disillusion

Some Assembly Required…

/ uurevjeff

That’s a phrase every parent has dreaded at one time or another (especially at 4:00 a.m. on Christmas Eve as the bicycle lies strewn in uncooperative pieces on the floor).  Lately that phrase has run through my mind as I construct my new life here in Midland.  From the metaphorical (assembling new relationships with congregants and a new town) to the literal (a desk, three bookcases, an office chair, and a still-not-quite-functional filing cabinet) my life lies in pieces on the workbench waiting for Geppetto to assemble the puppet who would be a boy.  I’ve put together quite the collection of Allen wrenches and instruction manuals.

As much as I like to receive packages, I am beginning to yearn for some end to the chaos.  Something in me wants at least one room in my life to be finished.  Just once, I want to look around me and be satisfied.  As one of my favorite movie bad guys once said, “When Alexander saw the breadth of his domain, he wept for there were no more worlds to conquer.”

The real problem, though, is believing in the illusion of completion.  There really is no such thing as being finished with anything.  Just as the elements that comprise our universe are in a constant state of flux, so our lives consist of an endless stream of shifts and changes.  I suppose if I ever got everything that I think I want, I would immediately identify some new desire or place for improvement.  I’ve come to believe that enlightenment is not a stagnant state of serenity and wholeness, but rather an attitude that nothing is permanent and that no current state of anything really matters at all.

In the meantime, I’ve got piles of unsorted books beckoning for my attention, a sad recliner due to fall apart suddenly as I sit to watch the next episode of Hell’s Kitchen, and a garage full of shipping boxes awaiting the next “heavy item” garbage pick up day.  Until I achieve a transcendent state, I will seek that balance between the nirvana of the perfect home and a disorganized and unmanageable hovel.  And I will continue to embrace the many opportunities before me to assemble my life.

Irreverent Humor

/ uurevjeff

I love comedy.  I especially love “irreverent” comedy.  I howled when Richard Pryor made fun of White people, when George Carlin speared countless taboos in our society, and when Andrew Dice Clay personified the misogynistic narcissist.  Objectionable?  Absolutely.  But, in my opinion, hilarious.

I grew up reading National Lampoon, and distinctly remember their humorous takes on the tragic circumstances in Biafra.  They pushed every boundary of humor, a mantle that continues to be pressed by South Park, The Simpsons, and other animation shows.

Satire provides a verbal version of risk that couch potatos like me prefer to downhill skiing on black diamonds, hang gliding from cliffs, and bungee jumping off bridges.  Of course, satire is a katana-sharp blade, cutting both ways.  Slapstick is OK, and insult comics have their place (Vegas and the Poconos), but for my money satire represents the pinnacle of the art form and should only be attempted by the seasoned professional.

As if watching my beloved Steelers bungle through the Super Bowl last Sunday weren’t painful enough, America was exposed to a botched National Anthem, a talentless halftime show, and generally uninspiring commercials.  In the latter category, we also witnessed quite probably the most offensive ad campaign ever launched on television.
Groupon’s parody of public service announcements were, in my opinion, so offensive and insensitive as to make me visibly wince with anguish.  One example, which tried to parlay the decades-long misery of a people into a cutesy ploy for your disposable dining dollars, left me in shock.  And despite a subsequent torrent of online criticism and derision, the company CEO remains unconvinced of his colossal heartlessness in approving these multi-million dollar spots.
Groupon cashed in on the pillaging and destruction of the rainforests, whales, and Tibet in making their play for your business.  What’s next?  Mocking the Holocaust to promote the local deli?  Citing the hilarity of Christina Taylor Green’s murder to hawk discounts at the local gun shop?  How about recalling the joy of 9-11 to sell us low-cost flying lessons?
Lest I be labelled politically correct, let me clarify the important distinction to be made between these various forms of comedic “art.”  When I bought National Lampoon, I knew exactly what my money secured.  When I watch Joan Rivers, Kathy Griffin, and Comedy Central roasts, I am making the conscious choice to expose myself to shock humor.  I do this because these people are paid specifically to challenge boundaries and afflict my comfortable sensibilities.  I do this because when they make Big Macs of our sacred cows, it empowers me to do the same against other injustices that I witness.  Their work at the edges of comedy opens the frontier for the likes of Michael Moore and John Stewart to populate our mainstream.  And, on occasion – such as the cases of Lenny Bruce and George Carlin – a comedian can actually promote incredibly worthwhile social commentary and criticism.
But, Groupon’s ads were an ambush in the name of nothing but pursuing the almightly buck.  These commercials mugged us not just with failed satire, but cruel profiteering garnered specifically at the expense of others’ suffering.  All of which I could forgive if the company either showed some level of compassionate understanding of peoples’ negative responses, or if they exhibited a legitimate commitment to helping alleviate the destruction caused by the situations they were exploiting.  But, a weak attempt at matching $100,000 of donations pales in comparison to the expense of producing these marketing ploys and purchasing network time to display them.
So, if you use Groupon and are equally offended, cancel your subscription and tell them why.  And when local businesses use their services, tell them why you will not be availing yourself of their products as well.

