The slogan, "think globally act locally" sounds noble enough, but in a global network where localities are affected by huge and often overwhelming forces, it may appear to be a naive one. One may observe, however, a marked wisdom in the particular when it is lifted out of isolation and seen in its larger context. In the mechanistic worldview, a broken machine could simply be fixed. In a post-modern interconnected world, a broken machine may indicate a greater imbalance. Rather than trying to fix the machine, through government, big business, religion, education, or otherwise, one might investigate initial assumptions about objectifying the world and presuming the dominance of the human over the natural. The more honest and attentive the investigation, the deeper the potential for genuine transformation: good things rise up from the bottom.
An Alternative Plan
The more honest and attentive the investigation, the deeper the potential for genuine transformation: good things rise up from the bottom.
The American artist Annie de Franco, in this regard, who has refused the sponsorship of major record companies in order to maintain control over her material, has written "If you don't want to work for 'the man,' you need an alternative plan." An alternative plan can take many forms, but some consistent trajectories may be helpful. Here are a few that myself, friends, and colleagues have been working with in "manifestation groups" over the past few years.
It is not results or products that are important: let this be the first guideline. It is the process you are in that reflects who you are, where you are going, and what legacy you will leave behind. From the eco-Buddhist point of view of co-dependent origination (paticcaa-samuppada) there can never be a finalized ideal, a golden age of past or future, a fixed and stable goal. The future resonates with our current movement and is changing with every step we take. So let us pay attention to process over product: if the process is authentic, the product will be likewise -the exact inversion of the Machiavellian equation. Two interesting exercises come to mind here: try to go through an entire day without complaining, and refuse to put more than three items on your daily "to-do" list. These kinds of "exercises" or "experiments," simple as they may appear to be, directly challenge our productivity compulsions as they allow us to more thoroughly examine our process. What would it be like to neither verbally nor mentally accuse our partner, service providers, or even the weather for not meeting our assumptions about how things should be (I remember how amazed and inspired I was when I heard that the poet Walt Whitman was never heard to even complain about the weather)? And what would it be like to do just three things a day really well, being fully present with their depth, rather than turning every day into some sort of race?
Are our exchanges with others mutually energizing? This is the second consideration. Does our coming and going, buying and selling, giving and receiving, partake of a regenerative mentality? This alone can recreate economic culture, the culture of exchange, via the heart. "Karma" which translates literally as "action" is exchange itself, because every action is ultimately a transaction. And it is in the realm of exchange where we "work-out" our karma. It has occurred to me, on occasion, that the entire market edifice is just an oblique way of purifying our relationships with one another. If we are winning at others expense, or leaving entire population segments disenfranchised, we are breeding resentment, anger, and potential violence. If we are losing at other's expense, we are doing exactly the same thing. Nietzsche, in his denunciation of the ascetic ideal, was one of the first Europeans to articulate the fact that "losing" (i.e. martyrdom and self-sacrifice) is just as imbalanced as "winning", for both strategies create dominant-dependent situations. Nietzsche, in reaction, reverted back to a "win/lose" paradigm of "Will to Power," but only that which is mutual can be regenerative and therefore non-toxic.
The Chinese ideogram for "humanity," or "benevolence," jen, exemplifies the energy of mutual reciprocity with two lines supporting a third. Mutual reciprocity threads the needle between capitalist individualism - promoting the individual at the expense of society, and socialist collectivism - promoting the state at the expense of the individual. "Isms," themselves, tend toward losing situations since they seek to create adherents as opposed to promoting interchange and creativity.
The terrible fear of creating our own lives in freedom can be met through mutuality. When there are variegated models, mentors, colleagues, and a plurality of sanctioned and accepted options to choose from, creative expression and innovation can emerge without being trampled upon. The pluralistic model, which is the third non-toxic point of focus, is different from the relativistic one. The relativistic model denies any hierarchical value, where the pluralistic one accepts them within their specific contexts. One context does not need position over another. As James Hillman states in his article on the modern city, too much attention has been given to the mayor. If there is a good waterworks commission, parks department, arts council, and chamber of commerce, innovation and expansion can still flourish.
The tyranny of the priest and king will linger on, in one form or another, to the degree that the individual impulse is not respected and given its due. The toxicity of mindless production and consumption will remain in force as long as the community impulse, that seeks to celebrate and share existence, is not galvanized. An alternative plan: lets go of "the man," and opens to the individual, lets go of a single history, and opens to a multiversed community: be it through self-employment, working with and for people we actually respect and support, developing non-consumerist strategies such as communal living or voluntary simplicity, or going into the global market place as genuine warriors for change. By working to transform toxic encounters, the global market place can become a cosmic one. And what to do with those terrible fanged-demons who pile up information, weapons, and the rest? When the celebration gets strong enough, invite them onto the dance-floor. After all, everyone loves to party, and if enough people start to actually have fun, the toxic part of ourselves just may cash out of its game and join in.
Rick Jarow, Ph.D., is a practicing alternative career counselor, and author of "Creating the Work You Love -- Courage, Commitment, and Career" (1995 Inner Traditions). For more information click here or visit http://www.anticareer.com or e-mail soul@anticareer.com.
