Bud said:
I'm not French, but I have no problem with people finding a way to connect to their emotional centers and it's empathy towards others. The third asterisked paragraph reads a bit like some deliberately vague propaganda, though. But, maybe it's just me.
You know whats funny Bud is that lately I have found myself breaking down some of the things that I read. I would like to do that here to see if we see the same thing and get some feedback on this practice.
You mention the third asterisked paragraph so I'll start there.
"The productivist obsession of the West."
To me this seems to be self evident. We have created a very wasteful and destructive society and a system which not only supports but encourages this practice.
Here in the U.S., there seems to be a disconnect from this reality. It seems that the majority either does not understand the damage that we are doing to the entire planet and its inhabitants or they do understand and think that its their birthright because they are U.S citizens. (I can not speak about other country's though I would think that there seems to be two types.....the exploiters and the exploited) If we think of all of the people we have exploited and killed or harmed in other ways, the dictators that we have backed so that we could maintain our own interests, and the lands that we have devastated in order to maintain our lifestyle, it is quite horrific to behold.
We are predominantly a throw away society and I can not help but feel this is one small part of the problem of this corrupt system that we now have in place. We can see this not only in the obvious items which are meant to only be used once and throw away....thousands of items. If we just look around our houses we can probably find hundreds.......think of every container that holds a liquid. Once the liquid inside is gone we have a perfectly usable container that could last us for years if not decades. What do we do instead? We could point to recycling but if we preform some research we realize that this is not as beneficial as we are lead to believe.
So there would be an example of a once and done item. Like I said....just look around your own house.....what do you have that is once and done? Paper plates? Paper towels? Just a couple more examples.
Then there are the big ticket items. Take cars for example. How many people do we know that HAVE to buy a car every 2 years, or every 5 years, or even longer? Cars that are either in perfectly good condition or only need a little tlc and they could last for a very, very long time.
However, in this society, we seem to believe that it is not so much our character that determines who we are, but the things that determines who we are.
Take a walk through a box store. Walk up and down the aisle's. Do we think that we overproduce? I wonder what percentage of the items we create actually sell? I just cannot picture everything selling. Just how much goes to waste? Where does it go?
And this is what drives this system. What would happen to the auto industry (for example), if people decided to keep their vehicles for as long as possible?
Should be easy to figure out.
I think I'll leave this here for now as I can see that this is going to be another long post. Thoughts on what I have written so far on this?
Next.
"has plunged the world into a crisis"
Is this not also self evident? Do we see the world in crisis? How can we see it any other way? It seems to me to be so self evident that it does not even need an explanation. I would like to say one thing here though. We seem to always try and pass the buck. We tend to always blame the corporations and the monied interests. Yes, I do tend to agree that we could term these as "evil" entity's. Greed at any cost seems to be there motto. It does not matter how many lives they ruin or how much destruction they reign, they want it all.
The problem I see is that it is not their fault. They are what they are and we know what they are, yet we still tolerate their actions. It almost appears as if we not only are enablers, but that WE WANT THIS, even if it is in a subconscious way!! Imagine if these "evil" corporations just disappeared and we were left to fend for ourselves.......to depend on ourselves. The chaos that would follow would be biblical in proportions. This nation which not only became used to, but have come to EXPECT everything and anything to be there at their beck and call would suffer in ways that, at this point in time, are hard to imagine. I honestly believe that we will see the true nature of the people of this nation WHEN this happens, and it will be ugly.
Why do I say this? One word. Katrina. Yes, this was a failure of the government, but it was also our own failure. We have become so dependent that we could not even take care of ourselves.
Examine it and see if we agree.
Next.
"which can only be resolved by a radical shift away from the 'ever more', in the world of finance but also in science and technology"
Once again I can see the wisdom of this. As a matter of fact, I would say that we should look even deeper.
Question. Is it just coincidence that the more advanced we have become the more destructive we have become? Again, this seems to be visually verifiable.
last
"It is high time that ethics, justice and a sustainable balance prevailed..."
Here I am not sure. Is this not what we are working on? Is this not part of the Work? I'm not sure if I'm correct in this but it seems to me that what this is advocating is changing the external without a clear cut explanation as to how this is to be done....other than one thing that I will note later.
(Note, I do not believe that projecting our desires upon others will work. I feel that I am wording this wrong and I'm not sure how to put it......the work is different)
The difference to me seems to be that we are not attempting so much to externalize the change as we are trying to internalize it. I guess that what I am seeing is that we are in essence attempting to BECOME the change (and then some) so that others can be given a chance to see it.
Of course then we still run into the problem that even if they do see it, they will not accept it. Everyone could still remain blind and it is very likely that this will be the case, in the end still coming to the same conclusion. It is hard for me to tell right now because I'm still trying to understand....so much....
In order to save others the pain on reading anymore of my thoughts, I will stop with this, focusing only on the paragraph that you questioned, and unfortunately one more quote in here that does bother me a bit.
"When something makes you want to cry out, as I cried out against Nazism, you become a militant, tough and committed."
The word MILITANT here makes me very nervous. Are they supporting violence here? If they are, I have a problem with this. Who exactly are they going to target because from what I have seen, the only people who we really end up hurting is ourselves. Those in power at best just slide into the woodwork's until the smoke clears, emerging unharmed and ready to "help" us once again.....which we would once again accept. At worst, they would crush any violent uprising.
This is not hundreds of years ago where there were vast places to hide. The technological advances have for all intents and purposes eradicated any hiding place. On top of that, they have proven that they are willing to take out thousands of lives in order to get to just a few targets.
I do not believe that we can win with violence......the only way that I see us having a chance is with knowledge. We have to out think them.
Ok, enough of this for now. These are just some thoughts that came to my mind when I read your reply Bud and this was in no way meant to disrespect what you wrote, but instead was meant as a way for me to once again "look into the mirror". No matter how hard it is for me to do, this is something that I HAVE to do in order for me to see who the heck I really am because I am still in a state of confusion.
Anyhow, I hope that there is nothing offensive here and I am looking forward to seeing the reflection......."good" or "bad".
Dave.
