For twenty-five years now, I’ve lived with the following truths, most of which I learned directly from reading Ishmael, and the others from reasoning forward from what Ishmael taught me. And, I can report to you that after twenty-five years of examination and re-examination, they remain as firm and solid as they did when I first came to understand them. Here they are:
- Our worldwide culture, which includes every person on this planet who is not a member of an indigenous tribe not yet assimilated, is flawed at its most basic level. For this reason, it is doomed. In fact, it is failing.
- The reason our culture is flawed is because it is based on the false premise that everything is separate. This fosters a false sense of separation. Separation between man and nature… Separation between man and the rest of the Community of Life… Separation between the weak and the powerful… Separation between the rich and the poor… Separation between you and me.
- The reality is that man is just another species that evolved on this planet as one of millions of life forms.
- This means that man is a part of the Community of Life… not separate from it.
- Our flawed and doomed culture must be replaced with a new culture that is based upon the truth that everything is connected.
- Humans must resume their role as Responsible Members of the Community of Life.
- If we continue down this road, riding on our flawed and doomed culture, then one day, perhaps one day very soon, we will arrive at our destination… a terrible crash.
- The only way the monumental task of replacing our flawed and doomed culture can be achieved is through the establishment of a Critical Mass of people who understand the problem and want to fix it.
- Helping people to understand how things came to be this way will be a main key to the successful creation of the Critical Mass.
- Not everyone is conscientious enough, or conscious enough, or emotionally stable enough to be capable of making the saving of the planet a personal goal. Many of us are just not ready to take on that task. As people grow and mature, many become capable of taking on these truths and joining the Critical Mass.
- The majority of the rich and powerful people currently living on this planet like things the way they are. They love their comfort. They love their luxurious lifestyle. They love their conveniences. And they love their security. Many of these comfortable, rich, and powerful people will ultimately become a part of the Critical Mass, but because it works so well for them, many will be slow to recognize the need for change.
- The rich and powerful will very likely some day realize that they also should have loved their polar icecaps.
- The quality and strength of the Critical Mass is very important. The more people it includes, the stronger it will be…. And the stronger it is, the more capable it will be of effecting change in the face of adversity. Also, the more people the Critical Mass has in it who are rich and powerful, the better.
- Without question, there are some very twisted and sick people in this world who wield a lot of wealth and power. Also, without question, many of these people will be extremely opposed to the cultural shift. For this reason, there is a chance that things might get very messy.
I will choose messy over insane every time. We can work through messy. There is no cure for the type of insanity represented by our present, insane culture. And besides… things are already pretty messy.
Here is a final truth that is crucial for us to understand if we are ever going to succeed in transforming our flawed and doomed culture to a responsible, sane one…
- The Critical Mass may only be added to one person at a time. This is because nobody can think for another person.
As the Critical Mass grows from where it is today, it will get easier and easier to add more people to it. This is because as time goes along, and more and more people come out in favor of the ideas set out herein, people like me will not be considered so crazy and radical as we are today.
