Don’t Think About An Orange Elephant

Real photo, not an image generated by artificial intelligence. Who you gonna believe? Me or your own lying eyes? 😉

Your attention—and what you choose to do—is yours.

When you see a bunch of ridiculous looking thugs carrying Confederate flags, slamming doors on the arms of police officers and shitting on the floor of the United States Capitol, it’s hard to think of anything else.

Some idiots have taken over the United States government and are doing similar stupid and destructive things every day. With their ongoing absurd spectacle, they are actually screaming: look at me!

Stop looking. Stop listening. Oh, you’ve been hearing that you must pay attention because while you are distracted, they are stealing your money and your rights. But that’s nonsense unless you have a way to stop them. Paying attention won’t stop them and you know it.

And yet.

There is a way to stop them, and it begins when you stop wasting your time and attention on their nonsense. We can cancel this boring reality show by turning it off.

Except. As we know, trying to NOT think about an orange elephant results in you thinking about an orange elephant. And not paying attention won’t, by itself, stop them. All of this, seems tricky…but it’s not.

Instead

First, free your mind. Take a few minutes for yourself. Sit in a chair and close your eyes. Turn off your cell phone.

Let your mind wander. Don’t fix your mind on anything. But if it becomes fixed on anything, just let it. Free your imagination. Daydream.

Give this ten minutes or more if you are enjoying it. This should be pleasant, refreshing, relaxing. You are now ready to change the way you live your life, from this day forward.

Stop reading anything or watching anything about the administration, about MAGA. Cancel newspapers, unsubscribe to YouTube channels, just get rid of all of it. If some of it turns up, click away. Or better yet, go get a novel and read. Turn on music.

Reclaim your attention and your time. Because the biggest and most consequential theft going on here is theft of your mind, your attention, your time—which is actually YOUR LIFE.

Are you going to give away your own life, your own short sweet decades of consciousness? Hand them over to malicious idiots?

Don’t worry about doing it perfectly; just turn your mind elsewhere and if MAGA infringes on your thinking, let it go.

You have something much more important, and interesting, and stimulating to do. You are going to LIVE and CHANGE THE WORLD.

How To Live and Change the World

Okay. So first of all, immediately, NOW, you have reclaimed your time and attention. Yes, you have daily obligations but any time to claim as your own is now your own!

Take most of that time and live it pleasantly. Pet a dog. Kiss your wife. Read a book. Take a walk. Drink coffee. These are not a waste of time, not an unproductive use of your time. When you look back on your life, you will recognize that those moments were the most important, most meaningful and most worthwhile. You will, from the perspective of looking back, clearly see that nothing was a bigger waste than being productive and making money.

I’m dead serious. As you know, nobody ever said on their death bed: “If only I’d spent more time at the office.”

These small things, these moments of pleasure and relaxation and introspection and being in Nature and truly living are important, even essential. But you will also do something else.

You will share this joy and stimulate similar joy in others. And you will alter our civilization to be supportive of human beings living fully as human beings. As you know, our current civilization is stupid, demanding, thuggish, cruel, violent and manically insane.

You are going to end all that. Well, how can YOU end this? You and we and all of us can bring an end to this craziness by NOT COOPERATING WITH IT.

Little ol’ you and me and billions of other allegedly powerless people are the ones who make all this insanity and cruelty and brutality possible. Oh, yes, others order this, demand this, make the rules.

But it is US, by obediently taking those orders, who actually make these impotent morons seem “powerful.” Because they don’t do anything. They can’t do anything.

They don’t have the ability or the numbers. All they have is you and me and us. Until they don’t.

Doing It In Stages

Begin now.

Consider quiet quitting, doing less at work. Especially if you work at a big evil corporation. An amoral giant that fires thousands at whim, that poisons the air and water and soil. A corporation that cooperates with, no, supports tyrants.

Maybe start quietly “making mistakes.” Daydream, while “looking busy.” Write stories in your head. Imagine what the office building would look like empty, decaying, abandoned. Your inaction will make this possible.

There are groups and movements who are dedicated to promoting nonviolent noncooperation—the approach that will speed the end of this society which is already destroying itself. We will help it along. We will ensure that this hollow and dying world of cruelty will be replaced by one characterized by love, generosity and joy.

One group working towards this is The Saners. Join our group (small, but already global with members in more than 25 countries) at WeAreSaners.org.

Oh, we are also excited by emergence of another effort, General Strike US. This group is getting hundreds of thousands and ultimately 11 million people to sign up to go on strike. History (and experts on the history of movements) has demonstrated that big changes can be initiated by as little as 3.5% of the population. So a general strike of 11 million in the United States could (and likely would) begin a series of events culminating in total victory of people power in our country, and everywhere, over tyranny—whether the tyrants are plutocrats, authoritarians, communist parties, or simply self-described “strongmen” (and those are actually weak men whistling in the dark). Sign up for the general strike at https://generalstrikeus.com/

This is your wake up call. You know what to do. Please know this: nonviolent noncooperation is the most powerful force for positive change in history. We need to do the work and stick with it. If we do this, if we choose love and reject hate, if we choose each other and our children and our Earth, and not selfish bullies, if we choose courage and not cowardice, a better world is not only possible. It is within reach.