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This essay is an analysis and psychotherapy of our destructive western way of life (six main imbalances are described) and of the illusory values which support it, as well as a proposal for new attitudes in our everyday life and for our empowerment as simple citizens and consumers: it shows how we can reshape the world and avoid the cataclysm which is already announced in the collapse of our economic system and in the crunch of nature.
The main options of this essay are based on: (1) a spiritual orientation, (2) a capacity for self-limitation, (3) an empowerment of the local community, (4) an awareness of the cumulative effects of our choices, (5) a will for escaping whitewashing and corruption, (6) a commitment for practising the power of truth. And others...
This manifesto is composed of six volumes which can be read independently from one another:
0) THE SOLUTION IS SIMPLE... BUT DEMANDING
The first volume concerns the generalities: it describes the necessity for personal and collective choices based on spiritual values and it explains the role of the local community in creating a move toward change. Change can only happened if it is guided by ethical and spiritual values. Community takes shape through consensus about the options which concern our common future. The difficulty is not to know how to change; it is mainly to start a move towards change. What can brake our resignation and habits?
You can download the whole volume:
The solution is simple... but demanding
a strategy for change and a search for meaning,
for a creative response to climate change, economic inequity and democratic collapse
This link will lead you to the distinct page of my published books.
1) EFFORT AND COMFORT: TOWARDS A RECONCILIATION BETWEEN NATURE AND HUMANITY.
This volume presents the first imbalance, between humanity and nature. Nature is our Mother but we are afraid of its power (although it is very fragile) and of its indifference towards us (although it nourishes us). We escape into (1) illusion through violence and virtuality (see the example of how we use cars), (2) into destruction through domination (see the example how we use technology), (3) into accumulation through exploitation of natural resources and people (see the example of climate change and of our use of energy), (4) into uprooting through isolation (see the example of how we use food and how we refuse to relay on our local community).
You can download the whole volume:
"Effort and comfort: towards reconciliation between nature and humanity,
in search of harmony and peace of mind" (3000 kb) - pdf and epub formats
This link will lead you to the distinct page of my published books.
2) VOCATION AND SUBSISTENCE: TOWARDS A RECONCILIATION BETWEEN POVERTY AND WEALTH.
This volume presents the second imbalance between wealth and poverty.
You can download the whole volume:
Vocation and Subsistence: towards reconciliation between simplicity and wealth,
in serach of care and equity (3200 kb) - pdf and epub formats
This link will lead you to the distinct page of my published books.
3) RECESSIVE AND DOMINANT: TOWARDS A RECONCILIATION BETWEEN FEMININE AND MASCULINE ON THE SEARCH FOR A NEW ANTHROPOLOGY.
This volume presents the third imbalance between femininity (Yin) and masculinity (Yang):
Still incomplete - In preparation!
You can download (what has been already written of) the whole volume: Recessive and Dominant: towards a Reconciliation of Femininity and Masculinity in a Search for a new Anthropology
4) CIRCULAR AND LINEAR: TOWARDS A RECONCILIATION BETWEEN SOUTH AND NORTH.
This volume presents the forth imbalance. In preparation.
5) KNOWLEDGE AND LEARNING: TOWARDS A RECONCILIATION BETWEEN SUBTLE FACULTIES AND INTELLECT.
This volume presents the fifth imbalance. In preparation.
6) SPIRIT AND MATTER: TOWARDS A RECONCILIATION BETWEEN REALITY AND APPEARANCES.
This volume presents the sixth imbalance. In preparation.
Instruction manual for a shared happiness
Short presentation
A psychotherapy of our society and practical ways of changing our behaviours
This essay tries simultaneously to describe in a simple way the
complex desegregation of our modern western society and to propose
simple practical ways of transformation of our patterns of
development through our attitudes and behaviours in our everyday
life. On one hand, it will describe the many deep imbalances which
are causing the deterioration of our living conditions and generating
more and more injustice and suffering. On the other hand, it tries to
propose another vision of a possible future, through very practical
ways of changing our behaviours as citizens and consumers.
Six imbalances
As a way to structure this essay, I have identified six main
imbalances which threaten our world. I intend to describe each of
these imbalances, one after the other, but I want to do that in a
positive way, in order to demonstrate that these imbalances are not
only a threatening problem for our survival but that they are also the
key for the solution; each one of these six imbalances can be
described as a special polarity between two terms, where one term
(usually mentioned as the first) dominates the other term and prevents
its expression; it means that the domination of the first term over the
second prevents the second to be fully expressed; thus the polarity
also represents the key to the neglected potential of unexpressed
faculties which challenge us to become more creative in order to
express what has been lost; it is why these same polarities offer also
the means for a deep transformation of our society; they will be
described in the reverse order, where the second term (the weakest)
will be mentioned first, as the guiding force, and the other term will
be mentioned in second, as the energy which has to adapt. According
to this new order, these imbalances or polarities are the following:
- Effort and comfort: towards a reconciliation between nature and
humanity
- Vocation and subsistence: towards a reconciliation between
poverty and wealth
- Recessive and dominant: towards a reconciliation between
feminine and masculine
- Circular and linear: towards a reconciliation between South and
North
- Knowledge and learning: towards a reconciliation between
subtle faculties and intellect
- Spirit and matter: towards a reconciliation between Reality and
appearances.
Each of these parts will be presented as a separate volume which can
be read independently of the others, in any order which suits the reader,
according to his or her centres of interest.
Main options
Before I describe, further on in more detail, the different options
which this essay will propose, we can summarise the main orientation
of the proposed change in mentioning the principal options which
constitute the spine of this way of life based on self-limitation:
- Spiritual orientation: change cannot happen for material reasons
only, but it has to be guided by spiritual values such as justice,
peace, harmony, compassion.
- Self-limitation: we have to learn how to reduce the impact of our
way of life by choosing simplicity, by giving priority to human
values over material ones. This form of intentional self-restriction
is a form of liberation which brings real happiness: small is
beautiful.
- Local community: we are all parts of a wider common social and
natural body and we are all interdependent. Co-operation is the
base for a harmonious development. Although it can be considered
as healthy when it remains limited, competition is only an illusion,
a bet in which each one hopes to be quicker and smarter than the
other, but in which there are many more losers than winners. The
local community is the place where change can take shape,
according to a common project which grows with time and with
the maturity of its members. This project slowly takes shape, even
in a kind of marginal way, through the personal action of a few
members.
- Cumulative effect: the world is what it is because of the
cumulative effect of our respective personal impacts (for each of
us negligible) or of our personal renunciations (for each of us a
high cost). There are no other actors than people, although
certainly some people have more impact than others.
- Whitewashing and corruption: the goods we consume are
generally produced in conditions based on the exploitation of the
poorest or of poorer countries and on the destruction of the
environment. When these goods are repacked and presented on the
shelves in our local supermarket, they have lost all traces of this
form of corruption which has generated them. They have been
whitewashed as so many disruptive aspects of our modern society
have become hidden: this form of virtuality makes truth difficult to
grasp.
- A choice is a vote: each choice we make is a vote which
encourages the production or the behaviour or the belief which is
validated by this choice. We are therefore responsible for each
choice because it shapes the world as it is.
The power of truth
Gandhi practised his own truth with a very high rigor and freedom.
He showed us the way of integrity (the way to remain whole) and
how much our own testimony is important to foster the change we
want to see in the world. In being faithful to our understanding of life
and to our own spiritual path, which is more a search than a ready
made answer, we become really creative and capable of following our
own vocation in this way.
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