by Tyler Hartford
“Call it off,” Kennedy said. “Look, you all are letting this thing go too far.”
And Old Tom said, “Boss, I can’t stop it because I didn’t start it.” I’m telling you what they said. They said, “I’m not even in it, much less at the head of it.” They said, “These Negroes are doing things on their own. They’re running ahead of us.”
And that old shrewd fox, he said, “If you all aren’t in it, I’ll put you in it. I’ll put you at the head of it. I’ll endorse it. I’ll welcome it. I’ll help it. I’ll join it.”
– Malcolm X, Detroit, 1963
“Revolution has always advanced with an ideological spear just as the status quo has inscribed its ideology upon its shield.”
–Saul D. Aulinsky, Rules for Radicals, p 10
One moonlit evening in 1988 as I lay on my back with a monkey wrench in hand, I pondered the mechanical underbelly of an economic system that was destroying my wilderness home. I was just a kid then and my grandiose ambitions of saving the forest from heinous clear-cutting practices amounted to little more than ruining a poor logger’s morning. We forest stewards did start to effect change, though, over the last decade of the 20th century until the events on 9/11 occurred and then a brilliant media campaign declared the death of environmentalism. I still am in awe of that death quell.
Later on, I stood in the city streets, interlocking arms with brothers and sisters, blocking delegates from their seats at the World Trade Organization Ministerial Meeting in Seattle. The air around us was saturated with the choking gases and rubber bullets of the armored law enforcers bearing down upon us, but our hearts soared in defying the evils we perceived. In spite of the overwhelming circumstances and the violence doled out against us, a mass of concerned citizens exercising our constitutional right to gather shut down one of the most powerful groups in the world for three days in 1999. After a few more amazingly successful protests across the globe, those crafty speculators of all things imaginable started meeting in places where you’d have to be an emir’s son to travel, effectively shutting down the movement.
I was also one of millions who opposed, what seemed to us, an obviously illegal and unethical occupation of Iraq in 2003. This time, I took my due diligence to cyberspace and played a part in the virtual revolution. It was the first coalescence of a global voice of resistance, and it was a thrilling movement in which to partake. This massive voice of dissent, however, was shrugged off with a single utterance by the Commander-in-Chief of the US of A. I’ll paraphrase him here, “I’m not gonna decide policy based on a focus group.” That was it. It was as though we had been screaming in our pillows.
It occurs to me now as I think back on my soirees into activism how stunningly effective the “Deciders” have been over the years at maintaining the status quo. If we look to the truly revolutionary movements of the last century: labor, gender, civil rights, anti-war, environmental, sexual orientation and fair-trade, although there have been short term successes, they have occurred within a context of continued suppression and control. The pattern repeated time and again has been to make concessions to the public, destroy the activist movements, and then slowly dismantle the concessions that had to be made.
I keep thinking about a hero of mine who fought a hopeless battle against insurmountable odds until there was nothing left for which to fight. In the 19th century, Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce tribe was chased to hell and back by the US Calvary until finally, after years of resistance, he surrendered, declaring “I will fight no more forever.” I feel those words deep in my heart. Though I still have immense respect for those who do so, I no longer have the inspiration to fight against much. I’m no pacifist by the way. I’m an advocate of self-defense. I even believe in picking a fight at times. But I can no longer engage in tactics of resistance against a constant and overwhelming influence. I seek another way for social change. I seek an activism that is more in line with my spiritual pursuits. I want to help create a society which germinates and nourishes our highest values, simultaneously starving the basest human impulses and leaving them to whither and turn to dust. Such work won’t quickly bare the fruits we desire, but once established, many future generations may share in the harvest.
“The Master leads by emptying people’s minds and filling their cores, by weakening their ambition and toughening their resolve. He helps people lose everything they know, everything they desire, and creates confusion in those who think that they know.” -Lao Tsu
Lao Tsu delineated a philosophy and religion on the patterns of nature in his book the Tao te Ching. Native American Culture and aboriginal tribes world wide have grown cultures and spiritual practices based on the same source. I likewise am a student of the patterns of nature and the many cultures of the past which have developed with nature as a pattern. We have been called many things over the millennia, but my favorite names for the earth-based folks who have scattered this globe since descending from trees are the tribes’ names for themselves, such as Ongwehonwe, Lakota, Hopi and Ohlone. There are many more. each of which, simply translated from the many different languages, has one common definition: “the people.”
From studying and teaching about the ways of nature and harmonious living within it, I have come to believe that the highest form of activism we can practice is to recreate our culture to harmonize with the world around us. The indigenous peoples of the world have much to teach us about living at peace with the world. It may not be necessary to turn back to a time before the ipod and the many other technological advancements we have made over the last couple hundred years. To find our place within the living system around us, we would do well to look on our primitive roots with fresh eyes and attempt to integrate some of the wisdom that supported humanity for ten thousand years. This endeavor is my personal path of activism and it has been vastly more effective and rewarding to me over the last several years then my previous decade of angry opposition to the collateral damage of the march of progress.
It is becoming more evident now that the work of cultural creatives is making immense headway in their desire to shift to a new cultural paradigm. The 2007 Shift Report from the Institute of Noetic Sciences, which is subtitled Evidence of a World Transforming, lays out many examples of new ways of thinking and knowing taking hold in the fields of medicine, psychology, business, and education. Rooted in the parallels between the new sciences and the traditions of mysticism, a renaissance is fomenting around the concept that “our thoughts can have a measurable impact on the physical world and that even the act of observation is an action with consequences.” (p 10) This growing revelation, matched against a world and society in desperate need of transformation, is manifesting a leap in consciousness characterized by “the rigorous study of the subjective, inner experience, a renewed appreciation for meaning and purpose, and a recognition that the world of consciousness is far more mysterious and influential than we have ever imagined.” (74)
I am one of the creative directors of a local non-profit organization riding this wave of mystery and wonder. We are called the Central Coast Village Center. Our mission is to facilitate a more meaningful connection between individuals and their community and natural environment. A beautiful community has begun to coalesce, increasing the joy and fulfillment in the lives of our students and ourselves. Concentric rings ripple out toward the horizon. Is this activism? I believe so. I think it is a spiritual activism of the highest calling. This fall we are starting a school for teens which is based on the principles of spiritual activism, democratic process, community involvement, and individual fulfillment and creative expression. The Full Circle Teen School will add to our other programs serving students of traditional schools, homeschooling kids, and adult enthusiasts. The effect which I was able to have once in protesting social ills was slight compared to the personal and communal growth I now help facilitate in the lives of others as we create together a future which we can joyfully embrace.
Tyler Hartford is the Program Director for the Central Coast Village Center. A calendar of their programs, the above article in its entirety including footnotes, as well as other articles and information about the CCVC can be found on its website www.theccvc.org .
Tyler can be contacted at tyler@centralcoastvillagecenter.org .
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