I love that analogy. No, you’re not going to personally save the world by reducing your carbon footprint. But you know what you are going to be? One leaf on a tree in a forest, making that little bit more oxygen that helps collectively make the world a better place.
And that’s worth doing. Especially if you can encourage other people to be leaves too.
Thank you. This is what I scrolled through all the shit news to read today.
@stabby_cicada and this is why I make art and tell stories in the way only I know how to. At age 4, I learned it was my gift. At age 60, I have finally learned that
• self belief is powerful
• individual creativity feeds the collective engineTogether, we can generate the energy needed to move from the old world of exploitation and division to the new world of community coherence and equitability.
For those who read this and aren’t sure what to do, living vegan and planting fruit trees are very effective steps toward uprooting the capitalist system that’s wreaking havoc in the world.
As anecdotal evidence, I live in a Brazilian region that produces a lot of cattle. About 10 years ago, beef production went down due to economic reasons, and this was noticeable in land cover studies, The mere reduction in cattle numbers, grazing intensity and pasture management was enough for the forest vegetation to advance and take back some border areas.
So, this is very true, and not just “vegan propaganda”. Reducing demand for meat can have a significant environmental impact!
Or if you don’t have land, set up a community network for borrowing appliances and gifting stuff people are no longer using.
Or all of the above.
I feel we need inverse buddhism: instead of “compassion to the world”, which required a huge imagination effort in the times of Buddha, we are now overflowed with the vision of the world’s suffering and we need re-align our compassion with the other fields that matter: the portion of the world we can act upon and that can act upon us.
You are not going to stop the bombs that are right now flying towards people. But you are going to receive the news of the suffering they cause, and if you are even slightly empathic, you will feel the pain of the people these bomb will make grieve.
What matters is that you can make good where you are. Don’t be ignorant of the world’s pain, but protect yourself.
The world just grew its nervous system and it fires its pain receptors like crazy. Do what you need to stay sane.
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One snowflake doesn’t make an avalanche, but if enough snowflakes fall, the mountainside is wiped away.
As much as possible I chose to be a part of the solution rather than a part of the problem.
Most modern day problems are mainly systemic, which is why I ALSO end up involved in Politics in most countries I live in.
“Don’t be part of the problem” isn’t a solution for systemic problems, it’s just living according to one’s principles but won’t actually shift the entire system in any meaningful way unless one is a billionaire or a famous personality.
It’s not that I can’t do anything, I do all I can
It’s that one dickhead billionaire asshole ruins all the good intentions of millions.
Why try to get more millions when we should go after those ones…
Well yeah, but I don’t have enough belief in others to assume they are doing their part, even in my own small limited community. Much less in rest of the world. Neither do i have social skills to convince anyone either.
So any positive action i do is just for my own good, fully knowing it’s completely meaningless on almost any scale. So just out of a selfish desire to not feel like shit.
You and I are both part of the same slrpnk community, and I’m doing my part, so that’s at least one person you can believe in. Why not try believing in more of us?
Doomerism is capitalist propaganda. They couldn’t convince us that climate change was a hoax, so now they’re trying to convince us that climate change is inevitable. And the point of both propaganda campaigns is the same: protect the status quo.
Because if we really were doomed and climate change was really inevitable, they wouldn’t be fighting so hard to convince you that it was.
They want you to believe what you do is meaningless. But it’s not.
@Shellofbiomatter @stabby_cicada - “I don’t have enough belief in others to assume they are doing their part”
what do you mean assume? Wouldn’t you know or not know? If you are in your community doing work you would know what others are doing and what others are not doing.
I just got out of a community meeting. Neighbor A and B continue to maintain the decentralized food distribution apparatus of free fridges. They reported that they have three more neighbors that have volunteered to take on cleaning shifts. Fridge B has an issue with one of the fridges tripping the circuit breaker and they’re fixing it. Fridge A’s community bulletin board is now accessible because they found the lost key for it.
Me and Neighbor C are working on the Food Rescue side as one input into our local food apparatus. We just brought in a new contributor. A gluten free bakery that will be feeding into Fridge B.
Spoke to a neighbor who just lost their job and needs food but has celiac. Pointed her towards fridge B and let her know the dropoff times of the GF Bakery. She is now utilizing the local communities food system and is further supported.
