Photo: Stacy Lanyon
There’s a great Einstein quote that says,
“No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.” All of
the current proposals particularly with regard to climate change are what
I call rubberizing the playground, you know putting a mat of rubber down on the
playground so that people don’t crack their skulls open when they fall, but
it’s still the same playground. I don’t think our economic
system is a playground. It’s another kind of ground - a hell-ground.
Most of the proposals and regulations that we have basically hope to adjust the system to prevent the complete degradation of our planet's ability to support the human species. They all come from the same consciousness that created the problem in the first place, which is some sort of consciousness around a consumption based economy. I don’t believe that a consumption based economy provides for the happiness of humans.
You can’t outsource the solutions to these problems to our leaders. The problem of climate change, the problem with our economy is what’s called a distributed problem. The source of the problem is not in one place. The other way to think of it is that it’s a divergent problem. Three plus three equals six is a convergent problem. The problem converges on only one answer. A divergent problem is one to which there are many, many, many sources that combine and build up.
All of that comes together to mean that there is no one person, no one source of power, no one anything that could come up with the solution to our problems. If it’s distributed problems and if all of us contribute in some way to the problem, then all of us in some way must contribute to the solution. We require a distributed solution. President Obama is not going to solve it. Bill McKibben is not going to solve it. I’m not going to solve it. We are all going to solve it.
There’s also a process that I really believe in, which is called collective wisdom, which is the wisdom that is arrived at when all the individuals of a group are listened to carefully. Everybody has a voice in all the views. It’s not about majority over minority but about developing a kind of group consciousness that synthesizes everybody’s views. Then, add to that this: I actually believe on a spiritual level that we are co-creators of the universe, that we co-create it with all of our consciousness.
Why I like Occupy is because Occupy has a distributed solution, a non-hierarchical distributed solution where the consciousness of all of us comes together to decide, at its best, if it were to extend to include everybody. It’s the idea that all of us are a part of the whole.
I’ll say something slightly controversial. I’m not a great lover of the term 99%. I’m very much interested in the 100%, and Occupy is as close as I’ve been able to come to focus on the 100%. To me, we rise up to our spirit and actually begin to work together in love, in service, in trust.
Most of the proposals and regulations that we have basically hope to adjust the system to prevent the complete degradation of our planet's ability to support the human species. They all come from the same consciousness that created the problem in the first place, which is some sort of consciousness around a consumption based economy. I don’t believe that a consumption based economy provides for the happiness of humans.
You can’t outsource the solutions to these problems to our leaders. The problem of climate change, the problem with our economy is what’s called a distributed problem. The source of the problem is not in one place. The other way to think of it is that it’s a divergent problem. Three plus three equals six is a convergent problem. The problem converges on only one answer. A divergent problem is one to which there are many, many, many sources that combine and build up.
All of that comes together to mean that there is no one person, no one source of power, no one anything that could come up with the solution to our problems. If it’s distributed problems and if all of us contribute in some way to the problem, then all of us in some way must contribute to the solution. We require a distributed solution. President Obama is not going to solve it. Bill McKibben is not going to solve it. I’m not going to solve it. We are all going to solve it.
There’s also a process that I really believe in, which is called collective wisdom, which is the wisdom that is arrived at when all the individuals of a group are listened to carefully. Everybody has a voice in all the views. It’s not about majority over minority but about developing a kind of group consciousness that synthesizes everybody’s views. Then, add to that this: I actually believe on a spiritual level that we are co-creators of the universe, that we co-create it with all of our consciousness.
Why I like Occupy is because Occupy has a distributed solution, a non-hierarchical distributed solution where the consciousness of all of us comes together to decide, at its best, if it were to extend to include everybody. It’s the idea that all of us are a part of the whole.
I’ll say something slightly controversial. I’m not a great lover of the term 99%. I’m very much interested in the 100%, and Occupy is as close as I’ve been able to come to focus on the 100%. To me, we rise up to our spirit and actually begin to work together in love, in service, in trust.
When everybody was at Zuccotti, I was actually traveling. I
was travelling giving talks at universities around the country, so I couldn’t
go in the first couple of days. I was gone for about the first two weeks. It
was interesting because I hadn’t been to the park, and yet where I was giving
talks, people were raising their hands and asking me questions about Occupy,
and all I knew about Occupy is what I read in the media.
One of the things it was saying in the media is that the occupiers weren't making straight forward demands. First of all, it was very clear to me what the demand was. The demand was that real humans occupied Wall Street. That was the demand. That’s one way of looking at it. Second of all, to me the demands of Occupy at that time were not clear because the problem is not clear. What was happening was that people were coming together and saying, “This is not fucking working. This is fucked up, and it’s not working, and we’re coming together, and we’re in a process together, and we may not have some demands or whatever, but we’re going to sit here and tell the world that it's not working."
