The Power of Encouragement

Years ago I took a test to determine my "spiritual gifts." My score rated high in the area of "service." But there's another area where I like to help too and that is "encouragement."

With my family, demanding job, and limited energy, there is only so much time I can devote to helping the Global Sustainability Movement. However, in a way, I can "amplify" my efforts by encouraging others who are doing good work. Other activists I know do not have jobs or children, and can put many more hours into The Cause than I ever could. Others simply have the talent and resources to do things far greater than I.

So, tonight I called a couple of these special people I know and just left a message of encouragement. When I think back on my life, I recall how a few words, a supportive e-mail, or a little recognition did wonders to my will and drive to work harder. I thank the woman in California who recently sent an e-mail of encouragement for my podcast -- that meant so much.

I often think about the amazing story how Russian President Boris Yeltsin was barricaded in the Russian White House during the failed coup attempt in August 1991. By a miracle, President George Bush was able to reach Yeltsin by phone, and he provided encouragement. Later, Yeltsin said that encouragement helped to give him the will to carry on.

Encouragement is free and only takes a few minutes. I encouragement everyone in the environmental and sustainability movement to be encouragers to one another. We are all brothers and sisters in this movement, and it's important that we lift each other up.

And take it a step further -- this life is pretty difficult for most people. You can do a lot to make the world better by encouraging people that you come in contact with whenever you can. A fellow activist said the other day, "I sure do enjoy our mutual admiration society." And yes, I do too. Kind words don't hurt -- they only help.

Let us stand behind, support, and ENCOURAGE the volunteers, activists, and leaders of our movement. It will so much to them, and lifting up our colleagues is a beautiful thing.

Merry Christmas 2006!

On August 18, 1991, a coup against Gorbachev was launched by hard line communists headed by Vladimir Kryuchkov. Gorbachev was held in Crimea while Yeltsin raced to the White House of Russia (residence of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR) in Moscow to defy the coup. The White House was surrounded by the military but the troops defected in the face of mass popular demonstrations. Yeltsin responded to the coup by making a memorable speech from the turret of a tank.

—Wikepedia

Statement on Global Warming

The following is a statement from Albert Allen Bartlett, professor emeritus of physics, University of Colorado. He is one of the great leaders of our movement.

While I appreciate the efforts of Al Gore and others to raise awareness about global warming, they have missed the ball if they fail to mention our exploding global population as a key part of this problem.

As usual, people have this strange, built-in denial about population growth. I'm not sure what the deal is: either they don't want to be viewed as too radical, they fail to make the connection, or they don't think it's politically correct. Who knows.

Anyway, here is Mr. Bartlett's wonderful statement:

A SELF-EVIDENT TRUTH

If any fraction of the observed global warming can be attributed to the activities of humans, then this constitutes positive proof that the human population, living as we do, has exceeded the carrying capacity of the Earth.
THIS SITUATION IS NOT SUSTAINABLE!

AS A CONSEQUENCE,
IT IS AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH
THAT ALL PROPOSALS OR EFFORTS TO SLOW GLOBAL WARMING
OR TO MOVE TOWARD SUSTAINABILITY
ARE SERIOUS INTELLECTUAL FRAUDS
IF THEY DO NOT ADVOCATE
REDUCING POPULATIONS TO SUSTAINABLE LEVELS
AT THE LOCAL, NATIONAL AND GLOBAL SCALES.

The Cigarette Test

Cigarettes are perhaps the perfect experiment to see if humans can overcome their own self destruction. Now, I see people smoking EVERYWHERE — in cars, in public, at events, and everywhere they can.

Even though smoking is dangerous to the individual, is a major cause of fires, and endangers the health of other people in the vicinity, millions of people still do it.

The tobacco farmers like it. The senators and congresspersons of tobacco states likes it. And smokers appear to REALLY like it.

I spent a few days last week in Phoenix, AZ, where smokers have one month left to smoke in restaurants before a law goes into effect. As I was having dinner Tuesday night I noticed the smoker people — at the bars and at their booths. They were smoking one white stick after the other.

Why do people do it?

