The Reverence Movement

So I wish I could link to a Q&A Orion Magazine had on Van Jones, who works with Ella Baker Center for Human Rights in Oakland. Van speaks about what it means to be an activist, and, specifically, what he calls "the reverence movement." I am so excited about this!

interview:

A reverence movement is, at the end of the day, taking corrective steps to further enhance the beauty of others and the beauty of yourself.

If you ask people what their actual experience of being on the left is, lots of people say, "Oh, we're saving the world, blah, blah, blah. I say: "No, no, no, what's your experience--like, Thursday?" They say: "Oh, it was horrible." It's like the difference between using diesel versus solar as your energy source. Anger is a messy fuel that eventually causes more problems than it can solve.


Van_jones

Putting a generation of kids in a prison is like clear cutting a forest. We deeply believe we have a throwaway planet--throwaway species, resources, neighborhoods, nations, continents. Young people and adults in prison have been thrown away as well. Once they're outside the circle of people who deserve dignity and respect, then they can be preyed upon. The prisoners can be worked--Angola in Louisiana is a classic example. Or by big corporations here in California: Microsoft, for some of their packaging; Victoria's Secret and United Airlines, for their telemarketing orders...it's all related. The polluters, the clearcutters, the incarcerators, they're all enacting the same story: money is more important than life, and we have the technology or the guns to protect ourselves from any consequences of our heedlessness.

One thing I know from my own experience is that demonization and deification are the same process, two sides of the same coin, and if you set yourself up to be deified, then you can't be mad when the other side demonizes you. The idea that either you're this egomaniac who's only out there for yourself or you're this pure martyr with no personal ambitions or desires--both of those are false.

I think people who want to change society have a double duty. We have to be willing to confront the warmonger within and without, the punitive incarcerator within and without, the polluter within and without, the greedy capitalist developer within and without. We have to really look at how we are--combative, punitive, self-destructive, greedy; we're passionate about changing that in the external world, even as it we enact it in our internal world and in our relationships with each other.

We have this whole David and Goliath syndrome. If you're an activist, that has a positive side: you want to confront unjust authority, fight against long odds, hold out the possibility of miraculous outcomes. And that's a good thing.

But there's a shadow side to David and Goliath, which is that there's got to be some big mean other. You've got to be the small underdog all the time and there's got to be some confrontation between absolute good (you) and absolute evil (the other). If you're an activist then you know what I'm talking about; you know what it's like when you try to lead a meeting and somebody's got to challenge you on every point. You know what it's like when you get everyone riled up to attack the mayor, and the mayor doesn't show up, and everybody attacks you. It's part of the toxic stuff you're playing with.

Also, you have to have enough respect to realize that Goliath has probably figured out the slingshot thing by now. So to continue to do the same thing over and over again, which is what we've been doing since the 60's, keeps us from being creative. And it's probably going to yield worse results over time.

The other thing is, it could be that you're just in the wrong book of the Bible altogether. It could be that it's not really about David and Goliath; it's really about Noah. The kinds of really serious challenges that are coming up will feel more like what happened down in New Orleans. it's easy to say there's an evil Goliath called George Bush who's letting bad things happen to good people. But even if George Bush were to leave the planet, we've still got major, major climate destabilization to deal with. And so it could be that we need to figure out new ways to win--to be open to the possibility that sometimes we can win Goliath over to helping us build the ark.

Network of Spiritual Progressives

Check this out! These folks are on point! They are called the Network of Spiritual Progressives, they are spiritual and are calling for radical transformation of society (I mean, buddhists are doing that too, but this is networking across different faiths, which I think is really good). Apparently Cornel West is one of their founders and they suggest Michael Nagler's A Search for a Nonviolent Future as a foundational text of their movement. Cool!

http://www.spiritualprogressives.org/

Human Needs

Abraham Maslow is a psychologist I actually like. Check out his human needs theory, we should be teaching this in k-12, college, grad school etc. but instead we teach people to be greedy, competitive and to make lots of money at the sake of their own happiness, the well being of other people and the health of our planet. How dumb.

Being needs

Though the deficiency needs may be seen as "basic", and can be met and neutralized (i.e. they stop being motivators in one's life), self-actualization and transcendence are "being" or "growth needs" (also termed "B-needs"), i.e. they are enduring motivations or drivers of behaviour.

