Symposium Background References - V-2.5 Addendum
New Video Content:
1-2: Video – Environmental Sustainability
NEW NARRATION:
In many ways the mass consumption dream of the modern world has been a nightmare
for the global environment.
Multiple sources:
Tom Atlee http://www.context.org/iclib/ic26/atlee/
http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.1525/sp.2003.50.3.374?uid=3739560&uid=2&uid=4&
uid=3739256&sid=21100863107871
“The Consumer Society” by Neva R. Goodwin, Frank Ackerman, David Kiron
http://www.ase.tufts.edu/gdae/publications/frontier_series/Consum-Pt8.pdf
LESTER BROWN:
Lester Brown is a United States environmental analyst, founder of the Worldwatch
Institute, and founder and president of the Earth Policy Institute, a nonprofit research
organization based in Washington, D.C. Brown is the author or co-author of over 50 books
on global environmental issues and his works have been translated into more than forty
languages. His most recent book is World on the Edge: How to Prevent Environmental
and Economic Collapse (2011). Brown emphasizes the geopolitical effects of fast-rising
grain prices, noting that "the biggest threat to global stability is the potential for food crises
in poor countries," and one that could "bring down civilization." In Foreign Policy
magazine, he describes how the "new geopolitics of food" has, in 2011, already begun to
contribute to revolutions and upheaval in various countries. The recipient of 26 honorary
degrees and a MacArthur Fellowship, Brown has been described by the Washington Post
as "one of the world's most influential thinkers."
The Earth's forests are shrinking, soils are eroding, water tables are falling as a result
of the over pumping of aquifers. Fisheries are collapsing, grasslands are turning into
desert as a result of overgrazing.
Same references as V-2.
TEXT GRAPHIC:
http://culturaldesigngroup.com/facilitation/conscious-capitalism
Citing
UN
studies,
Conscious Capitalism (Cultural Design Group was established to address the
organizational, societal, and global issues at home and abroad and to assist leaders in
meeting the objectives and helping leaders, both current and future, respond to the
complex sustainability challenges faced in their organizations and the world at large)
offers these statistics.
75% OF THE WORLD’S ORIGINAL FORESTS ARE ELIMINATED
Some put the number at 50%:
www.globalchange.umich.edu/globalchange2/current/lectures/deforest/deforest.html
About one half of the forests that covered the Earth are gone. Each year, another 16
million hectares disappear.
For more information on deforestation,
http://home.windstream.net/bsundquist1/df0.html - comprehensive report on world’s
deforestation.
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30% OF THE WORLD’S ARABLE LAND LOST IN 40 YEARS
http://www.fao.org/sd/EPdirect/EPre0045.htm
MORE THAN 200 OCEANIC “DEAD ZONES” WORLDWIDE
Multiple sources. 2006 UNEP report according to Lester Brown, author Plan B 3.0 –
Mobilizing to Save Civilization. http://www.earth-policy.org/books/pb3/PB3ch5_ss6
90% OF ALL LARGE FISH GONE FROM THE OCEAN
multiple sources: The cover story of the May 15th 2003 issue of the international journal
Nature reveals that we have only 10% of all large fish;
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/05/0515_030515_fishdecline.html
http://www.coml.org/discoveries/trends/predatory_fish_decline
LESTER BROWN:
No civilization has ever survived the ongoing destruction of its natural support
systems, nor will ours.
Lester Brown: World on the Edge: How to Prevent Economic and Environmental Collapse,
NEW NARRATION:
In fact, the world is rapidly approaching a number of tipping points – thresholds
beyond which dangerous trends will become irreversible, threatening the existence of
life as we know it.
Same references as V-2.
One such tipping point is the end of cheap, plentiful petroleum –what is known as
“peak oil”.
Same references as V-2.
NEW NARRATION:
We are fast approaching a number of tipping points related to the increase of carbon
dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere caused primarily by the burning of fossil fuels.
