If we don't move back into alignment with nature, we will die. Nature will reset and go on without us. - mystichermitwitch
I'm tired of the bright ideas of white men. They come up with the most wild, crazy ass shit but their imaginations are so limited, they cannot conceive an idea that isn't based on the exploitation of some supposedly "free" resource. The resource could be natural or human but in their minds, it's free for the taking. They claim total ownership and control of it and think they can do whatever they will with it. This is the logic that proclaimed, after crossing an ocean and being met by people who were already there, that the land was empty and therefore theirs. Fuck consequences. What? Consequences? Not for them.
I hate it for us that we have accepted the logic of extraction. One of the first lessons I learned in Ifa is that nothing is free because everything is interconnected. Everything costs something. Either the price is paid up front or it's delayed and paid later with interest. It is truly unfortunate that we shrug our shoulders and say, "This is the only way we can make progress" without thinking about what that actually means. Who is the "we"? What is the "progress"? At what point is the price of that "progress" too high? We have become too comfortable with suffering and pain as synonymous with growth (especially if that suffering and pain is happening in nature or with certain groups of people).
We prioritize the selfish, exploitative dreams of opportunistic white men over the health of our planet and our overall well-being. I've seen this on a local level when projects and ideas which are not based on the logic of extraction (often developed and implemented by Black women and others who are part of "appropriately exploited" groups) are denied funding or otherwise shutdown and discredited even as they were producing results.
We're closing our eyes to the signs that this unsustainable state of affairs is coming to an end. In true Uranus in Taurus fashion, the constants in nature which the extractionists have relied on are shifting rapidly and unpredictably. This is having an effect on our systems of governance (Jupiter). People are growing tired of being exploited. Our societies are volatile and unstable.
The bill for generations of "progress" is coming due. With all the accumulated interest. We have to challenge the assumptions underlying the logic of extraction. We can do this in big and small ways. One way is to question what is being proposed to us as being necessary for progress. Ask who will it really benefit. Examine it to see what purportedly "free" resource is being exploited. Don't let the proponents minimize what are often really obvious consequences. And for the love of everything, let's stop being so tolerant of pain and suffering.
It's budget season in Nashville. Budgets show where the priorities of our elected officials are. Year after year they have demonstrated that they are masters of the logic of extraction. But there are other ideas which defy the logic of extraction in favor of the logic of community and care. The Varsity Spending Plan proposed by the Southern Movement Committee has been developed in the community by the community. The Nashville People's Budget Coalition is also soliciting input from the community on how we want our public dollars spent. Please complete the survey.
We don't have to continue being in thrall to the soul killing logic of extraction. We can move back into alignment with nature and back into unity with each other. We have a clear opportunity to move toward life and health. We only need to open our eyes to the possibilities before us and move toward the light.
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