Dear Friend and Reader:
Friday evening. I’ve just returned from my gig for the Yes Men, doing the Q & A session after the screening of The Yes Men Fix the World tonight in Hudson, New York. Basically, it’s a little teach-in, awareness-raising session after the film is over. When the boys get there they can; when they can’t, I do, if it’s vaguely possible. I think tonight was my fourth one of these; the first three were in Rhinebeck at Upstate Films, and I’ll be at TSL in Hudson Saturday and Sunday as well. (The screenings are at 5:30 pm.)
It’s interesting to actually have the conversation with people about what is wrong and what we can do about it, rather than complaining, or having the meeting on the Internet where we can’t actually see and hear each other. It reminds me how alienated we are from one another, on the particular theme of working together for a goal.
Sometimes I feel like nobody has even heard of it. A lot of times I have to hold the hands of my own staff and encourage them to call up the people they work with and talk to them; to confer on issues that would make their jobs easier. I know that part of my karma in this lifetime involves teaching people how to cooperate for a purpose they agree on. [If you want to get in on that karma and/or the closely realted piece about creative adventure, contact me, I am easy to find.]
And this, in turn, reminds me that one of the themes of this phase of world history, at least here in the capitalist Western world, is about conditioning people that life is all about “every man for himself.” There is no notion of the common good, something that used to be an idea we could talk about. Now if you propose however meekly that there might be a common good, you’re accused of being a socialist. This is the capitalist equivalent of being made to carry the Little Red Book and a picture of Chairman Mao everywhere you go. It is religion disguised as corporatist government.
This is not good for people who want to be people rather than ‘consumers’. I can explain this with the parable of the laundromat. I think we need more, better laundromats that are designed to be social places. But think of how horrendous this would be for capitalism. It costs a lot to create a new washing machine (and sometimes even a single component for a washing machine), and you have to sell a lot to make a profit. Therefore, you have to convince everyone they have to have their own washer and dryer, and preferably one upstairs and one downstairs, rather than be communal about it and share. Now multiply this by every industry you can name and imagine it taking over society. (We are educated constantly, through advertising that costs more and occupies more time than any education ever received by a human being, including the most scholarly Jesuit monk ever).
The effect of this campaign is is 1) more privatization, 2) less socialization and therefore 3) less human contact and finally 4) more profit for large industrial companies. Let’s take the opposite of this, Planet Waves, a self-sustaining, open conversation without advertising sponsorship. If I wanted to clean up financially I would 1) convince you I have something that you do not, 2) isolate my readers from one another and 3) create an atmosphere that breeds fear so that would drive the need for the product. I would drive as much traffic to the site as possible and start reaching out to Miracle Whip, Fiji Water and Kashi for sponsorship; who would of course advertise on the unspoken grounds that the content be acceptable to them.
With this simple couple of metaphors you have an image of what is happening in the world; why so much turns to bullshit so fast; where the bandwidth of your mind goes. How many thousand ads to you see every day? Before the Internet it was about 4,000.
We want to do something, I know. From my humble perch, I hear about everything everyone wants to do, and why they don’t do it. I understand that people are scared right now; mainly, I hear from a lot of people who are so scared they’re afraid to even state their opinion, many who are afraid to make a decision, and many others who are so frightened that they are paralyzed. Mostly the people I hear from seem to be convinced they are paralyzed rather than actually being bound in a wheelchair. It’s a game; and we cannot expect anyone to take responsibility for the world until we feel good about taking responsibility for our own lives.
That is the first step, and usually it’s the step we delay. Hey, it’s convenient — till it’s not.
e:
We share an 8th house moon (mine is in Taurus, conjunct Mars and Jupiter) and I have spent much of my life standing for authenticity in the face of no agreement as well. Is the 8th connected with truth-telling? Have subscribed for years but didn’t have time yesterday to read Judith’s wise words – thanks for the tip to slow down and absorb them – she too is a truth-teller.
The Christian idea of a one-shot chance at ‘heaven or hell’ helps to create the environment of western civ. In the Eastern countries that embrace Buddhism, the basic teaching of the Buddha is impermanence. This is a vast topic but in its most basic form, it means that everything that is created will dissolve eventually and to live our lives each moment with this truth gradually increases our capacity to see who we really are. There is nothing to cling to – no person, place or idea will survive this dissolution – including our bodies. Impermanence is connected also with the law of cause and effect (karma) and so the logic follows that we reap what we sow – so sow wisely.
So simple – yet so profound. Truth often is just that.
Take good care,
L
Eric, that’s what I thought about Medvedev when I read what he said. It is entirely possible to continue being creative, and find new ways to do business, and satisfy the urge to aquire a few things without killing half the planet.
