Listening to Real Wisdom

I was glad to have caught this interview of Vandana Shiva and Jane Goodall by Amy Goodman. Vandana Shiva is an example of what I call World Consciousness, that is, an incorporation of different ways of understanding, combining the knowledge and perspective of older, non-western cultures closer to the land with linear, scientific western thought.

She is on target condemning capitalist corporate patriarchy as what is destroying the life of Earth but what is also vital is her awareness and value of other, older ways of understanding that we ARE the earth and that it, and everything on it is entirely interconnected and interdependent. The culture of commodification, material acquisition, and power is a cancer that must be excised.

A friend of mine, Dr. Thomas Ellis, in response to questions I posed for an article I wrote was also poignant on this matter in relation to community and sustainability on his blog. Well worth reading. Wisdom such as that espoused by Vandana Shiva gives me hope -- not a false hope that others will take care of us but a real hope, fleeting as it is, that enough of us will stand up (or sit down) and stop the madness that is destroying our world for the temporary enrichment of a few.