Am I missing something here, or does the author of this article really seem to think that the concept of social and environmental activism is totally radical and new? This isn't some amazing new political movement, this is the ongoing battle against injustice that's been carrying on since the dawn of human history. Of course there are millions of people making up millions of activist groups. What's so hard to believe about that, and why was that not completely obvious to this guy?

That said, it was an okay article, but the concept of activism is hardly news to anyone here. Some new 'global democratic movement' is not about to 'pop', there are just a lot of upset people in the world today who are willing to take action to further whatever causes they've taken up in the name of the greater good. (And it's awesome that people are willing to go out and do that, don't get me wrong.) I love it how the author says this 'movement' - and by movement, he means 'millions of largely unrelated activist groups' - flies under the radar, too. Look, when your organization of some two dozen people tops doesn't even try to gain media exposure, the media certainly isn't going to come looking unless you do something absolutely amazing.

Get real, dude.

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The author sure has a lot of cards. I'll bet some of the people on the cards have been on a lot of cards, indeed, if the author wanted to really waste his time, he would find that many of these "nonprofit" heroes bounce from group to group. This is an alternative universe to the dead federal bureaucracy that administers billions in the name of education, health, research and "defense".

Basically, these organizations are conduits for corporate profits to escape taxation under the ruse of benevolent causes that the wealthy support to ease their consciences and to employ their kids and friends who want to "give back" or whatever the trite social phrase of the day is. The powerlessness of the interests these organized nonprofits represent is greater than ever. The good news is that these tax dodges allow the real estate developers in DC and nearby Virginia to build up even more office complexes, gentrify more neighborhoods, and spark the opening of more Starbucks(green coffee, Man) and bars/clubs for the young activists too lazy to earn engineeering degrees and actually do something like build roads and housing.

That "dirty" work is done of course by the Bad Private Sector. Of course that's where the profits come from so that this quasi socialist network of do gooders can continue to "network", go to useless conferences, and further vegetate (in an organic way, of course.).

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I wish this were true. Sadly, this is exactly the problem. Top-down groups with lots of cards, who truly mean well, but end up being a sort of sad extended peace corps.

I remember when this happened last time. Does anyone remember Earth Day 1990? When we all joined together to fight for the environment? Corporations, grassroots groups, and top-down enviro NGOs came together to save the planet.

So what happened? It was a smokescreen. It had to be, just as this has to be. I predict that if we get a new "green" administration like we thought we were getting in 1992, (How does Al Gore look in the mirror? How???) the same thing will happen. There will be compromises. The environment will lose again. There will be saber rattling that China must cut emissions first, since they make everything now. There will be cute ways for consumers to "shrink my carbon footprint" while corporations burn more coal.

Remember? We all started recycling, never stopping to wonder why nobody just outlawed single serving bottles and cans? That's going to happen again. Because nobody's going to meetings. Our $35 or $50 or $100 checks aren't buying much advocacy. They're buying a road to compromise.

Sorry to be a drag. Prove me wrong, America!

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I joined one of these groups back in the 1980's. Our mission was to advance the peaceful uses of space to solve global problems. But we ended up spending most of our time chasing after money from rich people and the rich people wanted us to battle Ronald Reagan on his "Star Wars" initiative. Our mission changed because of money as I suspect happens in many of these organizations.

Money makes us into "enlightened warriors" with a cause. But the cause gets corrupted by money. When are we going to recognize that the economic system itself is the problem?

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For the cynics who have posted, I have noticed the same thing the author is writing about in his article. These aren't the organizations you often see. Here in the US they are very diverse. They are reading groups that become active in their home towns. They are local organizations exploring land use policies. They are gardeners who try organic and are surprised at how good a crop they have and how great the food tastes. They are homeowners who install a solar system to cut back on the damage caused by coal powered electricity generation. There are groups all over the world who are just trying to make a small difference. The stories are out there if you just look. For those who just can't see it, I think you joined an organization or movement. That's what the author is saying. It's not a movement or organization. The people of this world are moving forward without the governments or the multinationals or anyone giving us permission.

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For those who have complained that the article isn't realistic, doesn't describe what's really going on - please, reread it. The author is pointing out that there are really people out there doing something. They aren't sitting on their duffs. They aren't joining organizations with big ideas. They aren't talking. What they're doing that's so special is just that - they are DOING.

And this is what matters. In spite of the odds. In spite of the politics. In spite of the corruption. In spite of corporations, WTO, World Bank, IMF - in spite of it all, people are getting involved and developing a new way of approaching life on earth.

