Activism
Start improving the world by improving yourself. Be a better human. It’s the most surefire, realistic, pragmatic way you can make an immediate difference in the world. Own your life. Take responsibility for your hardships and challenges.
Here are just some of the reasons you should attend tonight’s 30-minute prayer/intention circle: Prayers have been proven by science to heal. Groups amplify the results. You will personally benefit by participating. Prayers for peace are needed now more than ever. Praying with others brings us all closer together as a global community. Group prayer and intention for a peaceful, loving world is the ONLY way it will happen…
As internet freedom supporters in the Senate attempt to force a vote to reverse the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) unpopular repeal of net neutrality rules, dozens of prominent websites went on “red alert” in support of the protections on Wednesday, hoping to prompt users to flood lawmakers’ offices with phone calls, emails, and other messages pressuring them to reinstate net neutrality.
The Earth is a loving mother, nurturing and protecting all peoples and all species without discrimination. When you realize the Earth is so much more than simply your environment, you’ll be moved to protect her in the same way as you would yourself. This is the kind of awareness, the kind of awakening that we need.
If “the economy” can recover without real people recovering, then whose economy is it really? What can we do about all this? The first thing we can do is to change our mentality and drop the shame and stigma that’s associated with not being able to make ends meet.
The non-violent resistance of Indigenous water protectors against the Dakota Access Pipeline at Standing Rock has inspired a movement of ‘sacred activism,’ rooting political action in spiritual reconnection.
Activist Tom Hayden talked about the power of movements in finding a path to unity. Unity does not mean lock-step agreement on every issue or detail, it does mean finding an avenue by which to bring our presently atomized struggles for peace, the environment, racial, social, and economic justice together.
Human futures can never be merely about more technology, comfort and convenience. We have to open a space for people to move inward and develop an understanding of their minds at a first-person level. Some futurists think that a future where we can load our minds onto computers will be a utopia. Personally, I think that even if this is done, if those ‘minds’ remains as unconscious and ego-based as the vast majority we encounter on the internet today, all that we will get is a cyber-dystopia. A universe of ranting mental projections raging against… well, the machine. A machine in which we have imprisoned ourselves.
“We believe that Google should not be in the business of war,” wrote the employees. “Therefore we ask that Project Maven be canceled, and that Google draft, publicize, and enforce a clear policy stating that neither Google nor its contractors will ever build warfare technology.”
The great Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu knew that actions born of anger lead to further muddling of circumstances. He also understood that a truly effective warrior comes from a place of radical acceptance of what is, for this is the central message of Taoism.
We live simultaneously in two realities: in the reality of global war, and in another reality, which we call the “Sacred Matrix.” To “Defend the Sacred” was and remains the motto for the Sioux in the Dakotas. The planetary community of the future will develop out of a complex network of autonomous communities, built on the basis of the Sacred Matrix.
March for Our Lives represents perhaps the beginnings of a intersectional movement for broader social transformation.
A look at recent news headlines may have made you feel discouraged and wonder if any of your activism activities are making a genuine difference. This downtrodden feeling is often referred to as activism fatigue.
In addition to Saturday’s “March for Our Lives” event in Washington, D.C. and “sibling marches” in American cities, protests were staged in many cities around the world—including Tokyo, Sydney, Geneva, and Mumbai—where supporters marched in solidarity with U.S. students.
The spirit of resistance exemplified by Standing Rock can easily be found in the half-dozen or so other pipeline battles across the United States. Beyond that, the movement amplified the greater struggle worldwide: treaty rights, sacred sites, and the overall stand to protect Indigenous land and life.
