"Thoughts On the Manifesto!"

#3

by Michael Ivan Skye

A new kind of revolution... an Inner Revolution

As revolutionaries in any endeavor, there is only so much we can achieve with traditional methods. 

We want to achieve our mission.  We want to see our vision manifested in reality.  We want the other side to “see the light,” to “wake up,” to change.

And we implement all sorts of strategies.  Take your pick,

• rational argument, logic, debate

• pass a law, get elected, gain a political majority

• violent rebellion or revolution

• non-violent rebellion or protest

• pressure through guilt or fear

• force, threat of force, military might, terrorism

• teach or preach to the other side

• use slick tricks or skills to manipulate, negotiate or persuade

• manipulate popular opinion through the media

• inspire a movement or mass of people to join the cause and fight the “good fight”

• complain, criticize

• gain sympathy

• compromise

• bribe, buy favors

• seduce

• punishment and reward

• defend our position

• attack

• call the other side “evil” to justify war and violence

• monarchy, dictatorship, communism – unquestionable authority ruling by force

• democracy – majority rule

• etc., etc.

All these imply one thing:  Causing change requires getting the other side to change, give in or conform to the change that we want.  Or when we get enough people to change and join our side, our conclusions, our beliefs… THEN we can defeat the other side.

This is as old as time, and is something we learn from an early age.  From early childhood we must find a way to struggle and survive in a world where everyone wants something from us.  Others impose their values systems on us with their punishments, rewards, education, propaganda, advertising, criticisms, judgments, seductions, the look in their eye or laughter that shames some behavior of ours, etc.

We learn to build some kind of defense against all this psychological pressure.  We form psychological walls or boundaries in the form of judgments and conclusions about who we are, who others are, the way the world is, the way it should be, what is right, what is wrong, what is true, what is false, etc.

We form beliefs about ourselves, others and the world around us.  These beliefs protect us and keep us safe.

And so when we come into conflict with people of opposing beliefs, it fundamentally threatens us—who we are, the foundation we stand on, and the walls we’ve built to protect us.  Fear has us wanting to defeat those who threaten our beliefs.  We want to convert them to our beliefs, or at least get them to conform and obey our beliefs, or at the very least we want them to not threaten our beliefs or way of life.

We are positionaries.  Regardless of our beliefs, we form some kind of position, defend it and attack from it.  We want to win.

This strategy no longer works. 

In an age before we had so many nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, you could actually win by war.  At least for a while.  You could defeat the other side by either wiping them out completely (as Christians did in the Crusades, for example, slaughtering man, woman and child in the name of God), or you could threaten to do so and thus get them to agree to surrender and obey.

This strategy no longer works also because we expect more.  More and more we are starting to see our potential to create unlimited wealth, health, etc.  Competing to defeat the other side is becoming seen as an obviously weaker solution, as defeating the other side weakens our own ability to create and win together. 

People are starting to expect more from government than law passing, compromising and going back and forth trying to defeat the other side… to gain more advantages over others.  Democracy, or majority rule (at least as it exists now) is no longer enough.  Placing limits on the other side, and trying to protect ourselves by doing this no longer works as well.  More and more people are tasting freedom, and believing this to be their right.

The revolution that must happen now, must be an inner revolution.  A revolution born in part from human beings see the ridiculousness, hopelessness, destructiveness and sheer stupidity of operating from a position.

It is time for a revolution in human thought and behavior.  A new way of being in which we are all called from within to rise above our fear-based positions and beliefs, and align on the level of core human values.  A new way of being that goes far beyond conforming to the norms of our particular culture, society or belief system.  A way of being far beyond being "good."

This revolution calls for each of us to step into greatness.

There have been some great people who have exhibited this new way of being, Gandhi for example.  You need not agree with his position on non-violence.  Yet his strategy was one of inner revolution.  Extreme personal responsibility.  This one man, living from his stand, not from his position, brought down the greatest empire in the world--in his lifetime.

Lest the reader of these words revert to what he or she already believes... that we simply must all love each other more... or that we must spread democracy to all countries... or that we must all sacrifice ourselves to the greater good... or we must all unite to end poverty in the world...

I invite you to look deeper.  We have held those as solutions for a while now.  Real change will happen naturally when the idea is one whose time has come.

It’s really not enough to say, for example, "We need to love everybody more." Because you have your position about what that means.  Love animals.  Love earth.  Love God.  You have your position about what that looks like.  And we must go deeper than trying to convert or outcompete those who see it differently.

We must free ourselves from the limited world of positions and beliefs.  We must step forward inside of our stand for human values that others can get behind.  And then head boldly into the unknown, trusting that from our commitment to Stand For, we can co-create on levels totally impossible to the positionary. 

This kind of being empowers us and frees us to live boldly with vision, creating in the face of the unknown.

We must have this new level of freedom—freedom on an entirely new dimension—and we must have it now.  We cannot force it.  We can only be it.  Live it.

Living life at the level of vision, from which you call yourself and all others into aligned heroic action--into greatness--is all there is to do. 

So what next? 

Our new 1-day workshops are a powerful beginning!