Civil Disobedience?
Q: Civil Disobedience?
“Aim above morality. Be not simply good, be good for something.”
— Henry David Thoreau
A: The wind is stirring, the leaves are rustling, the moon is blasting, and the planets are squaring. Change is in the air. It seems there is a deep “missing” of life before 2020 for many humans on the planet, and this full moon in Aries conjunct Chiron is only going to illuminate those wounds while rubbing them with salt. The future is upon us with every new waking day and truly, if we think it is difficult now, we should count every blessing of every moment of the now. Challenge awaits us.
It isn’t popular to speak with such a realistic tone, and while I generally lean towards optimism, it is my sense that, yes---there are much brighter days ahead, and the road into that reality is going to shake our society to the core. Who already feels shaken and stirred? If you are deeply entangled in the current politics of the moment, the stirring has you for sure. Let us lean into a dialogue with Henry’s wisdom from Civil Disobedience for company and solace.
“I ask for, not at once no government, but at once a better government.”
― Henry David Thoreau
Consider distraction. Consider that all the hype circulating around the weight of the November election is taking us away from noticing what has already occurred under our watch. The social fabric is torn and we’ve made enemies of one another. Now the opportunity to control us as a people is too easy, and we let it happen. So what can we do? We need a better government at once. And before that can happen we need to do our inner work.
“There will never be a really free and enlightened state until the state comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all its own power and authority are derived.”
― Henry David Thoreau
What I love about this time is the potential, the possibility, and the deep unwavering invitation to transmute the unearthed, putrified, rigid ‘mind’ steeped in egoic masturbation into something real and useful, such as truth, liberty, and a new future. The time is now. When else are we going to pull up our bootstraps and do the work? This is the new conversation. Why? Because we’ve been tiptoeing around it for too long.
Willingly we give our power away…to political leaders, spiritual gurus, corporations, in relationships etc. There is a longing for someone to take care of us, decide for us, and tell us what to do. We are no longer toddlers, it is time to grow up and do our inner work to reclaim ourselves from this disempowered behavior and patterning that is now a disease within our culture.
We’re too polite and ‘correct’ and not willing to call a spade a spade. Look in the mirror and take self-responsibility. We are the ones who are accountable for this mess and we are the only ones who can turn it around. Are you with me? We’ve got work to do.
“Is a democracy, such as we know it, the last improvement possible in government?”
― Henry David Thoreau
Politically speaking, the archaic abuse of our democracy is a disaster. The crumbling of the current governing structures is creating a migraine in the collective psyche, pulsing with a reminder of where we have gone wrong. Seeds of corruption are sprouting at light speed and the anxiety is running high. This is a reflection of consequence, not the origin of the problem.
“Let your life be a counter-friction to stop the machine. What I have to do is to see, at any rate, that I do not lend myself to the wrong which I condemn.”
― Henry David Thoreau
The problem is in our mind. If we want a new future, we have to create it from a place of reclamation of our selves from the ‘machine’ or the mechanical life of which we are becoming so accustomed and comfortable within. When we begin to live into the monotone existence as a convenient option, we die. Right now, our phones are training us to forget to go outside and remember to talk to other human beings. Monotone.
Whether we are looking at the current administration of the Divided States Government or the Executives at Facebook, we have to question those who are controlling our minds and their ability to do so because of our weakened wills. We have literally handed them our personal authority.
“Can there not be a government in which majorities do not virtually decide right and wrong, but conscience?—in which majorities decide only those questions to which the rule of expediency is applicable? Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience, then?
― Henry David Thoreau
Good questions Henry! (And thank you for this impeccable work on questioning authority). And for the living amongst us---soak in the Libran sunlight on this epic full moon and be vigilant with your impatience and frustration. May we continue to ask the questions inspired within the pivotal work of Civil Disobedience, and may we continue to do our part by courageously exploring the answers to them within.
We cannot change the world until we accept we are the world. This is the new conversation.
