Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.

Arundhati Roy

I’m getting fed up hearing myself say “why aren’t we looking at the root cause?” I am so frigging sick and tired of the division, the arguing, and the separation. Shutting down conversations, cancelling and blaming is endemic in society.

We are pitted against each other and encouraged to take sides. Pointless arguments, squabbles and fights ensue about who is right. Discourse to understand and deepen connection is mostly lost.  

All this I believe is keeping us distracted from our common foe.

It is my firm opinion that most of our problems stem from the same root cause. Many of the difficulties we are jointly and individually experiencing across the globe come back to the same ugly reality – life in a modern industrial growth society where capitalism is king and consumption the name of the game, is now causing more harm than good.

This system perpetrates abuses on people and planet. It doesn’t care. It is only concerned with profit and it will do anything in pursuit of that.

I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country … corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow.

Abraham Lincoln

Rioting right wing protestors, blazing old growth forests, beached whales and innocent children dying in Gaza have something in common. If we peel back the layers we always find something BIG at work. 

Abe was right. 

These Big Corporations are incredibly powerful. They have captured and corrupted Governments, regulators, press and even parts of the charity sector. In some way or other every aspect of our lives is now manipulated and controlled by these giants. The corporate oligarchy is king and ruling our lives.

We are now living in the future crisis Abraham Lincoln warned us about. The Big Corporations have run amok across our planet. They are out of control and the problems that they have created are raining down on life on earth in ever more devastating ways. 

It is time to depose the enthroned

But how on earth can we do this? What can one human actually do?

My intention is to start sharing the ways in which I attempt to explore and answer that question. Despite the death, destruction and despair out there I am living a more joyous and content life than ever before. It’s a miracle and why I feel the practice of Radical Self Care is essential. 

I deeply believe that what we do matters and there is much we can do.

In his illuminating podcast From What If to What Next Rob Hopkins spent 4 years interviewing an amazing array of guests. Invited into his time machine they travelled forward into 2030. Here they consider what results from us actually doing absolutely everything we could possibly have done to make the changes we imagine might be possible. What if there was an alternative to capitalism? Is a good place to start.

Out of this darkness a new world can arise, not to be constructed by our minds so much as to emerge from our dreams. Even though we cannot see clearly how it’s going to turn out, we are still called to let the future into our imagination. We will never be able to build what we have not first cherished in our hearts.

Joanna Macy