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We
here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain,
that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and
that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall
not perish from the earth
Abraham Lincoln,
The Gettysburg Address
Bryon Allen
http://www.mandalaarts.com
|
As Edmund Burke once said,
"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do
nothing." People across the US are just beginning to wake up to the
fact that if they continue to sit back, the damage done to democracy
and the environment may soon be irreversible. Imagining that
politics is the work
only
of politically inclined activists is a cop-out. We must ALL speak
out for what we know is right or in the end we turn the power to
direct our lives over to those whose main interest is profit and
power.
It is the ethically,
spiritually-motivated people whose concern is for the good of the
whole, that should be speaking out across our planet, speaking out
loud and clear, demanding a return to sustainable, just and fair
practices. If we are to see a continued evolution toward a better
world for all, we are going to have to take ACTION NOW. We can no
longer afford to sit back and assume things will get better, because
the last three years have amply proven how quickly they can regress
and deteriorate when the motivation of those in charge is simply
profit and control. And the rest of us remain silent.
Explore this issue
with us this month and then read our
Action Page 2 for ideas on the
steps we can take.
May autumn find you
motivated and inspired! |
There comes a time when
one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor
popular, but one must take it because it is right
Dr. Martin Luther King,
Jr.
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"Everyone had something to offer. Our diversity wasn't just tolerated, or even
honored--it was essential." |
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Nancy Alexander
http://www.spiritart.net/
From the
Collective Wisdom
Initiative website
Deepening Democracy:
Awakening the Spirit of
Our Shared Life Together
Rosa Zubizarreta
July 2003
"We have frequently printed the word democracy. Yet I
cannot too often repeat that it is a word the real gist of which still
sleeps, quite unawakened, notwithstanding the resonance and the many angry
tempests out of which its syllables have come, from pen or tongue.
It is a great word, whose history, I suppose, remains
unwritten, because that history has yet to be enacted. It is, in some sort,
younger brother of another great and often-used word, Nature, whose history
also waits unwritten."
The
idea of democracy in the western world has historically conveyed a broad sense
of spirit and commitment and purpose, a heart-felt response to a sense that
"something more" is possible. The word itself has stirred the imagination,
communicating a sense of new developments in terms of our social organization.
Whitman's quote about democracy still feels very relevant today, pointing us
evocatively toward the future, to fuller expressions of our humanity that have
yet to unfold.
At the same time, the future of democracy can easily appear quite bleak.
Much has been written recently about "the demise of democracy." This is not
limited to the enormous amounts of money and sophisticated marketing
techniques involved in "selling the candidates." It also includes the
metastasis of "corporate personhood" that dwarfs our ability to make a
difference in the face of enormous concentrations of wealth and powerful
special interests.
While there are many worthwhile efforts to address the problems we are
facing, something seems to be missing in much of the conversation about
democracy. There is often a disquieting sense that the problem goes much
deeper than we may realize. Too many of us are not finding ourselves moved by
well-intentioned efforts to "reform" our political landscape, much less by
"politics as usual." There seems to be a much deeper hunger for meaning, a
sense that our political and economic system needs to be renewed at a much
more fundamental level than many suggested reforms might address.
We know that "without a Vision, the People will perish." Yet in modern
times our political system has become so disheartening to so many, that the
very idea of democracy seems to have lost its power to inspire us. Our
participation in the creative process of envisioning and actualizing our
collective future has been reduced to selecting a candidate from a limited
number of options, and our imaginations seem to have withered accordingly.
At the same time, we know that every challenge offers the gift of
opportunity. If we wish to renew the radical and revolutionary sense of
relevance that democracy once inspired in the hearts and minds of so many
people, we may need to ask ourselves fundamental questions about what it means
to be human. As we search for a way through our current political crisis, we
may find ourselves questioning our understanding of the Universe and our role
within it. Looking deeply at the challenges of the present moment may turn out
to offer some insights into the next steps of our evolutionary unfolding.
As we set out to explore what it might mean to awaken the spirit of
democracy, it can be helpful to begin by honoring the past. In doing so, we
may discover seeds we want to bring forward, as well as greater insight into
what we may want to change.
