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Profile of Benjamin Fahrer
Ohm shanti, shanti, shanti. Opposite of [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: Ohm shanti, shanti, shanti. Opposite of peace -- violence, anger or hatred. These are so, oh man, things happen in our world that make us angry. That then we begin to hate that which makes us angry and we react with violence. These three are a trinity of emotions that you have every right as human being to feel. When they cut down Julia Butterfly Hill, I heard her speak recently, amazing woman, and what she said was that when they cut down the tree, they cut down an ancient redwood tree that’s been growing for 2,000 years. You have every right to be angry. She had every right to be angry. When something happens in our lives that makes us angry, if that’s what is you are feeling, you have every right to be angry. If you suppress that, it becomes a none -- it will build up and come out in a violent way. But, you have every right to feel angry but it’s how you respond. You should not act of that anger. They should come from a place of compassion, of love, of knowing then those that caused these acts that has now made you angry. Most likely, you don’t really know what they‘re doing truly. And if they do, man, it’s really sad. They are coming from a very sad place and it’s that compassion towards them, of them being so disconnected from nature and from the world that they’ll cut down the trees and destroy that which is sacred. It will make us angry but we must act from a good place in our heart, come from a good place.
That man from Israel says yes. Do we [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: That man from Israel says yes. Do we have the right to consider human beings as more valuable than other life forms? Inside, I say no. We are a part of nature and if we see our place within nature and that every life is supporting and intricately inter-connected with each other. Then, we’ll see all life is valuable. We will see that redwood tree, that redwood forest, the birds, the plants, the animals as a valuable contribution to our own existence. As my brother next to me says, it’s dangerous to consider. It's dangerous to consider our lives more valuable than others because then we are separate ourselves from nature. Of course, we are human, we value what we know and what we are, so the other question about egoism being the cause of human failure. It’s the ego that says we are more valuable than all of life that we are different and divine. If we connect the two, we connect the two and see that we are part of the divine and a part of life. Then you'll see all life is valuable. All life is valuable and sacred.
What is after capitalism? It’s a return to [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: What is after capitalism? It’s a return to more sustainable system, or more sustainable and localized system. We are in a stage of evolution. Capitalism is a model that is not sustainable. Anything that is not sustainable has a lifetime and we just so happy to be at the end of the capitalistic life. So what is next? We shall see. We, as people, we don’t know what are necessary evolving into? If we limit the design, we’ll be stuck to those limitations. Therefore, we need to really experiment in what kind of economic systems, ecological systems we want to promote and economic systems that we wish to create. We continue to this experimentation then we shall see what will come. And some mistakes might be blessings. The cause and effects, in some cases are irreversible, and we cannot change the past. Yet we have the opportunity to shape the future that can make mistakes of the past seem like these blessings. We will evolve in some way and our economic system has a potential to evolve into something much more than we can ever imagine. In the absence of what is sacred, we have paid to huge price. We need to take responsibility for that, yet also move on in work towards or more holistic system.
If we define dictatorship as a [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: If we define dictatorship as a commodification or a privatization, then yes. Economic globalization does not have to look the way that it does today. To merge economics with democracy as a very dangerous and sensitive thing, what does ecological impacts of this globalization have? And what does the economic globalization really promote? It’s a very sensitive thing because of what has been invested, rather than democracy being the goal as a control of capital; A consolidation of the wealth from the many to the few. We say that we are in Iraq to promote democracy. We have ousted the rule of a dictatorship. The country is an occupation. It could be seen as an occupied territory of the US, where the invested interest of the US corporations that will profit from the war. The country has no means to rebuild itself. A loan from the World Bank from the US will have to be spent and all its moneys, in a loan will result in more of their commons being controlled. We are talking about the oil, water, the roads, the power, the education privatized, they rebuild the new world order laws. And today’s democracy promotes economical globalization that is controlling and privatizing that which is, should be common to all.
To stop gang violence in inner cities, we [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: To stop gang violence in inner cities, we need to give them something to else to do. We need to provide alternatives to the streets. We need to provide alternatives to the way in which they function, and the way in which they are -- the boxes in which they are put into. We need to stop dismantling the family core. Why people turn into gangs is to feel included, is to feel inclusions within their local peer groups, to feel they have a purpose and to do something to take some action. We gave alternative to this that would turn their focus, to whatever it is that we are providing. If we work on strengthening the family bonds, that provide a good stable family support and if we give alternate models of, let’s say, growing food in the inner city. To provide for good health for these people, because if you feed someone processed foods, if you feed them garbage, and you give them not clean water, or good air to breath, you pollute their minds, you pollute themselves, they will then pollute their environment through graffiti, through killing each other. Graffiti is an art too, right? That’s how I view it. But, I’ll go back to providing good examples. If we have some good ways that they can channel all that energy, all that youthful energy into where there is growing food, or providing trainings to be economic leaders or community leader within their groups. This can have huge ripples out and to harness that youthful energy in a good positive way. Man, you can make some changes because that is really why we were all here as for this youth and for the future that we’re leaving behind. Yeah, let's grow more food in the inner city, some more healthy organic food. Education, improving the family bonds, and having good education.
It is about conditionment that our system [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: It is about conditionment that our system has placed upon us in a different habitual patterns in which we have fallin into. What we identify with, we are identifying with our country, is that I am a patriot, I am a countryman, I must defend my country. That is what we identify with. And that’s what we are conditioned to believed, as we are programmed to believe to television and different media. It doesn’t matter how the country treats you, and if you are stuck in that condition and you’re unable to break free from that. And it treat you worse and it treat you like unwanted child, and leave you in the gutter and you still defended it because it’s what you believe in. It’s all about our beliefs story. If we know what we believed in, what we fight for, it doesn’t matter how we’re treated so much. But if we don’t know what it is that we truly identifying worth that is not coming from within, if it’s coming from without. There is a conditionment and a programming on to us that we should be this way and we should defend our country in this way. If that’s coming from the outside and not inside, and it shouldn’t, then we should ask ourselves why do we love our country? Why do we want to defend it? There is so much oppression in other countries and so much oppression in America with the African-Americans, but also many others ethnic groups. This is a very good question as we are in a time of war. And it is usually the groups of the oppressed that go to those wars to defend the countries. And the fathers, those that are being unwanted, -- treating those like unwanted children and not going to war.
My gosh, a trillion dollars, do you even [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: My gosh, a trillion dollars, do you even think about what a trillion dollars, how a trillion dollars could be put a better use? It is almost out of scale of those that would be using it. A million dollars, a billion dollars, a trillion dollars invested into local economies, to education, to health care. The basic dignities that every human should deserved to live a descent life. If we took a fraction of this money, this trillion dollars, we took such trillion dollars, a hundred, a thousand billion dollars -- a thousand. So, I think it will be hard to find a thousand sectors to even define. So, if we say take fifty, then we’re taking two billion dollars and investing that into an educational system. We take two billion dollars in invest it into world development localization. If we take this money and give back to other countries that we’re stealing from, that we’re stealing from their local resources, we’re mining the resources of other countries, an unprecedented event. We’re taking from the environment; we’re taking from the ecological environment. We gave back to this environment, how many have we took billions of dollars and put it back into alternative technology? So that we don’t have to cut down the last trees on the planet that are the lungs of our earth. That are the lungs that allow us to be who we are and just take fractions of this money invested into the things that support us and support the people, then, then it would be very different world we would be living in. A very beautiful world. And I know people would be happy with a thousand dollars invested in their local community from the government. And you’re talking trillions, so it’s like okay, hundred thousand, Wow! Stop spending on the military and reinvesting it into those whose money it is. A trillion dollars is the people’s money. So, stop allowing them, people have pay so much and work so much. That will give us our freedom.
Why is there no peace in the world? The [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: Why is there no peace in the world? The answer in a way is very simple about peace. We must first ask, if we have peace within ourselves? How can we have peace anywhere if we are not at peace with ourselves? Mr. George W. Bush, who is not truly the president of the United States, has proven he’s not. Is he at peace with himself? How can he speak of peace? How can one speak of peace, when you’re not at peace with yourself? First, we must come to a peace with ourselves. Once we understand this, then we can start radiating out, rippling out into the world. In the Middle East, there is so much conflict. When there is so much conflict, it disrupts the groundation of the human spirit. When this is imbalance, it’s very hard to achieve an internal peace; therefore, it’s very hard to achieve an external peace. Hopefully, someday soon, there will be peace within our hearts that we can then express externally into the world. Peace exists within our hearts at all times, we just need to access this. We need to meditate on, why were here? And what we’re we doing? Need to review the effective of the sun and the beauty of this world. The peace that, that is ever present within the moment, we can tap to that moment of peace. This is truly the purpose of our life is to obtain peace, that we can sit here unaffected by everything. This is a very beautiful gathering. The people from all over the world, so many people are here for peace. The woman from Iraq, the woman from Afghanistan, brought here to help bridge this connections so we can learn from our indigenous friends and our professors on how to create a more peaceful world. And I believe opinions with oneself. Let’s make peace. Ohm shanti. shanti. shanti. Ohm peace, peace, peace Ohm shanti, shanti, shanti Peace is in every moment and breath.
The government should be a representation of [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: The government should be a representation of the people. If we don’t want go war; our government shouldn’t go to war. In America, there was a complete suppression, a complete dilution of the people. A complete takeover of what people believed we are going to work for; by the media, by many different organizations, and by our government, the media, campaigns, the military. So people weren't necessarily in opposition, actually believed that we were going to work for a reason that needed to be going to work for. So, the voice that was spoke out to the government in protests and demonstration, were thought of as the minority. And yet truly, if the truth of the cause for the war, of why we’re doing the things we’re doing, was available to all. It would not be the minority, it will be the majority. And this is what the government should represent. The government should represent the majority of the people and therefore the majority of the people want to go to war, the government will go to war. If they don’t want to go to war they won’t go to war. How can we stop our government? By having a true representative government, and if you have a problem that should be a part of the solution, part of the solution.
What are the basic dignities that each human [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: What are the basic dignities that each human deserves and why do we let so many people go without them? It’s a really good question. The basic human rights is access to the commons, access to clean water, to air, to land, to grow food, to communication, to freedoms. This are common, it should be basic to everyone that lives. Unfortunately, we live in a system now that has taken that, has taken away people’s common rights, common dignities to live and to be human. What it means to be human? We’re not human doers, we’re human beings. And so we need to have access to these resources in order to be. In order to be.
We do produce enough food in the world to [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: We do produce enough food in the world to feed everyone. It is a political reason why we don’t distribute it. And there’s many diversity of reasons, if their political reason for those who produce are strategic to whom they ate and how? But we must also look at how this food is produced with a multinational corporation that want to be in control. And they are at the helm, and the interest is in the bottom line not in the common good, nor in saving life, nor the planet. We are a global nation that can produce food in a very responsible and localized way. But in order to do so, it uses huge corporations, must allow for local people, the local people to grow their own food, and not privatized or control, to control their lands that which is theirs. They have no reason to control their lands and most of this land is being used to grow export crops of high value to bring the country out of its increasing debt that it is in because of this privatization. If we will return the power back to the indigenous people of the land to grow their own food, and power them with the right seeds and the right information, because there is a need to remember the techniques and the ways in which to grow the food, for we have seen a loss in this information in this knowledge because of the privatization, because of the control over the land and the property. We need to design ethically responsible systems that hold ethics and practices that will create an abundance of food. This is a very simple thing; it's cutting edge of 10,000 year technology, to be good land stewards and indigenous people of this world have that information and they know. We need to listen and be receptive.
So what are the national and regional issues [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: So what are the national and regional issues that now affect us all? And if we take in context of climate and take climate change, to come up with a global government to solve this problem or to come up with a global government to solve our health care, or solve our lack of food? It’s too general; a global government to come up with a solution that would fix everything is too general. Our world is still diverse and so organic that these regional -- what would be better is if we have regional local governments that were working with a global government. And these are already in place, and really, there's just not to communication, there's not the information, the cooperation. There’s a competition not a cooperation between these entities. But we need to have more of cooperation between the local and the regional, the national, and the global governments of the world. We can’t have the national government trump the global government. We can’t have national government trump the local. We have, everything needs to be in balance, and more balance. And that, these issues are so big, but yet they start locally, as there common term use a lot in our country which is, “Think globally, act locally,” and you can act locally and yet today, our global environment, because of technology and different ways of communication and transportation, we live more in the global stage. But still, is our local environment is the people we sit next to, but then we have affects upon. So, we need to act in that localized way, but then can ripple out into an affect globally. Small solutions to big problems, lots of them, lots and lots. We need a bio-diversity of small solutions to address these diverse problems at a global scale.
