Ecopsychology

I am profoundly affected by the environment. Environmental degradation makes me sad. Environmental degradation makes me sick.

I am signed up on an eco-psychology listserve, so I receive articles forwarded from similarly minded and interested people all around the world. That's how I was alerted to the following article in the NYT Magazine. I haven't read the whole article, but it's nice to see the field of eco-psychology in the somewhat mainstream press (not that the NYT Mag is exactly mainstream.) Well you get the idea.

Here's a link: Is there an ecological unconscious?

Gifts of Being Human

Caring and Consciousness - Two Gifts of Being Human

Earth Shaking Transformation

I was alerted to this great quote by Rob Brezsny's excellent weekly newsletter. freewillastrology.com

"At this point in history, the most radical, pervasive, and earth-shaking transformation would occur simply if everybody truly evolved to a mature, rational, and responsible ego, capable of freely participating in the open exchange of mutual self-esteem. Then, there would be a real New Age." -Ken Wilber

I love the idea of all of humanity learning to live alongside each other, the idea of all human beings learning to live alongside each other in peace and harmony. Instead of engaging in destructive competition over resources and in order to "get ahead" of each other—instead of striving for dominance, and instead of putting each other down—we can work to lift each other up, we can work with each other to rise up with each other for the benefit of all.

Now we have a world that is largely dominated by the singular push for economic self-interest - the financial bottomline. But another way is possible. Imagine it. Imagine all of humanity working in unison for a common and meaningful purpose—an uplifting purpose (e.g. to put an end to hurtful and degrading socio-political-economic systems.) We can strive for truth, for peace, for justice, for nonviolence, for equality, equitableness, equity, for sustainability, and for an end to oppression, and an end to destructive economic systems. Yes we can. We can make it happen.

The harm that is being done to ourselves, to each other, and to this beautiful planet Earth that we call home—is unnecessary. It is unnecessary to do harm. We, as human beings, have the potential to live in ways that actually make the Earth a better place to live. Right now, our socio-political-economic systems do a lot of harm. But it doesn't need to be this way. Another world is possible. Another way is possible: a way of peace, truth, justice, compassion, kindness, cooperation, and harmony between humanity and itself, and between humanity and the rest of the world.

view larger: Earth-Shaking Transformation | Open Exchange of Mutual Self-Esteem

Ethical Investing

I am reading a book right now that has me turned on to the topic of ethical investing, also known as socially responsible investing. The book is titled, The Richest Man in Babylon, and it talks about strategies and techniques for earning money and gaining financial wealth. It's a very interesting read, and it is challenging some of my thoughts about economic domination and exploitation, in a good way. It is clarifying in many ways. I suppose I have probably written about this before. But I am of the belief that financial wealth, even affluence, is probably not necessarily bad in and of itself. The problem comes, when, to garner the wealth and riches, there is some engagement in harmful activities and behaviors.

Of course, we could spend a year talking about what constitutes harmful behavior. And we should. But that's outside of the scope of this weblog entry. For now, let us ponder what it means to be harmful, any experiences in which we feel that we have been harmed - and also any experiences in which we feel it is likely that we may have harmed, or contributed to the harm, of another (whether it be physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual in nature.)

Ethical Investing, the Precautionary Principle, the notion of leaving the planet in better shape for future generations, "Eco-Psychology" (including a study of the psychological impact of ecological degradation), these are some of the hot topics on my mind recently.

Back to Ethical Investment: it seems to me, based on my sense of moral - my ethical values - that investing in weapons, especially weapons of war, is not socially responsible. In fact, I am of the opinion that it is wrong to make money off of the weapons of war. Well, there's a lot more to write about and discuss about this, but I am in a hurry, so I gotta go. Take Care!

Bush Psychology of Failure - Avoidance

Briggs and Briggs have a new estimation of the psychological underpinnings of our President, George Bush. In their most recent published analysis, the father and son duo ponder various symptoms and figure upon the extent of potential diagnoses. According to the prominent psychologists Briggs and Briggs, Bush has done great harm and is likely to do more - unless he is confronted directly by Congress, a Congress in need of a newfound will to assert its oversight authority. Here's a sample:

... the effect of Bush's psychodynamics on the presidency have created a situation where his personality is as genuinely dangerous to the nation as if he were delusional.

