Growing up (and to this day) I’ve been told things like, “Well that’s just the way the world works” or “that’s just how things are” etc. Maybe you have too?
Now I do understand this industrial-era-ish line of thinking to some extent. I can see, through the eyes of a colonized mind, such thinking could make sense at a time when we were destroying our way through the natural world around us without considering our actions.
It might have made sense at a time when we could “discover” and chop to the ground a forest with complete confidence that moving to the next forest, chopping it down, and continuing was possible. I mean, there’s no way we could ever run out of natural resources – right?
Let’s pretend we’re lumberjacks having been gilded into the trade by generations past. For whatever reason, a little bird has now embedded the question of “Why are we doing this?” into our minds. Generations past answer mechanically, “Well that’s just the way the world works” but it is now clear to OUR generation that if this is the case, we have certainly designed and are participating in a world destined for complete destruction.
*Note: I am not intentionally slamming Lumberjacks, or anyone who jacks lumber specifically. I am simply using this as an example of one of many sources of employment in extractive industries which cannot continue unchecked.
Ok so – back to Critical Mass. At the time of my writing this, Psy’s “Gangham Style” music video on his official channel has reached 3,009,043,946 views – over 3 billion people have spent the 4-minute duration of this video consumed with its content and message, whatever that is exactly.
Can you imagine if this same number of people invested time, even if only briefly, towards a complete and utter re-imagining of “the way the world works”? What if this number of people could be told, tomorrow, about a new way of being such that we make a stride towards more peaceful co-inhabitance of our earth? What if this number of people just came together to brainstorm ideas with a common purpose?
What I’m getting at here is that we have more access to each other and the capacity to change now than ever before in the history of our species. I mean could we, as humans, have found a means of directly communicating with 3 billion people 50 years ago? 100? 200?
This will be the greatest challenge yet most important step of our time. We must realize the strength in our numbers. We must break down colonizing barriers. We must see the open doors to a complete paradigm shift and begin walking through.
I do NOT believe the conversation ends with “That’s just how things are.” We must change the way we’ve designed this world to work. The time for critical mass is now.
– AM
