Being Aware of Our Affects and Effects

One of my most respected teachers, Gandhi, was a believer in "buying and producing locally." He encouraged the making of one's own clothes. To many of us that are so used to existing solely in a cash based society, this level of self reliance seems quite extreme. However, it is only in recent years, using the Big Picture Perspective, that we have existed in this realm of extreme dependence on large scale systems of production and distribution.

I have been reflecting on this aspect of Gandhi's teachings and how the current trend to buy locally grown food, at its ideal, is modeled after what Gandhi had realized. By not supporting the corporate food industry, one helps to diffuse the concentration of social power that Gandhi fought against. The institution that Gandhi worked so hard against, may have gone by another name, but at its core, is still very much alive today. Back in Gandhi's day it was the British Colonial Empire, today it is the Transnational Corporate Colonial Empire.

Are you aware that food products purchased from a large corporate food supplier are symbolically made of oil? For every 1 calorie that is in the food products that are purchased from these large stores, it takes 9 calories of oil to produce and distribute them. There is a long line of petroleum products that are transformed into the very food that is sold in many of the stores of today. I do not think that I need to lay out why Big Oil Companies need to be relieved of some of their social power! Do I?

I could go on and on about the ill effects that supporting industries such as petroleum and non-organic farming have on all of us, but in honor of the amazing little man that Gandhi was, I will suggest the affirmative - be the change that you want to see in the world. Many of us want change, big change, in our lives! It is very hard to know what specific changes will lead to the desired result. For that matter, what is the desired result?

The concept of "social power" is looked at closely within some of the anthropological studies of contemporary human issues. A good example of a large amount of concentrated social power is a company like WalMart. When WalMart makes decisions the ripple effect, affects many layers of societies' around the world. The allure of inexpensive goods brings in the WalMart shoppers in the hordes. However, when one steps back and looks at the real cost of these "inexpensive" goods, the price becomes much higher than is listed on the shelf. In short, the real cost is paid by all of us, or our descendants, in the long run. I often hear people say "I cannot afford to buy organic food." in return, I try to explain how they cannot afford not to buy organic food. Maybe a more truthful statement would be, "I cannot afford to maintain this American lifestyle and at the same time pay the real cost of many of the goods I like to enjoy." However, I do think that this inconvenient reality that I am pointing towards is more of a product of ignorance, than spite.

If you are interested in this topic I encourage you to educate yourself about the products that you buy. Do you buy clothes that are made from non-organic farmed cotton? What are the real costs, to the environment, from cotton farming that is not done in a sustainable organic manner? Why do we support a federal government that continues to reward farmers (through subsidies) that grow in such unsustainable means?

We live in an extremely complex society where the mere scale of the socioeconomic and sociopolitical structures appear to be unruly giants. It is hard to know where to begin. From my perspective, one very effective means to diffuse some of the highly concentrated social power that some of these giant corporate beasts have acquired, is to slowly starve them by not giving them so much cash! By becoming more aware of the money trails that we are a part of, we can cast our vote for the type of world that we want to live in. Experimenting with growing some of your own food, at any level, can help out with this "new diet" for the corporate beast. Most important, is to ask questions, lots of questions!

Michael Pawlyn: Using nature's genius in architecture | Video on TED.com

The concept of "waste" is foreign to Planet Earth. We humans are the only species to create "waste." All other life on Earth reuses all other life on Earth. The concept of creating "waste" like pollution, does not fit with the closed system reality that we actually are living here on Earth. Please take a moment to listen to what Michael Pawlyn has to say with respect to how we could learn a lot from studying the embedded naturally sustainable design of Nature. If we are truly the smartest species on Earth, we should probably start behaving in a manner that supports this claim of superior intelligence.

Michael Pawlyn: Using nature's genius in architecture | Video on TED.com

Information Is Powerful - The Power Of Sharing

In recent days I have put a lot of time into sharing some of the information that has come to me through my studies over the last couple of years. I have reorganized the structure and content of many of the pages of this blog. Some of the information within these pages is very personal to me and my life experiences. From a casual observation some of these literature explorations may seem a little on the side of "confessional." I encourage you to allow that observation to pass, and try to look deeper into these stories and analytical essays for the lessons being offered. I also recommend reading the "Method to The Madness" page, it may help with the context of interpretation.

Information is powerful; much of the information, should be shared. I view much of my life experiences as gifts and feel strongly that it is my responsibility to you, as a fellow human, to share these gifts with you. Through my eyes, one of Gandhi's more profound teachings was that - having more of anything that you truly need is a form of stealing. This very simple principle of sharing in the common good can be applied to information and knowledge in a very interest way.