ACT NOW OR FOREVER HOLD YOUR PEACE
And did those feet in ancient time
Walk upon England's mountain green?
And was the holy Lamb of God
On England's pleasant pastures seen?
And did the countenance divine
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here
Among those dark satanic mills?
Bring me my bow of burning gold!
Bring me my arrows of desire!
Bring me my spear! O clouds, unfold!
Bring me my chariot of fire!
I will not cease from mental fight,
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand,
Till we have built Jerusalem
In England's green and pleasant land.
Walk upon England's mountain green?
And was the holy Lamb of God
On England's pleasant pastures seen?
And did the countenance divine
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here
Among those dark satanic mills?
Bring me my bow of burning gold!
Bring me my arrows of desire!
Bring me my spear! O clouds, unfold!
Bring me my chariot of fire!
I will not cease from mental fight,
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand,
Till we have built Jerusalem
In England's green and pleasant land.
William Blake 1804
I first heard about this group (known as XR) in autumn 2018 when they occupied five of London's bridges in a mass-protest against governmental inaction on the Climate Crisis (as it is now known to be!) I instantly felt a profound empathy with what these folks were up to and contacted XR in London to discuss setting up a group in my local town of Penzance, which is in West Cornwall, Great Britain. Despite my wish and intention to form a group then, my own life was very unstable as I was homeless, ill and already deeply committed to some very demanding civil rights activism concerning the murder of black Muslim US prisoner Darren Rainey and the relentless campaign of The Caged Crusader - my dear friend and brother Harold Hempstead, aka The Witness, aka Miami Harold. I had to be realistic and admit to myself that it was not practical for me to try to form yet another campaigning group under those circumstances.
As things occurred I got my sick-money cut off by this reactionary government and so became a virtual destitute (along with half a per cent of the British population, around 300,000 to date) and did not form a local XR group. Happily though some other folks did and I soon became involved with Extinction Rebellion Penzance. This group is now thriving, as is our neighbour-group in St.Just. As indeed are numerous other groups on this island and in many lands a-foreign.
All the info on XR is of course available on the jewel-net (sometimes called the internet.)
What I'm giving here is a personal view. XR can inform you of what they are all about. If you are moved by what you read and hear of this group I strongly suggest you find (or form) a group in your own area or nation - (If living under totalitarianism obviously proceed with caution!)
One of the most admirable qualities of Extinction Rebellion is its insistence on the ethos and techniques of Peaceful-Resistance, also known as Non Violent Direct Action which has its cultural roots in the Ahimsa of the classical culture of Vedic ancient India.
By the later half of the nineteenth century a few books on Buddhism, Hinduism, Vedanta, Zazen and other mystic traditions of the orient started appearing in Europe in translation. Count Leo Tolstoy, the great Anarchist author came across an ancient Tamil text rendered into German - Tirukkural. This, combined with his devout Christianity and staunch Anarchism, crystallized into a philosophy of peaceful resistance to governmental mal and social iniquity in its myriad forms.
Among the countless millions of people around the world who have been uplifted by Tolstoyan philosophy was a young Indian lawyer by the name of Mohandas Ghandi.
Using the philosophy of Ahimsa to animate a brilliant strategy of civil-resistance, Gandhi freed one of the World's largest countries from one of the world's most powerful empires. Gandhi had also been influenced by Henry David Thoreau, the great American Transcendentalist author who lived wild in the woods of Walden and preached the moral doctrine of Civil Disobedience. (Thoreau had been exposed to the "new" Hindu ideas along with Ralph Waldo Emerson.) Thoreau was happy to spend some nights in jail for refusing to pay his taxes as he disapproved of the Mexican-American War being waged by the emerging colonial super-power against its impoverished brother-nation. He was a man of conscience who believed that you should not cooperate with that which you believe to be wrong. This idea, combined with many Hindu concepts, strongly influenced Ghandi's notion of Satyagraha which is basically relying on the power of truth to animate a stance of non-cooperation with a corrupt government or power-structure.
From Gandhi the light passed to Dr Martin Luther King Jr. in Alabama, USA. Dr King was profoundly influenced by the active-pacifism of Mahatma (Great Soul) Gandhi and its influence became central to his monumental struggle for Civil Rights for USA's Black population in the 1960's. In the psyche of Black America, Dr King is perhaps on a similar level to that of His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, is to Tibetans. The "humble monk" from the roof of the world is another world-famous proponent of non-violent resistance to oppression who received the Noble Prize for Peace in 1989.
