by Rachel Lyra Hospodar
Our particular mode of capitalist government is in its death throes. Its former acolytes carry out increasingly bold acts of thievery and corruption. Greed, ego, fear, selfishness, and division are encouraged and inflamed by homogenized mass media. Privilege trumps justice. Our oceans are warming and the next decades will bring disasters of increasing intensity, with untold impact.
This is a time of great opportunity.
We know that evolution occurs not in a smooth arc but in fits and starts, lurching forward as opportunities emerge. Conditions change and space clears when organisms fail to adapt. Variations are always emerging and when something is successful it is able to grow rapidly to fill the void. This organic model of growth applies to individual organisms and physical ecologies as well as to cultures and systems.
Human culture is an interconnected network of organisms and ideas. We are, inherently, pack animals, and while we may dominate and control each other as a second nature, our first nature is to seek out and mimic our fellows, to seek approval and belonging in a group. This is what has made it possible for so many to fall influence to persuasive forces sowing hate, division, dischord, and misinformation. This is what enables, for better or worse, small groups of committed individuals to change the world.
Our specific hope is for people to come awake, to participate in a global movement in reaction to greed and power and towards networked resiliency. Our goal is to facilitate actions and new systems towards a shift in humanity’s survival strategy from competition towards cooperation.
We seek connection, movement, liberation, equality, justice, autonomy, and responsibility. We abjure property, oppression, anger, violence, greed, and vengeance. We recognize that we must first always look to ourselves to create and embody the change we seek. We acknowledge that self reflection must accompany goals beyond the self, and seek to navigate a middle path between speaking and listening. Our intention is that our fierce joy and solemn determination will serve as an inspiration to those around us.
