I’m a politics junkie. I used to be a news junkie, too, but I’m in recovery. I still watch too much of my favorite news channels. They have a clear bias, but then so do I. I watch too much. I have too many strong opinions about too many things.
But I also believe in my heart of hearts that it doesn’t matter. In the grand scheme of things, it really matters not at all who is president, or who wins what other race, or whether the Soviet Union begins to reassemble. I imagine that’s making some of you gasp. It’s okay, you get to believe what you want. But let me make my case.
A Moment in the Deep End
Humanity can only evolve in one direction. Forward, although that’s a misnomer. We’re not bouncing from point to point on a vertical number line. We are more like spheres, emitting bigger spheres, that emit still bigger spheres, like nesting dolls growing from smallest to biggest. Except there will never be a biggest, and there has never been a smallest.
To put it simply, everything humanity lives through adds another layer to what we’ve already lived. So humanity gets bigger, deeper, healthier, wiser, smarter, more advanced, more understanding, more enlightened. And no matter who gets elected to what office, or who wins what war, humanity as a whole continues its evolution of continual improvement. We can’t change that.
We can, however, speed it up or slow it down. And we can participate in the contrast that brings about the change if we choose to.
What About Really Bad World Leaders?
Humanity evolves in the same direction, forward not back, outward not in, upward not down, bigger not smaller. That’s ongoing. What’s not constant is the pace of this ever-positive change.
Sometimes things are so good for so long, and we are having such a great time basking in the moment, that our progress slows down. We need these times. They feed our soul, and heal our wounds. This is the kind of living we most desire and are always reaching for. Times of peace and prosperity. We love them!
But they aren’t the only reason we’re here. We’re here to experience the widest range of possibilities each physical lifetime has to offer. And so from time to time, we expose ourselves to stuff that’s not so fun. I call the worst of those times our Dark Nights of the Soul. These are the times of trouble and conflict, times of challenge and lack, times of heartbreak and pain.
When these times come, the desire for their opposite becomes more vividly clear to us than ever. We crave joy and love and peace during times of their opposites, and therefore when we get those things, the joy is more joyful, the love more loving, the peace more serene than it has ever been before.
Dark nights, troubled times, are the power-source of our evolution. Just as diseases create cures (by spurring us to invent them) so do troubled times create joyful ones in our lives. Necessity breeds invention. If there’s no need for the new, then there’s no new. And if there’s no new, there’s no life. That’s because we humans fear change. Change is scary. Change means stepping out of the known and into the unknown. That fear makes us refuse to change until the status quo becomes unbearable. If we’d take the hints sooner, we could avoid some of the worst experiences. But if we don’t, no matter, the troubles will get bigger until we do.
This is important to understand. We live in an eternal cycle of dark, and then spark, and then growth. This is the very stuff of life. It’s life itself.
Expand This Understanding to the Global Scale
A bad leader inspires his people to a powerful desire for a great leader, a truly benevolent leader. And the desire for that leader will bring that leader into our experience. Desire is what creates reality, after all.
Everything unpleasant inspires the desire for its opposite. Hate and intolerance inspire us to wish for love and acceptance. War and violence inspire us to wish for peace and kindness. Pollution inspires us to wish for pure, fresh air and sweet, clean water. A government with a heart full of fear—fear of lack, fear of what it perceives as other, fear of someone’s gonna take my stuff and then I won ’t have any—inspires the desire for its opposite. And desire is what creates reality.
When things look bad to us in the world, we must remind ourselves that the Darkest Night of a nation is what will inspire it to its finest days. A fear-based leadership will itself, by its very existence, give birth to a leadership that works from a heart full of love for all, and an awareness of our oneness, our connection, and a secure knowing that there is plenty for all, and no need for competition.
That better world is conceptualized, fertilized, and begins to grow, during those darkest hours.
And as we shift our focus to growing the solution instead of fighting the problem, it will come into being. It will be better than it’s ever been before. And then it’ll be great for a while. And then we’ll discover some other flaw we’d like to overcome, and shine a spotlight on it, and if we don’t address it right away, it’ll get bigger. It’ll seem horrible for a little while, until we grow past it and solve it, and then things will be even greater for a while. On and on, without end.