But it all boils down to recognizing when something reminds us of a time when we felt really happy or satisfied, (or sad) and then learning how to put it in perspective. Macdonald’s is no longer a popular hamburger joint because of advertising. I mean word of mouth can close a business in no time. What we remember is going out for a hamburger and fries with our parents and we remember how fantastic it was to be with them when they were happy and not fighting. Later we went out on dates, or cruised the local drive thru’s to see who and what were to be seen. So we keep going back for hamburgers (well I don’t but this is just an example) and fries to recapture the moments of bliss.
Consumers or people? I think a great advertiser knows how to rattle the grey matter memory chains to make money for the client. Maybe I’ll try that next year at farmer’s market, and revive an old soap commercial or something – bath time has to be a happy memory for some of the shoppers. LOL.
Seriously, some of the stuff that our children are coming up with is simply breathtaking, and besides, most ‘consumers’ have figured it out – that the credit card companies have robbed them blind, that all the jobs are gone, and that most of the banks are on the verge of collapse. I don’t think my family is buying anything for Christmas this year – we’ll just spend some time together and enjoy each other. We’ve lost so many young people in our family this year a gift exchange just seems meaningless. Lost one to H1N1 two weeks ago – pregnant 21 year old. Lost my nephew and his girlfriend this summer to an overdose. Lost a cousin to suicide – hanged himself – 19 years old. Daughter lost a friend to H1N1 two weeks ago – within two days of the young cousin. If you are a reader of the obituaries, you might say it is downright depressing that so many young people are listed every day.
It is time for a change all right, and the people are driving it.
I woke up this morning thinking about how much in the way of guts it must take to be authentic in the current environment we are in…and I caught a glimpse of how I might be perceived…as having some incomprehensible source of boldness or strength…to keep going…to say the things I say and to fly directly into the storm. I felt for a fleeting moment what it’s like to experience the opposite of this, the sense of paralysis, not knowing what to do, the sense of not belonging or not having come far enough to participate and I tried to look across that gap from both directions, at the other side. Here is what I can tell you, it’s not as wide as you think.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-russia-medvedev13-2009nov13,0,6120255.story
Interesting speech by Russian President Medvedev this week, regarding the archaic Russian control of business. He didn’t say a lot, but it was eye-opening. Putin may not control him as much as everyone wants to think.
Linda,
I think that consciousness around the death piece is crucial. I have an 8th house Moon, so I never forget; I live on that edge of transience and I have learned that awareness and awakeness are better than sleep and denial.
Here is Judith Gayle’s article from Planet Waves Astrology News this week, which touches on this subject. Thanks Linda.
http://planetwavesweekly.com/resources/war-peace-beetwen.html
e & f:
One time in these current days when folks are guaranteed to get together is for FUNERALS. I work as a funeral director and go out to see families to organise them and it’s pretty weird how siblings, half sibs, step-sibs and the full extended/blended family tree gets magnetized when someone dies.
Why is this so? What is it about the finality of death that gets everyone off their butts and on a plane to come together and to see their dad in the coffin? I regularly walk into a lounge room with 8 or so people sitting there and orchestrate them to ‘visualise’ the event and take into account and listen to 8 different points of view.
This sounds like a possible recipe for disaster but it actually works pretty well most of the time. People seem to give themselves and each other permission to be REAL when grief/relief/completion is present. Tears are quietly shed, emotion rises and falls like gentle waves, people have ideas from every angle and somehow there is a space to tolerate/hear them.
Shame we need something as radical as death to bring out the best in a group.
Cicadas are singing tonight – summer has arrived in Sydney.
Cheers,
Linda
Fe,
Every word I write in Planet Waves, from any angle (whether you call it horoscope or article or blog), is designed to answer this issue of the runaway train; my intention is to integrate the individual and collective levels in a way that is both practical and doable in the moment.
When I ask a question such as, “What aren’t you afraid of?” I mean it; and I mean it as a tool. In every article I offer the best, clearest, most useful concepts that can be used as tools, drawing from the best that I have learned from both experience and from mentors, making sure I have tested the knowledge repeatedly.
Book of Blue takes a slightly different approach, which is to demonstrate that it is possible to be oneself despite the fear of what others might think of you. It is a more direct exploration of that gray area between fear and love; between shame and pleasure; designed for me to open the territory in myself, to explore with awareness, and to open the field for others to develop.
The runaway train is precisely why I do the work that I do, with the understanding that so much more is possible and that we must take up the challenges of growth and claiming personhood with a sense of adventure and the willingness to share who we are and what we have.
e
ef:
Come to think of it, the last time we really pulled together as a nation was under a great depression, where the government acted to mobilize people to work on building roads, dams, make art, music, theater. There was no internet and fewer cars, so people woud see and be with each other going somewhere.
We have become isolated by design of a consumer-based plan. We support purchase of goods which reaps profits. We need to be further isolated so that we continue to purchase goods and corps can reap profits.
You’re right in that there is a running definition of the citizenry as consumers versus people. Conversely, corporations are “individuals”.
Where do we begin to derail this runaway train?