Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

It seems that the current word of the week (month? year?) is "Change." Everywhere we look is indication of change. If you look outside yourself, you're pretty likely to see change as negative. Look at the news. There's the "sky is falling" kind of change. There's the "sun is freaking out" kind of change. There's the "civilization-ending climate change" kind. There's the "fascist takeover" kind of change. There's the "imminent world-war-3" kind of change. Given that these types of change are the ones with media agents, many people are feeling distinctly unhappy about the idea.

I've been preaching for a while now about how, when stuff is as ridiculously screwed up as it is right now, change is good, even if it hurts a bit in the process, and I've been urging people to change their minds as the first step toward changing the world. I must say that as an agent of change, my plan seems to be sucking. Many times in the past couple of weeks, I've been tempted to stop writing, go into my solitary lair, also known as my garden, and sulk (or pull weeds). It seems everyone is still looking for an easy way out, an external savior, and a way to stay happily (or unhappily) stuck in their own wallow.

Right on cue, the Universe has sent me a lot of clues saying to stop feeling sorry for myself, pull up my big-girl pants, and get on with saving the world. ;-)

So, since I'm hardly a philosopher, I thought I'd compile some quotes of other people, who may have more credibility on the subject than I. Here are 20 really apt quotes about change.

1. “It doesn’t matter where you are, you are nowhere compared to where you can go.” -Bob Proctor
2. “Never too old, never too bad, never too late, never too sick to start from scratch once again.” -Bikram Choudhury.
3. “Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.” -Andre Gide
4. “You miss 100 percent of the shots you never take.” -Wayne Gretzy
5. “May the bridges I burn light the way.” Marko Rakar
6. “In a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks.” -Warren Buffett
7. “Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.” -Maria Robinson
8. “All great changes are preceded by chaos.” -Deepak Chopra
9. “Getting over a painful experience is much like crossing monkey bars. You have to let go at some point in order to move forward.” -C.S. Lewis
10. “Sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together.” -Marilyn Monroe
11. “Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it’s time to pause and reflect.” -Mark Twain
12. “When in doubt, choose change.” -Lily Leung
13. “The best thing you can do is the right thing; the next best thing you can do is the wrong thing; the worst thing you can do is nothing.” -Theodore Roosevelt
14. “Nothing diminishes anxiety faster than action.” -Walter Anderson
15. “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you always got” -Mark Twain
16. “You’re braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.” –A.A. Milne
17. “You must do the thing you think you cannot do.” -Eleanor Roosevelt
18. “Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says I’ll try again tomorrow.” -Mary Anne Radmacher
19. “One day your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure it’s worth watching.” –Unknown
20. “Here is the test to find whether your mission on earth is finished. If you’re alive, it isn’t.” -Richard Bach

Buckle up.

Girl Power

Last weekend was an auspicious occasion around my house-the premier of the movie, The Hunger Games. My girls have both devoured all of the books in the trilogy, read and re-read them, wrote reports on them for school, made projects where they designed a book cover for them, and on and on. They've both already seen the movie twice, and went to the premier in costume, as Katniss and Prim, two of the main characters.

Last year, during one of their projects, I picked up the book, and began reading randomly. I wound up reading all three in three days. The story is great, and nearly free of the self-involved super-sappiness of most young-adult genre fiction. I can't go to see the movie in the theater, since I'd be an embarrassment, bawling and heaving and having to stuff torn up napkins in my ears to dampen the sound in order to be able to stand it. I'll wait until it comes out on video and watch when I can bawl and heave in my own living room, and where I can turn down the sound and/or leave the room when it's too much for me. It will save embarrassment, and napkins.

Notwithstanding my aversion to movie theaters, I'm writing about The Hunger Games because in talking to my girls about the movie, it occurred to me that the story is such an apt analogy to our own society, it's scary.

For those who haven't been bitten by the bug yet, the trilogy is set in a dystopian society, where the continent, Panem, is divided into twelve Districts and the seat of government, called the Capitol. Each District specializes in one form of production--agriculture, mining, manufacturing, technology, etc., and the prestige and living conditions are stratified according to their area of expertise. The Capitol consists of the elite, who make nothing, consume a whole lot, and contribute only their tyrannical rule to the society. There used to be thirteen Districts, but one was rubbed out after a rebellion, and of course the threat of similar annihilation keeps the others following obediently the psychopathic ways of the Capitol.

On the premise that there isn't enough food to go around (though the Capitol lives in opulence), the Capitol pits citizen against citizen, requiring that the twelve Districts compete annually for additional rations by sending two children aged 12-18 to compete in the Hunger Games, a sadistically contrived gladiatorial fight to the death, in which only one of the twenty-four child participants emerges alive. Meantime, the carnage is telecast as a "reality show'" even allowing audience participation in the form of gifts of food, weapons, or supplies to the combatants. The rank and file go along with this barbaric spectacle to varying degrees, some reluctantly as supposed victims and others as partisan cheering sections for the butchery.