1-4: Video – Social Justice + Spiritual Fulfillment
NEW NARRATION:
Although significant progress has been made in addressing issues of social justice,
systems of power and privilege still perpetuate injustice throughout the world. Much of
humanity continues to suffer from the legacy of centuries of colonialism, imperialism
and racism. 1
2-2: Video – Worldview & Assumptions
DIANA DUNN:
Racism has a cost to every human being on this planet. Racism has dehumanized all
of us.
We are not taught how it was set up, how it came into being, how the very fact that
we have something called race means that we are ranking people and that we are
giving white people more value than everyone else.
Until we understand the depth of that, it’s going to be hard to undo racism, it’s going
to be hard to change. What we try to do is change people that aren’t making it in the
system, rather than changing the systems that makes sure that some people don’t
make it.2
2-4 Video: How Did We Get Here - The Illusion of Separation
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NEW NARRATOR:
Increasingly, people in the modern world are listening to the voices of indigenous
people, whose message has always been that all things are connected.
NEW NARRATION
This deep recognition of interconnection is supported by the current scientific
understanding of the origin of the universe, which has shown that all of creation is
profoundly connected at both the macro and micro level.
Same references as V-2.
NEW NARRATION:
Seeing ourselves as separate has had devastating consequences on the planet and
all of life.
Now, a new story about who we are as a planetary family is beginning to shape the
consciousness on Earth. Looking at our history through this lens, it could be said that
humans beings have been tragically mistaken, rather than being fundamentally
flawed.
Same references as V-2.
3-2: Video: What is Possible Now?
NEW NARRATION:
Many experts are convinced that humanity already possesses the resources and
technology to solve our most pressing environmental and social problems.
Lester Brown: World on the Edge: How to Prevent Economic and Environmental Collapse,
LESTER BROWN:
We know how to do these things. This is not a great mystery. We don't have to do
research for the next 20 years to figure out what to do. We know what to do.
We think it'd take about 200 billion dollars a year to stabilize population, eradicate
poverty, and restore the economy's natural support systems over the next decade.
TEXT GRAPHIC:
$200 BILLION

STABILIZE POPULATION

ERADICATE POVERTY

RESTORE NATURAL SUPPORT SYSTEMS
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That’s a lot. But when you compare it with military budgets, it's really, not that much.
It is less than a third of the US military budget.
It is roughly an eighth of the global military budget.
TEXT GRAPHIC:
WORLD MILITARY EXPENDITURES (2009): $1,522 BILLION
U.S. MILITARY EXPENDITURES (2009): $661 BILLION
So we can't say, we don't have the resources to save civilization. We do.
NEW NARRATOR:
The ideas, technologies, and policies that will lead to a new future are already
emerging in government, business, and civil society—as well as people’s personal
lives throughout the world.
NEW NARRATION:
We have the technologies, policies, and initiatives to move us toward a thriving future.
All that’s missing is something that only human beings can provide: the commitment,
the collective will, to change our direction. Awake, committed people are galvanizing
that will and becoming who they need to be to make it happen—together.
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Background References Update
W.8
How Symposium Came to Be
(Symposium) is now presented (as of mid 2012) by over 3,500 trained volunteer
facilitators in more than sixty-five countries.
1.7
What is Social Justice?
Definition of Social Justice
Some would say that in a socially just world, all people would have a voice, and
everyone would have equal access to [all] the resources and opportunities of society.
(Pause) It would be a world free from discrimination and oppression based on race or
religion, on class, gender, age, physical ability, or sexual orientation. (Pause)
1.8
A Skewed Playing Field
In order to move toward a world that is truly fair and that genuinely values diversity, it is
important to be willing to recognize that part of what has stood in the way of a socially
just world is the fact that the playing field has been (and continues to be) skewed in favor
of some groups at the expense of others. Another way of saying it is that it is a rigged
game. Social, economic and political privileges have been given to the dominant, (often
minority) sectors of society the world over. The result: Centuries of institutionalized
inequity, in this country and around the world.3 (Pause)
People in many countries around the world have been subjected to colonialism, imperialism and
institutionalized oppression for centuries, and the crippling impact of discrimination based on
differences such as race, religion or class and gender on our fellow human beings has taken, and
continues to take, a profound toll on all of humanity. 4
We need to realize that if we don't understand the living legacies of injustice—of centuries of
colonialism and imperialism, of religious persecution and genocide—and how discrimination is still
embedded in practically every institution of our society 5—resulting in inequity for the oppressed,
and unearned privilege for the dominant groups—it is not possible to really understand where we
are now, nor how we got here.