This is the first hopeful thing I've seen, and I'm just thrilled.

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...do you want their version, or shall we make our own flavor?

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Those people with all their cards. If they were 'smart' they would be lobbying Congress - and doing it HARD.

Here's why.

We've exported a tremendous quantity of business to China. The idea was they're cheap and when they produce the waste of manufacturing they will sully their own land.

Well, it's a double-edged sword, isn't it. They've surely damaged their environment because they have no environmental controls over there. But their CO2 emissions are destroying the ENTIRE PLANET.

So, if all those card-carrying environmentalists were 'really' smart, they'd be finding ways to bring back all those jobs. You see, no one's going to stop consumerism. They might slow it down, but it's surely not going to stop until the population is under control. So, if you want to be truly environmentally conscious you'd bring the jobs back here, and create environmentally conscious ways to manufacture products - and then working hard to EXPORT all those proven technologies back to China. That way you kill all the birds with your advanced stones.

Otherwise, they're just chipping away at a mountain. A mountain that refuses to move due to our moronic Republican administration that is absolutely sure that we're living in the Last Days and everything is meaningless anyway.

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People around the world are smart.
It is those who lead for greed who don't get it.

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This is nothing more than the “cattle” getting nervous. Back to the old: 20% leaders vs 80% followers (Chomsky). The people getting involved in this movement are all followers (cattle). Without the assertiveness of leadership, they will wander aimlessly for generations, accomplishing nothing. They will never enter the leadership class until they get natural leaders involved in this movement. The Corporations hire the leaders (20%) and give them a piece of the action.

“Cattle” always get nervous when things go south, and things are definitely going south – fast, now. But until leadership joins these “movements”, nothing will ever happen accept aimless worry and concern.

The “Cattle” are not that smart. Even though new tools now exist, to communicate knowledge (blogs, chatrooms, email, cell phones etc.) the "cattle" use these for gossip and porn. When you think everybody is “connected and talking” they are just really connected and talking about American Idol.

Sorry, I wish this wasn’t the case.

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It is important to distinguish between responding to symptoms of societal insanity and tackling the causes. A lucid article on this challenge lies on www.savingcommunities.org/issues
The sheer weight of good people tackling symptoms, (as we must) and the dedication in their commitment, often blinds us to how ineffective we are in tackling the causes. Monetary Justice is the root to which we must reach, even while we hack at the branches.

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Please keep in mind that while all our diverse environmental and social change groups are happily meeting to green our little corner of the Earth, evil people in Washington, DC, are busily destroying hundreds of thousands of people, animals, and the land itself. We must replace these maniacs politically while that is still possible.

How can we do that if we're not in agreement and unified behind real people with a workable plan? But which plan? Whose plan? Choose wrongly and you get - we all get co-opted, sold out by another professional politician who tells you what the polls tell him or her you want to hear, but then he or she does what serves his/her agenda, not ours.

Until we unite to vote out of power all those in Washington who use militarism to impose our will on the world, none of us are safe. Hillary is no better than the NeoCons, nor is Pelosi, nor Edwards nor Obama - they all serve the Military-Industrial Complex and AIPAC.

If you want to know why our good jobs have moved to countries like China and India, read Harry Browne's Why Government Doesn't Work. It's all there.

We need a better system of government, but it's not more stifling socialism, with its bureaucracy consuming 70+% of our production.

If we who love humanity and the Earth can't unite to remove those who hate from positions of power, all our lovely gardens and children will not survive the wars we are being dragged into.

If we all vote for 4 or 5 different parties in 2008, we'll change nothing. Again. The drive to War will go on.

We must unite to restore Life, Liberty, and the Freedom to Pursue Happiness. The Libertarian Party is the best foundation for a peace and freedom coalition to make the change. Check them out: www.lp.org/

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It seems to me that these organizations love the press and media attention they get as well as the "love" they recieve for their efforts. The moment the camera turns off- their collective efforts stop and they begin sifting through piles of paperwork and beauracratic bullshit.

Imagine all the paper it takes to make all those business cards!

It so obvious.

