When we look closely at the practices in the world that are most harmful to the different levels of the “whole being” (individuals, human societies, our fellow Earthlings and the biosphere), we find that there are a handful of core industries that are responsible for the most severe harm being done:

• The fossil fuels industry
• The animal farming and fishing industries
• The inorganic farming industry
• The pharmaceutical/psychiatric industry
• The military industrial complex
• The corporate finance/banking industry
• Corporate-controlled media
• …and a number of powerful industries within other domains that are highly abusive/exploitative of humans, animals, and the environment (such as those involved in water and prison privatization, human trafficking and worker exploitation and nuclear power).

It’s easy to understand that in order to support holistic well-being, we must each strive to reduce our own harmful behaviors. But how do we stop the harmful behaviors of such powerful organizations and industries?

When we consider that the source of their wealth and power is us, the consumers, (who some refer to as “the 99%”), then we realize that we already have everything that we need to reclaim our power.

Voting with our dollars is one of the most effective ways to take our power back.  We can think of every dollar as a vote. Every time I make a purchase, I’m essentially saying, “I vote in favor of this product or service, and I personally support this industry to continue making/doing it.”

So every time we refuse to vote for a product or service with our dollars, we are saying, “I refuse to support what you are doing. I will not empower you to continue on with this harmful practice.” When enough of us refuse to continue sponsoring a particular practice, that practice will simply have to stop.

In a world where harmful industries, organizations and individuals have hijacked many of our political systems, where many of us are losing hope in the prospect of any real change occurring at the ballot box, voting with our dollars is one of the most effective ways that we can reclaim our power.

Educating ourselves (and knowing how to educate ourselves) is key to reclaiming our power.  The world’s most powerful industries (as discussed above) have developed a number of major strategies in an attempt to maintain their power and ensure that the status quo is not disrupted.

One of the most insidious of these is that in addition to hijacking our political systems, they have hijacked the primary means of spreading news and other information. This is particularly evident in mainstream corporate media (“MSM” for short), but unfortunately this corruption has even filtered down to some degree into institutions that are traditionally supposed to be more trustworthy, such as academic institutions and journals.

So how do we know what to believe? Due to the extent of this corruption by powerful industries, this is not a simple answer; however, there are definitely some steps we can take to increase the likelihood that the information we gather has validity so that we can make more informed choices and reclaim our power.

Nonviolent civil disobedience is sometimes a necessary way to reclaim our power.  Harmful organizations sometimes use their power to attempt to force people to accept or even involuntarily contribute to the organization’s harmful behavior.

So we have a choice–we can allow such organizations to maintain their “power over us” and succumb to helplessness, or we can refuse to participate in harmful behaviours, such as participating in boycotts and refusing to support certain industries with our dollars or our time; or more direct civil disobedience in the more extreme cases where acting in line with our values may involve pushing back against unjust and/or violent laws.

There are lots of good organizations doing great things to support the wellbieng of humans, animals and the environment. But as discussed above, these wholesome organizations have to push against very powerful organizations who are doing everything they can to maintain the status quo of inequality, oppression and violence. Check out our Resource Library for an extensive list of such organizations.

So this is where “we the people” have the power to make a real difference, following the very same strategies discussed above:

Voting with our dollars.  Keeping in mind that every dollar we spend is a vote in favour of the industry/organization selling that product. With every purchase we make, let’s keep asking ourselves, “Is this something that I really want to support?”

Educating ourselves.  Just as with taking a stance against harmful organizations, in order to feel confident that we are supporting genuinely wholesome organizations, we need to take the time to properly educate ourselves. For example, many of the harmful industries/organizations create and/or subsidize artificial “grass roots” organizations (sometimes referred to as “astroturf organizations”), which claim to represent wholesome causes but which are primarily acting to further enrich and empower themselves. And it’s important that we learn how to recognize these infiltrators.

In order for each of us to develop the capacity to support our species in moving towards a more joyful and sustainable world, we each need to do our own hard work of reconnecting with the various levels of our “whole being,” connecting with…

• our individual self–getting to know and make peace with our own inner landscape of emotions, needs, impulses and values.
• our fellow humans–developing the capacity to relate skilfully and kindly with each other, and to work together to develop mutually rewarding strategies.
• our fellow species–recognizing that we as individuals and as a human species are merely one member of a much larger living community of beings, and that it is only by learning to respect the sovereignty for and work cooperatively with these other members of this living web that we can hope to continue to survive and thrive ourselves.
• …and our Earth, the biosphere–recognizing that we are simply a small part of a much larger living organism (often referred to as “Gaia” or the biosphere), and that ultimately our individual wellbeing is intimately bound up with the wellbeing of this much larger organism.
  

Look below for some different ways that you can join us in getting more connected!