspace.com/thedeclineofthewest
FUCK YEAH DOG
You have my vote
health care
My position on health care is that i would like to see people live forever, if they want to, and I think there is good reason to believe this can happen within our lifetimes. As biological sciences and nanotechnology merge along with a deeper understanding of subtle energy systems and alternative health modalities, and a shift toward utilizing psychic energy for personal and global transformation, we could see perfect health for eternity as a likely outcome. We should also be able to transform the physical body as we wish, adding wings, gills, antennae to peek into the ultra-violet spectrum, etc. With physical lifespans extended to infinity, we will have all the time we need to become virtuosic in our yoga practices, creative pursuts, love affairs, etc.
Part of the key are probably telomeres, which decide how many time cells can divide before degrading. It doesn't seem out of the question that we can learn to alter telomeres so that they never cause lose of integrity of cells. Apparently, some jellyfish already live tremendously long and do not need to die, as far as we understand it. If the jellyfish can do it, so can we. At the same time, given the time to fully explore the astral plane and consolidate our astral bodies through intensive meditation and lucid dream practice, at a certain point we will probably be naturally ready to divest ourselves of the physical body, even in its perfected form.
Obviously, attaining physical immortality will cause a population problem on the earth. Hence, I do believe that developing free energy and anti-gravity technology will be helpful so that we can move around the galaxy with ease, and colonize other planets where the planetary soul is receptive to our presence.
"Will the transformation."-Rilke
Galactic Colonization
Physical immortality?
I'm so tired of candidates promising what they can't deliver! Make us immortal with your telemeres, Mr. Prez!
I digress. Colonize other planets? Ick! We need a better word. How about "grace with our presence"? Or "contribute to the galactic ecology?"
Well, ideally we can move beyond language soon enough. It muddies even our best of intentions and turns them into blood and imperialism.
Great post, Daniel!
America needs a new direction, and the usual suspects in politics just can't do it, since it's not in their personal interests - fame and fortune and self-perpetuation. That's all most politicians are concerned about.
One solution that I have been advocating is to not only live green, but also vote Green. One by one, little by little, that's how the direction is changed, and this pulls everyone back to a people-focused society, rather than a corporate-controlled government. Cynthia McKinney and Rosa Clemente support everything you outlined in your post. Check it out at www.runcynthiarun.org or http://votetruth08.com/
I hope people are realizing the dangerous course America has been on for decades. We don't have a representative government any more, and so no matter how much we write to Congress, or protest in front of the White House, it's not loud enough ($$$) for the "career" politicians to listen.
Remember the Spirit of 1776
blitzed
Yes of course, we are being blitzed. What seems most likely is that the system is re-gearing itself to prepare for martial law. You can't simply blame BushCheney for this as the Democrats have been willing collaborators, voting the Patriot Act without reading it, etc. I think what has happened is a more subliminal process - the incredible suicidal inertia of the American system has forced a transformation of the collective political mind from some form of relative rationality to fear-based insanity. We became so afraid of losing our absurd privileges and position in the world that we actually mortgaged our future to defend this lost position in the present, we reacted rigidly rather than becoming more intelligent and resilient. Now the consequences are increasingly dire, both for this country and the world. Our system is rapidly regressing in order to hold onto power and privilege that cannot be maintained.
There is also a clear line of fascism that runs through the Bush family and other members of the ruling elite to today. I remain stuck on Operation Paperclip, where 1,200 top-level Nazi scientists, including SS monsters dismembering Jews in concentration camps, were brought into the top levels of the military industrial complex. Jim Marrs' new book on the US and its allies as the "Fourth Reich" approaches this subject in a somewhat tabloid, but still convincing, way.
"Will the transformation."-Rilke
A Lovely Left Hook
Hey Zezt and Daniel,
I've been feeling blitzed of course, it's especially evident with all of the olympic phantasmagoria. Regarding the creeping / incipient fascism (ie: dorky fascination with egoic-control - linking in with Charles Eisenstein's latest post) I've just read Naomi Klein's Aug 7th article on the "McCommunism" currently being showcased in Beijing, The Olympics: Unveiling Police State 2.0
It's a grim peek into a plausible global future...
Well then
What do you suggest we do?
Make a scene?
Ramble on and on about it as to further make us sound like we're obsessed?