It is more those within the system who [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: It is more those within the system who corrupt it. However the systems based of ownership of marketing of products. It functions well but can go corrupt, extremely corrupt. Because of the intentions of the people within it, the intentions of those people within this economic system is to gain more wealth, to hoard that wealth, to control the resources that they can profit off of these. So, in some way, it is very hard to separate those that are within the system and the system itself. And if those that are operating within the system are corrupting it then it could be looked at that the system is corrupt. To dismantle the corporation, the corporate rule, is not to dismantle necessarily economic system but put back in place the checks and balances of corporations. To revoke the status of personhood that they’re claiming, you’re not taking responsibility for. This type of change comes in many different forms, yet the main power lies in those who make the choices to support the corporations by purchasing their products. In the beginning, corporations were setup as a way to benefit the whole. But systematically, through different laws and riders in different governments, they have removed this checks and balances to a now they have full freedom and actually are controlling a lot of the laws and they can benefit from this way. So we need to return back to its original intention and get the people who are corrupting the system accountable. And remember to breath deep.
It’s a very important question about the [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: It’s a very important question about the powerful, and really who is the terrorist? We must look at who is using the term terrorism? Is it those that we labeled as terrorists? Or is it those that are defending themselves from what they call terrorism? I’ve never heard terrorism so much in my life than after 9/11, but not from those who cause such an act, but those who responded. And their response has not been one of self defense. When the powerful are using force, it is not necessarily self-defense. It is an offense, and we know this, they label it as being offensive. It is pretty clear in our world what’s going on, because they even those that they’re doing this, they’re manipulating. But they’re been so blatant about it now at this point that we need to really step-up and hold them accountable for what they saying, and what they’re doing. A self defense? The launching an offensive? If you’re on a basketball court and you have your hoop, your goal. Or on the soccer field and you have your goal, when the ball crosses this court you are in defense. You are defending the goal. When you’re going after the goal, when you’re going after the oil, you’re on the offensive side of the field. That can be a terror to the defensive team. When the offensive comes in so strong and on the basketball court you have five players, on the soccer field you have so many players, on a football field you have so many players and there is rules to the game of how many players you can have when you come into the offensive with way more than what is there of defense. That can be a very onslaught. That can put terror in the hearts of those defending their goal, those defending their land, defending their rights. So, we must first ask who is the true terrorists.
Thank you, Angela. It should not be [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: Thank you, Angela. It should not be tolerated, but it is. It is tolerated and it’s under reported. We don’t know the casualties of the war, the civilian deaths. We hear of the soldiers that die, and their names, their stories. In America, they spend so much time doing profiles -- the whole history of this person. To the point, where you don’t want to hear anymore about them. It’s overplayed. And yet, that person deserves that recognition for their life, and maybe it’s because there’s too many human civilian casualties of this war to profile. You hear the names of the soldiers dying and you hear the number of civilians’ dead. In the last hundred years, we’ve seen this increased because of the type of warfare that is happening. It’s not warfare of bows and arrows, or even guns but of bombs, huge bombs, and technological warfare, and of biological warfare. We will never know the true number of civilian casualties of this war because the effects of depleted uranium and all of these other kind of side effects of war, and even psychological side effects of war are huge. Our toleration has become numb. We’ve come numb to life and death until it hits home. When civilians in our own country start to die, we wake up. We stand up and say that this should not be tolerated. We need to stand up for the civilians of the world and say that this should not be tolerated.
Our liberty. Liberty and justice for all. [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: Our liberty. Liberty and justice for all. How much of this are we going to sacrifice for security. Department of Homeland Security in the states, and a different things that have been sacrificed in order for the security is huge, huge. We shouldn’t have to sacrifice. We shouldn’t have to offer this liberty for security. It’s more of a control of a culture of a people, taking away their liberty, controlling them for security. Now, I’m saying supposed security has the good one, that’s the crux of it, because it is not a true security. Why we offering up our liberty for something that is not for certain? When our liberties are for certain? To know how to grow your own food; to grow your own food that should be something that shouldn’t be a security issue and yet the Homeland Security comes in, in a midnight raid against a direct action to save the oldest community garden in California in Sacramento. They come in and arrest the gardeners. Why? Because they doing a demonstration instead of a protest against agribusiness. We need to reclaim our commons, liberty. Thank you Florian.
There’s people within our country living in [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: There’s people within our country living in fear, all the time. And where I’m coming from, my point of view is, no one of living in fear, but there are people in our country that are, people in democratic countries. And, goes back to question 38, is there’s something better than democracy? And that what is that genuine democracy? And those people in foreign countries who don’t have democracy, being oppressed by dictators, gets so aggressive against the western world which once to spread our way of life. Is our way of life appropriate for them? And is our way of life democracy? Our way of life is a consumeristic, capitalistic, oppressive society. It is also very celebratory, beautiful, and opportunistic society. However, the democracy that has been spread in these foreign countries is that of the first, more than that of the second. And there is a veil of illusion on these countries, sometimes, when this democracy is coming to liberate them. I’m talking about the woman from Iraq who was so happy when the Americans came in to her country because, okay, now we will have democracy and now we will live this life, will not be in fear all the time. However now, she says, so many years later, that’s not democracy that was brought to her country. She’s living now in more fear than before than in dictatorship. Now that democracy is supposedly in her country, she’s even in more fear all the time. So, Chris, definitely education and information about our western world and what we are promoting. And what is genuine true democracy? Is that really what we’re really promoting? Or promoting a commodification and privatization of these countries?
It lies in the overall design that is rooted [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: It lies in the overall design that is rooted with the art and practice of observation and in the ethical intention that takes care of the earth, takes care of the people in sets limits to consumption in order to allow for an abundance that can be returned to the first two. To create a feedback loop that will recreate a regenerative system that is opposed to that one that is in place that is degenerative. This is permaculture. It is a design that is based and exists on mutually beneficial relationships. So how should a economic system be devised that isn’t in conflict with human, animal or planet rights? It’s one that is designed with these ethics in mind. The first questions are what? What economic system. And why? Why should it take human, animal and planet rights into consideration? If we choose a permaculture design, then the how becomes apparent by using permaculture principles that we are given to use from the indigenous wisdom of previous cultures that lived in balance. The beauty in this is that permaculture bridges the gap between that wisdom and that, which is applicable of today. How? With these principles, we work with nature, we see problem as the opportunity, problem as a solution. We see that the design is theoretically unlimited, and that we have cyclical opportunities that will then feed upon themselves and add and contribute. Everything is connected. If we take some of these principles, plus others that can allow us to live up to the ethics, and if we are flexible and can design to change through this constant state of observations, first we must listen to each other and must listen to the animals, planets, the planet.
Again it depends in some ways, but I would [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: Again it depends in some ways, but I would say yes. It is possible, it is definitely possible. There are corporations who are being socially responsible. The way that corporate or corporation to be socially responsible is not looking at the bottom line. It’s not looking at, that we have this one bottom line of profit and that’s all we are looking at. We must look at a triple bottom line. We must look at the, not only the profit, the monetary gain, we must also look at the economic, or let’s say economic. We must look at the ecological bottom line and also the social bottom line. If we take all three of these things into considerations in the way that we design and plan, the way that the corporation functions, and we hold these as a core ethics. Taking care of the earth, taking care of the people that will allow for an abundance and actually a corporation is limiting itself tremendously by not taking in their social responsibility. If you have a corporation that values its people, its culture, its community, they only enrich them. They are happy people, they have coops and they have community lead organizations that working in a cooperative model. They have LLC, Limited Liability Corporations that hold these ethics possible. So, yes, if we looked at the triple bottom line, holding true to our ethical responsibility.
Is human society imbalanced? That’s another [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: Is human society imbalanced? That’s another question. Is human society in balance? I can’t be in balance when the harmony and in harmony if the feminine is undervalued. If more women were in power and the feminine values were brought to the forefront, we would see more harmony in balance. There are few women in position of power, and feminine values are so minimized. So until these are addressed, we will be imbalance, in imbalance and not in harmony.
I said this before in the previous answer [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: I said this before in the previous answer is, it's commonly coin. Today, we are on the cutting edge of ten thousand year technology. Those things are undervalued and look down as primitive or barbaric by these colonizing cultures. Those that colonized Africa, sometimes means are barbaric or not civilized. These cultures are actually highly developed. The village system is very complex. So, first we must ask is what is the development? And if it is a colonizing culture placing their development or their ethics and principles and their practices upon another culture that we feel is less developed than that is a very egotistical way to approach a culture. If we came to a culture very differently, we approach the situation very differently, where we had a mutual respect for these cultures, and what they have to offer it would be a very different world. And then I would say that Africa states are actually more developed in some ways to the western states. Because what type of development are we talking about? The African village may look less developed, like I said to the western eye, it is at certain levels. It is also very very diverse, very diverse; rich in culture because relationship with the earth is extremely developed. It is our lack of development with this relationship with the earth that the western states need to take up on.
Divisive, divisive. How can the decent [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: Divisive, divisive. How can the decent people of the world help each other? Well, the actions of their leadership are self-serving. Divisive. We need to do what we’re doing. We need to drop some knowledge, we need to have these conversations and then it’s not about this instance, about what happen after this instance. We need to help each other by having these resources, this information accessible. And see that we are all connected, that it’s all relative, it’s all connected. We are all a part of this environment; it’s all alive, it’s all organic, it’s all moving at all times. And that this network within the circle and the relationships between them, we need to see how these relationships can mean mutually beneficial. And relationship that is mutually beneficial, how can we make it more mutually beneficial? Our leaders need to ask these questions, and not be so self-serving. They need to relinquish that power as in the previous question, relinquish the power of their ego, and see how they can contribute to whole, and create these relationships and these networks, and allow these resources to be available to the decent people of the world. What about the indecent people of the world? They are still a part of this circle? We’re all a part of this circle and even the leaders. They need to step away from the top and sit within. We’re all leaders here sitting together focusing in on the same one, with the same questions and addressing it. Some more dialogue, more multilogue not a just a monologue or a dialogue, but a multilogue. It’s a multiple conversations, multiple information coming in the play and listening. We have two ears and one mouth. We need to listen twice as much as we talk.
We are born into this world in a place with [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: We are born into this world in a place with the family, with the life in conditions that are the kind of -- yoga says it is our karma. So, we’re born into this life with karma. And do we have the right to change that? Do we have the right to choose where we live? It comes right after the question of our freedom. Do you have the freedom to choose on where we want to live? And in some cultures in countries, it’s a very easy one. Yes, we have the freedom to choose where we want to live. I want to live in California, I can live in California. If I decide to live in the other part of the country, I can. If want to go to Italy, or to France, or South America, to Germany, wherever I want to go in some ways, if I want to live there, I can. And in other cases you can’t because of different political things that are in the way or that have been set up so that not everyone can choose. And in other country like America they exercise that freedom of choice more than in other countries. Whereas in other countries, people don’t have the resources available to them to choose, to step out of the current cycle that they’re in, the hardship that they’re in because of the economics and the social systems that they’ve been born into; it’s very hard to choose to leave and to move from where they live. Should we have the right to choose where we want to live? Should we have the right? Could we have the right? Do we have the right? Do we need to have the right? We are the children of the earth. We walk upon her land. She supports every step that we take. It’s the mother that we live upon her should be in a way of respect and responsibility, and it does take in the consideration in where you live, though it depends on the culture that wish to discern yourself with, and if that is supportive of who you are as a person. And if you need to choose a different context then to be who you are, which truly that you are, and so be it.