Next month I’m meeting with the greater town’s Hunger Action Coalition and comparing notes and collaborating with them to fill in gaps. We also just got plugged into the Food Rescue Alliance which is national and connects our town to other towns for support and education.
I know exactly who is doing their part.
Because I’m doing my part.
If you get out and do something with others you won’t have to assume one way or another. You won’t have to believe (or not believe).
You’ll know.
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(Note to others reading this: this is directed at someone who has claimed initiative failure via vibes without demonstrating any actual experience.
We do what part we can as and when we can. Interestingly, if you can’t contribute - even receiving aid and support without currently putting back in helps the entire system of mutual aid. Drawing on the support of your neighbors is everything.)
Fair point, I’m not part of any organized community with the aim of helping those in need, which likely plays a role in not actually seeing others doing something.
And on any local community meeting most of the people are just complaining and yelling at each other so we never reach to any agreements and later i just go fix and clean any shared spaces myself and oddly have become the first person to be called when any elderly person needs some help.
Same at work, oddly I’ve become the first person when someone needs some aid even though it’s not part of my job, while the people whos job description actually forces them to help others aren’t doing it.
Though I’m not that sure how well that fits into here. I apologize if i completely missed the mark.
@Shellofbiomatter - It’s alright and I can understand your frustration.
If you have experienced this, then I dont understand why you used words like faith or assume. Why didn’t you respond with actual examples of how things arent working out and asking for guidance on fixing them? Or at the very least pointing out the problems in your lived experiences and lamenting at feeling discouraged and beaten down without having a solution?
Your kind of reply, while it may be cathartic to you, only serves to hurt and discourage others.
If you would, and if you are able, either seek comfort in a way that doesn’t hurt or discourage others, or seek solutions to those problems you are encountering.
Problems within group dynamics and collaboration are known issues with known solutions - lots of books in the library addressed to it, lots of threads devoting to discussion and application of solutions, lots of mutual aid networks that serve as support for these sort of things.
So. I hear you. And that is frustrating what you’re going through. I hope are able to fix whats happening in your group activities, or join a new healthier group, or start a new group from the ground up, or contribute individually and on your own terms.
Good point.
As i said my social and people skills are kinda bad. i didn’t think that through enough and assumed it just gets buried in new, bad habit from Reddit. Lemmy has smaller userbase. I’ll refrain from just venting in the future.
@Shellofbiomatter - Cheers and no worries. This has been a wonderful conversation and has highlighted key things that need to be considered in community groups and movements.
I wish you well and hope your weekend is going great!
@Shellofbiomatter@lemmus.org I am likely many miles away, but I am here with you.
Today I’m going to plant some seedlings in the earth and say your name. When you next have the opportunity, please do similar for me.
We are not selfish, we are taking care of each other, little bit by bit. You are not alone. We are never alone.
You’ve taken the biggest and most important first step: changing yourself. You have become the change you want to see in the world.
Others will follow. Thank you for doing your share.
A principled stance would be to do what ever you feel helps but also understand that as one we are weak, collectively we are strong, then we need to find the most effective way to crush capitalism as a collective.
I would champion mutual aid, this has changed over the years. wouldn’t we as a collective do better in funnelling our resources towards building cadre’s capable of leading a revolution? Rather than knitting clubs leading soup kitchens?
I don’t believe that we can’t bring about change.
Human beings has a change force.
We sow seeds that will bloom with time. Some growlings will need less time, and others will need more time. Especially bigger change will need more time, but as long as we are patient, and give proper care, the growling will bloom.
We bring about change in ourselves through bloom. We water our inner growlings. Water our expression, our meaning, our connections. Our lids are removed from our heads, and we bloom.
We luminate our bloom upon others. Our inner warmth is radiating upon others through all of our communicative channels, our bodylanguage, our facial expressions, our language.
We wave our beings through society and through the world. This is primarily done through poetic resonance.
But although I have emphasized how these can change society for the better, they can also change society for the worse, so we need to be use our changeforce wisely.
You lost me at “faith that millions of others will do their best as well…”
I hope you find your way back, because it’s true. Millions of others will.
