Knowledge, love and action serve to overcome the impossible

An Appeal for a Revolution

Part Two

The Business of Violence

Our world is vulnerable. We, the producers and consumers, have to change. We are witnessing the impact of our lifestyles on the Earth. We see more and more swings in climate and lasting for longer periods. Climate scientists tell us the Earth’s temperature is slowly rising with the potential to bring even greater swings in climate, unprecedented flooding and widespread loss of life.

In this critique, I will refer to the violence of corporations, the violence of the military the violence in society and the violence we inflict upon ourselves.

I will refer to the destructive foreign policies of the USA.

I will refer to some of the causes and conditions for violence.

I will refer to the need for a new kind of army.

I will refer to the steps we can take to work together for change, inwardly and outwardly.

We need to examine our collective problematic attitudes in human behaviour. Our states of mind have become a dark shadow over the Earth. We must focus on our mind to address our global issues.

Violence is a force exerted that causes harm and damage

Violent revolutions perpetuate violence. A non-violent revolution is an indispensable necessity.

Violence of Institutions

Institutional greed is inseparable from institutional violence. Greed is an act of violence upon life.

Institutional violence is the act of abuse, harm and damage to people, animals and the environment

The sad truth is that there are expressions of violence from our major institutions and we inflict violence upon others and ourselves. Institutional, social and personal violence arises due to such conditions as

• a trauma
• a violent upbringing
• alienation
• control issues
• desire to get one’s way
• emotional elements such as jealousy, despair and blame
• fear of rejection
• identification with the goals of others
• feeling rejected
• grasping a belief system
• identification with the family, group or nation state
• inability to empathise
• inability to get what one wants
• insecurity
• need to belong
• need to prove oneself in front of others
• obedience to authority
• neurological damage
• unable to cope with feeling hurt
• unresolved personal history, old and recent

There is the violence of corporate exploitation of small farms and natural habitats, the violence of military/weapons/guns and arms for political or domestic use and the violence in society and upon ourselves.

The  industrial food monopolies of the West inflicts violence on small farmers worldwide. Indigenous communities in the rainforests lose their habitats and homes as powerful food corporations use a slash and burn policy to clear massive areas of rainforest for cattle and soya plants.  Massive deforestation supports the world’s demand for meat, timber and single crops. Deforestation and lack of diversity causes exhaustion in the soil’s nutrients, so artificial fertilisers are needed. More production means more pollution.

Many small coffee farmers in Africa get paid minimum rates for their coffee plants to maximise profits in the chains of Western coffee shops. Indian cotton farmers are in a deep crisis. Many live in debt, depression and under corporate control.  This is a violence upon their lives.

Farmers endure a traumatized psychological life through climate change and dependency on Western agri-business.  According to Vandana Shiva, the Earth scientist, a farmer in India commits suicide every hour.

Sustained public campaigns, as well as critiques and polemics of corporations engrossed in violence upon people and habitats forces more internal inquiry of these businesses.

What thoughtful university graduates would want to join a corporation that exploits workers and destroys fragile eco systems?

Determined citizens can work together to create and support the wide variety of non-governmental organisations (NGO’s) who work tirelessly on behalf of small farmers, indigenous communities and to protect natural environments.

Sections of the powerful food industry introduce genetically modified (GM) or genetically engineered (GE) crops. This has a violent impact on organisms, insects, and creatures under the ground, on the ground and in the air. GM crops can cause outcrossing – a transference elsewhere of GM seeds affecting health and safety of conventional crops, meadows, forests, flowers and plants vital for bio-diversity. GM food companies do not know the long term impact of their interference with the cycles of nature.

As consumers, we can work together to support local farmers and local producers.  Our collective capacity to say ‘no’ to the powerful food industries exploitation of people, animals and nature challenges the behaviour of the food industry. We must appeal to scientists, engineers, management, exporters/importers and transporters to reject the production and distribution of GM seeds and crops and the export/import of unhealthy food.

There is an obesity epidemic requiring a revolution in our psychology to change our diet and to transform the agri-business.  The food industry fattens up human beings through addictive substances like sugar, salt and fat. Then the same industry offers us reduced fat food. All in the name of profit. The more human beings eat the greater the profit for the food industry. They also fatten up farm animals and birds for profit regardless of the pain of these creatures.

Although primary responsibility for the violence in farm factories rests with the controlling food industries, consumers must take some responsibility as well. Factory farms of animals and birds, in concentration camp conditions, are fattened up for the meat dominated diet of humans. Major US food corporations inject cows with BVH, bovine growth hormones, to produce more milk. BVH is linked to possible breast and prostate cancer in humans. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) estimate that livestock are responsible for 18% of greenhouse emissions that contribute to climate change.

A revolution will enable us to democratically elect our primary food producers to ensure food companies provide us with a nutritious diet, clearly labelled from a food company that cares for shoppers, employees, animals and the environment. We cannot leave the importance of food in the hands of unelected corporate dictatorships driven to increase profit margins.

