Entering Empire (with eyes wide open)

So the current plan is to move to the US in a year's time. And I feel concerned. US pretty much epitomises Empire for me and the thought of living there, bringing up children there, scares me. How do I resist Empire when living in the very heart of it?

The first thing that came to mind was what to do about taxes? Right now we don't earn enough to pay any to any government, so it's mostly an intellectual consideration right now. But it's possible we'd have to start paying tax at some point in the future. And I definitely don't want to pay for any of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, nor the 75 clandestine wars America is waging around the world (according to Johan Galtung www.transcend.org).

I watched The Story of Stuff (www.thestoryofstuff.com) and heard that US military spending accounts for 50 percent of tax revenue. My wife says, "you better check that out", not quite believing the assertion. Well, according to War Resisters International the stat is wrong. The figure is only 48 percent - regular military spending, then hidden defense spendings in other areas plus debt from previous military spending. That's a lot of dough and I don't want ANY of my money going to it. If I'm going to spend money on anything close to defense it would be for the rehabilitation of soldiers returning from active duty, to support their reintegration into society and recover from the trauma of battle.

Another area that scares me silly is Consumerism. I'll capitalise it for now as it really does seem like a religion. At the least it's a real economic philosophy. I don't want to turn into a Consumer. Or perhaps a better way of saying it is I want to get out of Consumerism. At least life in Cambodia there is a somewhat restriction on my consumption. It is still in stark contrast to my neighbours who mostly live in homes with dirt floors and pull drinking and washing water out of the local putrid open well. A lawn mower in Cambodia is a cow or a goat. And there are no ludicrous local codes preventing people from using FREE solar energy to dry their clothes on the washing line. Even in hard-baked Arizona people use drying machines - including my mother-in-law. But the fact that people "do it" is not so bad so much as how society is shaped so that healthy, non-Consumerism, environmentally-friendly options are made so difficult. Wal-Mart is a dangerous place. You go in there, look at the price tag and say to yourself, "It would be wrong NOT to buy this at such a cheap price!" Seriously!

The Story of Stuff also pointed out the process of extraction to refuse. The first being environmental destruction to get at the resources, the second is using the labour of the people who no longer have natural resources to use as cheap labour to work in the factories that are on the formerly pristine natural resources. A few years ago, in fact just one year ago, this would have felt like a complete academic reality. Ten minutes down the road from where I live this goes on RIGHT NOW. Kep Thmey, Rolous, Totung Tngay and Kilo Dawp Pii are four villages I can name off the top of my head and drive my tiny 90cc motorbike to in under 20 minutes. Some corporate genius thought it would make perfect sense (and a ton of money) to fill in the delicate mangrove coastal areas to build factories. In the meantime the land fill going into the coast kills off all the easy-to-reach aquatic life, killing off important sea grass that ensures the continuity of the most important fishery in the region and put out of work most of the local fishing community. "No problem!", says He, "I've got a factory just down the road you can all work in". Well, no one really wants a factory job, and the factory manager only lets in people with a 'decent level of education' which exludes most of the local folk who don't have a 'decent education'. If this is the happy Consumerist utopia, I want nothing to do with it! Easier said than done in the heart of Empire, I'd wager.

So what can I do to escape from the Latter Day Saints of Consumerism?

REDUCE CARBON OUTPUT AND USE OF NON-RENEWABLE RESOURCES
- I'd like to live where I don't need a car.
- I'd ride a bike or catch the bus or train instead.
- buy more things second-hand
- I'd like to limit plane travel (which is not easy being an international family and an international organisation)
- I'll limit how much I buy and the kinds of things I do buy (I'll need to clarify this point somehow)
- I won't have a TV and expose myself to all the Consumerist evangelist tracts and discipleship materials.
- remember to take the cloth bags to the market (less plastic bags)

ADVOCACY AND STRUCTURAL CHANGE
- advocate on behalf of ecological injustices
- I'd like to think of some symbolic economic symbol (like Gandhi spinning yarn) that undermines Consumerism.
- I'm not paying taxes to Uncle Sam, at least not the military part of them.
- change our investments to an approach that does not fuel the Consumerist economy, but compassionate economic practices, non-war, non-nonrenewable resources. is there a compassionate approach to investment? if so, how?

