“The Man in The Arena”….?

Back in Society, and as expected interesting re-grouping times I am going through…..and I’m going to share my personal ‘grappling’ as it relates to One Point Zero, and how I forge ahead!  After the experience of the past 3 months, I have thought long and hard as to the value of this sharing of my struggle, but sense it may help me, and in some strange way maybe provide readers with something of value too…. (Even if just, laughing at my free, ‘circus act’…!)

While out there in the Pacific I shared with you the news that Switzerland were voting on a world first, public ‘One Point Zero’ referendum, on 25 September 2016. This to decide whether the people want the government to redirect the path of the Nation from its current demand of Four Point Five Planets to a ‘One Point Zero’, Switzerland by 2020.

The 64% ‘No’ vote was a not a surprise to me, if anything I was expecting a larger ‘No’ margin. However the harsh realities of what this means are quite devastating for me. Read more about reactions to the Referendum result here.

Being back in (sub One Point Zero) New Zealand for just over two weeks now, reflecting on my intense One Point Zero  experiences in the USA, and then the freedom and clarity I had out there on the big blue Pacific? Out there I was almost ‘just a creature of Nature’ disconnected from everyday society. Now being back in ‘it’, but quite a different ‘it’ to the USA, and understanding the realities of what I found in those three intense months has been very challenging and traumatic. Although it would seem to many a small issue, this new information about the Swiss Referendum has added another bit of important information to my whole One Point Zero perspective.

As often happens in life stuff pops up at just the right time: I was reading the London Times today and a quote from Roosevelt, although used a different context, connected with my soul:

“The Man In The Arena” It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

I definitely feel like “A Man”, who has been in “An Arena”, and I am now taking a break between 1st and 2nd rounds to wipe of the “dust, sweat and blood”…! I’m also trying to understand “The Man” and ‘The Arena”…. Working out whether I’m deluding myself in the importance and authenticity of my personal mission or whether this is the REAL Arena, and it’s time for me to be a REAL Man!!! Maybe I was just shadow boxing, and the readers just enjoying watching me getting annihilated by my shadows…????

Ha-ha, yeah it is quite funny when one steps outside the arena, but seriousness soon returns as I realise that for me this ain’t just a sporting boxing match with a friendly sparring partner: This is My Life, and the game and the arena is quite confusing at the moment. Where is the confusion…?

I believe that my desire, mission and intent are all very simple:   I want to be able to live in a society that has a primary moral and ethical conviction to respect and live within Nature’s restraints. I believe without doubt that this is a primary condition for all human existence, and a pre requisite for any claims of Humanity Success.  The confusion comes with how to deal with the society Arena. And yes, unfortunately I DO see it as an arena… It is crystal clear that ‘Society’ doesn’t want One Point Zero, and that is the other source of confusion…Why, do I so clearly want it and society don’t???

In the context of Roosevelt’s quote:  Have I really been “The Man” and have I really been in “The Arena”??  Did I “do deeds” or was I “just pointing out where the Strong Man stumbles”….?

Well, after all I did take the ship and train rather than fly..? I made the most of both ship voyages (almost 40 days at sea) but in its lengthy voyages it certainly wasn’t the first choice convenience of rather flying. This is about feeling and experiencing change, and so in that regard I took the challenge front on, and also ‘Walked the Talk’, and had a huge experience, one I’ll never regret!   But the act of not flying was just a small part of My Arena. The main part of this arena was my public sharing of the One Point Zero story, ‘The Facts’, my beliefs, my Truths, and then my resultant ‘judgements’ of society and where it has gone wrong! The teeny weeny exploratory steps into the world of activism.

I said some serious ‘just pointing out’ stuff:  “Western Society cannot claim success, with a One Point Six and ever increasing, scorecard…etc, etc”

Implying that the One Point Six and beyond ‘Success’ and ‘The Development Failure’ are tantamount to humanitarian crimes is a serious allegation, Howard. Do you really believe that???  Yes I do! Now that we know the extent of the problem, from the bottom of my heart I believe these are verging on ‘criminal’…. Wow, now that’s a serious issue, My Boy!!…. Remember:  Western society is everywhere and expanding every day, it’s just the shades of ideology intensity that vary from place to place… ! It must be you who has it wrong, or there is another explanation…?

Why am I ‘only’ pointing to the ‘only’ failure / weakness when Society has achieved such amazing things….?  Who the hell am I to point this out? Why am I doing it? Am I so different from the people and communities I engaged with? If I am so different why is that so? I was born in grew up and ‘played’ significantly in the western society? Am I envious of a success I long way back walked away from, as I don’t have a new success? Are my One Point Zero beliefs wrong? Have my extensive expeditions around the planet changed me forever, and given me a different perspective? Is it a morally and ethically sound perspective?

