« Cain, the Murderer? Sure ... along with All Multi Earthers! Ouch! »

By the time I was learning the Cain and Abel story in the 20th century, the purpose of the first storytellers centuries earlier had been lost on me. The conflict between nomadic herders and settled farmers had been long forgotten in the history I learned in school and church.

So I was well along in my journey of viewing how history portrays the struggle between Multi Earth and One Earth paradigms when I first began to feel the power that the story of Cain and Abel had originally as a story of the great divorce between the herder-hunter-gather, nomadic way of being in the world and the settled agriculturalist way, between those preferring decentralized power to those eager to concentrate it in cities.

Once I could listen to the story with this awareness of why its first storytellers told it, I realized I was coming to a deeper truth. As I’d heard the story taught, preached, and misused, Cain was presented as the first murderer, a dark example of fallen human nature. Nothing much more. But he and his brother are so much more. Cain and Abel were and are representative characters of a drama that changed how our species lives on Earth. Thinking of them as historical offspring of Adam and Eve could never deliver that truth. 

Question: Ray Anderson, late CEO of Interface Corporation, tells how his change of consciousness toward One Earth living involved recognizing that he’d been a predator. All of us Multi Earthers are, no? How are we murderers? (Sorry to ask such an pleasant question.) 

Comments

[Kyle Holberg]

“Ouch!” is not what I want to hear, Lee. But you’re correct; we’re killing ourselves and every other living thing. Most of us in the developed world, and I certainly include myself, live as though the Earth’s resources are limitless. Unless we are not paying attention, we should know better by now. Our insatiable desire for more and more goods and services is destroying the very ecosystem that supports life. In short, we are consuming ourselves to death. No longer are we citizens of the Earth; we are little more than consumers. And to a large degree we’ve all bought into it, I hate to admit. The message of the marketing industry is ubiquitous and unrelenting: buy, buy, buy, and if you don’t have enough to satisfy what you want or think you need, just buy more, because your happiness depends on it. Clearly, our Multi Earth ways have given many humans an existence unimaginable 100 years ago. We prosper, but at what cost? Can we say we have a truly fulfilling life today when we’re jeopardizing the future of the planet? I think not.

[K.Williams]

Kyle says 'Unless we are not paying attention, we should know better by now'. But, many are made too busy, struggling for their income, and others know there is little impact they can make to be truly worthwhile. We can salve our consciences a little but that's far from the change that is necessary from those above us with the real power. We can 'work' on them a tiny bit but their motives have to be there quickly and radically. Do you see this happening? I don't.

[Lee Van Ham]

Kyle - Earth is testing our maturity. When we view the world and our lives from the greater maturity of consciousness that One Earth living requires, we can say, "Jeepers! I've really been snookered! I'm determined, out of love for Earth, Creator, and all that lives, to find my place within the community of life." Immature consciousness goes into a dozen forms of denial, blaming, and being the victim (I can't do anything worth doing).

K. - No, I don't see the real Powers changing. They'll have to convert out of their whole way of being and doing into the One Earth paradigm which shouts "No!" to theirs. A few, like Ray Anderson of Interface Corp. did convert. The collapse of the system of the Powers is as sure as the extinction of dinosaurs. BUT I could be wrong. Howard Zinn said that the future is too uncertain to believe change won't happen. For me, I'm seeking to live into and out of a more mature One Earth consciousness. That fills my times completely, reconnects me with Earth's community of life, is my spiritual practice, and takes me into self-empowerment of doing what I yearn for and love passionately. I'm weary of focusing much energy in active protest; I'm energized by working on alternatives. I believe creating alternatives is actually the best and most powerful form of protest. Keep posting your thoughts!

[K.Williams]

Thank you LVH. How wonderful! Can I ask what exactly it is that you yearn for and love passionately; and briefly, what alternatives you are doing, other than writing, that fulfil this yearning and love? I can imagine some answers but more concrete ones would be appreciated, if at all possible.

[Lee Van Ham]

K. - I yearn to live as a participant in the Earth community of life (all species and in sync with the rhythms of the planet, cosmos). I'm not there yet. The process of reconnecting feels like loving and being loved. Now, as to what I do? So many things and so needing to learn more. Especially wanting to engage the paradigm shifting practices, not the more cosmetic ones. Your request provokes two thoughts: (1) I will be sharing practices I do that I believe to be One Earth or tilted that way; (2) it would be good if this website could offer a forum for readers to share what they do so that we can grow one another's consciousness and practices. Just to put up a few here: avoid chains and corporations as much as possible; use credit unions or community development banks for all banking; whether at home or restaurant, eat local as much as possible (local is huge); trains are by far best ecological way to travel between cities (unless you can bicycle) ... More soon.

