Changing the World - A Peaceful Evolution - Changing Our Ideas

by NDK Creative Artist

Since I was 7 years old I have been aware that the world is not a good place. But what is the world? And what is “changing the world”? Why did “changing the world” lose favor? How did it lose favor?

The world is humanity. The world is the entire sum of every man, woman and child. The world is human civilization. The world is not some nebulous concept that is far removed from intimate contact with us in our daily lives. The world as a phrase and a term is where I live. It is also where you live. You are a part of my world. I don’t care where you are, or even if we have never met, you’re part of the world I live in and I’m part of yours.

There are lots of views of globalization. The major focus of the term in our current era is on the corporatization of the world and surely we ought to have some focus on that process. But there is another view of globalziation that I believe is more powerful, more important, and has true potential for the human race if we but dare to tap it. And here and there a few brave souls are tapping it.

What “we”? Individuals here and there around the world are beginning to assert their individual power as global citizens of the world and the internet is enabling these connections to take place on a level denied our cultures and civilization in the past. The speed with which we can exchange ideas and freely begin to support those of value and merit is to all practical intents and purposes uncontrollable now. And this is what was needed to liberate mankind from the yoke of oppression.

Does the world need changing? Yes. What about the world needs changing? Just about everything! And while that is an overwhelming thought that is immensely difficult to take on board, it is nonetheless true. But fundamentally, the things that truly need changing are our ideas about who we are, how we relate and how we live as the human race on this planet.

It is our minds and our concepts of life, humanity, and existence that must change. It is the ideas we hold in our minds that lead to action and/or inaction. But the very way we treat constructive ideas when we first hear them is typically dismissive, relegating them to a figurative pile of useless irrelevant garbage, the trash can of human thought in the desktop of our minds, that minimize the power of one man or woman to articulate constructive reason. Why do we do this? Why do we throw away and disparage good ideas with such irresponsible abandon? We do this because we have bought into the propaganda that passes for thinking in the modern age. We are, quite literally, programmed not to think, but to simply accept and consume. If you dare to question, challenge or refute this sort of process then you are labelled radical, lunatic, fringe and subsequently marginalized, and this is an automatic process, that happens without thinking, or any sort of critical process occurring. The effect of this is to marginalize and separate those who are free thinkers and articulators out from the rest of society, the sheeple, as I have heard society referred to in various online publications I frequent here and there. Look, for example, at how “the Greenies” have been marginalized, yet they were right. They were more responsible than any of us, and we should laud their courage and raise them up on high and demonstrate our gratitude while begging their forgiveness for our stupidity in marginalizing and ignoring them and the precious truth they brought us. Because we permitted the environmentalist movement to be marginalized, disparaged and ridiculed we are complicit in the destruction of our planet and the rise of global warming and climate change catastrophe that now threatens, in very real and tangible ways, the future of all life on earth.

How did we manage to do this? We simply accepted the propaganda that accomplished the marginalization of the most responsible and reasonable truthspeakers on the planet. We need to learn from this experience, that just because the majority do not agree, that this does not mean they are right and an individual is wrong. This is what I mean when I say we need to change our ideas about ideas and those who offer them to us. These ideas are the fruit of observation and the consideration of those observations and they are about reason. To arrive in the sort of situation humanity finds itself in, where we are faced with extinction by our own hand, it must be realized that our ability to recognize truth, and know it for what it is, is sorely impaired and this means that our ability to reason is impaired, and that in turn means that the systems charged with enhancing our ability to reason are flawed, and failing in their job and their duty. If they were not so flawed, then our ability to discern fact from fiction, and to determine, and support truth would be far, far better than it obviously is.

How are the sheeple programmed? We are programmed by a system that is driven by power structures whose ideas and philosophies are so entrenched in the fabric of our society that they are practically invisible. We are programmed through commercials, through works of art & entertainment, through education, and through religion and spirituality to abandon our ability to think, to question, to challenge and to improve our circumstances, except in the proscribed way. Where has this got us?

To the brink of destruction. To the point where our world, and its future and that of all life on it is imperilled. What brought us here? Our ideas. If we are to survive as the human race then we have to change our ideas about ideas, and we have to change our approach to the way in which we deal with those few words that urge us to be bold, courageous and go against the grain that is the system of ideas that we are bound by in our current “civilization.” If we are truly to fulfill the potential and promise of the human race to create a society of human beings on earth who live in peaceful coexistence, with equal opportunity for all, then the ideas that have brought us to this point in time need to be re-examined and evaluated in the light of their effects and outcomes on all life. To date, the legacy of the sum total of Human Impact and “progress” on our world, can only be summed up as irresponsible and singularly unintelligent.

Changing the world is a matter of changing our ideas. This is not the easiest thing to do, as it requires us to question and challenge the very ideas that we accept without thinking; without engaging the intellect in the process of consideration. We are bound by ideas, that are invisible shackles and they bind us in the paralysis that makes us no better than slaves, while to all outward intents and purposes we appear to be free of chain and ball, yet we are chained by concepts learned in the cradle, reinforced in childhood, entrenched in our adolescence and finally driven home with economic shackles in our adulthood that then tie us into a system that provides just enough of a semblance of freedom to let us think we are free when we are not.