Bringing Forward the Seeds of the Past
One essential thread in the concept of democracy has been a radical faith
in the ability of the "common person" to help shape the social world in which
we live. Of course, once upon a time the "common person" meant a "common
propertied white male person." Yet even so it was still a radical concept. In
time, this faith in everyday, ordinary people has been greatly expanded to become
much more inclusive, at least in theory if not in practice.
Another key strand embedded in the idea of democracy has been the
revolutionary premise that each person has their own ability to connect directly
with the Divine. Again, the image of the "Divine" prevalent earlier may not be
the image many of us share today. Nonetheless, the notion of an unmediated
personal connection to Spirit remains a revolutionary premise, one that is
both problematic and full of promise.
These two strands are not unconnected. The "separation of Church and State"
in the
United States, designed to establish
religious freedom for all, has helped to shape the two very distinct worlds of
religion and of politics. Yet many of those who originally established that
separation felt a deep personal connection between the world and Spirit.
The intention of the principle of separation of powers was not to
disconnect the movement of Spirit from personal and community life. Instead,
it was intended to protect and strengthen each person's ability to connect
with Spirit, in the light of his or her own conscience. The necessary
demarcation between Church and State has brought many benefits. Yet there
seems to be a much wider thirst for meaning, for values, for a sense of the
sacred in our shared life together, than is portrayed in mainstream consumer
culture. The growth of materialism over the last few centuries may have
obscured the common ground between our longing for spirituality and our
longing for creating a better world.
In the last few decades, the resurgence of "engaged spirituality" has
signaled the wide-spread hunger for a greater connection between the worlds of
Spirit and politics. The common ground between these two can be understood as
the immense possibility and potential at the heart of each human being.
Spirituality is one way to honor "that of God" within each human being; our
desire for social justice, another. In fact, many of the movements toward
social justice in the 19th century were initially inspired by the
desire to allow full expression to the spiritual nature of our collective
humanity, what Hegel termed our "species being." This movement toward honoring
the unity of the human family is echoed throughout youth culture today, for
example in the Rastafarian expression, "One Love."
The desire for wholeness in human beings, along many dimensions of
experience, seems to be quite strong. For example, the fundamentalist
movements around the world today that threaten to blur the distinction between
Church and State are justifiably raising widespread concern among many. Yet
they too can be understood as an attempt to honor the importance of Spirit,
and to not allow Spirit to be excised from our collective life. As Michael
Lerner points out in The Politics of Meaning, the most effective
response to fundamentalism may not be to oppose it. Instead, in an aikido-like
motion, we might seek to acknowledge and address the underlying needs it is
attempting to fulfill.
In addition to engaged spirituality, another recent development of the last
few decades has been the rediscovery of the indigenous contribution to
democracy in the
United States. Democracy in the
Americas was influenced by ancient
indigenous traditions developed over hundreds of thousands of years, in which
egalitarianism and direct communication with Spirit were long-standing
practices. Given our species' long evolutionary history as
hunters-and-gatherers, these forms of traditional knowledge may well be
"encoded in our bones," more directly accessible to all of us than we have
been taught to believe.
At the same time, we also want to learn from the mistakes of the past.
Given the current state of the world, we might do well to exercise great care
with regard to the "angry tempests" that Whitman mentions. The violence that
accompanied the re-emergence of democracy in Europe reminds us of how
fanaticism can distort any ideals. It can also serve as a grim caution that
the process is as important as any "end product" we might envision. In turn,
the last few centuries of successful experiments with non-violent social
change may serve us in good stead, as we explore how deepening democracy can
help us navigate our way safely toward a world beyond violence and war.
Go to the remainder of the article in a printable
form
››››
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From the
latest
Orion Magazine Fall
2003
The
Public Spirit OF AMERICA
"America
wasn't built by conformists but by mutineers--we're a big,
boisterous, bucking people and now is our time. Our democracy
is being dismantled right in front of our eyes by our own
ruling elites, This is a crucial moment when America
desperately needs you and me to stand up as citizens. We are
not only what democracy counts on, we are what democracy is."
