Hey Again!

This post suggests some big actions. This is part 1 of a 3-part blog post on structural change. Check it out!

As consumers, we have inadvertently gotten lost in the woods of “conscious consumerism” and small battles.

We all mean well, and every forward motion counts! But having diverged in so many directions, we have often ended up unsuccessful as a united positive force.

We’ve stepped back almost completely from our role in the democracy of actual industry. In other words, we have lost connection with our power as consumers, and, quite honestly, as groups of humans as well.

We have enormous power as consumers. Yet we still feel trapped into purchases we know are ethically questionable at best, and we continue to watch evildoing corporations thrive, destroying the planet and humanity.

As groups of consumer voices, we are split in so many directions and not uniting to fight root causes. Because of this, our most impactful underlying messages and missions are getting drowned out by the distraction of all these micro-issues. But the issues are all so important!

But still, these other ones are here, waiting for us. This other handful of deeper root causes that are waiting to be addressed to clear up so many of the other issues by association. It’s no small feat, but it must be done- It’s the part nobody wants to deal with.

If we stay committed to the bigger mission, many micro-issues will naturally disintegrate and be made void and invalid through the bigger process. We need trust, dedication, perseverance, and strategy.

The process is a lot like natural healing in the body. When you hit the root cause of an issue and take the time and tenacity to clear it up, most other miscellaneous ailments vanish because there is no support system to sustain them!

You cannot keep a plant alive if you kill its roots.

It’s time that we band together and declare a few root causes, with a plan and a deeper mission to make change from the inside, by demanding that our consumer ethics and morals be met and answered on deeper levels.

We do have voices and choices, and we must use them to change the system- systematically from the inside- for a much deeper and far-reaching impact. This is far beyond your everyday boycott. We need a new kind of communication, and we need to focus in specific areas, long-term.

Yes, the government IS at the heart of most of our environmental, animal cruelty, and forced labor problems.

You may or may not have considered the depth of the problems.
One really big problem is this: The government, plus any branches, or agencies applicable who help make labor or environmental laws, can often easily be lobbied and essentially “paid off” to make a despicable process completely allowable by law.

Overly simplistic example: A company who wants to dump toxic waste somewhere can often find a back door to make that legal, by giving money or favors to the people who vote on the proposed law regarding toxic waste dumping.

It’s obvious to the public at this point that often, all it takes is enough money to convince. Promises of increased political status are not unheard of, and plenty other favors.

Side story:

Only a handful of extremely powerful families have control of most of the world money and corporations, and more often than not, money and political ties are many of our leaders’ main obvious motivating factors for

any of their actions. Not right and wrong. Not the future or what you want. And just the fact that power is so concentrated into so few people makes the situation ickier all the time.

Remember the decision by the Supreme Court to allow corporations to be treated as individual people in democracy/lobbying dollars/etc? Obviously, no good would ever come from that. Why in the world would that pass?? Something fishy definitely happened there.

Plant a seed in your mind.

Begin to just think about the idea of redistribution of power, money, and resources back to more people, and we can find a healthy balance eventually. It will take  a lot of commitment  to shift the power back to the people, but it can be  done over tim.

It could happen faster than expected, too.

That’s the next layer in, we’re not quite there yet. We can
only peel them back one at a time. But this is where we can most effectively crack this and help the Earth and its people.

Right now, we learn how to use our wit and resources to persuade the powers-that-be into actions for the good.

Today, when all rationality has failed over and over, we finally ask, “how do we tactfully persuade these powers away from Earth and humanity destroying options?”

At this point we need to identify these powers, whichever ones are voting on the root causes at hand. We need to figure out what drives these people and systems, (largely money and promises as mentioned above) and communicate through those means when possible.

Money talks. Sometimes you really might need to raise some money then use it in the right way.

Idea: it’s not just about “changing their minds”. Even more, we need to learn to speak to their needs and wants, and learn to speak to them in a language that

could actually make them WANT to vote for the people. This. Is. Advertising. We need to tell them in a big way what’s in it for them on some deep levels if they fix things up for us!  For this, we need to delve more into deep psychological self motivation tactics for personal and global reasons. Frankly, we need to bust out the Tony Robbins!

We could be practicing bigger life motivation techniques on ourselves for extreme benefit in our own lives, because the benefits are many. We could be using positive motivation techniques on the people in power, to better the environment and the world.

Check out our BOOK CLUB here for some amazing titles if this sounds interesting to you.

According to Tony Robbins Research, we’re all trying to avoid pain or gain pleasure in one of these areas: health, happiness, security, or love. These are the actual reasons that drive human behavior and decision making. Figuring out what exact combination of those factors are motivating the person you want to persuade is a total game changer. From there, it’s mostly about showing them (tactfully) that they will get their deepest desires to come true if they do the right thing. This is the same approach to use in conversations with difficult people as well.

And as always, we need to stay focused.

We need to reevaluate our current efforts- like if you spend an hour signing internet petitions every day or week, you would want to reevaluate that. How can you better spend that time? Try using a free app to contact your political leaders directly, perhaps?  That would be a great start. There are many, so look them up! Click here to check out one with a catchy name: RESISTBOT.

We definitely need to keep drilling away at the same root issues, however that looks- whether it be a boycott or anything else. We must band together as large groups, over long periods of time, until change is made.