It shouldn’t be socially acceptable, but our [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: It shouldn’t be socially acceptable, but our culture is, our system is setup in a way that awards those who are selfish, rewards those who consume more. In truth, it should not be acceptable. In an eightfold path of Raja yoga, the first step is one of five restraints; non-stealing is one of these. By taking more of your share, you’re stealing from others. By hoarding wealth, one is doing no service to any. From money moves like water if you hold it, if you retain it, if you stop the flow, you’re hoarding. You’re hoarding this money. It will not allow the cycle to continue, it will not allow the energy to flow. If we allow for the more free formed flow of wealth, it will be a more wealthy culture in society. That’s what should be socially acceptable, is to redistribute the surplus. So we need to reprioritize the way in which we look at wealth. Fair share should be the status quo; fair share with our brothers and our sisters and our friends, across the world, the countries, the boundaries.
How would the world be today if Africans [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: How would the world be today if Africans were brought over to the America as people, with a culture and a heritage? If we brought the Africans over to America with their song, with their culture, with that sense of village, and connectivity, and connection with the man, with the mother -- Africa. If we brought that over to America in that context, what would that world be like today? Oh man, I make a lot of compost in the world and I saw this film with Africans making compost, so taking waste products and turning into a soil. And they had this song and the dance and it was beautiful, so beautiful. And even put in to slavery, the song and dance continued and turned into a resistance, into a movement that then rose up out of the suppression and suppression. America would be different today if they were brought over in a positive way as opposed to being stolen. But, we have what we have in America. It is unfortunate that they were enslaved, but it is fortunate that they have risen up and overcome. And have, still, a connection with their roots. We see it in the hip-hop culture so much in America. The roots of dance and song, movement and music, being enlivened in their appropriate context of today. America would be very different if we brought these people over in celebration instead of slavery. What would the world be like if we didn’t bring many cultures into slavery? Not just Africans to America. And how can we help those cultures overcome their suppression?
It becomes necessary to break the law when [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: It becomes necessary to break the law when the law no longer is applicable to the common good. Laws are set up in a way to help retain an order and a function, in a way to benefit the whole, benefit the people. However, a lot of our laws today have been changed that take that focus out of the common good and put it into the select few who can then benefit from these laws. You take this law, put it in against those human dignities that everyone must have and if they are in extreme conflict, which many laws are, then we must, not necessarily break them but change them. We must be like those who that benefit from these laws because really these laws are to benefit us. So if you find a need to break a law, you must look at, how can I change that law? Is it to write my congressman, to write the person in Parliament? Is it to run for Congress? Is to run from Parliament? Is to run for city council? To help be a valuable contribution in changing the law, to serve your needs but the common needs. And really it’s not about your needs; it’s about all of us together. If you separated as your own need then it becomes something that you are target at or a target for. And that really needs to be everyone’s law, everyone agrees upon. And that’s what really government should be there for, is to continually change the laws to best serve the people and be appropriate to the time.
What cultural group of individual claim? [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: What cultural group of individual claim? What is universal? Diversity is a key to existence, diversity is a key to existence. Maybe it's to see what we call universal right? Maybe it's to see what we call universal right? What is a common to conflict? And how that right might need to be engaged into a dialogue with those who are in conflicts to determine if it is appropriate? Both sides must be willing and should, universal rights be forced upon traditional, indigenous and religious groups. We all have rights. So to universalize these rights is losing a huge amount of diversity. And is really to engage more in where these things are coming into conflicts. To see where that tension lies between this traditional and religious groups with what we call a universal right. First, we must identify what is the universal rights? And where is that conflict? See where this tension is? Whenever a tension comes, there is a resolution. In a way, we can take this problem as an incredible opportunity to learn and to diversify the universal rights; basic dignities.
Something better than democracy? True [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: Something better than democracy? True democracy, if we were that the core of what a true democracy is we can see that it is just routed and good sound principles and has good intentions. Today’s democracy, modern democracy is very different than true, appropriate -- I say appropriate but true democracy. And what happens is sometimes we latch on to an idea and then we are attached to that idea. We limit the growth by holding on too tight. We’ve change what democracy is today by modifying it around our own interest, our own political interest, the corporate interest. And so democracy today is very different than its core concepts. Now again, as a people, we are part of evolutionary cycle and that the political realm is also evolutionary cycle that can take on new forms and we you need to continue to question the authority of democracy, and question the modalities of politics. And experiment and trying new things, see what works, readjust the design to best fit the times, to best fit the people. We’re preaching democracy and saying all this is in democracy, we want to bring democracy to this country or that country and now really bringing true democracy. Where are we bringing hypocrisy? Kleptocracy? Stealing, the thievery of people and their culture? I don’t know if there is something better. I would really hope so. I think there is something better than democracy especially the democracy that we have today. True democracy is a good concept and maybe we should go back to its core. Explore the core concepts of true democracy and put back in place some of the things that worked that we’re working and things that aren’t working, we should change. -- True democracy, genuine democracy. -- So, Donato is talking about genuine democracy, I was saying true democracy but genuine democracy that’s the one, genuine, the true one.
Self-defense and humanitarian [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: Self-defense and humanitarian intervention redefined, war is being redefined as well. A holy war and a just war, a war, it's like everyone fights for different causes. For those fighting on the side of the holy war, it is coming from within; it is coming from their spirit, it is the Jihad. It is the apex of a religious succession of evolution and that this is it. If you’re going to die, if the end of your life is coming, you must make it just, it must be holy, it must be sacred. So even a just war it can be a holy war. Who’s defining the holy war? This question is coming from Berlin, Germany, if this is coming from someone in Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq; those that are fighting for say a holy war. I suppose that those are fighting for a just war. Man, is any war just? Is any war holy? What is holy? That’s spiritual succession of life and death and if you go to die but that what which you believe is holy, for that what you believe is just. It would be better if wasn’t for war, but for that which is holy and is just. Non-violence as opposed to violence. We need to stop killing each other to see what is holy. We all have our belief story; we all have our reasons for living, and for some, war is the means of their expression. Just war? This war is just [audio ends]
Do America’s power, in exerting its power as [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: Do America’s power, in exerting its power as a nation on this planet, it has disrupted the entire planet. To relinquish that power without disrupting it, I don’t know if that’s possible. This power has already disrupted so much. A way to change what is happening gracefully and not taken innocent lives with it. We can change but the principle of relinquishing power, of being able to go from a pyramid model where we have the top-down or even the bottom up to more of that of a circle where everything is coming from the whole. To make this transition is a long transition and it’s not to do an about-face but to do a long steady arching transition and every little step is a contributing to that shift of consciousness and shift of direction and through perseverance and steady dedication towards a common goal that we can hopefully agree upon that has the good of the earth and the people, and we stay committed to that course, and when innocent lives and victims are coming to opposition to we can adjust the course so that it's not just an arch. It’s not an about-face but it is a meandering path that can work its way and finally be like water again, the path of least resistance to find the solutions. That’s one way that change can happen. The ego doesn’t want a relinquish power. If we can, the leaders that are exerting this power through their ego, if they can humbly step aside and bow down to that which is, that is, not necessary them and perhaps it can relinquish itself in a shell.
Once we identify who’s the terrorist, and [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: Once we identify who’s the terrorist, and then we ask who’s profiting from this terroristic acts? I ask this question on a good friend and her reply was, “We all are.” We’re all profiting from terrorism because the system is interconnected. It is inherently interconnected. In a way that those who are marketing terrorisms, who are generating this fear of terror, alerts, red alert, orange alert; that keeps people from traveling. People stop from traveling, they stay local. They spend their money in a local shop. That person benefits from them spending money in their shop. However, on the larger scale, who is truly profiting? Because this is, we need to talk about scale. How much profit is happening? When we look at scale, if everyone is profiting, the scale in which everyone has profiting from is very small but the few who are profiting a lot from this terrorism is those that are manufacturing the bombs, those who are manufacturing the weapons, those that are rebuilding the countries that they are destroying. This is the Halliburton’s, the Enron, the privatization, the Bechtel’s; this are the big multinational corporations that aren’t a truly in the genocide of our people and of the natural world. And they are truly profiting from it because then they have to rebuild what they’ve destroyed, then that’s a lot of work and a lot of money to be made. So we are at just war, holy war, it’s also be the corporate war. Profit wars.
Brands are more powerful than [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: Brands are more powerful than governments. Brands are like a stamp, a code of arms that a corporation has. Brands have the corporation, brands are controlled by corporations. They are the stamp of the corporation. And our governments nowadays are somewhat controlled by the corporation. Corporation has taken the rights of personhood, yet they are not stallion in the carnival for their actions. Flags have become the brands of the government, stripes are barcode, and the stars are the product. And governments need to return to their original purpose of governing that what’s needs to be governed and not representing the rights of the corporations. Governments are controlled by these corporations, through greed and power. Government should represent the people in which live in their lands. It is unfortunate that it is come to a place where these governments are controlled by greed and consumption. What a question?
Courage, what does courage mean now? I only [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: Courage, what does courage mean now? I only can speak from a place of my heart, of what courage means? In courage means to stand up for what you believe in, to go deep down into your heart, to deep down into yourself and into your spirit of what moves you, of what you feel is right. To find that place that inner chamber of your heart of what you know is right and sacred and special. And when instances come where you are minimalized, where that knowing is suppressed or minimalized or disrespected, disregarded, to stand up and speak, to stand up and exhibit, or to stand up in your mind, and acknowledge a compassion for those that don’t understand where you’re coming from. This type of action of stepping up in what you truly believe in, what you truly know is right within your heart, to stand up in this way is a courage, and there are many different type of courage. And here at this table, a 112 people, coming from different places and different cultures, different forms of courage, accept this courage. It’s true, sounds like the same type of courage in different forms.
Those that have created an alliance; the [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: Those that have created an alliance; the Americans, the Israel, the French, those that have this power, the ultimate weapon, the nuclear bomb. They feel like they have a control, and they have a control over suppressing the people who don’t have this technology. When you go to war with the country who does not possess this bomb, you have the trump card that you can play. And that keeps the opposition in check. Now, if Iran had this bomb, Iranians had this bomb, the war we were currently in is a political war but also it has looked on in the Muslim word as a Holy war, as a Jihad. And that is about; there is no boundaries there between the countries and his brothers and when you have war against your brother, and if you have that trump card or you have that weapon that can then aid them, in alleviating there suffering, finishing the war, stopping the war. You are aid them. So if the Iranians have this bomb, have this weapon, what is stopping them from giving it to their brothers, in Afghanistan, in Iraq and to other people in the Muslim world, the Palestine. And by not having, not knowing necessarily the full implementations of such technology or knowing it could be a very dangerous weapon to be used. And those who possess the bomb, the Americans, the Israel, the French are not necessarily at a way to have war, have a hot war that turns into a cold war. It turns into a war or strategy, deep strategy, we should not use.
Public and international law. Effective [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: Public and international law. Effective enforcement mechanisms. What is the purpose of public and international law? The purpose will might be of ideas for the global community to come together, to come together in a forum, to come up with the ideas, to set some laws. But if there is no effective enforcement mechanisms to apply it, there is no way for these ideas to be turned into an action or refined, this pool of ideas that has a vision. If there’s no way to refine that vision into a conceptual format to come up with ways of implementation, timelines of implementations of phases, then it is like an eddy in the river. It’s moving but going nowhere. There needs to be a stone or something to dislodge this eddy, or an involvement of the people to come in to change the course, so that this eddy and the power that its built can spiral out into the world. And then all this energy and activity can then be dispersed and flow down the river.
We are in a time of war, as we sit here, I [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: We are in a time of war, as we sit here, I wish those that are watching and listening or you could be here at this table, the hope answers these questions. Politics, when we say is something that is so political, what does that mean? When we look at the way that things are implemented and the means behind them, why are we doing these things in the world? Why are we taking advantage or suppressing the people? Why are we expanding the market? Why are we doing the things that we’re doing on the world and we say, ah, it's political; it’s for a reason, there’s an invested interest. Our politicians have an invested interest for their own careers, for their own lives. Often, it is a interest of greed, unfortunately. However, there are politicians and people that are working for the whole and not for themselves. But when you haven’t invested interest and you want to get what you want, and that is in conflict with what you want is in conflict, with what is right? The might versus right. I mean to push you a little more to get what I want. If I want something you have that can benefit me and I want it, and you’re not -- and you're not willing to give it back then usually it results in a way of violence. Violence is the result in the absence of conflict, communication. If you don’t have communication you have a conflict. Violence comes in, and there’s non-violent communication as well as violent communication. We need to resort back to the non-violent ways in politics. We need to make a connection between politics and non-violence more than politics and violence.
