On Beliefs and Being Wrong: An Occupy Discussion with a Homeless Guy Named Zack

  This is a philosophical discussion, at the above link, which touches upon the lack of sustainability of most of our current cultural models. Treading more lightly and reverently upon the Earth is being thrust upon us, you could say, and our species will be ever more receptive to it as we run out of other options.

I was going to blog about Imbolc, the festival associated with candles, lactation, pomegranates, and beer.  Around the Mediterranean the pomegranate, and the myth of the marriage of Persephone, is the dominant pattern. Farther north the ewes begin to lactate, demonstrating that lambs are on the way, and still farther north there is burning of the Yule greenery in great sparking bonfires, to spite the darkness.

Days are in fact getting longer, and though the worst of winter in our own area is yet to come, we have hope. Jimmy the sun Prairie Groundhopg, or Punxatawney Phil, will prophesy the sort of winter yet before us at this season, at the full moon.

Already the Year of the Water Dragon has begun in Asia, at the new moon.  But really,  Zack is on to something...I think? here's a quote from the link above.

Z. No, not at all. I’m talking about what’s being called a "resource-based economic model"(9), a holistic social and economic system in which the planetary resources are held as the common heritage of all the earth's inhabitants. It is a system in which all goods and services are available to everyone without the use of money, credits, barter, or any other form of debt or servitude(10). After all, that’s mostly the system we’ve had for about 95% of human existence(11), and one which was most nobly expressed in some of the Native American Indian cultures(12). Some people, like Steve McDonald, are envisioning that we are now entering a period in our evolution that some are calling “Neo-tribalism," where “we begin to see the Earth as one complex living system with its own intelligence, and ourselves as an integral part of it all. Now the tribe is humanity itself and our sacred land is planet Earth. There’s a trend towards a non-interfering minimalistic lifestyle that’s in harmony with nature, while maintaining all the advantages of our high technology.”(13)

Q. Wholly shit man. I like the sounds of it, but that’s some utopian stuff. But, given our whole discussion here today, I’m open to being wrong. I will look into this thing you call a resource-based economic model and try to get my head around the idea of a world without money.

Hey Zack, gotta run. It’s been enlightening talking to you man. You are so “righteous” dude, ha ha.

Z. Are you sure about that? Keep in mind that I’m just a homeless bum. I could be totally wrong about everything we just discussed.

Off I go in search of a meal and a cardboard box or tent to sleep in. By the way, can you spare any change?

“Where there is recognition of right there must be recognition of wrong; where there is recognition of wrong there must be recognition of right.” Chuang Tzu 2