Seeing Colors

/ uurevjeff

I find being colorblind at times annoying, but rarely does my disability seriously affect my functioning.  I learned early in life that certain careers were closed to me — electrician, pilot, interior designer — but colorblindness largely makes itself known in mismatched clothing and the inability to see numbers among the dots.

But, one time I do miss the ability to discern colors better is walking among nature.  I often cannot see certain creatures because they blend too well into the background.  And I often cannot determine species of birds or insects because their color scheme eludes me.  I imagine, however, that I compensate by perhaps seeing motion better than most, or that I can more frequently detect specific shapes in the mosaic of life (I have an uncanny eye for spotting coins in the dirt).  I also have a deep fondness for brilliant colors, the bright yellows, oranges, and purples that stand out so magnificently among the green leaves.

Today, I wandered down along the railroad tracks, unaware that I was about to be ambushed by all manner of life.  For one, I am not alone in noticing the abundant varieties of butterflies in the area this year.  In just 30 minutes or so, I spied a Red-Spotted Purple,  Silver-Bordered Fritillary, a Mourning Cloak, a Red Admiral and the ever-present Woollybear Moths, often dancing in pairs among the wild daisies.

As I took my usual place on the switchman’s shed platform, I saw an old friend – a big Mallard – standing guard at his usual post at the end of the sand spit in the middle of the river.  Suddenly, a goose or heron of some kind swooped over to the island from the other side of the river and I quickly lost it in the foliage.

Motion in my lower field of vision brought a young groundhog to my attention, just 20 feet or so below the platform.  He kept eying me suspiciously and I tried not to move and startle him.  Of course, behind it all was the constant droning of crickets and the deafening buzzing of male cicadas looking for a mate.

As I continued my journey along the tracks, a brilliant goldfinch darted by.  I felt something on my arm.  Looking down, I examined a bright red Ladybug with no spots.  Now, depending on what culture I choose to acknowledge, that means that I will have no children (sorry Ashley and Tyler!), will soon get a pair of gloves, whatever ailment I have flew away with it (wouldn’t that be nice), my crops will be good, or that fair weather is ahead. 

Who knows what other critters busily went about their business as I walked along the tracks?  Some I will always have difficulty seeing.  Some may forever elude my observation, no matter how diligently I hone my visual skills.  But, many of them lie within my ability to perceive them if I will only take the time to look.

Gross National Happiness

/ uurevjeff
I am thinking of moving to Bhutan.

Seriously, though, while there are certainly problems with any effort like this, I applaud the effort at grand vision. We assume that the way things are in the world are “natural” and somehow intrinsic. I find it refreshing to see that someone somewhere thinks otherwise and imagines a better way.

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Published Date: 10 May 2009
By Seth Mydans in Thimphu, Bhutan
Forget quantitative easing, fiscal stimulus or liquidity injections. Gross national happiness could be the way forward. The tiny Buddhist kingdom of Bhutan, high in the Himalayan mountains, is working on a rather different answer to the global economic meltdown than the rest of the world. “Greed, insatiable human greed,” said Prime Minister Jigme Thinley, describing
what he sees as the cause of today’s economic catastrophe in the world beyond the snow-topped mountains. “What we need is change,” he said in the whitewashed fortress where he works. “We need to think gross national happiness.”

