beansprouts and brain droppings

The bush beans have begun to sprout up in earnest now, tonight I start corn, and hopefully harvest the cabbage to start the kimchi. I bought a shopping cart full of canning supplies the other night, and my wife, who is often my mainstream "reality checker" and voice of moderation, didn't even blink. This weekend we are going strawberry picking with some friends, and then...canning party. Over at PTF there is a news roundup that is rather gloomy to say the least, but it actually had the opposite effect on me (maybe its just my contrarian nature). I realized something. Everyone has a tipping point. I have a bit more of a hair trigger than most when it comes to concerns about the future, but barring instances of sociopathy, eventually when things get bad enough, even stubborn people change.

What about situations where your fate is tied to others who may be sympathetic but not as shall we say ready to make a 180 degree change. A casual observer might remark that my wife and I are polar opposites. Not true at all, we share the same values and goals, we simply prioritize differently. Having that outside perspective to hold a mirror to my own is an incredible asset. I would wager that our relationship might be analogous to society at large. In the end I believe to my core that there is more common ground out there than the media and powermad politicos will allow us to see.
In the end all we need is the right motivation. Maybe I'm being overly sensitive to this but I have rarely seen in my brief 30 years the kind of inspiring motivation that I think is so desperately needed. GreenBean hits home, and after talking to my wife who has spent several years now teaching children with special needs, or in impoverished areas was expounding on the difficulty of reaching children and families who do not have their basic needs met. Her talk about Maslow's heirarchy got me thinking. For the longest time the green movement has been using the same tactics essentially as those who would endorse an "everything's fine" approach to the status quo. Appeals to deficiency primarily at the basest levels. Food, safety, health, protection, employment, and yes even status. When we offer alternatives to the current system they appear merely as competing opinions. Its the reason so many people have taken one of two approaches to politics, cynicism: they're all evil so why bother to worry about anyone but myself, and compartmentalization: my political beliefs have no effect on any other aspect of my life. What the "green movement" needs to do is to make the old appeals obsolete. Sustainable living can bring food security, employment, nutrition, and ultimately safety, but those are perhaps the least rare to obtain. Most conventional philosophy can self rationalize themselves into the belief that their method of living can provide those things. Sustainable societies can bring something to the table that the others can't. Sustainable society can transform humanity from a thought pattern of competition and conquest, to one of cooperation and creativity. Sustainable societies empower, conventional societies exploit. Everything is connected whether we see them or not, if we continue to use the same appeals we will be doomed to the same cycles of failure.

Appeals to the lowest levels, while essential to start the ball rolling so to speak cannot keep it going. To be truly effective, the method and the message must be sustainable. Any conversation which starts at the lowest level of needs must end at the highest, and then we will truly display the advantage to our alternative.