Thoughts from the Edge

Manda Scott — Mon, 03 Mar 2025 14:08:37 GMT

Suppose we accept that the current system is not broken - it is doing what it was always designed to do - which is to shovel wealth and power from the many to the few at a human scale and from the more-than-human world to the industrial/technical maw of predatory capitalism at an ecological scale.

This is a death cult and it is in its death throes, but it will take us all down with it if we let it.

Suppose then, that we accept the current system is not fit for purpose, IF that purpose is the continuation of complex life on earth; if it is the flourishing of humanity as an integral part of the web of life; if it is a world predicated on values of compassion, decency, integrity, generosity-of-spirit and absolute confidence in our place as conscious nodes in the web of life.

IF this is the case - then we need a whole new system. We need a movement that will bring this system into being.

We need basic asks:

clean air
clean water
clean earth

clean, clear, courageous, compassionate connections between all parts of ourselves (so we need to do the inner work of healing);

between ourselves and each other (so we need to do the community work of connecting with our tribes of place, purpose and passion);

and between ourselves and the web of life (so we need to do the spiritual work of reuniting with the web of life).

I’m wide open to other/better ideas.

Absent anything better, I'm working on this. You're welcome to join me. We need narratives that can shape who we are when we bring the best of ourselves to the table.

And in order to know what those narratives are - the new mythologies of our time - we need really, wholeheartedly to have done the inner work that frees up those parts of us that are frozen in time. Are you afraid? That's a part frozen in time. Are you triggered by what people are saying/doing/being? That's a part frozen in time.

I suspect we need to find ways to heal at scale - individually and collectively - and I'm working on how we can do this, but each of us can do the inner work now that lets us acknowledge the frozen parts 'I see you', that lets us hold them with curiosity, compassion and courage, 'I am here for you'; that lets us stand with them as they grieve, rage or scream within us... and let go of the old, frozen hurt. This takes time. It often takes help. But it's the single most important thing any of us can do.

And while we do it, we sing, we give thanks, we offer the blazing furnace of our heart's compassion to the world.

We need to become the change. It's an inner thing. Where it goes is unknowable. But worthwhile.