Occupy Love, Part 2: Charles Eisenstein and Sacred Economics

[David MacLeod]

Part 2 of my comments about this film...see Part 1 here.

As TW's Emily Farrell said, “My sense, so far, of this movie, is that it is grounded in the connectedness we feel in our hearts about what is happening in the world.”

And what attracts me most to the film is the portion featuring Charles Eisenstein. He says:

"This movement isn't about the 99% defeating or toppling the 1%. You know the next chapter of that story - that the 99% create a new 1%. What we want to create is the world that our hearts tell us is possible, the world that works for everybody...The system isn't working for the 1% either. If you were a CEO, you would be making the same choices they do...life is pretty bleak at the top too..."

Last year, this youtube video (featuring Eisenstein speaking the above quote) went viral - as filmmaker Velcrow Ripper was working on "Occupy Love," he released this excerpt, called The Revolution is Love.

This resonates for me with one of the Transition principles: "Successful Transition Initiatives need an unprecedented coming together of the broad diversity of society. They dedicate themselves to ensuring that their decision making processes and their working groups embody principles of openness and inclusion. This principle also refers to the principle of each initiative reaching the community in its entirety, and endeavoring, from an early stage, to engage their local business community, the diversity of community groups and local authorities. It makes explicit the principle that there is, in the challenge of energy descent, no room for 'them and us' thinking."

And so, we may want to make some comments at the movie emphasizing some of the above points to clarify why TW is co-sponsoring this movie and where it all fits in the Transition approach. 

And know that many of us in the Transition movement have a great respect for those of you in the Occupy movement using a "different tool" so effectively to help raise the consciousness of us all.

Filmmaker Ian Mackenzie collaborated with Velcrow Ripper on Occupy Love.  He also made short movie (12 minutes) based on Eisenstein's book Sacred Economics.

Join us for the Encore showing of Occupy Love at the Pickford Cinema in Bellingham on June 11, 2013. Tickets must be purchased by June 4th.

http://transitionwhatcom.ning.com/events/occupy-love-film-showing-e...

[David MacLeod]

Monica,

I had a chance to preview the movie, and I was able to hit pause and transcribe my favorite quotes. Anyone can email me if they're interested in receiving a copy of my notes.

[David MacLeod]

Garrett, thanks for the comment. Interesting distinction there between revolution and rebellion.

Monica, yes, Elisabet Sathouris is an inspiration. I think she played an important role in shaping David Korten's thoughts about The Great Turning. Here's what she said in Occupy Love:

"Crises are always the starting points for revolution. I'm a post-Darwinian evolutionary biologist, and I see a cycle in evolution where species go through a juvenile phase where they're very feisty and creative and acquisitive, and they reproduce like crazy and take all the resources they can get to do it. And of course, bump off anyone who gets in the way. And when you have individuals, you always start to get some tensions and conflicts. And that's the Darwinian part of the story. Eventually you bump into the others so much that you start some conversations, some negotiations. And those negotiations can lead into cooperative schemes that become so tightly interwoven that you can build a whole new unity at the next larger size level. A pioneer ecosystem is made of species that are feisty and competitive and bumping each other off. And a climax ecosystem is made up of species that are tightly interwoven and all feeding each other, like a mature rainforest, and coral reefs, and prairies with many, many species inter-dependent in a dance of love and interchange of all kinds." - Elisabet Sahtouris

[David MacLeod]

Currently showing just 17 tickets left for the May 21 showing, as of May 9th, 9:00pm.