AndrewBrunelle.com

I believe the key is to stop our chronic dependence on the system.  We are like addicts, because we hate the current civilization, yet we are unable to live without it.  It is the only way of life we know.  And many of us remain blissfully and purposefully ignorant of its un-sustainability.  We depend on the people in charge to solve all the big problems for us.  We depend on them to build our roads and get our food into the markets.  And we pay them handsomely for their effort, whether or not their effort is for the greater good.  And we accept the fact that if any major collapse were to happen, we would not be able to sustain our life the way it is.  We also accept that if civilization collapsed, very few of us would survive.  We remain subservient to a system simply out of fear of our own demise.  We take jobs that destroy the ecosystem because our only other alternative is to starve to death.  Of course, I am simply talking about those who have no special skills that can be marketed by corporations and television companies who market materialistic lifestyles to an unsuspecting public who think they are relaxing in front of a tube that is passively sending them more and more advertisements that market useless junk, both food and material.  And we use this diversion from reality to feel like we are part of some American dream, like the people who are living it up on the screen.  And yet, we fail to realize how we are being brainwashed to fear the outside world and buy more stuff, especially prescription medications and lousy food.  We are taught from and early age that any health problem can be treated with a pill and that this is the only way.  But it does not stop there.  Living in a totalitarian government knows know bounds.  We are fed lies upon lies to the point we don’t even know what is real anymore.  We are conditioned to believe that the government will look out for our best interest, when all they are really doing is answering to richer and more powerful people who will probably have them killed if they do not comply.  Our rights are stripped from us at every bend, for the sake of ‘security” and defending our country.  And the thing that bothers me the most is we are the only species on this planet that do this.  I believe, wholeheartedly, that we are too smart for out own good.  And this causes problems.  But in the same light, we are also too dumb for our own good, destroying ecosystems without the comprehension to understand what damage we are doing.  But that doesn’t stop us, does it?

I am sorry for the rant, but I feel it was warranted.  Now, I know our society is doomed and I accept that.  I just want to raise awareness to some people, the people who will also see the warning signs and help to create the new paradigm.  I’ve been reading many blogs that are anti-civilization and they have such merit and such clarity in how this all happened and why we are so pathologically imprisoned in a system we hate which we cannot live without.  I encourage you to check out a couple of blogs.  One is called How to Save the World, while the other is basically a whole website devoted to dropping out of civilization and living with joy.  His name is Ran Prieur.  He is a very smart man.  Check out his essays and Zines.

But I want to stress I do not blame anyone in this occurrence.  At least no one alive today.  They are just following the scripts of their ancestors throughout history.  They are just doing what they feel is right from their context.  I am sure they are not aware of the extent of the damage they are causing, because from their high-up domineering perspective, they are doing nothing but fulfilling their duty to society.  They are just mimicking behavior from past role models.  I say we will need a monumental paradigm shift to change things, and I am an optimistic guy, so I feel it is going to happen, but probably by necessity.  Only when all other options are exhausted will be learn to live in harmony with nature.

I believe there will be a way out, but right now I do not feel that we possess the consciousness on a mass scale to do this today or in the next few decades.  But it will come.  I am sure of it.

It should be obvious to anyone that the way we live our lives is not sustainable, at least here in America. Our consumption rate far surpasses the Earth’s ability to reproduce its resources. It is awfully hard to get this message out to those who do not think the same way as I do about allowing the rest of the species on Earth to have their space, too. Just because we think we are the smartest life form on this planet (and we probably aren’t) does not mean we should be allowed to take over the whole environment. It is just plain wrong. Let me compare it to if a species of aliens came down and started clearing out our homes to build superhouses of their own. If we ever stumbled upon their “property,” we would be shot or the “Human Control Center” would be brought in to “exterminate” us. I am not saying we should all move back into the woods, but have some respect for nature, the perfect balance.

I’m sure I’ve stated before that I believe the main reason we do not care for nature is because we are so far away from it now than ever before. Pretty soon, if the dominant paradigm stays in power, we will be able to accomplish everything without leaving the house. Us in our sterile little boxes, now more afraid of the outside world than ever before. We’re plugged into the Internet, the television (which reminds us constantly what a dangerous world it is out there), and other devices that further reinforce this worldview. We start losing sense of reality because all our time is spent on a machine of some sort, diverting the majority of our attention to this oil-guzzling electrosaur that we lived for hundreds of centuries without. And every day, more things come out that consume energy. More items come out that deplete our natural resources. And with the current population spiraling near seven billion, it almost seems as if a crash is coming. It is not something that anyone really wants, but it is coming and I believe it will no matter what.

A large number of jobs these days have to do with destroying the Earth and its resources. If we stop taking from the Earth, people lose their jobs. The economy falls. People go hungry on the streets, even though we have an abundant food supply. People in construction have nothing to do because no more buildings are being built. Some people would call this the next “Great Depression.” Maybe we should call it something else: “The Great Expansion.”

This will allow us to do the things we did for centuries. Plant our own food, build our own homes, and just let us be human again. It will get us all back in shape, as the increasingly sedentary lifestyle of many people leads to obesity. It will re-energize the community as a central unit of interaction. People will live closer together and in harmony. That is, after all the looting stops. But this brings me to a political statement about the War in Iraq. It is obvious we are there for oil. We know how tapped our resources are and if we can get enough for awhile, at least have more than our “competing nations,” then we will be able to defend ourselves better if there is an attack on us. As you know, our dollar is decreasing in value and oil will likely be the next form of “currency.” Whoever has the remaining oil will be in power. If we were not so dependent on this fossil fuel, maybe it wouldn’t be such a big deal. But we are, and I don’t see it changing any time soon.

