The spirit in which we live

Hitting the wall and climbing over it

5 minute read

Sometimes you hit the wall and have to pull back a bit. That is what has happened to me over recent weeks, which is why I’ve missed several regular posts of The Raven. I’d like to share my experience with my readers, in the thought that it might help folks who are going through similar experiences. Rooted in some part in the condition of our world, I don’t doubt many of us are feeling the same way.

First, a few weeks back I did hit some genuine physical challenges that knocked me back. Looking at the thick spring dusting from trees onto cars outside my house, I strongly believe it was allergies. But as I pulled out of that, I faced some difficulties more emotional in nature, and those are what I want to discuss.

I do this web journal seeking positive change in our world. As an activist and writer, I have long sought to further ideas and movements that would lead us in that direction. But I’ve been having a bit of a crisis of faith that we can overcome what is facing us. I’ve long believed it will take a people power upsurge to move our world off the catastrophic course it is on. At this point, while there are many worthy efforts being undertaken, I don’t see them yet assembling the mass and momentum it’s going to take.

Whether it’s the climate crisis or the slow walk to what seems like World War III, what I see is that the elites and institutions that rule our world appear bent on continuing down roads that cannot end well for humanity and the biosphere as a whole. I wonder, though, whether the people at the top themselves are not trapped in the logic of the system through which they rose. By the assumptions into which you must buy in order to attain power in the system. The spectacle of billionaires building survival retreats to prepare for coming catastrophes, when presumably they are the people with the power to prevent them, underscores this point.

That is why I believe change must come from the outside, from the margins. I don’t exclude people that have some participation in existing political and economic institutions. Some on the inside of systems have enough honesty to see though their follies. But the forces of groupthink and careerism militate against this. So as a rule, the greater the distance from the centers of power, the more likely one is to gain a critical perspective. I even have a personal geographical angle on this, having grown up in the Northeast megalopolis near New York and Washington, D.C., but long ago chose to live on the Pacific edge in Cascadia, a seedbed of much alternative thinking.

But are our numbers enough? Are we capable of assembling the unity among us needed to move the world system to a new state? When we ourselves tend to split and fracture, while the covert forces of the status quo do everything they can to promote such divisions, as the history of police agency infiltration and disruption of movements demonstrates?

Indeed, powerful forces are arrayed against those who seek change in society, and it is hard to see how to dislodge them. Mainstream media are increasingly monopolized and cleansed of viewpoints that challenge dominant narratives. Universities and institutions of thought are awash with funding by corporations and rich donors seeking to promote the status quo worldview. Political institutions are dominated by the same forces, tied up in campaign funding, gerrymandering and vote suppression. Meanwhile, most industries are dominated by a few corporate oligopolies, and concentration is becoming worse all the time.

So, facing all this, I needed to take a little time to recharge my batteries, and two years into this project think about why I am doing The Raven. Here is what I ultimately come up with, and it is spiritual in nature. Not spiritual in the sense of believing in unseen worlds. I might have some beliefs in this area, but I would not seek to impose them on others. No, spirit in the sense of the Greek word for the same, pneuma, the breath that invigorates us, the spirit that energizes us and gives us life.

I am inspired by a story told by Ray McGovern, the former CIA analyst who is now a prominent peace activist, visiting another peace activist, Daniel Berrigan, on his deathbed. Berrigan, a Catholic priest who did prison time for acts of nonviolent resistance, burning draft records and smashing nuclear weapon nose cones. McGovern asked Berrigan what kept him going all the decades he participated in peace movements. Berrigan answered simply, “Because it’s the right thing to do.”

And so I think that whatever our chances of victory, those of us who believe in a better world founded on peace, justice and harmony with the natural world of which we’re a part, the reason to go on is that it’s simply the right thing to do. The spirit in which we live, the pneuma that energizes us, is most important. All proceeds from that. If we move in the spirit of seeking a better world, of imagining what it might be, and planting seeds for its growth wherever we can, that’s the point, the raison d’etre.

We are in for tough times ahead, politically, economically and environmentally. There is no doubt the climate crisis will get worse, and impacts will multiply. The numerous economic contradictions of our financialized bubble economy are highly likely to pop it in a big way. Political divisions are continuing to intensify, and conflicts will increase. It is an unfortunate fact of human existence it takes crisis to get us off our collective asses and demand change. So I believe those numbers are coming. It is up to those of us who persist in efforts for a better world to lay the foundations, build the social and economic infrastructures, and point the way to that world we believe is possible.

So I have faced the wall, and found a way to climb over it to see the other side. I hope to get back on my regular weekly posting schedule. I have quite a list of subjects I want to cover, each one of which I hope will help prepare us for what’s coming. I have found the Friday posting schedule a bit rigid, so I may be coming to you on different days of the week. In the end, it’s all about the spirit in which we live, and the spirit with which I will be coming to you is to join as allies in building that better world. In reality, if we want to live as full human beings, there is no other way to go.