Psychologically, Bush's one non-negotiable position is that he must never have to face his failures because once he found Jesus as his personal savior, he put all his failures (and failings) behind him. But now, after seven years as president, his failure is everywhere. Unlike presidents Jimmy Carter, Lyndon Johnson and even Richard Nixon, Bush seems incapable of coping with his defeats by taking some redeeming direction. In the next year, we believe his behavior will continue to be guided by his need for massive avoidance of his feelings of inadequacy, particularly with regard to Iraq. Success in other areas means little to him and he gives them scant concern for his "legacy." He has identified himself as "a war president." The war is linked to his vague sense of divine mission, his internal aggression, his never-ending competition with his father.
...

read more

Competition and Dominance

I am playing in an Ultimate league. We are known as team Säcré Blüë. We are 0 - 3. We got routed tonight. 5 of our teammates didn't show up. But I tried to keep my head up. I don't like to let losing get me down. I am sensitive to others' emotions, and when people get down, it affects me. I worry that I am letting down the team. Which makes me feel sad and insecure. But I am a big boy, and to be honest, I really like the people on my team and I can say that the criticism that I have received has been constructive. I don't know if I have received enough though. Part of it is that I am not in top-notch shape for playing Ultimate. I haven't been jogging as much recently. I went for a run on Sunday, the first real run I took in about a month, and I am still sore today.

So. Here we are. I was hesitant about signing up for the league because it was marketed as a "competitive" league for "moderate" to "advanced" players. I am definitely not an advanced player - and I probably won't ever be. I might be a moderate player, if I was playing in a novice league. But I was encouraged to sign up for the league anyway, partly I think because of concerns that there would not be enough people to field 4 teams. Which is not to say that I wasn't encouraged for my positive attitude or my sense of humor, for example, among the long list of my good qualities that there are to choose from.

But I was uncomfortable about the competitiveness even before league started. I am a person who does not like domination. For one, I don't like to feel like I am being dominated. I play Ultimate because it's fun and it's a good work out, and I enjoy some of the social aspects. I don't like to be dominated and I don't like to dominate. I don't have a win at all costs attitude, and I tend to be conservative in terms of my physical investment. Pulled and strained muscles have taught me that it's not always worth going all out. And I have a somewhat sensitive muscular-skeletal composition.

Anyway, I have been grappling with a personal question recently, about Ultimate and about life. Is it possible to compete without dominating? My mom is sort of a sports/life philosopher from her days on the tennis courts, maybe she has a point of view. But I talked with a few of my fellow teammates and my fellow opponents as well, Ultimateers all of us. The preliminary conclusion that was somewhat mutually arrived at was that it is possible to compete without having a domineering attitude or exhibiting the behaviors associated with domination. It is possible to compete and to have fun - and to win - without a "win at all costs" attitude.

Speaking personally, domination takes the fun out of it for me. I would prefer to have fun even if (and when) losing. I don't think that makes me a loser. If anything this is one of my more realistic, pragmatic views. I'm going to be 30 next year. Maybe I am becoming more conservative! hahaha! I think finding workable alternatives to dominating behaviors is an important part of making the transition to a "life serving society." It can happen. I just know it.

Maybe this inner conflict is related to my belief that the ends do not justify the means...

Bleak News from Iraq

I can't imagine the psychological trauma that those who are living this conflict on the ground, living in Iraq, are experiencing. The US is unjustified in its military occupation of Iraq. And the occupation is breeding terrorism. The "surge" - or escalation of military hostilities - is only serving to increase the death toll and casualties for ordinary Iraqis.

The US owes Iraq reparations. But I don't think the current military (or the current government) is capable of delivering on that debt. It's a nasty crux. But there is hope. By holding prominent Bush Administration accountable for this wrongful military action, the US can send a clear message that it is serious about seeking justice - that it is serious about making amends for the wrongs of the invasion and occupation.

