This posting is early. Not just to make up for all the late ones, but to get this project in line for finishing it. On (or by) the New Moon I'll be posting the final installment. Since I finished writing the original on a Full Moon and it is a new calendar year beginning, I felt it was only fitting.
Young People
“To look at an adolescent as equal, and as human, and as smart, is a revolutionary idea.”
Andy Gaertner
“Food is hidden away - hidden away from us until we eat it.”
“The focus of our society isn’t on food.”
Recently, I had the privilege of running a discussion group with some teen and pre-teen homeschoolers on sustainable food systems. Some of their observations are quoted here. Their thoughts are incorporated throughout.
After this experience I can say that it is truly the young people who will guide the process in the future. They are engaged, concerned and thoughtful. They care about the planet they live on. They are going to create the future systems.
Do we have to have total collapse? Not necessarily. Especially if the young people get set up and going. Currently a subsystem of environmental consciousness exists within the dominant system of environmental destruction. Can’t those roles be reversed as a transitional state of human society? Can the subsystem become the dominant system and allow for the few who won’t change their habits to continue to exist within it, and eventually just die off? Leaving the now environmentally conscious dominant system to continue? Stranger things have happened within human history.
“It’s a lot easier to get a pill instead of changing habits.”
“Eat less - to eat so much is convenient.”
Means of Change
Voting alone isn’t going to change anything. Protesting alone isn’t going to change anything. Direct action and civil disobedience won’t change anything by themselves. It will take all those methods and more, working together at the same time. Supporting each other and not interfering with each other. Respecting each other.
And that
will only be the beginning.
Real change cannot be achieved unless we change ourselves. Truly. As individuals. “We” must change. How can we expect anything to change unless we ourselves change? Give up hateful and repressive ideas and shun those who preach them. Give up the ideas of superiority. Of being able to take what we want. Of entitlement. Give up those things that contribute to the destruction of resources and not replacing them. Give up those things and more. The things that have been fed to us by a repressive and angry society. A society that devours anything that differs from it. A society that perpetuates itself at any cost, even at the cost of the planet and the life on it. A society that won’t give in or change voluntarily. A society that must be forced. That is a sad thing. Because we make up our society. We are allowing this to happen.
All of it.
Hope
You can have hope. But only if you are doing something that makes someone else’s hope come true. You cannot not participate in the change. You must participate. Otherwise, your hope is only serving to remove you from accountability. From being responsible for your actions.
That is the convenience of our society.
Personal Accountability
People are accountable for their actions, intended or not.
No
In our society and culture we are trained to say yes or to not care. Otherwise, we are trained to consent to the action whatever it may be. We are not trained to think critically because that leads to saying, no. Or, wait. Or, let’s look at this another way. We are trained to look at things from one perspective - the expert’s. We need to become our own experts. If we don’t have time to learn enough to be an expert, then we need to start trusting our initial instincts about an issue. But that is something that we are trained to ignore even more than saying, no.
Saying no to the things that destroy us, our children, our environment, our land-base, our water systems, our air, our world, is healthy. It is sustainable behavior. It is also something that is punished in our society. We are to accept the temporary benefits of development, jobs, comfort and convenience. We do this only to see them vanish within our lifetimes. We do this only to see a few become wealthy upon our misery. Upon the death of the land. Upon the poisoning of the water and the air.
We consent.
Acceptable Losses.
The people who think a monetary value can be placed onto the Earth and the life upon it are very troubled people. The Earth and all life upon it is priceless and needs to be treated with respect and reverence. This is an inescapable truth. When we stray from this truth, we lose our connection to the earth.
Yes
After we have said no, we need to start saying yes to the things that affirm our lives. The things that make us healthy and allow our children to thrive. The things that support us in every way. The things that nurture us and the planet. For some this is harder than saying, no.
Absolutes
We’re afraid of imposing them. We’re afraid of having to deal with them. They are taboo. But they could solve a lot of our society's problems. What if all businesses, factories and power plants that produced waste had to be responsible for the breaking down and cleaning up of that waste? Wouldn't our communities then be better places to live? Wouldn’t the earth be cleaner and healthier for us and our children?
Make it mandatory.
Corporations will complain. They will say that they can’t make the profits that they want. Profit will do no one any good when the earth can’t support their lives and habits. Profit cannot weigh as much as the value of living things and the health of our planet. There should be no question as to what is more important. Putting a monetary value onto the Earth and the living things on it means that at some point it becomes OK to exploit them. It becomes OK to use them for personal profit. It becomes OK to let them die. People are also living things.
Absolutes may yet save the day.
Responsibility
We as individuals and as a society need to apply a zero waste policy to all business and enterprises. Make industries and businesses directly responsible for any waste they produce and its effects. If it can be recycled, composted, salvaged, reused or reintroduced into the production cycle then it must, with no exceptions. If the waste or by products cannot be reused in some way, then they must be disposed of or cleaned up in such a way as to make them utterly harmless to the ecosystem and environment. No exceptions. Even radioactive waste can be made non-radioactive but the technology is so costly no one will pay for it. So what if it’s expensive? If that’s what it takes to make it safe, then so be it. If one billion dollars a day can be spent on war, why can it not be spent to make our planet healthy? Why not?
Is there one good reason?
If the technology is that hazardous then we shouldn’t be using it. Do away with the need for it within our society by changing our habits.
Make companies and corporations directly responsible for the effects their products, the pollution of the manufacturing process, the health consequences of the pollution and their processes, the sourcing of raw materials and effects on the communities they come from, everything associated with making their products. Everything they do. Make them responsible for everything they produce and the effects those things have on the environment and people.
Fines are not going to dissuade corporations. Strip the violators of their corporate charters. Appropriate corporate profits from the accounts of the share holders to fund environmental cleanup, hospital care, and restitution to the victims of the policies that the share holders have approved. Then, maybe, they might listen to the needs of the planet.
Before we can hold others responsible, we have to be responsible. Deal with our personal actions and fix the problems that have been created by them. Take the responsibility. We can live without the gobs of cheap, non-durable stuff. Really, we can. We can live without technological distraction. We can live without imported foods. We can stop demanding that certain foods be available year round. We can change our diets and our tastes. Really, we can. We can turn off our light bulbs. Then we don't have to use the high efficiency mercury bulbs. Bulbs that would break, be improperly disposed of and over time would add more mutagenic heavy metal to our water systems and environment just so we can keep the same habits. We can walk more, ride a bike more, take a train or a bus and drive less. We can change our habits and our way in the world. We can walk with light steps and leave soft footprints. Footprints that can be easier to wear away.
Really.
We can.
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