Jim Hightower
http://www.jimhightower.com/ |
Wendy Riseman
http://www.artuition.com/index.html
by Tom Atlee
published in Science of Mind, May 2003, pp 91-98
Life is a co-creative force, a co-creative reality. Everything
is co-creating everything else. No matter what we do or don't do, we are all
co-creating our future together.
We know this. So what would it mean to create a new kind of
democracy based on the wholeness and co-creativity of Life?
First, we should probably acknowledge that all the battles
between nations, peoples, political parties, and interest groups are co-created.
As Lewis Carroll wrote in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: "Tweedledee
and Tweedledum agreed to have a battle." That level of co-creativity has
provided a lot of excitement and a certain rough-and-tumble method of
conflict-resolution and decision-making for millennia.
But now we have weapons of mass destruction and
powerful new technologies that could wipe out civilization by accident and
social and environmental problems of such size and complexity that we need every
ounce of positive co-creative imagination we can get just to make it
through the next century.
We are all in it together now -- big time and for real. We
can't afford wars anymore. We can't afford to continue co-creating disasters.
And we can no longer afford to waste the amazing wisdom that lies buried in the
power of ordinary people to learn, deepen and reflect together.
Gandhi was one of the first to point out that oppressed people
co-create their oppression. He wasn't blaming the victims. With his nonviolent
activism he used his insight to empower an entire nation to liberate itself.
Hundreds of teachers since then have taught the same lesson:
We are responsible for creating the conditions of our own lives. Individually,
we create our consciousness. Collectively we co-create our social realities.
War is a very low form of co-creativity. Debate is higher.
Higher yet we find the co-creativity of dialogue, brainstorming, teamwork,
community.
Co-creativity can be considered higher the more it replaces
force and violence with consciousness, compassion, intelligence, wisdom and
Life.
How do we lift democracy up the scale of co-creativity so that
We the People more successfully and peacefully co-create futures that make sense
for us, for our children, and for the world. How do we co-create a world that
works for all?
Whether we're Americans or Iraqis, Israelis or Palestinians,
Democrats or Republicans (or Greens or Libertarians), light-skinned or dark, we
are faced with this challenge. Because a world that doesn't work for all is now
a world that is co-creating its own destruction.
And that is not smart. Even if those of us co-creating global
catastrophes each have an IQ of 140, we are not being collectively smart
if we are fouling our nest and endangering future generations. All our
considerable individual intelligences are not adding up to a bigger
collective intelligence.
If we want to co-create more brilliantly and wisely, we need
to develop our collective intelligence and our collective wisdom. These are
aspects of what I call co-intelligence, a latent form of intelligence that takes
wholeness, interconnectedness and co-creativity seriously. Co-intelligence can
help us align our individual intelligence and individual wisdom to the deep
wisdom of Life co-creating itself into a new civilization, a wisdom culture
capable of conscious society-wide co-creativity.
In fact, I think that Life -- through its rapidly increasing
catastrophes and opportunities -- is setting us up for an evolutionary leap into
that new civilization.
If we
wake up and look around, we will find we have so much of what we need to make
that leap, to bring forth that new civilization, that wisdom culture.
Go to remainder of article in a printable form
›››››
In
his many articles, Tom Atlee advocates wiser forms of citizenship, politics and
democracy, using our essential unity and diversity co-creatively. His
Co-Intelligence Institute in Eugene, Oregon (co-intelligence.org)
and his new book The Tao of Democracy (taoofdemocracy.com)
are treasure-troves of ideas, practices, visions and stories for better lives
together. |
This miraculous new approach to politics and governance
works because we are all interconnected at our core.
We resonate with One Spirit, One Life, One Humanity. Just like the trees and
iguanas, we know the wind and Earth as home. Just like the bears and cats, we
bear and nurse our young, voice our pain, act our joy. Just like people in other
lands, we struggle, we play, we gain, we die. We resonate with other lives --
the core of our being vibrating with the core of theirs. And any one of us,
exploring deep enough within ourselves or each other, discovers peace, love, the
sea of consciousness and the passionate spark of Life. We may be as unique as
each wave on the ocean, but we are all the Ocean, nonetheless.
