Violence & Sustainability

All this time the two goals of my life have been to eliminate human violence and achieve global sustainability. But in the last month or so I've been thinking that maybe the two goals contradict.

Every day I read the news reports on Iraq and I get sick to my stomach. The folks over there simply LOVE murdering Americans, coalition forces, civilian contractors, each other, and any living thing they can get their hands on. They simply love to kill -- it's probably fun for them.

As I sit back and think, I'm beginning to realize that this is simply evolution at work. Violence is perfectly natural in nature, and to prevent humans from murdering and slaughtering one another is to prevent the natural flow of evolution.

What this violence accomplishes, I'm not sure. It will eventually prune out the aggressive genes in humanity. It will weed out the weak and those who are slower to draw a gun.

Maybe we just need to accept violence as part of life and let our murdering and killing pursue its natural course. Maybe this pruning of the flock will help to create a better, stronger human race.

But I keep thinking about what the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King said when he gave his Nobel Peace Prize speech. He said something about evolving BEYOND the violence. It always struck me strange that a preacher would use the word "evolve." But I think Dr. King was far more than a preacher -- he was a great global visionary.

So, no. As much as the Iraqis, Iranians, and gun-happy rednecks drive me crazy with their violent acts and threats, and their love for weapons, I cannot accept it.

What is the point of continued evolving, if we are only evolving ourselves to death? I mean, humanity desperately needs some goals, and I always thought "world peace" would be a nice one.

But then again, who am I to interfere with the natural process of nature? Isn't getting back in touch with our animalism a big part of sustainability?

Finally, I can't help but think that the Sunni and Shiite civil war is all engineered by the U.S. government. Maybe the Bush Administration is much smarter than we give them credit for -- maybe their goal is to let these two religious factions keep killing each other until all those aggressive young men are gone. Then Iraq would be less of a threat and the entire region would be easier to subjugate. I never put anything past those government neocons -- they are a slick bunch.

A New Religion

Whaaa, I'm not even two yet and I've already
determined that life sucks.

Let Us Think For A Moment .....

Over the past couple of years, I've spent a lot of time researching different religions and trying to find one that fits me better. See, most people just take the one handed to them by their parents, but the one I was given seems to have major shortcomings.

When I take those tests on the Internet to determine my faith, the following religions always top the list:


Liberal Quakers (100%)
Liberal Christian Protestants (95%)
Unitarian Universalism (91%)
Bahá'í Faith (78%)
Secular Humanism (75%)
Neo-Pagan (74%)
New Age (70%)
Reform Judaism (65%)
Mahayana Buddhism (63%)

I've also been fascinated with a new religion started by a young man in nearby Birmingham, AL that is not about faith at all, but rather focuses on logic and reason. It is called Universism and is similar to Deism and Agnosticism (not related to Unitarian Universalism). Even this so-called "religion" is not a good fit for me.

A New Religion

There are thousands of religions on this Planet, and many people insist that their religion is the RIGHT one. Often, people determine this not by analytic reasoning, but simply because they were BORN into a particular religion. It amazes me how people can simply accept their religion without putting it through rigorous examination. Of course, some people feel that God gets angry if they question their religion, which is a great self perpetuation mechanism.

I think we would have a much more peaceful and sustainable World if we simply threw ALL religions out the window. In their place, I would like to propose a new religion. I'll call it Making Others Less Miserable (MOLM).

The Religion of Making Others Less Miserable (MOLM)

See, my religion is based on the tenet that life is basically difficult and miserable. Whether it's financial, health, relationships, or just plain ol' loneliness, there is an abundance of hurt on this Planet. So, to practice this religion, all you have to do is go around and help other people. And, oh yes, I also extend my religion to all animals and nature.

Here are some easy ways to practice the religion of MOLM:

- Just love every human. Bring cheer into their life. Build their self esteem, give them encouragement, make them laugh. Spend time with them when they are lonely. Don't get so self-absorbed in your own pathetic life and pick up the phone and, instead, call someone who is going through a hard time.

- Practice random acts of kindness. Send a card, deliver a meal, or leave an extra large tip for a waiter who is having a bad day.

- Help the poor by finding a family in need and buying them specific items. Give to non-religious charities like American Red Cross.