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Self-actualization

Self-actualization (a term originated by Kurt Goldstein) is the instinctual need of humans to make the most of their unique abilities and to strive to be the best they can be. Maslow describes self-actualization as follows:

Self Actualization is the intrinsic growth of what is already in the organism, or more accurately, of what the organism is. (Psychological Review, 1949)

Maslow writes the following of self-actualizing people:

• They embrace the facts and realities of the world (including themselves) rather than denying or avoiding them.
• They are spontaneous in their ideas and actions.
• They are creative.
• They are interested in solving problems; this often includes the problems of others. Solving these problems is often a key focus in their lives.
• They feel a closeness to other people, and generally appreciate life.
• They have a system of morality that is fully internalized and independent of external authority.
• They judge others without prejudice, in a way that can be termed objective.

In short, self-actualization is reaching your fullest potential.

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Self-transcendence

At the top of the triangle, self-transcendence is also sometimes referred to as spiritual needs.

Viktor Frankl expresses the relationship between self-actualization and self-transcendence in Man's Search for Meaning. He writes:

The true meaning of life is to be found in the world rather than within man or his own psyche, as though it were a closed system....Human experience is essentially self-transcendence rather than self-actualization. Self-actualization is not a possible aim at all, for the simple reason that the more a man would strive for it, the more he would miss it.... In other words, self-actualization cannot be attained if it is made an end in itself, but only as a side effect of self-transcendence. (p.175)

Maslow believes that we should study and cultivate peak experiences as a way of providing a route to achieve personal growth, integration, and fulfillment. Peak experiences are unifying, and ego-transcending, bringing a sense of purpose to the individual and a sense of integration. Individuals most likely to have peak experiences are self-actualized, mature, healthy, and self-fulfilled. All individuals are capable of peak experiences. Those who do not have them somehow depress or deny them.

Maslow originally found the occurrence of peak experiences in individuals who were self-actualized, but later found that peak experiences happened to non-actualizers as well but not as often. In his The Farther Reaches of Human Nature (New York, 1971) he writes:

I have recently found it more and more useful to differentiate between two kinds of self-actualizing people, those who were clearly healthy, but with little or no experiences of transcendence, and those in whom transcendent experiencing was important and even central … It is unfortunate that I can no longer be theoretically neat at this level. I find not only self-actualizing persons who transcend, but also nonhealthy people, non-self-actualizers who have important transcendent experiences. It seems to me that I have found some degree of transcendence in many people other than self-actualizing ones as I have defined this term …

Ken Wilber, a theorist and integral psychologist who was highly influenced by Maslow, later clarified a peak experience as being a state that could occur at any stage of development and that "the way in which those states or realms are experienced and interpreted depends to some degree on the stage of development of the person having the peak experience." Wilber was in agreement with Maslow about the positive values of peak experiences saying, "In order for higher development to occur, those temporary states must become permanent traits." Wilber was, in his early career, a leader in Transpersonal psychology, a distinct school of psychology that is interested in studying human experiences which transcend the traditional boundaries of the ego.

In 1969, Abraham Maslow, Stanislav Grof and Anthony Sutich were the initiators behind the publication of the first issue of the Journal of Transpersonal Psychology

Damn violence! ya basta!

I wrote this because I was doing some reading on Stan Tookie Williams and got really sad and cryed about the messed up nature of our prison justice system and all the violence in the world! Damn violence! ya basta!

