Inner Activism – Ensuring “We” Don’t Become “Them”

By Jack Adam Weber

Contributing Writer for Wake Up World

Breaking the Silence.

This article was inspired by the documentary video, Breaking the Silence Truth and Lies in the War on Terror. It moved me deeply. It brought up my outrage, my sadness, my helplessness, my love, my hope, my passion — all of which I share with you below.

Whether you watch the video (below) or not, the article will still make sense to you. It’s not an easy watch, but well worth the while.

As John Pilger says in the introduction, “This film is about the rise and rise of rapacious imperial power and a terrorism that never speaks its name, because it is our terrorism.”

We are all disgusted with videos like this that reveal what might be closer to the truth of what American and other first-world foreign policy is really about. The effects on people’s lives and on the Earth itself are devastating, and frankly, almost unspeakable. What is done to people, to animals, and to this gorgeous planet is insane. While we all have hatred, violent, and evil tendencies, for most of us, it’s not as big a part of our agenda as it for elite imperialists.

And this is the difference between “us” and “them.”

As I watch this documentary and feel my own sadness and disgust, I remember why I spend so much time encouraging emotional shadow work, why a bulk of my energy has turned from outer activism to what I call inner activism — because when we don’t do the inner work we too easily become the ones who despoil what is beautiful, in big and small ways. We make monsters of our lives and we create enterprises that take on ghastly identities of their own, called corporations. We raise children who are more prone to turn into monsters, who can then affect the world without wisdom. Some become those who govern without giving, who take without returning, who speak without feeling, who live without loving.

John Pilger: Breaking the Silence – Truth and Lies in the War on Terror

Emotional shadow work makes us deeply human and infuses us with wisdom when we stay the path of staying through our deepest hurts until they turn into gold, into rich inner resources. Emotional shadow work is not a pessimistic or negative undertaking. It is just the opposite. It is radically positive an uplifting because it gets to the root of our negativity, our violence, our problems, and heals them at the root so that we can feel more loving and understanding. Emotional work also awakens our creativity, passion, purpose, and sense of meaning.

We may try to attack all the effects of greed, violence, and injustice outwardly, and whatever truly good, solid progress made is good news. This is the good fight we are all called to fight, to whatever degree, in the world. But as we all know, the horrors continue year after year, decade after decade. There are always new wars, new massacres, new famines, new cover-ups, new conspiracies. To me this indicates there is something else afoot, something more fundamental to these effects, that has not been collectively healed, sufficiently dealt with, by you and me and all of us together.

I think this violent pattern has its roots in our collective human shadow, whose heart is our collective emotional lives. This “collective,” however, does not mean that the problem is “out there” but that it is in me, in you. And it is my job, and your job, our adult responsibility to the whole that we all share to do something about. This is what I call root activism, or inner activism — becoming the people with values and the inner emotional and intellectual resources capable of living differently, capable of giving ourselves to the greater good, which we demonstrate through our actions, our creativity, our wisdom, our healing path, our presence in the world. To liberate our inner lives, which begins with radical honesty, is to be really humble with ourselves.

CONTINUE READING:

Previous articles by Jack Adam Weber:

• The Modern Shaman: Fierce Love at the Frontier of Madness
• Arrogance in Relationships: How to Deal With and Heal It
• 11 Reasons Why Hippies (Not Psychos) Should Rule the World
• The Monsanto Years: Singer Neil Young Rips Into GMOs, Big Biz and Conformity
• ReVOLUTION: When Enough is Enough
• Sex – Truth and Dare, Pleasure and Purpose
• Relationships: The Costs of Staying When We Should Leave
• Emotional Work
• Yin Yang — Ancient Wisdom for Personal and Planetary Transformation
• Heartbreak – Loving Ourselves Through Difficult Times

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