Dandelions growing in the cracks of the sidewalk...or the downfall of the empire.

"In order to change an existing paradigm you do not struggle to try and change the problematic model. You create a new model and make the old one obsolete. That, in essence, is the higher service to which we are all being called."  Buckminster Fuller


For years now I've thought about the problems with our society as it is, and how to make it better for all of Life, especially humans.  My twenties I spent as an activist, resisting the systems that were problematic.  I spent my college years fighting my college administration to recognize our Lesbian organization as a legitimate group that could meet and receive funds from the school's Inter Organizational Counsel (IOC) instead of being relegated to the counseling center as a support group.  I'm happy to report we won that battle, though we had to face threats by the administration of not being able to meet, and ignorance by students who wore bathing suits in the showers so lesbians wouldn't see them naked.  After three years of dealing with a homophobic (yet mostly closet lesbian) administration, I was burnt out and shaken to my core about changing any bureaucratic systems.


I continued to try, as a Lesbian Avenger, we brought our issues to the public eye through visibility actions, such as kiss-ins, a giant dyke puppet at the Promise Keeper's rally, a  Laugh-in at the Religious Right's conference in DC where Bush Sr. was speaking, graffiti on a bill board to read "Queer without fear" vs the original pantyhose ad "Sheer without fear" and a poster campaign calling politicians in Maryland who voted against the Anti-Discrimination bill, bigots with a picture of the politician on the poster.  That last one taught me even more about how fighting the system works, not only did the politicians call in the ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms) because our theme  "Be the bomb you throw" felt like a threat to them (really?) but the organization that was doing the lobbying work for Gay and Lesbian rights attacked us for being too radical.  This was something like year six that the same bill hadn't gotten out of committee, at what point do you take action?  I will never forget the call from a friend who was a lobbyist at the time telling me that the ATF was looking into our posters, because they thought we were terrorists and how we had been thrown under the bus by Maryland Equality Now.  At the time I found it all fascinating, but also saw how ugly people could be when working with the system of politics.  My friend called me because she was afraid for me, she was much closer to the establishment than I was, and understood better that there were things to fear in attacking the status quo.


Years went by, my spiritual life became more important than my political life.  I decided that I wanted to create community.  My activism in the Lesbian community had me producing fun social events for lesbians as well as actions, and I noticed I craved more intense connection with the people around me.  I chose to move to an Intentional community in rural Baltimore county.  I became fascinated by the communities movement in the US especially and started visiting Intentional Communities when ever I was able.  A year later I moved to Twin Oaks, a commune in central VA which is kind of the Mother of secular ICs to my mind.  


I lived there for about two years, when everything in my life shifted in some dramatic ways. I fell in love for the first time, which paired with some healing work I had been doing and my Mother dying, left me free to explore new realms in consciousness through following my intuition.  I gave away almost everything I owned and left Twin Oaks on a spiritual journey that lasted years.  I now think my journey was misguided and ungrounded in profound ways, while being the most magical and mystical experience in my life thus far.  I found God, and had visions, miracles happened.  I also left many thinking perhaps I had lost my mind.  


That experience was like what others experience on hallucinogenic drugs, and the visions I had remain as inspiring influences in my life.  This is when I started to see the possibility of the fall of the empire through a quiet revolution that happened through small groups of people creating lives together that put less or no influence on money, but lived a real goods economy, sharing resources and eventually living a gift economy where everyone produced what felt good for them to make for the world, freely giving it and receiving what they need in return.  I believe this is the future of humans on the planet, living peacefully within a gift economy of real goods that are made by human hands with sustainable energy.  


By focusing on real goods, and our true needs to survive and thrive, we can topple this empire that is hurting everyone and everything on the planet.  I'm torn about resisting the system or trying to change it, I wonder if my friend Pax who fights Nuclear reactors being built (or reopening), or Jas who fights for a carbon Tax, or dear Sam who is trying to stop war in the Middle East through journalism are actually creating positive change in the world, or fighting inner demons.  The results look good, it gladdens my heart when I see what they are doing, and I think about the idea on a personal level "What you resists, persists" and how it may apply on a political or global level.  They all three inspire me in many ways, and so I'm torn between what I've seen for myself personally by fighting or trying to change a system that is to my mind fundementally


The way to bring down the Empire looks like people pulling their resources out of the money system, using their skills and talents to build small scale communties that deal in real goods, like food we grow, clothes, art and homes we make by human hands.  Right now there is talk of the 1%, if we pulled our labor and resources out of the money economy, the 1% would no longer have the power, it would be back in the hands of the people, doing the work.  I think the interim would look like buying up land and putting it in non profit land trusts with very specific eco regulations.  It looks like people learning to live together and share resources peacefully, like at communities like Twin Oaks.  It looks like people believing we are powerful enough to create a new reality, and stop trying to put time/energy/attention on a system that does not work for anyone, even the 1%.  And this is where our real power lies, in understanding that no one is truly the enemy and what we can create can include everyone, once they see how the Empire doesn't serve anyone.


Like dandelions growing in the cracks of the sidewalk, we can push up through the chaos and create true beauty.