At least once a day I hear someone say, “You can’t make this stuff up” which is yet another way of expressing the incredulity so many of us feel as we witness the cultural madness in which we seem to be suffocating. We have just weathered the most turbulent election of modern times, and that turbulence will almost certainly persist as the Biden Administration comes to power.
Many people are relieved and even elated as they anticipate a “new beginning” on January 20. Others, more cynical, insist that nothing has changed or will change and that the new boss is the same as the old boss. I believe there is truth in both perspectives, and they must be tempered by the reality that industrial civilization is collapsing, and climate chaos is catapulting us into the jaws of species extinction. Many of us have researched collapse for years, even decades, yet collapse is so colossal, so life-altering and death-delivering that in our frail human incapacity to comprehend its magnitude, we live part or all of our lives as if the status quo will endure. No matter how long you have studied collapse, some denial lingers. One indication of our incredulity is the insistence that the recent election offers some light in a very bleak, black night, or on the other hand, that it makes absolutely no difference at all.
I would argue that both assertions hold pieces of truth.
The Lens Of Collapse
Like most human beings who are collapse-aware, I find that I need to keep reminding myself of its reality almost daily. Intellectually, the fact of collapse never escapes me, but the gut-punching reality of it comes and goes so that when I find myself feeling pleased with some aspect of industrial civilization, I need to recall that that aspect is fleeting because it too is collapsing. Conversely, when I feel disappointed or horrified on a daily basis by yet another example of humanity’s greed and Earth-annihilating brutality, I also need to remind myself of collapse. Increasingly, I’m learning that collapse is the lens through which all collective absurdity makes sense, and it is my GPS for navigating the current moment.
Yet another dire warning from scientists underscores our predicament with the December 7 Guardian article, A warning on climate and the risk of societal collapse, in which scientists and academics including Prof Gesa Weyhenmeyer and Prof Will Steffen argue that we must discuss the threat of societal disruption in order to prepare for it. Scholars and scientists are now discussing openly in world newspapers the collapse of industrial civilization.
So for me, the 2020 election offers a few glimmers of light, and within the larger landscape, it makes little difference. As I have stated before, what matters most to me in terms of how humans respond to collapse is that the unraveling happens slowly and with the least amount of suffering. This is clearly a preference over which I have little control. Whereas I would love to see US immigration policy radically transformed to enact the kindest, most discerning, most hospitable practices on Earth, I am happy in the immediate future to see every child in a cage or immigration prison released and reunited with their parents or relatives. At the same time that I would love to see 700 US military bases around the world shut down and repurposed as hospitals, food banks, or shelters for women and children, I am well aware that is not likely to happen. Even as I know that any measures to mitigate climate change will be glaringly inadequate or useless in the face of an impending sixth great extinction, I am thrilled not to witness the savaging of every national park or wildlife refuge or the intentional pollution of every river or stream on behalf of corporate profits.
In other words, I prefer to live in a society where sociopathic, intentional, calculated, sadistic cruelty directed at defenseless humans and members of the Earth community is not the criterion for every public policy.
A kinder, gentler collapse? Yes, that is what I’d prefer.
The Folly Of Pining For Better Government
To put it bluntly, it’s time for those of us who consider ourselves politically progressive to grow up. It is highly unlikely that we will ever witness wide-scale economic, ecological, social, or restorative justice—I mean ever.
The military-industrial complex will endure.
Corporate whores will remain.
The prison industrial complex will flourish.
Humans will continue to ignore climate catastrophe and pillage the Earth.
Universal healthcare will never happen in the United States.
The widespread violence we have managed to avoid prior to the 2020 election will ultimately explode into warring factions within our culture or full-on civil war.
Our political work now is to prevent full-fledged fascism from becoming the modus operandi of our world. We succeeded in the 2020 election, but neo-fascism in the United States is not going away and is likely to prevail in the later stages of collapse.
Here is what we must acknowledge: We have failed at every turn to prevent the collapse of industrial civilization and Earth’s ecosystems, and it is naïve to wish for improved government as collapse unfolds.