The young heroine of the story, Katniss Everdeen, volunteers as one of the contestants from her District as a substitute for her younger, tiny and sickly sister, Prim, who was chosen by lottery. Without giving away too much of the plot, I'll say that the crux of the story lies in Katniss' evolution from protective sister to angry warrior to determined disobedient, and in the process, she causes a crack in the monolithic rule of Panem by the elite and terroristic Capitol.

Thinking again on the story surprised me, as it hadn't occurred to me when I first read the books that Panem isn't some futuristic dystopia--it's already here. We have our own Capitol elites, who live in a plenty that most inherited through accident of birth, though they claim that they "earned" their place. We have the Districts--the contrived differences in geography, wealth, education, social class, race, religion and politics--that are used to keep us all fighting each other instead of the real enemy.

Most disturbingly, we also sacrifice our children every day. We sacrifice them for psychic comfort when we ignore children living in poverty in the same cities where some buy Tiffany dog collars--heck, some of us even blame the poor for being that way, and begrudge them every scrap that we throw to them to keep them dependent victims unable to stage all-out revolution. We sacrifice our children for convenience when we buy heavily processed, genetically modified, chemical-laden garbage from the freezer aisle or fast food restaurants so we don't have to make them a real meal or listen to their whining about eating their veggies. Some of us sacrifice our children for material gain when we stuff them in a daycare or with a nanny twelve hours a day so we can afford a nicer house, a newer car, or a tropical vacation. Some of us do it to keep our "place" in society when we cooperate with this runaway train of a corrupt corporate oligarchy running our world so that we won't lose our self absorbed lifestyle, our social security, or our 401(k).

Many of us sacrifice our children by telling ourselves that it's all someone else's problem to fix--that we're too small and weak to do anything of value--but even though there is no one "else" fixing it, we just let it go on. And of course we collectively sacrifice our children, our young people in the military, when we turn a blind eye to our nation's continual empire-building, pillage-then-burn occupation of the world so that the corporations can increase their profits as they suck out resources from under someone else's home or exploit someone else's labor for pennies a day, all so we can drive around in our SUVs and get two $5 T shirts made by a twelve year old in Malaysia at starvation wages, instead of a $10 one made here by a single mom at only poverty wages (insert the Wal-Mart smiley logo here). Bleak.

But maybe not as bleak as it sounds. Because while The Hunger Games' plot showed me that our world really is one sick puppy, just like Panem, it also showed that the beginning of the end comes when one girl gets her 'mama grizzly' on and stands up to the machine. Other people see it, and while some hide their eyes and some curse the girl, afraid that it will mean the end to their butchery-fed gravy train, others are inspired to join in.

We do live in a Hunger Games dystopia, where manufactured lack, fake rivalries, and terrorist governments try to beat the humanity out of each of us and make us hate and butcher each other, physically, mentally and economically, while the elite skims the cream off the top and laughs at the spectacle of we pathetic animals killing one another. And for the Capitol, it's worked pretty well for quite a long time. But just like in the story, all it takes to start the avalanche of change is for one girl, in the right place at the right time, to stop following the rules of the Games.

May each of us be that girl.

Their Lips Are Moving (Part Five)

All weekend, I debated with myself about what this Part Five would be. After many fits and starts, I've decided. I'm not going to research any more past lies for you. From the non-existent WMDs to 9/11, to various parts of the cold war, you know they're there. You've heard them referred to by the 'lunatic fringe' and the 'moonbats,' of which I guess I'm now a member. If you are interested, you have the most powerful research library ever known to man sitting right in front of you, and all you need is a slightly open mind and a few hours to find pretty convincing summaries of them.

Ultimately, though, thinking about lies in the past serves only one valid purpose--to make one skeptical about the lies to come, so that you don't fall for them too. So, instead of focusing on the ones behind us, today I'm going to focus on the lies we're going to hear in the near future.

Lie No. 1: Be Afraid. We're being bombarded with messages that tell us that some comet/asteroid/space station/etc. is going to hurtle into the earth and destroy everything, that the financial system crashing will be a cataclysm of vast proportion, that WWIII is inevitable, that we need to 'prepare' for the end of the world/life as we know it, and we'd better get an early start on being terrified, because the stores may run out of terror soon, and you don't want to be the only calm one on the block.

To start with, I'm pretty sure that the end of this bloodthirsty, oligarchical, corporate meat grinder of a system is a GOOD thing. After all, we're the meat, and people who think we're scum (remember the people in the Wall Street windows drinking martinis with their "we are the 1% " signs and wearing Halloween costumes mocking the people whose homes they'd been foreclosing on?) have been the ones turning the handle all these years. The end of that sounds a bit like wrenching the door open after you've slammed your finger in it. It's going to hurt like hell--for a minute. And then it'll start to feel better.

