{"id":50900,"date":"2019-11-12T00:05:19","date_gmt":"2019-11-12T00:05:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wagingnonviolence.org\/metta\/?p=50900"},"modified":"2019-11-22T19:35:09","modified_gmt":"2019-11-22T19:35:09","slug":"planet-earth-is-too-big-to-fail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wagingnonviolence.org\/metta\/2019\/11\/planet-earth-is-too-big-to-fail\/","title":{"rendered":"Planet Earth is too big to fail"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

After centuries of neglect, we are now seeing a lot of\nuseful writing about \u201cthe most powerful force at the disposal of humanity,\u201d as\nGandhi called nonviolence. Its long neglect deprived us of a badly needed set\nof tools and way of being. Why, then, was it so long neglected? Not because of\na mere perversity of human nature but something we can, with difficulty,\nchange: the underlying paradigm or \u201cstory\u201d that has dominated the consciousness\nof the West at least since the industrial revolution. Now, thanks in large part\nto Erica Chenoweth and Maria Stephan\u2019s pioneering study, “Why Civil\nResistance Works,<\/em>” and an outpouring of studies by nonviolence\nscholars and activists, from their respective vantage points, is adding to our\ntools to address that neglect \u2014 and even that outdated paradigm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I would like to draw here on just two insights from this recent work. The first is from Rabbi Michael Lerner\u2019s new book, “Revolutionary Love.” <\/a>Lerner points to a critical fact of human nature (again, much neglected in the prevailing paradigm): we have deep spiritual<\/em> as well as material and emotional needs, that are not only neglected, they are not even acknowledged by our present culture. Lerner then points out that these needs are \u201cmanipulated by the right and ignored by the left.\u201d I cannot think of a better summary of our present dilemma. Whatever else we\u2019re doing, it seems to me, whatever atrocity we\u2019re trying to rectify, we would do well to ask ourselves, can I do this in a way that also addresses our deepest human needs? That addresses them so that they are no longer vulnerable to malicious manipulation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Daniel Hunter sheds some light on this question with a vivid image in his timely and practical “Climate Resistance Handbook,” a superb resource he\u2019s made available as a free download<\/a> for anyone who has recently shaken off denial about climate change (the subtitle: Or, I was part of a climate action. Now what?). Hunter talks about a frustration many of us have experienced: how hard it is to get politicians to take needed action. A politician, he says, is like a balloon tied to a rock. You can blow them a little right or a little left (usually even less!), but this is rarely enough to make a difference. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do we do? \u201cMove the rock!\u201d The rock is moved when\nyou get people to act on their values, to \u201cchange what politicians think the\npolitical risks and possibilities are for them: what their base and the general\nclimate of opinion will or will not stand for.\u201d We can add to that image. The\nrock itself has, if you will, an underlying \u201cbedrock.\u201d This is the general\nparadigm or story I\u2019ve just mentioned. As Donald Gerbner of the Annenberg\nSchool of Communication famously said, \u201cControl the stories of a culture and\nyou don\u2019t need to worry who makes the laws.\u201d The late Mary Midgley, a brilliant\nBritish philosopher, referred to the time we\u2019re passing through and the reason\nfor inaction on climate as \u201ca conceptual emergency.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you believe, often unconsciously, that other people are\nreally \u201cother,\u201d that we are separate material beings who depend on competition\nand ultimately violence, it becomes possible to exploit people individually,\nsystematically, and in time even structurally. And this belief is a fundamental\ntenet of the old story, which advertisers seize upon \u2014 “you have no inner\nresources, you need to buy X,” and politicians manipulate \u2014 “you have\nno agency, and you\u2019re surrounded by enemies who can only be kept away by force.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The “new” story that\u2019s been trying to emerge for\nsome time holds just the opposite view: we are evolving spiritual beings; all\nlife is an interconnected whole \u2014 in reality, life is one. We and the planet\nare an interlocked system; we cannot injure others without injuring ourselves. I\nsay “new” advisedly because humanity\u2019s wisest teachers have\nmaintained this for as long as we have any records of what they taught, but\ntoday science is confirming it dramatically. To mention only one example, it is\nnow known (since 1988) that our brain is endowed with \u201cmirror neurons\u201d that\nreflect precisely what we see others do or what we feel they are experiencing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As neuroscientist Marco Iacoboni writes, \u201cWe have evolved to\nconnect deeply with other human beings. Among other things this means that\nalthough we commonly think of pain as a fundamentally private experience, our\nbrain actually treats it as an experience shared with others.