Democracy ABC

Seattle, the cameras are everywhere

"What happens in Greece is not so different from what has been happening in America: a few profit, but when the chickens come home to roost, the pain is not equally distributed -- and what happened is suddenly everybody's fault." (Huffington, A, Postcard From Greece: This Should Not Be About Austerity, It's About The Future Of Democracy , Posted: 06/28/11)

Like the national debt, credit fraud, war...what others come to mind? I think most of us want to close the equity gap, stop misguided subsidies, educate people and enable health all around-so what's stopping us? What will help us feel empowered and motivated to do so? Perhaps we need more exposure to collaborative and co-op experiences.

Teams in biz and school are a yes/no as under a dictatorship of sorts and not necessarily synched with each person's interests enough to engage them in a truly relevant manner.

So how can we learn to connect and save ourselves from further abuses if we don't build bridges of trust that outscale the competitive infrastructure we have been indoctrinated to embrace?

"....... all the incredible possibilities. The saying "a crisis is a terrible thing to waste" has never been more true than it is in today's Greece. The decay has been allowed to fester for so long, nothing short of a major crisis could have precipitated the widespread demands for reform." -the Greek prime minister, George Papandreou.

(Is that what we have to wait for, like BP oil spill, bank bail out, mortgage scams and Katrina weren't enough? Is USA too large a space, too media distracted to have one disaster prevail...is that the problem?)

"There is so much good being done, so much creativity and innovation, that are not getting any attention," he said, "while everyone is focusing just on what's dysfunctional."

He went on to talk about a woman who started a snail farm in Milatos that now exports snails around the world. He also told me about a farmer growing olive oil in Kritsa in Crete who branded it Lambda and now sells it at Harrods. "We have such an over-abundance of resources," he said."(G.P.)

Hmm again the boot strap, the "you can make it if you try" thing that has actually caused a lot of the problem. I am not dissing people who make it, but to start a farm took resources and where, how did she get them? In a way this is part of the same agenda that allows for celebrity and hides the real problems via distractions. If one makes it, it proves it is do-able. So a few "win," while the majority "lose" and we swallow this "law" of "reality."

The truer narrative is far more complex, as the flipside is that you must have done something wrong if you don't make it. This disregards that "driving while black" and class system packages exist. Though it does help explain the high rate of USA suicides.

But deeper, at the root, is a faulty culture that rewards those that enable it to continue without too much upheaval. A bandage or slight adjustment is considered progress. But these things aren't enough to change the outcome of resource devastation and wholescale systems failures that are looming. Even though business as usual appears the safest, surest way because its the current "reality" of the system, it will not suffice.

Therefore, we need to expand the options that enable more people to grow, to form stronger bonds based on relationships, connections and resources. This better emulates the mind, body, spirit concept that in turn enhances the idea of being a unique individual that is inherently related to all others, that each being is part of a larger whole. This will help us understand our place in the natural world of biotic and abiotic systems as well as help promote the idea of everyone's unique potential to contribute. Now isn't that the root of a real and healthy democracy? -the root of a sustainable conscious lifestyle?

So m'dears, this is why i think collaborative events are so important. It's a way to build trust in each other while doing something that matters to us and to the whole. This enhances both the current event and the process that enables future actions. Seems to me this is pro-action that makes good sense.