- Think about everyone in your life — coworkers, friends, neighbors, family, and even strangers — and think about what you can do to lift them up.

Now, I know that you are going to say that a lot of religions practice MOLM, but there is usually a problem with this. You should not practice acts of kindness to get a bigger mansion in heaven or because it's the "Christian thing to do" (I despise that term). Rather, you should do it because it is the RIGHT thing to do, period. Unfortunately, when religions do their brand of MOLM, they often follow their good deeds by hitting you with guilt, fear, intimidation (you're going to HELL!), and coercion to accept their beliefs. Do they really want to make you happy, or are they just trying to grow their Church or religion?

Imagine

The song "Imagine" by the Beetles and recently re-made by A Perfect Circle, is one of the best songs ever. I think about it often. What a better world it would be if we didn't use our religions as an excuse and justification for hurting one another.

Imagine
Imagine there's no heaven,
It's easy if you try,
No hell below us,
Above us only sky,
Imagine all the people
living for today...

Imagine there's no countries,
It isn't hard to do,
Nothing to kill or die for,
No religion too,
Imagine all the people
living life in peace...

You may say Im a dreamer,
but I'm not the only one,
I hope some day you'll join us,
And the world will live as one.

Diatribe

So, I'm sitting here on this third Planet from the sun, just in awe of how beautiful it is. More than anything, I love the trees. Ever since I was 10-years-old I've had a passion in my heart for the natural world. But at the same time, I realized how quickly humans are destroying it, and this has bumbed me out.

You see, without the air and clean water and good soil for growing food, we can't live. Yet, the natural world seems to be the furthest thing from most people's lives. See, I'm driving in traffic and everyone is in their SUV with a TV IN IT and no one seems to give a poop about nature. What's funny is many people around here are involved in a local church, so they bring their gas-guzzling, Earth-destroying SUV's to church, and they get their fill-up of "holy" and then they go back to their business of being indifferent and destroying the Earth.

The growth, damn I HATE growth, but it is relentless. I've lived here in this beautiful place called Georgia since I was a kid, and seeing the constant, relentless, rape of this habitat destroys my heart and soul. Just how many trees do we have to mow down for the bland subdivisions and those mind-numbing, unimaginative strip shopping centers that the make-thy-money-and-run developers throw up everywhere. They are garbage, but who gives a shit because the developer gets his yacht in Florida and the local government gets their fucking "tax base" so everyone is happy, so the rape and pillage continues. And the churches like it too because more growth means more money in the plate, and God only knows how much churches like money. So, the insanity goes on and on and on.

And then there's all this talk about "sanctity of life." Whew, WHAT A JOKE! If people really cared about life, they would limit their family size, limit their obsession with materialism, and reduce their impact (footprint) on the Planet that sustains us.

"Oh, little Canary, you are worshipping Nature instead of God, shame, shame, on you little boy."

And that is another disaster: The anthropocentric religions. What a mess. This whole idea that we humans are better than rats or any other living creature is wrong, wrong, wrong!

So, the innate robots of the world continue consuming, and continue to engage in "shopping therapy," and our weak, impotent, federal government continues to do nothing but move paper around, while they tax us to death. All in the name of God or the "One Right Way" or whatever.

The Bush regime, Pat Robertson, Dobson, and everyone who supports the indifferent politicians and the Earth-destroyers are all guilty of the greatest crime in history: The destruction of the Planet Earth and the extinction of the Human Species. Yes, Mr. Christian, yes Mr. Businessman, the blood is on your hands and you can't wash it off.

The preachers, the politicians, the lawyers, and all the other phony leaders provide elaborate window dressing, but they all live for one thing: Maximum revenue extraction. That is the legacy of humans, and it is pathetic.

Long live the people who have not sold out. Long live the people who still have a soul. And to hell with the sellouts, for you are damning God's Big Brain experiment. Homo Sapiens, as it now turns out, has become a silly joke. Go Islamic extremists, horde your oil and build your nukes. Go American, continue wasting your oil to support the "American way of life." Go, everyone, go. Continue enriching yourselves at the expense of your children. Continue running your country into deeper debt. Go, kids, go. No one cares, and nor do I. You have fucked your children, yourselves, your future, and your Planet. You reengineer your totally stupid religion and so-called patriotism to justify your foolish acts. It's a game you play, and everyone is the loser.

