The problem: Before Climate Crisis kills 4 billion people or so and we as the Human Race have to deal with that tragedy, Human Beings need to fundamentally change.
We have to change not just our “lifestyles” but our entire way of thinking about living on a planet, and living with 7 billion other people on that planet.
We have to change from a species that competes with (kills) each other, to a species that cooperates (feeds and cares for) each other.
Fortunately, only a critical mass of human beings need to make this change, not every single one of us. Fortunately as well we don’t have to be perfect in making this change, since Human Beings will never be perfect. (When humans achieve perfection, they cease to be humans, lol)
So let’s think about that for a minute.
In an incredibly short amount of time compared to the rest of the process of human evolution, ENOUGH humans have to change, or at least accept change, to significantly alter the way we react to each other…and the planet.
It is VERY easy to view this as something impossible and to give up hope. I mean, we are talking about going from eight years of a Bushco approach of domination and separation to a whole new paradigm….before it is too late to turn the Climate process around.
This will not happen without conflict.
Even in the best case scenario, where we are able to avoid Resource Wars and Climate Refugee Wars and Economic Dominance Wars…..
We will have massive amounts of conflict with the Status Quo-rriors and The Old Guards over transforming enough of world society…and enough of ourselves…to the new paradigm that is the only real hope of avoiding a tragedy unlike the world has ever seen.
There will be conflict.
That means that we cannot approach conflict as a “Bad Thing,” as something to be avoided. It means in fact that we have to embrace the conflicts to come as part of the process. WHILE finding a way to make our part of the conflict fit in with the new paradigm of cooperation of competition.
In other words, we have to find ways to engage in conflict…in an “excellent” way.
Or as Hunter S. Thompson put it…”When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.”
The going IS weird. And we need to turn pro.
A scenario: The future of the planet is at risk. (In addition to the wars and torture and bigotry and intolerance and injustice and just plain ignorance/stupidity that already beset us) and a WHOLE bunch of people…the current critical mass are just plain wrong, and just plain in denial. Their hearts and minds must be changed. There is no Ghandi or MLK to lead this effort to change hearts and minds. WE have to be the leaders. WE have to be the ones who engage in conflict.
The sort of critical mass we are talking about simply cannot be the result of One Person leading us out of the wilderness, that just produces a “follower mentality.”
So EACH OF US has to not only make a change within us (conflict) but also change those we have contact with (conflict) and urge them to help us to work to change The System (big time conflict!) It simply cannot be done, the planet simply cannot be changed, without conflict.
So….shying away from, or trying to gloss over, or trying to quash or repress conflict is either pointless or, more likely, counterproductive.
It will take conflict to change the status quo. And if we DON”T change the status quo, billions are likely to die. But if we fight in the way that humans have always fought…we are just preserving the status quo by acting within it.
The Internet can be considered (among other things) a laboratory for this change. Time is compressed on the Internet. The average person can easily go through a day in our conflict adverse society without ever encountering any meaningful contact, even counting rude barristas. The Internet on the other hand is practically MADE for conflict. In fact conflict is one of the, if not THE most attractive features of the Internet. (Besides porn of course.) Here, we can compress our learning time as to how to “wage conflict” in a new and more productive way, in order to do our part in changing the world.
We CAN, if we so CHOOSE, be the vanguard for constructive change through conflict. Using the compressed and concentrated lessons of human interaction we learn on line.
At this point I feel that it is only fair to point out that I pretty much suck at this.
But in the effort to learn from our “mistakes” in human interaction, (as I recently mentioned in another essay) this is the place that I have come to. And that place is essentially a question: How do we engage in the conflict that is absolutely needed to change the world….excellently?
Human Nature is geared for conflict, the time and task we have been presented with requires conflict, avoiding or glossing over or trying to prevent conflict is counter productive.
So….how do we engage in the conflict that must occur to change the world…while not perpetuating the same cycles and dynamic that make it necessary to change the world in the first place?
This question is one of the key things we have to confront and solve as we move forward. Perhaps THE key thing, as the basic problem we face in absolutely everything we are trying to accomplish is changing ENOUGH OF human nature to save the planet and move forward.
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There will be a pop-quiz in fifteen minutes.
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I have some time right now, although probably not a whole lot of clarity. All of this has really been on my mind, and its becoming my main focus, for at least a few
weeksmonths. but today… I will warn you, I am in the midst (but in a lull) of a rather HOT domesticdebatesituation …. so Im somewhat warped by that, at the moment.I am, actually, very torn. It is my nature… to bend, to compromise, to give in, to adjust, flex, empathize, etc. and to work toward consensus. Unfortunately, that doesnt work very well. It ONLY works if or when the other parties involved agree to some common basic… foundational … uhm, things, values, givens. Such as respect, dignity, mutuality, common good, equality … what else?
Equality.
Well. Equal access, equal benefit/s, equal rights… cannot emerge from UNequal Power, unless you have a Benevolent Overlord in the power spot. right? well, not even then.
