The Survivable Path -Response
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First Steps on the Survivable Path |
Date: Sun, 04 Apr 1999 04:25:39 -0600
Since I sent out my email diagnosis/challenge 'The Survivable Path', (posted in this website) where I state the changes that must be accomplished by the human species in order to survive our ancient and suicidal social practices, I have received a lot of email asking 'what is the path', 'how do we accomplish what you described', and other such questions.
I stated the main problems and ultimate goals that humanity must establish in the years to come, the sooner the better, but I did not state what to do reach those goals in some exact algorithm. I understand that people want a '1, 2, 3,…' list of discrete steps to follow, but this is quite impossible to create. Any set of instructions would be useless, and not reflect the intelligence and diversity of those who have also realized the need to accomplish the changes I expressed.
Some of those who meditate and pray for the world are led naturally into living our lives full time at the task of guiding the world into a new state of consciousness, into a survivable path. I call these people, 'Forerunners'. In the ancient days of tribes, when people walked on great circular migrations, there were Chiefs, Medicine folks, Hunters, and Forerunners. They were scouts for the tribe, going ahead and finding sources of food, and finding out where predators might be. They guided the tribe as we must now guide the whole human species.
I can state fairly clearly the state of mind of those who will be the Forerunners of the changes, and suggest some steps that some could follow to help bring a survivable future into existence. In the message 'The Survivable Path', I stated a few long range strategies, such as setting up communities, and linking together into a geodesic democracy, as well as teaching the interconnectedness and oneness that expresses the true relationship of humanity with the ecoentity called 'ecological environment'. The concept of a geodesic democracy (a Geonet) is up on my website at http://www.bibbs.com/roan/geodemo.htm and at the other mirror sites I recently set up, listed below in my sig file.
The attitude of a Forerunner, (someone who sees the necessity for humanity to find again the harmony with nature and each other leading to survival,) is one of service to the children of the future and the Planetary ecosystem, Gaia, the Ecoentity. It makes no difference what religion or 'spiritual path' one is on, what set of beliefs one has, as long as it doesn't 'explain' away the need to do what is individually required to bring about a survivable future. Any belief which demands apathy is of little service to this path. The understanding of the need for directed change comes from deep within, and often prevails despite beliefs, or at least calls to the person's soul throughout their lives.
One step for someone feeling the call to become a Forerunner is to go out into nature, into the wilds, and spend some time there. A couple of weeks living in the wild, brings a lot of understanding. Take what is required to survive, but no luxuries, and just meditate and walk, to touch the face of what we come from and what we are part of. (Check out http://www.ecopsych.com) Bring that connection with Nature back into your regular life, with the intention of bringing about balance and harmony once again, doing whatever it takes within the bounds of non-violence and higher consciousness. It is a lifetime vow, to become a Forerunner.
Another is to learn what a geodesic democracy is, how it works, why it is so strange. Don't judge it until you thoroughly understand it, for it is a very new way to group together in a world where we are conditioned to distrust groups yet are encouraged to work together with others only for money and follow 'leaders' blindly when they claim authority in the name of government. A Geonet, (geodesic democratic organization) is only a way to bring people together to make decisions, provide for checks and balances which overcome the tendencies conditioned into us, and create something that cannot be corrupted by anyone, inside or outside the organization. It is not based upon majority rule, but individual and collective agreement.
It protects the individual's choices while giving the individual a way to produce synergy with others, and bring about desired changes together without the abuse endemic to 'delegating' individual authority to 'leaders'. There are no 'leaders' in a Geonet yet the structure does not allow the foolishness of inane 'committee' dynamics either. It is new, not simply an old system renamed, no matter how much it resembles, upon superficial inspection, other ways people have done things in the past. It must be set up with local people, with at least 42 members in the local area to form an Octa-team. Then that initial Octa-team links through the internet into larger structures.
Another a Forerunner can do is to start looking for other Forerunners in their local area who are interested in starting a community. Overcoming the fear driven division of people into isolated individuals requires putting the future of all the children ahead of that fear, drawing our courage from the pain of the Earth, and move together to learn to dissolve our differences and work together as true equals. The mindset of fear of others is a social conditioning, not natural, and we are conditioned that way to make us easily controlled by those who gain from our division. The oldest rule of those who have gotten this world in this terrible situation is "To Conquer, Divide: To keep Conquered, keep Divided".