Man over the years I have thought long and hard about all this, but now having been three months in an Arena, and coming out with a bloodied face, I have had to really look deep within and ensure I know my soul’s answer to these questions? This is not the time for comforting lies, but also The Crowd is very good at hiding its inconvenient truths and attacking those that are courageous enough to deal with them. This all requires personal vigilance mate! I have checked my deep inner motive for my One Point Zero initiative to ensure it is ‘pure’: It’s not adopted with malice, envy, a need for power, or from religious ideology blindness, but rather by purely what I feel is, morally and ethically, right. Yes, just like everyone else I am selfish and it’s connected to a purpose and a spiritual necessity to enable me to be a full human: That being, firstly deserving of living on this Planet, and secondly, enabling me to fully flourish.

I had some ‘bruising’ encounters with members of the elite, who blatantly said they couldn’t care and they have earned the right and freedom to live however they please. I had very difficult interactions with many members of anthropocentric religious groups, who to my surprise, also said they couldn’t care about One Point Zero, because the apocalypse is coming anyway, to solve the problem, and they have a beyond earthly solution for their soul’s continued existence.

What really struck me is that many of these same people were leading lifestyles whose footprints are multi-planet demanding, and they seem totally disconnected from any earthly spiritual context. I had Jacques advice from Tahiti come up quite a few times as I remembered the excuses people gave for not being able to embrace a One Point Zero life. I could write a book just on these alone!

I had to deal with the fact that almost everywhere I went in the USA I saw people, communities and society at large on a common mission. Like a vast crowd all engaged on climb up a human created mountain. They were in a struggle upwards, some had fallen down, others stationary just clinging on at their current level, and all at different stages of difficulty and proximity to the summit. Most had no goal of summit-ing, just moving upwards with the crowd: A mountain climbing mission that had all the signs, behavioural traits, and media encouragement that supported a multi-planet demanding lifestyle that was in total conflict with the one I am fighting to live as I try and step back into society….

Many talked the Sustainability / Belong to Nature talk, but sadly most of these people are caught up in the struggle of the climb, a struggle to survive in the  western world’s ‘life race’ to ever illusive newly appearing teaser summits. So in the choice between survival or ‘Walking the Talk’, there was no choice. As I moved along my adventure road, it seemed like I was always an odd man out: Always trying to find a way around this upward current as I moved on a fixed contour, I really felt like I was in an Arena, and dealing with a serious physical and emotional onslaught……

Coming back and hearing about Mark Zuckenberg and Priscilla Chan’s $3 billion fund to “Cure, Prevent, or Manage all diseases by the end of the century”…, was just the icing on top! I have no doubt that they are good people and their intention is noble, but the mindset behind this initiative almost epitomises ‘our’ anthropocentric perspective and ‘our’ relationship with Nature: A sense of ever increasing human rational superiority over Nature and the Planet, and yet ever increasing void of spiritual belonging context. I wonder if they even know that their country is already more than 200% over populated with respect to its demands of Nature.

I wonder what their perspective is with regard to the fact that if everyone lived their lifestyle we would need many, many more than two Planets? I sense he does know this but maybe I’m wrong? Maybe they know, but don’t care. Maybe they know, but focusing on solving that one, will put a spot light on him to lead by example, force him to question the Success formula for society he is promoting.

Not that they are bad people, it’s just the act of mindfulness of their contribution to Humanities most Challenging Issue? This is challenging stuff, and taking on One Point Zero would make him ‘The Man in The Arena’ .

Clearly taking on this huge ‘Disease project’ with a serious intent to change the path of society, he has the means and influence to be ‘The Man in The Arena’ of a One Point Zero, society changing initiative, but maybe he is not desiring of The Arena. Rather choosing to buy a lofty platform of popularity that will bring the anthropocentric Crowds shouting out accolades and giving them Humanitarian hero status.

I’m not angry, nor jealous, nor being dismissive of the enormous financial commitment they are making to a noble intent. I’m just very disappointed that those that have the power and means are not actually stepping into The Arena, where they are most needed, and could have huge impact: The Arena where tough love, and a desire to ‘Walk the Talk’ and lead us to the difficult road to Real Success is needed.