• It's too hard to quit.
• I'm young, I'll quit when I'm older.
• I like it, and what I do is no one else's business. It's my "lifestyle" choice.
• I'll gain weight if I quit.

And the list goes on. The point is that smokers will come up with dozens of excuses and rationalizations to continue their self-destructive habit.

So, if we can't even get people to stop smoking, how will we get humanity to start living sustainably?

Frankly, I don't know the answer. According to the American Heart Association:

In the United States, an estimated 25.5 million men (24.1 percent) and 21.5 million women (19.2 percent) are smokers. These people are at higher risk of heart attack and stroke.

Wow, that's a lot of people. Every day I notice them flicking their nasty butts on sidewalks, out the windows of their cars, etc.. In fact, cigarette butts and packaging are a prime source of litter.

Quite frequently someone ahead of me in traffic will flick their little butt out the window. I often honk at them and give them a dirty look. One day some good 'ol boy is going to whip my butt, but that's okay with me. It really pisses me off when smokers think they have a "right" to litter our Planet. I get resentful when I have to pick up the nasty butts (often with lipstick on them) from my front yard and curb. I mean, why do I have to pick up someone else's life-destroying garbage?

So, when I see smokers out in traffic, puffing in the smoke, blowing the crap out their nose, and throwing their butts, wrappers, and boxes everywhere, I say to myself:

These are NOT the people who will help save the world.

No. Rather they are addicts and prisoners to the greatest corporate marketing scam of all time. They are slaves to the tobacco companies, and all they are able to do is destroy — they destroy their lungs, their heart, their loved ones, and the environment around them. And meanwhile, the farmers and tobacco firms get their money.

Is this a model for sustainability? Nope. Will humanity win the battle against the tobacco cartels and their millions of consumer slaves? I hope so.

I do appreciate the efforts of government and many churches to address this worldwide pandemic. But at the same time, we must come down harder on the murderous corporations that push the tobacco poison, and we must provide more education and rehabilitation to the tobacco victims.

In my vision of the future, humans won't kill themselves with cigarettes. In effect, this is a form of violence to one's self, and it has got to go.

Religion & Lying

This month I've been totally intrigued by the works of a fellow activist that I've recently met. His name is Jack Harich (thwink.org) and he has created an incredible website and written two books and a variety of papers on the topic of global sustainability. I am in the middle of one of his books, and all I can say is that it's awesome. Jack hits the nail on the head — as I'm reading his book I feel it was custom written just for me.

After all these years it is great to see more affirmation that all these crazy observations that I have made about the world have been noticed by others. Now, more lately, I've taken a "systems approach" to our global sustainability challenge. What this means is that I don't get as upset when I hear a politician lie because I realize that it's embedded in the system. When corporations try to manipulate public opinion, push their lies, and try to manipulate government, I don't get so upset anymore because a) I'm guessing this has gone on for thousands of years and b) again, I think it's endemic.

I'm 46 years old and it has taken me most of my life to unravel all the lies that are everywhere in our current, dysfunctional society. One area that seems to be sacred and unchallenged is religion. If we, as humans, are to maintain our integrity as a whole, then we must have the courage to "call a spade a spade" and identify a lie as a LIE. Is religion a package of verifiable facts, myths, superstitions, or beliefs? If something is NOT true, then it must be a LIE, and we must have the courage to say that.

I can't figure out what good it does for humanity to turn lies into truth and then center their lives around them. Maybe the lies provide comfort, or a moral compass (now, that's a paradox!). Maybe people just LIKE the lies so they keep repeating them, transferring them to their children, and playing the game.

I have ALWAYS felt, ever since age 15, that church and religion were simply a game people played. Up until age 37 I tried to play the game as well, but was never good at it. Over the years I finally began to realize that The Game is not harmless, and, rather, it was doing more harm than good. I can't help but think that if humanity stopped playing these religious games, we'd all be better off.

Without a doubt, religion does a lot of good. But at the same time it does a lot of bad because humans use it as a cover for violent and/or self-destructive behavior. Comments like "God will take care of it" or "it's God's will" are actually quite dangerous. Most religions also cast humans as inherently flawed, and this is problem too because it gives them an "excuse" to be dysfunctional. Of greatest concern is that religion makes people act irrationally.