Goodbye John Muir, Rachel Carson, Edward Abbey, Ralph Nader. We were enlivened by your passion for Earth and sane living.
Goodbye Noam Chomsky. We loved your brain, your courage, and your solid presence as one of the wise elders of our culture.
Goodbye Howard Zinn. Your brilliant historical research was without equal in the twentieth century
Thank you AOC, Rashida, Ayanna, and Ilhan. You beautiful women of color were too much for a culture marinated in racism, sexism, and xenophobia. You have amazed and enchanted us, but you will not prevail.
Sorry Bernie. You were a breath of fresh air, and we were proud to claim you as our “crazy uncle.”
Where To Go From Here?
It is not entirely true that in the face of collapse, there is nowhere to go but inward, but if we don’t begin there, we will only be like dogs chasing our tails.
Where is our grief that our ideals did not come to fruition? As a friend recently said to me, “You and I have been watching empire collapse all of our lives.”
Where is our anger about the narcissism and entitlement of our species?
Where is our fear of what a collapsing and fully-collapsed society will be like? What will it mean for us personally in terms of our own survival and the survival of those we love?
If we are not dealing with these feelings, and if we do not fully grasp the magnitude and implications of collapse, we will continue trying to improve leadership on the Titanic and be terminally enraged that the collapse-unaware masses are deceived by false hope.
What is more, what do we gain from seizing one of the two poles of perception that I mentioned above? If all we see is “bright light” resulting from the recent election, we are clearly in denial, and we do not understand the limitations that the reality of collapse places on how far the light can radiate. Conversely, if all we see is hypocrisy and “more of the same,” we also do not recognize the futility of the radical progressivism that collapse renders impossible to bring to fruition in the twenty-first century.
In any era of collective or personal collapse, it is difficult to avoid emotional bypassing, that is, denying painful emotions by numbing ourselves to them or choosing to feel other emotions that protect us from the more painful ones. For example, we protect ourselves from the sorrow of losing our planet by grasping straws of hopefulness about efforts to mitigate climate change that fall far short of actions needed or that are far too late to make any difference. Likewise, we may choose to remain angry at our political predicament as a way of avoiding the feelings of despair that we keep at bay with our anger. So each of us must ask ourselves what feelings we are not feeling about our planetary predicament and what avoiding those feelings, or the lack of feeling altogether, is doing for us. False hope protects us from the grief, anger, and fear of facing species extinction. Rage and vitriol can piss away energy that could be more wisely used to prepare inwardly for collapse. It may be pleasurable to “stay pissed,” but more often than not, that leaves us “pissing in the wind.”
An Unlikely Guide From Another Pandemic Era
The United States is in a very dark place as USA Today reminds us–a dark place we have not been in since the 1918 influenza pandemic, or even worse, since the Civil War. We have few role models for navigating a pandemic, let alone one who can help us encounter our deepest humanity in the process.
Enter Julian of Norwich, a fourteenth-century mystic who lived most of her life surrounded by the Black Death. What we first need to know about her is that while she was a Christian anchoress, someone walled up inside a small space for spiritual purposes, she was a remarkable thinker whose Christianity more closely resembled pagan or indigenous spirituality than the institutional Christianity with which we are familiar in the twenty-first century. The plague struck her town in 1349 and continued in waves throughout her life. Although she lived into her seventies, the population of England was cut in half during her lifetime. She grew up surrounded by death and fear, and she never fully escaped that horror anytime in her life. Although she was an anchoress, a single window in her cell opened to the streets of Norwich where she would counsel people suffering from the repercussions of the pandemic. When she was not counseling people, she was writing about what we today would name as eco-spirituality
Julian was a practitioner of creation spirituality which begins not with a deity, but with nature. It looks at the natural world as a reflection of the divine. While we recognize it today as a tradition honored by indigenous people globally, the pre-modern world contained many intellectuals and mystics within the church, who held nature above and beyond theology or dogma.
