Monday, March 28, 2005
Revolution of One Tour
I've mentioned this idea before, but now I've made the official announcement. The Revolution of One Tour is coming!
This tour will make several stops throughout Illinois, southern Indiana, southeast Missouri, and possibly other locations in the region. It will offer lectures, workshops, book signings, and other events to share the information and inspiration of the Revolution of One with people throughout "the Heartland." I've been slow to get the planning for this Tour started, in part because the book sales have slowed down to a trickle. But now is not the time for more waiting -- now is the time for action! Now is the time to reach out into the world with my positive ideas and do everything that I can to share my inspiration!
I don't think that the Tour will be fully real to me until I actually hit the road, but I'm already excited. It's been a few years since I've done any extensive travelling, and if I reach most or all of the planned locations in a single multi-stop trip, it'll be the most places that I've visited in a row in any of my travels. I just saw the Motorcycle Diaries, so sometimes I think that it'd be fun and romantic to take this tour on the back of a motorcycle, discovering the communities of the Heartland on a youthful journey of personal growth and revolution. But I don't have a motorcycle, and it'll be quite some time before I can save up for that electric motorcycle and solar panel charger combo I've been dreaming of. So, it looks like Greyhound will be my tour guide for most of this journey.
I feel like this Tour will be the culmination of eight years of physical and spiritual journeying. Over the past eight years, I've travelled to San Francisco, Los Angeles, West Virginia, Idaho, Colorado, Vermont, Amsterdam, Munich, Dachau, Paris, Miami, and beyond, always with some lesson to be learned, some experience to be gained from the journey. I've learned how to be a political activist; I've learned how to be an ecological advocate; I've learned how to be a spiritual healer; I've learned how to reclaim my humanity and recognize the humanity in those around me. In essence, I have been reborn, and I have discovered many bits of information and inspiration along the way that I feel compelled to share with the rest of the world.
Sometimes, I get very dark and disillusioned -- not nearly as much as I used to, but still enough that many people who know me for my inspiration and enthusiasm would be surprised to discover how much the traumas of the world can still shake me. Sometimes, I look around myself, and wonder why I try at all, when there is so much inertia in support of a status quo that destroys the human spirit and lays waste to the entire face of the Earth. But then I remember my moments of insight and transformation on these spiritual journeys, and I remember all of the people I've met along the way, both on the road and here in Carbondale at the heart of all of this journeying. And somehow, even though my outside circumstances haven't changed, something inside of me fills with hope.
Yes, there's a lot of suffering and oppression in the world, and I don't claim to know how we can "fix" it all. But the idea of a Revolution of One sums up so much of what I've learned along the way. Even if we're surrounded by death and destruction, each of us can be that one light on the darkest night of winter, that one seed of peace in the ashes of a thousand wars, that one drop of hope in the desert of the real. And even if we don't understand fully how our actions contribute to the creation of a healed and liberated planet, we just have to trust that as long as we embrace the love and understanding upwelling inside of us, we will all find our way home together.
One light is often met by another, and is seen all the more clearly in the darkest of nights. One seed is often planted among others, and together can be the pioneers in the ecological succession from barren wasteland to fertile climax rainforest. One drop of water in the desert can pool together with others, and the oasis that they nourish can spread across the scorched sands one inch at a time. In this way, each of us as an individual Revolution of One can come together with many others to form a community Revolution of One. Ultimately, the people of each bioregion can stand together in a Revolution of One. When this happens, the world will never be the same -- and it all starts with you, and me, and our neighbors down the street, each making the simple choice that today will be the day when everything starts to change for the better.
So are you pumped yet for the Revolution of One Tour? I know that I am! We're still looking for confirmed bookings in Bloomington, Indiana; Carbondale, Illinois; Champaign-Urbana, Illinois; Chicago, Illinois; Lothlorien Nature Sanctuary [Needmore, Indiana]; St. Louis, Missouri; and anywhere else that is longing for an earth conscious revolution of the heart. If you live in one of these communities, or any other in our general region, and you would like to help bring the Revolution of One Tour to your town, then please contact me. Otherwise, stay tuned to this site for more information, and I look forward to seeing you soon!
0 comments
This tour will make several stops throughout Illinois, southern Indiana, southeast Missouri, and possibly other locations in the region. It will offer lectures, workshops, book signings, and other events to share the information and inspiration of the Revolution of One with people throughout "the Heartland." I've been slow to get the planning for this Tour started, in part because the book sales have slowed down to a trickle. But now is not the time for more waiting -- now is the time for action! Now is the time to reach out into the world with my positive ideas and do everything that I can to share my inspiration!