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The author writes,
"By conventional definition, this is not a movement. Movements have leaders and ideologies. You join movements, study tracts, and identify yourself with a group. You read the biography of the founder(s) or listen to them perorate on tape or in person. Movements have followers, but this movement doesn't work that way. It is dispersed, inchoate, and fiercely independent. There is no manifesto or doctrine, no authority to check with.
I sought a name for it, but there isn't one.
Historically, social movements have arisen primarily because of injustice, inequalities, and corruption. Those woes remain legion, but a new condition exists that has no precedent: the planet has a life-threatening disease that is marked by massive ecological degradation and rapid climate change. It crossed my mind that perhaps I was seeing something organic, if not biologic. Rather than a movement in the conventional sense, is it a collective response to threat? Is it splintered for reasons that are innate to its purpose? Or is it simply disorganized? "

This and what is written in the rest of the article is exactly what is theorized in Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri's book "Multitude" . Just as the rulers are now a global "Empire" (another book of theirs) who are less the political leaders and more the faceless multinationals dispersed all over the world, the multitudes are people who have differences but cooperate among themselves as a new form of social resistance.

It is difficult to summarize this book, but worth reading if you want to understand more about these dispersed movements on a global scale that fight for the environment, indigenous rights and against globalization/corporatization.

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I liked the article, and I hope many non-religious readers will forgive me for touching on religion again: I sense a religious dimension in all that's going on...like God is working beyond the Churches and religions to establish The Kingdom of God, a reign of Peace and justice all over. Other articles today seem to fit this pattern too: like the call for a union movement on a global level, and on women and Latinas.

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I know we live in somewhat hopeless times. The list of maladies is endless and appropriate. But I think what Hawken was trying to describe has to do with a new radicalism of leaderlessness.

I just read a review of a book about cultural death and creative survival called Radical Hope:Ethics in the Face of Culttural Devastation by Jonathan Lear that touched upon some of these issues...just about to order the book thru Powells....

People commomly involved in preserving the planet, justice, and some basic dignity in the face of what at times seems to be overwhelming greed, despotism, and horror is a widespread and disorganized phenomenon. And true, some of those individuals, have less than humble notions of themselves and are manipulative and are damaging.

Still, though, if we are to live...than we need to work with the implicit understanding that others are doing similar work, to live and to survive. I am not talking here of bandying business cards, or attending protest rallies that the media ignore, or contacting represenatives that are owned by ExxonMobil. I am talking here about seeing an attainable object of planetary survival being possible because of work done by you, by me, and by countless others whom we don't know and will probably never even meet.

And maybe that is our unconquerable strength.

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But These groups will only be allowed to go so far before they hit a brick wall, and then they will be stopped by big oil, giant corporation's, and our own government.

No matter what the people may want to do if we do not have control over our own government it will not happen they will stop it.

There are some people in this world that are such lowlife forms, that they will not save this planet if it cuts into their profits, that is exactly what the bush baby has been saying all along they will continue to use and abuse because we have no control over our own government.

just look at what the bush baby has done while he has been in office, talk about crimes against nature and the environment , and there hasn't been anything we can do to stop him because we have no control over our own government we do not live in a democracy the people have no say .

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It is a human truism but most of these people are working for themselves. It is why many problems like poverty persist in so many countries. In places where the NGO model is not the main model (China or South Korea or Singapore) we see (saw) massive gains.

While it can seem at first as if progress is being made attending an endless round of gab fests and conferences around the world, and collecting business cards, as Shakespeare once said: 'all sound and fury signifying nothing'.

We now live in an age of the greatest number of NGOs ever. We also see conflict and misery all around us. It is worth questioning if what is really keeping so many down and out is more to do with the profound fracturing of human endevour than by 'letting a thousand tulips bloom'.

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Why is it that naysayers, and others who just have to find fault, leap up screaming at every positive sign, often - astonishingly - more fervently than they attack the negatives. This post is a good example. The author here unveils a very simple set of progressive, helpful actions that reasonable people are taking part in, and this just seems to sail right over these seemingly mindless protesters' heads (I won't go into detail on the reasons for this - just keep insecurity/fear in mind).

They just can't seem to get it: TRUE CARING IS ALWAYS A GOOD THING (note "true").

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The Permanent Things, by Paul Hein, MD

I read this article last week and was floored by its beauty and simplicity and lack of pretension.

When I was younger, I burned with resentment at the flagrant injustice in the world. It still rankles me, but with less urgency. I no longer flatter myself that I can do anything about it. The Beatitude has assumed new meaning for me: Blessed be those that hunger and thirst for justice! The blessing is upon those who hunger and thirst, not necessarily achieve. The lesson, so slowly and painfully learned, is that justice may be too much to expect in this world, except occasionally, or by accident.