In his recent, riveting book, Julian of Norwich: Wisdom In A Time of Pandemic–And Beyond, Matthew Fox (with foreword by Mirabai Starr) notes that as a result of a pandemic that killed 25 million people in Europe centuries before germ theory of contagion were discovered, terrified humans looked for someone or something they could blame. While the church had been distancing itself from nature since the fourth century, the Black Death exacerbated a sense of alienation from the natural world. Whereas there had been a deep sense of the divine presence in nature, nature now became an enemy, and a new emphasis was placed on redemption and finding refuge away from this world. As Fox and Starr put it, “As people moved from loving nature to fearing it, humanity shrunk its soul and came to see itself in a battle against nature.” For this reason, “When two hundred years later, Europeans sailed to foreign shores and found indigenous peoples at home with the wonder and sacredness of nature, they accused them of being ‘savages’ while savagely killing them in the millions and ravaging their culture.”
Julian was a panentheist, that is, a person who holds that the universe is sacred–that the divine is within all things and all beings. As Julian often wrote, “God is nature, and nature is God.”
Unlike the masses who came to conclude that a pandemic demonstrates that nature hates us or that God is punishing us, Julian did not succumb to that theological rabbit hole. In fact, she became an even more adamant defender of nature, and surely today would challenge us to face our own potential extinction in the face of climate chaos.
While Julian is famous for her statement that “All shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well,” she did not live in some uber-optimistic dreamworld of emotional bypassing. In fact, she counseled people to face the darkness and not deny it. What she meant by “well” did not mean what the word means to most people in today’s consumeristic, “everything will work out in the end” culture.
In fact, Fox concludes that:
In a culture as thoroughly marinated in instant gratification and consumer fetishes as ours, one so deeply in bed with consumer capitalism and instructed daily in how best to worship the gods of the latest gadgets that promise to make life easier and quicker and more satisfying–but never accomplishes delight and repose–the experience of the dark night is a deep wakeup call. Whether it comes at us from climate change or coronavirus or failures of politicians or the destruction of ideals of democracy or failures of religious promises, or personal pain or combinations thereof, there is plenty to grieve, and there is much dust to be tasted. Loss is in the air, as the dark night knocks loudly on the doors of our souls. Julian dared the dark night…she even dared the dark night to awaken her. She did not run from it, but rather hung around to learn what it had to teach her. It can do the same for us.
From Julian’s perspective, her society was collapsing too. It seemed as if a never-ending pandemic was manifesting the end of the world. Since there was no understanding of the biology of the disease, people were only able to explain it in terms of sin, heretics, and God’s punishment of both. Witches and heretics were hunted, tortured, and burned, as well as Jews. These groups bore the brunt of the conspiracy theories of Julian’s day. Other mystics such as Meister Eckhart, Thomas Aquinas, Mechtild of Marburg, and Hildegard of Bingen, who all embraced creation spirituality, were viewed as heretics because they championed humanity’s intimate connection with nature as opposed to empire-building and wars of conquest which would follow the Black Death.
Julian’s Seven Lessons For Navigating A Pandemic
Fox summarizes Julian’s teachings regarding humanity’s response to the Black Death as follows:
Facing The Darkness
- Look darkness squarely in the face.
- Do not deny or scapegoat the realities of the pandemic.
- Take the pandemic as an opportunity to examine your goals and intentions.
- Your life is short. How can you contribute? What gifts do you have to offer?
- Stay connected with your fear, anger, grief, and despair.
- Beware of addictions that numb and make you stupid and silly.
- Face the darkness of our own personal shadow and do shadow healing work.
- Stay close to the teachings of mystics, poets, indigenous wisdom.
Welcome Goodness, Joy, and Awe
- Fall in love with nature and human goodness.
- Realize what a blessing it is to be here in an amazing universe on an amazing planet after an amazing journey of 13.8 billion years.
- Nature is God; God is nature. Immerse yourself in nature.
- Seek and cherish awe. Julian says that “A reverent awe is the proper response to the supreme beauty of the sacred.”
- Practice gratitude moment to moment.
Practice The One-ing of The Sacred and Life
- Live your life as if there is no separation–between you and the sacred, between you and Earth, between you and other living beings.