\u201d If we could make\nthis and other insights of the new story the “bedrock” of our\nself-image it would inevitably render most of the harmful attitudes and\npolicies causing such psychological, economic, political and ecological damage\nobsolete. Let\u2019s take a contemporary example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The president is at the moment facing the prospect of his\nlong-overdue impeachment. If\/when it goes through we may begin to recover our\nnational self-respect and badly tarnished standing in the world community. However,\nif people just make him the scapegoat for the catastrophic failures of a by-now\ndeeply engrained system, it will neither be sufficient nor lasting. As Mike\nLofgren has recently written<\/a> in Truthout<\/em>, \u201cSince\nabout 1980, we could observe the culture industry patiently assembling him,\npiece by piece. The media barons grasped that his fabricated persona embodied\nthe forbidden wish projections of millions of psychologically repressed and\nresentful individuals.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If he is driven out by impeachment it will at best move the\nballoon somewhat \u2014 until the opposite gust is delivered by the same reactionary\nelements, via the same media barons. But if enough Americans, not<\/em> swept\nup in the current of scapegoating, go on to force more permanent changes that\ncan reverse the attacks on democracy caused by Citizens United, vote\nsuppression, voter fraud by foreign and domestic interference, and can at least\nreturn us to the Paris Accords if not bring on the Green New Deal, we will\n“move the rock.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But let\u2019s not stop there. I am a firm believer that even in emergencies, when we have to \u201cstop the worst of the damage,\u201d as Joanna Macy says, we should not forget to address the root causes of that damage. As I write this, I am sitting in smoke-poisoned air and out of power here in West Marin County: I am well aware of the need to stop the worst of the damage! But I still think we should also take the time to work on the really big picture, the prevailing paradigm. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The notion that we are made of inert matter in a random\nuniverse is hardly inspiring. But one thing we\u2019ve learned about “paradigm\nshifts,” an otherwise mysterious process, is that obsolete stories can\nonly be challenged and replaced by a better one. As Buckminster Fuller says,\n\u201cYou never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something,\nbuild a new model that makes the existing obsolete.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The essential ingredients of this new reality have now\nemerged in the new convergence of ancient traditions of both indigenous and\n\u201cadvanced\u201d civilizations with the cutting edge of modern science. (For more on\nthis fascinating development see my forthcoming book, “The Third Harmony:\nNonviolence and the New Story of Human Nature.”) It runs like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. The universe has a purpose \u2014 of which we are of course an expression.<\/li>
  2. That purpose becomes pretty obvious the moment one looks at evolution\nas more than a physical process: my teacher, Sri Eknath Easwaran, once\nexpressed it beautifully as \u201cthe eons-long rise of consciousness from pure energy until the simplest\nof life-forms emerges and the struggle for increasing self-awareness begins.\u201d<\/li>
  3. Our contemporary culture is violating that\npurpose, by degrading the human image. It has by now reached the point where,\nas religion scholar Huston Smith recently said, \u201cwe haven\u2019t a clue as to who we\nare.\u201d <\/li>
  4. \u201cSuffering has a cause,\u201d the Buddha would say: this degradation is the cause for the\notherwise unthinkable fact that we are approaching self-annihilation. However…<\/li>
  5. Precisely because we ourselves are causing\nthis, we can also reverse it. There is no reason to think that evolution is\nover or that we are incapable of influencing its direction.<\/em><\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    All this brings us back to nonviolence, and especially, in my view, to Gandhi. Everything he said and did, whether he was talking to a child at the ashram, a vast crowd, or the Viceroy of India, whether he was examining new technologies for village industry, getting arrested for \u201csedition,\u201d or taking tea with His Majesty the King Emperor, his ulterior motive was to uplift the human image. When he said that all his activities derived from his \u201cinsatiable love of mankind,\u201d this is one way that love was expressed. This was the motivation that drove him to activity in every sector of life, from spirituality to health care to political freedom. Indians then were cowed into the illusion of helplessness under the British bayonets; many Americans feel helpless because of our degrading cultural narrative and those who cynically use it to what they think is their own advantage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    What can we do to carry on his project in our own setting?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    This question has occupied me for some time. Decades back I came up with\na list of five steps every individual can take. I received much encouragement\nfrom none other than the late Marshall Rosenberg, the founder of Nonviolent\nCommunication (which of course overlaps with nonviolence proper), and these\nsteps were then fine-tuned in many conversations with friends and colleagues:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    1. Exercise extreme caution with\nthe commercial mass media<\/em>.\nToday you can shun them entirely, as there are many alternative sources of news\nand entertainment that are much healthier.<\/li>
