Since this newsletter was last sent, Brazil has joined the growing list of countries ele cting far-right heads-of state, with Jair Bolsonaro, a pro-torture and pro-military dictatorship president, publicly committing to exiting the Paris accord and undoing  regulations on deforestation of the Amazon forest, the largest remaining bit of our  planetary lungs. At about the same time, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate  Cha nge released its report on 1.5C degrees of global warming, where the authors  (multiple ones from multiple countries, checking about 6,000 pieces of scientific  evidence) conclude that " We have 12 years to limit climate change catastrophe ." And just as we've been getting this newsletter ready to send, the deadliest fires in at least a century are raging in California, affecting air quality all over the state, and reminding us of what may lie ahead. 

What chance is there for humanity at such a time, when we are poised to do the very opposite of what's needed? Can anything still be done to turn the tide that is inexorably leading us on a path of unprecedented devastation that's hard to even imagine? Since every single previous civilization/empire collapsed, is the only option available to us to watch as everything we love disintegrates? Are we deluding ourselves thinking that nonviolence has any role to play in this world?

The role of nonviolence

Nonviolence, as far as I gather from my readings and experience, has existed for as long as humans have; there's nothing new about it. Prior to the patriarchal turn against life, and in pockets within it, nonviolence has been the norm in terms of how humans relate to each other, their communities, and the larger web of life. Nonviolence, in such contexts, including countless families and communities across the globe, is simply the basic capacity to collaborate for a shared purpose and with care for all.

What I imagine is newer, perhaps only since Gandhi, is nonviolen ce actively used in the struggle with violence, by people raised in patriarchal cultures. Nonviolent mobilization relies on the basic faith that all violence, all oppre ssion, all forms of domination are enacted by human beings who are not aligned with their own deepest essence and values. If and when enough people, with enough conviction, love, and courage mobilize to stand up and engage nonviolently with th ose who wield violence, things turn around. We now know the data: it takes about 3.5% of the population to be mobilized and interconnected to provide enough counterfo rce for the specific violence they are standing up against to dissolve and for  very difficult goals such as regime change or liberation from occupation to succeed. Granted that changing the very patriarchal structures that lead to violence being a n ongoing phenomenon in human affairs is a much, much larger goal, on a quite different scale. And, still I wonder. Is this something that humanity can make happen? What would happen if we manage to mobilize a quarter billion people to stand up, together, not only against this or that dictator? What if we actually manage to stand up, all of us, for a world in which needs are, once again, at the center of all activity? It's not impossible. And it's immensely challenging to imagine it.

What can we do?

And until then? What can each of us do? Is there any meaning to our individual or community-based actions? Some people believe that if enough of us simply embrace a radical enough consciousness shift and engage nonviolently and collaboratively with our fellow humans and life around us, we can turn around the tide even without global mobilization for nonviolent resistance. Whether or not this is true, we have our lives to live amidst all the uncertainty, without knowing what will happen. Those lives, every single one of them, every single hour of them, matter. Re-learning the capacity to collaborate, finding ways to activate our atrophied collaboration muscles, both provides more meaning and sweetness in our lives and gives us a way to create ripples of unknown magnitude.

For those who are attracted to this idea, one thing we clearly need to re-learn is how to engage with others in the ever-changing landscape of our lives, when every moment may make a previous agreement no longer tenable. How do we then communicate about it? Is it possible to always find a way forward that works for all? In my recent blog post, I examine how we can become ever more collaborative and actively interdependent in our interactions around agreements. Might this be of meaning to you? And for a wider-ranging exploration of themes related to social change and collaboration, you may be interested in the Nonviolent Global Liberation community's new Youtube channel, on which you can find videos of me speaking on these themes in English and Spanish.

I take immense solace from seeing how much the willingness to engage with reality is growing, everywhere I go. Just two years ago I was getting a lot of pushback on the idea that human extinction is on the menu at all, let alone possibly in our lifetime. And now, the question is hanging everywhere: what are we to do? Maybe we will figure it out, collectively, and maybe not. From within the unknowing, let us commit, together, to choosing our next moment based on the deepest clarity of purpose and values that we have access to, with the most honest assessment of our capacity and the reality we face. Whatever then happens, we will know that we did what we could in every moment. This is how I hope to live and die.

in peace and hope,

Miki