THE NATURE OF ACTION
1. Argument
2. Self
3. Others
4. Organize
5. Liberation
6. Conclusion
1. Argument
We must give up
expectations but not the confidence that we can deal with any contingency.
Humans only act if they believe their best interests are being served.
Look for the best, not in the future but in this moment as it transpires.
Educate others, fight injustice, but never lose sight of the beauty in
this moment. Every plan right down to the most finely conceived incorporates
within it a probability that the future shall deviate, which probability
increases in direct proportion to the timespan of the plan and also to
the number of people it will affect. This is the dualism of purpose:
we must be subjective of the present while objective of the future.
Live in the moment. If your formulations help you to get more out
of this present moment, then that is fine, but don’t be disappointed if
the world doesn’t live up to your expectations. Next time try to
place a little less importance on expectations and a little more importance
on this world as it is being experienced.
Small scale
action is much more likely to succeed. The smaller scale an action,
the greater its
chances of success. This is part of the appeal
of both anarchism and Buddhism: both promote the
proliferation of small scale action to affect major change.
The best of anarchist thought contains an almost spiritual element in its
view of individual responsibility and the common welfare. Perhaps
we do have a chance, if we can pull our heads out of the clouds and stop
arguing about the best way to proceed. If we could simply act from
the heart, then we could do no wrong.
Action can
either be directed internally into the self, or externally into the environment
and the community. There are four courses of effective action: self-education,
education
of others, fighting injustice and organizing.
2. Self
Put your
own house in order, first of all. Strive for enlightenment and education.
Open yourself to the world, choose to feel. Cultivate compassion.
Study science (hard and soft), history, literature. Remember, however,
that the definition is secondary to that which is defined; a name is but
the smallest part of anything. Look for the divine in all matter
and events. Judge not least ye be judged.
Furthermore,
never accept anything told to you by the mass media; even where self-interest
is not evident, information is distorted by misinformation, misunderstanding
and delusion. Be critical and selective, seek out alternative sources
of information. The mass media can paint a view of the world which
will have strong and subtle effects on individual perception. There
is no such thing as truth--or, rather, truth comes in many versions.
Avoid obsession,
unless it is obsession with the miracle of existence. Dwell in contentment
with
consideration for cohabitants and environment.
Awaken.
3. Others
Fight ignorance.
Strive to help others see clearly even as you strive to focus your own
awareness. Know that, next to self-enlightenment, bringing awareness
to others is the most important thing you can do to benefit the entire
world. Acquire knowledge and teach. Try not to contribute to
disinformation.
Try never
to overlook suffering or injustice but seek their resolution. Determine
never to be
complacent. Understand that a good deal of suffering
and injustice is a product of our socio-economic condition and comprehend
what this admission implies. Do not convert and subvert, rather communicate
and illuminate. Where social injustice is an issue, civil disobedience
tactics are appropriate, and revolution (with all that entails) would even
be justified should it provide a reduction in suffering and injustice.
Fight not with might, but with illumination.
4. Organize
Do not struggle
on by yourself. Despite individualist presentations of history, a
single human being holds little immediate influence over the tides of time
and events. One person alone must fight for her or his own existence
while two people can work together for their mutual benefit. The
history of mankind is an epic of movements and star-crossed individuals
who pop up to lend focus at key confluences.
Network and
organize. Seek out people who think as you do, people who can offer
you help and support. Together you can form a common basis on which
to found your actions. A dream alone is but a dream, while a dream
shared has greater reality.
Organize to
fight injustice. Find others who share your concern and organize
with them to produce a solution to the issue of contention. Work
as a humanitarian, with no intention of harming anyone. Work for
solutions, not persecutions. Always be aware that you are fighting
for the recognition and respect due to everything, from each and every
human, tree and stone down to every atom.
5. Liberation
Everything physical
is made of matter.
The fundamental constituents
of matter are the atoms,
which are themselves composed
of subatomic particles which
are, in fact, energy.
