Seth Godin, recently powerfully called for “hope mongers” to counter the “fear mongers”.
Here’s Satish Kumar, Editor of Resurgence magazine, calling for us to have the courage to move away from the control focus of current times.
Humans have, for one reason or another, cultivated a desire to control: first of all to control natural systems and then to control others. It is clear that we cannot control Nature. We cannot control floods or rain, or climate. As far as people are concerned, in spite of our institutions of spying and surveillance, torture and enslavement, permanent organisations of war and structures of conquest, we are failing miserably to win human hearts and minds and to eliminate opposition. In essence we are failing to establish law and order. We are failing to eliminate crime and we are failing to be at ease with ourselves. Now is the time to stop and observe dispassionately the human predicament. Why are we keeping hundreds of millions of people in jail around the world? Why are we wasting a huge amount of talent, technology and wealth spying on each other, controlling others, fighting wars and murdering innocents? Surely we can do better? Surely we could trust the self-correcting nature of humanity and spend our time, talent and technology as well as creativity and ingenuity to care, to nurture and to replenish as the natural world does?
Here’s a real life example of such shifts.
There’s a tradition in Scotland of the “bonspiel” – it’s a mass gathering of people curling played outside on a frozen loch. The thing is, that despite Scotland’s reputation for cold weather, there is rarely thick enough ice to let such an event happen. The last one was 30 years ago. With the recent cold spell, the Lake of Menteith (Scotland’s only lake – the rest are “lochs”) has frozen solid enough to have a bonspiel, but the authorities said “no” – the old health and safety reasons……however, instead of taking no for an answer and being paralysed by fear, more than 2000 people turned up at the lake this weekend and enjoyed curling, skating and ice hockey.
From fear to hope, from control to freedom, from no to yes……it’s a way of living.
Heroes Not Zombies 
Some do feel the need to control, other lead by example. Had an incident happened the controling bunch would said I told you so, but the leading group would of said bummer…hugs G
I hold to the belief that if we can just get a critical mass of people to change the way they THINK, then the whole world will be different. It CAN happen…
here is a picture of one such ‘hope monger’ on the lake ….. I saw people out with the full works –table cloth , candlesticks meal and wine –great start to an optimistic New Year!