[K.Williams]

LVH Thank-you for the e-mail I have received (not showing above). It is good to share ideas.
A comment of yours from April 2011 said the multi-earths story is reliant on our fear. I am in agreement with this and hold it to be the fundamental cause of our erroneous living from the tiny to the mighty. Paul Hawken apparently once wrote, and stands by, the following sentence: ‘There is no polite way to say that business is destroying the world.’ Yet he also believes, passionately, that business―with its restless energy, imagination, and creativity―will one day get us out of the mess it has made. Says Hawken: ‘I believe business is on the verge of . . . a change brought on by social and biological forces that can no longer be ignored or put aside.’”
I agree that businesses have certainly played on our fears. The blind leading the blind. I yearn for the world to see the consequences of our fears. Do you think this is ever possible or only by individuals? Will our lower human traits always surface one way or another? As a species, could we really ever overcome our fear for our own survival and learn to share and love the earth? Jesus said we need perfect love to overcome fear. (I appreciate that as individuals 'every little bit helps, and our lives are short). Ultimately, are you saying we must again become hunter/gatherers - Is that even conceivable? What do you think about fear being our fundamental problem and any potential for a larger understanding to help us against it?

[K.Williams]

Hello LVH, Have you been too busy to respond? I realise there was quite a bit for you to answer, but I hope you can give, at least, some brief replies. Regards, K.

[Lee Van Ham]

K. - Several comments. All brief, though a fuller conversation would cover pages. (1) Forms of fear and anxiety permeate Multi Earth living. When the ideal for living requires resources from many planets but we have only one, how can there not be anxiety about getting, about competing, about security? (2) Yes, businesses are continually being designed in One Earth ways. Business models do not have to be rapacious. The global corporation, however, is murderously so. Is there even such a thing as a product advertisement that doesn't tell us that we are not enough as we are? Ads preach a message of human inadequacy with such finesse. (3) I see no reason inherent in humans why we cannot live in a consciousness not ruled by fear. Where I'm heading (in time) in this blog is into a dual movement of human consciousness and a One Earth worldview that generate structures and systems evoking and feeding our capacities to love, feel awe and wonder, share generously, find joy in enough instead of more, and such. Why is this not possible?

[Lee Van Ham]

K - One more thing. No, One Earth living is not about returning to hunter-gatherer ways. Primarily, One Earth ways are not about returning. The hunter-gather tradition, still continuing today for thousands, has earned the right to be at the table, however, because they prove they know how to do what Multi Earth living does not. One Earth living is about moving one another beyond the stunted consciousness in which the Multi Earth paradigm holds us, and into the consciousness fully capable of conceiving the patterns and structures that fit with Earth's creational order.

[K.Williams]

LVH- Many thanks. You say that the hunter-gather tradition has earned the right to be at the table because they prove they know how. – So, I wonder, have we never had their consciousness or, have we had it but lost it, and if lost, then why? Whichever it is, Jesus gave us the recipe for this consciousness, and yet we fail to use it. I wonder how you will produce a way to turn on the light and a system to sustain it. Perhaps your book explains and I ask too much? Responses even brief are very welcomed but if you are unable I must close with my wholehearted support for your endeavour and hope that I, in some way (some ways are surely less than obvious), contribute to such a consciousness in this One Earth, along with yourself and other like-minded.

[K.Williams]

LVH- I meant to add with optimism, perhaps, the time is now ripe?

[Lee Van Ham]

K. - Yes, you do anticipate where my writing is headed whether blog or book(s). Here's how we lost the consciousness for One Earth living. Consciousness, a kind of mental structure, aligns closely with paradigm or worldview. These mental constructs shape our behaviors; the structures we create in an economy or gov't replicate the constructs in our minds. And the constructs in our minds, to some degree, get shaped by the external structures. So hunters-gathers lived then and still do today with a consciousness that includes the spiritual in their worldview. Technological, Multi Earth worldview does not. When we live in a superpower, and buy into its ways, we stunt the development of our consciousness. The paradigm captures us, imprisons us. "Release of the captives" is a major theme of Jubilee, Isaiah, and Jesus. it's enormously challenging to evolve a mature consciousness living in globalization and successions of empires and concentrations of wealth and power. Traditional Indigenous People and hunter-gatherers have stayed with their powerful tradition of an evolved, One Earth consciousness. Though Multi Earthers consider them backward, poor, primitive, marginalized, and such, they know that Multi Earth ways cannot finally succeed. Their consciousness is more advanced. Finally, you refer to Jesus as having the consciousness we need. I think the word "Christ" or "christos, messiah" is the name for divine consciousness or One Earth consciousness. This consciousness finds carriers in every religious tradition and outside of them. Jesus embodied it eloquently. Thanks for the comments and conversation.

[K.Williams]

LVH - thanks again. I think the cause for super powers arising and the cause for buying into them is our ignorance (lack of developed consciousness). In this way, it is forgivable - to the extent that we need to develop. The question is how much will- power are we prepared to give for the effort of developing? I'm not sure about the answer on a global scale, but I can live in hope. I would be interested to read your book in whatever form it takes. Perhaps you can notify me when it becomes available. Best wishes, K.