Energy
is made of momental elements
of existence. Each moment
of energy is an unbiased
perception of existence,
pure consciousness.
So once again we find
the mystical, animistic
view of the universe;
anything of atoms made
is all ablaze with life.
Marx sought
to liberate the working class from capitalist exploitation; we seek to
liberate
commodities as well. All so-called commodities
have a right to exist untampered; they take meaning of their existence
and should be respected on that account. The artful manipulation
of matter treats material with respect and therefore is justifiable so
long as the resource is not threatened by exploitation. The right
of existence must be granted to every resource, humans being no more favored
than any other arrangement of atoms and other arrangements being no less
divine. We seek to liberate the chicken and the cow, the corn and
the cotton, the timber and the ore.
All resources
must be respected and conserved; the natural state should be our ideal.
All livestock is owed a basic quality of existence; all environments and
ecosystems are to be kept healthy and viable, as our vitality is linked
to theirs. We must take responsibility for every bite of food that
we eat (meat and vegetable--yes, every single oat) and for every commodity
that we consume. We should apologize to the grass as we tread upon
it, and we should ride upon the gestalt of the physical universe.
Please don’t walk on the grass--dance upon it.
Mankind needs
humility and compassion, both of which are amply supplied by poverty and
hardship. Oh, that there were some other way.
Only wounded heroes could possess the humanity to bring enlightenment to
our homes. Sound the rally of the wounded heroes.
6. Conclusion
Capitalism is
merely our best explanation of the current socio-economic environment.
As such, this theory is marred by all the weaknesses of human thought and
perception. It was a description of one phase in the unending and
dynamic evolution of socio-economic ecology. We can speculate about
the next trend in this evolution, but the only thing we can say for certain
is that change will come. All we can do is work in our own small
way to insure that the next phase is as equable and humane as possible.
We must identify the motive force behind this change and learn how to manipulate
it with wisdom and mercy.
Market, work
place, media, home and church; these are the environments of socio-economic
existence. Changes in the socio-economic situation
are affected through changes in the market, work place, media, home and/or
church. The market is the stomping grounds of capitalists and corporations,
and must be carefully infiltrated by capable sympathizers who should seek
to expropriate capitalist profits for the workers, and who will lend their
talents to the process of socio-economic evolution. Workers should
seek the one big worldwide union, based on the anarcho-syndicalist pattern.
Once the size of this union has attained a critical mass, workers should
seek to liberate the tools of their profession. The workers need
skills in mass civil-disobedience and sabotage, and they must be prepared
to fight if necessary. The media must be opened so that everyone
can better appreciate what is actually transpiring about each of us.
Perhaps the Internet has the freedom and the reach to communicate effectively.
You are still in charge of your own
home, make it a harmonious place. Except for a
minority of fundamentalists, most people have drifted from institutional
religion, liberalizing the tenants of the church. Through church
or through intellect, everyone needs to become aware of the sacred bond
tying each of us to the rest of existence. Subversion and subterfuge
are the watchwords of the day and pureness of heart is the attitude to
be attained by all true agents of evolution. The agent of evolution,
in whatever sector of the socio-economic environment, above all must strive
to make herself or himself a better person and the world a better home.
Evolution is about getting on with life, not the sacrifice of life.
All the progressive
economics and radical sociology, all of the theory and science, will get
you
nowhere with the masses. This is a job for the
poet, the artist and the musician. The coming evolution must be foretold
in myth and folklore, that is: in the very consciousness of humankind.
We must live the evolution, and by doing so blow life into even the most
empty of existences.
We must remember to supplicate the spirits and atone
for our ignorance. Praise the existence of
God in everything of atoms made.
If we
could give to everything the right of existence, there would be no need
to worry
about human rights. We can never achieve utopia
so long as our motives harbor any element of greed. We will walk
into the future pure or we will be dragged in, bloody and beaten.
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