Create and Shape Things

Photo found here

A Kenyan boy screams as he sees Kenyan policeman with a baton approach the door of his home in the Kibera slum of Nairobi 17 January 2008. Hundreds of police who had earlier clashed with supporters of Kenya's opposition leader Raila Odinga at the entrance of the slum moved into the shantytown and did a house to house search for protesters.

You first need to believe that the world around you is not “given” once and for all, that it can be changed, and that you yourself can be changed while applying yourself to the job of changing it. You must assume that the state of the world could be different than it is now, and that how different it may eventually become depends on what you do, that no less than the state of the world- past, present, and future- may depend on what you do or desist from doing. In other words: you believe that you are, simultaneously, an artist able to create and shape things, and the product of such creation and shaping.

Zygmunt Bauman from the book Does Ethics Have a Chance in a World of Consumers?

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What if?

My friend sent my Obama piece to a friend of his who I do not know, and for reasons I don’t understand this friend sent a response via email to my friend rather than leave it on the blog. I don’t understand why people don’t leave comments on the blog itself; the point of the blog, really, is to stimulate conversations. Perhaps this person didn’t want to engage in an argument, and honestly I don’t blame him. I am as tired of political arguments as the next guy. I have been involved with differing levels of political discourse for the last eight years or so with little success of ever compromising or getting through to anybody. I am sure I am as guilty as anybody else, when it comes to shifting my political ideology.

However, this person did raise some great points, so I would like to address them here in hopes that he may come back and continue the conversation. I have a horrible habit of taking arguments apart point-by-point thus making me sound overly smug or didactic. Let me state that I only break down each point to help clarify it for myself; I hope that this system of deconstruction doesn’t offend readers, or the person who made the point initially.

I agree with a lot of his points....but sometimes lose him on his conclusions...

For one, he never really suggests an alternative to Capitalisms....while I would suggest a change in our kind of Capitalisms is in NEED....this guy has no alternative other than to say he is not a Marxist....WELL, what are you then? What is your suggestion?

Great questions! The honest answer to all the questions raised is- I have no idea. I have done my share of working with Socialist organizations, and I have read my share of Marx. Like I said in my post, I think a more socialist answer may be the answer, but experience has taught me that people get caught up in ideological discourse when ever the big “C” words are presented. I don’t see our next move as a continuation of economic/political dichotomies. The words socialism and communism are simply too divisive to be effective in America. We must move beyond the titles, but not the ideas.

I see change being planted within our schools, our families, and local communities. We are in need of cultural changes. It is like Bob Doppalt says in his article here:

Attempts to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions will fail unless people first alter their thinking and behavior.

Earth is warming because humans, primarily in industrialized nations, suffer from systems blindness. We have failed to recognize the effects of our insatiable use of fossil fuels, massive resource consumption, and huge emission of waste, including greenhouse gasses, on the ecological and social systems we depend on for life. That blindness threatens all life forms today and in the future.

Altering the way an entire society behaves and thinks about themselves and their roles as a society is no easy task. Add to the equation the fact that our nation has been in the grip of a hyper-capitalism since its conception, and the task becomes more difficult. We are now reaching a cross-roads were people are being forced to see the ill effects of the system they were taught to worship. As natural resources dwindle further, people will be forced to reassess their relationship to a system built on cheap resources and labor.

So what are my suggestions for a world without capitalism? I guess I have to say that first we need to admit there is a problem. We must be able to look around and see the true state of the world. The state of the world beyond what the corporate media shows us. Travel, volunteer, read, interact with people online and face-to-face. We must be able to realize that war, poverty, and social injustice are not flaws in the system, but rather factors that make the system function. I see no alternative until larger groups of people are able to understand what the key factors (e.g. Privatization of resources, IMF &World Bank policies) are that are causing so much destruction in the world today.

I feel I am rambling and losing my train of thought. The short answer is I do not know what the solution is. I think and meditate on it daily, but answers are rarely forthcoming. What has been working in varying degrees of success for me, has been to start with myself and the choices I make. I am the first to admit that I make many poor choices in regards to my interaction with the global economy, but being able to see the choices I make and the effects they have on the world has been an eye-opening experience for me. I hope that by sharing my lessons, others will help me find solutions.

He is largely on point about the fact that many people are given this false hope of an American dream....but he disregards the fact that in many cases even the poor or middle class of this country are living a dream in compared to where they came from.