I've noticed that people of color will often mention the 9/11 issue, but its rarely a topic of obsession, because there's more immediate oppression happening in their communities. Then you see the 9-11 protests, and its a bunch of angry white dudes...what does this say? I'm not sure. But everyone is certainly doing their part to aid in revelation...but seriously, 9-11 is just one piece of the puzzle---
i heard an interesting metaphor that the twin towers and building seven resembled an AC Plug, or power adaptor...plugging into cosmic something or other...
but back on track, 9-11 may not be everyone's trigger. for others its police brutality, or something more immediate. for many, 9-11 is as immediate as you can get.
the thing that's irritating me about "truthers" is that they are so hyper-focused on one HUGE event, and WHO is to blame, that they miss the significance of that event as a destructive catalyst that has spurred much creativity and thought and really doesn't need to be crammed down our throats, its already crammed into the collective mind, and people will connect the dots eventually.
i guess i'm just bored with traditional "who dun it" 9/11 stuff, but it's probably more productive to focus on the implications and to make sure people do have an idea, so that when the next "attack" happens, people won't be so shell-shocked that they're gullible to trust big-brother-Obama or McCain to fix it!
But should we take to the streets?
Those days are SO over.
Protest, get your ass beat, arrested, etc... Unless you're in the "zone" where everyone will ignore you?
We definitely need to open up to new forms of activism to raise awareness, informative activism, rather than persuasive...let's stop trying to convince people things are absolutely true, and just work harder to bring them nuggets of information that may resonate with their experiences.
re-grooving
Hi Don,
Interesting post. I like the description of the skit.
As I discussed in "2012", one thing we learn from quantum physics is that there is no observer separate from what is observed, and the universe is completely participatory. Therefore, our non-actions are also actions.
By temperament and background, I have always been an observer myself, scrutinizing the world, being very cautious in investing my time or energy in any cause, and usually preferring to sit on the sidelines. However, I am now interrogating that - partially because there is a bit of presumption of superiority in the pose. Also I was inspired by Hannah Arendt's "The Promise of Politics" to rethink the idea of the political as something that is inescapable and not negative. Arendt notes that politics comes from polis - the Greek city center where the free citizens were able to come together to make decisions that affect the entire community. In that sense, "politics" becomes a sacred act, one of world-making, based on commitment to a process of dialogue and mutual discovery with those who are free and equal.
I think it has been a propaganda mission of the ruling elite to make political action seem something utterly corrupt and beneath contempt, as that paralyzes people utterly. The "founding fathers" discovered "public happiness" through working together and founding the nation. Because we have grown up in system where we have no rights to re-constitute our social reality, we have been denied this "public happiness" that the founders held so dear.
Perhaps the observers will begin to shake themselves out ot their passivity and step forward to make use of what they have learned through observation?
As for the horizon always receding, there are many metaphors and allegories you can use as mental imprints, and all will seem correct as the mind works through this type of thinking. Personally, I like the concept of the "rhizome," from Spinoza to Deleuze to Negri. Those past moments of opposition and overthrow of oppression still exist in the present, rhizomatically, and they can be re-activated at any moment, when the collective chooses to do so.
"Will the transformation."-Rilke
Refreshing
Perspective on politics. Perhaps we should all read some Arendt. So, how do you have a centralized place for decision-making without centralized power?
One idea is to foster decision making at the community-level rather than this top-down Nationalism. Back to tribes that work harmoniously, woven together by their diasporic roots in the cosmos!
wanderlust
heavy.
These are some Big Thoughts. Maybe even a crucial thread that draws many of us here to this web site and these discussions. Thank you Daniel.
If I were President?
How about converting our nation's military forces from one of violence to non violence?
[As of June 30, 2008, about 1,427,546 people are on active duty in the military with an additional 1,458,400 people in the seven reserve components. (Wikipedia)]
Imagine how the act of Regime Change in Iraq would have unfolded if we sent a non violent army. The money we spend on Bombs, Tanks and Aircraft Carriers could be spent on health care, education, etc.
I'm certain that just as we can program an 18 year old person to kill another person we could develop an equally nonviolent program.
::..
What if instead of putting boundaries around wilderness areas we put boundaries around cities. How would that change our thinking about how we live?
::..
I read a book a while ago: "My Name is Chellis and I'm in Recovery from Western Civilization - Chellis Glendinning" She put forward that the behaviors of our society mirror that of an addict - Denial, Dishonesty, Control, Thinking Disorders, Grandiosity, Disconnections from Feelings.
If a Change is going to be Realized engaging it in this way may be beneficial.? Or maybe we will end up Hitting the Bottom?