The notion of gross national happiness was the inspiration of the former king, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, in the 1970s, as an alternative to the gross national product. Now, the Bhutanese are refining the country’s guiding philosophy into what they see as a new political science, and it has ripened into government policy just when the world may need it, said Kinley Dorji, secretary of information and communications. “You see what a complete dedication to economic development ends up in,” he said, referring to the global economic crisis. “Industrialised societies have decided now that GNP is a broken promise.

“Under a new Constitution adopted last year, government programmes – from agriculture to transportation to foreign trade – must be judged not by the economic benefits they may offer but by the happiness they produce. The goal is not happiness itself, the prime minister explained, a concept that each person must define for himself. Rather, the government aims to create the conditions for what he called, in an updated version of the American Declaration of Independence, “the pursuit of gross national happiness”.

The Bhutanese have started with an experiment within an experiment, accepting the resignation of the popular king as an absolute monarch and holding the country’s first democratic election a year ago. The change is part of attaining gross national happiness, Dorji said. “They resonate well, democracy and GNH. Both place responsibility on the individual. Happiness is an individual pursuit and democracy is the empowerment of the individual.

“It was a rare case of a monarch’s unilaterally stepping back from power, and an even rarer case of his doing so against the wishes of his subjects. He gave the throne to his son, Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, who was crowned in November in the new role of constitutional monarch without executive power.

Bhutan is, perhaps, an easy place to nimbly rewrite economic rules – a country with one airport and two commercial planes, where the east can only be reached from the west after four days’ travel on mountain roads. No more than 700,000 people live in the kingdom, squeezed between the world’s two most populous nations, India and China, and its task now is to control and manage the inevitable changes to its way of life. It is a country where cigarettes are banned and television was introduced just 10 years ago, where traditional clothing and architecture are enforced by law and where the capital city has no stoplight and just one traffic officer on duty.

If the world is to take gross national happiness seriously, the Bhutanese concede, they must work out a scheme of definitions and standards that can be quantified and measured by the big players of the world’s economy.” Once Bhutan said, ‘OK, here we are with GNH,’ the developed world and the World Bank and the IMF and so on asked, ‘How do you measure it?'” Dorji said, characterising the reactions of the world’s big economic players. So the Bhutanese produced an intricate model of well-being that features the four pillars, the nine domains and the 72 indicators of happiness.

Specifically, the government has determined that the four pillars of a happy society involve the economy, culture, the environment and good governance. It breaks these into nine domains: psychological well-being, ecology, health, education, culture, living standards, time use, community vitality and good governance, each with its own weighted and unweighted GNH index.All of this is to be analysed using the 72 indicators. Under the domain of psychological well-being, for example, indicators include the frequencies of prayer and meditation and of feelings of selfishness, jealousy, calm, compassion, generosity and frustration, as well as suicidal thoughts.

“We are even breaking down the time of day: how much time a person spends with family, at work and so on,” Dorji said. Mathematical formulae have even been devised to reduce happiness to its tiniest component parts. Every two years, these indicators are to be reassessed through a nationwide questionnaire, said Karma Tshiteem, secretary of the Gross National Happiness Commission, as he sat in his office at the end of a hard day of work that he said made him happy. Gross national happiness has a broader application for Bhutan as it races to preserve its identity and culture from the encroachments of the outside world.”How does a small country like Bhutan handle globalisation?” Dorji asked. “We will survive by being distinct, by being different.

“Bhutan is pitting its four pillars, nine domains and 72 indicators against the 48 channels of Hollywood and Bollywood that have invaded since television was permitted a decade ago. “Before June 1999 if you asked any young person who is your hero, the inevitable response was, ‘The king,’ ” Dorji said. “Immediately after that it was David Beckham, and now it’s 50 Cent, the rap artist. Parents are helpless.” So if GNH may hold the secret of happiness for people suffering from the collapse of financial institutions abroad, it offers something more urgent here in this pristine culture.”Bhutan’s story today is, in one word, survival,” Dorji said. ” Gross national happiness is survival; how to counter a threat to survival.”

