When trees lose their leaves or needles, a tin film develops to heal the scar that is created. When mother mammals separate from their babies, the process of differentiation can be slow and ultimately, in humans, may never completely take place. Through the ages, we have sought to find ways to more smoothly separate our lives from what has taken place in the past. One generation wears their clothing or hair differently, another tries reading comic books or listening to feedback and calling it music. Some scar their bodies. It may seem infantile, but we must each try to develop a sense of self, or at least individuality, in the face of overwhelming odds. For our current system to continue to "work", the laws of commerce require that we all do things similarly enough that our wants and needs can be predetermined and products or services to fill those wants and needs can be developed which will wrest currency from our pocketbooks. The currency we "earn" is most often a reimbursement for labor, unless you are a trust baby and your wealth rests on the efforts of prior generations. It is a vicious cycle, especially when you find out that corporations are un-willing to pay for the time we spend at work. Their overarching attention seems to always be on the bottom line and wages are just seen as a way to hemorrhage the money which they believe is theirs.
It may sound revolutionary, but we are not merely pieces in a giant commercial scheme. Capitalism is just the matrix of ideas that have wooed us most recently. Other systems for meeting the wants and needs of the multitudes have always existed and will continue to exist, but we have become infatuated with this one method of providing "goods and services" to the population. As we move into the future, we will need to find ways of differentiating ourselves from the system that seemed to work in the past, but which has brought so much pain and suffering into our communities.
I'm not going to use this opportunity to point out the fallacy behind the belief that, "We need the rich.", as it has been repeated to me throughout my lifetime. I'm not even going to dissect and analyze the concept that, "It is just the way of the world." There have always been those running things who did not care one whit about the quality of life of the vast majority of the population, as long as they got theirs, whatever the rest of us had to do to survive was par for the course. The people who foist these sorts of ideas on our civilization have a motivation that "I" (the person I call myself) cannot, will not abide. I routinely speak to the fact that we are all one, however, there are crucial things going on in our world at this time that beg us to separate from who we thought we were, the limitations that guided the development of our culture in the past and to step away from and re-define the world to reflect more clearly who we are, who we want to be and where we are headed as a species.
How do we let old way thinking die out and how do we replace the holes that will inevitably be left where we used to share our sense of identity and how we allocate resources? This has been a deeply meaningful quest for me throughout my life. Because I am a staunch pacifist, the overriding belief that human beings are brutish and harsh has been a cultural belief that I needed to separate myself from and replace with a different belief. I have wrestled with these issues since early childhood. Research is finally proving that all humans start out compassionate and helpful, but through abuse and neglect we can reprogram the human organism to be insensitive, crude and mean. Separating ourselves from what has been done to us is a major step on the path to healing. Some people will begin their journey to a new self by practicing forgiveness. This process can take many years and is effective for individuals, but we need to find ways to heal the entire culture. Finding rites that help to heal the entire culture is the responsibility of shamen. What is called for at this time is an overwhelming act of compassion for those misguided leaders of the past who thought that the abuse and neglect they suffered through in their formative years was "normal", served them somehow by making them 'strong" and who had no intention of having compassion toward anyone.
The tragic consequence of this sort of retardation is that those suffering from it not only see it as 'normal", but they justify their strength and values as flowing naturally from the sick system that ruled prior generations. Making excuses for the very people who abused and neglected them is a double edged sword. In fact it is a sword with no hilt or handle, wherever you grab hold of it, will injure those who wield it. Just imagine for a moment, how much frustrated human potential could be unleashed, if we only taught our children the truth about this single issue.
It seems that the profusion of scientific information telling us that we need to stop using fossil fuels has had little effect on changing the beliefs or the oligarchs or curbing their actions which lead to poisoning the planet, but for many, we are learning to separate wants and needs in ways that lessen our carbon footprint. As I often write about, this process threatens many of those who made their living by raping the planet, stealing "resources" (gifts from creator) from others and finding ways to capture corporate welfare to enrich themselves. There are several examples of this same thing going on right now, today. Sacred lands are still being given to "developers" at a record rate, even though our economy has experienced crash after crash at the hands of those who would hide behind the four letter word, jobs.
Just changing that one concept would take us light years forward in our development as a species. There are no white knights waiting to rush in and save us from our poverty. There are no benevolent overlords about to swoop in and make our lives better. There are no technologies that offer us a better way of life or an easing of our burdens that do not have long-term consequences that will not be known for a generation or two after we have embraced them. We need to understand that action speaks louder than words and those who do have our best interest in mind are often not audacious enough or colorful enough, or well-funded enough to get the sort of media attention that it would require to get their message out. when we start to separate fact from fiction, we will begin to see a pattern and if we want to weave a new pattern into the tapestry of human history, it will require stepping away from the loom and making some crucial decisions about what we will no longer allow to pass for "reason".