- All of nature is interdependent. We are interdependent with each other and with nature.
- Understand how the story of separation shows up in your life. Notice your own “othering” in relation to people with whom you disagree. What might happen if you stopped “othering” them?
Understanding the Sacred Feminine and Divine Motherhood
- Regardless of your gender, be aware of the patriarchal influences in your life, past and present.
- Remember that patriarchy and gender are different. Women can be as patriarchal as men since patriarchy is simply a way of life based on power and control.
- Learn how to be a spiritual warrior against patriarchy.
- Learn how to be a spiritual midwife on behalf of goodness, compassion, generosity, awe, joy, and creativity.
Practice Non-Dualism and Living With Paradox
- Practice holding the tension of opposites. Cultivate a both/and consciousness.
- Consider that in the age of extinction, something profound is trying to be born in you and in the world.
- The extinction of our species is likely, and at the same time, nothing is certain.
- In Julian’s life, the Black Death came in waves. When people thought it was gone, it came again. Know that pandemics in our time are likely to repeat that pattern.
- Stop asking “When will collapse happen?” It’s happening NOW, and we don’t get to know the outcome.
- Experiencing joy will deepen your capacity to grieve. Grieving will enhance your capacity to experience deep joy.
- The more you open to death, the more enlivened you become.
Trust Your Body and Your Sensuality
- Julian said, “God is in our sensuality.” This is hardly a statement from an institutional, industrially-civilized Christian. Julian’s perspective was wild and nature-based.
- Be at home with your body. She says, “God willed that we have a twofold nature: sensual and spiritual.”
- Ground yourself in Earth-based spirituality and sensuality. Reject any spirituality that emphasizes transcendence, “rising above,” or escaping “this vale of tears.” Julian rejected the transcendent theology of her time, preferring to embrace nature and the body as holy.
Celebrate The Power of Love Over Evil
- Know that all beings are “swimming in an ocean of divinity.” We have every right to dislike any being, but it is our responsibility to acknowledge their humanity and their divinity.
- Embrace “mystical hope,” not conventional hope. Mystical hope is not tied to outcome and does not depend on external circumstances. It is nourished by our connection to the sacred within ourselves and in the world. As with Viktor Frankl’s experience in a Nazi death camp, mystical hope is about finding meaning and making meaning in all circumstances.
- “All shall be well,” is not a declaration of naive optimism. It depends on our willingness to wake up and do the inner work that “pandemic times” demand of us.
If we are responding consciously to the current pandemic, like Julian we are “sitting in our cells” in lockdown or voluntarily choosing to stay at home in order to minimize the spread of the disease. We may be conversing “through the window” of Zoom as we connect with friends, relatives, or colleagues. Our pandemic, like the Black Death, seems to be traveling in waves. Equally important as following the guidelines for preventing the spread is conscious and safe immersion in nature. Never have we needed so desperately to commune with nature in solitude and intimate wonderment. Nature, this pandemic, and collapse will incessantly compel us to let go, surrender, and release our perspectives on everything the ego has held dear. We will be challenged often to repeat in innocent vulnerability, “I thought I knew, but I didn’t.”
At the end of the day, if we are fortunate, we may also repeat with John Keats: “I am certain of nothing but the holiness of the heart’s affections and the truth of the imagination.”
In this way, “All shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.”
Thank U for this thoughtful and sad writing
I am a lone Mum living with multiple disabilities, but still managed to find a year to dedicate to Vol Work with #ExtinctionRebellion and overall, I am still glad I did. I learnt something else there – there are people who need to protect themselves (preferably without addiction, but each to his own..) from the news of the “collapse of Industrial ‘civilisation’ ”
U speak of the denial – those who will speak of being hopeful, for example. U also give some recommendations at the end of what we really need to do. kThank U for them also…
Here’s ONE suggestion we take seriously. There really are people, who cannot cope with such humongous news. it really is too much, and my own advice would be that they protect themselves from it, if they are frequently clinically-depressed and /or suicidal
It is becoming increasingly heart-breaking to keep reading articles full of great wisdom, but always from people who’s lives are generally “OK thanks..”
