Change Agents

We are all at the helm. Truly, we are. There is a word in chemistry that describes when all the ingredients for change are ripe, available and ready to catalyze. They say that the mixture is ready to "go". Most often when these conditions occur, the change is quite noticeable. Energy, often times vast quantities of it are liberated as chemical bonds are broken or reorganized. Associations are made, intimate connections are established. We humans are not unlike our atomic relations. If you have ever been to a party where things are slow to get started, or where everyone is somewhat resistant to having a good time for one reason or another, you may have seen how the atmosphere can change radically in a very short time if someone takes the first step toward being open. I have seen that inspiration to change come from some of the most unlikely places. Once, it was from a person who just made the statement, "This is fun."

Conditions are ripe for exponential change, but it seems that someone has to dip their toe in the water before anyone else will be willing to take a dip in the waters of the new age. Who has not seen the rising tide of rebellion and protest around our planet? Why do you think that these things are taking place? We all know that we deserve better and that the people that have been at the top of the income ladder have been having their way with us, with the environment and with the resources of the planet. There are more and more stark reminders that if we do not put our foot down, and soon, there will be nothing left to save, nothing left worth eating and nothing to leave our children.

If we do not hang together, we will surely all hang separately was the watchword for the American Revolutionaries. Thomas Jefferson himself said, "God help this nation if it should go even twenty years without another revolution of this kind", and he was speaking of the revolution. we have put over two hundred years in the history books since then without an uprising of that type. The trade unionists made some tentative steps toward wresting some of the money and power from the ultra-wealthy, securing a bit of rest from their wage slavery and an end to outright exploitation of children, but over time many of those protections have eroded. Worldwide, women are still second-class citizens in many nations. Remarkably, just those in India and China abused by forms of  sexual slavery dwarf the number of black slaves that were traded worldwide during the cruel exploitation of the northwest Coast of Africa 150 years ago.

Global consciousness and a growing conscience is on the rise. Protests are gaining strength and followers. some are willing to die rather than accept continued exploitation. We must not let their deaths be in vain. If we do not stand for something, we can expect nothing from the elites who have plagued civilization from the start. There are plenty of billionaires who deem themselves benevolent, but the working class, the wage slaves who give their lives so that the wealthy can sleep on their golden fleeces, eat at the trough of luxury and bathe in the blood of the rest of us need to understand that we are the actual makers of all wealth upon the planet and they are the real takers.

When we conserve, we are always met by the powers that be raising the price of whatever it was that we conserved. When we buy nothing, we are told explicitly that we are the reason that the economy has collapsed. Never mind the fact that we work longer hours for less, or that we have to make choices between food and medicine, or the health of our children and a job. It is criminal that we do not have truth in news, in advertizing, often even in our schools. This on top of the fact that Christ himself, if you believe in him, would have been a radical, yet the churches refuse to speak truth to the wealthy and powerful elites that run our nations ragged trying to keep the wealthiest in the manner to which they have become accustomed.

We need to take conversations of this type into our family gatherings, into our faith communities, into the schools and the marketplace of ideas. No one is going to do it for us. We need to be the catalyst for taking a long hard look at what needs to be done. When the change starts to "go" all the money in the world will not stop it. All the weaponry on the face of the planet will not snuff our hope and the small steps we take to get things started will be remembered for the essential part they played in kicking off a revolution of conscience.

I would like to add a special thanks to Films for Action. blessed Be and namaste'

Corporate Ethics: Oxymoron

It troubles most people when they begin to realize that Capitalism is a belief in capital. People, families and basic human needs have absolutely no bearing on the theory and practice of business as we have inherited it. Those considerations have been foisted on the non-profit sector and government by design. As a trained educator, I wish that we would return to a system of educating our children that emulates the earliest history of the craft in America. In the early days, group of families would join together and pay the wages of a trusted teacher, charging them with the responsibility of conveying vital skills to their offspring. The biggest reason that schools as we know them are still with us is the benefits they hold for corporate interests. What we have devolved to is unworkable, except for employers. With the children away from home all day, the mothers (for it is still usually the mothers who provide care for their children)are available to the labor market. This "service" is not nearly as much about education, as providing labor today as well as a well-trained workforce for tomorrow that can get to work in a timely fashion, accept meaningless tasks without question, act civilized, line up, patiently await their turn and jump through myriad hoops before being rewarded. Capital dictates these things, or at least it has up until now. We are beginning to see cracks in the monolithic structure of our capitalist system.

Many who advocate change are quick to hide behind the fig leaf of saying that capital is good "in it's place", that profit must remain part of our culture or that "Money is not the root of all evil, lust for money is the real problem." However, capital, the sources of it and methods for securing it have grown so corrupt, that it has become difficult to justify the entire system. Would an ethical person allow their neighbor to go homeless? Would they steal money from a young family knowing that it might force their children to go hungry? Would an ethical person give someone a drug if they knew that with it came the very real possibility of death or other injury? These are all too common occurrences in our daily lives under Capitalism.