What wasn’t so fully articulated was, “And we don’t know the answer.” I thought what was particularly great about Occupy was the willingness to come together while not knowing the answer. I was going around the country not really knowing what was going on but saying that.
Finally, when I got back, I remember that it was a Friday. I think it was three weeks in. I got back, and I really wanted to go, but I had my little girl Isabella that day, and she was off school. I thought, "Obviously, there has been some violence." I also thought, “This is a historic occasion.” It would be like deciding not to take my daughter to see Martin Luther King speak or something like that, so I decided to bring Isabella, and we went. This was before it was cordoned off.
We entered in the northeast corner and basically walked down to the west and around and back up into the southeast corner, the speaker’s corner there. I bumped into Reverend Billy, and I saw the economist Jeffrey Sachs, and Barbara Ehrenreich was there. It was interesting that they were there, but the most interesting thing was that my daughter after four hours in Zuccotti Park begged me for us not to leave.
People came and talked to us about all sorts of things. I remember we were walking down, and there was one grunge kid sitting in her kind of makeshift shelter rolling a cigarette. Bella walked up to her and said, “What are you doing?” And the kid looked at me like, “What am I supposed to say?” I was just like, “Tell her what you’re doing.” She said, “Well, I’m making a cigarette." Bella’s like, “That’s a cigarette?" She’s like, “Yeah.” Then, Bella said, “Ya know, cigarette smoking is not good for you.”
Then, we walked up and as we went, I stopped and had conversations with some people. Some people had some violent ideas, and then some people had ideas about education that to me didn’t sound at all right. Then, some people had some ideas that I just loved, but what impressed me so much was that the park could contain all of that.
Then, the other thing that happened that was just amazing was that there were people making sidewalk art with chalk, so Bella went up to one of the people and asked if she could borrow the chalk, and she drew a big pink heart. Well, a bunch of people gathered around and watched her and said, “That’s the most important piece of art in this whole park." It was really cute. Lots of people took her picture. They didn’t know about No Impact Man. It was just a kid drawing in the park. It really felt like what it was supposed to feel like. The fact that Bella felt so safe and comfortable among everybody from crazy people to Jeffery Sachs, it just felt wonderful to me.
One of the things it was saying in the media is that the occupiers weren't making straight forward demands. First of all, it was very clear to me what the demand was. The demand was that real humans occupied Wall Street. That was the demand. That’s one way of looking at it. Second of all, to me the demands of Occupy at that time were not clear because the problem is not clear. What was happening was that people were coming together and saying, “This is not fucking working. This is fucked up, and it’s not working, and we’re coming together, and we’re in a process together, and we may not have some demands or whatever, but we’re going to sit here and tell the world that it's not working."
What wasn’t so fully articulated was, “And we don’t know the answer.” I thought what was particularly great about Occupy was the willingness to come together while not knowing the answer. I was going around the country not really knowing what was going on but saying that.
Finally, when I got back, I remember that it was a Friday. I think it was three weeks in. I got back, and I really wanted to go, but I had my little girl Isabella that day, and she was off school. I thought, "Obviously, there has been some violence." I also thought, “This is a historic occasion.” It would be like deciding not to take my daughter to see Martin Luther King speak or something like that, so I decided to bring Isabella, and we went. This was before it was cordoned off.
We entered in the northeast corner and basically walked down to the west and around and back up into the southeast corner, the speaker’s corner there. I bumped into Reverend Billy, and I saw the economist Jeffrey Sachs, and Barbara Ehrenreich was there. It was interesting that they were there, but the most interesting thing was that my daughter after four hours in Zuccotti Park begged me for us not to leave.
People came and talked to us about all sorts of things. I remember we were walking down, and there was one grunge kid sitting in her kind of makeshift shelter rolling a cigarette. Bella walked up to her and said, “What are you doing?” And the kid looked at me like, “What am I supposed to say?” I was just like, “Tell her what you’re doing.” She said, “Well, I’m making a cigarette." Bella’s like, “That’s a cigarette?" She’s like, “Yeah.” Then, Bella said, “Ya know, cigarette smoking is not good for you.”
Then, we walked up and as we went, I stopped and had conversations with some people. Some people had some violent ideas, and then some people had ideas about education that to me didn’t sound at all right. Then, some people had some ideas that I just loved, but what impressed me so much was that the park could contain all of that.
Then, the other thing that happened that was just amazing was that there were people making sidewalk art with chalk, so Bella went up to one of the people and asked if she could borrow the chalk, and she drew a big pink heart. Well, a bunch of people gathered around and watched her and said, “That’s the most important piece of art in this whole park." It was really cute. Lots of people took her picture. They didn’t know about No Impact Man. It was just a kid drawing in the park. It really felt like what it was supposed to feel like. The fact that Bella felt so safe and comfortable among everybody from crazy people to Jeffery Sachs, it just felt wonderful to me.