Millions are impoverished, sick, dying, being killed or wanting to kill others! And clearly NOT in a position to be the person y’all clearly think we should be..
People I love had to find this out the hard way, and I am not one for polite-pretense or subtle confrontation
Why don’t y’all caveat all your work At The Beginning with ” Not for U if U are overwhelmed already” or whatever your own words would be
Thank you for this thoughtful reply. I am glad to have read it after finishing the article that was so depressing. I choose to have more hope and do my best to make a difference in my little corner of the world.
It is a call to show up according to our capacity. Aum
Hospicing the old and that which no longer works; while midwifing the new. Sure there is uncertainty and chaos but we get to remain present, mindful and focused….
Thank you so very much for this article and it’s contents. I especially like the list of what to focus on and find it matches well with my own conclusions from the past almost year now. Much gratitude!
I find myself frustrated reading this because it gives me little or nothing. Nice words, and a few wise points that most of us probably already knew. Why are these people “leaders” when they have nothing particularly original or useful to offer? There is also the element of hopelessness which I hate. There is so much we can do and we are doing it: utopiacornucopia.org
So stop waiting for someone to “give” you something and do the inner work that I’m talking about. Read my books. Get into action in your community. Stop looking for “hope” that isn’t the mystical hope I talked about in the article. You are exemplifying American entitled narcissism.
Carolyn, I spoke too harshly. I can tell you that the 7 pieces of advice that are given are something I already do for many years. I am sorry if I sound arrogant, I am just frustrated for various reasons. Your article is probably very helpful to many people, just not for me. I read those mystics many years ago. I am an activist, your assumptions about me are ill-founded. If you would go to utopiacornucopia.org you will see that I am involved in some very ambitious projects which I am currently self-funding. I am not going quietly into the dark night. My passion for uniting like minded humanity thru a digital network is unstoppable. I am not a narcissist, I cultivate humility and gratitude every moment of my life. I live in nature here in Ecuador for 10 years in a mostly latino eco-community I founded (chambalabamba.org) in 2012. We are self-organized horizontally: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wywMhg604W8&feature&fbclid=IwAR27OFnWH86iSZVrkn4nl4umr0HzPnQez4Hmh31bMc3vNV2YwlOlkmLoFwk.
Cool link. Thanks, Tom. You might also look into the concept of Community Wizard, a program developed by Catherine Austin Fitts. It is a program to post all government expenditures and contracts online, so citizens can review and check for fraud, waste and abuse. Decentrilization is key, but so is transparency in terms of combatting corruption.
Thanks Robin, transparency is key as well as explained in the 7 minute animation we made explaining horizontal governance. This is one big reason it is virtually incorruptible, because of the transparency.
I found this essay a lovely read, full of good advices and wisdom. I come from a very different assessment of both the ecological situation and political one than the author.
Having studied the electric universe theories for a decade or so, during which time I moved my family abroad rather fleeing the culture of the US, it informs my assessment of the 6th extinction. The earth goes through extinction events at rather regular intervals, apparently due to micro novas from the sun. All over the world, pictographs display what can be interpreted as plasma discharges in the sky. I think we have a deep archetype imbedded in the collective psyche of this catastrophe. It seems we are moving toward another, indeed, in the midst of the 6th great extinction. Nothing we can do in regards to carbon will substantially affect this. I think powers that do PR for their own purposes are exploiting this archetype, to continue to enthrall and bespell the general public.
I spent many years studying ancient spiritual texts in order to understand my own visions, which spoke in a symbology other than my native catholicism. I spent time in practices and took initiations. I found the teachings of both Hildegard of Bingham and Julian of Norwich very beautiful and deep explorations of how to delve deeply into what it means to be both human and divine.
