Our Freedom is Consuming Itself: An unfolding ideology

When I was at university, a friend slipped a note under the dorm room door which read "My life is like an egathocomasonite, whatever the fuck that is!" At the time it was a badge of honour in recognition of our youthful rebellion. We claimed its virtues in the pubs and clubs, in our choice of music or movies, when we voted, or in vocal defiance of authority and inequity. It was somehow noble, albeit a little simplistic. Over the years I have moved through experiences which have changed my opinions, my priorities and challenged my values. Life is an evolution, however some things remain absolutes...

... our world's resources are finite... freedom is a right... choice is essential... those who do not defend truth, justice and beauty are a party to their demise... those who do not learn from their mistakes are destined to repeat them... there is right and wrong.

ARE THESE REALLY ABSOLUTES?

Our present reality presents some rather dubious claims to the contrary... Freedom of the press trumps freedom of privacy... the public good is met through individual success... truth is relative to context... justice can more readily be obtained through a robust user-pays legal and political system... trickle down... quality of life is achieved through standard of living... limitless economic growth...

There are those who would defend the idea of absolute right, regardless of whether it is popular or expedient. Those people do so every day through countless organisations and community groups, as environmental advocates, social justice campaigners, law reformers or conscious consumers, and they do so selflessly, and often with some degree of sacrifice. Their rebellion against injustice and inequity is small, yet their numbers grow. Paul Hawken calls them the earth's immune response; the last line of defence against the tyranny that will eventually destroy the beauty that exists around us. The beauty of a diverse and harmonious community, of sustainable economic systems which have existed for thousands of years without catasrophic boom/bust cycles, of freely functioning ecosystems, of culture, art, music and literature. Why do the vast numbers of people who share this common yet independent desire to restore this beauty to its rightful place in the forefront of human consciousness not create significant, lasting, monumental change in timely fashions?

Our freedom IS consuming itself, and us with it. Not individually, but collectively the voices of those that would see a new world created from the dysfunctional systems we have surrounded ourselves with. It is time that the earth's immune system took greater form, greater collective consciousness and assumed greater prominence on the world stage. This rebellion without a name, can take my friends name slipped under a dorm room door. It may be time for an awakening, an uprising, maybe even a revolution of Egathocomasonites.

To be continued...