I suppose one can argue that a mother of four from El Salvador cleaning hotels in Los Angels is living a far better life than one she would lead in her native country, but I refuse to make that assumption. One should follow the reasons why some classes in the US seem to stagnate on the American Dream ladder. It would also behoove us to understand that many of the immigrant laborers living the dream picking our fruit, cleaning our houses, and driving our taxi cabs are in the US most likely for some imperialist action perpetuated to their homeland by Uncle Sam. Policies of the IMF and World Bank have forced millions of people to leave their homelands in search of better lives in the US and increasingly in Europe.

My question is are poor and middle class people really living the dream? Sure they may be yearning to have the goods that will make them visible to the Capitalists radar of success, but would they not be better served working for their own communities? Spending their money within their own communities to improve their lives instead of on foreign wars that only make the ruling class richer?

I agree that there is too much corporate welfare....but the idea that most people are being hoodwinked misses the point that some people (in fact quite a lot of people) want to be able to earn an honest buck through capitalism (even those who are not rich).

There is a difference between earning an honest buck and exploitation. And even a perfunctory examination of the principles of Capitalism will show that it is the exploitation of labor that creates profit. I feel we must alter this need to earn a buck that should to be examined. Most Americans want to be rich. Being rich means having what rich people have: cars, gadgets, homes, boats, and ultimately freedom and power. They want these things because that is what they have been taught since birth from their schools systems, their media, and their government. What if we were taught not to want to be rich but to be sustainable, compassionate, and loving? What if we were taught that peace at all costs is better than war all the time, that sharing is better than hoarding? That it is more prestigious to be a caring middle class member of a society than to be rich? I am rambling again, please do let us move on.

He dismisses people that disagree with him as "already part of the ellite" but then says people who are not the ellite cannot see that they are being fooled....it is as though he is the only one with the answer....BUT HE OFFERS NO ANSWER.

I apologize for my self-righteous tone. It is one that I am becoming more and more familiar with and trying to ameliorate. I am here to admit that I am not a know-it-all, on the contrary I know very little. I write these posts in order to find like minded people so we can work together to bring about change.

I think the writer is spot on about the two part system....the fact that people can get duped into believing in an American dream they are not a part of....and that we are too much of a consumer culture......there are ways, I think, to fight that. And I think grass
roots is great....

But how about some fucking tangible IDEAS......he has none.

I hope you will become a regular reader and commenter so I can hear your ideas on how to fight consumer culture. My ideas right now are as follows:

• Educate myself further.
• Teach my daughter the values I want to see in the world
• Work in education to advance more just, peaceful, and sustainable social values.
• Try to change my own habits, before I cast stones
• Write, communicate, share and stay open to new ideas
• In short be the change no matter how clichéd a sentiment that may have become.

If you are reading this post, please leave a comment and/or share it with as many other peopel as you can. The point of these posts is to connect us and help us move forward.

As always peace.

Not Sure How To Escape

Warning: This post will wander and meander and not end up anywhere satisfying. It represents the first few steps of a long journey I plan to take this year. If you are looking for answers, do not read on, but if you want to help me find my way or perhaps see if your journey follows a path similar to mine, please come join me and let’s see if we can’t move forward.

This daily writing session on the porch could develop into a habit. Half past six and shades of purple sunlight are hiding somewhere in the clouds, thick again, with the notion of a storm. My hair is still damp from the pool, where Kaia was beginning to actually swim. She pushes off from the wall and kicks and swings her arms till she gets back and clutches the concrete. People who see her are amazed that a child so small can be so comfortable in the water. I simply watch her tenacity and independence and hope that I have had something to do with it, but I know better. This is her personality. I understand her resolve; I share her blood after all. I just hope I can guide her to use it to find some comfort. I can see it in her eyes as she pleads, “Kaia do it!” that she too will take on the world, just as I have chosen to do. What can we do with our destinies but swim?

I can here a few birds chirp over the music, Sun Kil Moon Again…you wasted life, why wouldn’t you waste death? This lyric haunts me. Sitting here, I feel like I am right where I am supposed to be. I am nothing special, just a husband and father, a friend to some and a teacher to others. I am a son and that is all. Nothing feels wasted. So why do my confessions sound like a lies. Wasn’t there meant to be more?

You can tell a lot about a person’s mood by the books they choose to surround themselves with, and I have been reading some great books lately. Upon finishing each one, I want to sit and type out my new manifesto, but life, my own angst, and self-pity and have prevented me from doing so. I never seem to be ready to start the big recap, but now seems as good as a time as any to start understanding why I have been so disappointed with life lately. Perhaps I can use my books as a map. Here are the last six books I have read:

After reading Ishmael, the philosophy book, and now Earth Democracy, I think I have a good idea of where to begin. My feelings of grief are bigger than the events I have faced the last few months. Losing my job only magnify an overall sense of dissatisfaction with the bigger aspects of my life. I think that I am experiencing a more universal sense of discontent. I am starting to realize that while living in the desert is not the sole cause of my malaise, it has definitely enhanced the feeling of disconnection with nature. This sense of detachment from the earth is at the root of my issues. I do not think I am alone. I think humanity is suffering from prolonged separation from the organic world.