Tom Atlee
Peter Barreda
http://www.mandalazone.com/
Edited from the writings of
Frances Moore Lappé
and
Paul Martin Du Bois
"Democracy is not what we have.
Democracy is what we DO."
Living democracy opens new possibilities for America and the world.
It's not anti-government. In living democracy, citizens are not seeking more
government. They're not seeking less government. Instead they are developing
appropriate and effective roles for government - made accountable to citizens'
real concerns.
It's not anti-market or business. In living democracy, the marketplace and
business are not the enemy. Instead, citizens ask: How can the market and
business be made to serve our community's needs and values.
It's not about simple volunteerism. In living democracy, individual
volunteerism is not considered The Solution. Rather it is considered a means of
building citizen organizations and citizen skills in order to reshape our
communities ever closer to our values.
It's not about ideology. In living democracy, citizens are seeking practical
solutions, freed from fixed dogma. They're letting go of the notion that there
is one formula to fit all communities, all societies. They're experimenting to
find what works. They are trusting their own experiences and insights, free to
change as they learn new lessons.
These citizens know they don't have a democracy. Democracy is something they
are doing, as they rebuild themselves and their communities and go about solving
today's unprecedented problems together.
To read the entire
article go to:
http://www.co-intelligence.org/CIPol_LivingDemoc.html
on the Co-Intelligence website
Edited by Tom Atlee for Thinkpeace, Vol VII, Nos 2&3,
July 24, 1992
|
"If liberty and equality, as is thought by some,
are chiefly to be found in
democracy,
they will be best attained when all persons alike
share in the
government to the utmost."
Politics, Bk IV, Ch 8, 1294a, 4. - Aristotle
|
Debra Martelli
http://8aquarius.home.attbi.com/
SPIRITUAL POLITICS:
Can We Bring Politics and
Spirituality Together
© 2000 Corinne McLaughlin
Spirituality? Politics?
How dare we mention these in the same breath? You can be
either a spiritual seeker—or a political activist—but never
both. When you’re caught in dualistic, “either/or” thinking,
politics and spirituality seem worlds apart—two different
dimensions that should never be mixed.
But in actual practice,
spirituality can ennoble politics and politics can ground
spirituality. Spirituality can help you leave ego and power
trips at the door and truly serve the good of others.
Politics can give you a practical arena for applying
spiritual principles such as compassion. (And you get
instant feedback from the media if you don’t “walk the
talk”—if your words are more pious than your deeds) .
Gandhi had no trouble
bringing his spirituality and politics together, as he said,
“I could not lead a religious life unless I identified with
the whole of mankind, and that I could not do unless I took
part in politics.”
But what about separation
of church and state in the U.S.? Our Founding Fathers (and
Mothers) didn’t intend that we should never discuss
spiritual ideas in the public arena, but rather that the
State not impose religious beliefs on citizens or interfere
in the practice of religion. “Church” refers to organized
religion, with specific dogmas and practices. But
spirituality relates to our inner, value- centered life in
relation to the Transcendent. It is concerned with qualities
of the human spirit such as love and courage. Religion can
help us be spiritual, but spirituality isn’t dependent upon
religion.
A recent poll found that
84% of Americans agree that “our government would be better
if policies were more directed by moral values.” Many of us
today are yearning for a spiritually based politics directed
by moral values—a politics that doesn’t appeal only to our
self-interest and pit one group against another. We seek a
type of political discourse that speaks to our deepest
values as human beings, that gives us a greater sense of
community and a transcendent purpose as a nation, that
offers us a higher vision of public life and service to the
common good—rather than appealing only to greed and lust
for power.
If we make it safe to
discuss our spiritual values in public life, then we can
hold our politicians accountable for the spiritual values
they espouse. The public has made it very clear they don’t
want negative campaigning, and today’s presidential
candidates try to convince voters that their campaign is the
most positive. Many voters say that the refreshing call to
honesty, service and sacrifice from one of the candidates
this year is what drew their support.