Second, if that system ends, WWIII ain't a happenin'. Wars haven't been driven by people like you and me. When have you ever woken up in the morning and said, "I think today, right after I do the laundry, I'll start a nuclear holocaust"? Well, big news--the regular people in China, Afghanistan, Russia, and everywhere else don't think that either. The same people turning the handle on the financial and political and corporate systems are the ones who want wars. They need them--to steal resources in other countries, to corporatize countries that haven't yet succumbed to their 'greed is good' mentality, to get contracts to destroy other countries and then more contracts to rebuild them, all with a profit built in. So, if their money-printing government machine (whether it prints Euros or Dollars or Yuan) is out of order, the chances of wars breaking out is vastly reduced.

Third, there's not a darn thing that any of us can do to 'prepare' if indeed an asteroid or something is going to decimate the earth. At that point, we're all well advised to have NOT spent our last days worrying, and instead to have enjoyed those days, a LOT.

Fourth, you can always jump on the terror bandwagon later. They tell you that they're going to run out of room, but don't worry--they'll make more space if you're one of the stragglers. You see, terror is great for the meat grinder. Terror makes people march calmly and sheeplike into ridiculous situations, like being surveilled and scanned and patted down everywhere you go (to be safe from the looming danger), or being interred in prison camps because of your nationality or your political views. So, there's always enough terror to go around, and you can get yours later.

So, don't be afraid. We're ok. We're much stronger and smarter than we give ourselves credit for, and we can figure out how to run a world without a few power-hungry sadistic maniacs telling us what to do.

Lie No. 2: You Are Helpless Victim of the Powers that Be. This one's a doozy. This is the one that TV and news reports and basically every aspect of western culture tells us, again and again. You can't change anything. You need NCIS, or Jack Bauer, or the FBI/CIA/NSA/TSA/HUD/SSA to address the threats you face.

Horse puckey. Most of the biggest threats are the ones they (the elite ones and their junkyard dogs in the government) are creating, so we're really only helpless because they've got us afraid of everything except what we really should be worried about--them.

We've got laws and regulations out the wazoo, and yet there are still drug cartels and mine disasters and massive oil spills and e. coli outbreaks and lead tainted toys and housing bubbles and massive unemployment and MF Global stealing billions of dollars and paying it to JP Morgan/Chase. If all that corruption and beauracracy is supposed to be protecting us, it's doing a damn poor job. So, we've just got to stop being afraid that we're too stupid and lazy to handle our own business (at least better than that), and viola! We're not helpless anymore.

Now, here's the big secret--the people at the top are scared spitless that one day we'll all wake up and recognize that they're the problem, and say, "you know, I've had enough, and I'm not playing anymore." No one of us can't resist them by force, but every one of us can resist their ideas. And a whole bunch of us, coming to the conclusion that we're tired of being grist for their mill, is a tide they can't turn back. Stop being a sheep, and you can't be herded anymore.

Lie No. 3: You aren't important, and what you do doesn't count. The biggest one of all. Every system that people regularly buy into reinforces this one. Religions tell us that we're spiritual dirt that can only be redeemed through some outside intervention--a savior, reading the right book, bowing at the right time in the right direction, or some combination of standing up, sitting down, reading archaic words and singing. Governments tell us that we're stupid--that we can't understand all the complex workings of the political system or the world economy, or whatever, and so we'd better just stand aside and let the real experts handle things. Baloney.

It should be rather apparent by now that the guys in charge are royal screw-ups. If they're so damn smart, why do we have financial crises, poverty, famine, violence, drug abuse, disease, and other scourges dominating our world? Our governments have had "wars" on these things for decades. Allow me to observe that if our world today is the result of the war on poverty, the war on drugs, the war on hunger, etc., then our "warriors" suck, and they need fired, and they need never to be elected to any position again, including dog catcher.

Likewise, if churches are so wonderful, then why are their buildings and their trappings the thing they're spending most of their money on? Why is their so-called 'social ministry' where they purport to help 'others,' such a small portion of their time and budget? Do you really think that God (all-knowing, all-powerful, eternal being who "is love") really needs for people to build 100,000 square foot shopping malls with stained glass windows in His honor? Or is that all something that the people in charge want, to show how holy they are, and how much power they wield?

We need to get clear on one thing--we're the ones who matter, not the people in charge. We're the ones who can fix stuff, if we start thinking for ourselves and stop following behind the parade of people who claim to know what's best for us. We are, in fact, the only things that matter--the saviors, if you will. If we decide to change our little corners of the world, by being generous, kind, and forgiving, then the world becomes generous, kind and forgiving, one little corner at a time.

So, now what? Some of you have been reading this blog since the beginning, and I hope you'll forgive me if I get in my wayback machine for a minute, and recall why this blog is named as it is. It was a reference to how big the world's problems are--elephantine, really, and to the old quip about how to eat an elephant--one bite at a time.

We just need to stop believing how powerless we are, and do something. Remember how in science we learned that energy never ends? That's true whether it's good energy or bad energy. We can sit around in fear and worry, anger and disgust, and pollute the atmosphere around us like a rotten onion in the cosmic soup, or we can start to make a positive difference. When you toss a rock into the water, the ripples reach the banks of the pond. The ripples from our choices, good and bad, can reach to the banks of eternity. So get rippling already. And don't forget to check their lips.