The Religious Servant Leader in Dis-Organized Religion

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Fleshing out this notion of dis-organized religion compels me to define the role I would see myself filling within an intentional community. I offer the following as a vision for that role that I would love to make happen.

Human beings need elements of religion to live in harmonious community. These include those parts of our lives that continue (re-) to bind us together (-ligio) as people. Historically, however, the negative impacts of organized religion outweighed the positive contributions to the health and welfare of human community. Therefore, communities are better served by a new kind of religion – a “dis-organized” religion. The essential tenets of such a religion entail a code of freedom:

  • from the construct of “god” in any of its manifestations, or of any “supernatural” or “spiritual” planes of existence (religious atheism is not anti-theist, but stresses the non-experience of a deity);
  • from the presumption that humanity is evil, sinful, or deserving of punishment;
  • from all religious creeds and dogma, or the belief that people must obey religious authority; and
  • from limitations to exploration of religious experience and understanding.

And, it is the freedom:

  • to believe as one wishes;
  • to “be” oneself fully, as an equal partner with and responsible for all existence;
  • to live with and to love others fully;
  • to think and to feel fully; and
  • to experience all within yourself and among others, as part of whatever constitutes our world.

Would there be ministers in this dis-organized religion? While this religion would invent its own reverent language, one may note that the Latin root of the word “minister” means “servant.” “Ministers” in dis-organized religion would be servant leaders, helping others explore their religious selves by serving them (for further reading on the concept of servant leadership, see the materials from the Greenleaf Center). For thousands of years in human communities, people have served the role of religious servant leader. This role possesses many names: shaman, prophet, guru, oracle, lama, rabbi, priest, imam, minister. Intentional community needs this role as well, although divested of much of the historical legacy of these examples. For that reason, this role requires a new name and not any of the traditional titles. For sake of simplicity, call this role the Voice.

What is the Voice not?

  • The Voice is not divine or saintly, seeking to be no more or less special than others in the community.
  • The Voice uses powers of reason and intuition, and is not in touch with any supernatural forces, spirits, or “god.”
  • The Voice has a unique focal emphasis within the community, but possesses no inherently unique talent, skill, or ability.
  • The Voice is not an authority over others or over the community; if anything the Voice eschews power or dominance.

What is the Voice?

  • Like a shaman, the Voice is “one who knows,” who can heal the ailing heart and mind.
  • Like an oracle, the Voice is a visionary, who observes and interprets forces and trends.
  • Like a guru, the Voice is a “destroyer of darkness,” who mentors in search of understanding and learning.
  • Like a lama or rabbi, the Voice is a teacher, who enlightens by offering the tools of learning and an objective perspective.
  • Like a prophet, the Voice is a guide, who seeks truth in service of others.
  • Like a priest or imam, the Voice is a celebrant, who builds community through worship and rites of passage.
  • Like a minister, the Voice is a religious servant leader.

What does the Voice do?

  • The Voice monitors the cultural health of the community and individuals within the community.
  • The Voice is a doctor of the community body.
  • The Voice provides expert advice in coordinating the multiple codes of the community’s belief system.
  • The Voice preserves community traditions and helps the community celebrate group and individual achievements and milestones.
  • The Voice mentors and teaches so that all may grow more mindful.

What are the attributes of the Voice?

  • The Voice offers a comprehensive view on all matters.
  • The Voice always looks to the long-term future while meeting the needs of today.
  • The Voice is in touch with the flow of the community.
  • The Voice seeks to be ever more wise, knowledgeable, and insightful.

I have participated in many Unitarian Universalist youth worship services, which in many ways epitomizes the experience I envision for everyone. Is it possible? If it was built, would anyone come? A large part of me wants to buy an old church or warehouse and convert it into a collage of studios, clinics, and other community activities and see what happens.

Ministry in Dis-Organized Religion

/ uurevjeff / 3 Comments

You, who are on the road,
Must have a code that you can live by.
And so, become yourself,
Because the past is just a good bye.