1.9
Economic Injustice
In terms of economics, the deep dissatisfaction people are feeling (as exemplified by the Occupy
Movement) is not so much because there is an economic disparity between the rich and the
poor—that’s always been the case. Previously, though, it was assumed that, “a rising tide raises all
boats,” and that when the rich got richer, somehow we would all end up better off. But the financial
crisis of 2008-2009 revealed that not everyone plays by the same rules, and that the system is
corrupt. And people are finding that intolerable.
One of the themes that motivated the Occupy Wall Street movement was the recognition that the
primary source of inequality in our society is not the result of some people being smarter and
working harder and thus earning and deserving rewards for their abilities and efforts, but that
privileged “elites” have set things up so that they are playing with a different set of rules than the
great majority. In other words the game is rigged.6
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1.10
USA History of Racial Injustice
Here in the USA, a commitment to social justice needs to recognize, and not step over the fact, no
matter how painful to admit, that this country began with, and was built on, the intentional
elimination of huge populations of the Native Americans who were here before settlers arrived, and
on a foundation of slavery. And that the legacy of both in some ways remain embedded in
practically every institution of our society. 7
2.3 One of the most prevalent unexamined assumptions particularly among those of us with
(unearned) privilege is: “Everyone has an equal opportunity to ‘make it’ if they just work hard
enough.” Right? The recent financial collapse allowed people to see how the rules for those at the
top of the economic hierarchy (bankers in this case) were different from those of everyone else.
Same as above
4.19
Community Support
Being part of an ongoing group or community who share a commitment, and accountability, with
you will greatly increase the likelihood of success and of being sustainable in your commitment.
According to the American Society for Training and Development, if people think about an idea,
there’s a 10% chance they will accomplish their goal. But if they make a plan to accomplish it, talk
to others about it, and report back on how they did…that number can go all the way up to 95%.
www.astd.org/
-------------------------------------1
This seems like an incontrovertible fact, but it is an enormously broad area covered by a wide array of scholarship. Also, "legacy"
has a vague meaning, which is part of its power. Just in the U.S. this legacy affects everything from Native American Reservations
to Mass Incarceration (see The new Jim Crow) to immigration policy to Treyvon Martin to Uncle Ben and Aunt Jemima and The
Help. It also shows up in terms of what is considered literature and philosophy and science, etc - i.e. needing no qualifiers such as
"African American" or "Native American" or "Eastern" or "Women's" for that matter.
One example from the political sphere is that many of the national borders of “developing countries” were originally drawn by the
European colonial powers that controlled them.
These divisions reflect not indigenous aspirations, but the political and economic interests of the former colonizers. The Asian
subcontinent was divided into India and Pakistan by Great Britain in 1947 as part of Indian Independence, setting in motion a
regional conflict that is still ongoing. Similarly, virtually all the national borders in Africa and the Middle East were established by
colonial powers, and much contemporary conflict in these regions can be traced back to these decisions, which ignored the
people's historic connections to the land.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partition_of_India
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/globalconnections/mideast/questions/nations/index.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonization_of_Africa
http://www.myweku.com/2011/12/africas-conflicts-mainly-caused-by-colonial-national-borders/
http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/3649152?uid=3739560&uid=2129&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=476990977
41677
2
The Peoples Institute for Survival and Beyond (PISAB) Undoing Racism Workshop http://pisab.org/ helps participants
understand how institutional power functions the constrain the options available to certain communities while expanding the
options available to others. Individuals in low income communities, especially people of color, start out dealing significant
structural disadvantages. They may have to deal with poor quality schools
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2010/05/education_inequity.html, police harassment http://www.nyclu.org/issues/racial-
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justice/stop-and-frisk-practices, the health effects of environmental toxins, and of course job discrimination
http://www.princeton.edu/~pager/annualreview_discrimination.pdf. There is a great deal of historical scholarship which
demonstrates that the widespread racial inequities in this society are no accident (see The Racial Contract by Mills, American
Apartheid by Massey and Denton, The Wages of Whiteness by Roediger, The Possessive Investment in Whiteness by Lipsitz). Yet,
when individuals disadvantaged by this system are forced to rely on the government agencies that were formed specifically to
redress this situation, they tend to be treated as if their problems are their own fault. They are told by society that they need to
value hard work and education http://www.forbes.com/sites/quickerbettertech/2011/12/12/if-i-was-a-poor-black-kid/. In other
words, we have a system designed so that some people don't make, and then we tell those people that it is they who need to
change.
