The Current World System
A world governed by the worship of money
Pope Francis: “The worship of the ancient golden calf has returned in a new and ruthless guise in the idolatry of money and the dictatorship of an impersonal economy lacking a truly human purpose. The worldwide crisis affecting finance and the economy lays bare their imbalances and, above all, their lack of real concern for human beings; man is reduced to one of his needs alone: consumption....[S]ome people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world. This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naive trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacralized workings of the prevailing economic system.”
A world in which the poor and powerless are excluded
Pope Francis: It needs to be said that, generally speaking, there is little in the way of clear awareness of problems which especially affect the excluded. Yet they are the majority of the planet’s population, billions of people. These days, they are mentioned in international political and economic discussions, but one often has the impression that their problems are brought up as an afterthought, a question which gets added almost out of duty or in a tangential way, if not treated merely as collateral damage. Indeed, when all is said and done, they frequently remain at the bottom of the pile. This is due partly to the fact that many professionals, opinion makers, communications media and centres of power, being located in affluent urban areas, are far removed from the poor, with little direct contact with their problems. They live and reason from the comfortable position of a high level of development and a quality of life well beyond the reach of the majority of the world’s population. This lack of physical contact and encounter, encouraged at times by the disintegration of our cities, can lead to a numbing of conscience and to tendentious analyses which neglect parts of reality. At times this attitude exists side by side with a “green” rhetoric. Today, however, we have to realize that a true ecological approach always becomes a social approach; it must integrate questions of justice in debates on the environment, so as to hear both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor.
A world in which the Earth is being destroyed
John Cobb: We must be honest. We live in a terrible time. We know that our actions are destroying the ability of the Earth to support us, but we seem incapable of changing direction. We plunge blindly ahead, either ignoring the reality of what is happening or hoping that some technological miracle will save us. It will not. The modern world has overshot the limits of what the Earth can bear, and our civilization will collapse. The crucial questions now are (1) how much will be left, and (2) can we build something more sustainable in the ruins?
-- John Cobb, Ten Ideas for Saving the Planet
Resistance as strategic, unarmed revolt against the current world system
Resistance is the practice of unarmed revolt:
"Its adherents have taken a most impractical idea— one previously associated merely with lofty ideals of peace and compassion— and they have demonstrated how it can have the most profound of practical impacts. Along the way, a variety of key lessons have emerged. Momentum-driven organizing uses the tools of civil resistance to consciously spark, amplify, and harness mass protest. It highlights the importance of hybrid organizations, such as Otpor and SCLC, which can build decentralized networks to sustain protest mobilizations through multiple waves of activity. It goes beyond transactional goals by also advancing a transformational agenda, and it wins by swaying public opinion and pulling the pillars of support. It is attentive to the symbolic properties of campaigns, showing how these can sometimes be just as important as instrumental demands, if not more so. It uses disruption, sacrifice, and escalation to build tension and bring overlooked issues into the public spotlight. It aspires, at its peak, to create moments of the whirlwind, when outbreaks of decentralized action extend far outside the institutional limits of any one organization. It is willing to polarize public opinion and risk controversy with bold protests, but it maintains nonviolent discipline to ensure that it does not undermine broad-based support for its cause. And it is conscious of the need to work with other organizing traditions in order
The Importance and Power of Symbolism
Resistance..."is attentive to the symbolic properties of campaigns, showing how these can sometimes be just as important as instrumental demands, if not more so. It uses disruption, sacrifice, and escalation to build tension and bring overlooked issues into the public spotlight. It aspires, at its peak, to create moments of the whirlwind, when outbreaks of decentralized action extend far outside the institutional limits of any one organization.."
Engler, Mark; Engler, Paul. This Is an Uprising: How Nonviolent Revolt Is Shaping the Twenty-First Century (p. 154). Nation Books. Kindle Edition.
Empathy: the act of imagining yourself inside the skin of another person, seeing the world from that person's point of view, and willing the well-being of that person, quite apart from whether or not you "like" them.
Resistance: Strategic unarmed revolt against the world system. Engaging in strategic actions of sacrifice, protest, and disruption, with the aim of shaping public debate and forcing political change for the sake of people, animals, and the earth.
Open and Relational: Process philosophy and theology. A way of approaching the world infused with a sense that everything is interconnected, that all living beings have value worthy of respect and care; that once basic needs are met the aim in life is to grow in wisdom and compassion; not material wealth; and that our calling in life is to help build communities that are creative, compassionate, participatory, multi-faith, multi-cultural, humane to animals, and ecologically wise - with no one left behind. Also entails the view the whole of the universe enfolded in a great compassion, otherwise named God, who beckons each and all toward the fullness of life and shares in the joys and sufferings of all. See What do Process Thinkers Believe?
Fat Souls: A metaphor for individuals and groups who seek to live with wide hearts and open minds, who refuse to hate anybody, and who are simultaneously committed to ongoing resistance to a world system governed by money, in which the poor and powerless are excluded and the Earth is being destroyed. See The Fat Soul Manifesto.
Fat Soul Nation: A nation in which people live with respect and care for the community of life and one another. Martin Luther King called it Beloved Community. Pope Francis calls it Integral Ecology.
Resistance: Strategic unarmed revolt against the world system. Engaging in strategic actions of sacrifice, protest, and disruption, with the aim of shaping public debate and forcing political change for the sake of people, animals, and the earth.
Open and Relational: Process philosophy and theology. A way of approaching the world infused with a sense that everything is interconnected, that all living beings have value worthy of respect and care; that once basic needs are met the aim in life is to grow in wisdom and compassion; not material wealth; and that our calling in life is to help build communities that are creative, compassionate, participatory, multi-faith, multi-cultural, humane to animals, and ecologically wise - with no one left behind. Also entails the view the whole of the universe enfolded in a great compassion, otherwise named God, who beckons each and all toward the fullness of life and shares in the joys and sufferings of all. See What do Process Thinkers Believe?
Fat Souls: A metaphor for individuals and groups who seek to live with wide hearts and open minds, who refuse to hate anybody, and who are simultaneously committed to ongoing resistance to a world system governed by money, in which the poor and powerless are excluded and the Earth is being destroyed. See The Fat Soul Manifesto.
Fat Soul Nation: A nation in which people live with respect and care for the community of life and one another. Martin Luther King called it Beloved Community. Pope Francis calls it Integral Ecology.