• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Charles Eisenstein

  • About
  • Essays
  • Videos
  • Podcasts
    • Charles Eisenstein Random
    • New and Ancient Story Podcast
  • Courses
    • Climate — Inside and Out
    • Conversations with Orland Bishop, Course One
    • Conversations with Orland Bishop, Course Two
    • Conversations with Orland Bishop, Course Three
    • Dietary Transformation from the Inside Out
    • Living in the Gift
    • Masculinity: A New Story
    • Metaphysics & Mystery
    • Space Between Stories
    • Unlearning: For Change Agents
  • Books
    • The Coronation
    • Climate — A New Story
    • The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible
    • The Ascent of Humanity
    • Sacred Economics
    • The Yoga of Eating
  • Events
  • Donate

Activism in the New Story

February 4, 2015 by Charles Eisenstein 15 Comments

February 2015
This essay has been translated into French.


One of the most triggering sentences of The More Beautiful World… was, “Let us be wary of any revolution that isn’t threaded with an element of play, celebration, mystery, and humor. If it is primarily a grim struggle, then it may be no revolution at all.”

People find this naïve. Play and celebration seem a bit frivolous in the face of a relentless world-destroying machine that recognizes no logic but the logic of force. We need to get serious and, not waste our time in escapist play. And celebration – shouldn’t that wait until we have something to celebrate?

I think it is quite the opposite. If we turn the revolution into a contest of force, then we will surely lose against an opponent that far outmatches us. Worse, even if we win, we strengthen the sponsoring world-story that turns us into another version of the enemy we just defeated. It is the story that holds us a Cartesian separate selves manipulating an external reality through force. Just as civilization has sought to conquer the Other (nature), so now do we seek to overcome another Other through the same basic methods. It is as Philip K. Dick wrote: “To fight the Empire is to be infected by its derangement. This is a paradox: whoever defeats a segment of the Empire becomes the Empire; it proliferates like a virus, imposing its form on its enemies. Thereby, it becomes its enemies.”

There is another way. It is more effective and not less in creating change, although one must sacrifice the ego satisfaction of dominating a defeated enemy. I received the following example of this other way recently from Daniel Schreiber, of the remarkable Starseed community near Byron Bay, Australia. It offers a glimpse of the power available from even a last-minute shift from force to play.

When I first moved to Byron Bay 22 years ago, I was friendly with a ‘mob’ of activists that ran the world’s first successful forest protest. There were strange ideas in the community about conservation which I have now resolved but at the time were intriguing. The ‘us versus them’ played out with all its polarities and dynamics and even though there were victories, the ‘beast’ seemed relentless, well funded and had all manner of social , legal and political levers to tilt the playing field. I have come to realize that if one is an activist and has an emotional investment in an outcome then the challenge is against oneself and it is impossible to ‘win’, and yet if one can protest without an emotional investment in the outcome, you always win.

I recently participated in a successful anti fracking protest that lasted over two months and engaged as many as 8 thousand of our small Byron community! Our lush camp had a 4 berth cappuccino machine, massage, sacred fire, media centre, full kitchen feeding a core of 200 each day and more. We held off the miners for ages with many tactics including drone video media production, barriers, towers, 24/7 vigils, writing lawful notices to politicians, police and company directors, training commonwealth public officials and preparing for a showdown where the government decided to send 800 heavily armed police to break up the camp! This huge mission was planned and publicized and hotels booked as tensions rose in anticipation of the onslaught. Three days before the arrival of the troops, we heard that all four news channels would be filming from air which would then go out world wide as if this were a full scale ‘war’. Our camp had planned a strategy to confront the troops and we waited. I came up with an idea to paint a giant aboriginal art piece on the landscape that would be seen from the helicopters and would indeed be ‘newsworthy’ along with a ceremony that would be led by the local indigenous mob that would engage 500 of us with clap sticks , huge smoky fires, all the men painted in white ochre and the leader playing didgeridoo for three days straight! There was no precedent for police to break up an Originee ceremony and so I pitched this novel idea to the Originee elder women who had become quite depressed as the conflict approached. They had seen this all before and it always ended the same… all the blackfellas arrested along with many white fella supporters, and the miners getting their way. The elder women immediately became animated and excited as they looked at the drawings of a proposed 150ft long Goanna and a 350 ft rainbow serpent and started adding dots, Pleiades star system and hand prints. The battle now seemed like a giant fun performance and ceremony and got the energy moving. We were given permission to access the sacred ochre pits to get tons of white ochre to begin line marking the giant art piece and I left camp and headed home that evening to get art supplies … excited.

