What guides a person to act to change their world?
If you ask this of yourself, many individual answers will come to mind, but the root is the same. Life experiences take you to ever changing points and there's a decision to be at the will of change or a decision to guide changes. It depends on if you listen to your own conscience.
Causality: are we victims of circumstance or are we masters of destiny? I think the debate has no clear answer. I think it is both.
Plans are all subject to the reality of chance and circumstance, but choice and action can change the odds of chance and circumstance. These cycle and dance in every element of life, and one can either submit or decide to act.
I see the world as a beautiful place often screwed up by stupidity and abuse. I hold an opinion that some people are simply worthless and some are wonderful examples of what we can be, with most in the middle along for the ride, like horses with blinders and a bit in their mouth.
Man has come so far, so fast, that often we are almost helpless to the power of unfolding events. We are slaves to change, and too many people are not fluid enough to adapt and direct change, and often too greedy and self-centered to sacrifice comfort or luxury to do the right thing.
Regimented thought and "business-as-usual" attitudes can keep us heading towards disaster, and as a result we are destroying the very planet we live on.
I remember reading Mother Earth News in the 70's when I was coming up, and a "We're in Danger! Save the Planet" mentality was old then. People who were warning the world back then were considered crackpots, myself among them. But there is no denial of their predictions now. We have changed the face of the earth, and are destroying the very natural systems that support all life. We do not think ahead, or use caution. We are forced to live in un-natural systems, and justify our actions with a mindset that we are superior and not dependent upon the very earth from which we sprang. This can and will lead to doom if we do not humble ourselves and make drastic changes now.
I do not see man as a healthy element of earth, but like a cancer or a virus, with very few exceptions. Convention forces us to live as part of a destructive system. We don't even have the option of extracting ourselves from that system because we have had self-sufficiency stolen from us by force by corporations and government, who design a self-perpetuating system that we must draw upon for the most basic elements of life.
Let someone try to detach themselves from the milk of modern convention and "The State" will send child protective workers to "rescue" children, and city inspectors will condemn property that is earth-friendly but does not draw upon accepted sources of power or water.
We are forced to use cars to work to etch out a living and get food, and if someone wants to allow their front lawn to revert to "natural" they are forced to maintain a neatly trimmed lawn. However, it is okay to throw chemicals like pesticides and fertilizers on it that wash down to a river and into our water supply. Our roofs and roads retain and generate excessive heat that is trapped in the atmosphere instead of being reflected into space, and the exhausts and releases of greenhouse gases have accelerated the natural cold to warm to cold cycle of the earth that there is no time for species to adapt and everything from coral reefs to polar bears are now threatened.
We wage war as a normal human activity, and too many people take pleasure in pride in the killing of their fellow man. We invent new ways to kill each other, and do so blindly unaware of the serious danger we place our own children in daily.
We destroy our history to serve the interests of giant corporations and the rich seek wealth they can never use just so they can be one better than the next guy. It is as if they want to deprive others of wealth just so they can be one better than the next guy.
Some people seek to live in gated communities, and corruption is the order of the day with limited or dismissed accountability. Even the press, who once was vanguard of the public interest, is now a tool of the wealthy, offering an edited and censored view of facts, and package propaganda commercially as if it were news. Free speech is attacked, and now by law our most basic American Rights can be set aside and violated at will without explanation or just cause by our government.
As ice caps melt and species become extinct on a daily basis, and the climate changes and we over-populate the earth while thousands starve, change is stayed off and apathy and malaise is the public sentiment. Those who do speak out are targeted and attacked, and innovation and rational action are smothered until someone can make a clear profit on it.
We do the right thing, it seems, as a last resort, and usually once it is too late. How do we avoid the abyss? How do we change the world, and when do we start?
The roots are there, some people are making changes, but is it too little, too late? For short term profit corporate and government leaders sell the futures of their children and grand children, and the general populace seems powerless to act, because they are fighting those who have designed and run a system that serves money and those who have the most. These are people who will drive a big SUV 30 miles to a home improvement store to buy one compact fluorescent light bulb and consider themselves "green", then deny health care to children and families who live on the margins.
The other end of the scale are people who will not understand or care if they recycle and break apart an air conditioner and release gases or otherwise pollute just to make a quick dollar. An educated middle class with social conscience is the best defense for the planet, and they are under continual attack and even if they want to find it difficult to maintain their lifestyle and security and still act as they would wish to effect change. The world is just too busy. In the 70's Jimmy Carter put solar on the roof of the White House, and in the 80's Reagan, who served the interests of corporations and the rich, took them down.
In the 90's we recovered from those policies and from vast debt America finally had black ink, and then after an illegal election the rich took back over waving a flag and destroying the economic growth and security of America for short term profits of the few and sent us into a war that has hurt our future and turned us into an invasive and abusive power that is now lost respect worldwide.
We do not seek peace, but war, and the ignorance of the rich and powerful have made us a target for destruction by dangerous factions and given them justification for their attacks, while we allow giant corporations to profit from war and destroy the American economy and the environment.