The very concept of ethics presupposes it's opposite. This duality is part of our veil of tears, to be sure, but to truly understand the morally decrepit basis of the current system, one need not look further than the driveway. Two generations ago, virtually every block or two one could find a market. Merchants were supported by several dozen families,(sometimes fewer)who knew that they could count on that store keeper to give them the best available quality for the most reasonable price. Many people, my relative included, made it through The Depression by growing vegetable gardens and sharing their surplus produce with the grocer for consideration when buying more pricey items, like milk, meat or cheese. This same trust existed with the shoe salesman, the bike dealer, doctor, pharmacist, the garage and the clothing store owner. People were the driving force behind the economy. (pun intended) Now, most folks hop in the car, driving all around town to try to find the best deals. My father-in-law will clip coupons for things at three different stores then spend money and time going from place to place, trying to get ahead by playing one supplier against another! With loyalty like that, how could a grocer develop a relationship with your customers? Now that we have the scan-able cards for "loyal" customers, the data collected about our purchases, which allows us to be marketed to in new and better ways can be another profit center and way to exploit us.

How can we expect corporations to see past this mind-set when we refuse to do so ourselves? Often, we forget that we are supporting, one way or another, this system that we cannot fathom. If we try to divorce ourselves from it, we find it in other areas of our lives. Years ago, we could all walk to the grocery store, now the closest one to where I live, two miles from city center, is over a mile away. There had been several groceries closer, but one by one they went out of business, driven out by the deep pockets of larger chain stores who claim to have better selection, but always with a price. Capitalism only gives us something when something of greater value is taken away. The green space that used to exist for children to play in, or the clean water and flood control provided by undeveloped land mean nothing to the Capitalist. "How cheaply can we get it?" and "How big a mark up will the market support?" are the only considerations of corporate decision makers.

Luckily, there is a growing movement that is asking what is really important? Truly considering the needs of others. Interestingly enough, these are the same people who have been willing to do without for themselves to make life a little sweeter for others. People who have been willing to get out of their comfort zone and actually learn from others, and folks who just want to share the bounty of their lives with others. We are blessed to have them among us. When J.F.K. said: "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country." It would have been nice if Corporate America would have listened half as much as the Peace Corps Volunteers, the War Resisters, the Ecologists and the social change people did. It is past time to reign in the excesses of the ultra-wealthy, put the kibosh on the dehumanizing effects of capital, and begin to realize that the corruption caused by our current system is as absolute as the corruption that comes with absolute power.

Zeitgeist: Food System

As anyone familiar with permaculture can attest, the three legged stool that creates the stable basis of it's practice as well as the foundation of a sustainable future, rests on attending to People, Profit and the Planet. This overabundant process requires that we think differently about our relationship with one another and the planet.
The "Planet" leg of the stool is about lobbing our "pitches" right over the plate into nature's sweet spot, giving her the opportunity to thrive and hit one out of the park every time. Rather than demanding corn out of every available acre, plant grapes, asparagus and perhaps nut trees for a triple harvest of high profit nutrient dense foods, not just "commodities" that produce dollars at the expense of water quality, unnecessary demands on transportation and ill health amongst the world's inhabitants. The reductionist approach to our commercial landscape has created mono-culture of demonic proportions. Raping the earth of her soil, nutrients and tilth.
Similarly, creating artificial demand for products full of empty calories and fat laden goodies simply for profit is the antithesis of permacultural values and logic. People are much better served through food systems that nourish them and sate their hunger and thirst rather than creating disease and mayhem within their bodies as so many "products" do today. I once worked at a cannery that added ingredients labeled "not-for human consumption" because they helped reduce biological activity in the "product". Permaculture asks not, what will create the biggest profit, without considering the affect that the decision will have on the earth and her people as well.
Lastly, and this is occasionally the most difficult leg of the stool to comprehend or put into practice, is "People". Equitable distribution of surplus, for there is always a surplus, is one of the ways to consider people in the process. Giving away food that has been produced abundantly in a permacultural system is similar to taxation. It requires that you think about the needs of others, care about their well-being, and understand the connection between us and "them". We are actually all one. Unlike taxation though, the relationship is best practiced face to face and reorients us to our community and basic human needs, values and possibilities.
We are, after all, living in an age that demands reestablishing connection to the planet and one another. Capitalism was based on the myth of scarcity. What ever comes next will acknowledge abundance, rewarding thrift and conservation of the Earth as well as Creator's gifts (Air, Fire, Water and Spirit)which provide all things in abundance if we don't despoil her or them. Throughput and externalities will be integrated our future or we as a species will perish.