Julian Rose, Contributor
Waking Times

When you take a closer look at it, you see that the choices we make each day of our lives add up to the grand price that nature must pay in her role as the sustainer of life on this planet.

What do I mean by that?

Well, it’s simple enough: if we choose to live a life of inverted personal self interest and unawareness; of disregard for nature and of disinterest in the affect our actions have on the greater socio-economic environment around us, then we are playing our part in the trashing of this planet, its animals, insects, fish, rivers, seas, soils, atmosphere and peoples. But that’s not all, we are also playing a part in trashing our own nature – that potentiality to grow – which is our absolute birth right and common imperative.

So, if we decide that we don’t want to grow, we are destined to contribute to the deficit of the resource base of the planet. By not consciously acting to support life we become complicit in acting against it. There can be no other conclusion. No half-way house.

So, once having committed to give support to that which enhances life on earth, it soon becomes clear that a great swathe of our society’s daily preoccupations are working in opposition to this commitment. Going against the laws of nature. Going against that which holds the promise of a future for us all.

Can life go on this way indefinitely?

No, it can’t. We already have evidence that if the Southern hemisphere of the planet chose to achieve the same ‘standard of living‘ as most of the Northern hemisphere, we would need five more Planet Earth’s to sustain ourselves. We don’t have five more Planet Earth’s – and even if we did – carrying on in the same way as now simply means we would ultimately trash all of them!

We are living beyond our means. We are sucking at the bosom of an under-nourished resource  and appear incapable of weening ourselves off it’s precious milk. That’s a pretty shocking weakness. When a calf grows up, the mother kicks the impudent youngster for still attempting to grab her teats – and that’s what mother nature ultimately does to us if we refuse to grow-up and wake-up.

How can we wake-up when all around us others are sleeping on the job?

Answer: set the alarm – and when it rings get out of bed. Don’t be side-lined by others who sleep-on. Focus on what really matters and take that road to work. Avoid the mega-highway – it leads over a cliff and to the extinction of the human race.

You see, we need to be genuinely conscious of the results of our actions. There’s a ton of information out there now, telling just how to lighten our ecological footprint on this beleaguered planet. How to tread softly in the moccasin; to counteract the stamp of the jack-boot.

However, the deficit side has some pretty powerful drugs to keep us asleep..to stop you hearing the alarm. In fact it has a masterful way of keeping us in a state of funk because it controls the education system of the Western World and most of the rest as well. It uses cunning and guile to make us believe that education is about conforming to a plan that will drop us off the end of the production line as a ‘ready slave’ for something called ‘the job market’. And it’s this ‘job market’ that is almost entirely dependent for its existence on trashing the world’s resources.

So you see, you land-up in a rapidly stagnating cul-de-sac. Nowhere to go except around and around in ever diminishing circles. Education is not education – it is indoctrination. Welcome to the brave new world of centralised control and Orwellian dystopia. Real education starts when you get off the tread-mill and cut loose.

How can I get ‘a real education’?

I’ll tell you: by deciding to decide what’s best for you – and aligning that decision with what’s best for planet Earth.

‘Education’ comes from the Latin word ‘e-ducare’ meaning ‘to lead out from’. Yes exactly! To lead-out-from, not to ‘push into’. Once that inner potential is sparked one’s real education begins – and all that which is good in us, neigh Great, can eventually be led out and find it’s place in that which turns the fortunes of this planet around.

Now, finding one’s niche and finding one’s self are pretty much synonymous. So, the question jumps up: how can I avoid contributing to the deficit side while heading out on this new journey?

This is a crucial question, for it is all too easy to land-up in a no-man’s-land. Two steps forward, two steps back. So I propose courage as the first essential ingredient. Then I propose acquiring a skill that will help you to be more independent, more capable of taking control of your own destiny – both now – and when the lights go out. That means some real hands-on work experience. A grounding in the practical. That which puts the academic and mind laden school and university curriculum in proper perspective. Something that challenges another part of your body. That arouses another part of your being. That which puts you in touch with the reality of life for billions of self-sufficient and semi self-sufficient communities all over this world; as well as with an increasing number of innovative young people looking to broaden their horizons, grow their own foods, build their homes, develop skills of the land. The wind is blowing this way now. Listen to it and move with it.

It’s not about ‘making money’, but making a fresh start. A fresh start in a way of life that does not trash the planet, but rather contributes to its emancipation and amelioration. A way of life which can open one’s soul to the pull of nature, one’s hands to contact with the soil and the tools of the artisan. For if we are to be against ecocide, we need also to be for life. That demands action.

About the Author

Julian Rose is a farmer, writer, international activist and social entrepreneur. He is author of “Changing Course for Life – Local Solutions to Global Problems”. He is also the author of “In Defence of Life – a Radical Reworking of Green Wisdom” to be published later this summer: www.changingcourseforlife.info

*You can learn the skills needed to be your own master and gain a foothold in a better life than the sterile 21^st century rat-race which so relentlessly eats into the vital life force. Just come join us here in Poland at Eco Centre ICPPC and we will help to initiate you into a pleasurable love affair with nature, green energy, the art of growing and preserving ecological foods, saving seeds and establishing a fresh vision of a better world to come.

See www.eko-cel.pl  concerning contact and for short courses and visits at ICPPC Eco Centre, Krakow, Malopolska, Poland. Courses are adaptable and adjustable depending on demand.

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