What can a rational person do? How do we educated and motivate the masses? How do we let people know that they have the power within themselves to change the world and make it a better place and even get them interested in the first place? I'm asking here, I don't know! I have ideas, like many others, but I don't know. I live in the fear that it may be too late, and I grew up under the threat of the U.S.S.R. sending nukes our way...and I am more afraid of this!
Will one of our biological weapons, or that of the Russians, fall into radical Muslim hands and a release kill my child? Will my home be under water when I'm 80, or will there be food to feed my grandchildren?
Will there be a world I would want grandchildren to enter.
Why do I even have to have these thoughts, and why did the world generate circumstances for these thought to develop?
I am far from the only one who wonders about these things, but there are not enough people allowing themselves to think about these things or acting upon them.
We cannot have blind hope. It must be proactive, founded upon the idea that our individual actions will make a difference and things will change for the better as a result. Hope was all that was left after Pandora opened the box and unleashed evil upon the world. Hope is all we have left, and that too will die unless we all take action to change the world by changing how we live in and create our own.
A community looks out for all the members within it, and we live in a global community. Earth is a closed system, and if a child starves in Africa or Acre is bulldozed in Brazil or pollution occurs in China or bomb takes out a family in Iraq it effects us all, because despite how vastly different we may think we are, we are all the same.
We all have hopes and dreams, love our children and want the best for them, want to be content and secure and free, speak our minds without fear.... we all claim to have "God" on our side in the process. I don't think "God" would sanction us killing or controlling or hurting each other. I thought the lesson given was to live and help live... not let live, but help live... to do to others how we would want done to us. I don't think any of us want to have war made upon us, or to have our water polluted, food contaminated, or homes blown up and children killed.
I don't think "God" would want us killing off entire species in the name of "progress".
Good, decent people must unite and stand up to fight the things that are wrong in the world together. We must accept the fears and have courage, and not resort to violence but live as we know we should. We must stand and defy stupidity, ignorance, hate, and greed. We must defend the defenseless, and not tolerate those who would abuse us or our neighbors, even if those neighbors live in communities on the other side of the world.
We must flow like water being drawn to the sea towards those things we know are right and good and true. Each of us a drop, but building until we have such a volume that we turn the tide, and change our world. We have no other option. We must set aside differances and stand as one, in mutual support for each others causes when we know they are just and right, and take progressive action to offset those forces that are destroying our world or causing human suffering. It is only in this manner that we will save our world.
If you ask this of yourself, many individual answers will come to mind, but the root is the same. Life experiences take you to ever changing points and there's a decision to be at the will of change or a decision to guide changes. It depends on if you listen to your own conscience.
Causality: are we victims of circumstance or are we masters of destiny? I think the debate has no clear answer. I think it is both.
Plans are all subject to the reality of chance and circumstance, but choice and action can change the odds of chance and circumstance. These cycle and dance in every element of life, and one can either submit or decide to act.
I see the world as a beautiful place often screwed up by stupidity and abuse. I hold an opinion that some people are simply worthless and some are wonderful examples of what we can be, with most in the middle along for the ride, like horses with blinders and a bit in their mouth.
Man has come so far, so fast, that often we are almost helpless to the power of unfolding events. We are slaves to change, and too many people are not fluid enough to adapt and direct change, and often too greedy and self-centered to sacrifice comfort or luxury to do the right thing.
Regimented thought and "business-as-usual" attitudes can keep us heading towards disaster, and as a result we are destroying the very planet we live on.
I remember reading Mother Earth News in the 70's when I was coming up, and a "We're in Danger! Save the Planet" mentality was old then. People who were warning the world back then were considered crackpots, myself among them. But there is no denial of their predictions now. We have changed the face of the earth, and are destroying the very natural systems that support all life. We do not think ahead, or use caution. We are forced to live in un-natural systems, and justify our actions with a mindset that we are superior and not dependent upon the very earth from which we sprang. This can and will lead to doom if we do not humble ourselves and make drastic changes now.
I do not see man as a healthy element of earth, but like a cancer or a virus, with very few exceptions. Convention forces us to live as part of a destructive system. We don't even have the option of extracting ourselves from that system because we have had self-sufficiency stolen from us by force by corporations and government, who design a self-perpetuating system that we must draw upon for the most basic elements of life.
Let someone try to detach themselves from the milk of modern convention and "The State" will send child protective workers to "rescue" children, and city inspectors will condemn property that is earth-friendly but does not draw upon accepted sources of power or water.
We are forced to use cars to work to etch out a living and get food, and if someone wants to allow their front lawn to revert to "natural" they are forced to maintain a neatly trimmed lawn. However, it is okay to throw chemicals like pesticides and fertilizers on it that wash down to a river and into our water supply. Our roofs and roads retain and generate excessive heat that is trapped in the atmosphere instead of being reflected into space, and the exhausts and releases of greenhouse gases have accelerated the natural cold to warm to cold cycle of the earth that there is no time for species to adapt and everything from coral reefs to polar bears are now threatened.
