ENDORSMENTS FOR “LIFE AT THE CROSSROADS” MANIFESTO

- I eagerly endorse your letter. It echos my thoughts and some of my actions of the last several years.

I recently moved out of an average suburban home into a small cabin with composting toilet and outdoor shower. I am still uncomfortable with my affluence. Other than the people in the groups I work with, the Green Party and several environmental groups, I cannot get through to anyone the necessity for change. I try many avenues of thought, but it seems that the majority of adults have pre-death rigor mortis. They are unwilling to bend on their own.

We must offer more detailed options for bringing down "the system" to a more common humane level. The majority of the people that I am around cannot see anyway out of the lives they have made other than illness and death. Their children drive them unmercifully to purchase the "Stuff of the day", and they themselves cannot resist "happies" and "good buys" and "quick fixes" and "entertainment", etc.

I am more than willing to follow my endorsement, but need groups to opt out with. We need villages of people if we are to really pull out. It is time to revive the communal.

I could go on, but won't. If I can help you in any way, please let me know.

Thank you for your dedication to life.

Love and peace,
Tritta Neveleff


- What a stong and courageous letter you have written. Well done!

I absolutely agree that we have to stop this madness, and call to account the many leaders in this world who are exploiting the masses, making money out of wars, and introducing a new world order. I also agree that we need to start to take effective action to stop this madness....actions like boycotts of large corporations, civil disobedience, and protests that will force our sleeping politicians to take a stand.

However, if we are to effectively create a new world that is equal, honors human rights and gives everyone on this planet an equal chance, then we must also be aware of the brainwashing that the dictators have run on the masses. Your identification of certain countries as having "dictators" who must be brought to account sounds too similar to President Bush's axis of evil talk. If I were asked to name the greatest dictator in the world now, it would be a toss-up between George Bush and Sharon. The role that Israel has played in these events is greater than significant. The events of September 11 put the spotlight on the Muslim world, and personally I believe that was intentional and part of a greater plan to divide and conquer the world. The so-called terrorist attacks (and there is ample evidence that now questions whether there were any terrorists at all) gave the Americans the immediate "right" to storm around the globe, killing and conquering, to find the ever-elusive Osama Bin Laden. It also gave Israel the right to mow down Palestinians with tanks, all in the name of "fighting terror". There is a lot of racial profiling now, and one of the world's most gentle religions is being blamed for fanaticism. This is the supreme irony and hypocrisy given Christianity's bloody history.

But on the whole, I agree with your sentiments. Perhaps we could make the focus a more positive one - rather than throwing stones at the dictators, let's start applauding the thousands of enlightened people who are working for peace and a better world.

Keep up the good work, you do have millions of supporters behind you!

Candice T.
Cleverfish Go with the Flow

DW Response: Thanks for the support and for your comments.

It is interesting how one's perspective changes with location. I spend most of my time in Asia, and therefore tend to focus closely on China's influence there. For example, the Chinese dictators prop up Burma's junta, and are likely directly responsible for North Korea's current actions and the precipitation of this latest nuclear crisis. Then I come to the US and the great threat is Bush. I chose to focus on the Great Usurper, though, not because of his autocracy towards people, but for his attitude towards all other life, which can be succinctly described as: KILL IT! I am of course also opposed to Sharon, and have written about him elsewhere on the site. He should be in jail, as should the Palestinians who target non-combatants.

The parallels between Sharon and Bush are unnerving. Sharon was elected on the promise of security, and then created far greater unrest and insecurity. Now he announces that he must be even more murderous with the Palestinians, and a great many Israelis believe him, not recognizing that such escalation is merely fuel to the fire.

Similarly, Bush in the post 9/11 America promised security, but then initiated actions that can only achieve the opposite, yet the bulk of the US public believes him.

As you mentioned, brainwashing is therefore a crucial issue, for which the only cure is education, if only of the diversity of global opinions. But, if the US educational "system," the mass media, stands against all such free exchange of ideas, how can we possibly escape the brainwashing? The answer is that we must make a decisive attack on the large media conglomerates, including advertising, beginning with tuning out - the voluntary rejection of their self-serving content - but with much stronger steps as well.

Also, I wholeheartedly support your suggestion for being positive and focusing on how many, many people are working to help. The manifesto emphasized the negative, though, because it is a call to action, and because there is still so far to go.


- I fully endorse the sentiments expressed in the Manifesto.

People of goodwill from all backgrounds and cultures must develop channels of communication parallel to the mass-media, to freely communicate information and ideas world-wide, leading to the taking of joint and supportive action, and progressively bringing alternative ideals before the gaze of a majority still mesmerized by promises of a consumerist nirvana.

We must fight, on the one hand, the old and new nationalist sentiments that are used to manipulate us and, on the other, the destruction (in the name of market interests and dominant powers) of social and cultural values that are respectful of human and species rights. There is an onus upon those in the more developed countries, who enjoy the greatest freedoms, to sacifice something of their leisure-time and present superfluous comforts in the struggle for the common good and the survival of the world as a place worth living.

Eric Bruce Johnston