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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.

According to our present, insane culture… Everything is separate and the world was made for man to conquer, rule, and to exploit as he sees fit. And, that is why it is okay for a tiny minority of us to accumulate most of the wealth and resources, while billions of us struggle to provide ourselves with our most basic of needs pertaining to our very survival. And, that is also why it is okay for countries to wage war against each other over things like territorial disputes, racial, religious, or ideological differences, economic considerations, or a need to exploit resources. And, that is also why it is okay for corporations to reap insane profits from the exploitation of desperate and poor workers, and from the destruction of our precious forests and our other natural resources. And, that is also why it is okay to make the providing of health care all about profit, and to withhold it from those unable to pay the exorbitant prices. And, that is also why it is okay for huge multi-national corporations to make all of the most important decisions about how our world is to be ordered, utilizing profit as their main decision-making criteria.

Yet, according to reason and logic… And according to universally recognized spiritual truths… And now, according to modern physics… Everything is connected. What would a culture look like if it were based upon this reasonable, logical, spiritual, and scientific truth that everything is connected? Well, for one thing, it wouldn’t have the problems set out in the preceding paragraph. Nor would we be on the verge of planetary devastation through global warming and climate change. Our atmosphere, and our oceans, rivers and streams, would not be so terribly polluted. Our people would not have to worry about their basic needs being met. Our prisons would not be crowded to overflowing. And, our population would not be robbing and killing and sexually assaulting each other and anesthetizing itself with drugs and alcohol.  Most of our problems would magically go away.

Why can I say this? Because, if our culture was based upon the truth that everything is connected, then each of our actions as individuals would arise from that basic reality.  Our world would be re-ordered so that it mirrored our basic understanding of the connectedness of all things. All of a sudden, we would all become Responsible Members of the Community of Life on this planet.

The measuring stick I have devised which can be utilized to ascertain whether or not we have achieved our cultural shift is that we need to measure our progress in the following three areas… 

FIRST… If we have succeeded in providing basic needs to all of the people on this planet.

SECOND… If we have stopped cutting down our last remaining forests.

And

THIRD… If we have at least made a serious effort to begin the process of ceasing to pollute.

Then, we will have successfully transformed out culture from an insane one to a rational, sane culture where humans have become Responsible Members of the Community of Life. 

Please understand, I am not advocating that we give up our technological advances, or that we return to a primitive, hunter-gatherer lifestyle. On the contrary, I see plenty of potential for technology and innovation in a new, post-soft-landing connected culture where everyone understands the reality of the connectedness of all things.

The achievement of the providing of basic needs to all people everywhere, and the stopping of the cutting down of our precious forests could be achieved very easily. After we have achieved that all-important Critical Mass of people who understand, then all we would have to do is commit to doing these things. Pollution is the hard one. But, with a Critical Mass behind us, we could make real progress on the effort to stop pollution very quickly. It just might take a little while to succeed completely.

Think about it… Would it be possible for us to achieve these things within the framework of our present, insane culture that is based upon the premise that everything is separate? Absolutely not. The only way that any of these things is ever going to happen is as a result of a cultural revolution.

Don’t you feel a deep sense of responsibility to this beautiful little planet and to all of its diverse life forms, including our own?

Let’s make it happen! Let’s save the world!

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.

Don’t you feel a deep sense of responsibility to this beautiful little planet and to all of its diverse life forms, including our own?

Let’s make it happen! Let’s save the world!

This is a call to intelligent people everywhere to examine the facts and choose to see the truth. This is a call to reasonable people everywhere to embrace the truth and replace our flawed and doomed culture before it crashes on its own. This is a call to responsible people everywhere to step up and do what we have to do to save this planet. Other than greed and selfishness, there is no reason for us to continue down this path that leads to our destruction.  

I believe that achieving this Critical Mass through helping people understand how things came to be this way represents our best hope for saving the planet and the rest of the Community of Life from destruction by our insane culture. The other possibilities are achieving the Critical Mass through either spiritual enlightenment or an understanding of modern physics. The key is for people to understand the truth about the connectedness of everything that exists. By whatever means he or she achieves that understanding, whenever a person comes to know the truth that everything is connected, then that person will also see the need to transform our culture, which is based upon the false premise that everything is separate.

It is totally within our power to change this situation. First, we must assemble a Critical Mass of people who understand that everything is connected, and our present, insane culture does not recognize this reality. Then we make changes.

After achieving the Critical Mass, the easiest way to effect a worldwide change would be for the people here in the United States to wake up and take their government back from the huge corporations that have stolen it from us. All that is required is for us to replace our current, mostly corrupt batch of legislators with new Senators and Congressmen who understand the truths I am advocating herein and stand ready to implement the necessary changes via our legislative process and our U. S. Constitution. In this case, the Critical Mass would be achieved when there are enough voters available to win elections for enough of our candidates, so that changes may be implemented via Congress. Of course, we would also need to elect a President who is on our side.

Then, once the United States has been rescued from the huge corporations and their bought and paid for politicians, the rest of the world should fall in line rather easily. Why? Because the United States is the richest and most powerful nation on the planet. If the United States began acting responsibly, then I believe the other developed nations would fall in line rather easily. The developing nations wouldn’t be a problem either. I imagine that these countries would very much appreciate receiving “true” aid, rather than the “pseudo” aid we have been doling out to them since the end of World War II.