No one can deny that activism has an impact on our world. So let me say up front that I am not suggesting for a second that those who advocate on behalf of the disempowered and marginalized shift their focus. There are still unfavorable energies on this planet that must be, at all costs, put on notice.
For instance, Monsanto cannot and should not have free reign over our food. The legality of the death penalty should be challenged. Drug users should be offered healing, not jail cells. Banks should not be allowed to engage in illegal lending practices. Activists are the ones who alert us to the inconsistencies, the shady behaviors, the unjust practices that occur on the planet on a daily basis, and we all have some knowledge of activism and activists.
One of the most popular forms of activism is peace activism, which has a close relationship with anti-war activism. The massive protests that accompanied the anti-war activism during the invasion and war in Vietnam did have some impact on the eventual withdrawal of U.S. troops. That withdrawal, however, came after a death toll of 1.2M, a figure that includes U.S. troops, Vietnamese, Cambodians and Laotians. Additionally, that activism or the massive protests did not prevent future wars or invasions.
Another popular form of activism is health care activism. The World Health Organization is the largest activist agency for world health. It is a member of the United Nations. WHO is funded by member countries and runs on a budget of about $4 billion (USD) annually; roughly $3 billion (USD) of that comes from voluntary contributions. When WHO was created, in 1948, its activism was focused on the eradication of smallpox. Now the agency’s focus is on a wider range of communicable and non-communicable disease, HIV/AIDS, ebola, malaria, tuberculosis, and now the new zika virus.
Human rights activism is also another popular form of activism. Human rights activists are broad spectrum activists and can advocate on behalf of human beings for the right to a fair trial, the right to protest, freedom of speech, equality, justice, access to clean water and healthcare, and the right to vote. For example, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was not only a civil rights activist; he also broadened his activism to include human rights and anti-war activism. He advocated on behalf of the disenfranchised and the poor, whether they were in the mines in West Virginia or in the fields, sharecropping, in Alabama. Rigoberta Menchu, from Guatemala, is a human rights activist who is known for publicizing the violation of the rights of the indigenous during the Guatemalan Civil War.
These are just a few examples of the subject and motivation for activists and their activism. All activism is a reaction to what we perceive as a threat to our lives, our well-being and our survival on the planet. However, in almost all of the activism that I’ve touched upon, none of these perceived threats have been arrested.
We continue to wage war, to bomb countries into oblivion, destroying families and communities. Weapons are poured into the inner cities of the U.S. I can buy a gun easier and faster in Philadelphia than I can a free-range chicken!
Figure 1. The top five manufacturers of arms (4 U.S. and 1 U.K. corporations) profited $145 billion (US) in 2014.
“How can you create and fund war and wellness at the same time? The answer is, you can’t.” Kryon, channeled by Lee Carroll.
Twenty one children in Africa die every minute from malaria and preventable diseases. So much for that $4B (USD) WHO budget. And who’s keeping up with the number of new diseases that are discovered every month, and the side effects from the drugs that treat them?
“I have tried three times to take privastatin and simvastatin, but I had memory problems and muscle shaking when going down steps. My friend saw it and was like, ‘Why are your legs doing that?’ Now I know. I also had very bad consitation,1 also. My throat closed up at night couldn’t swallow then gagged. I’m wondering if anyone may have had these symptoms too.” (anonymous online testimony of cholesterol drug pravastatin and simvastatin).
You know what I’m going to say. It’s clear. The old narrative is falling apart. We have held “a” belief that if we make our voices heard, if we speak the truth to those who hold the reign of power, if we advocate and agitate and organize on behalf of those who cannot do so for themselves, we can shift the axis of power.
It’s a false belief because there is no power outside of us; and there is no threat to our survival, our peace or our well-being, outside of us.
And so my conclusion is simple and a reiteration of what we are hearing almost on a daily basis now: We are the creators of our reality. If there is sickness without, it began with sickness within. If there is war in the world, it is the result of the war within. If there is conflict and discord on the planet, it is the result of the conflict and discord that resides within our collective consciousness. So it is that everything begins with consciousness.
I have an idea that maybe we can create a new activism paradigm. I call it interior activism. Maybe this interior activism can begin by becoming aware of our violent thoughts and beliefs. Maybe we’ll have to advocate on behalf of ourselves, that we have the right to set aside ten or fifteen minutes a day to sit in silence and in relationship with our Higher Self (God, Goddess, Soul, whatever you want to call it). Maybe we can begin a peace activism in our lives by examining the violence that we allow into our homes, the violence-laden television programs, the movies and even the music.
Maybe we can become our own health-care advocates by shifting, however slightly, our perspective on what we consume. Maybe we could take the advice of Dr. Emoto and, once a day, simply say to a glass of water, “I love you. I appreciate you.” Maybe we could be our own human rights activist by accepting the power and the freedom that is ours to change our beliefs and thoughts, thereby changing our lives. And maybe, just maybe, we can find something every day to be grateful for, whether it is our breath or the sun.
What I am suggesting here is that the energy that we formerly expended on an activism that would eradicate what we believed to be “cause,” but was only an effect, can now be directed inward where true cause is. Interior activism goes beyond the limits imposed by exterior activism, which is created from the belief in separation. The old narrative version of peace that exterior activism seeks and promises to create is admirable, but it is a promise that will go unfulfilled. Peace is a state of our true consciousness. It is a given.
Peace is an aspect of who we are. It does not need and cannot be created or recreated; it only needs for us to remove the obstacles that block our awareness of it. So it is that while we wait for the peace that anti-war and peace activism promises, the peace that is the result of shifting from an exterior to an interior activism can be experienced and observed immediately.
This is what I am calling the new narrative activism, interior activism. But it does not change the world. Interior activism withdraws energy from the maintenance of the world of the old narrative. It shifts your life experience and ultimately shifts the planet and expands the Universe.
So be it, and so it is.
1 I was going to follow this misspelled word with the normal [SIC], but it seemed redundant and cruel. Here is the link to the site if you want to read other reviews of this drug: http://www.emedicinehealth.com/understanding_cholesterol-lowering_medications/viewer-comments_em-216.htm.