It is hard to come to terms with the fact that the US is not a democracy, that democrats have morphed into technocratic fascists, and so much of the landscape of our common narrative has been unveiled as corruption and myth. I shudder that anyone should rejoice in the obviously stolen election which puts in place a empty suit who is falling into senile dementia. Biden has for 40 years served all of the fell forces which have destroyed the fabric of the middle class, has instituted an institution of incarceration for slavery in service of corporations, stripped all protections from financial fraud, environmental toxins. He is an uber criminal on the global stage, blackmailing Ukraine to fire their prosecutor who was investigating Burisima´s money laundering. In fact, the US has become the prime destination for money laundering and tax evasion over my lifetime, and it all began in Delaware!
So, its hard to find solid ground in upside down world. When the verities collapse, you have to take a hard look at what is. At who you are. At what motivates and moves you. And take responsibility for creating meaning, creating community, creating the new rituals which will anchor this new life.
I happen to have had a pretty tumultuous life, and so have been through this process a few times. I have been a caregiver, raised a family without support, known a lot of hunger in my adult life. It has brought me an intimacy and compassion with the suffering I see around me, and the hardships that so many families are facing due this fake pandemic.
I feel myself a Cassandra so often. We should be preparing to live without electricity, not moving into a zoom life. We should be creating resilience in our communities and celebrating daily the simple, sweetness of life, the simple sacraments of food and ritual. Under stresses, we can grow and access more facets of our perceptions; interspecies communication, psychic abilities, other ways of knowing. We can bloom. some of us will survive the coming solar micro nova, pole shift. Some of us will carry the golden seeds of our cultures, our history forward.
There is a very good practice I used to do in retreat. When you wake up in the morning, say `This is my last day of life. Tonight I will be dead.´Carrying that idea forward is quite revealing. What would you do if you only had a few hours to live. How would you use your mind? your time? I think a big part of this manufactured hysteria of covid (the not so killer respiratory disease) is that many westerners have the hubris of not really having accepted the fact of their mortality. All who are born will die. It gives us a humility, a place in nature, a time frame. We can’t buy our way out. Maybe this understanding will be confronted in a gentle way, not distorted by the fear mongering media, who seem to be bargaining for a few months of life for the very elderly and ill by trading off a dehumanizing and abusive agenda for our children ( who are not significantly at risk for covid).
So, rock on Carolyn. We come from different assumptions, to a similar solution in terms of how to behave, and the tools that serve us in this time of dire beauty.
Namaste.
The Heart Is the Portal
Our animalistic predator/prey culture has created a culture of closed hearts. Many of us feel that we need to protect our hearts from being hurt, betrayed, or broken, so we build (most often unconsciously) invisible walls around them, and the flow of love is blocked. Why so many divorces and breakups? One big reason could be that for a relationship to succeed, it takes two hearts that are totally open to one another, that is, no holding back, to really feel connected.
In many cases, it is quite possible that when a woman doesn’t feel the love and devotion of the other in a palpable way, hurt, sadness, anger, and resentment build up and her behavior towards the other can be explosive, over-blown, and seem irrational and insane. Then this creates a vicious circle that is almost impossible to circumvent. That is, the doubts of the abused partner begins to grow as the problem persists and increases, and therefore becomes more and more reticent and unlikely to share his heart. This, combined with childhood trauma and unconsciously repeating the non adaptive or dysfunctional patterns of the parents, especially the mother, makes for a very unhappy, contentious relationship, that most often ends in separation, which has a traumatic effect on any children that might be present and helps to create a culture of closed hearts.
So, amongst all the multifarious crises that now beset all of humanity, one might surmise that the underlying dynamic of a culture with closed hearts which would then be entirely egoistical (the ego wants to receive, the heart wants to give), is how one might explain the current pandemic of injustices, violence, and insurgent tyranny. One might agree that to be truly human is to be humane, humane beings. We have the genetics of animals, and what differentiates us, is perhaps the ability to self reflect and to have the choice whether to be ethical or not, meaning to follow the “golden rule”,to treat others as we would like to be treated, rather than be like the rest of the animals, unethical, since animals don’t have the ability to choose to be ethical. It is a choice.
