Janet McNeill

<written May 29/08, i.e., over 2 years ago…>

My boyfriend & I watched a really terrible movie the other night. Of course, we’d had high hopes when it began – & when we heard someone comment in the show’s intro that it was one of the best 10 movies ever, figured we were in for a really rare treat.

It started off badly (dialogue & plot that were impossible to decipher), then it grew worse (gratuitous violence like you wouldn’t believe), & yet there we sat, & sat, & sat … ultimately watching the whole darn pitiful thing.

We both gave serious thought to turning the TV off, yet just as clearly, did not do so. We sat & watched that whole darn miserable two-&-a-half-hour turkey.

Now, I am not a TV-watcher, & compared to most folks I know, watch very few movies (reading is my chief addiction). I have heard that watching television puts our brain waves into a zombie-like mode. I guess you could say quite accurately that we’re not really fully human when we sit in front of the boob tube (or “idiot box,” as my Dad used to call it when I was a kid).

[Alice Walker has said, “I’m always amazed that people will actually choose to sit in front of the television and just be savaged by stuff that belittles their intelligence.”]

And it occurs to me that it’s no bloody wonder our world is going to hell in a handbasket (I always get a bit of a chuckle out of putting it that way) while we sit in our easy chairs & watch it go down.

Our brains have been turned to mush by that lovely (not!) blue-ray-emitting box. We’re mesmerised by the daily dose of violence, mayhem, natural disaster & celebrity-gawking that parades itself as news.

It does not motivate us to get up off our keesters & do something.

We’re like the proverbial deer, caught in the headlights.

Immobilized.

Reading mainstream newspapers is not a whole lot better. Violence! Disaster! Venal corporations & politicians! Natural disaster! Greed & corruption!

Turn the page…

Now, if watching our world…our society, our culture (civilization, if you prefer) go down the tubes – from a “safe” vantage point on the sidelines (safe; hah!) – is something you actively enjoy, far be it from me to try & talk you out of it.

If, on the other hand, there is a little glimmer in your brain wondering whether this is really the way you want your life to continue, I’d say consider quitting the TV & news game cold turkey & diving into … activism (activism is apparently a dirty word to some folks, but it seems to me it just means…being active!)

I’m not going to suggest to you that activism will “save the world.” After a lifetime of trying to “save the world,” I’ve finally had to grudgingly admit it probably cannot be saved.

It can, however, be changed – & that’s exactly what I’ll continue to focus my energies on.

Janet

P.S. Why bother, when the outcome is so…uncertain, or even terrifying? Two reasons:

1. The outcome is uncertain & potentially terrifying whether or not we choose to act. Our actions do at least have the potential to render the world – & our own lives – a teensy bit less unpredictable & terrifying. And they are enjoyable, too – very likely a good deal more enjoyable & fun than just sitting in front of a darn box that spews the most appalling nonsense at us.
2. For me, there is simply no other game in town! Just working & making money for its own sake have just plain never, as they say, turned my crank. Activism is its own reward – just like virtue!

P.P.S. I listen to CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) radio enough to catch enough of the news that I really need to catch. I even give the Friends of Canadian Broadcasting $5 a month from my exceedingly teeny-tiny monthly income to help them advocate on the CBC’s (& our) behalf. We Canadians would be in bad shape indeed without the CBC!?!?!? (& btw, if I wasn’t already donating a larger monthly sum to 3 other groups in automatic donations, I’d give more to the Friends of the CBC!!)

P.P.P.S. Alternative media – such as Toronto’s Now Magazine – are a wonderful …alternative to the mainstream newspapers that seem increasingly irrelevant & out of touch. Now Magazine is very cool, & I’m very glad it exists (kinda hate all that pornography at the rear of the paper, but at least I can choose to avoid those pages…)

P.S. # 4: The blog posting Kill Your Television has a similar message…

<drafted June 14/10>

I’m about to write a blog post called ‘Plan B.’ (just have to read the book first!)

Simply reading the book’s acknowledgments has prompted this particular post. Hooey, did it take a lot of people to get Lester Brown’s book Plan B 4.0 – Mobilizing to Save Civilization into my hands!?

Modern civilization (using the term loosely, as I like to joke, since there is much about modern life that is very un-civil indeed) has been all about the ‘Everything is all about me’ ethic, hasn’t it? (I wrote about this in an essay called ‘Everything is all about ME, right?’)

I personally have never been much of a sports fan, truth to tell. Competition has just never really turned my crank. Not that I’m not interested in fitness – I love to walk, bike, swim & snowshoe. I’m just not very competitive.