There will never be a time when there is no room for improvement. And yet each improvement takes us to a higher level than we’ve been before.
Activism
When things happen globally that make us desire change, there are some who gather together to demand that change. The protest marchers. The cause-funders. The knowledge-spreaders. Many interpret the Law of Attraction as if it makes any of this unnecessary. And it’s true that the desired change will come as soon as enough of us want it. The scale will tip, and society will evolve. It will happen naturally in response to the dark time that inspired it. But does that mean we shouldn’t bother getting involved in causes we care about?
I grew up in the sixties and seventies, a hippy child. I’ve taken a deeper look at this, and talked to lots of activist pals about it. They fall into two very different categories and I want to talk about those here.
One group are the ones I call the “Antis.” They protest against things. They are angry about what is. The signs they carry criticize and condemn what they don’t want. They work tirelessly to end the thing they’re against, and I often hear them say things like, “I’m killing myself for this cause! But it’s important. I won’t stop until it’s done, no matter what it takes.”
The other group are those I call the “Pros.” They advocate for things. They march for the solution to the problem that the Antis are protesting against. The signs they carry talk about what they do want. They don’t have to work tirelessly because their work isn’t work to them. It’s invigorating. It’s exciting. It’s uplifting. I often hear them talk about the energy of their gatherings, the thrill of so many like-minded people coming together to help build a better world.
When we focus on something, we create more of it. Protesting against something is focusing on the thing we don’t want. Arguing about it online is creating more of it. Burning it in effigy is creating more of it. Looking up statistics about it to support our argument about how bad it is, is creating more of it. I have to remind myself of this every single day, because again, child of the sixties.
So the best, most powerful, and most effective kind of activism is activism in which we focus on the change we want. We will be more potent when we march and chant and make signs and memes that are FOR the solutions, rather than AGAINST the problem. The path to change begins with a single step, and that first step is always the same—let go of the problem, shift focus to the solution.
Watching Politics on TV
Once I’d come to understand all of the above, I was able to watch politics in the same way I can watch any other reality TV show. (Within reason. I’ve recently discovered I can still get sucked in.) The drama is fun, and I’m eager to see who wins this season. I’m rooting for my favorites and boo-hissing my villains.
But I know that in the long run, it matters not at all. We’re going to evolve and improve either way, and the leader I disagree with most is bringing about the changes I’ll love best.
With a flawed leader, those changes will come faster, and they’ll be sped up by the activists who are inspired by what they don’t like to create what they like better. And as soon as enough of those change seekers are focused on the solution, it will come, far faster than it would have without their activism. And, we might add, far faster than it would’ve come without the flawed leader that inspired the desire for change. But the progress will come, either way. Only the pace changes.
What About the Economy?
This is two subjects. There’s “The” economy and then there’s “Your” economy. Even during The Great Depression, there were people who got rich. The economy doesn’t have any impact on Your economy unless you believe it does.
If we can focus on the things that are going right, and keep ourselves in the moment, and remain confident in the drastic improvement right around the corner, we will thrive regardless of what The economy is doing.
It’s a matter of happy where I am and eager for more.
It’s a matter of I’m as confident of constant improvement as I am that the sun will rise in the morning.
It’s a matter of I’m so sure of my well-being that I never worry. I don’t lie awake nights with my mind racing, fearful, and believing in lack. I relax into sleep knowing everything is good just the way it is, and that it’s getting better all the time.
The economy never has to be Your economy. We each create our own. Knowing that takes a whole lot of the worry away, doesn’t it?
Psst! Bonus tip. When our personal economy is one of abundance, that creates a ripple effect through humankind. And it’s even bigger than our giving, our sharing, the people we employ, the dollars we spend, or the taxes we pay. Our example that abundance is possible despite a “bad economy” expands out into the world, and people who thought it was impossible before, now know better. And for them, that changes everything.
What About the Environment?
Earth was here long before humans, and She will be here long after humans are gone. She’s had countless warming trends, and cooling cycles and ice ages.
Are humans causing the current warming trend? Or is it right on schedule? Yes to both. Are humans exacerbating it, speeding it up, empowering it in any way? Yes to all three.
How can we stop it?
