Making Progress in Tough Times

"In October, I had a moment with my eldest son that really brought home to me the angst that many progressive people were feeling throughout 2018.

It was the day after the release of the incredibly worrisome Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report. You probably saw the press coverage. One of the report’s key findings is that we only have a dozen years in which to avert catastrophic global warming damage. My 14-year-old had seen some articles about it on-line and took me aside just before heading to bed."

Read the article here:

Rick Smith, Broadbent Institute - Making Progress in Tough Times, Lessons from 2018

Noam Chomsky - Political Betrayal, Mobilizing Action

This video is from ScientistsWarning.org at COP24,

I know I should write more about this but Chomsky is so clear in his view of our dilemma and whenever I read or listen to people on science/political topics who are good speakers I just feel my explanations or introductions are redundant. Please listen and enjoy, or weep ... then think about the gifts you bring to the world and what it is you can do to change the politics of denial.

The Begat of Gratitude

To those who gave birth to my ancestors

who told me stories of the world

who showed me how to love it.

To all those who by accident and brief encounter

brought me to some truth I did not want to know.

To those who, not knowing my name

helped when I needed help

and who received mine when they needed it.

To those who by commitment of their will

have learned to write, sing, dance or paint

the message we most need to learn.

To all those who have the courage to put their skill

on the public stage to serve

as doctor, lawyer, minister, teacher, publisher,

scientist or social worker.

To those whose names I may never learn

who clean the office, drive the bus, do the laundry

pick the fruit and stack the shelves.

To those who have listened to another 

when they needed to be heard.

To all who embrace their vulnerability

and who enter into compassion.

For you are the names and the faces

of my gratitude.

(from Infinite Power, Ekstasis 2016)

Hate Never Makes Us Great

When men and women support movements of hate, such as white supremacists, anti-immigrant groups, the Nazi's of the 1930's, the Spanish Inquisition of the 15th Century, and witch-hunts all over the world - is that because we are desperately trying to shake off the feeling that we are redundant?

Is the absolute focus on the economy a sign that humanity has been replaced by a mathematical construct?

Is the invention of endless enemies really about culling a species that has over-populated the earth and the reason we can't deal with our own part in climate change because we cannot face the notion we are culpable for the problems we created?

What I'm talking about here is that mass of  a privileged humanity who have not had to prove themselves in any public way but who understand that "we" are included in the narrative.   The ones who spend a lot of time thinking about right and wrong but whose survival is not dependant on making the moral choice. The ones who are outraged at abortion but who will never get pregnant. The ones who watch endless hours of TV dramas happily as long as the victims are not in any way like them. The ones who believe its hypocritical to protest pipelines when we all need power, but who don't live near the proposed sites. The ones for whom history has no personal meaning in the immediate present because we do not identify with a demographic other than tax payer or consumer.

Why do we protest the symptoms of our system without looking at the whole picture? What are we afraid of seeing? What is the horror behind all the violence and cruelty listed in news headlines? What is the purpose of such contempt for life?

Underneath our rage and violence, is it ourselves that we hate and fear? We who are unable to live in peace creatively. We who invented guns, bombs, and tanks because our bows and arrows didn't bring us the success we planned.

When we are willing to believe that greed is good and climate change is a hoax surely we are creating the conditions for our demise. When we dismiss anything life-affirming as naive then aren't we announcing that WE ARE REDUNDANT?

Well we are NOT redundant even though the operating system (propaganda, ideology) keeps telling  us we are. So who or what is holding up that structure if not humanity?

Our task is to be human.  Money, the economy, the nation, security, or power is not greater than life. They are all things invented to support the community where we live.

Yes nihilism has purchased our institutions, and people who are employed are often asked to do that which is repugnant to the conscience of sane minds, but how far are we willing to cooperate with that in order to never ask ourselves what it really means? How long will we rally behind the structures that celebrate death because we are too frightened to question the meaning of it?

How The Light Gets In

The story of civilization on this planet is held in Leonard Cohen’s “Anthem”. 

How can I contribute to my society so it sustains and avoids the entropy of corruption, pollution, death and despair?

Cohen's song inspires me. I see our history on this planet as a cautionary tale of cycles, problem solving, good intentions and unintended consequences.

The first stanza of Anthem announces the birds sing at the break of day.  This tells me that I need not look to our human history alone. I can find wisdom and inspiration in all living things. If the birds start the day by singing then I can do something every day. Music is like a prayer urging me to go on, not give up.

Those "little things with feathers” that Emily Dickenson called hope, were taken for granted by us, until Rachel Carson warned of a silent spring. DNT was killing so much of the natural world many of us didn’t notice until Carson pointed it out. It inspired the environmental movement to pressure the monolith of “the economy” to find a way without DNT. It did and “hope" returned in many places.