In the sustainable future I envision, I'm not sure it's necessary to get rid of all religions. When that happens, people often just worship something else, like the state, their dictator, or even atheism is a sort of religion. So, I THINK the answer is to reform our current religions. I applaud the Episcopalians, United Church of Christ, and other liberal to moderate denominations that are leading the way in this area. The idea is to remove the bad stuff and adapt our religions to our current world values. For instance, the Bible is very much pro-slavery, yet we now abhor slavery. See, progress is being made.

As for those who cling to their LIES and refuse to at least modify them, these folks are taking humanity on a dangerous path. To people in this group, I ask that you reconsider your course and help us to create a sustainable future.

The War Against Education

Okay, the article in yesterday's newspaper ties into what I've been thinking a lot about lately. The other day on another discussion list I said that "education is the great antidote of fundamentalism."

Well, this has become evident by a newspaper article titled, "New Taliban Rules Target Teachers, Aid Workers, Schools." So, the point being is that the religious fundamentalist types are killing teachers. Why? Because education is a threat to their stupid and ridiculous dogma.

"The Taliban gunmen who killed two teachers in eastern Afghanistan early Saturday were only following their rules: Teachers receive a warning, then a beating, and if they continue to teach must be killed."

Yep. Apparently the Taliban have put out a list of 30 rules that must be followed, and killing teachers is one of them. Some of the other rules include no smoking, and no use of jihad equipment for personal use. Yep, MAKES PERFECT SENSE TO ME!

"Taliban militants early Saturday broke into a house in the eastern province of Kunar, killing a family of five, including two sisters who were teachers."

Of course, teachers are also getting killed in Iraq. Usually it's religious freaks who try to kill teachers, but other times its rouge governments as well. For instance, the old Khmer Rouge regime of Cambodia put teachers on their lengthy killing list.

"Hundreds of thousands of the new people, and later the depositees, were taken out, shackled, to dig their own mass graves. Then the Khmer Rouge soldiers beat them to death with iron bars and hoes or buried them alive. A Khmer Rouge extermination prison directive ordered, "Bullets are not to be wasted."

So, killing teachers is a nice strategy for two of our powerful institutions -- Religion and Government. But what about Corporations?

It's quite a problem in the Western world because Corporations need smart, educated people, but the religious fundamentalists and politicians would prefer to keep everyone dumbed down. The solution? Selective education.

In the U.S., The Machine wants you to be smart to serve the Corporate Masters, but they don't want you to be too political or scientific -- because then you could be a threat to the status quo.

A few years ago an industrialist I was talking to was blaming environmentalists for the brownouts in California. "The problem is that California has too many over educated people with too much time on their hands," he said.

Even three years later, this statement continues to piss me off. From the eyes of The Machine, an environmentalist is merely a troublemaker. But from my eyes, these are progressive individuals who are fighting for justice.

Let's examine this twisted statement:

"Too many over educated people" -- Well, who else is going to take on the corrupt, money-grubbing, air polluting power companies? People with no education? Nope, it's the EDUCATED people that Corporations need, but at the same time, they despise.

"With too much time on their hands" -- Again, who's going to take on these coal-burning, greedy companies? The people who are just trying to exist from day-to-day? The poor people flipping burgers? Nope. It's the enlightened and progressive people that are going to take on corporate polluters. Yes, those "bad" people.

So, in conclusion, education is one of the best tools for fighting The Machine and its supporting institutions. Education is critical to long-term sustainability, and that's what this blog is all about.

KNOWLEDGE IS POWER

Saving Ourselves, the Animals, and Planet

I think the first step in healing our dysfunctional humanity is to admit that we are a species. Once we do that, everything begins to fall into place. I am proud to be an animal, and I do not see myself as one bit better than my two dogs. Now this statement may freak out a lot of traditional religious type and neocons, but I happen to like being an animal.

Oh yes, I forgot to mention -- since we are the Big Brained species that learned to fight with our wits instead of our strength or claws, we do have some added responsibility. My dogs are like me -- in the wild it would be hard for all of us survive. We take care of each other -- my dogs look out for me and I look out for them. That's the way it should be with all animals -- we have an added responsibility to take care of God's creatures.

