Saturday, January 29, 2011

A letter to our leaders and to ourselves

I was going to send this letter to the Chief Rabbi of England but on second thoughts, I realise that such leaders are often chosen because they dont like to rock the boat. So I am publishing it here. Feel free to spread it if you want to...

In the past few years I have been involved in a rather unusual type of activity on the streets (mainly of London) which has led me to meet many 'activists' These activists care deeply about the direction humanity is being led and campaign as best they can about Ecology, environment, pollution, war, inequality between rich and poor. education, helping the homeless and poor etc etc.

Because I have been filming this and posting on youtube, and the films have become quite popular amongst a certain type of people (not that there are 'type' of people) I continue to meet people who call themselves 'activists' wherever I go.

Whilst in Israel last week I met one of the most interesting 'activists' I have ever met and what he told me was very very disturbing and sadly fits with what I have learned and experienced over the past 2 years.

There are people all over the world who are very concerned about all the above issues. The type of people are of course very mixed. I have in particular come across many people who themselves have very little in the way of material possessions. They have deep spiritual yearnings part of which is to free themselves from what they see as the bondage of modern society (forcing people to do work they often hate doing in order to make money to buy things that in the most part they dont really need - a society which is driven by a soulless machine which is bombarding us with subliminal and overt messages that deliberately cause us to be unsatisfied and to buy buy buy to fill the gap.) They are often people who try and live healthy lives, eating as healthily as they can, etc and have really good intentions to help improve this world. They often end up getting harassed by police, investigated by secret services, taken to court (and often cases dropped) infiltrated by private investigators or police etc.

The problem is that there are huge vested interests in keeping all the above things going. There are vested interest in keeping war going - Israel is apparently the third largest exporter of weapons and arms - I wonder how Israelis and their supporters feel about that ? There are vested interest in people eating unhealthy foods - Big food companies and then big pharmaceuticals companies who come in and 'pick up the pieces' when people get sick. There are vested interests in people using lots of fossil fuel - Oil companies etc; there are vested interests in terrorism continuing - security industry and Government megalomaniacs who seek to control us more and more. There are vested interests in widening the gap between rich and poor, vested interests in controlling education.

The clever and twisted aspect of all this is that these interests, who have resources of Billions to play with, are controlling the information too. They set up organisations which look on the outside like fabulous groups out to help us. But what happens is they actually end up being fronts out there to make sure that business interests are not interfered with. And through their 'foundations' (many of which end up being fronts for tax evasion) control which charities get what money.

This guy I met in Israel, has been threatened, taken to court , his girlfriends stepfather found hanging mysteriously in his apartment with unexplained blood and the police not wanting to investigate. And if you met this guy, you would see that he is in some sense a modern day saint - risking his life for the sake of the underprivileged.

Why am I writing to you ? Well I am aware that I need to take responsibility for what I can do in relation to everything, However, you are in a position of influence. Although you write books about these things, I rarely see you come out and expose the ROOT of the problem in the media. The root surely being that this system we are living in, a capitalist consumerist society, is leading us down a road of such intense destruction, that its difficult to see a way out. And yet almost nobody is crying out against the system and against the super rich elites because those people have everyone in their pockets. Nobody is revealing and exposing the deep corruption that is at the root of almost all of our problems ? Nobody is openly asking 'Who are the people benefitting from war, pollution, inequality ? Who benefits from the Israel Palestine conflict ? I must say its ingenious on the part of the vested interests. They are more than happy with two sides fighting it out against each other - right and left, religious and irreligious, capitalists and socialists etc - whilst they get on with their business of making more money and gaining more control ! My brother-in-law works for a multi billionaire in Israel. As far as I am concerned the man is sick. He has more money than he could spend in a lifetime yet he is addicted to getting more and more and more. He has a private jet, a large yacht companies all over the world yet he is stressed out all the time about his money and continuing to accrue more and more. This is nothing short of sick and yet nobody is talking about it because they dare not. And he is nothing compared to the few families that are trillionaires.

How long do you think we can go on living like this ?