3
http://www.law.berkeley.edu/files/chefs/KT_Institutional_Inequality.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structural_inequality
4
To some extent this is a statement about the spiritual/psychological toll of racism
http://www.psychology.iastate.edu/faculty/pia/jcp2006.pdf Particularly in the U.S., keeping people alienated and fearful of one
other also has the (intended) effect of deterring class-based cohesion and making it difficult for workers to challenge concentrated
power or the “owning” class. The construction of racism specifically to undermine class solidarity is thoroughly explored in
Theodore Allen's The Invention of the White Race. It has also been argued that racism causes us to lose access to the special
contributions of those who are denied an opportunity for education, as well as having many other social costs.
http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/detail?accno=ED328650
http://www.amazon.com/The-Many-Costs-Racism-Feagin/dp/0742511189/ref=pd_rhf_ee_p_t_1
http://www.amazon.com/Global-Apartheid-Refugees-Racism-World/dp/0195410130
5
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institutional_racism
http://mije.org/mmcsi/research-library
Health Care: http://academic.udayton.edu/health/07humanrights/racial01c.htm
Social Work: http://www.naswdc.org/diversity/InstitutionalRacism.pdf
Education: http://www.sociology.leeds.ac.uk/assets/files/research/cers/the-anti-racism-toolkit.pdf
Institutional Racism in Higher Education by Ian law, Deborah Phillips, & Laura Turney
http://www.dorsetrec.org.uk/Pubs/Reports/Docs/racism%20BERA%202002.PDF
http://www.suspensionstories.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/racism-and-stpp.pdf
Criminal Justice: The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
http://equity.lsnc.net/understanding-sb1070-from-the-lens-of-institutionalized-racism-and-civil-rights/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-quigley/fourteen-examples-of-raci_b_658947.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/29/nyregion/gotham-arguments-for-stop-and-frisk-dont-hold-up.html
6
One of the preeminent examples of the existence of two sets of rules is the fact that no one has been held accountable for the
practices that led to the 2008 Global Financial Crisis and ensuing Great Recession.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007%E2%80%932012_global_financial_crisis
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/04/financial-crisis-prosecutions-wall-street-slow_n_818851.html
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/11/dont-let-go-of-the-anger/
The reasons for this are complex. In some cases it is because, unlike with the Madoff scandal, suspect practices were
institutionalized, so it is difficult to single out individual perpetrators. Also, many of the most apparently corrupt practices were
arguably legal.
In a variety of subtle ways, legal and social, elites are held to a different standard that ordinary people.
http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/Paper-Economy/2010/0709/Foreclosure-double-standard-Why-the-rich-get-away-withdefaulting
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/25/us/politics/romneys-tax-returns-show-21-6-million-income-in-10.html?pagewanted=all
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/21/nyregion/21about.html?_r=3&ref=todayspaper
The Rigged Game: Corporate America and a People Betrayed - John Hively
Rigging the Game: How Inequality id Reproduced in Everyday Life - Michael Schwalbe
http://www.thenation.com/node/167391
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7
http://www.operationmorningstar.org/genocide_of_native_americans.htm
Genocide or the deliberate extermination of one ethnic group by another is not new, for example in 1637 the Pequot
Indians were exterminated by the Colonists when they burned their villages in Mystic, Connecticut, and then shot the
other people -- including women and children -- who tried to escape. There are many facets of genocide that have been
implemented upon indigenous peoples of North America. The list of American genocidal policies includes: Massexecution, Biological warfare, Forced Removal from homelands, Incarceration, Indoctrination of non-indigenous values,
forced surgical sterilization of native women, Prevention of religious practices, to name a few. It must be noted that the
United States Government has refused to ratify the U.N. convention on genocide.