The blog posting ‘G is for Gatekeeper’ talks a little about my contention that changing the world is not a competition, but very much a team sport.

I’ve been trying to “save the world,” one way & another, ever since I was about 14 years old (43 years & counting!) & am I ever in great company!! Awesome company.

I love the work I do. It’s challenging, rewarding, & fun.

But it took me until last Fall to actually articulate for myself the following thought:

Not only is everything not about me, I am not even here for me! My “own” life is not really “mine” at all!

That probably sounds a little weird & fruity to at least some readers, so I apologize. It is an almost embarrassing thought to articulate in this (western?) culture of ours that is so dominated by what we all want as individuals.

But it seems to me it’s time I came out of the closet about this.

It isn’t just hockey & football & baseball & soccer that are team sports.

It isn’t just changing the world that is a team sport.

It isn’t just family life that is a team sport – although clearly family life is all about team effort & love & unselfishness & the ability to embrace diversity.

& it isn’t just politics that ought to be a team sport, instead of an adversarial game in which the people it is supposed to serve are treated as unwitting money providers & sacrificial lambs &/or cannon fodder to immoral “leaders” who have anything but our best interests in mind.

Life is a team sport.

None of us is here just for our own little self. (Actually, I don’t think our “selves” are “little” at all. I think we are – or certainly have the potential to be – very, very big indeed. Vast, actually. But you know what I mean…)

And if a whole lot more of us had “gotten” this a whole lot of years ago, my-oh-my what a different world this would be, hmmm?

But we didn’t get it.

Are we starting to get it now??

Janet

P.S. Tikkun (pronounced tea-kün, more or less…) Magazine’s May/June 2010 issue highlights “Environmentalism without Spirituality.” I really enjoyed David Loy & Mark Hathaway’s articles in the magazine. Great to get a better grasp of the weaknesses & strong points of both eastern & western ideas/philosophy. I hadn’t read Tikkun before the NSP conference in Washington. It’s one to pick up, for sure! (Tikkun, btw, means to mend, repair and transform the world.)

<April 15/10>

This phrase came to me today, I guess, because a couple of things I’ve heard lately have made me say out loud “You’re playing gatekeeper!!” (The concept of ‘the gatekeeper’ is not a new one to me.)

The person who twigged it last night was the neurologist interviewed on “The Current Review” on Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) Radio who seems to be resisting a “radical” new treatment for MS (multiple sclerosis). He claims his concern is for his patients’ safety – & I bet he even believes that! I suspect he’s mostly “playing gatekeeper.” It “works” for him to be the Big Expert with his patients – the one with all the knowledge & the expertise & the one who gets to pull out & write on that prescription pad & help keep those big Pharma boys (& himself) in business.

I wonder…

It isn’t just doctors who play gatekeeper, of course. I remember a small town I used to live in where I used to say the mayor seemed to behave as though he owned the town – had it all neatly tucked up in his back pocket. Of course we all know quite a few people who seem to think (they certainly act as though) they have God all neatly tucked up in their back pocket, hmm? Yes… I guess we could muse on that one for a while…

Nor is it just men in positions of power & privilege who play gatekeeper. I remember once encountering a woman who seemed to be an expert at it. At her wedding reception, I met & got along like a house on fire with her sister, who seemed very interested indeed in the project on cancer prevention I was then involved in. When I asked her later for her sister’s e-mail address, Ms. GK wouldn’t give it to me.

& that reminds me now too of another similar story, where a woman I’ve known virtually all my life would not share contact information for her sister – effectively cutting off the possibility of exchanges that might well have led to real benefits for several people – her sister chief among them.

Gatekeepers. They don’t get it.

They cling to their “power” – unaware that in a world characterized by openness & sharing & collaboration & inclusivity (instead of exclusivity), where nobody gets to be or has to be the Great Big Sheriff or the Great Big Expert – but rather, where we all put our heads & hands to the tasks – whatever our background, skin colour, age, sex, education, religious views – & work as an ensemble – we not only get the work done, we have a heck of a lot more fun!!

There is definitely some, how shall I say, gender politics in all this, of course. No need to go there…we just need to grasp that “power with” is a good deal more empowering & fun – for everyone – than power over.

So to gatekeeper types everywhere, female, male & otherwise – in the corporate world & in the world of politics & in the world of activism (Yes! There are even those in the environmental & social justice movements who play gatekeeper/power freak. Sheesh, eh?? Old habits really do die hard), I say, G is for “Get a grip!!”

Changing the world is for everybody.