Teach your children well,
Their father’s hell did slowly go by.
And feed them on your dreams,
The one they picks,
the one you’ll know by.

Don’t you ever ask them why,
if they told you, you will cry,
So just look at them and sigh and know they love you.

And you, of tender years,
Can’t know the fears that your elders grew by.
And so please help them with your youth,
They seek the truth before they can die.

Teach your parents well,
Their children’s hell will slowly go by.
And feed them on your dreams,
The one they picks, the one you’ll know by.

— Graham Nash

When I was a teenager, I bought Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young’s live album Four-Way Street. I remember being enormously disappointed, because the songs did not sound the way I knew them. I traded the album to a friend (for Pink Floyd’s The Wall, which I’m sure has all kinds of deep meanings) and didn’t listen to CSNY for years.

A few years ago, I rediscovered CSNY and other music from those formative years. Some songs were like long lost friends. Others were new acquaintances. Some, I knew, but had never really heard or understood.

For the past year, I have been on a pilgrimage – a journey not of body, but of the heart and mind. It began over Thanksgiving, when I gave a short talk to several hundred Boy Scouts about Unitarian Universalism. I explained that the UU church is a home for all religious seekers, even atheists like myself. Even though I have been an atheist for many years, over the ensuing weeks I found myself thrust into a new public “outness,” when people approached and thanked me for my comments.

When my son was home for winter break, we had several long talks. As a result, I began blogging about disillusion in America and directions we can take to build intentional community together. I began to consider the shape of my future ministry as a religious atheist and what my “church” would look like in such an intentional community.

My son recently asked me to read Days of War, Nights of Love by the CrimethInc. Ex-Workers Collective (http://www.crimethinc.com/books/days.html). If you have read this post to this point, you should stop whatever you are doing and look into their writings. I don’t agree with all of their conclusions – yet – but I find their work inspiring and thought-provoking. The book nudged me further along my path toward ministry in dis-organized religion.

What is the role of religion in a community that rejects “organized” religion? For me, dis-organized religion is a code of freedom:

  • from the construct of god
  • from creeds and dogma
  • from limitations to spiritual exploration

and it is the freedom:

  • to believe
  • to be, to live and to love
  • to think and to feel
  • to experience all within yourself, among others, and as part of existence

What is my role as a minister in dis-organized religion? Well, for the CrimethInc folks, ministry is what I love. I have given up much to become a minister and now know that I would sacrifice almost anything for my ministry. The Latin root of the word “minister” means “servant.” I see ministers as servant leaders, who help others explore their spiritual selves by serving them. Service also includes celebrating rites of passage, nurturing through chaplaincy, and offering vision and insight with a prophetic voice to inspire, encourage, and imagine.

I fed my children on my dreams and now they are helping me find my truth in my elder years. I have a long road to go, but with their help, I will travel on.

Illusions in America Today #8

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The news last week that 1 in 100 Americans are currently in prison should shock every citizen of this nation. Our elected officials want desperately for us to feel “safe,” which really translates into being complacent and satisfied with the status quo. In fact, this trap of safety is what should appall us into action, as we watch another generation lose their futures and dreams in the bureaucracy of the criminal justice system.

No matter how one assesses this issue, a system that incarcerates 1% of your population for criminal activity is a failure. Every dollar spent on building prisons is a dollar not spent on education, health care and job creation. Every brick laid for prison walls is a 100 year commitment to maintaining a physical facility at a time when we are closing down mental hospitals, bridges are collapsing, and social service agencies scramble for dollars just to stay open.

If we agree that the current system is broken beyond repair, what is the answer? First, society must address the core basic needs of its people in order to prevent the roots of crime – economic injustice, hate, and lack of opportunities. Instead of mandatory sentencing, we should have mandatory funding for education and health care for every citizen. Every dollar spent on policing should be matched by at least a dollar on community development and economic improvements.

How would an intentional community handle this issue? Our intentional community is committed to nonviolence, so the top priority must be placed on dealing with crimes involving violence. But, what are the roots of violence? The best way to address violence is to live nonviolently in every aspect of life, which includes not only personal relationships, but economically as well. No one should earn money at the expense of another’s well being. Every citizen must receive equal treatment and access to services and freedoms. But, most importantly, every citizen should expect to contribute to the well-being of the communities and to their neighbors. These are expectations that should be taught from the youngest ages and accepted by everyone in the community regardless of age or ability.