I am advised not to dwell on the past or “what is yet to be”. Just because an avarice in our human nature is driving our planet to crisis while the innocent "holy dove" is sold and caught and sold again, it doesn't blot out all hope for the future.  Who is the holy dove and who is catching, buying and selling again? What is it that traps her? Is it our need to believe we can own peace and freedom forever? Is it spite? Or is it the will to power?

Humanity invented the market and those who prospered are now enslaved by it. How can I rise above it, change it, make it sustainable?

And what if it isn’t just an economic system? What if its a self interest so deep it only shows when the opportunity arises? What if I am so effectively conditioned to feel powerless that I cannot move forward or know what to do?

The song itself doesn’t get too stuck in the preaching: “Ring the bells that still can ring / forget your perfect offering”. After all I am not the conductor or composer but I am in the orchestra. My agency and problem solving skills are all I have but they come when something cracks and a sliver of light gets in.

It’s easy to fear the light I don’t possess, easy to let conspiracy theories discourage me. This is one of my tragic flaws. To feel incapable of reading the world and responding to it is natural, but only corruption benefits by my fear of being engaged.

If my society descends into fascism and hate, is my birth as a person with imagination and creative problem solving skills betrayed? If a social contract is harnessed beneath rules instead of love is that a “marriage spent” ? And is “the widowhood of every government” a reference to the lack of leadership, the abdication of responsible husbandry when profit is the only motivator?

Who can have faith in a lawless crowd? Injustice, racism, misogyny and greed does not offer a future. Violence has “summoned up a thunder cloud” and the killers need to hear from Leonard and the rest of us. What perfect offering could I ever possess that is more urgent than ringing the bell when the planet we depend on cracks under the weight of our wars and greed?

It is the deepest most difficult questions that let the light in even if my ego does not come out looking pretty.

(You can find the lyrics to Anthem here Leonard Cohen Anthem lyrics)

Pro-Life

It's so easy to say abortions are not nice if you have enough money to feed your children, pay the rent and sleep at night. If you have the support of an extended family and friends it's easy to imagine that an unplanned pregnancy will be loved and healthy and fed.


Denise Balkissoon's article in the Globe and Mail reports a 2017 study which found that "socioeconomic stress was the primary reason women in 14 different countries cited for seeking abortion". Millions of people in the world live in extreme poverty. Millions of women have no political voice to demand that men abstain from sex.


"If the concern is only what happens inside wombs, being anti-abortion also means being anti-women’s ability to raise healthy children and to lead their own lives with dignity."


The less power women have over their own bodies, the less reverence there is for life. While men argue over who will be bombed, who will be shot and who will starve to death, women grieve over the well-being of their children.


I'm not saying that women are pro-life and men pro-death but our hierarchical, colonial, neo-liberal, society -- has not succeeded in proving we are pr0-life in our values and habits.


Our habits tend to punish those at the bottom rather than re-direct resources to elevate life.

Political Cleverness

Be careful of political cleverness.  The big trick with high stakes. The "gotcha" that's irreversible. I'm talking about political expediency. Creating division between peoples who have become friends. About shaming someone for the sake of maneuver. 

Ultimately what it creates is the disruption of a whole society because the operating principles have changed while the minority of the people are still using the culture they were born and raised in.

Now I know that empires have risen and crumbled on political cleverness and the losers are the ones who often have the most integrity. Political progress has, for the most part been corruption, disruption and violence.

It is no wonder that young people believe they have to give up integrity in order to win in politics and business. Cleverness has become underhanded, fraudulent, sophistry. The most vulnerable are thrown under the bus while psychopaths are rewarded with high positions.

This is not simple naivete. It is the underground train that logs old forests, pollutes the air and the ocean, turns populations into criminals, parents into agents and children into pawns. It turns all relationships into corporations, and leaves a void where the village used to be.

We are rightfully disturbed when we witness our democracy crumbling under authoritarian rule, when the news is a list of violent events, and the town hall becomes a supermarket.

The trickle down currency of inequality is exploitation but even that word is too polite. Citizens become consumers then the consumed (cell phones, social media, then data).

In this environment we lose our leaders to gamesmanship, we ignore facts, dismiss science and swallow fake news because it resembles the familiar soap opera.

Now I'm not saying we all take the easy way out. I'm saying the playing field is full of snakes and pot holes so even competing in the game can leave us with permanent injuries. I'm saying that our earthly home has become a site of domestic violence as the corruption penetrates the spirit and the heart and our kin become prison guards.

I'm saying that good mental and physical health includes a healthy community. Yup that's social conscience  I guess.