The Commons & Common Sense - mid-way book review

Charles Eisenstein's "Sacred Economics," continues to be an excellent read. It provided great thinking-backdrop during the perma-culture internship I join earlier this year, aiding to personalise and deepen for me the cultural shift taking place on our sweet globe. His words inspire and coordinate otherwise random bits of information from having mere subtle connections, into a pleasant, deeply sober, and obvious whole. 

I'm approaching the end, and, anticipating no disappointment, allow me to share some of my insights which I've been enjoying mulling over. 

Courtesy of Eisenstein, I've been thinking a lot about 'The Commons,' and I've made parallel to that, Common Sense. The Commons, foremost related to land; and since the inception of 'property,' whatever was once freely roamed upon becomes guarded, gated, and fenced; protected by law. Eisenstein very graciously demonstrates that once something becomes a privilege for one - person or entity - it turns into a place of lack for the rest. "Gated Communities," is a phrase which more correctly falls into a real estate lexicon than one of a cultural, person to person exchange. As the economy 'grows,' that is, diversifies its activities and areas it occupies, what is common to existence (land, songs, access to water and food) shrinks. 'Access,' here, is key: access to land being the obvious example, and access to our (collective) psyche being the subtle.

So looking now to our day to day thinking, once something is removed from the Commons, becoming someones possession, it is also distanced, if not removed, from common sense. We suddenly need "experts." We quite strangely loose confidence to take on any task other than the one our "speciality" gives us. If you've ever experienced something akin to, "oh the drain is plugged, I had best call a plumber" in a big sort of panic, I'd like to suggest that the underlying feeling is one of scarcity - as the solution is probably within the reach of a $20 wrench. As what is Common dissolves, the feeling of scarcity takes its place in our mind, and folks no longer seem able to think about that thing that has been removed from the commons as something that has ready access within themselves. That new 'found' possession, now 'belonging' to someone else, is lost unto our collective use. "Property," echoes Eisenstein, "is theft."

Though this does not make me very popular in various social settings, I do argue that this current recession is an exception to the otherwise 'normal' boom and bust 'growth' cycles which have defined our time over the last (drop-in-the-bucket) fifty years. Some call it the Greater Depression, and my intuition tells me to agree. Heartily. I believe we are entering such an era of renewed self-sufficiency, that our current version of economy truly does not have many legs left to throw plaster-casts and band-aids upon. I don't know what the picture is going to look like on the other side, but if natural disasters could speak, I'm sure they would happily regale in countless examples of communal troubles where people banded together. The degree to which a person can experience this shift toward greater self-sufficiency depends greatly upon where one is living. I would hasten to argue that it is much more difficult to see how vulnerable the situation is when a person is living in an urban setting: the walls carving up the commons are thick and high, I find, and generally well maintained from any encroaching plant life.

The upcoming set of troubles, are, however, human made; though earthquakes, volcanoes, and tornadoes continue to do their part. And this is why I agree to arguments which concentrate upon just how exceptional the contributing factors are in today's economic climate: The limits of paper currencies is becoming a widely published fact. As Voltaire said famously: "Paper currency always returns to its original value. That is, nothing."

But there are forces - including our own good will and worry - which can be highly stubborn to change, refusing to read the writing on the wall that exponential growth drawn from a finite resource base spells collapse: either for the thing growing, or the thing being drawn upon. It would be too easy to blame this all on government, or a secret tribe of stone masons, or corporations (who all do have a hand in this), but as anyone who has "worked for a living" is now clearly part of the story. 

a Charles Eisenstein site -
 CLICK HERE

The balance points of power are the places to direct ones questions, I find. The competing expectations between the Baby-Boom, GenX, and GenY are very interesting - to say the least. What is common to everyone though, is the fact that when a person is given a social insurance number and a birth certificate, they are in the eyes of our institutions an economic unit, ready for training (that is, getting 'educated'). Economic units within a version of economy demanding in its policy of exponential growth can only do one thing: seek out new civilisations, new markets, and boldly go where no one has gone before. Put more simply: pass along new inroads into the commons for further and ready consumption: 'Without others consuming the thing I possess, I will not be able to meet my own needs' - so the story goes. And the boarders now are no longer just in the physical realm... Consumption has gone quantum: We think we are on track, and remove Common Sense from the Commons at an increasing pace.

