Revolutionary Ideas Part 8 - Let's All Take Responsibility

Okay, this is the last 'big picture' idea before moving back to some specific ideas to make Nova Scotia a more economically sustainable place (I really do have more ideas that might lead to jobs!).  Today's idea is about taking responsibility both for our actions, and in-actions.  What if more of us started squawking about, or even quit participating in systems that were corrupt, or harmful to other people or the planet, or ourselves? Wouldn't that be something?

It seems the news is always full of finger-pointing and blaming and buck-passing.  I've thought a lot about the question of whether some people are just plain evil or if evil behaviour is something that develops.  I've thought a lot about my own capacity for good and evil.  I think the following TED lecture is one of the best I've ever seen, very thought-provoking and downright surprising:

Philip Zombardo, "The Psychology of Evil"



Another favourite movie on this topic that I've watched several times is Schindler's List.

A story that comes to mind is "The Emperor's New Clothes" which most people know...

To quote the story (linked to above) here's the part where the Emperor's minister noticed the Emperor's new outfit was a sham:

The Emperor's minister opened his eyes wide. "Upon my life!" he thought. "I see nothing at all, nothing." But he did not say so.

What if the Emperor's minister told the Emperor the truth?  That would have taken some guts, eh? What if the Emperor listened to the kids at the end and admitted to everyone, oh crap, I'm naked, instead of going on with the charade? Wouldn't people have had more respect for him?  It seems this story is an excellent one for politicians to remember, when they get swept up into things that initially look like a great idea, but part way through start to stink....
  An excellent book someone gave me is "A Language Older Than Words" by Derrick Jensen who has written several books popular with environmental activists.

The book is autobiographical, the following is a quote from my favourite part where Derrick realizes that his chosen career in science isn't for him:

"I sat at the computer at work, debugging. I was bored. It was afternoon. I was twenty-two. It was June. Along the front range of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, thunderheads move in almost every afternoon between May and early July. They materialize, darken the day, spit a few drops, open the sky with lightning, then disappear like so many dreams.

Turning away from the computer I saw through my own narrow window (at least it opened) the green, the blue, the flashes. I looked to the clock, the screen, the window. An hour passed, then two. I looked again at the clock and saw it had been only twenty minutes. I willed the second hand, the minute hand, the hour hand to move faster, to deliver me to five o'clock when I would be released as from my prison term. Then suddenly I stopped, struck by the absurdity of wishing away the only thing I've got. Eight hours, eighty years, it was all too similar. Would I wish away the years until the day of my retirement, until my time was once again my own? At work I tried to keep busy to make the hours pass quickly. It was no different when watching television, socializing, moving frenetically - there are so many ways to kill time.

I remember staring at the computer screen - light green letters on dark - then at the clock, and finally at my outstretched fingers held a foot in front of my face. And then it dawned on me: selling the hours of my life was no different from selling my fingers one by one. We've only so many hours, so many fingers; when they're gone, they're gone for good.

I quit work two weeks later - having sold another eighty of my hours - and knew I could never again work a regular job."

page 110 - 111 from "A Language Older Than Words"

Ironically I was given this book by a sage young friend that I met in a community band in Vancouver.  I think within a month of reading it, moved by the above quote, I had hatched my own plan to quit my full time job.  I have nothing but respect and admiration for those people I've met who enjoy working a good full time office job, it just isn't a lifestyle that is for me.

Maybe instead of participating in corruption or other things that don't sit well with us, if we all woke up and started crying "foul", it would be a step towards realizing new solutions.  We'd speak out against corruption, bullies and cheaters instead of looking the other way.  We'd take ownership for our own actions, as well as in-actions.  Maybe we'd all notice how terrible bill C-45 is for Canada and question how Harper was able to slip this bill past Canadians, much like the Emperor parading naked through his city.  Fortunately the protest of this bill is at the heart of the world wide "Idle No More" campaign.  I think that's why I like the "Idle No More" movement so much.  I don't understand how any Canadian can sit idly by while Harper makes wholesale, sweeping changes to the detriment of our nation. Shame on you, Stephen Harper!  And shame on all of us for letting it happen.  Honestly, Stephen, instead of patting pandas in China how about checking out those greenhouses in Holland...

I'll end this post with a video I stumbled across when I googled "How to Save The World".  I found this: "How to Save The World, One Man, One Cow, One Planet".   The documentary is about Peter Proctor, an elderly New Zealand gardener and proponent for biodynamic farming.  What strikes me about this movie is the joy and vitality of Peter Proctor.  Similar to Schindler's List it gives an example of how one person, doing what they believe is the right thing, in spite of being surrounded by harmful systems, can positively impact so many people's lives.   It is such a moving antidote to that prevalent thought that goes something like "bah, I'm just one person, what can I do".  And, if anyone still isn't sure that Monsanto harms people and the earth, this film is a must-see: