Let’s Make a New Dream

Whatever medical science may profess, there is a difference between Life and survival. There is more to being alive than just having a heartbeat and brain activity. Being alive, really alive, is something much subtler and more magnificent. Their instruments measure blood pressure and temperature, but overlook joy, passion, love, all the things that make life really matter. To make our lives matter again, to really get the most out of them, we will have to redefine life itself. We have to dispense with their merely clinical definitions, in favor of ones which have more to do with what we actually feel. As it stands, how much living do we have in our lives? How many mornings do you wake up feeling truly free, thrilled to be alive, breathlessly anticipating the experiences of a new day? How many nights do you fall asleep feeling fulfilled, going over the events of the past day with satisfaction? Most of us feel as though everything has already been decided without us, as if living is not a creative activity but rather something that happens to us. That’s not being alive, that’s just surviving: being undead, the old dream.

We’ve been sold this old dream, where our passive consumption is the most valuable contribution we can make, we’ve fixed our identities through our possessions and become terrified of risk and change; muchof the time we can’t imagine that there is anything more valuable than physical safety. Our hearts may be beating, but we no longer believe in our dreams, let alone chase after them. But this is how the new dream begins: a few of us start chasing our dreams, breaking our old patterns, embracing what we love (and in the process discovering what we hate), finding simple and sustainable ways to live, extricating ourselves from the systematic oppression of others, questioning, acting outside the boundaries of routine and regularity. Others see us doing this, see people daring to be more creative and more adventurous, more generous and more ambitious than they had imagined possible, and join us one by one, wanting some of the joy and freedom that lies in shaping the new dream. Once enough people embrace this new way of living, a point of critical mass is finally reached, and society itself begins to change. From that moment, the world will start to undergo a transformation: from the frightening, alien place that it is, into a place ripe with possibility, a new dream, a Future Worth Choosing.

So come and play.  Figure out what you want with your life, the old dream or the new? But to be sure you do get what you want, think carefully about what it really is, first, and how to go about getting it. Analyze the world around you, so you’ll know which people and forces are working against your values and your vision, and which ones are on your side… and how you can work together with us to create a new dream for everyone.  There are allies, friends and like-minded new-dreamers everywhere, turning away from the old dream, climbing our of the fur-lined coffin in which we’ve been working for our retirement, breaking our of the poisonous orthodoxy we were indoctrinated in.  Look around for the down-shifters, activists, and others committed already to fashioning the new.   Come join us!

This post is inspired by, and partly drawn from, Days of War Nights of Love, writings that show me a completely new take on the work of creating a new dream here on Earth.

The Whole Big Deal in a Nutshell

We’ve reached the moon, split the atom, probed outer space and the inner workings of our bodies; the achievements of us humans seem immense. But there is one triumph that still eludes us – saving the human race from itself.

You see we’ve conquered the world, laid claim to every last strip of land and subjugated every other species but haven’t yet mastered ourselves. The human race is out-of-control, cannibalising its own home in an orgy of consumption.

How does this show up? Looking around we see that our industrial processes are using up the natural capital of the planet faster than it can be replaced, and pouring out our toxins into what’s left. That’s showing up in a bunch of ways, peak oil, peak water – in fact Peak Everything – as well as climate change, the problem which is grabbing the headlines right now.

If we look at the human family within this, we’ve just exited the bloodiest century ever, with a world population that is doubling every 50 years or so, massively divided into horrifying extremes of poverty and wealth – with billions of people denied the basics of food, water, shelter, healthcare and education. And all of this is worsening year-on-year.

For those of us in the resource-poor part of the world our concerns are likely to be fairly basic and immediate, survival for ourselves and our families. In the other parts of the world, where we enjoy some degree of privilege, our accumulated wealth and our lifestyles of choice and comfort still aren’t buying us peace of mind – our spirit just knows somethings missing, or just not-right in all of this.

And until sometime last year that’s how the self-inflicted problems were showing up, as issues of the environment or social justice or spiritual malaise. Then in 2008 the impact of how-we-live-now showed up in a whole new way that grabbed our attention as never before, biting us where it hurts most – in our wallets. The global financial crisis is another, very urgent symptom of the same problem, the core problem which lies at the heart of all of our issues – our way of living is unsustainable, it can not last.

And the root cause – our thinking is off-track.  You see our thoughts shape the world – and the thinking which underpins the way we live in the majority of the world right now is badly faulted. Our thinking is acquisition, greed, consumption, my-gain-at-your-expense, convenience all of which creates a culture of shopping, celebrity worship, addiction and excess.

The root solution – is to change our thinking.  As soon as we can get off the limited thinking of personal gain fuelled by industrial growth without regard for the consequences then we will be able to focus our enormous ingenuity, creativity and focus on crafting a Future Worth Choosing.

That’s where you and I come in.  When we make a stand for a world which is environmentally sustainable, socially just and spiritually fulfilled, and when we line our lives up with this stand, when we take the choices that deliver a peaceful, just and sustainable world we will be living a Future Worth Choosing now.