I find human fear much like the hare who easily dashes ahead of its racing partner, the tortoise, whose movements in time bring out our fondness and yearning for the salve to human fear and arrogance: none other of course than human love. Which brings me with great relief to the subject of Mindfulness. 

I think Mindfulness has such an important role in creating a permanent culture as each our individual thinking marks the forefront of the 'crusade' for cultural (and inner) peace. Things move differently within our hearts than in our brains, but both organs are rooted to the movement of thought. It does not matter where I travel, nor how remote nor public a setting I find myself in: so long as the majority of people are subject to a currency whose growth depends upon increasing levels of indebtedness, the more deeply are wedges into our commonalities permitted to move: our Commons, our common sense, finds less ground to stand upon as it shifts apart below us, though in our nature we wish to live in accord with the preferred state of love and peace. 

Love, in this light, can simply refer to our ability to relax into each others' company; which is difficult to do when our currency is host to the inherent suggestion that our needs are separate. Truly: here I am out in the woods, and the human ego around here is just as panicked as it is at the heart of any downtown core: Just as panicked to meet its needs, in as deep a battle against the increasing and literal scarcity, impending doom breathing down the back of ones neck. And of course it is. It is a doozie of a collective situation, and there is no other place to 'hide' other than delusion: we are invited daily into a tea party for seven billion. Seven billion economic units scouring the planet to meet our 'individual' needs. A credit must be given to those practicing perma-culture, in that the preservation of food knowledge, of soil health, and efficient water usage is at the core of its intent.

Without planting the seeds of Mindfulness though, I find that the headlong race of consumption finds little rest or respite. ... And I suppose my question, still, is along these lines: What limit will be surpassed before we culturally act any differently, rediscovering and rebuilding the bridges between our needs and our nature? When will we find pause to listen? If this cannot take place on a mountainside acreage... if not now, then...?

To be continued :)

No Mumbo Jumbo

Under All Things Indigo, let's briefly take a look at the nature of social activism.

There are numerous immediate ways we can all be good citizens, intrinsically: being kind to service people like waitresses and cashiers, for example. If they're having a rough day, trying to put themselves through university, it costs nothing to give them a friendly smile and a bit of pleasant conversation.

Extrinsically, by comparison, there are countless very large issues at play today. Getting involved invites us to take these smaller intrinsic actions of Mindfulness into the world at large.

photo credit

I had the pleasure of joining in at the Keep Jumbo Wild vigil in Nelson BC this evening. I've been following this issue for over a decade, and kudos really must be given to the local EcoSociety on this one. Coming in from Alberta, over the years I have seen numerous "I *heart* Jumbo" buttons, t-shirts, bumper stickers, and even wooden signs hanging on doors throughout Calgary. Pretty impressive, considering how much money flows through Calgary, and how avid the average person is about skiing.

For those just entering the loop, various levels of government just approved a 5000+ room hotel to go into Jumbo Glacier: An area know for its grizzly bear populations, and - surprise - glaciers. The road alone will cost 250M to construct, and French investment (backed by the French government) is currently raising 450M for the project. Just under the umbrella of peak oil alone, this is one crappy investment, and creating a mega-project in the midst of a glacial field is simply bad taste. Supplying the future energy needs to this massive structure - for any investor keeping current to peak oil issues - is blindly catastrophic for their pocketbook...without it being lined with our tax dollars, of course. Unless the design has a serious off-grid strategy, one simply has to ask: who, in fifty years time, will be able to afford to go there?