We don’t have a level playing field.
You know, I don’t WANT “Power”, I don’t. I just want equal… goodies. Basics. But if TPTB won’t give me that, or allow me access to that, then what choice is there but to seize power somehow, away from the Greeders. Get power into the hands of the Sharer’s and we’ll be happy to share the goods. with everyone.
If as one of the Sharer’s … the question becomes for me, how to do that without compromising or negating or betraying those basic principles listed above, respect etc.?
Its all one big gordian knot, right now, for me. More questions.
sigh
lots of them actually, who will during this process of change try to resolve major conflicts by simply killing or trying to kill everyone they come into conflict with. And lots of them have lots of weapons, and no compunctions.
So….how do we engage in the conflict that must occur to change the world…while not perpetuating the same cycles and dynamic that make it necessary to change the world in the first place?
is another piece of this puzzle.
When my Dad died (1999) and we gathered… Sister #2, the evangelical, would not tolerate Sister #1, the Drum Circler, doing any of her rituals, sage, chants, PRAYERS, whatever, anywhere, period. (witchcraft satan poisoning our air etc).
And Im with Drummer sister on this. We do not object to her glory to god in jc’s name bla bla bla…. I do not claim to be All Knowing Deciding that her
shitreligion is poisonous to me. I tolerate her intolerance. (Robyn had a good essay a little while back on that)Im {.} this close to saying fuck that noise. To all those people. All of ’em!
Just throwing this in as an example.
Problem is… how do I “enforce” it.?
Y’know, I can say: “Not under MY roof!” okay fine, but we… heh… nice metaphor by accident… are all in our father’s house now.
Guess that’s why He made sure to have many rooms (ref John 1 something, I forget). lol (thats about the only scripture I ever quote, usually…)
Its just crazymaking. I do not want to “become them” in order to defeat them.
sorry, I know Im not making a lot of sense.
But I see no study materials to use in my preparation?
sorry I wandered off topic a little up there, about the Happy People… back to the mutants… buhdy, that essay is fucking hilarious, and greatness.
You might even consider re-posting it, but maybe its just me… lol. Ive referred to myself for the past 10 years or so, only half joking, as a “closet agoraphobe”…! 😉
thats some good shit right here…
The more charts and related blogs I read the more I become convinced that we are a three stage society, the super rich > one billion, the middle class salary > 100,000/yr, and the serfs <30,000/yr.
Notice that the groups are dependent upon each other to survive and their commonality is money. It defines their stature in society and their need for each other.
The super rich must constantly keep their net worth advancing at least at the rate of inflation. They need the middle class to manage their money, businesses,taxes and congresscritters to give them an edge.
The middle class is also concerned with maintaining the status quo. They have mortgages, kids, credit cards, parents needing help. What if they lost their job? What if the big ‘C’ struck. Is a lower paid worker eying their job? What if upper management cut wages to maintain profits?
The serfs, that be us son, have to worry that their situation may become worse.
Just thinkin:
I would guess that the super rich = 5%, the middle class = 50%, and the serfs = 45% of the population.
At the peak retail trade accounted for 70 % of the GDP. As the economy contracts people are more hesitant to spend their cash/credit and stores start being boarded up. This indicates how slim the margins are for business.
This process feeds on itself and everyone gets hurt in the process.
The question is what do we look like coming (if) out.
It is the velocity of money
mistakes?
As a great man once said: “Non violence takes time” (or some such)
You slap them upside the head with facts (verbal slapping only) and step back to let it sink in and then you do it again and again. Patience and persistence, like how you raise children. Because they are like children, they have not evolved to mutant status. Yet!
Assimilation! Rinse and repeat!
Do we have that much time? I don’t know. But it’s one step in the right direction, me thinks.
and education. It is made, too, for learning how to debate effectively.
That doesn’t necessarily mean politely. But it does mean learning how to avoid traps.
Thus, at times we practice on each other. And it isn’t always polite, and it tends to be stuck all over with traps.
The ultimate trap, though, for any given individual; is not getting past these practice sessions to the real thing. We can educate each other until hell freezes over, without anything but good effect. But using each other as knife sharpeners has its limits. Sooner or later, the blades wear down, the stones grow small, and what has one accomplished, other than a hastening of an already inevitable process? i.e.; we all wear down just fine without each other’s assistance.
is the real killer here. The Wars it will generate will though.
As to sucking at stuff, yes I do. Injested way too much flouride. Don’t really want to “see” the future in that psychic sense. Educating others on the real state of affairs, waking up the sheeple only goes so far. Most people stop, slink back into the Matrix programming like my lame horse who stops listening to me after a month off.
Saving the enviornment for what. The future? What future? Future for the top elites running the entire world modeled after Red China? Fuck That. Not a fucking nano-second will I waste propping up those fucking parasite asshole Bernie Madoff carbon global poverty inducing motherfucks further up the food chain.