Once upon a Sunday

This is a call to every human. The time for ignorance and complacency is well and truly over. Every person who has even the slightest sense of morality, whether that be limited to their immediate family or more widely extended to all of life and nature, must wake up to their complicity and participation in the vandalism and injustice that is being unleashed upon the planet - our only conceivable home. In addition to waking up, we must also accept responsibility to act to stop the madness and to act only in ways that make the presence of our species on this planet benign.

Yes, individually we must become the change we want the world to be, but the urgency of the crises we face demands that we also must not stand by silent and submissive to others who perpetuate the lies that endorse and encourage the mindless exploitation of animal, vegetable and mineral in a way that is undeniably accelerating us to a future of misery and suffering on a scale that no horror story could do justice. These others will  include, family, friends, workmates, bosses, leaders and celebrities. These lies are entrenched in the language, laws and culture of peer groups and nations. They are embedded in ideologies, religions and educational institutions and are enacted by systems of governance from domestic to global levels. The seemingly ubiquitous and omnipotent nature of these lies enslave us all. They nurture us to commit despicable acts against ourselves and the world at large. The disconnection, that these lies effect, from our own true human nature and nature as a whole, is not only virtually complete but has very nearly extinguished our capacity to save ourselves from immanent extinction.

The predicament we find ourselves in is that, despite possessing both comprehensive knowledge of the problem, the root causes and the readily available solutions, we daily submit to “business as usual” primarily out of fear. We fear that if we refuse to play the game we will be rejected wholesale by our own species and be denied our basic needs and rights as humans. The fear is justified. Refuse to go to work tomorrow to earn money to buy water, food, clothing and shelter for yourself and your children, and although the severity of the outcome may vary depending on where on this planet you reside, essentially you will be judged, rejected and either shamed or forced into conforming to the current “way of the world”. There are no places left on earth to escape from this mode of existence. The small pockets of benign human presence are rare and disappearing fast under the relentless march of the all-conquering malignant form of modern human domination.

Common sense is so far removed from reality that unless the common people wake up and act for the common good the contemporary delusion that permeates our minds and directs our actions has only one endpoint. Fortunately every one of us, given adequate time and space to honestly and deeply question what we do and why we do it, has the capacity to wake up to the utter hypocrisy of this delusion that is propelling us to certain disaster. That is, that the evolutionary appearance of our species on earth, despite possessing unprecedented intelligence, foresight and morality, has consciously chosen, in the vast majority, to accept and act upon a set of lies that oppose the laws of nature and has therefore created a destiny of collapse and consequent exclusion from the future.

If this is not to be the case, then humanity needs a whole new generation of awakened and moral leaders to seize the opportunity that presents itself. Given that each of us does possess the DNA that allows us physically, mentally and emotionally to exist in harmony and balance with nature, every thought and action that is not aligned to a just and sustainable existence must be questioned, resisted, challenged, dismantled and replaced. That fact that we all suffer from varying degrees of the delusion, we would be wise to approach these task with humility, compassion and respect for ourselves and others. But the excuse “I had no choice, I was only doing what I was told and besides everybody else was doing it”, which has been universally rejected as a defence for war crimes, is also not acceptable, in any sense, for crimes against nature that ultimately will lead to the suffering and death of millions of human and other life forms.

Incessant and mindless activity has led us to our present position. Considering that, the simplest assessment of what is required, at all levels from individuals through to communities, nations and the total global human population is for us to STOP and to THINK. Only then can we seriously expect the necessary impetus for change to be born. Individually and collectively, due to the seriousness of the situation and because nature itself works in cycles, we will need to STOP and THINK regularly.

In the not too distant past it was common practice that one day a week was devoted to stopping and not working but resting and reflecting. Today, human activity is switched to GO, at full pace mind you, 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Surely each one of us, and the planet, deserves a break. A day when the machine with its orders and instructions for what we must do is simply turned off. Where we can do nothing or do something that could not be even remotely labelled as work of business. Let’s honour ourselves and give ourselves one day out of seven to get off the not so merry go round.  If we can’t reclaim a day of rest for all, what chance do we have of saving ourselves from the delusions we are presently slaves to. Given regular and universal time out, humanity will wake up to fully realise that no one person has any greater entitlement to their share of the planet over any other person. We will also have time to reconnect with the mystery and beauty of nature, thus becoming once again fully aware that our own existence is absolutely dependent on the continued existence of all other components of the living and nonliving systems that exist in the universe. At some point the dysfunctional daily actions that we mindlessly undertake will become so obvious and shameful to us all that we will be liberated, with renewed energy and joy,  to abandon our destructive ways and to co-create a just and sustainable future. Deep down we know in our very makeup that we are bound by nature to take only what we need and to share that equally with all stakeholders. We know this so innately that we teach this to our children in the very first instance. The current terminal trajectory of humanity is not due to flawed DNA but due to a flawed fictional story that has infected our psyche.

Let’s reclaim a day of rest and reflection each and every week so we can rediscover the joy and beauty of being a unique part of the ongoing evolution and mystery of the universe.