Insights+into+our+World+-+A+Pathological+System


 * Week 2: Insights into our World - A Pathological System **
 * Gathering Question: **What struck you from last week that you have been thinking about or share something you want to look at in the next few classes.

“I recognize the bleakness of the situation and I am not interested in it. I am interested in looking for signs of hope” “It is amazing just how quickly things can deteriorate in the large scope of things based on a few decisions” “The Idle No More Movement is an example where this comes to a head – how do we address a history of complex issues when sides are approaching with very different values, cultures and understandings of history.”
 * Some thoughts from the discussion: **

See Week 1
 * Brief review of previous thoughts **

About this section pg 15-16 “When humanity interferes with the Tao, The sky turns filthy, The Earth is depleted, The spirit becomes exhausted, Streams run dry, The equilibrium crumbles... When rulers live in splendor and speculators prosper While farmers lose their land and the granaries are emptied; When governments spend money on ostentation and on weapons; Indulging themselves and possessing more than they can use, <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;">While the poor have nowhere to turn. <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;">All this is robbery and chaos. <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;">It is not in keeping with the Tao.”
 * __ Close Reading of Selected Text __**

Pathological=disease, suffering, abnormal

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Unmasking a Pathological System:** We are sustaining a pathological system that creates poverty and inequality, a depleted earth, cancerous waste, unsustainable growth, distorted development, corporate rule, parasitic finance, limiting monocultures, and wealth for the few from a violent domination of the many. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">– the capitalistic diseconomy must change: Empire vs. Earth Community

Obstacles are <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">1. **Systemic** : Caring for the Earth: A strategy of Survival (CESS)pg 11 “limits of capacity”, pg 29 “rich and poor are being prised further apart” <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">2. **Psycho-spiritual**: CESS pg 12“new understanding of development”, pg 13 redefine systems to include the “duty of care and respect for all people that we have as humans”,

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">note: We have always struggled with these issues it’s just that the emergence of the current capitalistic neo-liberal ideology has intensified dramatically the scale of pathology.

“civilizations in decline tend toward ever greater uniformity and standardization” Our current culture is similar to “a pioneer community of weeds”
 * Destroying Diversity (pg 52-53) **

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">“We think in terms of conquering disease rather than promoting wellness; we speak of the survival of the fittest...rather than cooperation for mutual survival”
 * Power as Domination (pg 53-54) **


 * Pathology to Health (pg 55-62) **

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Pg 56 “Only the health and diversity of the web of life have real value. Activities that undermine this – including the destruction of life to accumulate capital – are evils, not goods. All activities is ultimately gauged by its long-term, enduring value” <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">-> Question to ask when making a choice: does it improve health or diversity of life?


 * Assumptions and beliefs -> Adopting a New Perspective **

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">pg 58 **Empire/Industrial Growth society:** Life is hostile and competitive, humans are flawed and dangerous, order by dominator hierarchy, compete or die, love power, defend the rights of self, masculine dominant <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> **Earth Community/Economics:** Life is supportive and cooperative, humans have many possibilities, order through partnership, cooperate and live, love life, defend the rights of all/mutual responsibilities, gender balanced


 * Reflections/Discussion Comments **// : //

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">“we must choose between empire and true economics and learn to recognize when we make those choices” <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">“How do you not participate in systems of some degree of pathology in our society? A major issue is our retirement saving. Is there no 100% ethical way to invest or save money?” <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">“Can we work to redeem the system?” <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">“Perhaps what we need to do is work at helping the system evolve towards a better one.” For example, promoting the establishment of restorative over punitive justice practices in the court system works to help an outdated system evolve to more effective and holistic methods. Note that the authors suggest the entire cosmos is evolving towards deeper complexity, consciousness and community. Perhaps working with God’s vision for existence is actively living in a way to promote that type evolution.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Q: How can we do this in our personal lives? How do we value our economics, wealth etc.? What type of empire do we engage in on a daily basis? Do we try to subvert it with Kingdom values (or feed it Kingdom values that lead its evolution in a more Kingdom direction)? Is it working? Does that matter? What can we do to emphasize life-giving things over Empire?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Ex. Idol No More movement is in a way an example of indigenous groups rising to resist what they see as harmful empire as it effects their lives, the earth and hunting practices.


 * A Christian Response to Empire **

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Christ of the Celts pg 2 “What is it we have forgotten about ourselves...” <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">“Where the empire lies, people suffer”, Cornerstone Issue 59 pg 17 <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">"Challenging Empire: God, Faithfulness & Resistance" Cornerstone, Issue 60 pg 5 "Ten starting points for a spirituality of nonviolence and resistance to Empire" <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">"Living Faithfully in the Midst of Empire" 2007 report by UCC recommends “the development and application of an “empire lens”

//Perhaps the first step in developing an empire lens is establishing increasing awareness.// Pg 85“ Awareness is the beginning of all resistance. We can only resist domination by becoming and remaining conscious: conscious of the self, conscious of the way reality is constructed around us, conscious of each seemingly insignificant choice we make, conscious that we are, in fact, making choices” //ex. Are you aware of Aboriginal land rights, personal water usage, what happens with the money in your bank account when you aren’t using it?//


 * Suggested reading for the week: **

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Read and think about the "[|Ten starting points for a spirituality of nonviolence and resistance to Empire"] on page 5 of Cornerstone issue 60.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Pg 67 “anthropoharmonic...developing a profound respect and love for all life... such a shift...calls humanity to put aside the quest for acquisition, consumption, and domination,...instead seek out... security, love, community in harmony with the ...ecosphere” <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Pg 74 Human dependence on the hospitality of the Earth is total” <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Pg 79 we need a “renewed understanding of work. The aim of the human endeavour is no longer... accumulation, but rather the enhancement of the life process and human happiness...work must first and foremost be purposeful, something useful and necessary for the production or sustenance of life” <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Pg 80 “Nothing in the world \ is as soft and yielding as water.\ Yet for dissolving the hard and inflexible, \ nothing can surpass it.\ The soft overcomes the hard; \ the gentle overcomes the rigid. \ Everyone knows this is true,\ but few can put it into practice”
 * Additional resources **

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Edward Burtynsky Landscape Photographs “breath taking examples of those landscapes created by massive technologies of extraction.” (cover quote from Edward Burtynsky – Quarries) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">End CIV:Resist or Die <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> White Water: Black Gold <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Jubilee partners: “With Our Own Eyes” by Don Mosley <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Cry of the Poor:Cracking White Male Supremacy, Edward Loring, Open Door Community Narrative Resistance, [|Live from the Hole: Resistance to the Colonial Dungeon] by Alex Hundert

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Pg 156 Iona Abbey worship book, prayer c
 * Closing Prayer **

<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;">"Eternal God, <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;">out of your great generosity <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;">you brought the world into being <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;">and gave it life. <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;">Then you gave it yourself, <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;">on the cross of human suffering. <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;">Such priceless, painful giving! <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;">Did you invite us here to show us that? <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;">Then show it to us once more, O God! <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;">Show us a different kind of world, <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;">a different cost of living, <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;">where the pain will not be eased <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;">by the money we spend on ourselves, <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;">but by the way we spend ourselves for others, <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;">and the way we value life. <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;">Eternal God, <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;">out of your great generosity, <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;">make us generous; bring us into being. <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;">Amen."