The World Health Organisation warns of a tidal wave of cancer. Smoking is the single biggest cause of cancer causing 20% of global deaths.  Addictions, such as

• alcohol
• cigarettes
• drugs, recreational/prescribed
• and junk food,

contribute to self-hatred and sickness.  Addictions arise through the unresolved need to keep repeating pleasant sensations, no matter how destructive to health and peace of mind. Children and adults require ongoing guidance with proven methods to dissolve and addictive psyche. The processed food and drinks industry with added chemicals, sugar, salt and fat slowly poisons our health. This is a violence upon our bodies. We need to remove such cell damaging foods from the shelves of our supermarkets and food stores.

There will not be a reduction in cancer, heart disease, dementia and diabetes until there is the widespread intention for:

• Clean air
• Ending of or minimal intake of cigarettes, alcohol and drugs
• Huge reduction in consumption of sugar, salt and fat
• Reduction of  exposure to dangerous chemicals at home and work
• Massive reduction in need for pharmaceutical medicine, with the side effects, known and unknown
• Radical change in diet
• priority given to organic food
• stress reduction
• switch to plant based food
• ending of meat based diet,
• cutting  back of dairy products. 

Mines, Fracking and Deforestation

Big powerful companies inflict violence on the earth and in the ground. Mining and fracking companies plunder resources at an alarming rate. The compulsion to exploit for profit prevents any capacity of these companies to stop and reflect. There is little or no concern about present and future effects to our Earth’s equilibrium, our water tables and our ecosystem.

Having destroyed our forests in the 18th to 19th centuries, Western countries seek to profit through destroying forests in other countries. All this human violence contributes to climate change such as the recent extreme weather temperatures from Europe to North America to Australia, the gradual melting of the icecaps, plus floods and famines in various regions of the world.

The 21^st century revolution means a breaking up of the unholy alliance of corporations and consumers.

The consumers form the vast majority of citizens.  We need to change our submissive psychology to dissolve corporations to end the violence of big business, the military and domestic violence.  We work together for this end.

Violence in the Military

Whether in uniform or out of uniform, whether overseas or domestic, whether ordered by the state or judiciary, the wilful destruction of life is an act of violence. There is something terrible in the decision in the mind to take away a person’s life.

In the political name of Fascism, Communism, Capitalism and ethnic/religious conflicts, the death toll amounts to millions upon millions just in the past 100 years. This is the terrible consequences of an unexamined inner life through identification with one nation or group at the expense of another.

As the last remaining superpower, the USA finds itself as the most disliked country on Earth.  It is hardly surprising when the US government has ordered the nuclear bombing of two Japanese cities, ordered the military invasion of more than 50 countries since 1946, killed one to three million in Vietnam and killed or wounded more than a million men, women and children in Arab nations since 9/11.

There must be many, many US citizens who feel deeply ashamed of the suffering and killings that successive US governments have inflicted on people worldwide.

It will take tremendous commitment and courage for US citizens and other nations to disarm their government of

• weapons of mass destruction,
• armaments factories
• violent policies.
• power of judiciary to execute citizens.
• a life in prison without redemption and without hope for parole

There is no real difference between the violence upon others overseas and the violence within a country, itself.  More than 11,000 people were deliberately shot and killed in the USA in 2012. In Japan, 11 people (yes, 11) were shot dead in the same year.

The establishing of non-violent armies form the new warriors to end greed, violence and delusion within ourselves and within institutions at home and abroad.

We need to find constructive ways to resolve conflict through wise action and negotiation.  This means words not weapons, fearless acts not fear provoking. This means a non-violent way of Life

A psychological revolution requires a dramatic shift in values from violence to non-violence. It means citizens pursue the destruction of weapons in factories, gun shops, the streets and in homes. Only then will the USA start to be at peace with itself and at peace with the world. The same principle applies to other violent nations as well. It requires daily lessons in schools in non-violence, an ending of the gratuitous violence on our screens, massive reduction in alcohol consumption and a life of cooperation.

Every city, town and village needs to launch meetings to move from violence to a peaceful way of life. Citizens  have the task to look into causes and conditions that produce violence and change them. We co-operate to change together our attitudes, views to move towards a fresh vision.

We engage together in practices to support inner peace such as

• mindfulness
• meditation,
• prayers,
• non-violent communication,
• exercises
• communication
• facilitation

We reflect on and apply the power of friendship, loving kindness and reconciliation. We employ, the variety of counselling professions,  the skills of men and women of faith and teachers of mind/body and spirit. We use creativity, the arts, culture, internationalists and diplomats to develop a peaceful world inwardly and outwardly.

We learn to be kind to ourselves and to each other.  We can develop the politics and discourse of wise engagement to end the violence we bring upon ourselves, others and the Earth.

This is the revolution to transform the global mind. A land of the free is a land of the non-violent.

May all beings in peace

May all beings live in harmony

May all beings live in peace and harmony. 

Part Two of Three.

Filmed in Sarnath, India

To be available on YouTube in March 2014.