-Imagine a man sitting atop a box, which is full of salmon. Long ago this man hired armed guards to keep anyone from eating his fish. The many people who sit next to the empty river starve to death. But they do not die of starvation. They die of a belief. Everyone believes that the man atop the box owns the fish. The soldiers believe it, and they will kill to protect the illusion. The others believe it enough that they are willing to starve. But the truth is that there is a box, there is an emptied river, there is a man sitting atop the box, there are guns, and there are starving people.-
The passage above explains how perhaps, the interminable problems (economic, political, social, environmental, etc.) that we hear about every day in classrooms and news programs- problems that have indeed been occurring for thousands of years [exploitation of classes; environmental degradation; horrible disparities]- are outgrowths of broader, overarching systems: industrialization/westernization and, at the root of this obsession with growth and development, the collective conceptions of self and world. Year after year, despite infinite legislation, political squabble, environmental groups, corporations expressing their eternal dedication to social responsibility, food banks, military conquests, psychiatrists, and investments in education and healthcare, the problems we attempt to mitigate remain; some would argue they return even more intense and acute.
What we have not attempted to change year after year is our conception of reality- our understanding/consciousness of what is and what is not. What I mean by this is that, in Western culture, we are indoctrinated to believe that spewing toxic materials (from vehicles and machines) that are harmful to human life (as well as other species’ lives and the environment [both of with which we are inextricably linked and mutually dependent]) is NORMAL. Many things that we view as common or standard in this culture, such as oil drilling and working for nine hours a day to receive green pieces of paper (money), would be viewed as insane in other cultures. It would probably be insane within our culture as well, if we could only strip away the cultural biases through which we operate (conceptions that form behavior & cosmologies that form perceptions).
So, within each subjectivity of the mind- the values/perceptions of reality that define our belief systems- a unique external landscape presents itself. If a man looks at a tree and sees dollar bills, he will treat that tree a certain way; if he looks at a tree and sees a sentient, breathing, beautiful ethos of energy he will treat it a different way. If a man looks at a woman and sees orifices, he will regard that woman one way; if he looks at a woman and sees a sensitive, thoughtful, loving companion he will treat her a different way. In this way, the world is a precise reflection of our inner cosmologies/lenses through which we understand. In Western culture, our science tells us that we are separate and discrete from everything else; that we live in a dull, lifeless world of merely matter competing to survive. This is an inner cosmology. The external reflection manifests as destroying entire ecosystems in the name of human progress (imagine!) and relegating poverty to the category, “unfortunate by-product”. The underlying cosmologies that guide our everyday behavior have transformed a planet of tremendous beauty into a corporate-controlled prison of disparity and suffering, for humans and non-humans alike.
To tear down factories, to elect new public officials, to improve housing complexes, to oppose polluting industries, to start Microfinance institutions, and to continue these “intra-systemic solutions”, is to attack effects rather than causes; and as long as the attack is upon effects only, no change is possible. Perhaps if we work to alter our belief systems- our lenses through which we really do create the external world- then good things will come, and deeply-rooted solutions will arise.
The passage above explains how perhaps, the interminable problems (economic, political, social, environmental, etc.) that we hear about every day in classrooms and news programs- problems that have indeed been occurring for thousands of years [exploitation of classes; environmental degradation; horrible disparities]- are outgrowths of broader, overarching systems: industrialization/westernization and, at the root of this obsession with growth and development, the collective conceptions of self and world. Year after year, despite infinite legislation, political squabble, environmental groups, corporations expressing their eternal dedication to social responsibility, food banks, military conquests, psychiatrists, and investments in education and healthcare, the problems we attempt to mitigate remain; some would argue they return even more intense and acute.
What we have not attempted to change year after year is our conception of reality- our understanding/consciousness of what is and what is not. What I mean by this is that, in Western culture, we are indoctrinated to believe that spewing toxic materials (from vehicles and machines) that are harmful to human life (as well as other species’ lives and the environment [both of with which we are inextricably linked and mutually dependent]) is NORMAL. Many things that we view as common or standard in this culture, such as oil drilling and working for nine hours a day to receive green pieces of paper (money), would be viewed as insane in other cultures. It would probably be insane within our culture as well, if we could only strip away the cultural biases through which we operate (conceptions that form behavior & cosmologies that form perceptions).
So, within each subjectivity of the mind- the values/perceptions of reality that define our belief systems- a unique external landscape presents itself. If a man looks at a tree and sees dollar bills, he will treat that tree a certain way; if he looks at a tree and sees a sentient, breathing, beautiful ethos of energy he will treat it a different way. If a man looks at a woman and sees orifices, he will regard that woman one way; if he looks at a woman and sees a sensitive, thoughtful, loving companion he will treat her a different way. In this way, the world is a precise reflection of our inner cosmologies/lenses through which we understand. In Western culture, our science tells us that we are separate and discrete from everything else; that we live in a dull, lifeless world of merely matter competing to survive. This is an inner cosmology. The external reflection manifests as destroying entire ecosystems in the name of human progress (imagine!) and relegating poverty to the category, “unfortunate by-product”. The underlying cosmologies that guide our everyday behavior have transformed a planet of tremendous beauty into a corporate-controlled prison of disparity and suffering, for humans and non-humans alike.
To tear down factories, to elect new public officials, to improve housing complexes, to oppose polluting industries, to start Microfinance institutions, and to continue these “intra-systemic solutions”, is to attack effects rather than causes; and as long as the attack is upon effects only, no change is possible. Perhaps if we work to alter our belief systems- our lenses through which we really do create the external world- then good things will come, and deeply-rooted solutions will arise.
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