Well, most of these people are hypocrites. [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: Well, most of these people are hypocrites. They are hypocritical. They are fearful of losing control and of their world dominance. They are comfortable in their consumption. Chinese industrialization is a huge, has huge ecological stress on the planet. And truthfully, it is the consumption of those in the developed world that is at fault not to be criticized. It is the consumption of those undeveloped nations that needs to be criticized. We need to set limits to this consumption. And set a good example, because China’s industrialization is only happening because of what they see those in the developed world enjoying and they want what they don’t have. We always seem to want what we don’t have. And sometimes we have what we don’t want. So, as the continual flow of getting rid of and also attaining, but what China is doing is very rapid, what we do in the world is tends to be at this pace and technology has allowed for this to speed up. We need to stop being hypocritical and wake up.
Of course, there’s a modern [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: Of course, there’s a modern version of colonialism. We understand ecology and a colonizing species that comes in to an environment to then dominate that environment. Creates an imbalance and in that system works to balance itself out and there’s a pulsing within the system to then find the balance again. And it’s part of the cycles of life. Only when we can acknowledge the harmony imbalance and accept it for what it is, we will have colonization; a huge colonization in the modern world today is that of agriculture and a generic engineering of agriculture. You have, we'll get into that one later, but man, you have people who have co-evolved with strains of indigenous corn, of indigenous rice, and you have a genetically engineered corporate life form coming in to their environment and cross-pollinating and taking over that system and erasing that cultural heritage. That food is what those people eat, erasing that cultural heritage in the food. They eat that food. We are what we eat. That genetics, those genetics then into the body, nourish the soul, nourish the minds. Agriculture colonialism is one that is severely under looked. There’s an agricultural genocide of indigenous foods. That should not make this acceptable as it is being, we need to educate ourselves more about it.
What is freedom? Gandhi said, "The truth [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: What is freedom? Gandhi said, "The truth will set you free." Free from what? Buddha say that all life is suffering and then once you take come out of the vicious cycle of life and death, of samsara you become free. What is freedom? So, what is freedom? To be free, to be able to choose, to live the life you want to live, to be who you are. To live how you want live, this is freedom. But it takes away from others as they find out their purpose or what their freedom is. It is relative to where you are in the world in the sense that, what is the truth that set you free? Is very dependent upon the culture context in which it’s in. But our world is so much bigger; our lives are so much bigger than this world. Our lives are so much bigger than this world. Freedom is so much bigger than we know. We want to live and be free, free to be how you want to be, live how you want to live, say what you want to say, and do what you want to do. That is respectful and responsible in this world. That is freedom. To be free in the mind and understand what the truth is and what free is, and we are at the Table for Free Voices. I have Donato to my right from the Philippines speaking indigenous wisdom and dropping into that. Freedom and respect, respect and responsibility.
What is our social responsibility towards [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: What is our social responsibility towards the common good? What is that social responsibility? Our only ethical decision, choice that we have to make and we need to make is to take responsibility for that of our actions and our children, make it now. This is the prime directive of permaculture page one, chapter one, designer’s manual. If you go that route is that we need to take responsibility for our actions. We have that responsibility that is a social responsibility. It is an economic responsibility and ecological responsibility, towards the common good. And need to make them now and our personal freedom, we have the right to choose but we have, we should live by ethics that can help govern the way in which we live. And we shouldn’t be specific, but then limit ones’ freedom they should be open enough and flexible enough and varied, to be inclusive of all of people’s freedoms. Care of the earth, care of the people, setting limits to consumption. Earth, care, people care, fair share. The three main ethics of permaculture. Found in every indigenous tribe within the world.
It so depends upon what education system we [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: It so depends upon what education system we are talking about. Does our education system enable a child to bloom? Every child has the capability, has so much potential to bloom. An education system should be set up in a way it can be, and is set up in a way in specific instances, specific ways, to allow the child to reach their full potential. Unfortunately, there are many educational systems, especially many of those in the United States, in the Western World that are about conditioning and programming and kind of streamlining the child in conditioning them to be a certain way, to meet a certain standards. The homogenization of an education will lead to a homogenization of the child. So, we really need to encourage those systems that do allow the children to bloom. There’s the Waldorf, the Montessori, Oroville in India is an incredible model of experimentation in education. Teaching children with many languages, not just their own language, not just English, but encouraging Spanish, encouraging Arabic, encouraging Hindi, encouraging French, encouraging all these different languages including all these different cultures within the systems, to diversified educational system. We’ll diversify the children or to diversify them in order be the amazing field of flowers that they are. We’re all different. We’re all learned in different ways. Needs to take holistic approach to how we teach, and that, all 30 people in the classroom will not learn the same way. And a person from Africa, in a village, put into a classroom in America would feel very foreign because the custom and the cultures are not recognized nor the modalities in which they learned. Things that are familiar to them, we must familiarize the way in which we educate those that were one need to going to contribute to our world. We have an informed educated world that can make some change.
Our monetary wealth is concentrated to the [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: Our monetary wealth is concentrated to the few by exploitation of the many, and that of the earth. Those in the third world who are connected to the earth are easily taking advantage of because their culture does not promote the acquisition of the commons. It’s not acceptable. It’s not sometimes allowed in these cultures to take advantage of the commons, to privatize and to acquire the property for -- was it theirs to, in the beginning, to acquire or to take ownership of. Therefore, the resources in a capitalistic society, the resources are commodified and privatized. We have another type of wealth: an ecological wealth, and a physical and psychological wealth, not just a monetary wealth. And that wealth depends on the third world being rich. Health is wealth. Nature in ourselves. Unfortunately, corruption lurks in all corners of the human spirit. And until a shift in consciousness is reached, our capitalistic me-first mentally will dominate. But if we concentrate on the third world being rich, to honor the wealth that they have to offer then we can truly start working or moving forward. But the monetary wealth does depends on taking advantage of the third world, exporting their wealth, of their natural resources, and concentrating them to our own. Third ethic of permaculture is about setting limits to consumption to consume to what we need.
What are the basic dignities that each human [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: What are the basic dignities that each human deserves and why do we let so many people go without them? It’s a really good question. The basic human rights is access to the commons, access to clean water, to air, to land, to grow food, to communication, to freedoms. This are common, it should be basic to everyone that lives. Unfortunately, we live in a system now that has taken that, has taken away people’s common rights, common dignities to live and to be human. What it means to be human? We’re not human doers, we’re human beings. And so we need to have access to these resources in order to be. In order to be.
First [minute], we must respect the cultures [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: First [minute], we must respect the cultures and customs of these countries that we are saying that we need to develop. Then, we have to ask what is appropriate for these cultures and customs? What is the appropriate technology? What is the appropriate development? That can benefit their culture that can be mutually beneficial in the relationship that then evolves from this contribution. We must look at it as the way to contribute to their culture, not forcing our western ways. Small localized self-reliant systems, the micro-financing developing the system that is localized, that is self-reliant that has the choice of how they want to contribute to the whole? And what they need from the whole? Macro-finance sometimes gets lost and doesn’t ask the question of what is appropriate? Nor does it sometime have the respect of this local indigenous native ways. He's tapping into the indigenous wisdom.
Oh the mother, women symbolize the mother. [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: Oh the mother, women symbolize the mother. They have the nurturing quality. We all have our different beliefs, stories and knowledge of evolution. One does not wholly better than the other. For myself, I believe there was a time when there was more of a balance in a world where the masculine and the feminine where more in balance than they are today. In this gender, it was not a threat. Gender was not a threat but it was a role we were born into and each must be given mutual respect. Today, we have a time when men are controlling of the world and of the power. And somewhat feel, maybe threaten by the intrinsic nature that women have. The gifts that they can share and the amazing voice of reason, and in a greater sense a concept of the whole, a billion body in whole. Women are in disadvantage because those men in power, these men, they feel threaten by this inherit power that women possess because more, it is possibly, and it is most likely more powerful than there own. If we had women and in advantage, that will also be out of balance. We need to work towards a more complete whole and women has a very good place to add and to contribute just as men have a very good place to add and contribute, so that we could come up with a collective whole of balance and harmony. It is unfortunately, women are still at a disadvantage today.
One, two, three, four. It is four [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: One, two, three, four. It is four questions, but it’s just one, right? So between non-violent resistance and arm struggle where do we go? And what is effective? What’s the right thing to do? And do we need a biodiversity of resistance? So arm struggle and non-violent resistance, the last sentence, do we need a biodiversity of resistance? Is an arm struggle? Is that resistance? I go to my brothers of the Mayans, at the Zapatista territory in Chiapas, Mexico, who are now arm resistance of non-violence. Their unresistance to the North American free trade agreement that privatizes their land and unlike Hamas, who’s also not a terrorist group, but a group of resistance. They’re standing up in the resistance of what is happening in their world? However, their resistance is one of a proactive might. Earlier last month, a Mayan village in the Highlands of Chiapas was burned, homes burned, people killed. This is the Mexican military coming in and doing this act. 30 families, it’s very small, right? Life’s changed. The Zapatistas, they did not launch bombs. They did not do it the Mexican military wanted them to do, which was to fight back. Because once they fight back, they may have a reason. They have a reason to come in, and really do what they want to do to the movement in which is destroy it because it is a movement, as the other campaign of the indigenous rights in a very politically corrupt nation. They hold their arms as a symbology to protect themselves and that they have power. They have a non-violent resistance, and over the 12 years of resistance, please count on your hand how many people have died from the Mexican military? We need everyone’s hands in this table and in this crowd. The Zapatistas hold up your hands and you can count.
That man from Israel says yes. Do we [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: That man from Israel says yes. Do we have the right to consider human beings as more valuable than other life forms? Inside, I say no. We are a part of nature and if we see our place within nature and that every life is supporting and intricately inter-connected with each other. Then, we’ll see all life is valuable. We will see that redwood tree, that redwood forest, the birds, the plants, the animals as a valuable contribution to our own existence. As my brother next to me says, it’s dangerous to consider. It's dangerous to consider our lives more valuable than others because then we are separate ourselves from nature. Of course, we are human, we value what we know and what we are, so the other question about egoism being the cause of human failure. It’s the ego that says we are more valuable than all of life that we are different and divine. If we connect the two, we connect the two and see that we are part of the divine and a part of life. Then you'll see all life is valuable. All life is valuable and sacred.
A very big responsibility. AIDS in Africa, [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: A very big responsibility. AIDS in Africa, people are dying in Africa because of AIDS. We are a global people. We should take it up on ourselves to see all people on this planet worthy, that have worth, that have value and something to contribute to the whole. These are our brothers and sisters, our friends in Africa dying because of this epidemic, because of the situation. So, our responsibility is a global responsibility. It is our responsibility to help and to contribute in a way towards a solution in whichever way we can. This is a huge problem, a huge obstacle for Africa to overcome but also the world to overcome for it’s not just in Africa, it’s all over the world. And we have information and ways to fix this problem. We also must see the cause of this problem, where it is originated from? And how people had been oppressed by not having access to certain commons within their environment? We must allow to these people to have the resources and not be isolated, not be taken as Africa being separate and that we should leave it behind or not help. And quarantine Africa in which it’s happening in some villages and politically is happening as well. It is a huge issue and huge responsibility for all.
One of my heroes is Masonobu Fukuoka, a [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: One of my heroes is Masonobu Fukuoka, a Japanese rice farmer, who pioneered the concept of natural farming, to really farm with the wild. John Muir, a pioneer in spirit that he held, the [Roomy,] the poet, a hero of his devotion and his love to the divine. I have many teachers who are my heroes for the way and the diversity in which they teach. Again Masonobu Fukuoka for his connection to the land and his approach to farming, to passion in which I have and ultimately that’s not the style or technique of the farmer, or rather how they perceived the world. A good quote he has this, I don’t know direct translation is correct, but the best fertilizer in all the world is the shadow of the farmer, it's that direct connection that we have, that can help the plants to grow. I love the mountains, I love hiking the mountains and being in the rivers. John Muir for that one, I love the romanticism of poetry. Super heroes; I myself am a hero, [inaudible] always too, you are my hero. You who been watching this; or even have been listening to what I have to offer.