I think the majority of my political disagreements with the capitalist, imperialistic, patriarchal, globalized market economy is based on the fact that the new world order is so disconnected with the very things that bring me joy. (I hope to take inventory on what these things are in the coming weeks and months.) Reading Earth Democracy has really opened my eyes to the fact that the very foundations of humanity have been reduced to commodities. We are more and more often living in a world where all that has value are things that can be bought or sold. The market has overshadowed every aspect of our lives.

The politics of this book as well as Ishmael are more complicated than what I have laid out here in this post thus far, but my discontent basically boils down to the idea that for those of us living in the developed, western world, we are too far removed from the earth. For the most part, many of us have no idea where our food comes from, we are too far removed from the production and manufacturing of the very things we strive to accumulate, and we have abandoned the very aspects of what makes us human. (Again, I will explore these ideas in later posts)

We are no longer part of an ecosystem, and as organisms who should be functioning under the laws of nature, we suffer confusion when forced to live outside any explicable ecology. Our religions, governments, and economies have trained us to see the earth as a source of raw materials for our manipulation and consumption, rather than placing us in the middle of a web of life, where we belong. The more I study myself searching for the source of my own decline, the more I see this disconnect with life as the root cause. Further aggravating my sanity is the fact that I can see my daughter’s future being dictated by a close-minded drive toward growth and progress, rather than toward a reconnection with simpler human traits.

I feel trapped and hopeless. My own hypocrisy and shame weigh on me constantly to the point where I can no longer function as expected in the globalized economy, but I do not know how to function any other way, because I have been trained since childhood to be a consumer. I want to be more than a consumer. I want to create and share.

Recap main point:

Cause of my current dissatisfaction with life is due to a disattachment to nature and a sense of incarceration in a globalized economy fueled solely by the needs of a market economy based on progress measured only by growth. I want out of the market-based world. I want to place humanity over profit, cooperation over competition. Simply put, I want to realize my full human potential regardless of how I function relative to the market. But I don’t know how.

I am not advocating living off the grid, although I think that is something I would love to retry. I lived in a small two-room hut in Mozambique for two years with no electricity and running water, but as I am sure my wife would point out, I was not entirely happy there either. I spent a large amount of my time complaining about boredom and my desire to reconnect with the very material possession that I am deriding now. I am sure that people who champion the American Way will comment by saying that I am ungrateful for the very tools I cherish: Get rid of your iPod, why are you using a corporate machine like your Mac Book, etc…I don’t think this has to be an either/or topic. The knowledge that escape is not the answer either further aggravates my plight.

This post was meant to be a sort of brainstorm. I apologize for the disorganized tangential flow of it. It’s just that I have had a lot on my mind, and I wanted to start sifting through some of it. Any advice on which direction it should go? How do you deal with living in a world based on greed and profit?

Here are a few ideas that I am mulling over and would like to explore further in the coming weeks:

The direction that the IMF, World Bank, WTO and the capitalistic world order, led by the USA, are headed is a suicidal unsustainable path, and one that I want to disconnect from as much as possible. The more I read about a future where corporations make all the rules, the more I realize how vital it is that we, all of humanity, begin to take the power back. This action must be more than boycotting Nike for sweatshop violations. The world is up for auction and our most important resources are being privatized and sold to a handful of corporations. Our food and more importantly our agricultural seeds have already been sold to Monsanto, medicines to Pfizer, water to Bechtel, fuels to Exxon, media, government, security all of it sold off to corporations who only place value on returns on capital on their investments. This is not some Orwellian future. This is happening right now. We are losing our world; actually we have already lost most of it.

I want out, but I am not sure how to escape.

I am trying to find a middle ground between living in the jungle and being some American dupe living in a subdivision, or worse working for an American Oil Company in the Middle East, yes my life is a constant contradiction and yes even I am baffled at times by my hypocrisy. I hope my honesty makes my words palatable. But in the words of Ben Harper, “I have see enough to know I have seen too much.” Now what do I do? What do you do? Let us work together to make this a place where my daughter can realize her full potential as a beautiful human soul, not just another statistic on an investment report.

To be continued…