The next morning, we got a call from camp to say the government had called the conflict off and was going to be investigating the company for corruption! I arrived back at camp to a giant party and as My friend Mike and I arrived, the elder women grabbed us and whisked us off to an elder meeting that was taking place. An elder auntie grabbed me and looked me in the eye and said that the reason that the conflict was called off was because we had engaged in art and ceremony, and she asked for a copy of the diagram to keep for her children so they would remember that day and how to deal with these ‘whitefella’ situations. She explained that as soon as we had switched gears from confronting the armed force to art and ceremony, the spirits of the land could now support us and were grateful that we had ‘remembered’ this tactic in time to avoid confrontation! I learned an amazing lesson that day about solving a crises using higher frequency ‘technology’ of the heart. A great opportunity to unite our community and instead of confrontation, offer the gift of shared creative path.

Two phrases of this story have stuck in my mind. First, “If you can protest without an emotional investment in the outcome, you always win.” What he means here is not to suggest that we cease caring about the land, water, and communities we seek to protect. Rather, he is warning against attachment to being the winners or the losers of the conflict. When that attachment is present, the outcome will be influenced by the playing out of psychological dramas, because the events of our lives unfold in reflection of our own shadows, fears, unresolved inner conflicts, and so on. To take a rather simplistic example, if the protestors carry the unconscious motivation of wanting to know themselves as right, valiant, and praiseworthy, then losing the battle and going to jail might be more gratifying than winning. (I’m not saying this motivation is ever primary in a protestor, but sometimes there does seem to be a theme of “here we righteous are gathered on the side of Good.”)

Dan is describing an attitude of service and trust. We serve an end but we don’t know how it will be attained, and we recognize as well that an even better outcome than the envisioned end is possible as well. Dan is offering an example of using playful means in the spirit of protest, and beyond that, suggesting that we act from a spirit of play as well. In the spirit of play we do not dictate the outcome to the other players. The game itself takes on a life of its own.

The second phrase that leapt out at me was, “She explained that as soon as we had switched gears from confronting the armed force to art and ceremony, the spirits of the land could now support us and were grateful that we had ‘remembered’ this tactic in time to avoid confrontation!” The spirits of the land cannot work if we ourselves insist on being in charge of the situation. Their ways are not our ways. The tactics of play, humor, and ceremony give the land spirits an opening in which to operate.

I think for these tactics to be effective, they cannot be merely tactics. The paradigm of force can surreptitiously creep back in, in the form of, “We were just having an innocent celebration and look what those nasty police did anyway!” If there is anything of this victim or martyr agenda, then the emotional attachment Dan warns of will be present, and the tactic will not work. The celebration cannot happen in the expectation or the perverse hope that it will be crushed. That would be the paradigm of force – shaming the enemy and arousing the bystanders into indignantly rising up against them. The celebration, the play, has to be real, drawing from a perception of the world in which celebration and play come naturally. Isn’t that the world we want to create?



Previous: What is Action?
Next: The Cynic and the Boatbuilder, Revisited

Filed Under: Political & Social, Short Reflection Tagged With: activism, new story, Short Reflection

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Erica says

    April 19, 2019 at 1:56 pm

    Well said. I’ve been guilty of the indignation – fairly recently, to be honest – but this is a much better approach that I will keep in mind. Thank you!

    Reply
    • Meg says

      April 20, 2019 at 4:51 pm

      The change …to celebration and play…in our business-speak saturated society that demands outcomes based yardsticks, goals, productivity etc etc is a huge one…
      and despite the Buddhist teachings we’re increasingly drawn to of letting go, surrender, the journey not the destination etc etc…the cultures dominant messages linger ..lurk in the background ever ready to pounce into those quiet, still spaces we’ve created.
      Awareness …of course..is the 1st step…and self compassion for falling into the trap, yet again.

      Reply
    • Erwin says

      May 21, 2019 at 9:53 am

      Thank You Charles for sharing this experience: of course, this is no tactics and can never be made on. it reminds me our multiple and creative protest in the Hainburg forest, to save it from beiing cut down some 35 Years ago in Austria for a hydro powerplant. Of course there was fear, frustration anger and many emotions but the main of the 6-7000 people stayed in contact, with nature, human feelings, empathy and therefore escalition of violence didnot happen. In the end the chancellor of Austria, whose party was proliferating the project was calling it off, he declared X-mas peace which by the way ws the end of the project, which is now an national parc. Beeing aware of the oneness and not of seperation is one main key, being aware of beeing deeply connected with one to another gets the other out of position of fear, pride, anger or agression and brings her him to reality too. I love it!