Truth-Tellers
by William S. Lind
link
As good news continues to flow from the "surge" – some of it true, some of it false and all of it spun – it is easy to forget the bottom line. The bottom line is whether or not we are beginning to see the re-emergence of a state in Iraq. Three recent news stories throw some light on that question, and it is not a favorable light.

The first, by Steven Hurst of the AP, ran in the August 26 Cleveland Plain Dealer under the title, "Sectarian violence in Iraq nearly double '06 level." Relying on the AP's own figures, the story reported that:

* Iraq is suffering about double the number of war-related deaths throughout the country compared with last year – an average daily toll of 33 in 2006 and 62 so far this year.

* Nearly 1,000 more people have been killed in violence across Iraq in the first eight months of this year than in all of 2006…

* Baghdad has gone from representing 76 percent of all civilian and police war-related deaths in Iraq in January to 52 percent in July, bringing it back to the same spot it was roughly a year ago.

Marketing a War: the Use of Fear

The Bush Administration has deliberately worked to install fear in the minds of Americans so as to create an environment where their crooked war - their attack on Iraq - was (and is) passable:

go to original

Marketing an Invasion
How to Sell a War

By JEFFREY ST. CLAIR

This essay is excerpted from Cockburn and St. Clair's new book on the death of the mainstream media: End Times.

The war on Iraq won't be remembered for how it was waged so much as for how it was sold. It was a propaganda war, a war of perception management, where loaded phrases, such as "weapons of mass destruction" and "rogue state" were hurled like precision weapons at the target audience: us.

To understand the Iraq war you don't need to consult generals, but the spin doctors and PR flacks who stage-managed the countdown to war from the murky corridors of Washington where politics, corporate spin and psy-ops spooks cohabit.

Consider the picaresque journey of Tony Blair's plagiarized dossier on Iraq, from a grad student's website to a cut-and-paste job in the prime minister's bombastic speech to the House of Commons. Blair, stubborn and verbose, paid a price for his grandiose puffery. Bush, who looted whole passages from Blair's speech for his own clumsy presentations, has skated freely through the tempest. Why?

Unlike Blair, the Bush team never wanted to present a legal case for war. They had no interest in making any of their allegations about Iraq hold up to a standard of proof. The real effort was aimed at amping up the mood for war by using the psychology of fear.
...
Old-fashioned diplomacy involves direct communication between representatives of nations, a conversational give and take, often fraught with deception (see April Glaspie), but an exchange nonetheless. Public diplomacy, as defined by Beers, is something else entirely. It's a one-way street, a unilateral broadcast of American propaganda directly to the public, domestic and international, a kind of informational carpet-bombing.

The themes of her campaigns were as simplistic and flimsy as a Bush press conference. The American incursions into Afghanistan and Iraq were all about bringing the balm of "freedom" to oppressed peoples. Hence, the title of the U.S. war: Operation Iraqi Freedom, where cruise missiles were depicted as instruments of liberation. Bush himself distilled the Beers equation to its bizarre essence: "This war is about peace."
...

Comfortability in Protest

Seattle Pigeon

The following is an excerpt of a rough draft of an article that I am working on about creative nonviolence and hostile protest behavior:

Belligerent sloganeering and hostile speech make me feel uncomfortable. If the goal is a mass movement – a peoples’ movement – a grass roots movement, then there will need to be masses of people. But it will be hard to amass the necessary number of individuals if people feel uncomfortable in the protest environment. Instead of shouting abrasive slogans it would be more effective to demonstrate an attitude of understanding. We have the ability to create a more comfortable environment for protest. We can create a welcoming atmosphere. How can we be most effective? By having a critical mass of people in the streets. By having people who are committed and willing to participate in life-serving acts of creative nonviolence. How can we find this critical mass? We can promote the formation of a critical mass by developing a comfortable, welcoming, and fun environment. Creating a comfortable and respectful protest environment truly embraces a diversity of tactics. More people will be likely to bring their children, for example, or participate in actions of sacrifice or nonviolent physical obstruction, like roadblocks, if there is a peaceful environment. Shouting profanities, vulgarities and slurs works counter to the creation of a peaceful environment.

E. O. Wilson - Celebration of Life

"We need to settle down before we wreck the planet."
- E. O. Wilson