Sunday, December 12, 2004

Battlefield Earth - It's time to take care of ourselves!

In this speech, Bill Moyers talks about the right-wing religious agenda of triggering the end of the world (and theoretically, their entrance into heaven) by supporting all-out war in the Middle East and destruction of the environment.

My question, when confronted with this seemingly desperate ideology, is to wonder why people would ever think this could be a good thing. I have a similar question about why people would allow "leaders" to come into power and then go to sleep for 4 years as these "leaders" take us towards such horrific events.

I think these questions have the same answer. I believe that they come from our very human fear that we don't really know how to take care of ourselves, we don't know how to understand complex world issues, we don't know how to solve big issues, we don't know how to directly connect spiritually with something greater than ourselves - so we need "them" to do it for us. Of course, "they" have different faces at different times, but "they" are the ones who we expect to fix it for us, and who often claim that they know more than we do.

So, I submit that it is time for us to start taking care of ourselves, to start recognizing that we do know how to do these things for ourselves, to realize that we have it within each of us to make our lives the way that we want them to be and in the process, help transform the world so that everyone can enjoy their lives they way they want to.

Here's another important point - you create what you defend against. The solution here is not to fight "them," which only ever adds energy to whatever they are doing. I believe that the recent election is a good example of what happens when many people create a movement against something, rather than for what they really want. How many voters actually voted against Bush, rather than for Kerry? No matter what the actual mechanism was in the election, which most probably included lots of voter fraud, it was the energy going towards the Bush campaign that allowed it to happen. It's time to start going for what we really want.

Major transformation happens when we are triggered in a major way to see it is necessary. The time is now. We each have our own unique role to play in this transformation. Each of us has something that really excites us, gets our juices flowing in a good way. Think of what yours is. Is it seeing children happy and healthy? Is is an artform that celebrates some beautiful aspect of our world? Is it maintaing wilderness trails so that more people can get in touch with the environment that sustains us? Is it understanding and sharing information with others about new technologies that lead us toward a more sustainable way to live? Find yours now and become involved with sharing your enthusiasm and joy with others. That is what will transform the world. Give every ounce of your energy to moving towards the world you want to live in and at some point, the balance will tip and that world will become reality.

AlterNet: EnviroHealth: Battlefield Earth

Discovery Network to launch The Military Channel

The continuing, horrifying trend of glorifying and substantiating war as something that we should focus lots of energy on.

WorkingForChange-Discovery Network to launch The Military Channel