      Reply
  2. Hannah says

    April 22, 2019 at 3:46 am

    This is so brilliant and exactly what i needed to hear. I felt that my sense of humor and creativity would have to be pushed aside or discarded in a quest to make the world a better place. I thought i would need to become earnest, that using humor would undermine my efforts in trying to create change. This has given me permission to bring my tools: creativity and humor with me along for the ride. Cannot explain what a relief this is to be able to not have to segregate parts of myself that bring me joy and so much energy.

    Reply
    • Anne says

      April 23, 2019 at 1:37 am

      Humour yes! Such a valuable barometer. When I can laugh in the face of despair (at the situation not against the ‘other’), it usually means I am beginning to let go of an attachment to being right. Yes, relief. Thanks for sharing.

      Reply
    • Linda says

      September 4, 2019 at 7:15 pm

      Me too! And I didn’t even know it until I read your post.
      Thank you.

      Reply
  3. Marian says

    April 25, 2019 at 4:54 pm

    I felt myself relax reading this. I hadn’t realised how much stress I have been holding constantly from engaging passively in conflict situations, and the stress lingers in my body much longer after the event or the conversation or even listening to a podcast! I always get better insight and feel myself relax when I engage in creativity and play. It really is a radical action, or a revolutionary one, to ignore the invitation to fight. We still have so much of our biology that prioritises threatening situations and it can take a long time to train that defensive part of us to stand down on command! Play is a helpful distraction that can absorb the mind in the present moment enjoyment whilst the nervous system calms down from its Defcon status, and the finger is removed easily from the trigger. I want to remember that I always have a choice to dance, to create, to play.

    Reply
    • Adam says

      April 28, 2019 at 12:58 pm

      Yes, that gives me a glimpse of the more beautiful world and how to get there. Thank you!

      Reply
  4. Elizabeth says

    April 29, 2019 at 1:39 pm

    I love this. And know that it points to a better path for resolving conflict – beauty and humour always heals.

    Reply
  5. Pamela says

    April 29, 2019 at 6:49 pm

    Yes, this is what I have been trying to do in so many situations, and it does shift the energy!!! Bravo!!!! it’s so easy to get caught in the duality but just working with inspiration and spirit sets a situation free!!!

    Reply
  6. Melanie says

    May 7, 2019 at 9:53 pm

    I immediately sighed a deep breath out. I need constant reminding of this as fire rises within very quickly these days. I too was at that protest and at some times it seemed like a wonderful cultural festival… I didn’t relate that to ceremony at the time, but now I think of it, it certainly was. Wonderful!

    Reply
  7. Barbara says

    May 16, 2019 at 6:37 pm

    Balm!

    Reply
  8. Arnon says

    May 18, 2019 at 9:12 am

    I also think that the game and creativity gives a leverage for winning. Because we do want to win. Not to defeat the other, but to defend the sacred. And so, being playful can give us the power to outsmart the opponent. Same as with a child, I sometime use distraction to avoid his wish to take and destroy something, and instead I show him another possibility of game that immediateltly attracts him and he forget about his fixation.
    I do connect to the non attachment thing, so we CAN actually win, while enjoying the road, even if we lose.

    Reply
  9. Mimi says

    June 18, 2019 at 3:33 pm

    The beauty of art and ceremony might be a stronger way to deal with conflicts – maybe that is long ages thinking and yes ! I want to be a part of this real way for change !!

    Reply
  10. Shira says

    October 21, 2020 at 8:02 am

    Beautiful ! This is probably the main thing I need to Unlearn: The Fight. Righteous Indignation……… It’s been starting to make me sick, and I need this commeraderie of people aiming for similar unlearning. Thanks to all.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

All Essays

Peace-building

Time to Push

The Rehearsal is Over

Some Stuff I’m Reading

Beyond Industrial Medicine

A Temple of this Earth

The Sacrificial King

Words to a Young Man

How It Is Going to Be

What I’m doing here

Charles Eisenstein, Antisemite

Mob Morality and the Unvaxxed

Fascism and the Antifestival

The Death of the Festival

Source Temple and the Great Reset

To Reason with a Madman

From QAnon’s Dark Mirror, Hope

World on Fire

We Can Do Better Than This

The Banquet of Whiteness

The Cure of the Earth

Numb

The Conspiracy Myth

The Coronation

Extinction and the Revolution of Love

The Amazon: How do we heal a burning heart?

