Hey there-
This is the stuff I was working on when I was in graduate school studying
applied philosophy. I was writing my thesis on nonviolence and revolution.
But those revolutions always seem to take you back to where you started,
thus the name. Or more accurately, further up or down the spiral so that
many things are the same, but others are different. If nothing else the
time element is different. Heraclitus comes to mind, "You can never step in
the same river twice."
In general, we seem to mistake symptoms for causes; seems to be human
nature. Looking at the roots means pulling up the problem which can often
be painful because it means looking at some of your own base motivations
(all puns intended). This is also very hard because asking us about money
or, more importantly, power is like asking a fish about water. Power seems
to me to be the most basic currency of all the things that are pointed to
as "The Problem" like money, violence, greed etc. Like most things, it
cuts both ways because there are utterly positive forms of power.
It really is quite a balancing act because it seems essential to me that
we work on at least three levels. First and foremost, we must work on our
own minds, hearts, souls, motivations, desires, etc. Perhaps those damned
Buddhists were right, they always seem to be, desire may be the level below
power. This would be interior work. At the same time, we must work on our
external world from our personal perspective; how we live and act. But at
the same time we feel compelled to work or struggle with the desires and
actions of the people, faux people (megacorps(e)), cultures, governments,
etc. to influence or even force them toward a better way of life. At the
very least, try to stop them from continuing our imminent destruction. It
seems to me that we ignore any level of this conundrum at our own, and our
descendants, peril. Pacifism is not passive, that is certainly true. But it
is also not removed from the world. Non-attachment is not detachment.
Namaste',
Guy Clark
Community Garden Coalition
Fertile Crescent Farm
Missouri Organic Association
Columbia Farmers' Market
Heart of Missouri Master Gardeners
Columbia Area Food Circle
Callaway Food Circle
310 Hartley Court
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573.449.GROW
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