Would we ever incarcerate anyone? Yes. But, only those whose repeated acts of violence show that they are presently incapable of normal social interaction. At that point, they give up their rights as equal citizens and enter into a mandatory program of treatment and training designed not to punish a criminal, but to truly reclaim a human being. For nonviolent offenders, there are many useful tasks that can be assigned as compensation to the community for their lawlessness. Forced labor is not cruel and unusual. Locking someone up in a tiny cell for years on end is cruel and unusual. Forced treatment and training is an infringement on absolute individual rights. But, it enforces the right of the community to survive and thrive which, in the end, best serves the rights of the individual as well.

Just as education is not solely the responsibility of professional teachers, the management of criminal acts is not solely the responsibility of trained law enforcement agents. We must reexamine our notions of justice and address every level of the system in order to better use our precious financial and human resources.

Role of the Church in an Intentional Community

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My premise has been that America suffers under debilitating illusions and that our best solution is the creation of intentional communities seeking to disillusion themselves. These communities would model for others more just and loving ways for humans to live together. What role would the church play in such a community?

My answer involves the creation of a pizza, with the following ingredients:

  • recognition of ceremonies of human rites of passage common to most religious traditions (birth, mariage/union, death, coming of age, etc.);
  • celebration of an inclusive liturgy that honors the wisdom found in all religious traditions;
  • promotion of the principles that are the bedrock of our moral code, which again are generally common to most religious traditions;
  • education for all ages on spiritual practices and ways of understanding core elements of life and human relationships; and
  • empowerment of all citizens to pursue their unique ministries within the community.

All of these ingredients would be laid on a foundation that is noncreedal, yet open to the reverent language and imagery of all theologies. Therefore, this church will not require a belief in any supernatural being or forces, but will recognize that human knowledge is limited and that a commitment to a free and responsible search for truth and meaning is essential.

Briefly, what do each of these ingredients of our religious pizza entail?

Rites of Passage – Every child is a holy child; love between people is our core principle; aging, life transitions, and death are natural processes.

Inclusive Liturgy – All religions derive in part from a shared foundational wisdom worthy of celebration; our church would honor all messages of universal redemption and commitment to a higher ideal.

Moral Code – Nontheism; the existence or nonexistence of a god or gods is not relevant to the creation of loving and just principles for living; as children of all universes, we are imbued with the ability to define a moral code and to live by it.

Religious Education – Science may never explain all that exists, certainly not in ways that help us here and now to deal with life’s challenges; we can educate (not indoctrinate) people about the art of living and train them to use tools to cope and to aspire to greater consciousness.

Ministry – Ministry is not the task of professionally trained individuals alone; all of us have the capacity to minister to each other; each of us has gifts worth sharing that should be encouraged to blossom and grow.

Peter Morales, candidate for the Presidency of the Unitarian Universalist Association has a short video on YouTube. While I have no position at this time on the election, I was moved by a sentiment he expressed relative to the need for this denomination to grow. He said that we must feed the spiritually hungry and house the religiously homeless if we are to heal and transform the world. I could not agree more. Our church, and the church I propose, would reach out to all people of every cultural and religious background – theist, atheist, deist, polytheist, pantheist, etc. – in recognition and celebration of our shared beliefs in principles affirming love, justice, and unity with all existence.

Illusions in America Today #7

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I am dismayed to see this morning, yet again, that another tragic incident of mass murder has occured in our country. Sadly, the frequency of these events numbs us to their horror and paralyzes our collective action. Time and again, we read about the inability of our governments to address the issues and of our courts to maintain an equitable system of justice.

So, what is the answer? Do we lobby for tighter gun control? Do we advocate for more rational sentencing for violent crimes? Do we seek to ban televnision programming that glorifies serial killers? These are all potentially worthy responses. But, the root of the problem would remain. The root of the problem is the acceptance of violence as ever being a solution to our problems.