Oakland’s Nonviolent Future
By Jerlina Love

The leaves have begun to fall across the East Bay, California, marking the end of Oakland’s first summer of nonviolence. Started by the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights with a series of candlelight vigils held throughout the Bay Area in June, community members prayed for a summer in Oakland without violence and with the presence of constructive change. This violence, which erupts as homicides and more often as fistfights on schoolyards and street corners, is killing Oakland residents both physically and spiritually.
I attended one of these Vigils on 61st and San Pablo to demonstrate my deep concern with the violence in Oakland. As we discussed our vision of a nonviolent Oakland, I silently doubted that nonviolence in Oakland was possible. It was not until I started thinking about Oakland continuing on its path of violence when I realized that nonviolence is fundamentally possible and absolutely necessary in my hometown. I also realized how my life could contribute to this change.
In order to clearly understand both the necessity and possibility of nonviolence, I first had to think about the situation currently facing Oakland and the prognosis of what this might look like if it continues. Remember how you felt the morning of September 12th, 2001? In some parts of Oakland, every day feels like that morbid day. My earliest memories as a child living in East Oakland, are of the day after a drive-by in front of my family’s apartment. The fear, confusion, denial and outrage were hardly different than what the country felt the day after 9-11. The difference in my community was that an outside force did not perpetuate the violence; it was perpetuated by and against residents of the same neighborhood
If the violence and fear continue on their course without nonviolent intervention, Oakland’s violent crime rate will increase, more youth will be sent to suffer in the California prison system, and more people will live lives burdened by the psycho-spiritual after affects of violence. In the face of such a prognosis, it becomes alarmingly clear that we have to abandon our old model of living in fear and we must transform it into courage, while we transform violence into nonviolence, if we want to rebuild Oakland.
This transformation of violence into nonviolence is deeply connected with an internal transformation within the lives of Oakland residents, which is part of the journey to Oakland’s nonviolent future. This internal change was demonstrated in the life of Stan Tookie Williams, a former resident of San Quentin Prison and a Nobel Peace Prize nominee. Williams lived a life inundated by violence. Williams co-founded the Crips, a violent youth gang and after killing three people Williams was sent to prison, where he continued to live a life encapsulated by violence. Then in 1993, while in solitary confinement, Williams experienced an inner transformation.
Williams told Mother Jones magazine in March/April 2001, “I unchained my mind, and I did so through prayers and extensive study. I had to seriously question whether I was a human or a beast. In choosing not to be a beast, I discovered my humanity. I became autodidactic, self-educated -- a critical thinker.” It was then that Williams began to work for nonviolence. This change included developing a new sense of respect for human life, including his own. It also included taking courageous actions to stop violence and encourage community building, represented by his children’s books about nonviolence where he advocated for youth to courageously reject gang life and the use of violence.
For Williams, this internal transformation was at the core of his nonviolent work. For Williams to speak about ending violence, he had to end it in his heart. As Oakland hyphy artist Ise Lyfe says, “In order to speak about freedom you have to be freedom,” and in order to speak about nonviolence Williams was nonviolent in mind and action. Even while living in a prison, the most violent of environments, Williams was able to make this transformation, which gives hope to Oakland’s residents who seek change.
Like Williams, we daughters and sons of Oakland must transform the violence in our hearts to nonviolence. Nonviolence is the development of relationships, from intra-personal to societal, that are grounded in respect. Nonviolence is a rough translation of “ahimsa,” which means the lack of intention to harm and the respect for all life. As activists in the civil rights movement demonstrated, it takes immense courage to hold onto nonviolence in moments of adversity, but it is also these moments when the courageous adherence to the respect for all life is the most powerful. When someone spreads rumors about us, steps on our tennis shoes, or hits us, the nonviolent response is to maintain our respect for the other person’s humanity while taking courageous and compassionate action against the harm done. This might start with direct nonviolent communication. This takes transforming the heat of rage into disciplined construction rather than letting it explode into uncontrolled destruction.
Living our lives nonviolently and transforming Oakland not only includes collective internal transformation, it also involves challenging both direct and structural violence. Direct violence is exemplified by fistfights or war, whereas structural violence is exemplified by poverty or hunger and is the result of exploitive and unjust social, political and economic systems . Challenging these forms of violence may include spreading community awareness about an issue and organizing to participate in nonviolent direct action. The final aspect of contributing to a nonviolent Oakland is our participation in constructive programs such as community gardens, independent media and educational programs. By transforming our self-loathing to self-respect, by challenging direct and structural violence, and by helping to build programs that model the peace building that we would like to see, we are making the future of a nonviolent Oakland our present reality.
The cops don’t need to stop abusing people, the gangs don’t need to reconcile their conflicts, and spouses do not need to stop abusing each other before we begin to develop nonviolence in Oakland. What always comes first in a nonviolent movement are people’s decisions to take individual responsibility in making change happen. These decisions often indicate inner transformations in the people who become involved. The action taken once these decisions are made then fuel that inner transformation and social transformation forward. In this way, nonviolence works like violence: it starts inside of our individual lives and it escalates, affecting our relationships with our communities and with society as a whole. I invite you to join us at any step along the way, in this social, spiritual and psychological experiment with respect and transformation and see how these forces spiral out from your own life and into the streets of Oakland. May the falling leaves remind you that this experiment with nonviolence in Oakland has already begun.


Jerlina Love is a graduate student in African Diaspora Studies at UC Berkeley, where she studies principled nonviolence. This article is in memory of Carlos Aceituno, a peace and cultural activist who passed away September 27, 2006.

Resources:

Silence the Violence, Ella Baker Center:
http:// ellabakercenter.org/

Jerlina’s Blog on Spirituality, Nonviolence and Art in the Bay Area:
http://i-mlove.blogspot.com/

The Metta Center for Nonviolence Education
http://www.mettacenter.org/