I just finished reading a book by Frances Moore Lappe called “Getting a Grip - Clarity, creativity, and courage in a world gone mad”. The book talks about the current state of of the US Government right now, which she calls Thin Democracy; she spends much time talking about how as a people we have the power to create ‘living’ democracy. Learn more from her website.

Quotes….

Our ideas about reality determine what we see, what we believe is possible, and therefore what we become.

And when you think about it, how could we ever believe “the world” can change unless we experience ourselves changing?

The four hundred richest americans are all billionaires, with combined wealth of 1.25 trillion, roughly comparable to the total annual income of half the worlds people.

…as well as the need to feel that our lives matter, which for many people means contributing to something grander than our own survival.

Failing to bring meaning. Finally, Thin Democracy is dangerously vulnably because its materialistic premise can’t satisfy our higher selves’ yearning for transcendent meaning….Thin Democracy’s narrow, insulting assumptions about human nature cannot sustain dedication and sacrifice. Many US soldiers now risk their lives in war, believing they’re serving a high calling. But the built in logic of one rule economics mocks their idealism. Since 9/11, thousands of American soldiers have made the ultimate sacrifice in Iraq, while executives of US armament corporations have made a killing, doubling their own compensation.

Living Democracy-democracy as a way of life, no longer something done to us or for us but what we ourselves create.

And the most productive hunters share the most.

Worldwide, for example, more than a third of all grain and 90 percent of soy gets fed to livestock. Future generations may well scratch their heads: You mean, in the early twenty first century their feedlot system put 16 pounds of grain and soy in to cattle to produce only one pound of beef on their plates? You mean that with the amount of water they used for that one pound of beef they could bathe for a year?
Similar plenty appears once we drop the scarcity lens surrounding energy. Our sun wind, waves, water, and biomass offer us a “daily dose of energy” 15,000 times greater than in all the planet harming fossil and nuclear power we now use, says German energy expert Hermann Scheer.

We and the butterflies are in this together.

Beneath our awareness, perhaps, we are coming to realize that our acts do matter, all of them, everywhere, all the time.

One Choice We Don’t Have: In fact, we have no choice about whether to be world changers. If we accept ecology’s insight that we exist in densely woven networks, as just noted, then we must also accept that every choice we make sends out ripples, even if we’re not consciously choosing. So the choice we have is not whether, but only how, we change the world.

Monkey See, monkey do, suddenly took on a whole new meaning for me. Since we humans are wired like our close relatives, when we observe someone else, our own brains are simultaneously experiencing at least something of what that person is experiencing.

In private life, when we go to a friend for advice and that friend simply listens, we’re often amazed to discover it is we oursevles who have the answers. We may have had them all along, but formulating our ideas to make ourselves clear to someone else enables us suddenly to “see” those answers for the first time.

Most of us learn to deny that we’re squelching such needs; maybe it is just to painful to acknowledge how much of ourslves we’re giving up. But if these needs aren’t met, most of us don’t just roll over and pretend we don’t have them; we seek their satisfcation in less than ideal ways…unable to safisfy our yearing for connection through common endeavor, we try the next best thing, to feel included because of our outer identities, wearing what’s “in” choosing work we think will please our parents or bring us status…Our yearning for power gets twisted, too. Power, as I’ve said, means our “capacity to act” but if we feel we can’t make a dent positively, we go for control. If we feel put down at work or at home, not heard or seen, we’re temped to try to exert control over something, maybe our child, our spouse. In its extreme form, the response to thwarting our innate need for power is violence.

Sitting deep in the cushioned armchair, his sweet face framed by a stiff white priests collar, Reverend Njoya paused for only a moment. Then he said, “Fear is an energy that comes from insdie us, not outside. It’s neutral. So we can channel it into fear, paranoia, or euphoria, whatever we choose.” He rose out of his chair. “Imagine a lion,” he said, crouching. “When a lion sees prey or predator, it senses fear first. But instead of lunging blindly in defense or in attack, it recoils.” Reverend Njoya moved back, leaning on his left leg and crouching lower. “The lion pauses a moment, targets his energies. Then he springs.”

I’m just a drop in the bucket. My effort might make me feel better, but it can’t do much…..Every time we act, even with fear, we make room for others to do the same. Courage is contagious.

From this premise of lack, we are finished. We end up locked in a belief system that actually creates the very scarcity we fear.

“Seeing is believing” is a charming aphorism, but maybe it’s also wrong. More accurately, when it comes to humans, “believing is seeing.” We must believe another way of living is possible in order to see it actually taking shape around us.

Mare Mead “Big campaign donors aren’t in it for altruism. They don’t consider their money a contribution; they consider it an investment.”

Which head of lettuce you pick up today or where you buy your next T-shirt may not seem like a world-chaning decision. But it is. The Spiral of Powerlessness is generated not only by laws on the books but by norms that our daily acts create. If we buy pesticide sprayed food, we’re saying to the food industry, yes, yes, give me more of that. If we buy organic instead, we are stimulating its production. (Why do you think McDonalds serves organic milk in Sweden but not here?)