I think we’re in the midst of three interconnected crises.
One is our environmental crisis, and it’s not just climate. All of our environmental
systems are stressed which is one of the reasons why climate regulations are not working. I’m
for climate regulation, but it’s not enough. Climate regulation won’t stop the
fish from getting fished out of the sea. So there’s the environmental crisis.
There’s our economic crisis. I
don’t like to use the big loaded terms to describe our economic system or to
describe alternatives to the economic system. I’m not interested in one system
or another. I’m interested in finding a system that’s just and that works.
Talking about one system or the other--like capitalism or socialism--it’s like talking about one religion or
another. If you use the big system words, then you disenfranchise a lot of
people from the conversation. Let’s
just start from principles and figure out what works.
Whatever you think about this current system, it’s failing to do what it promised. Let’s just give it the benefit of the doubt. Let’s just say the original idea was that our system is a system supposedly based on rewarded altruism. I’m allowed to build a house. If I build a house for you and make you safe, then I make money off of it, and I’m rewarded for helping you, and that’s good for everybody. It means that I can make a living helping you.
That was when we were dealing with real need, but now we’re in a system where we manufacture need. We make up ideas of what the people with the money need. We don’t worry about the people who don’t have drinking water or anything like that, but with any sort of income that can be disposed of, we make up ideas of what we need, and the system is about parting people from their money. The idea used to be that this rewarded altruism connected with the idea of this rising tide floats all boats. As money was made, social services would get funded. Rich people spending their money would end up in poor people’s pockets. They would get richer.
But it turns out that our social systems are getting less and less funded. All of our support systems, everything from transportation to housing to education are getting less and less funded. The rising tide is ending up in the rich people’s pockets, and it’s not about rewarded altruism anymore either. The whole thing is cracking and falling apart too, the housing crisis, everything, so people are getting poorer, and the whole thing is falling apart. Part of the reason why the whole thing is falling apart is because the environmental resources are not there to continue the consumption.
The last of the three crises is our quality of life. The idea was that the consumption based economy was supposed to make us all happier. If we just chase after what we want, we’ll be happy. First of all, the system suggests that we should chase after things that most of us don’t actually want. Most of us want things like the ability to express ourselves, the ability to be with people that we love, the ability to educate ourselves, to have healthcare, not flat screen televisions. Consumption is a consolation prize.
So you have these three things that come together. The other side of that is that because those crises are happening together means that we are in an incredible opportunity. If it was working economically, but it wasn’t working environmentally or socially, or if it was working socially, but it wasn’t working economically, if it was working in one way but not the other ways, we’d be at a real, “Oh my god?”
But it’s not working in any way, which means to fix the environment and the economy is also to fix human happiness. These things are not at odds. They’re together. If we fix one, we fix the other. That's the reason why Occupy is important in terms of timing. In terms of quality, it’s a lot of stuff that I said earlier about it being distributed so that everyone involved, crazy people and smart people and economic thinkers and social thinkers and people that don’t know anything and people that know everything can come together, so all of our wisdom coming together can form one wisdom.
Whatever you think about this current system, it’s failing to do what it promised. Let’s just give it the benefit of the doubt. Let’s just say the original idea was that our system is a system supposedly based on rewarded altruism. I’m allowed to build a house. If I build a house for you and make you safe, then I make money off of it, and I’m rewarded for helping you, and that’s good for everybody. It means that I can make a living helping you.
That was when we were dealing with real need, but now we’re in a system where we manufacture need. We make up ideas of what the people with the money need. We don’t worry about the people who don’t have drinking water or anything like that, but with any sort of income that can be disposed of, we make up ideas of what we need, and the system is about parting people from their money. The idea used to be that this rewarded altruism connected with the idea of this rising tide floats all boats. As money was made, social services would get funded. Rich people spending their money would end up in poor people’s pockets. They would get richer.
But it turns out that our social systems are getting less and less funded. All of our support systems, everything from transportation to housing to education are getting less and less funded. The rising tide is ending up in the rich people’s pockets, and it’s not about rewarded altruism anymore either. The whole thing is cracking and falling apart too, the housing crisis, everything, so people are getting poorer, and the whole thing is falling apart. Part of the reason why the whole thing is falling apart is because the environmental resources are not there to continue the consumption.
The last of the three crises is our quality of life. The idea was that the consumption based economy was supposed to make us all happier. If we just chase after what we want, we’ll be happy. First of all, the system suggests that we should chase after things that most of us don’t actually want. Most of us want things like the ability to express ourselves, the ability to be with people that we love, the ability to educate ourselves, to have healthcare, not flat screen televisions. Consumption is a consolation prize.