How can we recognize a
spiritually based politics? Here are some key qualities:
· Honesty and integrity
· Courage in standing up
to special interests
· Fairness and justice
· Compassion for the
disadvantaged
· Serving the good of the
whole
· Respect and
civility—especially for opponents
· Collaboration and
partnership
· Whole systems
thinking—understanding the interconnection of everything
· Faith in a Higher Power
In research for my book, Spiritual Politics, I found that a
new spiritually-based politics is beginning to emerge in
many places around the country today that embodies
principles and values common to the world’s spiritual
traditions.
Go to remainder of the article in a
printable form ››››
 Corinne McLaughlin is author of
Spiritual
Politics and Executive Director of
The Center for Visionary
Leadership, which offers public educational programs,
values-based leadership
training
and consulting services. She formerly taught politics
at American University and coordinated a national task
force for President Clinton’s
Council on Sustainable Development.
email:
cvldc@visionarylead.org;
www.visionarylead.org. |
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"As long as we see spiritual work and political
work as separate, we contribute to the loss of soul. If we are ever to restore
the soul of the world - the anima mundi -
we must restore soul to politics." Larry Robinson
|
Peter deJong
http://users.castel.nl/~jongi03/
From the
Co-Intelligence website
by former mayor
Larry Robinson
We are living in desperate times: a culture of
death, bereft of Soul and worshipping the machine. We are on the threshold of
ecological disaster. The West's grand experiment in democracy seems to be on the
verge of failure, while it becomes increasingly clear that what we like to call
the "developing nations" never will be developed, but merely exploited.
Simultaneously, an unprecedented proportion of our population is engaged in
spiritual practice. This is an interesting juxtoposition.
A vigorous cross-pollination of spiritual and
cultural traditions is taking place all over the world. One example of this is
the poetry of Jelaluddin Rumi, the Sufi mystic who was born in what is now
Afghanistan. Currently he is the best selling poet in America. In one of his
poems he says,
"I've broken through to longing
Now, filled with a grief I have
Felt before, but never like this.
The center leads to love.
Soul opens the creation core.
Hold on to your particular pain.
That too can take you to God."
Undoubtedly the resurgence of the spiritual is,
in no small measure, a response to the times and to the pervasive sense of
helplessness which sickens us. Throughout human history, an interest in the
spiritual has grown in times of crisis. Much of this movement has been towards
escape: escape from complexity, from fear and despair, and from the overwhelming
weight of the world's suffering.
Many spiritual traditions have encouraged this
escape, warning people to avoid attachment to the world, or teaching that all
existence is illusory, or promising a better world somewhere else. Psychology
has contributed to this escape by viewing soul as a subset of the psyche, rather
than as an inherent property of the world. All of this has served to banish soul
from the world. We live as exiles in a Babylon of our own making.
In the words of Denise Levertov,
"Through the midnight streets of Babylon
between the steel towers of their arsenals,
between the torture castles with no windows,
we race by barefoot, holding tight
our candles, trying to shield
the shivering flames, crying
"Sleepers Awake!"
hoping
the rhyme's promise was true,
that we may return
from this place of terror
home to a calm dawn and
the work we had just begun."
In such an environment, is it any wonder that
politics should have lost its soul? Of course we have become cynical about our
political commons. Our educational systems offer us an idealized view of our own
governments, then we grow up to see the corrupting influence of greed for money
or power upon the political process. Yet if we lack the skill of critical
thinking, historical understanding or access to a deep structural analysis of
how our political and economic systems have come to be, we can imagine that
power itself is inherently corrupting and that all politics are corrupt.
It is important to remember that cynicism is
the flip side of naiveté; that cynicism and naiveté inevitably re-create each
other. Too many spiritual practitioners think of politics as either unworthy or
unimportant. Some even convince themselves that visualizations, affirmations and
meditation are all that are necessary to change the world. They become idiots,
in the original sense of the word: the private person who does not participate
in the life of the polis.
Western culture has no shortage of money or
technological skill. What we lack is imagination. We must cultivate the capacity
to imagine a world other than the one of injustice, war and environmental
destruction. But we must also carefully differentiate imagination from fantasy.