Society is disintegrating around me, and I know the causes, and could do something about it. I’m not bragging; you could probably say the same. But I couldn’t do it alone; we’d have to work together. Ultimately, we’d have to establish some sort of organization that would be powerful enough to compel respect for the law and individual rights. In other words, a government! Good grief! I know better than that! How many times have I said that power corrupts, inevitably, yet to remedy the corruption of today, we would need power that would corrupt us tomorrow.

Evil can best be fought by moral suasion, not physical force, or the threat of it. Those who would reform the world ought to begin by reforming their own lives.

The secret to reforming the world may lie in sublimating one’s passion for social justice into a search for personal perfection.

Don’t tell me that for evil to triumph it is only necessary that good men do nothing. No one "does nothing." Even a person in a coma provides an opportunity for a caregiver to perfect himself or herself. Removing the mote from one’s own eye is not doing nothing; it is, on the contrary, the first step in a revolution that could turn the world upside down, if enough of us did it.

I recall a teacher (was it Aristotle?) telling us, in college, that art was "anything done well." Let each of us mind his own business, and do what he does well, making us artists! Life could be simple and sweet, and no one need be hurt.

Let the revolution begin within!

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But it's better (more effective) to take a walk up the river and find out who is throwing them in.

Unless people take political action, it is like bailing out the boat with a bucket full of holes. We need good laws. (note the "good").

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...is that Mr. Hawken has compiled a large database of information about environmental organizations. If he would also share some information about their size, focus, funding sources, tactics, geographic concentration, etc., this would all be useful information to have. (I agree that Mr. Hawken doesn't display very much of a sense of the history of the environmental movement in this article.)

As far as the comments about whether NGOs are good or bad... well it depends doesn't it? Are you talking about the Rockefeller Foundation or Greenpeace? I like Bill Moyer's MAPS model for how different kinds of activist organizations can support each other in a broader movement (although arguably it's a very America-centric model.)

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a collective consciousness, system intelligence, group mind, social interactionism, the world-wide meta-brain of our species.

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"A significant social movement is eluding the radar of mainstream culture(?)" It's humorous, the lengths media professionals will go, to conceal their complicity with "mainstream culture," which has bought their silence. "Significant" social movements, do not "elude" mainstream media. In fact, virtually nothiing of importance eludes mainstream media. Media professionals, are just that. They're professionals at sensing and grasping, especially, the major events in our culture. If any eluding is going on, it's media that are doing it, not the other way around. But, nothing is more common than the "we didn't notice" pretense media professionals give us, in these matters. The important thing to these guys is, whether the social movement appeals to their big shot, media employers, and not whether the social movement is important to millions of media consumers.

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Here, imbecilic attackers of environmentalism. Here are recent victories of just one powerful organization! Sure it's a large one...but what can a million worldwide orgs do! I WAS impressed and surprised by the article and happy about its worldwide portent. Much power and success to them.

NRDC Recent Achievements

TWO VICTORIES FOR LATIN AMERICAN BIOGEMS!
We've made a major leap forward in our ambitious campaign to protect one million acres surrounding the world's last unspoiled gray whale nursery at the San Ignacio Lagoon in Baja, Mexico. The Mexican government has announced that 109,000 acres of federal lands surrounding this spectacular whale habitat will be donated for conservation. In 2000, NRDC activists helped defeat Mitsubishi's plans to build the world's largest industrial saltworks on these same lands. Mexico's recent donation will seriously undermine any future attempts to revive the plan.

ACTIVISM
Far to the south, Chilean environmental officials have rejected a deeply flawed study of the impacts of a proposed hydroelectric dam in one of Patagonia's most pristine areas. The officials announced their decision less than a week after receiving more than 10,000 protest messages from BioGems Defenders. In March, NRDC BioGems advocates joined Ecosistemas -- one of our main partner groups there -- and the internationally renowned Chilean rock musician Beto Cuevas on an expedition to the region. They met with environmental leaders and local community activists and visited Chile's biggest river, the Baker, which has been targeted for two dams by the country's largest utility.

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Just one powerful organization working in DC and NYC did the following! Looking forward to a million working the world!

For more than three decades, NRDC has fought successfully to defend wilderness and wildlife and to protect clean air, clean water and a healthy environment. Here are some key victories NRDC has achieved.