There are definitely patent laws that stop [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: There are definitely patent laws that stop creativity and innovation. And yet there are also patent laws that help protect the creativity and innovation. Someone like Paul Stamets who is doing restorative myco-restoration, that’s the restoration using the mycelium, the mushroom forces as allies to clean up toxic spills, to help clean up the superfund sites, diesel, and to help clean water doing biofiltration, off of runoff from pesticides on farms. And taking out a patent and help protect that technology from being bought, you can take the chance to sell his patent to the government or whatever and then that, technology will be locked up. But by patenting it, it is then been able to protect it from being exploited. If we got to get rid of all patent laws and be more copy left, like this is what is doing. Could be a very good thing? It might have some impacts that were not necessary so aware of. People are fearful of taking those types of step. We have to see what we have, and how can we accelerate creativity and innovation by using the patent laws? Mycelium running -- Paul Stamets, amazing pioneer in this work and this allies, up in the northwest of America.
This really depends on, what type of [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: This really depends on, what type of economic growth we’re talking about? The current way in which our economic system is set up in a way it’s growing with these expanding markets, profiting from natural capital, from the natural ecosystems, ecological systems is not sustainable. And like I said before, anything that is not sustainable has a life span. There is a limit to the way in which and how the ecology, how the environment can support this type of growth? And now, we’re at this critical point where we first had a very multiple diverse interconnection of relationships in our ecological systems. And through our ways of living, we’ve suffered and actually wipeout some of these relationships of these connections. Totally wipeout whole species into extinction and now we’re at a tipping point where the relationships that now exist are so crucial to that web, that if we cut them, it starts to fall apart at even more dramatic situations. If you have a hundred species dependant upon this one tree and you cut out that tree, you lose those hundred species, they have another tree to go to. You cut out that tree, you cut out that tree, soon if you cut out all the trees, they have nowhere to go and they’re extinct. They’re out of that web of the Amazon rainforest. Well, there’s other relationships with in that and as we do more and impactful practices can become more detrimental to total collapse.
Into my right, I have a Yes and in my left I [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: Into my right, I have a Yes and in my left I have a No. And for myself I’m sticking kind of in the middle between this two. It really depend on how the internet is used? And television has already been within our homes and there is a commercial to the television, just like in the internet, you go on to a website and there are commercials and it is way more accessible with high-streams and is a most emergence between the television and the internet. As far as the intimidation, I could have a factor that can come in to our homes and control. You can say yes or no. I have an internet in my home and just like in television, we can choose what channel to watch, we choose what websites to visit. So, really, it’s dependent upon those that are using it and what choices they make? Just like in everything in life. We choose to be controlled or led astray, to be intimidated by visiting the site again and again, or once we see that, we can change it. How we use it? How we use the technology, is really the question.
If we look at domesticated animals, I’ll [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: If we look at domesticated animals, I’ll take this question specifically to pets, because domesticated animals, I have goats and chickens, two hives of bees, worms. They are all domesticated. They’re all in a relationship with the domestication in reliancy upon my my interaction with them. As far as them being obese, lazy, dependent and less curious; they’re none of these and even my cat, who is a domesticated pet. He is fit, he’s smart, he’s inquisitive. We might think of the lazy? He’s taking leisure, he’s taking time. It’s what we feed these animals, this domesticated animals. If I fed, if I took my goat and I put them in a cage, lock them up, fed them artificial foods, didn’t give them good sunlight, then yes, they’d become obese, they become lazy, they become dependent upon our thing and less curious because it’s like what’s there outside? If we took people and put them in a box, fed them artificial foods, didn’t give them access to sunlight, and they were lock behind playing the video game and technology then sure, that could also be the case. They could also become lazy, dependent and less curious, and obese, and we see that all so much but humans, being domesticated by technology and as a generalization, as huge generalization, and that we are using technology today. And I look around and I see people, who are fit, see who are active or independent and are totally inquisitive and curious to what is going on and what’s happening in are fully engaged in technology. It’s all of matter the conditions in which the technology is housed and the people are housed and what they are fed into the mind and to ourselves.
We can create communities that are [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: We can create communities that are sustainable and there is great models out there of communities that are sustainable. And I would even challenge this question to, how can we create communities that are regenerative? So, that they can actually produce resources at faster rate than they are using them. Take on a permacultural model of a holistic design that is working on building up the natural support systems that we are reliant upon, by building up the soil, by building up the physical structures of the soil and the water by enriching the water, purifying the water, by enriching the plants. And also the invisible structures, by building up the communities, the people that are within them, to step in to their power, so that the people themselves are sustainable in their own actions, in their own ways at which they interact with their other community members. And Donato again, if you’re listening to me finishing now, it's a good one. And just like everyone else here has good inputs to offer to this, because there are so many great communities that have already been created and we all have the potential to create the community that we want to live in, in the life that we want live in. And this is crucial to a more regenerative system is to build up our communities in which we live ourselves. Create, we are creators.
It’s something that everyone should have [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: It’s something that everyone should have equal access to. If we continually to put water, privatizing water and see how can we make a profit of a water, then not it will become, they’ll be taking out of commons and given authority as something that someone owns. And then if you own it and you’re not going to allow everyone to have it, unless they must pay your price. And if people will say, “No, we have access to this water”, there’ll be some conflict. We need to return it into the common sector so that it is acceptable in all cultures that we have access to sufficient clean water. And once this is accepted and acknowledged, then, there should be no conflict. We can erase even the concept of the conflict by simply having it as a natural way, just like property -- the land. How can everyone has sufficient land without conflicts? This is a deep question just about property and property rights, and about the commons, so we need to look more about how we view the commons of land, water, air, food, soil, all these things. When we reclaim out commons, it’ll be a good thing, a good thing, a good thing.
The things about this question that we have [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: The things about this question that we have to look at are: potentially harmful and could save millions of lives. These are both assumptions. To say something is 'potentially harmful' on a short term. And it 'could save millions of lives' and resisting to technology. It’s huge assumption. We don’t know the potential, we don’t know the harmful thing, that there is even a potential of the harm in a short term and then we don’t even know long term effects will be because everything can build upon self is incalculable. You can make that assumption of, it might be this potentially harmful, or might be this potentially harmful? How short is the short term? Is that your life? Is it my life? Is it the life of the insect, the life of the plant? And could it save millions of lives in the future? Can we even say that it would? If it has potential harm in a short term even potentiality of it, it’s not necessarily a risk that we need to take if we don’t even know that it would truly save lives in the future. This is something that those doing the genetic engineering, that is happening, would wish us to believe, wish us to believe that will save millions of lives in the future and we just need to take these little risks right now.
Localize it. Again, it’s about scale and if [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: Localize it. Again, it’s about scale and if we’re looking at the long emergency. We also have to look at the long now and that what we do right now ripples out in many different ways. And that, we are here in such a short amount time and that really now is the future as well in the past, it’s a very a long now that we’re in. So the steps that we can immediately take to prepare for this is to localize first our systems; our food systems, our water systems, and our energy systems and consume less. Always ask the question, how is my action taking care of the earth? How’s my action taking care of my people? Always measuring their actions around that. All these things, this convergence of peak oil, destruction of biodiversity, climate change, poverty, and global disease, a long emergency, it will be all over the planet. We don’t only need to prepare for it, but also response. How we can be able to respond in these times of technological shifts and natural disasters? When is it going to happen? And will you be prepared enough? We can do what we know how to do and what feels right, and we can listen more, we can listen more to the changes and see what we’re doing and how it affects all of these aspects. We can stop the destruction of biodiversity. We can help end poverty by shifting some of the money into helping those that are in poverty, and we can give more funding to global disease. To peak oil, we can change our renewable sources.
Maybe we don’t have, we have too much time [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: Maybe we don’t have, we have too much time on our hands. We have too much resources available to this industry. Again, in ’97 or was in ’96, I can’t remember now, but over ten years ago, I got rid of my television. There is movement in the States, kill your television, get rid of the television. It’s a powerful communication tool but it’s abused. And remember, that television we call it a lot television it’s programming. Television programming, it’s programming the people watching. It makes you consumer. It labels you as consumer. It’s not necessarily that the shows or the information that is spread but the way in which it is done to the commercial in different small sound bytes. It is a very powerful communication tool and we could use it to spread important information. But yet, it’s those that are part of rules of the television, it’s up to them. I don’t think they really want to spread important information, they’d rather dumb down the culture that watches television and rather program to consume, and keep everyone under control. And there’s lot money involved, there’s a lot of people involved, there’s a lot of power, there’s politics, there’s so much brainwashing, programming going on with television. I don’t know if you could use television to spread important information in that way, I do know that people use it to spread for information. GTV is like the home shopping network, but instead of products they’re selling projects. So you can support GVision on the internet and through satellite. Satellite -- GVision -- drop in.
Why it’s about profit? Who is genetically [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: Why it’s about profit? Who is genetically engineering these crops? And whose interest is it? Is it any interest of the farmer who’s using these crops? Is it in interest of the multinational corporation like Monsanto who’s engineering these crops? That, then are reliant upon the pesticides and the fertilizers to grow these crops? The farmers who are using these genetically engineer crops, these GE Crops are, these farmers, they’re told the golden myth of how it will benefit them? How it will aid them in the future? How will they be able to grow food with less pesticides? How will they be able to grow food in brackish waters? How will they be able to feed their country through doing this? And really it’s a myth. In the fact, that they’ll be become more dependent upon these corporations, more dependent upon the pesticides, the fertilizers to grow them. And in the intermittent term, they will lose their cultural heritage of their indigenous crops to cross-pollination of these genetic engineered corps. That's what is happening down in Mexico with the corn as growing from the mine farmers. They found that the corn cross-pollinates in Ignacio Chapela from UC Berkeley, to do study in Oaxaca and found that the cross-pollination was into ancient strains of corn. This is corn that has genetically evolved with the Mayan blood that was spilled upon the pyramids that was fed to this corn co-evolved and these are people, indigenous people, that have genocide against them. And there’s an agricultural genocide that is happening on genetically engineered crops. They have no defense mechanisms against this type of technology. Therefore, we must stand up in defense of the mother corn, of the cotton, of the soy bean. Why, it's because of profit? And that's not a good enough reason.
When we look at what science does, right? [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: When we look at what science does, right? Science focuses in on something. It says okay, I have this water and it comes [inaudible]. It comes up with something, some kind of synthesis -- a hypothesis. And in science systematically tries to disprove that, in which it’s stating. So for science to be objective, when it is all about being inquisitive within what it is stating and trying to disproved. I would say the investigation of what science is focusing on could be objective. But we also have many different types of sciences and we need to look at objective science. That would be good one. Science needs to become more objective, science needs to become more objective, and can it? And can it? We can have objective scientists.
Global warming is a huge, huge in scale. And [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: Global warming is a huge, huge in scale. And what can we do stop global warming? We can first look at, what are our needs? What is it that we want and what is it that we have? And that we need to set limits to our consumption. It’s the first thing one can to do, is look at what we need to survive? What we need to live? And set limits to the consumption so that we don’t consume so much, we need to set that limit. I mean tell others to not consume this much because it’s about consumption of our natural resources and of the ecological systems that are contributing to the factors of the global warming. The extraction of the blood of our mother, the earth, taking that out and emitting it in to the air, taking that solar energy that’s embodied within the earth, and distributing that out into the world in an unprecedented speed and scale; it’s unpredictable what will happen as this global warming continues and can we truly stop it at the stage in the game or can we just do things to help mitigate it, and best prepare and find the creative descent from this ascension to which we’ve come. Because we're coming in to a time of some incredible hardships, and we must take action in our little ways about what we buy, and what we do in our everyday life. And see that it is contributing in some form or another to this crisis. We can stop cutting the trees. We can use recycled products, creatively reuse. First thing in reuse, reduce and recycle, is reuse. Reduce is the first one, reduce, so limits the consumption. And tell others this is one big one to do, that they have a difference in any little part that we do, make differences. Walking instead of driving.
