This is a blog of the Livestream show “evolve”, produced by Occupy Norfolk, and showing on that channel on Thursday nights at 10PM. Evolve, everyone, the web is already woven.
“Evolve, Love”, Tess Amoruso, 2011
The following essay was originally written in for another blog on January 1, 2011.
Affirming a Global Renaissance
Imagine yourself fifty years from today. It’s hard really to imagine what the world will be like, especially if you think about what the world looked like 50 years ago in 1961 compared to what it looks like today. It is clear that my own parents could never have imagined the technological wonders we have today, things like personal computers and global positioning systems in cars and Skype, one of the greatest inventions of all time. It’s also true that prior to the Civil Rights movement my parents could probably not have imagined a Black family living in the US White House. It probably is actually very difficult for any of us to imagine 2061, with the rate of change happening at this time technologically and socially around the globe.
Consider that what we chose to project adds our voice and our vote to that possible outcome. If we expect doom and gloom, we are adding our thoughts to that possibility. If we project optimism and flowering of consciousness, we are adding a voice in favor of that possibility instead. This blog is something like a virtual time-capsule where both images and words about the world we now inhabit as well as ideas about what the world we live in will be like are being deposited. The central idea being projected into the collective consciousness is that we are now at the time of a great opening in human communication and interaction, and we now have to make choices about what to do with these abilities. The creation of the Internet is one of the most important developments in human history. Think of how the development of the printing press freed the human mind in ways that would never have been possible without it. People no longer had to rely on the stories and pictures provided by the ruling elite, they could get and disseminate ideas they never could before. It allowed the great shifts in Western thought to happen, such as the Reformation and Enlightenment. Now just think a moment of how the Internet is shaping human knowledge and belief thorough out the world. Even in the most remote areas, as long as an Internet connection can be made, someone can not only see and hear ideas from around the world, but they can add their own voice for everyone else in the world to find as well.
This is a time where great paradigm shifts are and will be taking place in every area of human endeavor. In the West we have already seen these shifts happening in areas like women’s work, gay marriage and complementary medicine, to name a few. Perhaps the central question is what can each of us do to support positive changes that we wish to imagine. The answer has to be that we can only make changes in our own lives and behaviors, in the areas we interact in, whatever they are. In the words of Mahatma Gandhi, “Be the change you want to see in the world.”
But one more thing feels important to say, and that is simply that once we’ve done what is ours to do, we need to still accept everything and everything the way it is, because acceptance is key to peace. As for the “success” of our creative efforts, it feels as if the success must lie in the attempt.
Happy New Year everyone, may 2012 be a very good year.
DC 04 Crew, Tess Amoruso, 2011
Before first evolve show, photo by Jeremy
The Global Renaissance 