How To Change A Society

A preamble

3 min read

You cannot fight a society designed for inequality.
But you can create a new one that makes it obsolete.

One by the people, for the people,
respecting our nature and rights to land, food, water
and view of the sky.

Where no one is above the law.
And everyone leads by example.

Recognise that this society’s power is also its weakness. 

A divided people united by a common delusion.

Start with what you can control.
Lose the labels that separate you from the other.
Be it religion, class, gender, nationality or political opinion.

See people's realities without the label of judgement
and expand your perspective of reality to include theirs.
This makes you wiser, stronger.

Recognise the grief behind one’s anger. 

For pain needs to be acknowledged before it can go away.

Know that whoever you give power to judge you,
you give power to control your life.
So neither judge nor compare, everyone has their cross to bear.

Be neither anti or pro, the good guy or the bad guy.
Discuss the pros and the cons but do not make it your identity.
It is a trap to a divisive war of semantics.
A rigged war of gladiators where only the emperor wins.

If in doubt, get inspiration from nature.
It does not judge what is wrong or right.
Like a lotus with roots in the mud while facing the sun.
It gives and receives without ambition nor profit.

Give light to your delusion and recognise the real from the imagined.
The currency that powers an empire is a piece of paper
whose only value is in your mind.

Disable the old empire by seeing this for what it is,
a number on a screen, a bunch of 1s and 0s in the cloud.
No more real than monopoly money.

Deal only with what is real. 

Value the people and the fruits of the land and sea.

Shift from profiting to sharing.
And when you receive, give thanks and pay it forward.
Nature is a cycle of gratitude, there is no need for greed.

Realize that we do not own the land. The land owns us.
Commit only to land that you can personally take care of
and enrich it for your children and your children’s children.

Give them space outside to play.
Plant a tree that will give them shade.

Free the rest to those who can take care of it better. 

For their own family, home, garden or vegetation.

Be your neighbor's keeper.
They have as much right to the bounties of the earth as you do.
Defend their rights if need be for your children.
For if they fall, you fall.

Leave the forests be. Let water run its natural course.
Let nature repair itself. Stop struggling.
Relax.

Divide the fruits of the land amongst its townspeople.
Share any excess with the neighboring towns.

Work not for money but in freeing the land,
making it breathe so it can bear fruit again.
So it can feed the community again.

Free and clean the rivers so it can be drinkable again.

Rise with the sun and rest when it sets.
When it rains, stay home while the clouds water the earth. 

Learn to work with the power of nature again.

Be part of a community that raises every child. 

Take roles in feeding, educating, and building her shelter. 

Give the child your time, learning through play.

Have a community pool of clothes, gadgets, furniture
that you hand down once you have outgrown them.

Practice your art and share it freely
so it can remind people how simple it is to find joy in this life.

Embrace simplicity. 

Be reconnected with the earth. 

Spend time with whom you love.
Lead by example. Do what you love.

Give thanks to the earth under your feet,
the wind in your hair,
the warmth of the sun.

Live light. Travel slow.
Laugh. Sing. Dance.

Breathe in courage, breathe out gratitude,
For as long as you are breathing.

And leave those who are not ready to embrace the new “normal” alone, 

give them time to awaken, to battle with their imagined demons.
The man who throws stones at every dog that barks will not reach his destination.

And when they are ready, welcome them to the new world that you created with grace.

The new world is not up to old institutions. The new world is up to you.
You hold the power. And it's easier than you think.
It is in your instinct. Heed it.

Fear and faith, in the same breath.