Now, you may immediately think, “But, what do I do when faced with the threat of violence, with the evil actions of others…do I just roll over and let them win?” My answer is no. Does this mean that we let tyrants engage in genocide? Of course not. But, we must disillusion ourselves of the notion that in the long-term violence ever breeds anything but more violence. We must begin to commit to a societal course of nonviolence if we are to ever end the stranglehold it has on our lives. What would such a commitment mean?

  • We would strive toward a vision of national policy where every possible means is exhausted before ever considering aggressive military action.
  • We would plan for the eventual cesassion of the production and sales of all weaponry.
  • We would initiate curricular reforms in our schools to promote the principles of nonviolence and peace at every level of society.
  • We would craft more fair and constructive techniques to address criminal justice challenges, starting with the elimination of the death penalty.
  • We would migrate our investments in war to investments in domestic health and to ameliorating sources of violence, such as economic injustice, fear, hate, and poverty.

At the local level, what specific actions would an intentional community undertake to model a commitment to nonviolence?

  • All private ownership of guns would be banned. The founders of this nation never envisioned the society of today and would have been appalled at our allowing of a fringe misreading of the Bill of Rights to directly lead to thousands of murders each year.
  • Children would be taught conflict resolution skills and the community would openly and cooperatively resolve differences divorced from influences of privilege.
  • Punishments for crime would involve community service and constructive action rather than incarceration.
  • Physical and mental health provision would be a top priority for the community, to avoid the majority of problems that lead to violent behavior.

Like many of the illusions facing us today, the solution is about vision and finding the courage to name that vision and struggle toward its achievement. Prophets throughout history have taught us that nonviolence is the path to justice and the defense of human rights. Maybe we cannot achieve their dream in one lifetime, or even two or three. But, until we commit to achieving the vision, we will continue to read headlines about senseless death.

Illusions in America Today #6

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In the past day, I read two articles that characterize the state of health in our country today. One was an opinion letter from a doctor decrying schemes of socialized medicine that guarantee health care only by destroying the rights of physicians, hospitals and insurance companies. Another was a blog posting from discontinuous permafrost about toxic chemicals in common plastic bottles. If you are like me, you are so thoroughly sick of hearing about how everything in our lives causes some debilitating disease, that you do not even pay attention anymore. Unfortunately, that is exactly the reaction people who crave wealth at your expense hope for.

In America today, there are dedicated people who genuinely care about making your world healthier and safer for you and future generations. But, for every one of them, there is someone else who could not care less about your well being and whose number one priority is reporting the maximum possible quarterly profits for his or her corporation. And, for every one of them, there are hundreds of investors (including you and me if we have money in stock-based retirement plans) who want to get the biggest bang from their hard-earned investment dollar. Who wins? I think it is easy to see that the driving force of the American economy will win out over inconvenience, environmental degradation, and potential health risks most of the time.

You may be thinking, but what can I do? I am one person, and I do not have the time or energy to keep up with this mountain of threats. I am one person, so my little boycott or letter to a company cannot possibly make a difference. I am one person, so what can my $100 donation to the Sierra Club accomplish up against billion dollar corporations. And, you would be right. By yourself, there is little you can do. American citizens, lacking a comprehensive and purpose-driven structure, can do little but ride the waves of special interests who wield the power in this country.

But, as intentional communities, there is much that people can do. If we organize ourselves into neighborhoods that share the burden and act collectively, we could make a difference. At first, we would merely set an example for others to emulate. But, in time, hundreds of such communities, working together to make ethical choices, investing only in products that meet stringent codes of health and safety, and ensuring that everyone has fair access to health care, could make a difference.

Perhaps I am innocent…even naive about the way the world works. But, it seems to me that if even one child dies today because health care was not available to help them, then as a society we have failed. If one person develops cancer because of a toxin in plastic bottles who only purpose was to shave 1/10 of a cent off the cost of production, then as a society we have failed. The rights of doctors and the rights of patients are not mutually exclusive. The earning of fair profits and maintaining the health of our citizens are not mutually exclusive goals. But, it will take a new American Revolution if we the people are to reclaim this nation from those who do not share our goals of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.