1971 - NRDC wins passage of the Clean Water Act, which allows citizens to sue polluters directly
1973 - NRDC begins action that wins phase-out of lead in U.S. gasoline
1976 - NRDC litigation wins limits on water pollution for 24 major industries
1978 - NRDC wins fight to remove ozone depleting CFCs from aerosol cans
1978 - NRDC launches fight against acid rain through lawsuit which cuts sulphur dioxide emissions by a million tons annually
1980 - NRDC leadership helps win federal protection for one hundred million acres of Alaskan lands
1984 - NRDC wins litigation to compel the Department of Energy to comply with environmental laws at all of their nuclear weapons facilities
1985 - NRDC helps win adoption of national efficiency standards for consumer appliances, saving billions of dollars in electrical bills
1987 - NRDC initiative leads to International Treaty to save ozone layer
1987 - NRDC lawsuit forces Bethlehem Steel to pay $1.5 million in penalties for water pollution
1991 - NRDC helps defeat U.S. Senate bill that would open Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to unnecessary oil drilling
1993 - NRDC legal action forces two oil giants, ARCO and Texaco, to cease water pollution and pay stiff fines for past violations
1994 - NRDC saves eastern North America's largest untouched wilderness by helping the Cree defeat the James Bay hydro-electric project
1999 - NRDC helps win commitments from over 200 companies, including Kinko's, 3M, Starbucks, and Home Depot, to help save temperate rainforests by phasing out their use and sale of old-growth wood products
2000 - NRDC's worldwide campaign forces the Mitsubishi Corporation to abandon its plan to construct a massive salt factory next to the last unspoiled breeding ground of the gray whale
2001 - NRDC helps secure an agreement among logging companies, environmentalists, native peoples and the government of British Columbia to protect millions of acres of the Great Bear Rainforest -- home of the rare white Spirit Bear -- from logging.
2002 - Working with a coalition of environmental groups, NRDC goes to federal court and blocks the Bush administration from allowing oil exploration in thousands of acres of public wildlands next to Arches National Park in Utah.
2003 - NRDC wins a federal court case stopping the worldwide deployment of a Navy sonar system that would have blasted oceans with noise so intense it could maim, deafen and kill whales.
2004 - NRDC takes the Bush administration to court and blocks its dangerous plan to allow 20,000 aging power plants, refineries and factories to spew millions of tons of pollution into our air.
2005 - NRDC staves off the Bush administration's attempts to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling.
2006 - NRDC legal action leads the Bush administration to propose protecting the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act -- a crucial first step toward saving the bear from the ravages of global warming.

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These movements are full of sound and fury; signifying nothing, to quote a famous English playwright. I admire the few, core idealists who look after America's waterways, promote sustainable agriculture and advance solar energy, but ultimately they are accomplishing very little with the mom and pops/NIMBY method.

In fact, they are accomplishing far too little, too late. With so many mini-groups advancing such disparate agendas, they [each] necessarily end up approaching the problem from a position of weakness. Most of these agencies/organizations are ignored outright primarily because they lack the financial means and political clout to pursue any meaningful litigation. And make no mistake, it all boils down to money and how it is used to gain exposure and leverage.

I wish them well, but until such time as idealists of the world unite and shed the chains of pikerdom to form one superorg that confronts these problems according to an internal, democratically determined hierarchical agenda, then it will continue to be more pissing of small contributions down the drain.

My solution would entail establishing a global, environmental congress that pools the monies of all the lesser organizations (or better yet receives the money directly) and disperses it according to the dictates (votes is a better word) of the elected members from each country. The election process would undoubtedly get complicated and objections to how the money is dispersed would certainly arise, but the clock is ticking and sooner or later we have to narrow the focus to what is most pressing. Global warming perhaps. Maybe alternative fuels? I don't know, but drops in the sea are not going to change anything especially when the sea swallowing those drops is comprised of corrupt and ruthless government bureaucracies of monstrous proportions.

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The core theme of this article, to me, was that a host of decentralized social change organizations are forming.

Which makes sense, I'd just been reading Global Guerrillas which fairly convincingly argues the thesis that terrorist and other insurgent groups are successfully switching to a decentralized confederation of loosely allied groups.

Or San Fransisco has the phenomena of these self-styled bedouins, who are working for themselves out of various coffee shops. The traditional business model of a company being able to afford employees for extended periods of time has weakened enough there that these workers are now function as independent contractors who will come together in loose-knit project based companies if needed.

My interpretation is that our communication infrastructure has gotten to the point where since everyone can know pretty much everything that everyone else knows, the more ad-hoc de-centralized organizations are trouncing the central authority figure. (Who previously had a monopoly on being able to collect local information from around an organization and tease out the big picture.)