In the United States consume resources [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: In the United States consume resources [inaudible]. Well, the world we have to come up with more strategic solutions to compensate for their needs, and not rely upon the old ways of energy consumption or resource consumption. And that the United States needs to severely change the way in which they consume improportionate to their responsibility, in to their populations. Because we’re talking about this in the subject of the human footprint, so we are looking on our ecological footprint, and everyone needs to do the math, they need to see how their consumption, like what is ecological footprint? How many natural resources, how many acres of natural resources are you using? Go online, get the little website to come up and add in all your diet, your travel, and all this things and see how much you actually consume? It’s true, the average American is like 24, I think 24-acres of natural resources a year. It’s probably even more than that now. An average Indian who uses and Chinese their average use is more on five and seven in their ecological footprint; similar population are bigger, ecological footprint is smaller and yet as we see them industrializing, and using the same technology that we use, that we know is not ecologically sound, like dams. I mean look at China’s great dam, in comparable to their Great Wall in history displacing million of lives and flooding huge ecosystems for power and water and development. That ecological footprint becomes huge, becomes much more bigger, much much bigger. So we need to compensate by using alternatives, by using solar and wind, all that good stuff.
Architecture is really about design. Then [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: Architecture is really about design. Then how can architecture, how can design better serve the social, economical, political and environmental concerns of our present and future? How can we design systems that allows for better flows for the natural patterns of people to be energy efficient? By designing ways like, if we look at designs by William McDonough who’s looking at the triple bottom line and looking at how a building can actually be living and actually producing more energy than it consumes. If we look architect’s like Sim Van der Ryn who is pioneering a lot of concepts of ecological designs and building with nature, building with natural materials, and pulling the patterns from nature. We’ll look at landscape architect like Josiah Cain who’s doing living architecture, living roofs and actually incorporating the building to be a living breathing thing. These are all forms of architecture that can then allow us, if it pulling from nature’s patterns. They can be reinforcements within our daily lives to reconnect with nature more. If we’re living in a building that is living, and breathing, and generating energy, as much like a forest is. Then, we are connected with nature within our own home. Therefore, it makes it easier when we see the impacts of our consumption and of our choices, when we’re actually living in a part of nature. And these patterns are reinforced, and so we look around and it’s a great architecture here and a really good architecture’s form follows function, right? It’s functional, beautiful.
The future is the sun rising over the [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: The future is the sun rising over the beautiful mountains. It is people living in harmony with the earth living in balance. It is the family, happy. It's the village connected to each other. It's the crop of wheats maturing in the field. People living in houses and homes made of earth, soil, and grass. The vision I hold for the future and what it looks like, is in some ways indescribable as well. That’s more of a feeling I have. It’s beautiful. The sun travels all over the land, it sheds its light upon animals, the trees and ecosystems that are honored and cultures that are respected. There are foods forests, there are good schools, there’s healthcare. It’s the future that all would love to see. It's a dream, we’ll stay true to our dreams, and our dreams will stay true to us. We must be persistent in what we see for the future and allow it to manifest and get what we want if you truly believe. Sunsets over a very beautiful, grand ocean full of life.
There’s a huge opportunity and so a very big [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: There’s a huge opportunity and so a very big problem. Seeing the problem as an opportunity in all cases, is definitely a stance one can take in life. And there’s one in permaculture that we do take a lot; seeing the problem as a solution, promised opportunity, a properortunity. So, it then becomes not a question but, yes, it is an opportunity. This problem is an opportunity. Then it becomes the creativity of those who come up with how to respond to this ubiquitousness of the mass media and how to take it, how to turn it in to an opportunity? And this requires creative, innovative ways of approaching a problem, this problem. Most of us can look at it as if there’s a big problem, because it is. But within every problem lies opportunity. So, we need to look to our colleagues and cohorts to see how we can take this as a way, as an opportunity and take advantage of.
I’d be surprised if it hasn’t already [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: I’d be surprised if it hasn’t already happened. We have computers, we have machines, we have artificial limbs that are attached to people that are directly connected to the brain, to the impulses in the body. So, there’s that type of technology that has already happened but as far as directly having like The Wizard of Oz type setting, we have the man behind the curtain, lying back with his brain all connected to massive machines, operating everything. This is like a techno-fantasy world, why? It’s a fantasy. That would be a huge abuse of the human spirit to do things in that context.
We can channel the resources available to [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: We can channel the resources available to educational systems. We can begin to honor teachers as valuable contributors to our society. Once we channel the right resources and give knowledge and value to the people that are the actual promoters of education and teachers of this education. We’ll start to see some change. There probably is many steps to take, as far as the concrete steps to take, I hope that these steps are -- actually come out of this discussion because really to give a greater opportunity and search out to realize that they have something to contribute to the world then as it go on, that happens. Make the education accessible to all, the resources available, accessibility, and value to the teachers. People want to be teachers, they want to be students; students are teachers, teachers are students.
We are so many people. In the beginning, we [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: We are so many people. In the beginning, we were connected and then we’re born into this body. If we realize that we are so much more than this body, in this flesh, that the truth is that we are existence, knowledge and bliss. That we were never born or we shall never die; I’m not this body, I’m not this mind. If we come to this realization that we are much more than this body and this person, now we were actually together then we can realize and be enlightened, be lighter, we can be enlightened about not being alone. And though we might be alone in a room, or in a plaza with the million people, or the internet with millions of people. We’re never really alone because even though we’re separated, we’re connected to the divine. In this world, we’re ruled by the three Gunas, the illusions of Maya: Sattwa, Rajas, and Tamas. And that while we are limited to this perception, we can also break free from this perception and see that we are all connected. We can be in a circle holding hands and feel the support and feel togetherness, we can turn around, hold our hands again, and be facing until the opposite directions. We still feel the support of the circle. Likewise, as we radiate out into the world, we can still feel the support of the circle, if not we will be very much alone in our worlds and in our own paths. This is the way that our world structure that reinforces us being alone and being an individual, that’s why we feel so alone, let’s continually reinforced.
Information is knowledge, right? So that [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: Information is knowledge, right? So that educated people that have access to more information can be more knowledgeable. Again, the group I worked with in the hills of the Southeast of Mexico in Chiapas, to their move of resistance, and the organization schools for Chiapas which is Kabob Village Schools to educate, not trained teachers, but trained promoters of education. A very different model as opposed to students looking at the teacher for the answers and information. The teacher actually sits with the students, and they’re looking at the information and what can they learn from the topic. In this very remote villages where information is very limited, the internet and computers have allowed them to access this information to then educate their community and their culture to be a better informed community and culture, and to have, with these resources they’re able to do a lot more with what they have, which isn’t much. So, low income communities all over the world can learn from each other socially and economically of how to make a more sustainable systems for themselves and not be so reliant or dependent upon their governments, their systems, that are oppressing them, or making them more of low income, or keeping them within that low income bracket. All these answers that I've said today are coming from my own self and not just what I have observed and what I have to offer. We don’t know all the answers. That’s why we need to ask more questions and have more discussion.
Permaculture is my tree. The design system [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: Permaculture is my tree. The design system that is based around mutually beneficial relationships, this continually test me to see what other relationships that I have, how are they mutually beneficial. Now I can make them even more mutually beneficial. Its trunks that radiate out from the seed, the three main trunks are: that of taking care of the earth, taking care of the people, and returning the surplus. Off of these three main trunks thin branch the principles: Working with nature, design as theoretically unlimited, cyclical opportunity, relinquishing power. The design is an opportunity -- the design is an opportunity -- The problem is an opportunity. The design is an opportunity -- Design is theoretically unlimited. And these principles help employ the design process that is then eternally dancing around this tree. A conversation that has a dominance of one aspect over the other of assessment, visioning the refinement of that vision into a conceptual plan coming into a way of implementing that plan into a master plan but then circling back into an assessment, and a vision again, and a continual refinement and implementation. So eternal dance around this tree whose roots are rested in observation to be observant of my surroundings and live up to this three ethics calls me to be much bigger than what I feel that I am.
Again in the consumer culture it’s about [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: Again in the consumer culture it’s about programming and conditioning, conditionment. We’re all the same, we’re just conditioned differently. We’re all the same part of humanity, but we’re just conditioned in a different way. In consumer culture, we are influenced by this visual and verbal culture, that is always reducing in simple fine reality and there’s something that can be easily bought and sold. It seems that way to me too. It’s sad, sad to think about it. It becomes a part of us when we allow it to be. How do we resist? Ask yourself. We all have different ways of resistance, devotion, faith into what we know is true, and what can help us become better humans, better people. And I highly doubt that means being a better consumer. It'd be better if you buy more. Remember, everything’s on sale. Everything's on sale! Just buy more, business as usual. Don’t reduce and simplify reality, reduce and simplify your consumption.
A person can be perceptive enough to see our [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: A person can be perceptive enough to see our planet in a way that tells them that they are part of nature, of course, this is what makes indigenous cultures so connected and in balance. We are a part of nature, we breathe the air that comes into our lungs and we breathe out. Our breathing in is a taking, our breathing out is a gift back. We exchange with the air, we drink in the water, the area in which we live, the water in which we drink. This water here is from, I think maybe Berlin, but could come from anywhere and it is on hydrological cycle of this planet. And I drink in this water, I become fused with the water, the water becomes part of me and incorporate it into my life and to my being and then also give it back in a different form. So we’re part of the air, we’re part of the water; we’re part of the soil in a way in which we grow our food. To be perceptive is to open, to be open enough to feel the earth. If every person could walk barefoot on the land and connect the sole of your foot upon the skin of our mother, this is the intimate connection that indigenous tribes have had the earth can feel where her children are. In the city where we have so much concrete and so much insensitivity upon the mother skin, it is hard for her to feel us. But if we walk barefoot, if we feel the earth beneath our feet, we then begin to realize that we are supported in every step that we take. In these steps, we can learn and walk our way back to the knowledge of being a part of nature. And then we must work with nature, we must work with each other. What we do to the environment, we do to ourselves. It’s all connected.
Because Coca-Cola, to get a fresh can of [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: Because Coca-Cola, to get a fresh can of Coca-Cola. A fresh can of Coca Cola or stale glass of water even. I was in Mexico and there was a child that came to me and he wanted a peso for a Coca-Cola and even though water is more expensive, my wife and I then couldn't give, we say, “I will buy you some water” and the kid say “No, No, Coca-Cola on peso, Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola”. Because the sugar in the Coca-Cola and the addiction of that child to the Coca-Cola he was getting more from the Coca-Cola than from the water. And valuing the water as a fresh giving life, if we see a fresh glass of water as what we are, we are water and if we see that this fresh glass of water isn’t aiding to our system and that Coca-Cola is full of different impurities or artificial flavorings, and if that what we’re putting into ourselves then once we can realized that then, we’ll say, “I want water, I want some fresh glass of water”. And that’s what has come about it, is that people are like, “I want some fresh water”, Now we see Coca-Cola with fresh water. So, to get fresh water will be even more challenging in the times to come, a fresh glass of water.
Oh man, we can learn so much from Africa. [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: Oh man, we can learn so much from Africa. The strength of the human spirit, how to do so much with so little. The focus of the village, the connection to the mother, there’s so much we can learn from Africa. And the fact that we still to this day, disrespect Africa for its contribution that it can add to the planet. Those villages in Kenya, in Zimbabwe, there are people here from those villages sitting at this table. They will have more to say than me for I am not from Africa. And therefore, I have a lot to learn from Africa. But I know from what I do know, is that the village is strong that the family is strong. Here in America, in Germany, all across the world, we need a village renaissance. We need that village to be reinstated within our culture. For in many ways, we say we come from Africa; although, by the color of our skin and the way that we act could be very hard to believe this in a lot of ways. And we shouldn’t be necessary tied to the story, but we should see it where we’re at. And that they are our brothers and our sisters that we can learn so much from their indigenous ways, in the way in which they relate to each other and with the animals -- the connections.
