A Society Built on Love

I recently received an email from Charles Eisenstein, a man who I have admired since reading his book, Sacred Economics. He wrote about the need for the tactics of political movements to reflect the values which they advocate. He writes, “Historically, it has never happened that an authoritarian revolutionary movement has created an open society.”

A militant overthrowing of an “enemy” will most likely yield a society that bears similar DNA. As he writes, “The kind of politics I want to participate in sees each person, the planet, and all its beings through the eyes of love, connection, relatedness, [and] interbeingness.” Then he questions how this kind of world can be created from a paradigm of seeing the existing system as “the other.” He writes, “A society built on love will not be built through means that are not loving.”

Music to my ears!

When I was writing The Great Growing Up, the vision I held for our world was one of mature adult relationships with one another and our planet. I could have just as easily said a culture of love – for one another and Mother Earth. I explicitly addressed the need to acknowledge our interconnectivity and interdependence and work together in collaboration (and love) to bring about the transformation so sorely needed if we are to transcend the variety of global crises we have now.

So thank you, Charles, for the nudge – the reminder that we need to be the change we want to see and that violence of thought, word or deed is unlikely to create a peaceful, loving world. This is good to hear every so often as I can find myself finding fault and making others wrong, hardly a way toward a more loving way of life.