Building a Peace Narrative

Xylella: Supervillain or Symptom

Making the Universe Great Again

Every Act a Ceremony

The Polarization Trap

Living in the Gift

A Little Heartbreak

Initiation into a Living Planet

Why I am Afraid of Global Cooling

Olive Trees and the Cry of the Land

Our New, Happy Life? The Ideology of Development

Opposition to GMOs is Neither Unscientific nor Immoral

The Age of We Need Each Other

Institutes for Technologies of Reunion

Brushes with the Mainstream

Standing Rock: A Change of Heart

Transcription: Fertile Ground of Bewilderment Podcast

The Election: Of Hate, Grief, and a New Story

This Is How War Begins

The Lid is Off

Of Horseshoe Crabs and Empathy

Scaling Down

The Fertile Ground of Bewilderment

By Their Fruits Ye Shall Know Them

Psychedelics and Systems Change

Mutiny of the Soul Revisited

Why I Don’t Do Internet Marketing

Zika and the Mentality of Control

In a Rhino, Everything

Grief and Carbon Reductionism

The Revolution is Love

Kind is the New Cool

What We Do to Nature, We Do to Ourselves

From Nonviolence to Service

An Experiment in Gift Economics

Misogyny and the Healing of the Masculine

Sustainable Development: Something New or More of the Same?

The Need for Venture Science

The EcoSexual Awakening

“Don’t Owe. Won’t Pay.”

Harder to Hide

Reflections on Damanhur

On Immigration

The Humbler Realms, Part 2

The Humbler Realms

A Shift in Values Everywhere

Letter to my Younger Self

Aluna: A Message to Little Brother

Raising My Children in Trust

Qualitative Dimensions of Collective Intelligence: Subjectivity, Consciousness, and Soul

The Woman Who Chose to Plant Corn

The Oceans are Not Worth $24 trillion

The Baby in the Playpen

What Are We Greedy For?

We Need Regenerative Farming, Not Geoengineering

The Cynic and the Boatbuilder, Revisited

What is Action?

Wasting Time

The Space Between Stories

Breakdown, Chaos, and Emergence

At This Moment, I Feel Held

A Roundabout Endorsement

Imagine a 3-D World

Presentation to Uplift Festival, 12.14.2014

Shadow, Ritual, and Relationship in the Gift

A Neat Inversion

The Waters of Heterodoxy

Employment in Gift Culture

Localization Beyond Economics

Discipline on the Bus

We Don’t Know: Reflections on the New Story Summit

A Miracle in Scientific American

More Talk?

Why Another Conference?

A Truncated Interview on Racism

A Beautiful World of Abundance

How to Bore the Children

Post-Capitalism

The Malware

The End of War

The Birds are Sad

A Slice of Humble Pie

Bending Reality: But who is the Bender?

The Mysterious Paths by Which Intentions Bear Fruit

The Little Things that Get Under My Skin

A Restorative Response to MH17

Climate Change: The Bigger Picture

Development in the Ecological Age

The campaign against Drax aims to reveal the perverse effects of biofuels

Gateway drug, to what?

Concern about Overpopulation is a Red Herring; Consumption’s the Problem

Imperialism and Ceremony in Bali

Let’s be Honest: Real Sustainability may not make Business Sense

Vivienne Westwood is Right: We Need a Law against Ecocide

2013: Hope or Despair?