    2. The healthiest way to overcome\ntheir demoralizing message is to learn everything you can about nonviolence<\/em>.\nThis is why I mentioned at the outset of this article that there are vastly\nmore resources now with which to do this.<\/li>
    3. Consider taking up a spiritual\npractice<\/em> (if you don\u2019t have one already). In my experience, and that of\nmany others, meditation can give us a sense of purpose and a growing sense of\nour connectedness with the rest of existence. It gives us a tool, moreover, to\nconvert negative drives like fear and anger to creative use \u2014 a sine qua non<\/em>\nof successful nonviolent action.<\/li>
    4. Build community<\/em>: be personal with everyone in all your\ninteractions; resist the allure of social media that has driven us so far apart\n\u2014 a condition that oppressors love to exploit. (Steps 1-3 position you do this\nvery successfully; then all four position you for what follows).<\/li>
    5. Find where your particular\ncapacities answer to one or more of society\u2019s pressing\nneeds, and get active<\/em>. Learning about nonviolence will help you do this<\/em>\nsuccessfully as well. And wherever you get a chance, explain why: <\/em>tell\nyour own version of the new story.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

      Paradigms don\u2019t change by themselves, no matter\nhow suffocating and dangerous they\u2019ve become. They change when there\u2019s an\nattractive alternative available and people here, there and everywhere are\nquietly espousing it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Even in emergencies, as we work to stop the worst damage, we must address the root causes of the crisis and shift the prevailing paradigm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":50901,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,30],"tags":[17,35,54],"region":[65],"series":[],"article_type":[],"class_list":["post-50900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-environment","tag-climate-change","tag-gandhi","tag-literature","region-north-america"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nPlanet Earth is too big to fail - Metta Center for Nonviolence<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Even in emergencies, as we work to stop the worst damage, we must address the root causes of the crisis and shift the prevailing paradigm.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/wagingnonviolence.org\/metta\/2019\/11\/planet-earth-is-too-big-to-fail\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Planet Earth is too big to fail\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Even in emergencies, as we work to stop the worst damage, we must address the root causes of the crisis and shift the prevailing paradigm.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/wagingnonviolence.org\/metta\/2019\/11\/planet-earth-is-too-big-to-fail\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Metta Center for Nonviolence\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/wagingnonviolence\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-11-12T00:05:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-11-22T19:35:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wagingnonviolence.org\/metta\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/11\/GP02K7W_Web_size.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"533\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Michael Nagler\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@wagingnv\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@wagingnv\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Michael Nagler\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"9 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wagingnonviolence.org\\\/metta\\\/2019\\\/11\\\/planet-earth-is-too-big-to-fail\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wagingnonviolence.org\\\/metta\\\/2019\\\/11\\\/planet-earth-is-too-big-to-fail\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Michael Nagler\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wagingnonviolence.org\\\/metta\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/f1938d2db2870d539f7a7f19aaf2089d\"},\"headline\":\"Planet Earth is too big to fail\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-11-12T00:05:19+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-11-22T19:35:09+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wagingnonviolence.org\\\/metta\\\/2019\\\/11\\\/planet-earth-is-too-big-to-fail\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1851,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wagingnonviolence.org\\\/metta\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wagingnonviolence.org\\\/metta\\\/2019\\\/11\\\/planet-earth-is-too-big-to-fail\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wagingnonviolence.org\\\/metta\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/4\\\/2019\\\/11\\\/GP02K7W_Web_size.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Climate change\",\"Gandhi\",\"Literature\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Culture\",\"Environment\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/wagingnonviolence.org\\\/metta\\\/2019\\\/11\\\/planet-earth-is-too-big-to-fail\\\/#respond\"]}],\"copyrightYear\":\"2019\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wagingnonviolence.org\\\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wagingnonviolence.org\\\/metta\\\/2019\\\/11\\\/planet-earth-is-too-big-to-fail\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wagingnonviolence.org\\\/metta\\\/2019\\\/11\\\/planet-earth-is-too-big-to-fail\\\/\",\"name\":\"Planet Earth is too big to fail - 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