Skeptical of Spirituality? Me too.

Skeptical of Revolution? Same here.

Then why put the two together? Because each will help cure the other’s problems.

Definitions:

Spirit means Love. It does not have to rely on belief in “higher powers.” But it can be very helpful to believe in a function of life that completely supports altruism -- an aspect of the universe that cares for all of us like the best non-personified, non-patriarchal qualities of “God.”

Revolution means Major Change. It does not rely on violence, but on individual empowerment through love. Although violence in self-defense is hard to argue against as a last resort.

Spiritual movements or religions that do not actively seek a major change in the current political systems of this world are not fully living up to their own values.

Political movements or governments that do not seek to act in loving ways with every human (and all the animals and plants that connect us) are not fully living up to the values of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness for all.

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So there needs to be a dynamic interaction between the desire to love and the desire for change.

The content of this website is written and selected by one individual who has tried to work this interaction for over twenty years, and who has succeeded (along with many, many others) in achieving major positive change in the protection of ancient forests in the Pacific Northwest, but has generally failed to increase positive feelings between human beings on different sides of this issue. Other people have done better at this, currently and throughout history, so their words and stories are included on this website to help us all learn.

There is one value common to Spirituality and Revolution, and that is Truth. Not “received” truth from God or some Authority. But the kind of truth that arises from dynamic interaction via dialogue between people who respect each other as equals.

The goal of this website is to encourage this kind of exchange.

We need some new concepts, thoughts that have hardly ever been thought before, but which we can now realize because so many different people from different traditions are coming together now all around this planet as never before.

Each remaining tradition is a treasure that must be preserved as a vital collection of solutions.

Only when some from each are combined with some from others, will something new be able to arise that can solve our unprecedented problems.

The wonderful thing is that this is already happening, like a natural process that can’t be stopped. I’m just trying to catch up on all the incredible things that others are doing, put them together like missing pieces to a jigsaw puzzle, and come up with some language that will briefly and clearly help us all to understand better what is going on -- so that we can act in a more focused way on what works.

This website will work if it gets you thinking and feeling in new ways and using these in your work. If you have time to let me know what’s happening, please send your stories and comments on this website my way.

With love and respect,

Bobcat

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See the Introduction and Key Concept Quotes for overviews of some of the values that define this site.
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See below for the history we are a part of, anti-bodies against the madness.
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A Brief History of the Infection -- certain facts: a unusually virulent outbreak of insanity.

Since it’s first occurrence with the god kings of Mesopotamian city states, it’s become gradually worse over time, with industrialism enabling it to flare up especially since World War I, peaking with the A-bomb in 1945.

The resistance to the infection was at first sporadic: slave revolts in Egypt, forums of nobles in Athens and Rome, then the Magna Carta, Galileo, Luther, the American Revolution, the abolition of slavery, voting rights for women and blacks – and now, almost to gay marriage.

Recently, the resistance has sparked a counter-resistance: Joe McCarthy, Barry Goldwater, Ronald Reagan, Jerry Falwell, Rush Limbaugh, and George W. Bush.

It’s gonna take a miracle. But hey : )

Interestingly, it seems that the resistance will not only stop the outbreak, it will also change the ways that humans live with each other so that the seeds of the next outbreaks will be contained and healed in each child as they grow up through the unavoidable, normal traumas of everyday life.

Thus, this horrific, deadly infection will be a catalyst for fundamental positive change – if we don’t let it kill us first. Which we won’t.

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The current situation is a weird aberration that cannot be sustained for much longer.

Like Gary Snyder says, a mere blip in humanity’s 100,000 year history.

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Far away is the great world,
mad with grim enchantment,
disquieted,
fearful of night and day.
Your eyes,
fearless and serene,
smile back at me.

-- Jakovina Sigurdardottir, from a poem that was the inspiration for one of Bjork’s favorite songs, Jorunn Vidar’s “Vokuro” (Vigil), quoted in "The New Yorker," 8/23/04, p. 53.

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ARCHIVES -- posted here on October 28, 2004

The November Election -- The Chance of Our Lives for Peaceful Change

We've been working for many years to prepare for this time, a time when those overcome by fear have finally gone so far that most people can see how off-base they really are.

In these last days before November 2, some folks may start to panic a bit, so things could get even crazier (such as challenging voters' qualifications at the polls).

At times like this, it really helps to be able to remember that in the long run, WE ARE THE WINNERS, not the forces of fear.

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ARCHIVES -- posted here November 4, 2004

OOPS ... OUCH!
Republicans Surprise With 4 Million New Voters More Than Democrats

Here’s one explanation for what happened in the US Presidential Election.

Voter turnout was 9.9 million more than in 2000. Most analysts predicted that high turnout would result in a victory for Kerry, assuming that young people would make up much of the increase. But they were wrong. According to the exit polls, numbers of young voters increased, but no more than other age groups, remaining at 10% of the total, same as in the last election.

Instead of voting for Kerry, most of the new voters in other age groups supported Bush, resulting in a margin of 3.5 million voters. This is a net gain of 4 million from Bush’s 0.5 million popular vote loss to Gore in 2000.

Who are these new Bush voters? After the last election, Karl Rove was quoted as saying that there were between 3 and 4 million evangelical Christians who did not vote. The coincidence of this number with the actual gain highlights the fact that this segment of the population alone could have been responsible for the unexpectedly large surge in Bush voters.

Perhaps the other spiritual activists, the fundamentalist Christians, are much numerous and active than many of us thought.

What does this mean for our strategy for spiritual revolution, for political change based on love, not fear?

-- Is there any chance of finding a common moral ground that will help to split the evangelicals away from the supporters of corporate and military dominance?

-- Are there greater numbers of progressive people, especially among youth and the poor, who could be activated by an even bolder, more positive and visionary spiritual revolution that the one that we have been able to produce thus far?

These are the kinds of questions that lots of people are wrestling with, and hopefully this website can help find lots of new, provocative answers to help deal with this new situation that we find ourselves in.

At times like this, when many of our well-founded expectations have been shattered, it really helps to be able to remember that in the long run, WE ARE THE WINNERS, not the forces of fear.

This website is dedicated to bringing together evidence of this -- stories about our victories and how we are achieving them now, how we did in the past, and what insights have guided us over the decades and centuries as we have struggled to achieve freedom without perpetuating the cycle of violence.

Our strength is in our multi-cultural diversity. By bringing together concepts and strategies from many different political, ecological, and spiritual cultures, this website hopes to encourage confidence in victory by so many allies working for the same goals. And knowledge of specific new strategies will also provide each of us with additional means of ensuring it!

WEBSITE LAST UPDATED APRIL 18, 2006