It is not our responsibility make sure that we are understood. Some people will not have the experience or background to understand us and that is not our fault. We need to separate ourselves from the fiction that has been handed down to us. I am fond of telling my friends, "There are no more buggy whip manufacturers." Change happens whether we like, or admit, it or not. Getting comfortable with our separations, understanding that they are a major part of our growth and realizing that some separations can be healthy and rewarding may help us to distance ourselves from the feelings of loss that inevitably creep in. The tree does not bemoan the leaves lost for winter, nor should we regret the changes that are necessary to assure our survival.
It may sound revolutionary, but we are not merely pieces in a giant commercial scheme. Capitalism is just the matrix of ideas that have wooed us most recently. Other systems for meeting the wants and needs of the multitudes have always existed and will continue to exist, but we have become infatuated with this one method of providing "goods and services" to the population. As we move into the future, we will need to find ways of differentiating ourselves from the system that seemed to work in the past, but which has brought so much pain and suffering into our communities.
I'm not going to use this opportunity to point out the fallacy behind the belief that, "We need the rich.", as it has been repeated to me throughout my lifetime. I'm not even going to dissect and analyze the concept that, "It is just the way of the world." There have always been those running things who did not care one whit about the quality of life of the vast majority of the population, as long as they got theirs, whatever the rest of us had to do to survive was par for the course. The people who foist these sorts of ideas on our civilization have a motivation that "I" (the person I call myself) cannot, will not abide. I routinely speak to the fact that we are all one, however, there are crucial things going on in our world at this time that beg us to separate from who we thought we were, the limitations that guided the development of our culture in the past and to step away from and re-define the world to reflect more clearly who we are, who we want to be and where we are headed as a species.
How do we let old way thinking die out and how do we replace the holes that will inevitably be left where we used to share our sense of identity and how we allocate resources? This has been a deeply meaningful quest for me throughout my life. Because I am a staunch pacifist, the overriding belief that human beings are brutish and harsh has been a cultural belief that I needed to separate myself from and replace with a different belief. I have wrestled with these issues since early childhood. Research is finally proving that all humans start out compassionate and helpful, but through abuse and neglect we can reprogram the human organism to be insensitive, crude and mean. Separating ourselves from what has been done to us is a major step on the path to healing. Some people will begin their journey to a new self by practicing forgiveness. This process can take many years and is effective for individuals, but we need to find ways to heal the entire culture. Finding rites that help to heal the entire culture is the responsibility of shamen. What is called for at this time is an overwhelming act of compassion for those misguided leaders of the past who thought that the abuse and neglect they suffered through in their formative years was "normal", served them somehow by making them 'strong" and who had no intention of having compassion toward anyone.
The tragic consequence of this sort of retardation is that those suffering from it not only see it as 'normal", but they justify their strength and values as flowing naturally from the sick system that ruled prior generations. Making excuses for the very people who abused and neglected them is a double edged sword. In fact it is a sword with no hilt or handle, wherever you grab hold of it, will injure those who wield it. Just imagine for a moment, how much frustrated human potential could be unleashed, if we only taught our children the truth about this single issue.
It seems that the profusion of scientific information telling us that we need to stop using fossil fuels has had little effect on changing the beliefs or the oligarchs or curbing their actions which lead to poisoning the planet, but for many, we are learning to separate wants and needs in ways that lessen our carbon footprint. As I often write about, this process threatens many of those who made their living by raping the planet, stealing "resources" (gifts from creator) from others and finding ways to capture corporate welfare to enrich themselves. There are several examples of this same thing going on right now, today. Sacred lands are still being given to "developers" at a record rate, even though our economy has experienced crash after crash at the hands of those who would hide behind the four letter word, jobs.
Just changing that one concept would take us light years forward in our development as a species. There are no white knights waiting to rush in and save us from our poverty. There are no benevolent overlords about to swoop in and make our lives better. There are no technologies that offer us a better way of life or an easing of our burdens that do not have long-term consequences that will not be known for a generation or two after we have embraced them. We need to understand that action speaks louder than words and those who do have our best interest in mind are often not audacious enough or colorful enough, or well-funded enough to get the sort of media attention that it would require to get their message out. when we start to separate fact from fiction, we will begin to see a pattern and if we want to weave a new pattern into the tapestry of human history, it will require stepping away from the loom and making some crucial decisions about what we will no longer allow to pass for "reason".
It is not our responsibility make sure that we are understood. Some people will not have the experience or background to understand us and that is not our fault. We need to separate ourselves from the fiction that has been handed down to us. I am fond of telling my friends, "There are no more buggy whip manufacturers." Change happens whether we like, or admit, it or not. Getting comfortable with our separations, understanding that they are a major part of our growth and realizing that some separations can be healthy and rewarding may help us to distance ourselves from the feelings of loss that inevitably creep in. The tree does not bemoan the leaves lost for winter, nor should we regret the changes that are necessary to assure our survival.
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