The creatives, visionaries, mystic thinkers, the dreamers, and the thought provokers come at us with their art, their words, and their energy to wake us and transform the world. This creative, upstart spirit must be an ergon of human evolution meant to protect the survival of the species. American sociologist and the Elliott Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley, Robert Bellah, was getting at this in his seminal work, Religion in Human Evolution (Bellah, 2011). From indigenous tribes in the Amazon gathering, chanting, and holding despachos to save whole swathes of forest and their sacred River valley (Villoldo. 1994), to westerners gluing themselves to famous pieces of art in protest of oil consumption, to the teachers and the speakers, to the movers and the shakers, there is a whole global community of diverse backgrounds and expressions pouring their hearts and souls into creating a new global community, to save our home, Earth, and imagine a new society.
In their paper, Multi-species Studies: Cultivating Arts of Attentiveness, Thom Van Dooren, Eben Kirksey, and Ursula Munster say, "taking this provocation seriously" (referring to the planetary destruction caused by capitalism, patriarchy, and colonialism among other phenomena), "multispecies scholars are exploring and reframing political questions: How do colonialism, capitalism, and their associated unequal power relations play out within a broader web of life? ...How must we rethink 'the human' after the anthropocentric bubble has burst? What forms of responsibility are required, and how might we learn to respond in other, perhaps better ways to the communities taking form in 'blasted landscapes?'" (2016). They continue by describing the art of attentiveness as a form of passionate awareness and curiosity about other forms of life and other ways of being. "The arts of attentiveness remind us that knowing, and living are deeply entangled, and that paying attention can and should be the basis for crafting better possibilities for shared life. This collection is an effort to draw together some" (2016, 17).
I wonder if attentiveness is a form of love, for in order to have attentiveness you must have care. And loving is caring. One of the crucial ways we must learn to respond to all life in the natural processes of the world is with love. This care, concern, and compassion spurs action. I have heard admonishments to care as a vital ingredient of transforming society. But I believe that care, as an expression of love, is essential. Perhaps by realizing our latent Christ consciousness, Buddha nature, embracing our global brotherly and sisterly kinship, we can heal these blasted landscapes. We can find ways to lift everyone up. We can give everyone what they need., And create a world based on love that manifests as just equity inclusion for all, honoring diversity, and ensuring everyone gets what they need. I believe the answer to doing this is love.
I know there are those who say love is not enough, as in a wonderful new piece of spoken word by Kwandoni Fidel on The Real Ones podcast. I know that love as a solution can seem too unreachably ideal, romantic, and unrealistic. But look to the great mystic, visionary, artistic and humane leaders throughout humanity who all implore us to love. They summon us, invite us, teach us, and engage us in love. Whether it is Jesus or Buddha or Gandhi or Martin Luther King or the Dalai Lama, or the Incan descendants in Peru, or the indigenous women of the Midwest in the United States creating food sovereignty, they all teach us about love.
I do not think that it is Pollyanna or unrealistic to believe that love can change the world. Loving is caring. That is the key. If we care, no one will go hungry, homeless, or without what they need. If we care, no one will be murdered discriminated against exploited and oppressed. It must be a movement it has to generate momentum it has to reach a critical mass to catalyze a global shift and a transformation to a global loving social Utopia, one that includes embracing Earth as our mother, Gaia.
One method of trying to change consciousness as an expression of love and care about the human condition is through artistic expression and creations of art. My profession and lifelong passion is for film as a medium that profoundly influences consciousness. In her essay, I'm no Botanist, But, Nicole Seymour describes certain films that capture a truth about society and contain messages around why society is the way it is and perhaps how to change it. I don't believe that filmmakers like Mike Judge, who created Idiocracy, make films because they do not care. Obviously, these types of film are labors of love. Important filmmakers pour themselves into their work to help humanity wake up and this comes from love and care. I have always said, as Nicole Seymour did in her essay, that Idiocracy is a documentary, and we can learn about human life on Earth through viewing it.
Movers and shakers, thought leaders, visionaries, and creative imaginaries have been using film for over a hundred years to reflect society, dream of new societies, and warn of where society is going. Films are not made by people who do not love humanity. Filmmaking exists as an example of how we can change the world through love. There is a certain engaged enthusiasm and art of attentiveness involved in filmmaking that looks at the human condition, and form of engaged enthusiasm and art of attentiveness as a state of love can occur when viewing and reflecting on these films. Film is surely an important way that we will save the planet from environmental catastrophe and create a new social global Utopia.
References
Bellah Robert N. 2011. Religion in Human Evolution : From the Paleolithic to the Axial Age. Cambridge Mass: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
Fidel, Kwandoni. 2022. Love is Not Enough. Real Ones Podcast with Jon Bernthal. https://www.instagram.com/p/Cf-FviCjrdx/
Judge, Mike. (2006). Idiocracy. Twentieth Century Fox.
Seymour, Nicole. 2018. I'm no Botanist, but... Irony, Ecocinema, and the Problem of Expert Knowledge. Bad Environmentalism: Irony and Irreverence I'm the Ecological Age. Minneappolis: University of Minneapolis Press.
van Dooren, Thom. Kirksey, Eben. Munster, Ursula. Multispecies Studies Cultivating Arts of Attentiveness. 2016. Environmental Humanities 8:1.
Villoldo, Alberto. 1994. Dance of the Four Winds: Secrets of the Inca Medicine Wheel. United States: Destiny Books, U.S..
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