So you have these three things that come together. The other side of that is that because those crises are happening together means that we are in an incredible opportunity. If it was working economically, but it wasn’t working environmentally or socially, or if it was working socially, but it wasn’t working economically, if it was working in one way but not the other ways, we’d be at a real, “Oh my god?”
But it’s not working in any way, which means to fix the environment and the economy is also to fix human happiness. These things are not at odds. They’re together. If we fix one, we fix the other. That's the reason why Occupy is important in terms of timing. In terms of quality, it’s a lot of stuff that I said earlier about it being distributed so that everyone involved, crazy people and smart people and economic thinkers and social thinkers and people that don’t know anything and people that know everything can come together, so all of our wisdom coming together can form one wisdom.
I’m not so idealistic to think that there will be a world where
there is no poverty or a world where there is no war or a world where all
people are created equal. But I still think that’s what we should be trying to do. If I
were to say, “That’s the world that I want,” I feel like that might be too kumbaya, so I’m not going to say that.
How about this as a goal--a world where the institutions reflect the love that’s in people’s hearts. Our government, our businesses, even in Exxon, nobody is working at Exxon and going, “I’m so glad we got some more climate change today.” There is nobody in government thinking that. There is nobody in law enforcement who says, “I’m so glad we put an innocent person in jail," or "I’m so glad we put someone in jail for something that doesn’t matter worth a shit," like smoking pot. Nobody believes that in their heart.
Most people actually want the best for their neighbors and for their friends and for everybody around them, but that love is not reflected in our institutions. The principle that the directors of corporations have to put profits before everything else, legally, that forces our institutions to veer away from what people actually want. Maybe this kind of consciousness that’s emerging through Occupy and elsewhere will build to the point where we can rebuild our institutions in a way that actually reflects human desire and aspiration and compassion.
How about this as a goal--a world where the institutions reflect the love that’s in people’s hearts. Our government, our businesses, even in Exxon, nobody is working at Exxon and going, “I’m so glad we got some more climate change today.” There is nobody in government thinking that. There is nobody in law enforcement who says, “I’m so glad we put an innocent person in jail," or "I’m so glad we put someone in jail for something that doesn’t matter worth a shit," like smoking pot. Nobody believes that in their heart.
Most people actually want the best for their neighbors and for their friends and for everybody around them, but that love is not reflected in our institutions. The principle that the directors of corporations have to put profits before everything else, legally, that forces our institutions to veer away from what people actually want. Maybe this kind of consciousness that’s emerging through Occupy and elsewhere will build to the point where we can rebuild our institutions in a way that actually reflects human desire and aspiration and compassion.
Once we accomplish that, I think we can just be.
Kurt Vonnegut was my favorite writer when I was growing up. One day he was
going to the post office. He was getting ready to go, and his wife said, “You
know, you could just get a fax machine. Then, you wouldn’t have to go to the post
office.” He said, “Well, if I didn’t go to the post office, I wouldn’t go for a
walk. I wouldn’t get to flirt with the pretty girl behind the counter.” Then,
at the end of the passage he said, “Life is meant for putzing around.” I agree. How do we make it so we all get to putz around?
Another way of putting it is what my daughter Isabel says. Little kids are fun in the sense that you can program them like computers, so I won’t say that she spontaneously came up with this. I kind of taught her to say this. When I say to her, “Honey, why were we born?” She says, "We were born to laugh daddy.” Then, I ask, “What’s our responsibility?” She says, “To make sure that everybody else can laugh too.” Once we can all laugh, to me that’s enough.
Colin Beavan is an activist in environment, economic and quality of life issues. You can follow his work at:
https://www.facebook.com/ColinBeavan?fref=ts
https://twitter.com/ColinBeavan.
Interview by Stacy Lanyon
http://buildingcompassionthroughaction.blogspot.com/
https://www.facebook.com/stacylanyon
https://instagram.com/stacylanyon/
https://twitter.com/StacyLanyon
http://stacylanyon.com/
Another way of putting it is what my daughter Isabel says. Little kids are fun in the sense that you can program them like computers, so I won’t say that she spontaneously came up with this. I kind of taught her to say this. When I say to her, “Honey, why were we born?” She says, "We were born to laugh daddy.” Then, I ask, “What’s our responsibility?” She says, “To make sure that everybody else can laugh too.” Once we can all laugh, to me that’s enough.
Colin Beavan is an activist in environment, economic and quality of life issues. You can follow his work at:
https://www.facebook.com/ColinBeavan?fref=ts
https://twitter.com/ColinBeavan.
Interview by Stacy Lanyon
http://buildingcompassionthroughaction.blogspot.com/
https://www.facebook.com/stacylanyon
https://instagram.com/stacylanyon/
https://twitter.com/StacyLanyon
http://stacylanyon.com/