Nihilism, Libertarianism, Neoliberalism, Capitalism, Fascism and all those other “isms” that have taken over our planet and threaten the very survival of the human race.
From our addiction to oil to our addiction to hating the “other” we have lost our collective consciousness and have sold our human birthright for a bowl of piping fake-news.
For those of us who are watching what is transpiring globally: the Rampant destruction of our oceans, forests, pollution of our air to the rhetoric of hate spewing from many governments across the globe against the weak, the refugees, the others. For those who are stunned and saddened by the coming American administration with it’s lack of respect for all people, to science, to common decency, to the truth. It’s continuous stirring of the pot of Deliberate Chaos, poised to create confusion while the 1% gobbles up all resources and forbids anyone else from living a decent reality for the mere reason of not being born on the “right side of the train tracks.
Humanity, America, Europe - has a lot of soul searching to do.
Unfortunately, we need to do it in times of the greatest challenge our civilizations ever faced.
Whether the coming administrations believe or not believe in it, global warming is a reality our civilization needs to face headstrong.
But how do we face it, when growing numbers of governments only want to bicker amongst themselves, spewing more hate and confusion on us. The us that wants to make a world that works for all people; Us that cares and wants to speak for the trees, the animals, the needy, the disadvantaged; Us who truly care for others.
How do we convince our fellow brothers and sisters that it’s time to join together and to start caring?
For that is the focus, really, of what is not working in the world.
We stopped caring…
We stopped caring about each other, about our neighborhoods, cities, countries, ecosystems. We don’t care where our food comes from, how it’s grown - just as long as it’s there and there is plenty of it.
We stopped caring about our elderly, cause we don’t live in multi-generational households anymore.
We stopped caring about our environment as we lost our groundedness in the cities that are dividing us and the earth by layers of concrete.
How do we get people to care when they didn’t care that a man running for the highest office of the USA was spewing hatred towards everyone.
What happens to a people when they are defined by hate and not love and caring?
I’ve sat with this for a few months now - and I still don’t have the actions.
What I have is the love of narrative and storytelling - which is how us humans have survived through millennia of anguish.
It’s searching for our meaning in the darkest hours that gave us solace and fortitude to face the darkness.
It’s in the little actions that all of us take that we can create a huge change.
It was a small group of people the started the women’s rights movement, that led to the civil rights. It was just a handful of people starting to stand at Standing Rock before almost a million showed up. Rachel Carson was the first person documenting the detrimental effects on the environment of the indiscriminate use of pesticides, in her 1962 book, Silent Spring. John Muir was the first person in the USA protecting trees. The list goes on and on. Stories of individuals, small groups, rising up, changing the course of history.
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has”. - Margaret Mead
In times like these, we need to invoke our inner strength and Wake Up! Grow Up! Clean Up and Show Up!
We, who have the privilege of a roof over our heads, food on our table, work and play, need to take a stand for others - all others.
When the jackals try to confuse and manipulate, destroy the civil and environmental progress we have achieved, gaslight us and try to disempower us we need to stand and say NO!
Like Neo from the Matrix, stand in our conviction and not allow the bullets of fake-reality to hit us or anyone else.
In looking for hopeful narratives for these bleaks time, my hope is, as Barbara Marx Hubbard calls it, that “This Crisis is a birth”. Perhaps we are experiencing a birth of a new civilization, a new humanity. A baby doesn’t know it is being born, all it knows as it was comfortable one minute and all of sudden he is in utter darkness and being pushed through a dark tunnel as the walls cave in on it.
Perhaps we have just entered the tunnel and have to walk in the darkness for a while.
Perhaps the light at the end of the tunnel will lead us to a new reality that may surprise and elate us.
That’s is a nice thought.
But in the interim - stand strong, say no, and stop the Matrix.
Wake up!