Prior to the arrival of Columbus the land defined as the 48 contiguous states of America is said to have numbered in
excess of 12 million. (Wikipedia: “Most scholars writing at the end of the 19th century estimated the pre-Columbian
population at about 10 million; by the end of the 20th century the scholarly consensus had shifted to about 50 million,
with some arguing for 100 million or more.”) Four centuries later, it had been reduced by 95% (237,000). How? When
Columbus returned in 1493 he brought a force of 17 ships. He began to implement slavery and mass-extermination of the
Taino population of the Caribbean. Within three years five million were dead. Fifty years later the Spanish census
recorded only 200 living. Las Casas, the primary historian of the Columbian era, writes of numerous accounts of the
horrendous acts that the Spanish colonists inflicted upon the indigenous people, which included hanging them en masse,
roasting them on spits, hacking their children into pieces to be used as dog food, and the list continues.
This did not end with Columbus' departure, the European colonies and the newly declared United States continued similar
conquests. Massacres occurred across the land such as the Wounded Knee Massacre. Not only was the method of
massacre used, other methods for "Indian Removal" and "clearing" included military slaughter of tribal villages, bounties
on native scalps, and biological warfare. British agents gave Tribes blankets that were intentionally contaminated with
smallpox. Over 100,000 died among the Mingo, Delaware, Shawnee and other Ohio River nations. The U.S. army
followed suit and used the same method on the Plains tribal populations with similar success.
From Wikipedia “Indian Removal”
Southern Removals
Nation
Chocta
w
Creek
Chicka
saw
Cherok
ee
Semino
le
Population
east of the
Mississippi
before
removal treaty
19,554 [12] +
white citizens
of the Choctaw
Nation + 6000
black slaves
22,700 + 900
black slaves
[14]
4,914 + 1,156
black slaves
21,500
+ 2,000 black
slaves
5,000 + fugitive
slaves
Removal
treaty
(year
signed)
Years of
major
emigrati
on
Total number
emigrated or
forcibly
removed
Number
stayed in
Southeast
Deaths during
removal
Deaths from
warfare
Dancing
Rabbit Creek
(1830)
1831–
1836
12,500
7,000 [13]
2,000–4,000+
(Cholera)
none
Cusseta
(1832)
1834–
1837
19,600 [15]
100s
3,500 (disease
after
removal)[16]
(Second Creek
War)
Pontotoc
Creek (1832)
1837–
1847
over 4,000
100s
500–800
none
New Echota
(1835)
1836–
1838
20,000 + 2,000
slaves
1,000
2,000–8,000
none
Payne's
Landing
(1832)
1832–
1842
2,833 [17]
250–500
[18]
700 (Second
Seminole War)
In addition, there are less obvious but still material legacies:
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Wealth from slavery: http://www.nathanielturner.com/slaveryandtheamericaneconomy.htm
http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0329-06.htm
Native American Sterilizations in 1970s:
http://robertjprince.wordpress.com/2011/09/28/partial-bibliography-on-the-involuntary-sterilization-of-native-americans-in-the1970s/
Slavery and Families:
http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/freedom/1609-1865/essays/aafamilies.htm
Ongoing problems in the portrayal of Native Americans U.S. popular culture
http://cosmologyofwhiteness.blogspot.com/2011/10/popular-historical-nonfiction-can-be.html
http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/search/permalinkPopup.jsp?accno=ED408950
At the other end of the spectrum are those who argue that slavery and Native American cultural genocide have produced legacies
of intergenerational trauma:
Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome by Joy Degruy
Broken Circle: The Dark Legacy of Indian Residential Schools by Theodore Fontaine
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004161238_boardingschool03m.html
http://www.amnestyusa.org/node/87342
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