I am envious of not having their position of influence, as I consider my meagre, almost hopeless, “Arena” options!   In laying this out I’m not being critical but I’m back within my sphere of influence looking at myself and my ‘shadow boxing’ question??

This all points to me having a wrong priority perspective and the Swiss Referendum result confirms the validity of my ‘Top Priority’ answered question as being the key:

“How come ‘most people’ don’t see the need for living a One Point Zero life as a ‘Real and Fundamental Human’ issue….?”

If ‘they’ didn’t know ‘The Facts’ well that’s sort of deserving of forgiveness, but then again why don’t ‘we’ humans know this most fundamental Human belonging requirement?

Either way the situation is an indictment on Society, or am I missing something??

Is society so lost that we have forgotten we are, Part of Nature?

Discovering the answer to this question and the fact that most people are proudly anthropocentric,and have no desire to even question that orientation, and its misalignment with Nature, has truly bowled me over.

I could point to many huge ‘multi-Planet living, ‘niche Crowds’, within Society, whose group Beliefs and Values are in direct conflict with a Nature view of the world, and those  needed for a One Point Zero society. Many of these groups have serious influence, and are part of the ‘invisible hand’ that shapes World Values and the direction of Society.

But singling out groups and making them my ‘Man in The Arena’ target for change would merely be seen as me having some anger based unfair personal vendetta against their members.

So after all this, and forgetting that my face (and ego!)  is “marred by dust and sweat and blood”   was I “The Man in The Arena”, Roosevelt referred to…?

If I have to be honest with myself, that this wasn’t ‘The Arena’ and with my current clothing and weaponry I am never going to be ‘The Man’, even if I found ‘The Arena’. I am close to concluding that the only thing I have to offer is my experience from crossing The Chasm myself!

However, I can see that my journey was so unique and personal that it is probably seen as “the journey of a madmen”:  And “in his financial independence and ‘strangeness of living’, it has no relevance to those more ‘normal’ beings living ‘normal’ existences: That with all the ‘normal’ demands, from a life deeply entrenched in Western Society.

I can see how concluding a picture like this will enable me to go away with a good excuse and society to have swatted another irritating fly.  I can  but I need to be honest with myself as to whether that is me running away scared of stepping up to be ‘A Man in One of The Arenas’, or is that the best reality…?

There is another ‘Arena’ I can witness to have been in and have no doubt I was ‘The Man’ for ‘That Arena’:  This was the more than 10 year struggle to free myself from an Anthropocentric, Capitalist, Western Ideology based ‘Way of Life’ and to find what it means to ‘Belong to Nature and this Planet’, and what ‘Being Fully Human’, actually means….

It is from this hard won context that I derive the clarity of the dire situation of Humanity that I have, yet unless one has travelled the path one wouldn’t know my perspective exits nor the value of taking the seemingly perverse adventure.

The hard won moral / ethical pillars of strength enable me to withstand this ‘attack’ and provide huge energy that drive me as I decide whether I withdraw and find a life away from a society that is not needing of my offering, or continue in some evolving form…

As I have explored the various Sustainability / Global Warming / One Point Zero type initiatives going on around the world, I realise ‘Motive for Change’ is the key issue.

Almost without exception all the initiatives are based on a fear motive, and the fear level is not enough for real change yet. A fear that the earth is going to overheat; A fear that human life will be threatened, etc….

It’s all about what is the minimum we have to do so we can avoid discomfort, disturbance to our current existence, etc…. Fear is not a good primary motive for change, and also those with the means will buy their individual protective solutions, leaving those that don’t have the means to face the threat.

With the One Point Zero goal, I only see a spiritual and ethical motive as the driver.

With both of those motives anything more than One Point Zero is NOT acceptable.

I realise the world is made up so many people of so many different beliefs, values and culture, and so my clarity may have no relevance for others. In my, maybe myopic view of humanity, I honestly believe that One Point Zero could be that one uniting goal for the whole of society, irrespective of colour, creed or class to unite work together for some real uniting purpose. That this is an impossible dream, because of the selfish and parochial orientation of humans is the harsh human reality which I need to factor into my path ahead.

The fear driven motive, is typical of, an under threat, and survival mind. Whereas the spiritual and ethical motive, is a vision for a flourishing soul. That makes me sad, that in humanities selfishness, the minimal will be done to survive, but in that delayed addressing of the issue and desperate expediency that will arise, humanity will continue on its path of deformed development, and the lie of Success will become harder to keep covered from The Crowd!

I leave this open and honest blog download in mid conclusion point and the ‘resting time’ outside my ‘little arena’ for The Boy continues ……!!