Let me give you a classic example of this which is close to home. My wife runs a fabulous charity called GIFT. It works on a small budget and distributes bread and food to poor families in London. (it does other great work including encouraging young people to volunteer to help young families , visit old age homes etc) The bread is saved from being thrown away as is a lorry load of fresh vegetables which it receives every fortnight. At first sight it seems like a great work. But if you look a bit deeper you see that this work does not oppose vested interests in that it doesn't get out to the public the HUGE waste that vested interest PURPOSELY impose and create to protect themselves. Every year billions of pounds worth of food is thrown away. In the school in which my children attend they are NOT ALLOWED to keep any of the food left over from lunch so they throw it every day. Now although people know this to some extent, the system cleverly keeps the information from being flooded into their minds. Instead they are fed a daily does of terrorism and murder in the news because that is exactly what suits big business. If people were reminded every day of the sick waste that is going on and more importantly who is benefitting form this waste, they would demand an end to it. So you see how big business has its tentacles everywhere. And nobody is saying anything. Why are there not groups here and in Israel who's purpose is to expose on a daily basis the huge waste that Corporations are forcing upon us ? In other words, nobody is asking 'who is benefitting form the poor being poor and from the criminal waste ?'

I dont know if you have come across this man http://www.derrickjensen.org/ but I urge you to read some of his material - for example his book Endgame. And once you have read it, tell me what you think our young kids are going to experience by the time they reaches our age ?


Regards
Danny Shine

6 comments:

AlexFate said...

A good letter Danny. I have felt very sad today - reminded at how easily good people can be prevented from speaking out against the system. I'm reminded of specific recent events which have reinforced to me that no matter how hard some people try to inform others, those with 'vested interest' can control/manipulate so many more people so easily.
GIFT sounds interesting btw.
Also I do not believe you know that I have been to Israel before - perhaps it helps me appreciate the area a little. You being religious has always been curious to me - I am pleased to hear you question the position of your own religious leader. I'm even more pleased to hear you still talking on these topics.
Alex ;-)

Mary Tracy said...

Well said!

Also, Derrick Jensen is amazing! The man is so spot on.

g said...

Also visit www.johnzerzan.net and www.youcanchangeit.co.uk

Saw Danny shine for a few seconds in the US movie Religulous when it was filmed at speakers corner.

Juan said...

I love Derrick Jensen!
For beginners it might be a bit rough...
I would recommend reading Ishmael by Daniel Quinn.

Checkout Ran's recommended reading:
http://ranprieur.com/misc/books.html

Richard said...

A great letter Danny. You accurately highlighted the unconsciousness that seems to surround consciousness today.

While I believe everyone deserves to be happy and to feel as much positive emotions as possible in their life, I can't help but notice how most of modern society go to extraordinary lengths to deny themselves from feeling any negative emotion. I honestly believe that this very suppression of negative emotions is the reason why so much of the things you mentioned go on without being challenged or condemned by the masses.
As conscious human beings exploring this strange reality, we should embrace both positive and negative emotions equally as they are both natural to us and both just as important as the other.
I blame television and the media for this suppression with its mass consistent dose of more and more entertainment. Its made people think that they should always be happy or having fun, like its somehow wrong to feel angry, upset or annoyed. All emotions should be expressed and FELT equally and nobody should deny themselves an emotion no matter how negative it may be. We're a society addicted to entertainment and as a result of this, were addicted to happiness and fun. The craziness of all this is if you stated this fact to most people they would say this is a good thing however I'm looking at the bigger picture. I try to avoid statistics as much as possible but this one is highly relevant. The overall measure of national happiness in most modern societies took a sudden nose-dive around the same time as Television was introduced and its continued to fall ever since. Funny how we now have more ENTERTAINMENT in our lives than ever before, yet we've never been more unhappy. I'd say most people are so used to faking their own happiness, they've actually forgotten how to really be happy.
It a deeply complex psychological issue because while all this suppression of negative emotions is going on, the masses are constantly bombarded with corporate messages telling them how imperfect they are but instead of feeling the natural sadness that would come with such an UN-NATURAL notion, people are convincing themselves that their happy after each dose of corporate junk.
Televisions and consumerist way of life is literally destroying everything it means to be human by attacking our emotions, its like their purposely targeting our soul to mold us into more submissive slaves of the machine.

Anyway that's just my thoughts after reading your letter.

Also, Danny I just want to add while I'm here, I think your work is excellent and your a real inspiration. I first saw you on one of Charlie Veitch's video's and I really held onto your every word. While I like Charlie and think he's a great guy, I often find his own confusion adds to mine and I have to keep reminding myself that we're all on our own journey.
I'm still searching for some way I can make a real difference as I confess at the moment I'm only a keyboard warrior but I've emptied my life of all the clutter and I'm ready for my calling when it arrives.

Thank you Danny

StillCurious said...

Well said, you have succinctly summed up how I also view the modern world. One query, I would like to know more about;

"This guy I met in Israel, has been threatened, taken to court , his girlfriends stepfather found hanging mysteriously in his apartment with unexplained blood and the police not wanting to investigate. And if you met this guy, you would see that he is in some sense a modern day saint - risking his life for the sake of the underprivileged"