I don't think that the Tour will be fully real to me until I actually hit the road, but I'm already excited. It's been a few years since I've done any extensive travelling, and if I reach most or all of the planned locations in a single multi-stop trip, it'll be the most places that I've visited in a row in any of my travels. I just saw the Motorcycle Diaries, so sometimes I think that it'd be fun and romantic to take this tour on the back of a motorcycle, discovering the communities of the Heartland on a youthful journey of personal growth and revolution. But I don't have a motorcycle, and it'll be quite some time before I can save up for that electric motorcycle and solar panel charger combo I've been dreaming of. So, it looks like Greyhound will be my tour guide for most of this journey.
I feel like this Tour will be the culmination of eight years of physical and spiritual journeying. Over the past eight years, I've travelled to San Francisco, Los Angeles, West Virginia, Idaho, Colorado, Vermont, Amsterdam, Munich, Dachau, Paris, Miami, and beyond, always with some lesson to be learned, some experience to be gained from the journey. I've learned how to be a political activist; I've learned how to be an ecological advocate; I've learned how to be a spiritual healer; I've learned how to reclaim my humanity and recognize the humanity in those around me. In essence, I have been reborn, and I have discovered many bits of information and inspiration along the way that I feel compelled to share with the rest of the world.
Sometimes, I get very dark and disillusioned -- not nearly as much as I used to, but still enough that many people who know me for my inspiration and enthusiasm would be surprised to discover how much the traumas of the world can still shake me. Sometimes, I look around myself, and wonder why I try at all, when there is so much inertia in support of a status quo that destroys the human spirit and lays waste to the entire face of the Earth. But then I remember my moments of insight and transformation on these spiritual journeys, and I remember all of the people I've met along the way, both on the road and here in Carbondale at the heart of all of this journeying. And somehow, even though my outside circumstances haven't changed, something inside of me fills with hope.
Yes, there's a lot of suffering and oppression in the world, and I don't claim to know how we can "fix" it all. But the idea of a Revolution of One sums up so much of what I've learned along the way. Even if we're surrounded by death and destruction, each of us can be that one light on the darkest night of winter, that one seed of peace in the ashes of a thousand wars, that one drop of hope in the desert of the real. And even if we don't understand fully how our actions contribute to the creation of a healed and liberated planet, we just have to trust that as long as we embrace the love and understanding upwelling inside of us, we will all find our way home together.
One light is often met by another, and is seen all the more clearly in the darkest of nights. One seed is often planted among others, and together can be the pioneers in the ecological succession from barren wasteland to fertile climax rainforest. One drop of water in the desert can pool together with others, and the oasis that they nourish can spread across the scorched sands one inch at a time. In this way, each of us as an individual Revolution of One can come together with many others to form a community Revolution of One. Ultimately, the people of each bioregion can stand together in a Revolution of One. When this happens, the world will never be the same -- and it all starts with you, and me, and our neighbors down the street, each making the simple choice that today will be the day when everything starts to change for the better.
So are you pumped yet for the Revolution of One Tour? I know that I am! We're still looking for confirmed bookings in Bloomington, Indiana; Carbondale, Illinois; Champaign-Urbana, Illinois; Chicago, Illinois; Lothlorien Nature Sanctuary [Needmore, Indiana]; St. Louis, Missouri; and anywhere else that is longing for an earth conscious revolution of the heart. If you live in one of these communities, or any other in our general region, and you would like to help bring the Revolution of One Tour to your town, then please contact me. Otherwise, stay tuned to this site for more information, and I look forward to seeing you soon!
0 comments
Wednesday, March 23, 2005
Weltanschauungskrieg in the Heartscape
Weltanschauungskrieg is a German word that means "Worldview Warfare." It was used to describe the Nazi strategy of understanding warfare (and life) as a struggle to conquer hearts and minds. Heartscape is a word that has been used symbolically and poetically by many people. For me, it's a literal term for the landscape of our hearts -- our hopes, our dreams, our poems and songs, our deepest feelings, our closest relationships, our greatest humanity, and so on.
Sometimes, I feel like the known history of humanity has been a history of escalating Weltanschauungskrieg in the Heartscape.
From the Roman Empire onward, this dawning Weltanschauungskrieg (WSK) grows bit by bit more intentional and organized. But in my mind, the real turning point comes in the 19th and 20th Centuries, when the ancient art of WSK is refined into a psychological and social science. Instead of using material weapons to expand a worldview of dominance, the worldview itself becomes the weapon of choice to maintain that dominance.
