Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Following the attempted assassination of former United States President Donald J. Trump, Nate reflects on the dysfunctional social dynamics which have brought many of us to high levels of tribalism and mistrust toward others and divorced from the deeper challenges facing us in coming decades.
I first found myself in West Philadelphia in 2019 during Porchfest, an annual music festival that exists because approximately two square miles of Philadelphians collectively decide it should. And so it does, whether the city grants the annually requested street closures or not.
More and more it is becoming apparent that we humans are setting the stage for pandemics with our carelessness and unwillingness to take the necessary preventative actions that might hurt powerful economic interests.
No matter the outcome in November, we need training to transform despair into action and to build the kind of solidarity that offers protection.
All our senses and capabilities are inherited. We would be nothing without our older brothers and sisters on this planet.
It comes down to that… Why do bad things happen to good people? Be-cause… and mostly because we’ve got bad and good confused by our self-centered stories.
Evolution has no choice but to simultaneously work on the whole set of species and their inter-relationships. Evolution does not work on the squirrel by itself or the insect by itself with no interaction between them: it can’t work like that. Evolution always operates on the full ecological context. Have I said that already?
Through a shared vision, mutual support and collaborative endeavors, our networks can create a powerful force for transformation, emphasizing the importance of community-led solutions in addressing the pressing challenges of our time in a way that acknowledges and addresses global disparities and different cosmovisions.
There’s an old saying: “The rules are made by the people in the room.” That’s why we’ve got to get more of the working-class in those rooms to really start making our communities what they need to be.
Bluntly, storytelling is the best way—maybe the only way—to inform, persuade, and inspire people to act. It helps us assimilate facts, contextualize them, and understand and share their meaning.
I want to encourage you to try a little bit of awe for early, microbial life. Try some respect; try seeing yourselves from a position of humility, and extend admiration for the genius that we take for granted, but that is absolutely crucial to being who we are.
Thomas Jefferson died 198 years ago on the 4th of July, but we really shouldn’t wait two more years to notice, and take to heart, an important argument in political/economic philosophy that Jefferson made in a letter to James Madison dated 6 September 1789.