DEVELOP CONSTRUCTIVE APPROACHES
- I'd like to grow my own veggies.
- I'd like to put my savings into things that don't fuel further Consumerism or war.
- I'd like to promote the non-obsolesence of older computers by installing open-source operating systems and software like lubuntu which breath new life into old computers.
- I'd like to find ways to resist buying new and make use of used. Furniture, appliances, some clothes, technological equipment (computers, phones, PDAs, cameras), toys for the kids (and me).
- buy ebooks instead of paperbooks or secondhand paperbooks instead of new.

I'm doing my best to go with ebooks instead of paperbooks. I'm guessing that an ebook is better than a paper book. It's not made of paper. It doesn't require a massive bookshelf to keep them on. There's also tons of free ebooks online. But, obviously electronics rely on power consumption, much of it coming from fosil fuels (Australia and Cambodia) or nuclear power (US).

But I don't want to be stingey and ungrateful to live. I want to live with joy and hope and compassion. I don't want to judge others who are Consumers, but I do want to offer choice alternatives.

I'd like to begin each morning with silent meditation, practicing awareness, before starting work. I'd also like to engage in some form of productive physical activity - not just 'exercise'. Eg, growing veggies, yard work, community service, and also see housework (washing dishes, clothes, cleaning up) more part of my spiritual practices, not seeing it as a barrier to life but integrated with it.

One big bad habit I really need to work on is forgetting to take the cloth bags to the market. In Cambodian they have real markets. And Cambodia market sellers LOVE to give you plastic bags. I buy doughnuts at one bakery once and asked for a cookie. I got one plastic bag for the doughnuts, one for the cookie and one bag to put everything together!

I'm also giving up Evangelicalism. I'm not sure what this post has to do with Evangelicalism, but while I'm talking about giving up stuff this came to mind. I actually kicked the habit several years back, but I'm coming out of the closet with this one. There's too much baggage with it, and little positive in it that I can see. The focus on evangelism and a morbid atonement through sacrificial substitution just doesn't do it for me any more. Have you ever really read the Apostles' Creed - which surely was never written by any of the original apostles. In the very middle it says Jesus was born to the Virgin Mary and in the next breath dies under Pontius Pilate. Where's the rest of it? So Jesus' life and ministry has no theological value at all? It just doesn't add up. And since Evangelicalism is so closely aligned to American State Religion, which is the same as Consumerism, I'm done with it. I will engage with it, see the good in it, learn from it, and be compassionate to those who subscribe to it, but I'm signing the divorce papers on it for good.

While I'm at it ...

I've realised that I should get out of organisational development and focus more on what I'm passionate about in transformational education and learning design.

And,

that my focus is not really (perhaps never has been) poverty, but is rather Violence, with a capital V. Physical, Structural and Cultural Violence. I make it my work - professional and spiritual - to work at transforming violence and violent systems/contexts using peace and nonviolence.

What does a compassionate response to Militarism look like? engagement, offering alternatives, listening to the needs behind Militarism (fear, need for physical and economic security and safety).

How effective is my life?

I subscribe to the philosophy that effectiveness is best evaluated by how closely aligned are my actions to my values. After all,

"if you don't live the way you think is right, you'll end up thinking the way you live is right." the GROW Blue Book

It is scary to me just how true this statement is, and how much I have fallen into the "thinking the way I live is right". At 32, nearly 33, I am consciously concerned that the idealism of my late teens and my twenties has gone the way of the birds, and like the free-swinging hippies of the sixties, end up a corporate stalwart. And this is something I just don't want to happen.

I am thirty-two and wondering just what impact my life is really having. Am I really changing the world the way I thought I could and would. I was so sure that my life was going to change things big-time. But as I look at what has actually changed by my efforts, I am ashamed and concerned. How can I do better? How can I be confident of the values of my life and that I really am an effective change agent in this world?

I am coming to the conclusion that I need some benchmarks. The only way to be sure that my life is effective, is to set myself some concrete goals, and evaluate them in the future. Well, this is probably very obvious now that I've written it down, and most likely the real problem is that I haven't been setting goals for a very long time.

So what are my goals?

Firstly, there are two "circles of influence" that are important to me:

1. to live a responsible and sustainable lifestyle
2. to effect positive change in others (both individuals and corporate entities, including family, local, national and international) towards a compassionate society.
   

to be continued ...