How do we Forerunners find each other? On the net, yes, but usually that means we live too far away to get together in person and truly get to know one another. One way is to have weekend potluck dinners, passing the word through our health food stores, local spiritual groups, etc. Another is to put classified ads in newspapers for Sunday potluck dinners. I told you this takes courage. (grin) A Forerunner's job is not to convert people, but to connect with other Forerunners, and bring about community. Each community of gentle love and compassion is like a beacon to the world, and no conversion will be required. Example is a thousand times more attractive.
It is not necessary to all live exactly the same way, with exactly the same practices or diets or jargon or any other factor beyond the desire to guide Humanity into a survivable future. It makes no difference what people wear, or if they wear jewelry or eat meat or live in yurts or in apartment buildings… Living lightly on the earth is merely an desirable option, not a prerequisite. However, to be realistic, all Forerunners should 'cap' their living expenses and put all the money coming to them over the 'cap' into a bank account dedicated to initiatives they want to pursue, or into a community when they meet enough others to make it possible. It is far more economic to pool resources than to live separately, to live with other families like extended families rather than live isolated in 'nuclear' families.
No 'leaders' are required, no central organization, not even coordination until the Geonet is set up, and then it will be self-organizing. When the Geonet is happening, communities will be able to interlink and work together, and incredible possibilities will open up. Two or three or ten city communities will be able to buy land together in the country, and move together, just for one example. A community survives best if there are several hundred adults living there.
Another desirable possibility for Forerunners is to go back to school in the fields of environmental studies, contamination reclamation, biochemistry, and any other field in 'hard' science. But this is not for the young, not those under 21 years old, for before that age, the social conditioning of academia has too much effect. The idea is to get the science out of the academic subculture and start teaching and applying it within the path of the Forerunner.
Forerunners will create a subculture… it is normal and desirable, for humans create subcultures instinctively, but it must be the most tolerant and compassionate and harmless subculture that has ever been. It must express the world as we want it to be, not just another reflection of the culture of the world as it is now. Diversity and Unity are not opposing forces, but actually complement each other if tolerance and love are supreme and overly strong opinions do not rule the behavior of the humans involved.
Since I express myself best in answers to other's questions, I would like to make any messages and my responses public, so if you want to keep your email to me completely private, please say so in the email. In any case, you name and personal email information will not be made public.
I am honored by your attention. Thank you.
-- Peace and Long Life,
Roan
Richard Foy wrote: (about the Survivable Path)
Hi, Yeeeeeeeees! Give this man a kiss! :))))))) I generally agree with this.
But I am not so sure how one implements the things proposed, starting from where we are at. For example:
What should we, the people of the world who care about human rights, do about the "ethnic cleansing" in Yugoslavia?
Not that I necessarily approve what Clinton done, but does that mean we should do nothing?
May your days be cheerful and bright!
Richard
AND ROAN RESPONDED:
Date: Fri, 26 Mar 1999
From: "Roan Carratu"
Subject: Re: The Survivable Path - worth repeating!
A very good question. Let me try to answer it.
If a child has chicken pox, and has sores all over it, does the doctor treat each individual sore, or the whole body?
For 10,000 years, we have allowed this illness of the world to go it's course, and it roared out of control, killing millions of people, like a high fever, breaking out with pox and open wars, oozing refugees and starvation, until it almost, several times, killed the whole body with nukes... It drew back from that ultimate ending, and has eased off lately, but over the last decade, with renewed confidence and by force of ancient habit, flared up again and again.
It is time to grow an immune system for this disease of insanity. It is time to attack the disease and heal the body, for it is in sore condition and failing. In terms of what will work, it is obvious that the ways we have been taught, even conditioned by social manipulation, are all in support of the disease, not the cure. Violence, protests, trying to attract the attention of the media and the masses, and silently praying by our ones and our millions, have either done harm or done almost nothing.
So all those ways are out. What is left? For this we have to go back to our root...
There is only one way to do it, and it is the hardest of all. It requires not that we do the easy thing, which is die for our cause, but that we do the hard thing, which is to live for our cause although it brings all kinds of upheaval into our individual, personal lives and the lives of our families. In other words, it will require incredible dedication, the most that anyone has ever had. The illness is so bad that it will require all those who really want to heal the planet and it's human population to dedicate their lives to the future, not just for the next generation, but for all coming generations. Those are the stakes in this survival game. We take the path of apathy or the path of action, but either way, the time has come to take a path, each one of us.