How can we create a balance between the [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: How can we create a balance between the preservation of local cultures and the development of a global community? Again, respect of these local communities, in creating -- really, really letting these cultures know that what they have is incredible valuable contribution. I met a young man from Africa who came to the States to see what he could bring back to his community. And what he found was that he came to the States and specifically into California, and saw that what he was experiencing in his homeland, the sense of belonging, the sense of connection, the way of living in mud huts and village was something people were so into. They were just fascinated and wanting to recreate in their own country. And he was mystified by this because he was told so much by his government and the different media that life that they were living was not worthy. And what he saw is that they had so much worth. And he really, his mission changed from when he went back to basically educate his community that what they were doing was valuable--so valuable. If this local cultures realize that what they have is valuable, to add to the future, then as we develop those contributions from them can be added into the design. And we have so much to learn from each other, we really need to get it together, and so get it together. I want to learn.
That is always an obstacle. How do we get [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: That is always an obstacle. How do we get each other to listen to each other? Right again, we have one mouth and two sets of ears. We need to listen twice as much as we talk, right? So, give me more opportunity to be even receptive to the information. To tell the story, to sing, to begin the conversation, to ask more questions, to tell you the story of your life and of this experience, and of the presence by telling the story it begins to engage more people to listen because there’s activity happening, and these are questions that aren’t the normal questions is not “how’s the whether?” and “what are you doing tonight?” and “what’s happening out in the world?” Today is much greater than all of those simple day to day questions. So we start asking questions like these hundred that we’ve asked today is different and the minds turns and listens because it’s different than what is normally heard. We tend to block out that which is ordinary. So, when we ask the questions that are out of the ordinary, the pressing questions of our time, the mind begins to listen. We get the people to listen.
Well, there are so many under reported [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: Well, there are so many under reported stories. It’s hard to pick. I haven’t had a television since 1996. I have a computer, I have the radio and I hear many stories Amy Goodman from Democracy Now, bless this woman for speaking and reporting on the stories that need to be reported about and all the independent journalists who are reporting on stories that the media, mainstream media does not cover. I don’t know if there is any story that is totally under reported. There are stories that definitely are little snippets within the mass media that deserve a lot more recognition. Climate change is a big one that many, many people are now waking up to and is becoming more of a reported story. Some of the truth about corporations, about our involvement in South America, genetic engineering is also a very under reported story. We’re starting again just like climate change starting to hear more and more about it. But many people still don’t know about the extreme consequences that are happening due to this grand experiment we’re doing on the planet. So many under reported stories, it’s hard to choose. It’s hard to choose.
Government says it's an intelligence test. [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: Government says it's an intelligence test. Well, everyone comes from their different experiences. Everyone comes from a different perspective. They can be right because of the context in which they’re coming from. They can contradict each other because of the different ways in which the people have experienced that situation. This experience here is very different for each participant. And it might be a question to how your experience was, some will say, “Oh, it was cold”, “I was tired”. They can say, “Oh, I was invigorated and energized”, “I was inspired”, “Oh, I want to go home”, “Oh, I want to stay here forever”, right? These are very different contradicting answers. But yet they’re both right, because they’re all based on our own experiences. It’s our experience that then make our answers. Honor each others experiences, accept the contradictions and try not to judge or have expectations. No judgment, no expectation.
Only one piece of knowledge to give to the [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: Only one piece of knowledge to give to the world, once a day you’ll get a 112 pieces of knowledge. The one piece that I would like to contribute, that I feel so blessed that I be able to even be fortunate enough to contribute. Is that we need to listen to the earth and all of its beings. We need to listen. We need to take that which we hear that inspires us and put it into action. A good friend, before I left asked the few people this question, then it go, “Wow, I need to think about that for a few days”, well I have been thinking about that for week, couple of weeks now. And I still thinking, because there’s so much that we need to give to the world. But what I synthesize is what came up from my other friends as well, as we need to listen more to the earth and the wisdom that is inherit within nature and see that she is the prime designer and that we have still have so much to learn; so much to learn from the knowledge that she possesses.
To save time. Can we truly save time? Can we [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: To save time. Can we truly save time? Can we take time and put it in the bank? Go, "Oh okay, I'm going to use this time for later," or, no, time cannot be saved. It will always fill itself up. So, really, it’s the slowing down of our mind because if our mind keeps moving at the pace and we invent something to save time for ourselves, to allow us more time basically to do more things. And with technology and the current systems that we’re in, where we’re making more and more things to fill up this time to allow us, or giving us more space to do more things; we’re taxing our system, we’re doing too much, we’re putting too much upon ourselves and any system that has taxes and reach the threshold of stress. And so, we can’t really save time, what we have to do is slow down. We have to look it how we can really observe life. How we can create space and not be worried about saving any time or having more time because time is what we have it is how we are, what we do with our time. And if we keep building new things to allow us to do what we really want to do, it becomes more stressful because we’re taking too much on. So that we realize that we have a certain capacity, if we over tax an element to serve too many functions, and it cannot function, for even its initial purpose and same with the human mean. If you take a cow to give you milk, but then you have it to carry some wood to the village, you have it plow the fields, and then you have it -- then generate some meat or different things. Then it won’t give you as much milk. So, we have to honor things at their capacity of what they have to give, and what do we have to give into our lives, saving time.
I would highly doubt that technology boom [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: I would highly doubt that technology boom would even happen without the military American forces driving it. For Bolivian military, about world dominance and control, and if we’ll look at the market forces which is about a product in gaining profit, both of these are driving forces in our current culture. And therefore, taking technology to accelerate its evolution so that we can make more money, and have more control, is a driving force of many people, right? What would be the driving force behind technology if it wasn’t for these two things? And we may have a different type of technology that would have evolved. Technology that we have if we could channel it and so that it wasn’t these boom that accelerated it, if there’s a way to channel it into something else there’s a different type. Usefulness, it could be many things, I think going back, what would be the driving force behind a technology boom? And I think that technology would be different in the one that we have today. We wouldn’t have all of these products that we’ll be selling; we wouldn’t have all this wars that were fighting. We have a very different world because we have a very different driving force behind us. If they want to have connection, we may start the internet but we will be very well connected through it, not necessarily divided, but we have so much division still on today with such great connections. That’s what dropping knowledge will help alleviate.
It’s your responsibility, and it’s my [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: It’s your responsibility, and it’s my responsibility. It's all of our responsibility to manage the world’s resources for we are part of the world and we live in our small, we live and do things in our small ways. It’s up to every single one of us, it’s up to every single one of us to take on the responsibility, to manage our local resources and I will ripple out into the world’s resources. We were talking about scale and something much larger than our local environment, these resources that are being consumed by a huge corporations, it's their responsibility to manage them correctly. Pacific Lumber in Northern California was a very good timber company, where they had their capital invested in the natural system of the forest. Through different situations, they have had to liquidate their capital, to the markets and the junk bonds, if have liquidate their capital, their natural capital and they are turning money into trees. And that is not responsible as a short term. We need to have corporations step up, and this people who are managing at this scale, we are talking about the managing our world resources at that scale, they need to step up and see that they have to be responsible and accountable. And their demanding the rights of personhood, but they’re not be liable for being a person who’s stepping aside saying, “This is corporation, not me” but they want the similar rights. So we need to all see that is our responsibility to take care of these resources. Not necessarily for us, but the several generations that will come after, for our children, for our children’s children, and our great, great, great grandchildren.
How can we be indigenous in the twenty-first [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: How can we be indigenous in the twenty-first century? Well, by reconnecting with nature and our roots. To honor that inner genetic code we have a connection. We have indigenous connection, the indigeneity that is within our blood. We can conjure up. How do we conjure that up? By connection, connection with those cultures that are indigenous, connection with the ways and the practices. Not in a domineering way, not in a colonizing type of way, like “I need to come and check out your culture because I need to indigenize myself and get what I can take from you to bring into my life”. That’s always, it’s often like what can I still take from you? But no, in a honoring a way to integrate into those cultures. We can still be indigenous, we’re indigenous to this planet. We are indigenous to this planet, and we only have one planet, right? There some that think we’re not, but everything that resonates well within my heart says that we’re indigenous here. And even though my skin is white and I was not born into a culture, I’m able to create a culture, a permanent culture that has the flexibility withstand the changing times.
Defects and imperfections are a part of [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: Defects and imperfections are a part of nature. And what should we allow to correct these defects? Should we allow parents to genetically engineer there children because they want them to look a certain way? That’s what we’re saying when we’re genetically engineer things to nature. We want things to be the way we want them to be. And actually nature, your model, it has these imperfections; these defects actually we want tweak for our benefit. There is a mystery in life that we have no understanding of this mystery that is embedded within all of life. Something we see as an imperfection or a defect, it is a part of the web of life. To be tweaking with nature’s design, we must ask, why are these defects and imperfections there in the first place? And if there once that are from people, we must look at the environment that we are damaging and seeing what it is that we are doing that might result in this imperfections. If we genetically alter things to then correct these defects, imperfections, this is a band aid fix over much greater problem. We’re erasing the problems away, not fully addressing the issue. This issue, this is the big one.
By what you feel in your heart, we can see, [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: By what you feel in your heart, we can see, we can feel, inherently feel what is right and what we know as truth and fact. The fact within, if we hear something stated as facts, and if it’s manufactured then we need to investigate. And really basically not assume anything, not assume that what are giving to us fact are facts because they manufactured and same with truths, and so as really through experience, direct experience and through application of, and experimenting with your life. To know what is fact and only until you experience it, then you’ll know it is fact. Only until you feel that it is true, you’ll know it is true. We need to connect more with our heart with our feelings better than our head. And we need to stop assuming so much and been lead astray. Comfort and consumption leave us numb and leave us less curious, less inquisitive of what is before us. In truth, it’s all an illusion in this world, in this life. It's all manufactured by the divine. Is there more than one truth to all of these?
Patience. Commitment. Patience comes from [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: Patience. Commitment. Patience comes from commitment. Devotion comes from commitment, comes from patience. Faith and devotion. Understanding, understanding our compassion. Peace. Compassion, patience, and love. There are thousand different versions of love. Teaching anyone about how to be patient, and ground them to be loving and compassionate.
I would say it’s an art of observation. How [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: I would say it’s an art of observation. How we observe things? It’s been proven to actually affect the outcome. Cause and effect that which is observing can then change the outcome of what is happening. It is an observational art to be able to allow the natural systems to flow. Be a part of it and have a positive effect. Part of observation, part from protracted observation, child-like observation, the way we measure things in observation, technical observation, there so many different ways and approach easily taken in a creative, artistic way of how and also an experimental way. So we can really, truly begin to observe in a way that’s beneficial for nature systems, the planet and the people. Ask yourself how you observe? Then you can take your head off so you can really feel what’s going on around you and really sense what’s going on around or you’re still on your mind thinking. Go somewhere in nature and take your head off and see what you’ll observe after five minutes.
The wind moves me. My body moves me. Life [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: The wind moves me. My body moves me. Life moves me. Life and its entirety moves me. When I hear people speak from their heart, when I hear of initiatives that are happening in the forest of Costa Rica, when I hear the projects in Kenya, when I see people living their dream, and manifesting what it is that they hold as a vision, this is what moves me. I am moved by love. I am moved by visions of peace. I am moved by the way a tree can be so flexible and yet so strong. I am moved by the beauty that is in the eye of my wife. I am moved by the generosity that is shown to me by my friends. I am moved by the community that supports me and allows me to even have the opportunity to be here. And truly I am moved by those that are doing the work, those that are out there actually putting their inspiration into action. That’s what moves me.
The myths that we can create are ones that [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: The myths that we can create are ones that have a strong base in spirit, have a strong base in solutions and actions. In ways that can resolve the problems, resolve huge problems. We have myths, there are so many indigenous cultures that are still alive today that have myths, that explain the way the world became to be. We need to create myths that explain that the way the world is, and how it is going to be. We need to begin creating stories to then aid in people beliefs stories. Because this will begin to really shift peoples’ consciousness when we have something else -- people like to identify with something. It’s hard to always see everything inside oneself, even though that’s where it truly lives. And so, having something outside, some myths, some creations, some beliefs story that one can latch on to, to have some kind of explanation of why the stars are the way they are. Why climate is changing the way it is. Doing in a way that humanizes the situation that brings down into ourselves and then we can take it and move forward, in a way that is regenerative in that way, so that can be for the better. And we need to honor some of the myths that already exist, that are being lost that we can bring back into the discussion, into the story telling, and learn a lot from this type of stories and this type of myths from the Ramayana, Mahabharata from the Greek myths, Indian myths.
