Twenty-five years ago, after first reading Ishmael, I realized what a waste of time most of the activists’ causes are. It is not that their causes are not important or worthy…. They are very important and very worthy of our attention…. But the problem is, using our finite energy to fight battle after battle involving the complete spectrum of the activists’ issues divides and dilutes the power of the progressive forces. In general, the progressives have truth and justice on their side, along with a finite amount of people with limited resources who understand those truths and are willing to fight for justice. The rich and the powerful have wealth and power, along with a relatively equal amount of people, but much greater economic resources and also much greater governmental clout. Wealth and power cannot defeat a divided force represented by truth and justice every time. But money and power does enable the other side to prevail in way too many of the clashes. The point is… these battles are never going to end until the progressives learn they need to concentrate their resources and join together to fight the only battle that will ever make any difference: The battle over whether our culture should be based upon a false myth that our world is separate, or the truth that everything that exists is connected.
When we win this main battle over whether our culture should be based upon a world that is separate or a world that is connected, we will never have to fight any of those lesser battles ever again.
Consider this a call to all activists everywhere. Whether you are an environmental activist, a civil rights activist, a peace activist, a human rights activist, a gay rights activist, an indigenous rights activist, a women’s rights activist, a labor rights activist, an immigrant’s rights activist, a right-to-privacy activist, an activist for veteran’s causes, or an activist for any other progressive issue… let’s get together and work on growing this all-important Critical Mass of people who understand how things came to be this way. Let’s discard this flawed, doomed, and insane culture for a new culture based upon the reality that everything is connected, and we are all one. If we join forces and win this one, then we will also win all of those other activist’s battles at the same time. All we have to do is grow our numbers until we achieve the Critical Mass of people necessary to effect changes, even when opposed by those who remain satisfied with the status quo. Then, when that Critical Mass is achieved, by definition, we will have won.
