The cat-a-lyst Book

On being an Effective Affector

    Following the example of our country's founders, I am confident that people, thinking logically and rationally about a subject, will arrive at the most reasonable and peaceful solution to problems.

IS IT PEACEFUL?

How is a proposed action categorized as being peaceful?

    The following check list of values or goals to weigh specific actions may be helpful. Can each of the following four questions, applied to a specific proposal, be answered positively?

1. Is it Non-violent? (Answer no if it requires suffering or loss from one community for the benefit of another.)

2. Is it Ecological? Is our reverence for the Earth reflected in the action? (Answer no if it causes a net decrease to the bio-mass or the animal community of the bio-region.)

3. Does it demonstrate Social Responsibility toward the entire human community?

4. Do the freedoms we choose insure future freedom for all?

5. Does it promote Grass Roots Participation? Is the effected community involved in the initiation, planning, and decision-making stages of community action?

If all of the applicable questions can be answered yes, then the action is considered PEACEFUL.

THE KEY: HAVING THE EFFECTED BE THE EFFECTORS

    The people who will have their lives or the lives of their children, grandchildren, or great grandchildren effected by a specific action or series of actions should be directly involved at the initiation, planning, and approval stages of that action.

    In the USA, the democratic vote gives people responsibility for their own destiny. New Englanders use the Town Hall Meeting process to enable citizens to speak their minds to their peers and thus influence the future of their home communities. The process takes many forms in many places but the principle is the same: to enable those who will be effected by actions to be the ones who create those actions. (This may say something about the appropriate scale of projects, too.)

    Also, if people realize that they have acted wrongly, they must be able to undo their commitment to the negative action before more harm occurs.

    Think of how you will feel about your community when you see the system changing because of your actions, changes that effect the way you live on a day to day basis. Pretty nice!

    When we see the interrelationships of our actions at the local level and realize that we can effect the future by positive action, it becomes much easier to see the interconnectedness of events at the state, national, and world levels.

    When we understand those relationships, it is much easier to coordinate our own efforts to change the course of current events from one of competition, waste, and control of resources to one of reverence, conservation, and cooperation toward each other and our home, Earth.