We wage war as a normal human activity, and too many people take pleasure in pride in the killing of their fellow man. We invent new ways to kill each other, and do so blindly unaware of the serious danger we place our own children in daily.
We destroy our history to serve the interests of giant corporations and the rich seek wealth they can never use just so they can be one better than the next guy. It is as if they want to deprive others of wealth just so they can be one better than the next guy.
Some people seek to live in gated communities, and corruption is the order of the day with limited or dismissed accountability. Even the press, who once was vanguard of the public interest, is now a tool of the wealthy, offering an edited and censored view of facts, and package propaganda commercially as if it were news. Free speech is attacked, and now by law our most basic American Rights can be set aside and violated at will without explanation or just cause by our government.
As ice caps melt and species become extinct on a daily basis, and the climate changes and we over-populate the earth while thousands starve, change is stayed off and apathy and malaise is the public sentiment. Those who do speak out are targeted and attacked, and innovation and rational action are smothered until someone can make a clear profit on it.
We do the right thing, it seems, as a last resort, and usually once it is too late. How do we avoid the abyss? How do we change the world, and when do we start?
The roots are there, some people are making changes, but is it too little, too late? For short term profit corporate and government leaders sell the futures of their children and grand children, and the general populace seems powerless to act, because they are fighting those who have designed and run a system that serves money and those who have the most. These are people who will drive a big SUV 30 miles to a home improvement store to buy one compact fluorescent light bulb and consider themselves "green", then deny health care to children and families who live on the margins.
The other end of the scale are people who will not understand or care if they recycle and break apart an air conditioner and release gases or otherwise pollute just to make a quick dollar. An educated middle class with social conscience is the best defense for the planet, and they are under continual attack and even if they want to find it difficult to maintain their lifestyle and security and still act as they would wish to effect change. The world is just too busy. In the 70's Jimmy Carter put solar on the roof of the White House, and in the 80's Reagan, who served the interests of corporations and the rich, took them down.
In the 90's we recovered from those policies and from vast debt America finally had black ink, and then after an illegal election the rich took back over waving a flag and destroying the economic growth and security of America for short term profits of the few and sent us into a war that has hurt our future and turned us into an invasive and abusive power that is now lost respect worldwide.
We do not seek peace, but war, and the ignorance of the rich and powerful have made us a target for destruction by dangerous factions and given them justification for their attacks, while we allow giant corporations to profit from war and destroy the American economy and the environment.
What can a rational person do? How do we educated and motivate the masses? How do we let people know that they have the power within themselves to change the world and make it a better place and even get them interested in the first place? I'm asking here, I don't know! I have ideas, like many others, but I don't know. I live in the fear that it may be too late, and I grew up under the threat of the U.S.S.R. sending nukes our way...and I am more afraid of this!
Will one of our biological weapons, or that of the Russians, fall into radical Muslim hands and a release kill my child? Will my home be under water when I'm 80, or will there be food to feed my grandchildren?
Will there be a world I would want grandchildren to enter.
Why do I even have to have these thoughts, and why did the world generate circumstances for these thought to develop?
I am far from the only one who wonders about these things, but there are not enough people allowing themselves to think about these things or acting upon them.
We cannot have blind hope. It must be proactive, founded upon the idea that our individual actions will make a difference and things will change for the better as a result. Hope was all that was left after Pandora opened the box and unleashed evil upon the world. Hope is all we have left, and that too will die unless we all take action to change the world by changing how we live in and create our own.
A community looks out for all the members within it, and we live in a global community. Earth is a closed system, and if a child starves in Africa or Acre is bulldozed in Brazil or pollution occurs in China or bomb takes out a family in Iraq it effects us all, because despite how vastly different we may think we are, we are all the same.
We all have hopes and dreams, love our children and want the best for them, want to be content and secure and free, speak our minds without fear.... we all claim to have "God" on our side in the process. I don't think "God" would sanction us killing or controlling or hurting each other. I thought the lesson given was to live and help live... not let live, but help live... to do to others how we would want done to us. I don't think any of us want to have war made upon us, or to have our water polluted, food contaminated, or homes blown up and children killed.
I don't think "God" would want us killing off entire species in the name of "progress".
Good, decent people must unite and stand up to fight the things that are wrong in the world together. We must accept the fears and have courage, and not resort to violence but live as we know we should. We must stand and defy stupidity, ignorance, hate, and greed. We must defend the defenseless, and not tolerate those who would abuse us or our neighbors, even if those neighbors live in communities on the other side of the world.
We must flow like water being drawn to the sea towards those things we know are right and good and true. Each of us a drop, but building until we have such a volume that we turn the tide, and change our world. We have no other option. We must set aside differances and stand as one, in mutual support for each others causes when we know they are just and right, and take progressive action to offset those forces that are destroying our world or causing human suffering. It is only in this manner that we will save our world.