I really enjoy reading everyone's thoughtful comments here.
- D.
"If the world is saved, it will not be by old minds with new programs but by new minds with no programs at all. - Daniel Quinn"
reform needed .........Yes...
Playground Warfare
Been reading most of the comments here. The article is correct to assert that the action needed compared to the action that our system is capable of is laughably disproportionate. The reason for this is of course that despite all the "separation of church & state" bs, politics in America is driven by Christian ideology. Our national religion has a great disdain for all material things, as worshiping the creation over the creator is pagan. Counter-intuitively, the way we express our disdain for materiality is by ripping through the Earth and mass-producing tons of commercial crap. This supposedly wicks off those pagan among us while bringing the faithful ever-more-quickly to redemption. Now our national religion's MO has brought us to the invariable specter of utter resource depletion. The problem for Christians is that they aren't disappearing in rapturous ecstasy like they're supposed to be around now. We then get 9/11 and other such "end-times-like" events which turn out to be easily revealed as all-too-human-engineered. The comment about blitzing was good, BTW, as 9/11 is a modern-day coup d'etat. Lately there's been talk of an "i-9/11" type event to usher in draconian control on the internet. The elite don't like to be reminded that the sheeple have more brains than they give us credit for. Someone else made a comment about quantum-interconnectedness, how the observer and observed aren't really disconnected. Well, this answers the question of why "end-of-days" hasn't happened. We're as much "stuff" as the crap we claim to own is. An interesting tidbit in quantum theory is the idea of actual separation b/w the micro & mezzo-cosms. No one seems able to find the cut-off point, which means that the mezzo & by proxy the macrocosm are but extensions of the microcosm. This is to say that even though we may seem grown-up, we're all still just kids, just bigger kids on a bigger playground. Remembering back to playground days, it was always a great mystery what the "big kids," and "bullies," among other cliques, were up to. You'd get wind that so-and-so had a new gaping wound, or that x & y were playing doctor, or whatever else was unknown, and thus magical & mystical. What's happening now is like getting wind that Richie's charging the big kids a buck to look at his cock while a bunch of his bully friends are beating on poor little Ronny & Rocky for their milk-money. Meanwhile, other, less-violent cliques are keeping their own secrets tight to their chests. Maybe someone's found a new kind of bug, or a new route through the hedges onto Main St. No doubt a new secret weapon's been discovered somewhere & it's likely that the bullies didn't make the discovery. They're not that bright, after all.
With relief, with humiliation, with terror, he understood that he too was a mere appearance, dreamt by another. - Jorge Luis Borges, The Circular Ruins
How is it we don't ask "HOW ARE WE GOING TO DO THIS?"
logistics
Hi Bubblefish,
Yes, I agree. That is the key point, and what I am exploring in my new book. I would say that those of us who have understood the situation, we have to become highly efficient at communicating it to the next larger threshold of humanity, while we refine our shared understanding. That is why we are working on creating evolver.net - both to create a network that will allow practical actions and a media platform to convey these ideas to a larger populace. I think we need to think like alien anthropologists in our own culture, figuring out how certain messages get designed to influence urban hip hip culture, Christian Fundamentalist culture, Jewish culture, etc.
Don, above, seemed to react nervously to my comment, "The mass media could disseminate an understanding of critical issues around sustainability, and retrain people's behavior patterns." For me, we have to understand how our current society "produces subjectivity," and then appropriate those tools to produce a different form of subjectivity. We will have to be unsentimental about this. At this point, most people are not even interested in "awakening," but they are very interested in creating a better life for themselves. If we can show them how to create a better life, and what that better life looks and feels like, they may gravitate towards it. Mass media is an indoctrination mechanism that entrains people to behave in a certain way. Even the contemporary cult of the individual with freedom of choice is a construct (see "Mediated" and "Revolt of the Masses"). Some weapons of domination such as propaganda can be used as tools to change people's habits of thought and behavior, to become more responsible and participatory.
As for overthrowing/superseding the authoritarian regime of corporate state power that currently runs the US, this is going to be an extremely difficult proposition. I have been thinking that preparation for a mass walk-out as a response to an Iran strike should be prepared through the largest NGOs (Greenpeace, ACLU, Rainforest Action Network), etc. But I was speaking to a friend at Greenpeace and she pointed out that they don't deal with the war. Most NGOs still act as though you can address one symptom of the complex, without realizing it is all one one systemic virus. Gandhi pointed out that all governments are based on an agreement, and if the populace withdraws their agreement, the government will fall -- this is what happened in 1989 in Berlin, and could happen here. People need to be prepared with the concept that it could happen, which means dehypnotizing them from the American Dream. The veils are falling, but once again, those who have an understanding should help remove more of the veils for more people. The success of Zeitgeist is a pretty extraordinary indication of how many people are willing to consider a radical meta-analysis.
