55) The Wind of Change
Healing happens. Hearts open. Society evolves.
It’s messy. But keep at it. It pays off eventually.
48) citizens > politicians
This kind of open-source democracy would work. No more parties turning politics into 99% posturing and bullshit designed to malign “the opposition”. Instead, make politics like the medical community, and focus on collaboration.
The corporate world knows how to do this — a “learning organization”. The NGO world, scientific world, indigenous world, all do as well. Politics is humanity at, or close to, its stupidest. We are way, way more capable than the sheep that politics turns us into. Reject their frame. Let’s create a new one together.
35) Thoughts on Three TEDx Talks
I was trying to take people, right there, in that moment, on a journey, to engage minds and connect with hearts, directly, from me to you, unimpeded by theory and intellectualization. Rather than aiming for a rational appeal that could be communicated discursively, I wanted to engage people in a form of honest, authentic dialogue that transcended mere spoken language but could be conveyed through music, symbolism, story and nonverbal behaviour. So I tossed theory completely out the window and went straight for the heart through poetry, song, story, and drumming.
And it worked
22) Gratitude Day 3: Bugs
I’m grateful for bugs. They’re the choir singing the Song…..of my home.
17) The larks, still bravely singing
Have you ever wondered, what “Torch” were they throwing to us? What were we supposed to hold high? What faith did they have that if we broke it, they would not sleep?
Is it the torch of war? Did they want us to keep fighting, to keep killing each other, to keep distrusting, hating, wanting, taking?
16) Murdering terrorism
The “terrorism” language, which is directly traceable in its modern incarnation to George Dubya Bush after 9/11, reinforces a particular way of thinking. Geoff Lakoff calls it “Strong Daddy”, referring to a centralist, patriarchal, hierarchical way of organizing power in families, traditionally speaking. The entire rhetorical structure that comes from Strong Daddy ways of thinking, makes it easier to contemplate certain courses of action (e.g., war) rather than other courses of action (e.g., community empowerment, basic income and housing plans, ecological restoration, permaculture and local-scale farming projects). Basically, “terrorism” leads to “war” in people’s minds.
#Infinity) September 29, 2017 - TurnAround
So…what now?
Well, this marks the end of normal life. The beginning of a rapid global awakening that is unprecedented in history. The people will reinvent the world. And we won’t wait for the politicians and corporations. We will force them.
13) I put Donald Trump in the White House
As the ‘elites’ — the progressives, the highly educated, the celebs, the newspapers, the cultural genius-figures like Stephen Hawking and Noam Chomsky, etc. — increasingly came out against Trump, disagreeing with his ideas but also emphasizing his seemingly awful and indeed, terrifying nature as a human being, what they/we were doing was building our own WALL, a wall between “us” (the enlightened, smart progressives) and “them” (the bigoted deplorables).
And all of the people on the Trump side of that wall — how do you think they reacted to being told they were idiots and assholes?
6) Something Positive
I believe people are yearning to feel hope, joy, love, to unselfconsciously embrace, inhale, and celebrate life. I believe people want to stop passively absorbing and consuming, and instead, becoming ACTIVE PRODUCERS of culture. It’s like, when did we stop painting and drawing and singing and making poetry, so that we could….sit in Starbucks drinking overpriced coffee with our friends? When did going outside get sacrificed to surfing other people’s pics on Facebook?
5) Warning: Angry rant ahead
Is there no place to just speak from the heart? I’m kind of tired of social psychology and its ‘wisdom’. Do we really need to “persuade” people? Is there not some basic “bottom line” past which rational argument actually does work? Is there not some point where the evidence can be compelling enough, and one can say, “holy shit everyone, we’re in trouble”…and that’s enough to get people to act?
I would like to believe that. But no, it’s just not true.
4) Lauryn Hill, Luke Skywalker, and you
I believe in the stories I have absorbed all my life. I believe that when darkness falls, heroes rise. When the Death Star is built, the Rebel Alliance suits up. When Mordor threatens Middle Earth, the Company begins its adventure. When Charles Wallace’s Dad disappears, he goes on a magical journey to rescue him. When HomeTree is destroyed, the Na’vi unite their tribes and fight. When Lord Arawn releases the Cauldron-Born, Assistant Pig-Keeper Taran rallies the people. When Fern Gully is going to be destroyed, the fairies go to war.
Now the story is our story, the darkness is our darkness.