At the close of the meeting, the EcoSociety president postulated that the French people will be rather upset to learn that their tax dollars will be going toward a mega-project as this, which will surely evict one of the grizzlies last habitat strongholds on the planet. And as for the fresh-water issues this project touches upon... The EcoSociety is looking for support toward the films in production currently (being made in French) which they wish to circulate globally, notably in France.

photo credit

This hotel is in my opinion simply a fine example of short-sighted-ness on the behalf of big money. Yes, the project will create jobs, but it does not address the countless list of pressing social issues facing our species today. In the face of rising energy costs and increasing resource scarcity - namely oil - the cost to maintain the road alone is something no tax-payer will be wanting to inherit. ... Which is the general pattern with such projects: government money helps to fund the project, and the tax-payer pays the bills afterwards, especially if there are problems, which in this case will likely include routine and preemptive avalanche maintenance. I wish we were using this wonderful resource - oil - with greater prudence, or any prudence, and I could use your help.

The questions brought up at the candle-light vigil were great. At a time when our social needs of education, health care, and pension obligations are experiencing remarkable pressure, why would any of us be interested in this project going through? Teachers, Doctors, and Baby Boomers all have a stake in this project, and I am not speaking of its recreational potential. If your classes and waiting rooms have been at capacity for the bulk of your career, and/or if you have felt a squeeze on your retirement savings, now is the best time to get involved with making a public appeal on issues like these. We may be able to print as much paper money as we want, but mother nature is like good wine or soup, which takes time to cure.

Source: http://www.cbc.ca/bc/news/bc-081103-jumbo-glacier-poll.pdf

So I wonder if being kind to service people is enough, frankly, given the ripe and ready climate of issues we are all facing today. After repeated polls like the one above, is it not clear that we have a governmental system/elite which is not listening - not adhering to the democratic principles we believe ourselves to be living by?

{ MLA Michell Mungall's Open letter to Nelson/Creston Constituents. }

I respect that these larger issues can generate fear and anxiety when looked upon for the first time. I also need respect that we develop our activism muscles one action at a time, at whatever juncture within ourselves we make room for. I do think, though, that we are indeed rooted into the infinite (just as the native elders speaking at the vigil explained, offering tobacco this evening) and following on such, we then have infinite capacity for action. I think the invitation on such issues is clear, and to do the right thing is equally clear. Our ideas of economy are going to change - are in process of changing - and the exercising of social responsibility is going to be a muscle-group each of us is going to have to tend too, ever increasingly as we proceed into our near - and collective - future.

Please share with me your thoughts and opinions - especially if you believe I am in the wrong, as I would welcome your insight.

Pollution

I know it is unsociable to complain, but the degree to which a problem becomes severe, calls for it. People have long complained about environmental contaminants, well before the infamous 60's. Thoreau speaks of it in Walden, naturally; Grey Owl, and even Heraclitus. And I wonder if today we are actually getting to the root of the issue.

Thanks in part to the popular influence of yoga, I believe people are finding the map. Entire social circles have exploded into the cultural mainstream toward the state and health of our Consciousness: the quality of our thinking, whereby our actions follow. Social media at its best, truly asks one to keep their noses clean when all actions are readily publishable. So I think we're getting closer... In recent years I have been feeling much relieved to see the social ideals of environmentalism, long debated and pushed aside, truly grip a cohort and affect a generation. Young people today care. They care to the point of changing our cultural and business landscape. Have you noticed in Alberta that it was only ten years ago or so that a vegetarian option on the menu was totally weird? Now there are superfood elixir bars, like Noorish Cafe, which are leading the way.

Simply put: it is nice to share the torch. This new wave of interest arrived in the nick of time, and there is lots to be done. There is a lot to care about.

That said, I think we are only getting closer. That is, not yet at the root.

Perhaps many have named it, but it is so much more difficult to embody. Mindfulness is helpful, as it is a definite bridge upon which the West can stand with some degree of security, expressing the value of things like stillness, wonder, and conservation rather than excessive consumption.