My deep concern is that we are indeed running out of time. If you read Chris Heath's "American Fascists", it is clear that a theocratic fascism is being prepared. The social and economic breakdown may even be considered to the advantage of the Right Wing fanatics who have caused it, because "The Left" remains completely factionalized and disorganized (even the term sounds false now). The Left was decimated by the US intelligence agencies at the end of the 60s and since then, the progressives have not had the force to convey a different paradigm through the culture. The new social technologies that now exist give us the opportunity to craft and then transmit an alternative paradigm and infrastructure at an extremely rapid rate, but this opportunity should be taken before it is removed from us.
"Will the transformation."-Rilke
isn't it then
not time to not do nothing?
wanderlust
re: Dehypnotizing
Daniel,
Only time for some brief thoughts here. I too am an Observer that is being shaken into action these days. Both my wife and I are changing our lives in specific ways these days
We live in suburban Chicago. Fortunate / unfortunate that our homes were built over the best farmland in the world on the shores of a significant amount of water. We subscribe to a local Biodynamic CSA to reprogram our palate to local / seasonal food and are making connections with like minded folks through that network. I'm also beginning the process of converting our front & back yard into a Permaculture type forest garden. We're also coming out of our suburban shell to find ways to build a stronger community network where we live.
I've chosen to evolve ourselves away from the current American Dream by way of the eight circuit model. Bio Survival -> Emotional Territorial -> Etc ... We're currently in the position where I'm now working on this full time and have other local social experiments that will be in the works.
From my perspective it's important for me to show my neighbors an Alternative that can meet their basic needs. Then we can move onto things like Logic / Symbolic thought and un-programming.
It would be nice if evolver could not only use Internet to explore Local Alternatives and Strategies but also connect me to other evolvers in my area. If other Chicago evolvers are out there please contact me ok?
- David
"If the world is saved, it will not be by old minds with new programs but by new minds with no programs at all. - Daniel Quinn"
evolver local gatherings
Hi David,
Thanks for your message. You are farther along than me in many respects - congrats for taking action.
We are planning to utilize the social network to create national "face to face" meetups. We are thinking of starting with monthly local gatherings, perhaps organized around a central theme. Perhaps you want to be an organizer of the Chicago area? If you are interested in pursuing this, please email Jonathan Phillips - jonathan@realitysandwich.com . It would be great to get your thoughts and ideas for the best way to go about this.
"Will the transformation."-Rilke
Daniel
zere point energy
Zero-point energy is becoming an increasingly serious interest of mine. I have recommended Nassim Haramein's dvds, "Crossing the Event Horizon", available at www.theresonanceproject.org , as one articulation of what is possible here. I also just received a new book by Paul LaViolette on anti-gravity tech, and read Nick Cook's book, "The Hunt for Zero Point". It may be that some of this technology already exists and is in the hands of the "secret government." However, it may be that this technology requires a certain level of individual and collective consciousness in order to function, so yes, raising public awareness about it is a necessary thing.
"Will the transformation."-Rilke
Co-Intelligence. Everyone
Co-Intelligence. Everyone should be getting in on this idea. Get the book the Tao of Democracy by Tom Atlee.
Also there is a website: www.co-intelligence.org This is not THE way, but A way, and I haven't found on better yet!
Black Light in the Attic Podcast w/SerpiCody & Sancho http://blacklightattic.podomatic.com
I understand your point,
I understand your point, though it seems nit picky. I won't deny what has been done to the Native Americans is horrible. That is beyond repair unfortunately! The point being made is that it is a unifying vision being sought in the book, and TJ is more known in that capacity than in the one you mention. . .
Im gettin' a case of the vapors
The Nature of Conflict as Useful for Peaceful Resolution
Through the process of observation the basic nature of ideas and our very human interactions with them, we can come to see that conflict may actually be extraordinarily helpful when it is identified with it's source, the nature of ideas themselves.
All ideas are in conflict, potentially all the time. What then can we do about that other than just surrender to it?