This brings us to the 21st century.
Sometimes, I turn on my TV to watch the Simpsons, That 70's Show, and yes, even that hit action series, 24. Every moment that this little black box buzzes in my living room, I can feel the WSK pushing on my consciousness. This is especially true for 24, and even more especially true for the corporate commercials. Every word is a bullet; every song is a grenade; every image is a bunker buster. On those rare occassions when I seek out Fox News or other direct fascist propaganda, the psychonoetic assault intensifies exponentially, to the point where I can physically feel each word, each note, each image smashing into my flesh. Soon, every cell in my body is resonating with the whispered words of this multimedia blitzkrieg:
...Action. Fun action. Terrifying action. Sexy action. Take action. Buy into the action. Buy these clothes to dance in the streets. Buy this car to play in the woods. Buy these soldiers to fight for these cars. Buy the flag when the soliders die. Buy, buy, buy more soldiers, buy more flags to cover invisible caskets, invisible bullets, invisible bombs. Buy elections to buy the soldiers. Buy Direct TV to forget about elections. I buy, therefore buy-am...
Is this really what we should be bombarding our consciousness with? I wish that it were only confined to the TV, but the entire physical, social, and economic infrastructure of our society is set up as an extension of the dominant worldviews that keep The Few in power, The Many powerless, and The All in a life of maximized profit and minimized meaning. Only small pockets and thin networks of counter-culture and counter-strategy remain, barely able to hold back the burning tides of the blitzkrieg, much less offer any sort of proactive positive strategy of their own.
In some ways, we in the United States are the most protected people in history. The chief task that our rulers lay out for us is to consume endlessly in an escalating orgy of fun and excitement. American WSK -- both in its psycho-social sophistication, and in its military backup -- is the most powerful WSK that has ever existed on the planet, and its continued expansion promises us greater wealth, greater popularity, greater security, greater FUN.
So, it seems to protect us above all others. And yet...
And yet... even aside from its faltering inability to truly protect us... we are not as protected as we seem. Why? Because it is we who are its first targets. It is we who are endlessly assaulted into submission by the blitzkrieg on our Heartscapes just to maintain the Empire. The American WSK that is sweeping over the globe as we speak was perfected first at home, and the greatest innovation in psychosocial control still arises here, in a Heartscape so dominated by this worldview that it knows no past, no future, no broader world outside of its carefully crafted cultural bubble.
Welcome to Weltanschauungskrieg in the Heartscape of America. Do you feel free yet?
And yet... there is still hope.
Somehow, I always come back to a place of hope. If I felt that the human heart had been fully conquered, and the human spirit fully chased from its physical vessel, then I would just give up on trying to make a difference. And sometimes, I'm about ready to give up. But then... I pause... I take a deep breath... and I look around myself...
...I search with my heart through the fluorescent haze of an entire reality designed to induce dreamless submission...
...I find the kinship of many kindred spirits, their hearts torn and tattered like my own, at times unsure which threads of their own fabric are real, quietly huddling together in stolen moments of deep resonance while the Weltanschauungskrieg marches on around us...
...I find sparks of humanity, ecology, ingenuity, authenticity, growing up through the cracks of pop culture like dandelions in a parking lot, sending runners across the barren land, springing up whole networks of independent communication, radical uprising, free thinking, free feeling, ecological living, intentional community...
...and even though the Weltanschauungskrieg is bigger, and louder, and faster, and shinier, and maybe even tougher, I just know that these little green plants peeking through the cracks are here for a reason. We are the sprouting seeds of resistance -- and even though it seems impossible at times, our roots and vines will soon weave across the face of this nation and this planet, overgrowing societies that used the sophisticated tools of the 21st century as just another big club to swing around in service of the paranoid and self-serving whims of their reptillian brains.
Well, on that note, I think that I've had just about enough blogging for one day. Away with the oil-chugging dinosaurs and hooray for the greeny rainbowy revolutionaries! Time to rest up for another day at work and another effort to exorcise the remains of a bronchial uberbug that our society of sickness has graciously passed onto me... you know, I tried to tell my bronchial tubes that someone who was warning society about the dangers of antibiotic abuse years ago should be immune to all antibiotic uberbugs. But so far, I've had mixed results... I'll let you know how it goes.
0 comments
Sometimes, I feel like the known history of humanity has been a history of escalating Weltanschauungskrieg in the Heartscape.