Embodiment is key.

It's natural to model our behaviour after others we admire, cobbling together the aspects of others into a sense of self. This self, then, is both business card and performance: entry points for meeting. Yet these things do not contain all the answers. Watch Barack Obama, for example. Remember being dazzled when he arrived on the scene? Wasn't it refreshing, at the very least, to listen to actual-power being articulate and literate? Yet now, can we not also sense something else present inside all the sincerity? Are we surprised? It's just one example, but I think it shows clearly The Mask, perhaps the necessity for it, yet also the invitation so constantly in the wings - waiting - waiting to truly step into the light.

I appreciate the president's speaking ability greatly, and I do believe that he is a good man. However, as we close in on peak oil, peak gold, peak silver, peak wild salmon, peak harvesting anything from the ocean, peak species extinction... and so on... I am reminded that "the map is not the territory."  I appreciate all the green groups in the world, protecting habitat, and making some legislative headway, but I wonder how deeply these 'reminders' travel into our day-to-day, moment-to-moment thinking.

I would hazard to guess that the fifteen-year-olds of today will truly shake things up. They were born with internet, while I only just got onto G+ and Twitter. What social savvy - and so then social currency - will they have, by which to discover the quality of a persons speech and mind? I do invite you to hold me to this: in the next five to ten years.... lets see what 'the kids' create.

Humans: we think ourselves clever. I believe, though, that we are upon a crest of awareness, where many are realizing the busyness of our thinking is a lot like pollution. That 'business card' is merely a thing: It is an idea of self, which at best points the way. But the map is not the vehicle, and we cart around our lives as if the map is the answer, holding it up in front of us while we travel about, aware of where we are going, but not necessarily aware of each step along the way.

Imagine how effective ones driving would be if the inside of our 'VWs' were completely postered with flour and water and maps... We would certainly understand how to get from A to Z, but woe to the person, or persons, who take such cars out of 'park.' And yet I see us all to some degree driving around rather blind, shifting and redecorating the interior space of these map-laden vehicles; mistakes and social blunders and rudeness are covered up with yet more maps, and the walls are getting thicker. It's paradoxical at best, and I won't speculate what it could be at its worst.

Over-consumption comes to mind, but that's too simplistic.

We think we want to be right about something, but I think that underneath we want to be content. I believe we want relief more than anything else, as the mutual guess-work of positioning ourselves is exhausting. Certainly there is a great reward for 'hard work' and I'd like to suggest that the hardest is to know oneself. Beyond the mask of any 'business card,' or performance, or anything we have done - successfully or otherwise - is all in the past, and today, we are always new.

So it takes a lot to see this territory and to discover the tool of mindfulness, but I believe it is arising, and many are learning to speak its language. We have to allow the ripest and most sensitive part of the bud some 'air time.' It needs weathering, and it needs to be heard. And as with any flower, it's time is brief before it is again replenished by another in-coming incumbent bud.

I will not argue if it is an insensitive and uncaring world, but rather, I do argue that we live in an over-sensitive world wanting and waiting to care; to crawl out of our skins, to put down our colourful maps, to peel away the interior-dec which has imprisoned us, and let some serious light in.

But how do we do this...? Well... perhaps let us look to those who spent their time observing. The observing scientist tells us what the problem is: the observations point toward the solution, and in this case the solution calls out clearly for a change of pace. Not only that, but also into a depth of self acceptance to simply Not Know what is directly ahead. That to develop a comfort of not knowing may also bring us into a place of ready acceptance, finding a  breadth which reveals the territory; A united vastness, intrinsic and extrinsic simultaneously. When we de-mask ourselves, we prepare ourselves to care - and moreso - we become ready to feel, to know our feelings, and live by them.

You can see this in young people today. Feeling becomes an intellect: A form of reason.

Please visit my

"The Book of Gardens."

for further guidance

in Mindfulness.

Thank you :)