Enjoy your clothes, your nice car, your McMansion, and your pretty jewelry. Horde your wealth, throw a pittance in the plate to justify your existence, and then continue to horde, horde, horde. It's the American way.

God damn America!

Starting To Get It

Yeah, yeah, a big vision is starting to unfold in my life. The idea is to not leave the Earth "in as good of shape as you found it" but rather "in BETTER shape" than when you found it.

All of us humans need to live in such a way that is Zero Footprint, or better. This requires a big switch from the way we are living now. For instance, on the Ishmael discussion board we have been talking about composting our poop, and then composting our bodies when we die. Some will call this extreme environmentalism, but it's all starting to make sense to me.

But I'm really wondering if I have the balls to poop in a bucket and then take it out to my backyard garden. What will my neighbors think?

Anyway, my dear friend Chris gave me permission to post some thoughts on this topic. He is a true prophet, visionary, and the most UNhypocritical person that I've ever met. Here is his quote:

... All of us are trapped in an invisible prison of belief and cultural preconceptions. If we live in a 'normal' home with normal carpeting, bedding, children's toys, curtains, and so on, then yes, errant feces is quite unsettling. If we live however in tipis, bamboo cabanas, adobe apartments, or earthen cob hogans, and the like, the entire illusory perception of separateness from "nature" tends to evaporate. ... I am sure you know all of this intellectually. One of the personal challenges of my life is to transform an academic understanding of sustainability into an experiential one.

Does this quote rock or what? I just love it. However, making all the life changes needed to live in total harmony with the Earth will require a complete "mental retooling" for all of us. But we can do it ... we really have no other choice.

Goose

Theocons Wage War On Families

I read a great article in today's newspaper. Okay, let's see if I can get this straight. The thecons are always complaining about how the traditional American family has fallen apart, but it is their allies the neocons who are the cause.

See the neocons are the ones screaming about efficiency etc.. as all our jobs are getting outsourced and manufacturing continues to slip away in the U.S. The U.S. working class now live in a world of instability, with all the mergers, downsizing, etc... When your situation is unstable, it's hard to maintain a traditional family and marriage.

I do not have a problem with the changing job market in the U.S. See, other countries that grow their population with reckless abandon have provided an endless supply of cheap labor. That means American blue collar workers are competing with some guy who gets paid one bowl of rice per day with a fish thrown in on Fridays.

Furthermore, U.S. pro-population policies within our foreign policy have only made the problem worse. Cutting international family planning aid, restricting funding, etc.. only allows foreign populations to grow, grow, grow. Again, that means more labor, and more competition.

I love a free market -- it is simply evolution at it's finest. All I'm saying is that the theocons need to stop bitching about the breakdown of the traditional family because they helped create the problem.

We Americans REFUSE to acknowledge the population explosion, then we act dumbfounded when our job is shipped overseas. In parts of China there are multiple generations of families living in the same hut -- their overhead is cheaper than an American. Doesn't anyone get it?

Meanwhile, the theocons continue to wage war on a woman's right to choose (which creates more labor competition) and gay marriages (typically less fertility).

So, don't you see? The thecons are enthusiastically pro natal, at any expense -- even at the expense of the families they are trying to save.

This all makes me laugh. But every time I laugh I end up crying, so I prefer to just sit in my chair and do nothing. Meanwhile, the Newt Gingriches, Pat Robertsons, and James Dobsons of the world continue to wage war on the very institutions they pretend to support. Yeah, it's all real funny.

P.S. I heard James Dobson interviewing New Gingrich on the radio tonight. The incredible hypocrisy of their agenda makes me want to hurl my beans!

Back, Finally

February was a horrific month with long hours at work and several other environmental tasks on the side. Now that I'm through it all, I just want to say that ... I'm tired!

I have been at this volunteer work for nearly 10 years now and I feel that I've hardly made a budge in saving the World. I am really finding the limits of one individual, especially when family and job take up most of your time and strength. Other than going to the gym a few nights a week, for the most part I just work, day and night. If it's not job work, then it's Sierra Club work. It is work, work, work.

I want to be free, but I don't know what free is. I suppose free is being able to support yourself with out a demanding, long-hours, job. I suppose free is not having commitments, and not doing any volunteer work. Free is just being free.

The picture above? Oh, that's my hero and friend Ishmael. He provides inspiration and keeps me going through all this madness. He is my breath of fresh air.

Now that my month of fun is over, I guess I need to start going to meetings again and interacting with people, and coming out of my little home office. I really don't want to -- I sort of like being a hermit. It makes me feel sort of secure. Why do I drive across Atlanta or across the county to attend all these meetings? I really don't want to, but once I do I'm sort of glad to see like-minded people, and it's good to be exposed to new ideas and information. The more I venture out, the more I grow. But these days I just assume stay home.

Well, I'm not sure what direction I want to go in now. I haven't been sure for the past four years, so I just keep going in the same ol' direction. During my travels last week I had time to think. I think about making a big life change all the time, but I never really do anything. I just hang in limbo as the years pass by. I am not going to be that great leader who saves the world. Actually, I have no idea what I will be.

The Goose

The Worst Story of All

When I was a church leader we practiced a technique called "love
bombing." This is when you smother a newcomer with "love" and
integrate them into the organization. The goal is to make them a
"mature Christian," which I later learned was a euphemism for "good
tither."

The people attracted by this recruiting system are typically those
with serious problems -- health, addiction, financial, relationships,
etc... The goal is to stabilize them (make them "mature") and turn
them into good volunteers and revenue streams.

In regards to world problems, the flock is told that "We are living in
the end times" and that all bad things are "a part of God's plan."
This is called the Theology of Despair.

It came as a total shock to me when I realized that the evangelical
church actually WANTS to keep our world dysfunctional because it
supports their premise for existing. Unfortunately, U.S. policy is
strongly influenced by the conservative Christians, which explains the
indifference toward global warming and the lust for Middle Eastern war.

For the Christians, they are taught that God is going to destroy the
world after he lifts all the Christians into Heaven (I
will be left behind to collect shoes). The religion offers a great
"carrot and stick" package - say a three or four sentence prayer
asking Christ to "come into your life" and you spend billions of years
in a private mansion. Your days are spent petting lions and singing
hymns to Jesus. If you don't say the magic prayer, expect to spend
billions of years in the "lake of fire" where you are swimming around
with Hitler and Jeffrey Dahmer while Satan pokes you with a pitchfork.

Needless to say, such stories keep many Americans mentally screwed up. And this is exactly what the religious organizations want. To be a "mature" Christian simply means you are more screwed up, as you are forced to believe illogical and conflicting nonsense.

Author Daniel Quinn says that if someone is to give up their "story" they need a better one - one that will inspire them.

Here is their story -

The Theology of Despair: Crime, corruption, famine, environmental
ruin, tribulation, nuking Persians, Paris Hilton, etc...

Here is the story I offer -

The Theology of Hope: Slower, peaceful, non-materialistic, greener,
lifestyle. Coming to grips with our animalism, stabilizing our
population, learning to live as part of the world, with a renewed love
and respect for indigenous peoples. Most importantly, zero footprint.

This is my dream, and this is the "story" I would like to present to
the world in general, and particularly to the right-wing Christians.

Theology of Despair

Sometimes my friends on the Left use a favorite tactic of the Right — they use sensationalism to foster fear and gain attention. As a former conservative church leader myself, I seriously doubt that Focus on the Family or anyone else really wants a theocracy. And I'm pretty sure that most Hard Right Christians still support separation of church and state. So, I don't think the new book by Chris Hedges, titled American Fascists, is totally tuned in.

However, I applaud Mr. Hedges for his mention of the Theology of Despair — he is right on in this respect. The religious culture of fear was enough to get my mom to buy a Y2K "survival kit" and pull her money from the bank. In fact, she gave her money to a Christian con artist and lost her entire life savings. So, I know all about how the Theology of Despair works.

The problem is that the Theology of Despair works directly against the two things that I have dedicated my life to: peacemaking and global sustainability. Here is a great quote from Mr. Hedges in today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

"[Theology of Despair] is a theology that has no hope in the life around us, that there is really nothing in this world that is worth saving other than committed Christians, and that all else has to be destroyed. That gives you a horrible kind of mind-set that spreads out in many ways. For instance, the callous disregard of gloabl warming, for what we're doing to the environment, a belief that chaos, mayhem, violence, and war in the Middle East is a good thing, because it is hastening Armageddon. These are the byproducts of this Theology of Despair, which for me is the best way to define this belief system."