It’s a team sport, dudes – not a competition! Enough of the darn turf wars (& the egos), already…

Janet

P.S. Folks who “play gatekeeper” are generally control freaks, basically. People become control freaks for a reason – nobody gets this way out of nowhere! For some of us, it takes a life-shattering, gutwrenching experience of one kind or another to relinquish our control freak-ism. (Some of us are pretty slow learners & very, very reluctant to let it go. This is painful to watch…& a regrettably very widespread phenomenon indeed. Some, of course, never do let it go).

It is actually such a liberating thing to get – right down inside our guts – the seemingly inconvenient truth that pretty much all of our notions about control – over our very own lives, even – are merely illusions. Once the shock of that realization subsides, & you stand back & take a new look & give yourself a chance to really breathe, you see that it actually opens everything right up!

Joseph Campbell said, “We must be willing to get rid of the life we’ve planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.” Isn’t that brilliant??

P.P.S. A couple of other postings on this blog speak to the issue of control freak-ism: “Ditching the 2 x 4’s,” “2 x 4’s: A few more thoughts,” & “Control Freaks Anonymous.” I guess “What We Focus On, Expands”  too.

‘Quote of the Day’ with this post: “Energy always flows either toward hope, community, love, generosity, mutual recognition, and spiritual aliveness or it flows toward despair, cynicism, fear that there is not enough, paranoia about the intentions of others, and a desire to control.” ~ Michael Lerner, quoted in “The Great Turning – From Empire to Earth Community,” by David Korten

This may not be my most popular blog post ever, given the title I’m insisting on putting on it.

I’m usually pretty darn polite, & I generally hope to inspire readers with positive sentiments & a cheerful tone.

Today I am feeling pretty discouraged; not gonna lie to you.

A quick tour of some Copenhagen-related news items shows me that “the old boys’ club” is still firmly in charge – of the planet, of the meetings & of our (never-more-precarious) future.

Okay, I’ll qualify that. There are oodles of awesome inspiring, intelligent activist men working their butts off to make the world change. I know personally a few who are doing their very utmost, & I feel proud to know such inspiring individuals for doing their own very considerable best to change the world.

I guess, then, what I will call the people who are firmly in charge is “the old poops club.”

These are the people with their heads in the sand & their hands on the reins – of the banks, of the industries that are helping to destroy the Earth; of the tar sands & the oil industry, in Canada, in particular.

Meanwhile, millions of people all over this brilliant beautiful planet of ours are writing letters, occupying offices, hanging banners, demonstrating in the streets (& getting their heads busted) because they love this planet & Life itself. Doing hunger strikes! Shedding clothes in the streets to draw attention to the climate crisis. Ringing church bells to shout out the need for change.

The sheer passion, energy & creativity of the human spirit that infuses all these activists is a wonder to behold. I’m so proud of us!! It’s exhilarating, it’s inspiring & it’s wonderful.

& then there are those darn “old poops.”

Leading us right over the cliff like a flock of lemmings, bent & intent on our own destruction.

What is a person to do???

I sure have no quick or easy answers, dear Reader.

I like to think I’m not one of the old poops, although I’m now closer to 60 than 50.

I’ve recently occupied a federal (Canadian) politician’s office & been arrested, & you never know what I may get up to next. At this point, I have nothing to lose. I’ve had my kids, I’ve had my “career,” & I have no great faith that “life as we know it” will continue to look the way it looks now, with comfortable salaries, pensions & “security.” There is no security in a world gone mad. No jobs/pensions/or healthy people on a ravaged planet, hmmm?

So.

I’ll keep on writing, agitating & trying to share some key ideas here on this blog & in my other writings.

Frugality, “living more with less” & being an activist are ideas/ideals I’ll continue to live by.

I think if more of us choose to do the same, the world will change. It is changing…

I’ll continue to work mostly on behalf of the young people I meet. The ones who are putting their hearts where their ideals are, inspiring us all with their energy, passion, idealism & a deep, deep love of Planet Earth & the glorious privilege of life – Life! – here.

I encourage you to do the same!

Janet

P.S. You might want to consider reading the brilliant Derrick Jensen essay ‘Beyond Hope.’ You can find it here

P.P.S. There is a 6-minute CBC documentary about the sit-in that 7 of us did in Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty’s office on Nov. 30th. You can find it here You may have to scroll thru the list of climate-related items on the right-hand side in order to find the one entitled “Climate Sit-in.” Lots of good viewing there!!

P.P.P.S. If you haven’t already read Paul Hawken’s brilliant, inspiring book Blessed Unrest – How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw it Coming (Viking, 2007), get thee to a bookstore or library, and get reading!!