2013: A Year that Pierced Me

Synchronicity, Myth, and the New World Order

Fear of a Living Planet

Pyramid Schemes and the Monetization of Everything

The Next Step for Digital Currency

The Cycle of Terror

TED: A Choice Point

The Cynic and the Boatbuilder

Latent Healing

2013: The Space between Stories

We Are Unlimited Potential: A Talk with Joseph Chilton Pearce

Why Occupy’s plan to cancel consumer debts is money well spent

Genetically Modifying and Patenting Seeds isn’t the Answer

The Lovely Lady from Nestle

An Alien at the Tech Conference

We Can’t Grow Ourselves out of Debt

Money and the Divine Masculine

Naivete, and the Light in their Eyes

The Healing of Congo

Why Rio +20 Failed

Permaculture and the Myth of Scarcity

For Facebook, A Modest Proposal

A Coal Pile in the Ballroom

A Review of Graeber’s Debt: The First 5000 Years

Gift Economics Resurgent

The Way up is Down

Sacred Economics: Money, the Gift, and Society in the Age of Transition

Design and Strategy Principles for Local Currency

The Lost Marble

To Bear Witness and to Speak the Truth

Thrive: The Story is Wrong but the Spirit is Right

Occupy Wall Street: No Demand is Big Enough

Elephants: Please Don’t Go

Why the Age of the Guru is Over

Gift Economics and Reunion in the Digital Age

A Circle of Gifts

The Three Seeds

Truth and Magic in the Third Dimension

Rituals for Lover Earth

Money and the Turning of the Age

A Gathering of the Tribe

The Sojourn of Science

Wood, Metal, and the Story of the World

A World-Creating Matrix of Truth

Waiting on the Big One

In the Miracle

Money and the Crisis of Civilization

Reuniting the Self: Autoimmunity, Obesity, and the Ecology of Health

Invisible Paths

Reuniting the Self: Autoimmunity, Obesity, and the Ecology of Health (Part 2)

Mutiny of the Soul

The Age of Water

Money: A New Beginning (Part 2)

Money: A New Beginning (Part 1)

The Original Religion

Pain: A Call for Attention

The Miracle of Self-Creation, Part 2

The Miracle of Self-Creation

The Deschooling Convivium

The Testicular Age

Who Will Collect the Garbage?

The Ubiquitous Matrix of Lies

You’re Bad!

A 28-year Lie: The Wrong Lesson

The Ascent of Humanity

The Stars are Shining for Her

All Hallows’ Eve

Confessions of a Hypocrite

The New Epidemics

From Opinion to Belief to Knowing

Soul Families

For Whom was that Bird Singing?

The Multicellular Metahuman

Grades: A Gun to Your Head

Human Nature Denied

The Great Robbery

Humanity Grows Up

Don’t Should on US

A State of Belief is a State of Being

Ascension

Security and Fate

Old-Fashioned, Healthy, Lacto-Fermented Soft Drinks: The Real “Real Thing”

The Ethics of Eating Meat

Privacy Policy | Contact

Charles Eisenstein

All content on this website is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Feel free to copy and share.

Celo: 0x755582C923dB215d9eF7C4Ad3E03D29B2569ABb6

Litecoin: ltc1qqtvtkl3h7mchy7m5jwpvqvt5uzka0yj3nffavu

Bitcoin: bc1q2a2czwhf4sgyx9f9ttf3c4ndt03eyh3uymjgzl

Dogecoin: DT9ECVrg9mPFADhN375WL9ULzcUZo8YEpN

Polkadot: 15s6NSM75Kw6eMLoxm2u8qqbgQFYMnoYhvV1w1SaF9hwVpM4

Polygon: 0xEBF0120A88Ec0058578e2D37C9fFdDc28f3673A6

Zcash: t1PUmhaoYTHJAk1yxmgpfEp27Uk4GHKqRig

Donate & Support

As much as possible I offer my work as a gift. I put it online without a pay wall of any kind. Online course contributions are self-determined at the time you register for each. I also keep the site clean of advertising.

This means I rely on voluntary financial support for my livelihood. You may make a recurring gift or one-time donation using the form below, in whatever amount feels good to you. If your finances are tight at all, please do not give money. Visit our contact page instead for other ways to support this work.

Recurring Donations

Note from the team: Your recurring donation is a resource that allows us to keep Charles doing the work we all want him doing: thinking, speaking, writing, rather than worrying about the business details. Charles and all of us greatly appreciate them!

One-Time Donation

Your gift helps us maintain the site, offer tech support, and run programs and events by donation, with no ads, sales pitches, or pay walls. Just as important, it communicates to us that this work is gratefully received. Thank you!

Cryptocurrency Donation

Hi, here we are in the alternate universe of cryptocurrency. Click the link below for a list of public keys. If your preferred coin isn't listed, write to us through the contact form.

View Keys



What kind of donation are you making?(Required)


Recurring Donation

We are currently accepting monthly recurring donations through PayPal; we use PayPal because it allows you to cancel or modify your recurring donation at any time without needing to contact us.


Choose what feels good, clear, and right.

One-Time Donation

We are currently accepting one-time donations with any major credit card or through PayPal.


Choose what feels good, clear, and right.
Donation Method(Required)

Name(Required)
Email(Required)