There you have it. This is the essence of the major roadblock I am up against. This makes me think about what the book Ishmael points out — that people live out the stories they are given, and it's particularly nice when you even know the ending.

As I said a few posts ago, the stories, technically, are lies. Religion and capitalism are full of lies that people treat as non-negotiable truth. Herein lies the heart of the problem.

Biofuels & Population

I had one of those moments yesterday where I just freaked out. I am re-reading Daniel Quinn's book Ishmael and it gives a lot of ink to the relationship between population and food production.

In the last few weeks I've read several articles on the impact of biofuels, and by a great stroke of fortune, I actually even met a cattle rancher a few weeks ago who verified what I had read.

Okay, here is the scoop: Among other things, biofuels are going to soak up world surpluses of grain. Farmers in the U.S. really don't care about world famine — they simply sell their crops at the highest price possible, and if a biofuel distillery offers them more money than some foreign entity, then so be it.

So, what freaked me out is that author Daniel Quinn was already talking about the food-population relationship in his 1992 novel. His writings seem to suggest that population is related to food production. In other words, we humans will just keep breeding to the limit of our food supply, just like any other species. We are NOT above the laws of nature, even though we think we are — this is a key point in Quinn's books.

What this means is as the biofuel industry grows, food will become more expensive for everyone but it's going to especially impact the Third World poor. In the long-term, it would be a good for our Planet, but starvation is a miserable thing and I don't wish it on anyone.

The bottom line is that I wish all people had the common sense and maturity to self-regulate their reproduction. For the U.S. and other countries, it will come down to either achieving more energy security or feeding the Third World's skyrocketing population. It will be interesting, and probably unpleasant, to watch this scenario play out.

From an article by Lester Brown of the Earth Policy Institute:

The competition for grain between the world's 800 million motorists who want to maintain their mobility and its 2 billion poorest people who are simply trying to survive is emerging as an epic issue. Soaring food prices could lead to urban food riots in scores of lower-income countries that rely on grain imports, such as Indonesia, Egypt, Algeria, Nigeria, and Mexico. The resulting political instability could in turn disrupt global economic progress, directly affecting all countries. It is not only food prices that are at stake, but trends in the Nikkei Index and the Dow Jones 500 as well.

An Open Letter

Dear Conservative Christians and Industrialists,

I'm glad the two of you are getting along so well. I'm glad that both of you agree on something — that Global Climate Change is just a myth invented by nasty liberals. By denying global warming, you help to keep YOUR myths alive — that it is all part of God's plan, and that addressing the problem will harm the economy, etc...

No, don't recycle, don't take responsibility for the World you have helped to screw up. Don't support environmental protections — instead do what you can to dismantle them. Do whatever it takes to destroy, plunder, rape, and murder what is left of this Planet, so that you can enjoy your short-term comfort and profit.

Don't worry about healing the Earth. Don't worry about taking responsibility for the Planet. What's more important is saving souls and maximizing revenues. God's going to destroy the Earth anyway, so who cares. So, you Industrialists may as well screw it over, while poisoning us and giving us cancer in the meantime. Oh right, then we can give the medical industry billions of dollars to heal us after you have sickened us. Makes perfect sense to me.

Don't ever question a single word of your Bible. Every word is literal. Yes, it's okay to own slaves — the Bible tells you so. It is okay to "have dominion" over the Earth. Doesn't that mean you should screw it as mercilessly as possible, with zero regard for wildlife or our future? Yes, of course it does.

Small wonder that you Industrialists and Conservative Christians are in bed together, snuggled under the blanket of the GOP. You both have EXACTLY the same goals — you just spin them differently.

Please continue to live in your hypocritical little worlds. Please continue to believe your lies and continue to discredit anyone who challenges them.

You've created a nice, comfy little world for yourselves. Why don't you pat yourselves on the back. When the whole thing starts to crumble and implode, you can blame it on the gays and the pro-choice people — just like you always do. And of course, you can blame it all on the Evil Liberals who took prayer out of schools. Sure, that was the turning point. Things were so much better before then, with all the racism and Jim Crow Laws. Hell, at least you guys MAINTAINED ORDER. God bless ya for that.