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Most of the large environmental organizations are apparently incapable of tackling the fundamentals, and seem to spend more and more of their efforts on cosmetic touch-up efforts. Sure, they do some good things, but they are incapable of turning the tide.

By focusing on their own local areas, these small groups can be very effective - they can force city councils to fund renewable initiatives and stop short-sighted developers from ruining their communities, for example. They can require local transportation systems to use clean, non-fossil fuel energy resources.

You can see how effective the small groups are by looking at how much effort the major corporations and banks spend to defeat them. The fact is, it's a lot harder for a corporation to deter, disrupt and shut down 1000 small groups than it is to affect one large group like Greenpeace.

Instead of sending $100 to Greenpeace, spend that $100 on organizing your own small group - but make sure you get your facts right before you plunge in. Don't be tricked into attacking your friends, in other words.

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That's great, but the bees, monkeys, turtles, fish, frogs and hundreds of other species are being decimated by loss of habitat, cell phones, chemicals, and probably a thousand other by-products of industrialization, and climate change of course, and war, and it doesn't seem that all these millions of groups can really stop the devastation. Slow it down a bit, but how do you stop materialism? These groups are a tiny fraction of the world's population bent on getting all they can get while the getting is good. China, for example. Do you think that one millionth part of the population of China gives a damn?

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Heck, Hitler was a huge environmentalist. The Nazi's even had laws on how to boil lobsters. Pretty sick. It is sad to see liberals are moving down the same path.

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If there are so many groups...with so many people, why can't this happen quicker?

The problem is that the masses are easily swayed and control everything...meanwhile intelligent people get caught up in the diverging minutia of their activist ideas...and thus never unite against the corporate-advertising-brain-washed and mass-media-spoon-fed masses that continue to stifle progress while the activists and thinkers focus on their niche and quible over the details.

What we need is someone to take the 10,000 business cards and get those groups together to put together a real movement that will grab the attention of the masses...instead of 10,000 small groups "flying under the radar."

I don't like what Gov. Schwarzenegger said...but its is the sad reality...if environmentalism (or any movement) is to succeed is has to become part of our mass-media pop culture. Unfortunately the majority of Americans are not well educated and will never move beyond the hip, pop-culture trend of the day. Though these groups and anecdotes are heart-warming to hear they mean nothing as long as the movement continues to stay under the radar.

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Certainly isn't in the person of a demented halfwit, posing as our president, our bellicose foreign policy, or our profound ignorance as a people; it's an IDEA. This idea stood up pretty well until the neocon criminals overthrew our electoral system through fraud, lies, and voter intimidation and disenfranchisement and forced a lamebrained puppet upon us-not once-but TWICE, and we let them get away with it. Let's face it; enough of us have forgotten the IDEA that made us great, and we're losing everything that once made it so great to be Americans. The IDEA will survive elsewhere, and maybe spread throughout the world someday, while we at home sink into decay and become a third world mess, with a dictator telling us what to do and think.

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The comments to this article reveal a general ignorance of the context of Paul Hawken's effort. This is one of many articles seeded in preparation for the launching of the book and video, BLESSED UNREST, and the WISER platform for collaboration.

As an activist for 50 years, I have long been a critic of activist attitude to the need for improvement in their comprehension and behavior. They have contributed to the mess we are in, not by intention, but by not being willing (as most humans) to examine themselves deeply enough.

Paul and the WISER organization, I believe, have discovered a vital phenomenon and are prepared to utilize their new knowledge to assist the activist movement to become orders of magnitude more REESEE (Relevant, Effective, Efficient, Sufficient, Enjoyable, and Elegant).

This is NOT a final solution; it is a NU beginning. Breathe deeply and absorb, then integrate and emerge.

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Please accept my apology for what I said early in my morning under "Aww...Shit Edit.. " Shame on me. I guess I had not had my first cup of coffee. You are DEFINITELY not imbecilic. Again, please accept my apology.

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We can only hope... but all these amazing groups doing amazing things waste so much money running offices with staff, sending out mass mailings for funding appeals, that so much more effort goes into keeping the organization alive than in actually affecting change outside the office walls. To make more of a difference, the masses will have to rally behind 10 or 20 key organizations that limit their office expenditures and put their money into the true work. Which organizations are best to support? I recently took myself off all the direct mailings...after years of getting direct mail funding requests from Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth, Green Peace, Earth Island Institute, Conservation Intl, World Wildlife Fund, yadda yadda yadda ya.
Too many groups, not enough cohesion...duplication of paperwork, reinventing the wheel, top heavy in admininstrators, etc...

