A philosophy of activism: What are we going to do about it?

We can talk about traffic all day long in a thousand posts, but it won't make that much of a difference if no one ever does a thing about it. So we need not only creative solutions to a very difficult problem, we also need a philosophy of activism. What are we going to do about it?

Commeting on the 54th verse of the Tao in a chapter called "Living As If Your Life Makes a Difference," Dr. Wayne Dyer, in his book "Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life: Living the Wisdom of the Tao," writes,

"Choose an area to concentrate on making a difference.

"Don't entertain doubt about your impact on the world; instead, develop a VISION for Earth and convince yourself that you are perfectly capable of contributing to this VISION. whether it's grandiose or small. See a world without hatred, disrespect, or violence; where the environment is respected and cared for; and where cancer, AIDS, starvation, child abuse, weapons of all kinds, or any other detrimental or demeaning scenarios disappear.

"The anthropologist Margaret Mead addressed this idea in the following observation: 'Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.'" [p. 264 - emphasis mine]

There are a lot of people out there who say that anybody who feels this way or acts this way is probably just a "dumb shit." Well, isn't that what the Pharisees (perhaps in other words) called Jesus Christ 2,000 years ago? "hey, look at that crazy 'dumb shit' going around saying he is the 'son of God.'" Whether you believe he was or not (I personally don't), whether you believe he ever existed or not (I personally am not sure), the impact this man --or his name and what he preached-- has had upon the world is undeniable. His impact has lasted for over 20 centuries--over 2,000 years. And like that rock musical says, "In 2,000 BC, Israel had no mass communication!" How did he ever make it SO BIG?!? To begin with, he had 12 darn good activists and some who could write like it's no one's business. So even in this age of unfrettered mass communication where you--or anybody--can upload your videos to YouTube and broadcast yourself to the whole wide world in minutes; even in this age of raging cynicism where "Who cares!" is the anthem of the day; it's still true that anybody who has ever changed the world, for better or for worse, was called a "dumb shit" at one time or another. We are in very good company here.

Whatever contribution--large or small, important or insignificant--I am making with this blog, I am happy to be making it.

For good or bad, for better or for worse, ideas--great ideas--have a way of taking a life of their own and becoming unstoppable. If there is any good, any good at all, in anything we are saying here, someone will find it and use it to make a difference.

My heart goes out to Los Angeles and its people. Their lives should, or could, be so much better... Whether it will never be what it once was, it doesn't matter. If 20 million people demand that it become something better TODAY before it becomes something worse TOMORROW, believe me, IT WILL. And all it takes is ONE person to start making a difference. The rest is up to YOU...

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L.A. needs to transform itself

L.A. needs to transform itself. The L.A. traffic and congestion problem cannot be solved without L.A. transforming itself into a more walkable, bikeable, scooterable, motorcycleable, publictransportable city. There's no question about that.

Patchwork will not do it. "Tolling" and/or "increasing capacity" on the freeways will not do it. If your arteries are clogged, you reduce your cholesterol intake and exercise more. L.A.'s arteries are clogged. What will it take--a "heart attack" (an earthquake)--to wake everybody up?

L.A. and surrounding cities need politicians with GREAT VISION, who can sell that VISION to the public (angelenos), to the politicians at the federal, state and local levels, and to the urban planners and developers. A vision of a city of the future, a city that doesn't feel and look like the L.A. of nightmarish visions of the future like Blade Runner's, a city made up of vibrant walkable, bikeable communities full of highly mobile and highly community-conscious residents who think not only of themselves but of their neighbors and of their entire urban area as well.

That should be the vision, the blueprint, for an L.A. of the future, and that vision needs to be born now, today, not 20 years from now. At the rate it's going, in the year 2025, L.A. will be a highly unliveable place. That film Blade Runner will go from cult sci-fi classic status to prophetic. Of course, journalists like Ted Balaker will want to downplay such pessimistic assessments and call them "fashionable defeatism." It is people like him who have a voice in the media who should be calling for this vision instead of offering "band-aid-to-plug-a-leak-in-the-dam" ideas that are just patchwork solutions.

L.A. needs to transform itself.

That vision may not be popular with the gas companies, it may not be popular with the car companies, it may not be popular with the self-centered, self-serving, ego-driven set of drivers who think their needs or desires come first at the expense of everybody else. But this is not about popularity. It's about facing a tough reality and making some tough decisions for the good of the entire urban community.

L.A. needs to transform itself.

The politician who can sell that vision is the man or woman of the hour, the man or woman of the future...

And not only that... the politician who can sell this vision to the voters, to the politicians and to the beauraucrats in Washington, Sacramento and City Hall, to the urban planners and developers; the politician who can challenge the power interests that will oppose this vision with all their might-- the whole "oil/auto-industrial-complex" -- is a politician with real cojones...
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Make it viral. Make it vital. Spread the word...