But in the process of creating your perfect little world, you have screwed me, and you have destroyed the nature that I so dearly love. All in the name of God, Growth, Money, Progress, Development, and all those other twisted values that you perfectly intertwined without thinking twice about it.

See Industrialist and Conservative Christian: You are both exactly the same. Your goals are not really different — both of you grab for my wallet, worship your stories, defend your lies, and destroy my world.

God bless all of you. I am sure God is proud of your good works. I am sure He is pleased with the widows you never cared for, or the hungry you never fed, and for the comfort you always blindly pursue.

Good work, gang.

Sincerely,

The Goose

A Peaceful Feeling

This week I started re-reading my favorite book of all time — the 1992 novel Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. It has given me a strange sort of peace.

It's like after all these years I'm finally starting to understand the "big picture" and I have a good feeling about that. Whatever happens to either me or humanity as a whole, I'm cool with it.

I still want us humans to win, but I am no longer so perplexed at why humans are so non chalet about their demise — the book Ishmael helped me to understand.

I also have peace in having the courage to finally say that religion is a collection of stories. I was on to this at age 15, but who wants to be struck down, so I kept quiet about it most of my life.

As for Darwin, he nailed it. Many people are taking a long time to accept it. I imagine the same thing happened when folks finally had the balls to say that the Earth rotates around the sun. I know that was a shock and probably took a few decades to swallow, but people are okay with it now.

To get people to understand that we are like any other animal species and that we could very well go extinct, well, that is going to be a reality shock for a lot of people. It's funny that when I bring this little problem up to people I know, they just zone it out, and they even zone ME out.

Christian fundamentalists are not surprised that the World is going to end. They've already been given the story line. The shocker is that the end is not going to follow their script. The World is NOT going to end, only our Culture. But maybe we will screw things up so badly that the World WILL END. The only problem is that the good Christians will have to ride it out with the rest of us — the Almighty doesn't do rescue missions, especially for irresponsible people.

Well, I've entered a new level with all of this thinking, but I think I'm okay with it. And yes, most of the ideas above come right out of Ishmael.

Oh don't we wish that life could just go on the way it has been — like a long episode of Leave It To Beaver. Sorry.

Looking At 2007

First, I want to applaud by dearest friend Snaildarter for his quote today. He was talking about the options available for saving the world.

On this path all the things that Todd, or I, or anyone else does to slow the fall will help because we are just buying time (and habitat) in the hope of a new Gaian Enlightenment. I believe that religion is the reflection of human thought, not the cause of it. It can help channel thoughts but it won't turn the battleship unless the will or need exist to underpin it. This is why I'm pursuing a religion that will compliment the last option.

This is my absolute dream, to provide a spark for the Great Awakening, and will continue to be my goal in 2007.

Naming Our Movement

It just occurred to me today that what we need is an Earth Rights Movement. Yep, just like the Civil Rights, Gay Rights, Women's Rights, and all the other great movements. But the Earth movement won't be about people — sorry. This movement is going to be about standing up for the biosphere and creatures — the things that can't defend themselves and exist at our mercy.

Here are some goals for the Earth Rights Movement:

• A stable human population.
• All humans should strive for "zero footprint." If they must make some impact then they should engage in compensatory activities, like planting trees, environmental education, rescuing stray animals, etc.
• Everyone should take responsibility for their carbon deposits. This means things like converting your yard back to forest so that you don't have to mow it, ditching the Hummer, etc.
• All people should reject violence as a way of problem-solving. That means don't buy your nephew a toy gun for Christmas — by doing this you are condoning violence. Just how Christian is that?

Well, I could go on and on, but for now I just want to think this out more. The Earth Rights Movement — yeah, I really like that.

Fall Activism

Today I had fun playing with Google's cool online photo service, called Picasa. I have already created a couple of albums, including one of all the local Sierra Club events I attended over the past two months. I'm really starting to get interested in photography again, and the camera my brother gave me is awesome. Check it out - and get involved!

A HAPPY NEW YEAR to all!!!

2006 Fall