Renewable energies, we need to look at the [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: Renewable energies, we need to look at the energies that we are talking about. It is a myth that solar consumes more energy in manufacturing of the photovoltaic panels that they actually generate in our lifetime, and now that solar has been proven as an efficient use of energy, we can see that after seven years they have then made up the energy that was used in their manufacturing. And assist through the new technologies that have come about, and we’re looking at micro hydro, a small microturbines that we can place of and divert a small amount of water to spin a turbine, very simple parts, same with wind, very simple parts that can generate power. And if kept up in a very good maintenance and with continued observance of what’s working and using these renewable energies in there most efficient way. Then, they definitely can produce a lot more energy than it took to consume them. And we should switch a lot, we should take the limited amount of oil that we have and conventional energies to manufacture this renewable energies, to manufacture the PV panels, and to manufacture the microhydro and wind turbines. But first, we need reduce again our consumption because there’s no way that renewable energies can meet the needs of our consumption. Be more efficient with ourselves as well, energy efficiency.
We all have our beliefs story, right? So, [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: We all have our beliefs story, right? So, what you believe in, what you identify with--is your story. And that we’re also diverse; we have all different stories and some believe in humanities, some believe in nationality, some believe in the creation of both, of neither. By saying, why do we still believe more in nationality than in humanity? In that sense, in that system, we should believe more in humanity and why we don’t, why we’re more fixated with our nationality? Because we exist in the system that is based on separation, we ourselves are separate from the divine, from creation. And for that reinforce on a smaller scale, that we, these people walking around, these people sitting at this table are separate, separate from ourselves so then we as a collective group, or nationality that we are separate from humanity. When in truth, we’re all the same. We’re all a part of the great mystery and until we accept this truth, until we accept the fact that, we are all a part of humanity, then we will always have a division, always have this disconnection. Though, we still believe in that, because it’s just what is reinforced in our culture--this is individualistic way. We're a 112 voices but were unified and connected. Right? Right.
Well, it’s not all of such bad quality. The [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: Well, it’s not all of such bad quality. The food I eat is of very high-quality. And it’s a matter of how you prioritize food in your life, if food takes a very low priority in your budget and in your livelihood, or in the way that you interact. If food is not of that important, then you’ll fill yourself with bad food because it is just like, “okay, I just need to eats something to have sustenance, to function, to fill my belly”. That is very different than if you take food as being the life force in which you gained your strength. If we look at food as, if we look at ourselves as a part of nature and we are what we eat then we should be eating food of high-quality and in supporting those people who are growing the food of high-quality and not allowing these markets to be overcome by food of such bad quality, by demanding good food and in situations when we don’t have that good food available to us? We can help through the resources and connection with farmers. We can help bring that food into our communities. Local farmers, community-supported agriculture, CSAs, are great example of how one can reconnect their heritage to food, from field to table; we need to reconnect that heritage, because we have become severely disconnected through fast food and foods that are bad quality. It doesn’t need to be of such bad quality, it’s how you choose to fill your belly. If you choose to have food of high-quality and if you demand food of high-quality and it’s not accessible to you then drop in to this conversation and find someone, find the connection that can help you bring that food to your community because the resources are out there, the farmers are out there, and we can connect. We can connect.
Well, when we define what is God, it is [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: Well, when we define what is God, it is different than what is Ishwara? Or what is that divine energy that is beyond qualities? As soon as we start to put qualities upon that energy, then we have God. We have a masculine and a feminine. We have attributes. I would say that God, also he probably does not have a religion because religion creates a division. When I was in India, the first thing they ask you is, where are you from? Not where are you from -- where from? Then your name and then your religion? And I would say that I don’t have a religion. They said “Oh My Gosh! You don’t believe in God?” I said “No”. I believe in the divine, of course, but when I claim that I’m a Christian and you are a Muslim, and he is a Hindu; we are not divided and we are not the same. That religion has created a division. In the words of Sri Swami Sivananda: O Adorable Lord of Mercy and Love! Salutations and prostrations unto Thee. Thou art Omnipresent, Omnipotent and Omniscient. Thou art Satchidananda (Existence-knowledge-Bliss Absolute). Thou art the Indweller of all beings. Grant us an understanding heart, Equal vision, balanced mind, Faith, devotion and wisdom. Give us the inner spiritual strength To resist temptations and to control the mind. Free us from egoism, lust, anger, greed, hatred, and jealousy. Fill our hearts with divine virtues. Let us behold Thee in all these names and forms. Let us serve Thee in all these names and forms. Let us ever remember Thee. Let us ever sing Thy glories. Let Thy Name be ever on our lips. Let us abide in Thee for ever and ever. Mercy and love, adorable Lord.
How can we retain the identity of different [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: How can we retain the identity of different cities? Earlier question, what’s the future of the city? It depends on what city and yet there’s a sameness about the energetics of the city but yet there’s also a very different feeling from the people who inhabit the city. Again, the people behind me, these are very different people than the people in Italy, not so much different maybe, but for me from San Francisco or you go to Johannesburg -- very different. So, the people who live within the city can protect it from sameness and by preserving the cultural heritage of the city. What is it that makes that city? What is it that makes Berlin, Berlin? And how can we honor that? And how can we make that more? How can we promote the uniqueness of each city and honor it? Not in a competitive model but in a way that is constructive. And then how can these cities then interact together, to honor each other and to make relationship between each other? So they’re not trying to replicate everything the same. In the States, you have cities that are the same by having the same malls, they have the same shops, they have the same and a lot all over. Same cities happening, same development happening in the cities and in the country even. It’s about finding the value in the uniqueness, finding the value in what that can contribute to the whole and then the diversity, really honoring the diversity that we all have and really giving artistic license to those designers and architects to not homogenize our cities. It is beautiful here, this is my first time to Berlin, and seen that 90% of the country of the city was destroyed and now rebuilt, it’s unique.
I am white as well, and I’m American. Where [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: I am white as well, and I’m American. Where we come from, our lineage, our heritage is just as important as where we are, or where we’re born. What is intrinsic within ourselves? Later, there’s a question about can we be indigenous in this century? Who is truly indigenous save the indigenous man? Who is from that place and that blood? Who’s the African that is from Africa? The black African, the dark skinned Mexican who’s indigenous to that land. Defined by race, we are all defined, we have to be defined in some way when we are in this world of separation, it’s what give us our identity, if we choose to not be identify by the color of our skin or where we come from, then we can really break down some walls that lie between us in our ways of communication and connection. Are people in America are Americans? Nationality or a humanity? Are just Americans humans? Are just Africans humans? When we break down these walls to not have such a division, not even classify ourselves; give us, ourselves these qualities, of gender, and race. But it is important to know our gender and race. So that when we relate to each other we have context in which we’re coming from and we can connect.
To change the world, anyone can make a [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: To change the world, anyone can make a difference. So first, just accepting that, really acknowledging that and taking that in, that you have something to contribute and you can make a difference. As far as things to read, see, and experience? For me, it was going through a permaculture design course which is basically not a way to garden or to farm, but a way to see life, to think differently. To be empowered, to see that we are a part of the solution and not the problem. And if we take on that mind set of seeing that we are part of the solution and not the problem, it will really start to make some change. So, taking, doing some permaculture and then finding what it is what you are passionate about. There so many things that need to change in this world. You need to ask yourself, what is it that I’m passionate about? Once you find that specific niche, it might change overtime, but it will be redefined and defined as you begin to grow. And as this come to definition, then it’s about reading the material that’s out there, everything has been written. It’s about seeing and going and experiencing actually what is happening. So, if you get passionate about farming, in a way to change that, then start going to the farm, seeing it, doing it, you’re actually giving yourself wholeheartedly into the project, into the initiative, into the experience. No holding back you have to give, continually give into it.
So, the internet to enhance our own [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: So, the internet to enhance our own communities is about connection. It’s about connecting us more, internationally as well, because there is movements and communities around the world. They’re facing the same issues and problems that we faced in our own communities, that we can then have a dialogue, a multilogue, as we say in dropping knowledge, right? And that, from this we can a learn lessons, and we can really benefit from each other. And I believe that is a whole intention in the seat of dropping knowledge is to really take this information and begin to really make the connections pay the platform. That people can then begin to communicate and accelerate this communication and this connection. This can really enhance our whole trip, I mean, if we get connected, if all these people in this circle connect their resources that we have, Oh my gosh! That groups like the Bioneers and Eco-Farm in the States, people like dropping knowledge here, and then multiple groups all around the world. They are all connected, the other world that we’re dreaming of would be present, we’ll be living in it. And so, hopefully we can take this time and this opportunity to really connect with each other and create some relationships. So, mutually beneficial relationships where it's not, what do you have that I can get or what do you have that can’t get? No, it’s about what do we have to give each other? Man, just close your eyes and dream, and come to a presence of being of that type of world.
Which city? Australia? We’re talking about [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: Which city? Australia? We’re talking about all cities, I guess? The city has its own kind of entity. You step into a city, it doesn’t matter where it is in the world, he’s in Berlin; you’re in San Francisco, you’re in Rome, Milano, you’re in Dubai. What is the future of these cities? And the future is up in the air, really, because we have an opportunity to help shift these futures of the city by those who live in the city, by all these people behind me? They have the opportunity to really shape the future of the city, by how they interact. And really, the designers of the cities, those who are currently designing and working with design have an incredible opportunity because the way that the city functions, form follows function. The way a city is designed, the way it function is dependent upon those who designed it. And if we have people who are not in tune with the natural order of things and the balance, or not taking on some ethical and practical principles, will get bad design that then will lead to destruction in some ways of the city by, and not being very functional, and not allowing for the natural flows to happen that can then be regenerative and build upon themselves. If we have a bad design that is, that doesn’t allow for the energies to flow and doesn’t allow for change to evolve and things to happen in the city that could be beneficial for it and allow for these people to be more interactive with their city. Then the city will have somewhat of a tragic fate. I don’t live in the city. I live in the country with my beautiful wife Gabriel, my goats, and my chickens. What will be the fate of the countryside, if the city collapses? If the city collapses, what will be the fate of the countryside? As those people, huge populations go out to the country.
If all Chinese people want a car, so the [...]
Benjamin Fahrer: If all Chinese people want a car, so the children want a car, or the baby wants a car. It’s all about the conditionment in which, why do they want a car? In my understanding, I’ve never been to China but just from what I’ve read and witnessed is that, through to rapid industrialization to get what the western world has, where people in America maybe have two cars, three cars. In China, if everyone wants a car that will be really sad because in this development there’s a huge opportunity to design in a sustainable way, rapid mass transit and more efficient ways of getting around than a car. Designing cities in this evolution, if the cities could be design, not for the car but for people and for bicycles, and for trains, and then how are those forms of transportation fueled? And oil is towards the end of its glory days, and so looking to the solar, to the sun, to the winds, to the microhydro, the small systems as well to help fuel this development and the human power. The cars is being transformed into walking, biking. Why people want a car? That do exhibit compassion for their lack of foresight and design, and foresight in lessons learned from the tragedy that we have now, which is a huge consumption of the individualistic society. In China, I don’t know, it maybe different. It’s communist. It has more of community, everyone contributing.
Money's fate
Those who have lots and lots of wealth in the form of money seem to operate at a scale that aspects of our human nature are not truely able to grasp. In some ways the fate of money or the monitary system is that of greed and a de-humanizing of one's sensitivity to others. I believe that is also the cause of why those in power seem unaffected by the causes of the war they have instigated. People are dying by a magintude that is almost uncomprehensible, in terms of the suffering. Those who are profiting from this, weather it is war on people, or the enviroment, the wealth usually comes from an explotation of resources. Those who exploit , in turn shut a part of their concious off, if they didn't then the knowing of the results of their actions would be too much to bear. Therefor those who have lots and lots of money tend to not have such feelings of compassion and humility and understanding, Those who are closer to the source of their soul and have not shut or better yet sheilded their more humanistic qualities, can relate to those in need. Also I think those with loads of money have it because they have either been very wise or selfish and kept it to themselves. I promote the ethics of Permaculture which are Earth Care, People Care and FAIR SHARE, The third is the governing ethic that makes the wealth distubuted back to the earth and to the people. In the end Health is wealth and the person with the most money and toys in the end loses.
