The world we live in is overwhelming. The pace of events is staggering. It’s one thing right after the other. If we look at this year of 2020 in America alone, there was an international assassination, the coronavirus pandemic, extreme and raising division, the killings of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and the list goes on. It requires a lot of physical, mental and emotional strength to deal with it all and not to feel utterly devastated, heartbroken and overwhelmed.
Think of 2019, which was the year of environmentalism reaching mass consciousness with climate change, the devastating Amazon and Australia fires, the unearthing and wide spreading information about plastic pollution, microplastics and the list goes on. I am sure I am forgetting other major events of 2019 but it’s too much to remember. My brain is on overload with information to process.
Fire is a good metaphor here because we are constantly putting out fires in our world now. That’s what life on Earth feels like at this moment. And when you put that fire out, you turn around and see another one. You treat each fire individually. When you are on the ground, from your view, those fires seem all separate but if you took a bird’s-eye view, you would see it’s one massive fire.
All the incidences I have listed in the first two paragraphs seem like separated issues, but they are not. Can you think of a common thread here?
It should be obvious that massive change is at hand. The writing has been on the wall. The truth is humanity is at a crossroads and every area of our lives is affected. It’s happening all at once. It’s like judgment day came early. Complacency, ignorance, delusion and blindly sailing through life, knowing something is wrong but looking the other way because it’s easier, aren’t going to work anymore. This kind of behavior is also one of the reasons why racism in America hasn’t changed from 1968 to 2020.
The same behavior is responsible for the environmental pollution we have caused that has become so overwhelming that we can’t live in denial about it anymore. We are now forced to do something.
The Common Thread
The word systemic has been used a lot in the last week. Racism IS systemic in the US, but there is more to it.
What have Racism, Fascism, Sexism, Ageism, Narcissism and Elitism in common? They have to do with a group considering itself as “superior”, dominating, controlling, discriminating, repressing and exploiting others.
The narcissist is an individual here but has the same mentality. Look at the entertainment industry for example and you will see it’s full of narcissists that are glorified by the masses and have millions of followers on social media. We have grown so used to it; it’s even considered “desirable” to become like that.
All these Isms are NOT separate issues. They all have the notion to set themselves apart from the whole and consider themselves “special” or “better than”. It’s all the same consciousness in different forms and colors.
I want to include Capitalism to the Ism list because by definition:
It’s ‘an economic and political system in which a country’s trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state.’
This implies that the system is controlled by a smaller group of people that prioritizes profit over social good, natural resources and the environment. It has a similar structure than the other Isms above. They co-exist and flourish together.
Capitalism has brought a lot of progress, consistent economic growth, an increase in the standard of living and wealth to some people. If it’s handled consciously, it can be a powerful tool for good. Unfortunately, this isn’t and hasn’t always been the case.
The deforestation of the Amazon Rainforest is a poster example of prioritizing profit over social good, natural resources and the environment. Coupled with the racism that is happening there, it has indigenous communities driven out of their lands. If they refuse, they get killed, and they also have been repeatedly denounced by the Brazilian government. Nobody is being held accountable.
As much as capitalism has brought great wealth to America, our soil, air and water are polluted and full of toxicity as a careless byproduct of all that affluence, which has created a health crisis costing billions of dollars per year. I am not talking about the corona virus pandemic, which is happening on top of it.
We live in a system and society that are drenched in those Isms. They are dominating our world. Racism, Fascism, Sexism, Ageism, Narcissism, Elitism, Capitalism, – all create separation, a sense of duality, polarity, and the idea of us versus them. If they drive us apart, a new level of consciousness must emerge to bring us together.
Further we must see that it’s the same kind of Isms we are imposing on our natural ecosystems. Humans have set themselves apart from nature, from the thing that brings and sustains our lives. That level of idiocracy is beyond my comprehension.
Intrinsic Connection
If we understand unity amongst humanity, we will also understand the intrinsic connection to nature, the planet and the universe at large. In quantum physics this is called Entanglement, which means “entangled particles stay connected so that actions performed on one affect the other, even when separated by great distances”.
All the fires we are seeing, metaphorically speaking, are all signs that our old paradigms of living and surviving on this planet are obsolete. They are unsustainable. To resist the change and cling to an outmoded reality is surely not the answer for a world that is clearly growing in conscious awareness.
We must embrace that change because we are drowning in our self-made apocalypse and are getting sicker and sicker because we have poisoned what gives us life, – our soils, air, water and our hearts. On top of that we keep killing each other because some entitled people think they are superior to others. Is that what you want?
I am sure most people don’t want that. But not wanting is NOT enough. Action is required. The Black Lives Matter movement is a powerful example of what is possible when people unite, who had enough, to push for change and revolution, in a non-violent way. Violence and oppression are the weapons of the Isms, and they are masters at it. If you are the target, you can’t win that game.
Instead:
You never change things by fighting against the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the old model obsolete.
Buckminster Fuller
Despite all the chaos, I have tremendous hope because the energy we are seeing right now is needed to make a quantum leap collectively into a new consciousness and awareness.
The Full Picture
Sustainable living isn’t just using less plastic, eating sustainably sourced organic food, composting, recycling and caring about the environment and climate change. Sustainable living, or a sustainable state of mind, is life affirming in all its forms, – humans, animals, forests, oceans, deserts, prairies, tress, plants. It’s about seeing the interconnectedness, interdependence and co-creation of all.
Some call this higher level of consciousness Oneness. You must raise and elevate yourself to a bird’s-eye view to see patterns, structures and connections. With the full picture you can solve problems constructively.
I hope you now understand why I write about consciousness on a sustainability platform. If you have a certain level of conscious awareness sustainability, environmentalism, anti-racism, gender equality, etc. or even wearing a mask during a pandemic are a no-brainer. How you do one thing is how you do EVERYTHING!