This is a problem with non profits...
I don't know the solution...

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Excellent, and inspiring article !!

My only quibble is the idea that this movement
is something completely new. After all it was
"tens of millions of ordinary and not-so-ordinary
people willing to confront despair, power, and
incalculable odds in order to restore some semblance
of grace, justice, and beauty to this world."
who brought about accomplishments such as:

- women's right to vote
- repeal of Jim Crow Laws
- 8 hr work days
- workplace protections
- environmental protection laws

The fact that so many of yesterdays accomplishments
are being allowed to be systematically dismantled
is a result of too many people sitting home and
watching the tube instead of being engaged.

And the fact that the tide is starting to change
is due, I think, to the internet enticing more
and more people away from the tube and back
into engagement with reality.

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We, the mighty beast, whose voracious greed has trampled unrestrained for low these past 100 years and in the process damned near wreaked our mother earth have sucked dry the teat of, "Give me more of the newest thang," giving away our duty as citizens in the process. Racking up debt as a consequence and becoming wage slaves of the corporate masters we despise. Enablers and victims at the same moment.

However, though US citizens, in the main, remain corpulent in front of magic boxes that promise perfection and contentment, "for only just a few cents a day," humanity around the globe is slowly and resolutely bleeding the beast with millions of cuts. Each cut is by itself a minor irritation, but the culmination will reveal a rotted husk. This is the only possible outcome, barring nuclear war, for the corporate-capitalist monster requires obedience and consumption.

While I wish that we who are awake had the power of piranhas, at least we can do as Paul has done and observe that each of our contributions has a part in a great en devour that will lay to rest the cancer that is killing our children and their future. Think Global, buy local, and act as if the whole world (and your Mother) is watching. Become the leader that you think you need.

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So why not? A consensus in Washington is being met with another consensus-- justice, equity, dignity. A word, liberty, being contested and re-defined -- not in the interests of greed. If the word is "globalization" - it must be contested. They launched the assault. They have no exclusive claim on "freedom and democracy". Their actions betray their words-- always.

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Hawken makes an observation about what seems to be going
on as evidenced by the business cards he is handed after a
talk.

Perfectly valid standpoint. Worthwhile observation.

The thing that is striking, after reading the comments, is that
these comments pose a contrast with the activists I have
most admired in my life. My heroes are those who dug in and
worked to increase their abilities on several levels and accept
whatever challenge was required over decades. They were
people who faced criticism, the negativity of friends, and their
own ups and downs but always kept the greater purpose in
mind. Over the years a lot of people drop by the wayside
due to burnout and become cynical about the impossibility of
dealing with the people who stand in the way of progress or
the general conditions that seem intractable.

This process would seem to parallel nature's plan for
regeneration: millions of seeds, with the chance that a few
will survive and create the next generation's best hope.

I suspect that the activists who are quietly making the effort
are the least likely to participate in bloggin about it.

What Hawken is probably describing is the distributed
intelligence of the human race beginning to evolve into a
planetary consciousness that, because it transcends
our more ordinary abilities, might in the long run create the
basis for the potential in our ultimate evolution. The
wisdom of it will seep into all the various activities that
people engage in that are more specific. Jung would have
noted that this is the applied version of his collective
unconscious theory.

It has been noted before by a number of writers that a
true paradigm shift is either possible or in the works.

The nature of the crisis concerns that one might have in
looking around are in fact, legion. One might chase one's
tail and go crazy with trying to identify the best place to
take a stand, there are so many problems.

Probably the cure for despair and imobilizing pessimism is to
spin the bottle, make an arbitrary choice and actually take up
a cause to commit to.

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I have to say I feel ashamed when I read the kinds of negative comments here. They display an astonishing elitist and americo-centric view of the world. Not everything in the world is about reelecting a new government in the USA.

How on earth do you people think change happens? It isn't the US government that makes changes out of the good of their heart. It is citizen action, forcing the government to take notice. That is how all major progress has happened in the US: general strikes, marches, protests, direct action, lobbying, etc. These are spearheaded by grassroots organizations.

Also, how do you think people become politicized? usually by working with a group that deals with an issue that directly affects them. Then, often, they begin to see the larger picture and their focus widens. People don't become politicized by having their important issues belittled.

