Transforming Yourself

Let's face it - revolution isn't all sunshine and rainbows. We've got to grapple with the highs of optimism and the lows of historical disappointments. That's the game we're playing.
Some even claim that personal transformation is a prerequisite for effective activism. And yeah, there's some truth to that. We've seen how communal living can either foster selflessness but it can also descend into chaos.
The key is how we feel about our activism. It's rooted in our materialist worldview, in our failure to transcend beyond the tangible. So let's shake things up. Let's shift our perspective and embrace a new approach that integrates transcendence, ritual, and the management of suffering.
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[@JayFortran]

Very profound stuff, thank you. Despite our rationalism and science, it still comes down to the self vs. the collective and our imaginations. Cheers.

[@blasphlamer]

Hello Roger I am enjoying this this series from my bed as I am also bedridden. Get well soon

[@quasimandias]

It’s really important to point out that there are many examples of human culture that have lived within the constraints of their habitat for multiple thousands of years without destructive impact. Western culture barely manages 200 before it depletes its biome and must look for resources elsewhere to support its habits. This isn’t a matter of what we think of as human nature but rather a fundamental schism in how certain groups relate to life and their life supporting habitat. Are we coparticipants in advancing the life project or do we plunder the commons for personal short term gain? Somehow in our dominant culture we have normalized the later. Exposing this insanity is a revolutionary act. Delving in the source of this malconception is important as well. Somehow we must return to understanding that unless one actively supports that which makes one’s life possible it’s an inevitable choice for death. It may be a choice for death for others for a long time but eventually you even run out of them. It’s also essential that in our activism we don’t engage in the same colonialism, exporting our moral responsibility to others to continue to subsidize our own unsupportable lifestyle. It’s very easy to continue with the bias of extorting others for the benefit of ourselves, but that’s what got us here in the first place. It’s important as well to understand that while I appreciate the conversation about transcendence ours is a wholly practical issue. We speak in metaphor about our relationship to life and nature because it isn’t real. If it was, it’s a plain matter of fact. One encounters tho occasionally with the few remaining members of cultures who lived in a complimentary manner with the world. It’s not a moral issue. Those who destroy life itself for a short term gain aren’t good or bad, but rather are crippled idiots, like a child compelled to eat broken glass.

[@quasimandias]

@@SamWilkinsonn Meaning that Western culture disguises its lack of sustainability by stealing resources from cultures that are. We basically assume that all consumption is equivalent and that all are entitled to it at least some degree. We pay very little attention to what our consumption does and rather are moralistic about it. For example, a gallon of gasoline spent using machinery to plant trees isn’t looked at meaningfully differently than a gallon of gasoline burned driving to work, when in fact the impact of either is radically different and the former may actually enhance life rather than destroy it. Even activism carries a colonialist bias, often demanding other people change their behaviour to protect our personal future with scant concern of the real impact of either.

[@azzaaz5458]

Great ending thank you...

[@sueward7002]

This also fits in with... The Gentle will inherit the Earth... and also Richard Rohr's.. What we don't Transform we Transmit ...

[@rozb554]

I'm a pacifist but atheist-leaning. It doesn't have to be a contradiction at all. The degree to which someone is pacifistic isn't always evident by looking at a person's religion. That could be almost a form of discrimination.

[@iadide9789]

to be a good person? 'a good person is someone who has tried.' "tried" meaning, having aspired to be better for the sake of something external to themselves. what do we think ?

[@johnfowler4820]

Whatever organising culture that evolves from the inevitable system change, it will only be compassionate and truly community based if it is " trauma informed ". We are all traumatised and can only collaborate sustainably if this trauma is processed.

[@rgzhaffie]

"With the abolition of private property, then, we shall have true, beautiful, healthy Individualism. Nobody will waste his life in accumulating things, and the symbols for things. One will live. To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all." Oscar Wilde, "The Soul of Man Under Socialism", 1891

[@pigstonwidget]

Loved this! Nice shirt too!!

[@russtaylor2122]

That it? We're on our own now? Yikes, we've come to rely a bit too much on your presence here, Roger...! Thank you for that gargantuan effort to enlighten us.

[@markxr6769]

I agree Transcending the self has real advantages for dealing with the difficulties of being a leader (and many other things). One thing you didn't cover much here is the problem which can go along with that if we're not careful. If as part of transcendence you start believing in supernatural forces all bets are off. History is littered with examples of people committing atrocities and making terrible decisions because they believed something supernatural was telling them to. This is arguably one of humanities greatest weaknesses. So there is great value to secularism and attempting to be rational. I think a 21st century approach to transcendence needs to move beyond the idea of supernatural belief. The two do not need to go together. For example there are completely secular forms of Dzogchen, Mahamudra and Vipassana mediation (all of which come from religious traditions) which are every bit as effective as the religious versions. Your point about working on transcendence in-situ is a really good one I think. Whatever method we use to transcend, it needs to work even when the difficult stuff is happening. There are ways of doing this, but one way wont work for everyone. We need to find different ways for different types of people.

[@PetaloudesTouYialou]

This is interesting. Specifically, the act of prayer being a process of dialogue with self & of rearranging the elements of self, a way to achieve growth or at least a bit more understanding of one's self. I had a thought that lots of people got banged up in the Bible stories, so I guess we're in that tradition.

[@matosmond4519]

Love that you chose to end it here. A great end to a great series of talks. Thanks for all of it. Role-playing being a person who gives a fuck. Role-playing prayer, which gets funnier and better the less sure you are what exactly you're doing here. Next time I see you I'll give you a copy of James Carse's The Silence of God. Its all there. Why it matters that we don't know if there's anyone listening, and that we never will know, thank God.

[@battragon]

"The world is a function of the mind." - That's been the bane of humanity since Plato, and it's the most stupid idea ever.

[@quasimandias]

Not humanity, but rather mostly the Christian faction of Western Culture. Not all cultures dabble in such abstractions.

[@RichardBergson]

There is a level at which this concept is valid for me in that while in general it helps that if we see a tree we all agree on the fact of the tree. What we think of it is where the concept works. If I think the biophysical world is the most important thing then I will love this tree and all the biodiversity it supports and its contribution to the life of the world. If I am politician looking to put a road through this tree to link up two major economic centres it is just an impediment. The two of them are going to fight because they see something completely different when they look at this object. More interesting is that these opposing views can be in the same person.

[@trumblewumblehumble]

No, it is really not.

[@ariofengenden8420]

Roger I love you but a couple of comments: materialism as you know does not mean selfishness (that is just capitalism) as you yourself give examples in another lecture of socialists going of to fight in Spain etc (this they did while believing in historical materialism). Idealism undermines the whole climate movement. "Maybe we are not just imagining your shirt but also climate change?". Religious people are not "better" the fact that you are surrounded by the people of capitalism in UK - does not make religious people better. Go to any Israeli settlement in West Bank and see the viciousness of religious people.

[@quanty30]

You basically rediscovered religion Roger. Especially Islam! This life is temporary.