With Ahimsa firmly at the centre of the Extinction Rebellion campaign's philosophy, the group is attempting to quite literally save the world! That's good enough for me and I am very happy to play an active role in this great existential drama, this spiritual battle that has been declared.
My own view is that those of us involved in this rebellion against the extinction of life on Earth would be wise to continue studying the history of organized struggle to glean all the lessons available and perhaps avoid making some of the mistakes of our predecessors in similar movements.
Happily, the people who created this movement have already done deep studies and based policy on a perfect blend of moral-philosophy and peer-reviewed scientific studies, combined with proven effective techniques of civil disobedience.
I recently discovered the brilliant slogan "The greatest threat to the world is the belief that somebody else will save it." If you feel this - then you know what to do.
Before they shot him, Joe Hill, the legendary International Workers of the World union-activist summed up the situation in three words that seem to ring true in the face of the great darkness we now face: "Don't mourn - ORGANIZE!"
अहिंसा परमॊ धर्मस तथाहिंसा परॊ दमः।
अहिंसा परमं दानम अहिंसा परमस तपः।
अहिंसा परमॊ यज्ञस तथाहिस्मा परं बलम।
अहिंसा परमं मित्रम अहिंसा परमं सुखम।
अहिंसा परमं सत्यम अहिंसा परमं शरुतम॥
Ahimsa is the highest virtue, Ahimsa is the highest self-control,
Ahimsa is the greatest gift, Ahimsa is the best suffering,
Ahimsa is the highest sacrifice, Ahimsa is the finest strength,
Ahimsa is the greatest friend, Ahimsa is the greatest happiness,
Ahimsa is the highest truth, and Ahimsa is the greatest teaching
As the rather more modern Bard aka Shakespeare put it:
What's he
that wishes so?
My cousin Westmoreland? No, my fair cousin;
If we are mark'd to die, we are enow
To do our country loss; and if to live,
The fewer men, the greater share of honor.
God's will! I pray thee, wish not one man more.
By Jove, I am not covetous for gold,
Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost;
It yearns me not if men my garments wear;
Such outward things dwell not in my desires.
But if it be a sin to covet honor,
I am the most offending soul alive.
No, faith, my coz, wish not a man from England.
God's peace! I would not lose so great an honor
As one man more methinks would share from me
For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more!
Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host,
That he which hath no stomach to this fight,
Let him depart; his passport shall be made,
And crowns for convoy put into his purse;
We would not die in that man's company
That fears his fellowship to die with us.
This day is call'd the feast of Crispian.
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam'd,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbors,
And say "To-morrow is Saint Crispian."
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,
And say "These wounds I had on Crispian's day."
Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember, with advantages,
What feats he did that day. Then shall our names,
Familiar in his mouth as household words-
Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester-
Be in their flowing cups freshly rememb'red.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered-
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.
My cousin Westmoreland? No, my fair cousin;
If we are mark'd to die, we are enow
To do our country loss; and if to live,
The fewer men, the greater share of honor.
God's will! I pray thee, wish not one man more.
By Jove, I am not covetous for gold,
Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost;
It yearns me not if men my garments wear;
Such outward things dwell not in my desires.
But if it be a sin to covet honor,
I am the most offending soul alive.
No, faith, my coz, wish not a man from England.
God's peace! I would not lose so great an honor
As one man more methinks would share from me
For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more!
Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host,
That he which hath no stomach to this fight,
Let him depart; his passport shall be made,
And crowns for convoy put into his purse;
We would not die in that man's company
That fears his fellowship to die with us.
This day is call'd the feast of Crispian.
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam'd,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbors,
And say "To-morrow is Saint Crispian."
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,
And say "These wounds I had on Crispian's day."
Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember, with advantages,
What feats he did that day. Then shall our names,
Familiar in his mouth as household words-
Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester-
Be in their flowing cups freshly rememb'red.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered-
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.
PEOPLE'S SPONTANEOUS DECLARATION OF SOVEREIGN AUTONOMY
We The People of this Earth Demand the Right to Life.
Furthermore we demand and assume the right as sovereign and intelligent peoples to conduct our affairs as we collectively see fit.
We take unto ourselves the responsibility for protecting this Earth for the future generations of beings who will need it in their day just as we do in ours.
To this end we - the warriors of ahimsa - shall use all peaceable means necessary.
Our Mother Earth is gravely ill - Apathy or Action - Which Side Are You On?