We have to actually, really, in our daily lives, come together and agree that the goal is worth whatever it takes to accomplish, within the bounds of nonviolence and higher consciousness. This means moving together, giving up luxuries, working together, planning together, sharing our material stuff with each other without hesitation, trusting each other, being willing to communicate clearly and completely with each other, being 'up front' with each other, being willing to overlook and tolerate each other opinions even if they conflict with our own...
We need to start communities together, businesses together, merge our bank accounts into sizes big enough to bring about new ways of doing things, target problems in the world and find the ways to solve them that do not end in conflict or destruction, eliminate the old ways of doing things by actually sidestepping them and doing the same constructive work in new ways which avoid the downside of the old ways. We have to take individual responsibility, not in some nebulous 'metaphysical' vague concept, but in moment to moment here and now, not just for what we think, but for what comes of all our thinking and all our actions...
We need, first and foremost, to move together into the same locations. This task cannot be done alone or separately. We need to create communities and merge our resources, our businesses, our brains, our bodies, our educations, our bank accounts, our possessions, our families, our visions, our hearts, and most of all, our love for this planet and the future of this planet and it's human component. We need to interlink these communities, globally, and become a net of sanity. It's a lifetime job we are faced with, a multigenerational job, and we will have to just ignore the existing social systems, and do it ourselves. It will take real commitment by millions, but there are millions out there now, and it is time to get started.
I would, right now, take a bullet for the future of this planet. I would toil hauling boulders up mountains until I dropped dead, if that took a minute or a thousand years. I would give away everything I have a thousand times. I would take beatings, be spat upon, lied to, or tortured, if it would bring about what I know must be created. I am not a masochist, but I would endure it to bring about what I know must be done. Am I a fanatic? No. Is someone who dives in to save a child from drowning a fanatic? No. There are limits to what I would do, and those limits are clear and clean and spiritual. I would not kill, I would not lie, I would not coerce, I would not intimidate, I would not diminish one to exult another... and I know none of these are required to do what I know has to be done. I would accept anything for what I know the future can have for the planet and it's people. I know that all of Life is my ally, my blood, my thoughts, my hands. I would do anything required because somebody has to. I've given up all the normal aspects of life for decades, children, relationships, wealth, concentrating upon what, when, where, and why the world is as it is... because I knew, --somebody had to-- !
I do this because I know, without the slightest doubt, that when I say, 'I AM', I am not speaking of this body or mind, but what we are all 100% part of, the One which is the Goddess, the God, Universe, Gaia, Jehovah, Allah, Jupiter, whatever you want to call 'IT'... it make no difference which grunt we attach to what we know is ONE. There is no 'inside' and 'outside'... there is only One. There is no 'me' and 'you'... there is only ONE. There's no 'Humanity' and 'Nature'... there is only ONE... We accept that, and we do what is required. We do not accept that, and we let the world and all the future slip into a coma and die.
It is by our love that we are known. It is by our love that we must make it happen. Regardless of the words we use, we must go back to our most ancient root, the observable root of our Oneness, and with the love that comes from knowing the One, we must become real creators of this world, active and productive and sane and most of all, no longer separate...
That is the only path left to us. Like it or not. We have to do it by the millions, not you doing it alone where ever you are, and me doing it alone where ever I am, but together, PHYSICALLY and spiritually together, we have to do it, because it will not be done separately. That is the only path left to us. Like it or not.
Mahatma Jesus said, "What does it serve to gain the whole world and lose our souls?" I say, "What does it serve to lose the whole world in the name of the fear of losing our souls?" ... much less a TV or a bank account or safety, (which doesn't exist anyway,) or a stable life, or a promotion or retirement in the HELL that will result if we just let it all go. Here and now the two are totally linked, for if we do not save the planet, we will be guilty of sitting back and letting it die, and that stain is more deadly to our souls than anything else we could do in our little personal lives.
So instead of sitting on our hands and bemoaning the illusion that we can do nothing, we have to start getting together, and create what will make a difference. This kind of movement is what we have to generate, --NO MATTER HOW DIFFICULT OR HOW MUCH OF A HASSLE IT IS-- or we will bemoan our way into Hell on Earth for all future generations. That, of all facts, should be obvious to anyone now. Pay attention, and make your vows... Do we go into a future of freedom and light, or slavery and darkness... and eventual extinction? The time has come to spiritually 'grow up' and make the most important decisions in the history of the planet... each one of us.
Peace and Long Life,
Roan Carratu