We can’t. It’s going to keep getting warmer, until it boomerangs into another ice age.
So what do we do? Same thing we always do. By this point of the book, you should be able to predict the next paragraph almost word for word.
First, we get aligned. We make peace with what is. We identify the goal that our awareness of the problem has inspired within us. Then we begin focusing on the improved condition we seek.
The latest evidence shows that humans have survived ice ages before, and we’ll survive ice ages again. Our focus remains on being happy right where we are.
How Do You Get Aligned With People Polluting the Earth?
By knowing She (that’s a big She, as in Big Mamma, as in Gaia, as in Don’t Mess with Mother Nature) won’t put up with our bullshit for long.
So we begin as we begin every other desire we want to manifest. The change we seek to make begins inside us.
Step 1: Think about what our awareness of the problem makes us wish for.
I imagine clean, sparkling cities with cars that run without emissions where everything is powered by clean energy. Solar panels and windmills and Tesla coils abound. I see a green rolling countryside with vegetable farms providing rich abundance to all. I see clean, fresh air, and docile honeybees that have evolved past their stinging ancestors, who sometimes land on my lips to leave drops of sweet nectar. I see fruit orchards and sparkling lakes, and oceans where coral reefs thrive and life is abundant.
This is the vision to hold if we want to help us get there. Look at this, not at the state of reality that inspired it. Don’t protest at oil spills. Plant trees instead. Never act against anything. The attention just gives it more power, makes it last longer. Be for things. Be for the things you love and long for. This isn’t saying not to march with signs. It’s saying paint what you’re for on your sign, instead of what you’re against.
Step 2: Look for ways to feel like you’re moving toward the goal.
Recycle everything, turn your leftovers into mulch, and start shopping organic. Do whatever makes you feel like you are moving your own personal environment closer to the ideal in your vision. Go vegan if that’s what you’re inspired to do. Go solar. Reduce, reuse, recycle. Make your own clothes. Live in a tiny house. Drive an electric car. Turn off the lights. Lower the thermostat. Clean up your street or neighborhood. Invent things that will help. Write things that will help. Create things that will help. Create a little microcosm of the world you wish to see, and watch it expand. I guarantee you, it will.
Step 3: Look for signs its getting closer.
If we start looking for evidence that our sparkling clean world is coming to be, we’ll help it do just that. So every day, everywhere we go, we should pay attention to the signs of improvement.
Step 4: Paradise
If we keep our eyes on the prize, we will see paradise on earth. I already see it every single day in my own back yard. First, we see it in small pockets and then we’ll notice it becoming more and more widespread. Like ripples in the water, everything we do spreads out into the Whole of creation. Nothing we do is done in isolation. Everything touches everything else. We are so much more powerful than we know.
Compare This to What Most People Do Instead
They protest, preach, shout, cry, lecture, boycott, form a human chain, block traffic, destroy property. Write books and make television programs that follow half-starved polar bears and shrinking glaciers. They fear and spread fear. They panic and spread panic. They grieve and spread grief.
And while we need to know, we can’t put so much attention on anything without making it grow. Attention is fertilizer. Our focus is an engraved invitation into our lives, hand delivered to the things we do not want. Fear. Panic. Grief.
So, all those who fear that man is harming the planet are creating harm to the planet. And those who spread that fear are creating it exponentially.
To bring about positive change, be for solutions rather than against problems. Focus on what we do want, and not on what we don’t want. And live fearlessly.
Instead of putting all our attention on the factory that’s polluting the lake, we can praise the hundreds of businesses that are green and earth-friendly. Instead of spending all our time organizing a boycott of that business, drum up support for the green ones that are doing things right. We can spend our money to support the good companies, and write reviews and share their info.
And yes, of course we should tell the powers that be about the bad business and that we want it shut down. If our building is on fire, we’re going to pull the alarm. And yes, we can boycott. If a business is doing things we don’t like, we’re going to stop spending our money there, and we’ll tell our friends to do the same. Do these things! Just don’t make them your focus. Do them and move on. As soon as possible, we must shift our attention to what’s going right, what’s happening that’s good right now, and what we can do to focus on and support the solutions into being. By doing that, we’ll feed them and help them grow.