Another factor to consider is the difference between a culture of abundance compared with a culture of scarcity. It is well known that in a culture of scarcity, the behavior of the inhabitants will become more and more aggressive as the survival instinct is increasingly threatened. A culture of abundance is immensely more conducive towards harmony, peace, and love. A healthy, vibrant, and ethical culture will tend to have the effect of producing an open hearted culture. A healthy culture is one in which all the needs of humans are easily accessible to all. But since we don’t yet have this, we are mired in an existential conundrum that can only lead to extinction and totalitarianism. It is a catch-22 situation, uroboros biting its own tail, auto-cannibalism.
To change this, we need to be more equitable, to eliminate marginalization, to distribute more evenly. It is the opposite of having the super rich and the vast have-nots, which again is the path to species suicide. This requires systemic changes immediately. This is why a gigantic network (utopiacornucopia.org) is so important now. One which includes millions to billions of like minded people, organizations, and networks that are all doing their part to co-create the new paradigm, the culture of open hearts. Because it is within this network that we can collaborate and advance more quickly, along with our website of ever growing innovations.
We are creatures of our cultures, so we must create a culture of and for humane beings. Which simply needs a horizontal, decentralized structure which is virtually incorruptible, with an agreed upon social contract that guarantees and embodies our human values and needs, i.e. civil liberties, no pollution, healthy food, women’s liberation, etc. to emerge organically, collaboratively, and autonomously ((1) Horizontal Governing – The Virtually Incorruptible Solution to Vertical Top Down Corruption. – YouTube).
The network once large enough can be used to reinvent, to “utopianize” all those dystopic, congested, polluted, impersonal places we call cities; restructuring economies to incentivize brotherhood, sharing, compassion, caring, reciprocity, and abundance for all. Experienced workers and experts from each sector will be able to collaborate with their counterparts in cities around the world and with access to the wiki of innovations, they will have at hand all they need to achieve this initially, and with transparency and feedback loops will constantly be able to improve.. Think of utopia not as some unattainable end, but as a society that is constantly improving and refining.
Such a juggernaut to unravel is similar in magnitude to how we might end the domination of those who would rather put their own private profits over the welfare of the whole, which is by becoming responsible citizens and self governing horizontally.
Everyone would gain by being able to open their hearts. How to do it? I like to think that one can decide to open one’s heart, to consciously care about the welfare of others, to recognize that the reality we have been ignoring is that we really are one human family, individual leaves or flowers on one gigantic tree, the tree of life, and it this tree of life that we all must love, nurture and care with all our heart, honoring the sacredness of everything. To realize that the more one opens one’s heart in all circumstances, romantically, within our personal circles, our villages and cities,in every way imaginable, the more one will be realizing one’s human potential and the more gratifying and fulfilling will be one’s existence. In a way, its trading pleasure for joy, though you would still be able to enjoy both to a large extent. Choosing joy over pleasure is to move from a superficial to a more profound and fulfilling existence. Having the realization that serving others is the best way to serve oneself.
An unbelievably well written treatise on our times. Yet pulling forth the wisdom of those who have gone before. Warning us that patriarchy is not just a male inflicted phenomenon but lurks in the hearts of many who seek power male or female. Thank you. We are indeed all connected in a sea of love. We must go deep within and rekindle that connection. Many movements today whether it’s an extreme women’s movement or a focus on Black Lives Matter contribute to our separateness. We must acknowledge the value of all including our earth and that which is in nature as well as all human beings
I disagree that Black Lives Matter contributes to our separateness. It can, but it doesn’t have to, and that is not its intention. In fact, it has facilitated healing and reconnection between races and ethnicities more than I could have imagined. It is one of the great spiritual movements of our day.
Black Lives Matter!!
Opening our eyes to any form of inequality is extremely valuable. We need to be careful that we see all in love and not separate from one another
Whether you are black, white, or male or female, we have all lived on this planet for some time now. We have a stake in the outcome that results from our actions, so getting everyone on the same page will make that outcome more to everyone’s liking. We really need now to put our differences aside and begin a true conversation with each other, in order to accomplish that. Keeping apart or yelling our “truths” louder and louder will only make things worse. Let’s find out what we have in common, and enjoy this time of getting to know each other.
Well said Leslie!!!! Good to meet you 🙂