Bottom-Up and systemic power structures are positive for humans and non-humans alike. Bottom-up/systemic is Nature's process. Bottom-Up and Systemic are not necessarily the same. The difference is that Bottom-Up necessitates Top-Down and vice versa.
Systemic is more akin to the reality of chaos theory in which everything affects everything else. Thus the old saying, "If a butterfly flaps her wings in China, the weather in New York is affected." Our Earth is a living, relational biosphere, inclusive of us.
What the butterfly does matters on a global scale. Likewise, the carbon dioxide you breathe out is breathed in by plants and trees, which then breathe out the oxygen you breathe in. Breathing has global ramifications. All of us, from the lowly ant to the weather systems to the pauper living in poverty are participants in this planet.
This is what is meant by systemic (chaotic is systemic) power structures. There is no hierarchy, only intricate reciprocity.
Change is not orchestrated nor determined by top-down governments and corporations. Nor is change initiated through the corporate dominated governments. Some change happens organically, but much important change is our human responsibility. In our voluntary actions we affect the entire world and the entire world affects us.
We can now enter a new age by birthing a new mindset. The new mindset is systemic and more bottom-up than top-down. No "Man" rules over us (Genesis 2). The curse is over because we say so. Our brothers and sisters, both human and beyond, are dependent on our conscientious exercise of our free will. We now have abrogated so much power, that we have a crucial ethical responsibility to discipline our free will to the constraints of compassion for all life on Earth. This is the "spell" we need to place on our self. Under this "new spell", the planet can thrive in peace. (Indigenous peoples have known this forever, but it is time we "civilized" people caught on too.)
In line with this new mindset, we need to negate the notion of there being an externalized papa god in the sky dictating what we should and shouldn't do and say. That god can no longer sit in judgment regarding whether or not we masturbated as adolescents. If the "Lord of the Cosmos" created sexual organs then told you not to explore them, then there is something wrong with the "King of the Cosmos." Top-down rule is the mentality of corporation, church and state. Not God / Nature. "Keep your hands out of your pants, boy, or an eternal hell will be what's coming for you!" Ok, so you shouldn't have given us desire and the pleasure of the experience of what you created!
In reality, there is something inherently wrong with us in projecting such a thing onto Nature, the Self/Brahmin in India or Yahweh/Allah/I AM, in the Abrahamic religions. Our understanding of god mirrors us, as much as we reflect our god.
Our god appears to be neurotic"Rather I should say; our dominant cultural understanding of god is neurotic. It is we that pronounced ourselves Kings of the Earth. Regarding lions, yes we may well say they are King of the Jungle until a microscopic bug takes them down!
Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).