When I was 7 years old, I saw, through the miracle of television technology, humanity napalm a young girl. When I questioned this barbaric event I was told, “You’re just one person, you can’t do anything to change the world.” This is said to a child in a free society, a democracy, in their formative years. It is a statement that lies at the core of what I am talking about in this article. I knew then that this was not a correct idea, and I never, ever bought into it.

Today, as I write, I hold to the idea that every human being changes the world. We change it by our very existence, and by the simple fact of being brought into existence. Whether or not we then choose to remain as passive participants in life as it changes around us or active participants striving constantly for positive constructive change is another matter entirely. The point is: we all change the world, and this change is unavoidable. To then become a passive member of society and civilization is a choice an individual makes. If you are passive in a society, if you simply accept it without question and follow the path of security–where there really is none–then you are sheeple, and you have abandoned your humanity, your right to think for yourself, and you are at that point and from that moment onward, until you change your ideas, useless to the cause of humanity and the advance of human civilization. Useless until you change your mind about the ideas you have accepted that shackle you firmly and make you slave to a system. The active participant in society and civilization seems to me to be the ultimate desirable result of a connected world. However, along with such active participation comes the responsibility of forwarding ideas that are not inimical to life, that promote the true advance of civilization, and improve the quality of life for all life, and not just a select few.

Peaceful does not mean timid. Peaceful does not mean quiet. Peaceful, in this context, is not necessarily tranquil. Peaceful is firm, courageous conviction demonstrated with determination and principled persistence, that heads constantly in the direction of advancing ideals and principles that are pro-survival for all life. Peaceful is not “turn the other cheek.” That particular idea is one of the how-to-make-sheeple ideas.

People have this idea that reason is the exclusive province of some intellectual sequestered away somewhere. Reason is not. Reason is nothing without the responsible articulation of that which has been contemplated, considered and reasoned through to logical and rational conclusions. Reason is loaded with passionate commitment to what is good and true and right. Reason is useless when it is not freely articulated to those for whom it can and will have benefit. Reason is, above all, relevant to humanity and its existence. In free societies and civilizations, what you think and feel is important. In free civilizations and societies, the free articulation of such thought is important, and it is paid heed by those who value the privilege of freedom of expression.

The entire art & entertainment industry is predicated and dependent on the principle of freedom of expression. It cannot exist without that principle in place and truly service mankind. Creative individuals with communication skill and talent cannot create and communicate freely the fruit of their observations for the benefit of others, unless freedom of expression is a core principle of society and civilization. Oh, you can get expression, but it is not free expression, and therefore, I would argue, it is not true art & entertainment.

So long as any individual in a free society is able to achieve publication and distribution of their work to the public they wish to serve, then that society is safe in its freedom. The moment that any creative individual is denied access to those channels of production, publication and distribution, then that free society is in danger, and its freedoms jeopardized. The conglomeration of corporate control and ownership then puts freedom of expression in danger, and thus free societies, and all who live in them, in danger of having their freedom eroded.

The censorhip of the Dixie Chicks when they spoke out against the tyrant who currently holds the office of the President of the United States, was a clear signal of the nature of power in the “land of the free.” It is no longer people power, and the United States of America, is at this writing no longer a democratic nation, it is a corporatocracy; what I have also refered to as a military-industrial-mediaplex, a powerful and horrific result of unrestrained and irresponsible capitalism. Corporatocracies are enemies of freedom and humanity and that is something I hope we never fully realize, for if we do, the degree of force and control that they can and will exert upon our lives will take us beyond fascism.

The Free Articulator is a place where ideas whose time has come can and will find a voice through courageous and fearless communicators. It is a place where we can begin to shape ideas and form them into stories that will help to undo this mess humanity finds itself in. Where imaginations are unleashed, supported, and introduced to the world through new works, that help to bring balance back to humanity. Where the ideas of individuals who love freedom can come and be supported, by like-minded creative spirits and their supporters, who are aware of the full power of valuable ideas to help humanity realize its full potential.

We want the world to change, humanity to find its way through the mindfield of difference and scarcity in a world of plenty that separates one man from another. We are sure and certain that the power of art to join together and imaginatively realize that which hitherto did not exist will come into its own through this endeavor and this is what we’re all about. It’s not about us, it’s about you. Help us end the decay, and put humanity back on track.

The American Dream, Way and grand experiment has failed, its weaknesses exploited through democratic deceit and chicanery that has destroyed trust and faith in the concept of democratic freedom throughout the world. It is time for fresh thinking that builds on the best of what they could give us while they had their day in the sun.

The concept of world changing fell out of favor in the late 1970s and early 1980s and has continued to decline since then. Idealism seemed to die with it, and our culture is the poorer for the lack, but idealism is central to the arts, vital to artistic expression, and part of what the arts need to be constantly renewing and refreshing from one generation to the next. For without this constant renewal those values die. One of the duties of art & entertainment is to create and keep civilized ideals and principles alive and healthy in story, song, and other works of art & entertainment.

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