#194 Ignorance

Dear all,

I continue to be heartened by gathered voices and steps forward in this world—such as the climate strike and new public banking law in California—while weighed down by the scary challenges we face. I keep reminding myself of the resources on connecting and grounding that we developed at www.findingsteadyground.com, and that the essence of my work is to be who I am, as big as I can be.

I am always stunned by the amazing transformation from summmer to fall that we experience here in the northeastern US, and it's been a blessing to have more clear days this month to follow the cycle of the moon.

Love,
Pamela





Ignorance

I’ve been wondering recently whether a greater appreciation of our ignorance might shine a light on the pathway to wisdom.

Someone I know led off a workshop on race and racism not long ago by asking participants to rank themselves as beginning, intermediate or advanced on the issue. It’s an intriguing question. I think I would have said that I’m sufficiently advanced to know what a beginner I am. A few years ago I might have claimed the rank of advanced. After all, I’ve learned history, puzzled over theory, built a wide variety of relationship, done lots of emotional work, helped others engage with the issues.

Since then, however, I’ve taken a deep dive into the nitty-gritties of racism in an urban farm project that has had to address thorny issues of black spaces, reparations and community control. I am deeply grateful for that very painful opportunity, and have learned much in the process. I think I knew enough to play a role that was more positive than negative, but am amazed at the extent of my naivete and blind spots. There is no way I can avoid my ignorance.

This is hard to admit. In my family growing up, ignorance was viewed as a terrible thing.  Right answers were prized, and intellectual ability was encouraged above all else. My parents thought of themselves as outside of the mainstream, but I’ve come to see that these values of theirs were in complete alignment with the beliefs of the Enlightenment and the Scientific Revolution that have shaped our culture for hundreds of years. The pursuit of knowledge is the noblest endeavor; with it we can master the world. Ignorance is the enemy.

Yet where has this perspective led us? I recently came across a book, Earth in Mind, by David Orr, that is eloquent on this subject. Ignorance is not a solvable problem, he says. Rather it is an inescapable part of the human condition.  Knowledge, on the other hand, is a fearful thing.  He reminds us that to know the name of something traditionally was to hold power over it. Misused, that power would break the sacred order and wreak havoc. Why, I wonder, does that ancient warning ring so eerily true in our present condition?

He suggests that we cannot say that we know something until we understand the effects of this knowledge on real people and their communities. If we are too smug about the explosive increase of knowledge in modern times, we may fail to notice the knowledge that is being lost, and the critical nature of that knowledge for the survival of our species. We have broken the world down into billions of discrete knowable bits, but are lost when it comes to understanding what makes it whole.

Examples of the flaws of putting all our eggs in the knowledge basket are everywhere. Children are pushed to learn letters and numbers ever earlier, yet long-term success in school correlates more closely with a foundation of love of learning and strong social-emotional and problem-solving skills. Business schools turn out graduates who have aced classes on finance, planning and management, yet industry is desperate for the intangible qualities of leadership and entrepreneurial spirit. Scientists have mastered mixing chemicals to increase crop yields (as least temporarily), yet know virtually nothing about what creates soil health.

What would it take to decouple knowledge from hubris and from the blindness that seems always to come with it? Can we find the humility to accept our ignorance, to assume that anything we learn will illuminate bigger areas of unknowing that were previously invisible to us, and to cultivate an attitude of wonder at the unknowable? Perhaps then we can exchange the goal of mastery through attainment of knowledge for the ability to ask the questions that get to the heart of the matter.






Neighbors

The red car is gone.
For weeks (could it be months?)
it stood there in the lot
beside our garden fence.

Two young men were living there.
We said hello, talked about the heat.
They were not bad neighbors
though the smell of pee grew strong.

I knew they were in need
didn’t step in to save
didn’t complain
chose instead for steady warm civility.

And now they’re gone
not by choice, it’s said.
I wish them well, wherever they may be,
and wonder: Could I have been
a better neighbor?





Dare to imagine: A new economy is possible!

Fair Trade in Columbia

Established 21 years ago, the ColyFlor Solidarity Economic Circuit comprises 200 suppliers (rural families, women, indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities) growing agro-ecological foods in the region of Medellín, Colombia to sell at their fair trade store. It also includes a network of responsible consumers who live in Medellin and nearby municipalities. The store offers agro-ecological tours to small peasant farms, cooking courses with healthy foods, and promotion of participation in fairs and peasant markets in the city.

This effort has influenced local government rural development policies to promote agro-ecological good practice and sustainable consumption, and technical assistance for agricultural development. There are now around 17 initiatives in the region that focus on the sale of organic and agro-ecological products.

 https://transformativecities.org/atlas-of-utopias/atlas-58/




Some things that have made me hopeful recently:

At least eight states and 130 cities have legally changed Columbus Day to Indigenous People’s day, including Washington DC and Wisconsin in the last month.
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/dc-joins-100-cities-changing-columbus-day-indigenous/story?id=66183074

The governor of California has signed a law enabling the establishment of public banks in the state, and efforts in LA and San Francisco are already underway.
https://www.publicbankinginstitute.org/

Four million people around the world took part in September’s global climate strike: 
Short video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=za-S4p4BwqY&feature=youtu.be

Costa Rica has doubled its forest cover, from 26% in 1983 to 52% today.
https://www.positive.news/environment/costa-rica-doubles-its-forest-cover-in-30-years/





Resources


Money and Soul
My new book (based on a pamphlet of the same name) available via QuakerBooks or other on-line distributors.
("If money troubles your soul, try this down-to-earth Quaker perspective on economies large and small.")

Money, Debt and Liberation
A video of a talk I gave at Pendle Hill in January, 2019
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7nP8eJ5vy8

Toward a Right Relationship with Finance 
A book that I co-authored on Debt, Interest, Growth and Security.

The growth economy is failing to provide equitable well-being for humanity and a life-sustaining future for Earth.  However our institutional endowments and individual retirement are dependent on that same growth economy.  This book:
    • offers background on our current economic system--how it is based on unearned income on the one hand and debt on the other, with a built-in momentum toward economy inequality and ecological overshoot;
    • frames the conversation within the context of our deepest values and beliefs;
    • suggests plausible and historically grounded alternatives to the current system, particularly with regard to financing retirement; and
    • invites everyone to imagine new forms of durable economic and social security, and to help create the relationships and institutions that will make them a reality.
With many people now counting as never before on the performance of Wall Street for retirement security, how can this system be challenged with integrity and effectiveness?  Can we break with our dependence on financial speculation and build up new structures of security in a transformed, life-centered economy?

To order the book, or read it on line, go to http://www.quakerinstitute.org/?page_id=5 and scroll down.



More resources

www.findingsteadyground.com  

Resource from my friend Daniel Hunter, Building a Movement to End the New Jim Crow; An Organizing Guide.  http://www.danielhunter.org/books/building-movement-end-new-jim-crow-organizing-guide 

Posts on other web/blog sites:

In http://www.classism.org/gifts-american-dream/, Pamela Haines locates her family's homey DIY celebrations on a class spectrum of different connections to upward mobility.

            http://www.transitionus.org/blog/unlikely-suspects-–-deep-outreach-diverse-initiating-groups-–-pace-building-trust

        http://www.classism.org/demolition-derby

Muscle Building for Peace and Justice; a Non-Violent Workout Routine for the 21st Century--an integration of much of my experience and thinking over the years:  https://www.trainingforchange.org/publications/muscle-building-peace-and-justice-nonviolent-workout-routine-21st-century (or just google the title)