Fantasy is a function of ego, uninformed by a deeper understanding of the nature
of reality. Imagination is a property of the universe itself, which speaks to us
through art and poetry, dreams and myths. Imagination can be a powerful tool for
change, but only if it is grounded in clear perception, deep structural analysis
and intelligent action.
Edmund Burke said that "All that is necessary
for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." Too many good men and
women in our time have been doing nothing. We are in great danger and it will
take all of our efforts to avert disaster.
We are also poised on the edge of a great
transformation, as a culture and as a species. As we come to understand the
interconnectedness of all things, it becomes increasingly clear that individual
salvation cannot be divorced from our collective salvation. It is also becoming
clear that each of us is essential to the collective transformation; that the
tapestry of our shared life is woven from the threads of our individual lives.
Ecclesiastes says "for everything there is a
season."
You say "It's tax season;
it's baseball season; it's allergy season;
I've got to season the steak on the barbie;
besides, I don't have time to change the world."
Goethe tells us of the genius, power and magic
in boldness.
You say "What can I do, anyway?
The foxes are guarding the henhouse;
the juggernaught is out of control;
we're all just snowflakes in a windstorm."
The mountain asks "Which snowflake, falling,
will be the one to send down the avalanche
to change this entire landscape?"
It may be that the times themselves are now
calling on those people who have been doing intensive spiritual work to bring the
fruits of that labor forth into the world in the service of that great
transformation. In fact, the mindful practice of politics can itself be a
powerful form of spiritual practice. As Rainer Maria Rilke said, "The future
enters into us to transform itself in us long before it happens."
A key concept in alchemical transformation is
that of enantiadromia: that all things change into their opposites. Every
pathological condition contains the seeds of its own healing. We might ask what
war is trying to become - what are the transformative spiritual longings for
which war is a toxic substitute.
Psychologist Lawrence Le Shan says that "The
promise of war offers a clean conscience, full membership in a group,
meaningfulness to one's actions and intensity in one's life, and a chance to
change to an easier, less stressful, more magical way of organizing reality.
Where else can you get all that at once?" War also promises escape from the
ordinary. The human heart contains an innate longing to manifest and embody the
qualities of courage, love and sacrifice to something greater than the self. If
we wish to evolve beyond war - and I believe that our survival as a species
requires it - we need to create other ways of meeting these longings.
Go to remainder of this
article in a printable form
››››
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Dee Euske
http://www.mandalaproject.org/Mandalas/
|
"The new politics is rooted in our growing
awareness of the radical interconnectedness of all things. It recognizes that
the means must be consistent with the ends; that, in fact, the means determine
the ends. If we are to give birth to a new politics - to a new world - we must
live it to the deepest parts of ourselves.
To practice the new politics requires that we
embody its principles, that, to paraphrase Gandhi, we become the change we wish
to see in the world. If we commit to this principle, politics itself becomes a
spiritual practice. It compels us to do the inner work necessary to become or
remain congruent with our spiritual ideals. At the same time, it calls us to
share with the world the fruits of our spiritual labors."
Larry Robinson
|
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Barry Stevens
http://www.mandalas.co.uk/
World Citizen, Socially-conscious Systems Thinker or Engaged Buddhist, Deep
Ecologist, Permaculturist - "Politics is our conscious participation
in the whole [system, community, history, ecosystem, universe]. By increasing
our consciousness of -- and taking responsibility for -- our connections to
each other and our place in the whole, we can tap the wisdom of the whole and
play a constructive role in its evolution."
Characteristics: Integrity, compassion, dialogue, satyagraha (truth force),
service, solidarity with all life (including opponents), ethical/ecological
awareness, collective intelligence, honoring the consciousness and aliveness
of everyone and everything, creative use of diversity.
|
Sandra Joran
"divide and
conquer" is one of the oldest strategies for consolidating power
Go to our
Action page to read the
2004
survival guide
How
you can get involved in
transforming U.S. politics...
AND
What Could We Do to Take Back Our Democracy?
by Tom Atlee
Click here
to go to a Printable version of this page
|