We do not need to avoid conflict , we need to embrace the conflict of idea and allow that to be gamed out/structured in a rational environment.
We could never do that before the internet, but with the internet, we can.
The relationship between eternally conflicting ideas and human nature is actually one that is potentially a pure win win for human being when looked at very rationally. The conflict of idea can be gamed into a non zero sum game for the people who are operating the conflicting ideas.
All ideas are in conflict or have the potential for conflict.
Human Beings are not ideas, and are NOT in conflict except when they confuse themselves as the idea they are immitating.
Doing Something
Daniel, I'll be in touch with you all this week. We are all farther along in many other different ways.The challenge is to find an effective way to coordinate and manifest.
xanaduxero, I'm not confident in my abilities to Smash the State. Clearly outside of my sphere of influence today so I'm not going to put my energy into worrying about it.
Also, I would never use the kind of language we use here to talk to the mainstream peoples. The goal I think is to find ways where they're open to listening and using language they can understand.Otherwise we end up sounding like crackpots.
I use the 8 circut model because The Overlords are going to use techniques to trigger first and second circuit fears with the population. Need to find ways of countering that and supporting our efforts if we're going to have any Higher Ambitions.
As far as coordinating projects - maybe look towards the F/OSS movement and strategies and how they use a sourceforge type model for projects...
- D.
"If the world is saved, it will not be by old minds with new programs but by new minds with no programs at all. - Daniel Quinn"
If I were President
Avant-garde
Pods on earth healing
Examples
Thanks for your input. You're right. Despite our less than ideal political situation we're blessed with freedom and abundance. A Great Shift in our perspectives and lives are within our power and our reach.
However, as much as I'd like to move out to the country and live on a commune and ride this one out. I don't think that's an option anymore. The intention is right on but... Can I begin that community where I live today? Example
"You see fellows, if you want to bring the movement to the people you have to start from where the people are at." - RAW (as said by J.C.)
XanaduXero, I agree. Panarchy would be a great goal to realize in our lifetimes. We need to start somewhere. Here's an example maybe worth examining. I posted this on the rushkoff.com forum a while ago. While the results of these people's efforts are remarkable what's more interesting to me is the vision, intention and cooperation that generated these kind of outcomes in this environment.
Gaviotas is a village of about 200 people in Colombia, South America. For three decades, Gaviotans - peasants, scientists, artists, and former street kids - have struggled to build an oasis of imagination and sustainability in the remote, barren savannas of eastern Colombia, an area ravaged by political terror. They have planted millions of trees, thus regenerating an indigenous rainforest. They farm organically and use wind and solar power. Every family enjoys free housing, community meals, and schooling. There are no weapons, no police, no jail. There is no mayor.
from Friends of Gaviotas
"For years, Gaviotas has been a non-profit foundation, a model for the United Nations development program; but to finance themselves, the Gaviotans must also market their technology. That isn't so easy, Gonsalo says, since Gaviotas refuses to patent their inventions, preferring to share them." - Alan Weisman
"They always put social experiments in the easiest, most fertile places. We wanted the hardest place. We figured if we could do it here, we could do it anywhere." -- Paolo Lugari, founder of Gaviotas
Join Geniuses to Build Arcology or Ecopolis
Futurist Barbara Marx Hubbard talks about the "politics of attraction." We are attracted to an image of the good society (eutopia) that we work for now. Such philosophic, erotic attraction creates the fusion to ignite a lovolution, a non-violent, world-wide transformation. This is the power of Now.
The key to Lovolution is finding the social architecture needed to manifest the physical architecture. Creating an ecocity is the most radical, creative, and healing action we can do. My new essay about this is called 11th Hour and Arcology. It is a critique of the movie narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio, 11th Hour. It will be posted soon.
This election season, I ran for President of the United States. My name was on the ballot in Arizona. My platform was similar to Daniel's except that I was proposing building the world's first arcology on Arizona State Trust Land. The prototype would be paid for by ending star wars and putting that money into building the Space Age, star-powered ecological city built by robots.
I'm looking for a creative genius team to run for president of conscious evolution. This team makes up a social phenomenon I call the Gaia Messiah. It's some kind of Internet world democracy thing.
www.lovolution.net
Change the world by changing the ruling archetype in architecture.
I like the idea of instead
I like the idea of instead of seeking some unrealistic Utopia, and all utopias are unrealistic in practice, we instead seek to engage in the act of "Utopiation" which is not a destination but rather a process. . .
www.co-intelligence.org