It would be nice to see even more coalitions of groups, but think for a second: if I was a part of the amazing Landless Rural Workers' Movement in Brazil (MST) and every day fighting for my people's rights and I heard the kind of thing people here are saying ("these organizations are conduits for corporate profits to escape taxation under the ruse of benevolent causes that the wealthy support to ease their consciences" and "Those people with all their cards. If they were 'smart' they would be lobbying Congress - and doing it HARD."), how much do you think I'd be interested in joining one of their groups when obviously my groups gets no respect.

So yes, you could criticize this article because indeed there is nothing new about these kinds of organizations, but with increasing globalization there's more opportunity than before to form broad coalitions. Never before could someone in a Chipko movement in India learn about (and maybe even share techniques with) the Six Nations at Caledonia

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A Global Democratic Movement Is About to Pop ... Something earth-changing is afoot among civil society - - - a significant social movement is eluding the radar of mainstream culture - - - I can only hope and pray there is indeed validity in these statement and sentiments as they most assuredly mirror my own. I have a sense that any politician vying for any public office not cognizant of the emerging “green” attitude of most Americans and the world at large does so at their own peril. I see an emerging awareness on a level bewildering to most adult Americans on the part of the youth of our culture which “we” – that’s you and me – have chosen to short change in their education. We have permitted “corporate” America to propagandize our educational process for the last 20 years or more. Yet in spite of this subversive effort on our part our youth are emerging willing to ask more of the tough questions and more eager than “we” to make the adjustment necessary to secure a peaceful solution for mankind. I salute them and trust “we” don’t get in their way.

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A 13-year study about this phenomenon was compiled into a book called the Cultural Creatives.

For us activists to finally make a difference, the authors assert, we must unite around a simple common issue that we all agree upon. That is, we must all get pointed in the same direction by putting our seemingly disparate missions into the same context. This is the trigger that will finally start the movement referred to in the story.

I propose this direction to be sustainable, self-sufficient, abundant communities. Communities that live in harmony with the natural world, are not dependent on external resources, and strive to help every individual reach their highest potential. It seems like all environmental and social justice missions can be put into this context.

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LENIN and MAO and HITLER had one thing in common.
As long as the people waist their strength in goodwilling organizations NO real revolution will come.

Only by a small group of revolutionaires and real ACTION something can change.

These goodwilling organization weaken the people and are a playground for fascists, so dream on, save the humming hummers, collect money for feeding DODO s..

Please see the hundreds of american expats on the chines isle of HAINAn. See the hundreds of new cars in the Asian cities and awake stop supporting the RICH, read good books
about history i.e.

NGO is doing many bad to the poor in Asia but all those organizations prevent revolution activities and the fascist regimes are happy with the Worldbank aid.
Read books and turn off the tv.

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[The smug, the cynics, and the naysayers need not read this. We will carry on the revolution without you.]

Standing Women

The Great Silent Grandmother Gathering http://www.standingwomen.org

The women of Ohio, U.S.A., call upon the women of the world, from day-old babies to our most senior elders, to stand with us on May 13, 2007, to save the world. Our project is based on Sharon Mehdi's book The Great Silent Grandmother Gathering. If you don't know the story, a summary of the original version is on the website www.standingwomen.org. You can also read the story at the end of this email.

If you think it is appropriate, please send this message on to all of the women throughout the world who you think might like to join us.

We will be standing for the world's children and grandchildren, and for the seven generations beyond them. We dream of a world where all of our children have safe drinking water, clean air to breathe, and enough food to eat. A world where they have access to a basic education to develop their minds and healthcare to nurture their growing bodies. A world where they have a warm, safe, and loving place to call home. A world where they don't live in fear of violence--in their home, in their neighborhood, in their school, or in their world. This is the world of which we dream. This is the cause for which we will stand.


If you share this dream, please stand with us for five minutes of silence at 1 p.m. your local time on May 13, 2007, in your local park, school yard, gathering place, or any place you deem appropriate, to signify your agreement with this statement. We ask you to invite the men and boys who you care about to join you. We ask that you bring bells to ring at 1 p.m. to signify the beginning of the five minutes of silence and to ring again to signify the end of the period of silence. During the silence, please think about what you individually and we collectively can do to attain this world. If you need to sit rather than stand, please feel free to do so. Afterwards, hopefully you and your loved ones can talk together about how we can bring about this world.

See http://www.standingwomen.org for more details and to register your commitment to stand with us. The website is in 15 languages and links to a YouTube video. We hope to see a 24 hour wave of women and men all over the globe standing to save the world.

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