From the Roman Empire onward, this dawning Weltanschauungskrieg (WSK) grows bit by bit more intentional and organized. But in my mind, the real turning point comes in the 19th and 20th Centuries, when the ancient art of WSK is refined into a psychological and social science. Instead of using material weapons to expand a worldview of dominance, the worldview itself becomes the weapon of choice to maintain that dominance.
This brings us to the 21st century.
Sometimes, I turn on my TV to watch the Simpsons, That 70's Show, and yes, even that hit action series, 24. Every moment that this little black box buzzes in my living room, I can feel the WSK pushing on my consciousness. This is especially true for 24, and even more especially true for the corporate commercials. Every word is a bullet; every song is a grenade; every image is a bunker buster. On those rare occassions when I seek out Fox News or other direct fascist propaganda, the psychonoetic assault intensifies exponentially, to the point where I can physically feel each word, each note, each image smashing into my flesh. Soon, every cell in my body is resonating with the whispered words of this multimedia blitzkrieg:
...Action. Fun action. Terrifying action. Sexy action. Take action. Buy into the action. Buy these clothes to dance in the streets. Buy this car to play in the woods. Buy these soldiers to fight for these cars. Buy the flag when the soliders die. Buy, buy, buy more soldiers, buy more flags to cover invisible caskets, invisible bullets, invisible bombs. Buy elections to buy the soldiers. Buy Direct TV to forget about elections. I buy, therefore buy-am...
Is this really what we should be bombarding our consciousness with? I wish that it were only confined to the TV, but the entire physical, social, and economic infrastructure of our society is set up as an extension of the dominant worldviews that keep The Few in power, The Many powerless, and The All in a life of maximized profit and minimized meaning. Only small pockets and thin networks of counter-culture and counter-strategy remain, barely able to hold back the burning tides of the blitzkrieg, much less offer any sort of proactive positive strategy of their own.
In some ways, we in the United States are the most protected people in history. The chief task that our rulers lay out for us is to consume endlessly in an escalating orgy of fun and excitement. American WSK -- both in its psycho-social sophistication, and in its military backup -- is the most powerful WSK that has ever existed on the planet, and its continued expansion promises us greater wealth, greater popularity, greater security, greater FUN.
So, it seems to protect us above all others. And yet...
And yet... even aside from its faltering inability to truly protect us... we are not as protected as we seem. Why? Because it is we who are its first targets. It is we who are endlessly assaulted into submission by the blitzkrieg on our Heartscapes just to maintain the Empire. The American WSK that is sweeping over the globe as we speak was perfected first at home, and the greatest innovation in psychosocial control still arises here, in a Heartscape so dominated by this worldview that it knows no past, no future, no broader world outside of its carefully crafted cultural bubble.
Welcome to Weltanschauungskrieg in the Heartscape of America. Do you feel free yet?
And yet... there is still hope.
Somehow, I always come back to a place of hope. If I felt that the human heart had been fully conquered, and the human spirit fully chased from its physical vessel, then I would just give up on trying to make a difference. And sometimes, I'm about ready to give up. But then... I pause... I take a deep breath... and I look around myself...
...I search with my heart through the fluorescent haze of an entire reality designed to induce dreamless submission...
...I find the kinship of many kindred spirits, their hearts torn and tattered like my own, at times unsure which threads of their own fabric are real, quietly huddling together in stolen moments of deep resonance while the Weltanschauungskrieg marches on around us...
...I find sparks of humanity, ecology, ingenuity, authenticity, growing up through the cracks of pop culture like dandelions in a parking lot, sending runners across the barren land, springing up whole networks of independent communication, radical uprising, free thinking, free feeling, ecological living, intentional community...
...and even though the Weltanschauungskrieg is bigger, and louder, and faster, and shinier, and maybe even tougher, I just know that these little green plants peeking through the cracks are here for a reason. We are the sprouting seeds of resistance -- and even though it seems impossible at times, our roots and vines will soon weave across the face of this nation and this planet, overgrowing societies that used the sophisticated tools of the 21st century as just another big club to swing around in service of the paranoid and self-serving whims of their reptillian brains.
Well, on that note, I think that I've had just about enough blogging for one day. Away with the oil-chugging dinosaurs and hooray for the greeny rainbowy revolutionaries! Time to rest up for another day at work and another effort to exorcise the remains of a bronchial uberbug that our society of sickness has graciously passed onto me... you know, I tried to tell my bronchial tubes that someone who was warning society about the dangers of antibiotic abuse years ago should be immune to all antibiotic uberbugs. But so far, I've had mixed results... I'll let you know how it goes.
0 comments
