Form and Substance

Photo by Filip Mroz on Unsplash

Character and behavior and values matter so much more than the forms and systems. People who are good and sensible and kind will violate any cruel and insane rules and systems regardless of their self-proclaimed legitimacy.

If a representative government, with the support of the public, passes a law to destroy the Earth, is that law really legitimate? Should everyone put aside their differences because “the people have spoken”?

I don’t think so. I’d like to believe that YOU don’t think so.

So, yeah, maybe we’d be better off with ranked voting, and removing corporate money from politics, and a million other reasonable, even necessary systemic reforms. I believe that our systems (and systems everywhere) are corrupted and desperately need serious reform. But let’s not over-value these things.

What we really want is a better, more humane and sensible world. We want to live more fully, and for others to live more fully. We want to experience and enjoy life. And the deepest desires of sane, caring people of genuine good will won’t bend to the desires of any majority.

A majority cannot turn the reality of climate destruction into a hoax. A majority cannot make a guilty man innocent or turn a lie into truth.

So, yeah, a proper form for representative government would be an improvement. But that’s hard to get and, I would argue, shouldn’t be the focus in the current crisis.

We should be going over the heads of fools, of ridiculous people whose tunnel vision endangers all of us…including the loved ones of the fools themselves.

Frankly, we don’t have time to work through and reform systems which are, after all, designed to protect the status quo and to thwart challenges. Our climate is very close to collapse right now. Our Supreme Court favors Big Oil and not Planet Earth.

We are surrounded by fools in positions of authority across the globe-in Russia, China, India, Europe. Even where governments are headed by people of good will, they are working within systems that thwart common sense and decency.

Here in America, our immediate task within the system is to defeat emerging fascism by voting out MAGA and voting in Democrats. That is necessary, but not sufficient.

For Those Working To Improve Political and Economic Systems

That said, to those who are trying to create and promote better and kinder economic and political systems: thank you. We have a planet with 8 billion people so we can work on more than one problem at a time. I am a fan of every person who is dedicated to a worthy cause.

Still, we need a whole lot of people dedicated to preventing climate collapse, and reversing the most dangerous and destructive choices made (or at least accepted) by our species.

We need to end fossil fuels and end exploitation of human beings by elites, an exploitation that powers overproduction and the obliteration of our biosphere.

We have a choice here. It’s not on any ballot and no politician or pundit or think tank has been promoting it. Our choice is for life and decency and sanity over our batshit crazy wrecking ball of a “civilization.”

When people are fighting and killing each other, we need to stop the killing and not simply pick sides. When the Earth is being poisoned and cooked, we need to end the poisoning and cooking, not promote modest “reasonable” reforms.

When people are full of hate and anger and fear and violence, we should understand that these are weaknesses that are latent or expressed in every human being. We should not hate those people, but we need to NOT cooperate and to promote and embody love and kindness and peace and sanity.

Nonviolent Noncooperation-Now, Today and Forever

It’s often said that for evil to win requires only that good people remain silent. But there’s a more important corollary—to defeat evil, we only need to reject it and NOT cooperate with it.

If we choose peace, instead of one group of killers over another; if we choose love and kindness and reject hate and violence; if we choose a healthy planet and not one system of elitist exploitation over another-IF we do these things, we can turn it all around.

We need to focus on what we actually do and choose what NOT to do, what to speak out against. We need to recruit by appealing to the goodness and sanity in everyone. Not everyone will join in our campaign, not every one will become a Saner. But everyone should be given the choice, the opportunity. Everyone should be encouraged and welcomed.

We have no enemies. We are fighting even for those who are leading the destruction-because they are fools but still human and deserving of a decent life as much as any of us. We must stop the evil behavior and reject the rationalizations that justify that behavior.

This is our battle. We are beating swords into ploughshares. This seems hard but we can do this. We’ve been frustrated because we’ve been going about it the wrong way.

We can do better. Join with us at WeAreSaners.org/join.