Right now our human population is exploding so vastly that it is hard to protect and respect hundreds of other species because we are simply squeezing them out, and/or killing them with our chemical waste products. We Big Brains are wiping out other species, and I consider this a horrible and serious crime. We Big Brainers have a RESPONSIBILITY to stabilize our population, lest we destroy other species.

Next ...

Now, for the second step in our recovery. We need to stop acting like we are flawed and accept the fact that nothing is wrong with us. Nearly all religions, even the farout ones, teach that there is something wrong with us, and we need to reach for salvation, enlightenment, or whatever the religion-of-the-week tells us. SURPRISE!!! We are not flawed at all. Look at your dogs, look at the birds in your yard -- is there anything flawed about them? Nope!

In the history of evolution, the really freaky creatures never made it out of the ocean. Some are bizarre looking, but are they flawed? Heck no, because they've survived for millions of years.

We Humans are neither bad nor good -- we are just Humans. We just do our own thing. The problem is that when we think we are FLAWED, it gives us an EXCUSE to be dysfunctional.

Still Evolving?

Are Humans still evolving? Heck yes. We are getting smarter and more attractive with each generation because the not-so-smart may not have the sense to make it to reproduction age, or their parents may not be smart enough to get their young to reproduction age. As a result, our species continues to get more robust. Are we going to evolve into another creature? Maybe not, unless the Earth's climate changes drastically (aka global warming).

Actually, the way we NEED to evolve now is in different ways -- socially, intellectually, mentally, etc... My hope is that we will somehow evolve beyond violence. I also hope we will evolve beyond the point where we destroy our own environment for immediate self-fulfillment.

We still have a LOT of work ahead of us. See, the traits that kept us alive in our caveman days -- like being selfish, hording resources, being aggressive, etc. -- these are the same things that may kill us now. So far, we are not adapting well to the way we've radically re-shaped our global environment in such a short period of time. Within a few generations we've totally saturated our Big Blue Marble with PEOPLE, and this has created all sorts of new problems.

The most important thing we need to do is stabilize our population. Right now we are suffering from species stress as competition continues to increase for resources (food, fresh water, jobs, land, etc..). Things MIGHT get very ugly before they get better. I hope that's not the case. My sincere hope is that people begin to WAKE UP. Humans need to throw all their self-destructive dogma and hangups out the window, and we need to START PROTECTING THE ANIMALS, THE PLANET, AND OUR FUTURE. That's all I ask.

The Goose

Just Blow'em Away

First the Russian journalist and then the former KGB agent. How does the power structure of Russia handle dissent? They just murder the people who speak out -- this has a chilling effect on those who would LIKE to speak out. The fear spreads, and the people of the land just learn to keep their mouth shut. This is probably a preview for how the entire world will soon be.

In Iraq, well, the insurgents and religious fanatics simply kill everyone, especially academic professionals. Yes, in Iraq everyone is a target -- it's a free-for-all blood bath. Perhaps this is another preview of how the world will soon be.

Once again, this all goes back to The Machine -- you know, the people with the power. You know, the Colombian drug lords, or the warlords of the Sudan, or whatever. To keep your power you use fear, intimidation, and ruthless violence. It's such a handy tactic.

All of this thuggery will continue until the people of the world stand up and say "enough." For instance, the citizens of Russia need to show outrage for all the brutal killings of dissenters.

Free speech is a beautiful thing and a key to our future sustainability. Those power mongrels who try to muffle speech, through murder, fear, and intimidation, do not really have power.

In the United States, they use more humane methods to keep you quiet. When you speak out, you are accused of being "unpatriotic" or "providing comfort to the enemy." The idea is to make you out to be a BAD person so that you will shut up, and the hope is that maybe others will be intimidated into shutting up as well.

Tonight, I salute the Dixie Chicks. They gave up a LOT to speak out and tell the truth. Now, all the hick country stations won't play their songs. This sends a signal to other artists -- you speak out and we'll hurt your career, your finances, and whatever.

The message: Don't challenge The Machine, for if you do, you shall pay a price. I can only say one thing to that: Screw The Machine!!!!