Our whole culture is brought up a certain way and it is really hard to break an entire culture’s way of life. I can start reducing, reusing, and recycling, but how does that help if most multinational corporations are dumping pollutants into streams and rivers, damaging our ecosystem to the fullest extent? I think the problem with humans is they fail to have a way to deal with problems that slowly creep up on them. If a catastrophe happens, like a tornado, people respond quickly. Look at 9/11. But if something as slow-moving as the end of oil or global warming, it is so easy for people whose agendas are fixed on the status quo to make a farce out of the whole thing. It is so easy to deny that which does not happen suddenly, but takes years, maybe centuries, to occur. If only oil did not warm our planet and was renewable…

There are solutions. There are several solutions we all can work on together. If we all move towards what I would describe as a radically simple life, one where we live in very small houses and do not drive automobiles or eat much meat, because we all know what damage those factory farms do to our ecosystem as well. We do not go out looking for external items to make us happy, but find happiness from family and friends, not from the almighty dollar. People say this is impossible, and they may be right. I, for one, believe that if the collective consciousness can band together and work towards getting this goal done, we may make at least one significant step towards becoming sustainable. We would also probably need to do voluntary population reductions, and euthanasia and other options should not be out of the question. But if we want to kill our species in one big blaze of nuclear missile strikes and widespread poverty, then we can keep living the way we do.

But right now, looking around at what I see, the crash is inevitable. And maybe after the crash, those who survived will learn from civilization’s mistakes and work towards a much better way of life. It will have some old aspects of original human culture and it will bring in some new aspects as well. I’m pretty sure Monsanto will not be a part of it, though. I suppose here I will include a few things that may help you to reduce your ecological footprint and maybe, just maybe, slow down this crash I believe will happen in the next 20 years:

Cut out the television
Need less
Give more
Live a simple life
Find wealth in simple things
Drive less
Eat less meat
Learn to be self-sufficient
Learn how to fix things
Buy high-quality items
Buy local produce
Become a minimalist
Spend time with family
Do what you love

I hope these help you on your way. I am hoping to expand the list further in the future. Get ready for the crash. A lot of these skills may come in handy. And if we avert the crash, you’ll still be better off than your neighbors. Losing everything in a natural disaster might not sting as much. I am not saying here that it is inherently bad to be wealthy and have a lot of nice things. I just want people to look at the consequences of living such a lifestyle. Thank you for listening.

I wrote in my last post that I feel our species is headed for our ultimate destruction at an accelerated pace. And I am fine with it. I feel that the way our nature is, there really is nothing we can do to stop it. And that is completely all right with me. If we take a good look at all these things we’ve created in an attempt to discover some sort of meaning in our lives, we will be utterly shocked at how much destruction we’ve caused to the beautiful planet. It was fine for awhile. It really was. There weren’t so many of us, you know? But the accelerated pace at which we have reproduced, a quadrupling of the population in 150 years or so, we have to step back from our printing presses and our construction crews and take a good look at what we have done. We need to see the big picture. How far are we willing to go? How far will Planet Earth let us go? We see the temperatures spiking and it is almost like the Earth has a fever. Our home is getting sick. Yet we keep on clearing out forests and swamps to build minimalls and Wal*Marts. But I don’t think it will be for long.

But I have a distinct feeling the planet will be fine. The people, not so much. The Earth has tried to control our population, but we outsmarted it. We have protection against almost any disease it can throw at us. I’m living proof. A brain tumor growing from birth was an ultimate death sentence 100 years ago. Now, we have overstayed our welcome. And we can’t help ourselves. It is our nature to destroy the world around us for our own gratification. And it is not our fault. We grow up so detached from nature, from the environment, that we view it as something separate from us, something “out there,” instead of in our bones. I can totally see why people don’t have compassion for nature. They haven’t really experienced it very much. Living in cities and apartment complexes is hardly a naturalistic scene. And who even knows what we are doing. Is building more and more plazas and multiplexes going to make us feel better? In the short term, yes. But in the long run, I believe it will be the cause of our extinction.

I’ve heard a statistic, and it may be dated, but it stated that every eight seconds an acre of trees is cut down. Every eight seconds. That’s almost 400,000 acres of trees a year. Trees are vital to most life on Earth. Trees take in carbon dioxide and spit out oxygen for us to breathe. They also absorb a lot of the carbon dioxide from our car emissions and provide shade, a necessary entity. And it’s fine if we cut some trees down on a small scale, but this is ridiculous. But no one ever sees the big picture. You know why? Because no one is a part of the whole thing. It is all compartmentalized. It is like the Manhattan Project. Everyone does their part, but only a select few know the entire blueprint. And our inability to know how to fix this problem, and the amazing apathy about global warming I see every day when I look on message boards or Youtube videos is astounding.

Because of this, we are probably not going to last here on Earth as a civilized species for more than another 100-200 years. The population will reach 10 billion by 2050 and one billion Americans are projected to be living here by 2100. And then, due to our close quarters and unsustainable living practices, something is going to happen. An extinction event. Our life expectancies will go down rapidly, chaos will ensue. There will be a shortage of jobs, a shortage of places to live, a shortage of basically everything. Clean water will come at a premium. And I don’t think we’ll be able to weasel ourselves out of this situation. And that will be the end of us, the observer, the writer, the philosopher. And, like I said before, that is okay. If you look at this problem from the perspective of the entire physical universe, it is like losing less than a grain of sand. “But look at all we’ve accomplished.” It will all turn to dust. Impermanence. Everything is temporary. You cannot get too attached to anything, as it always changes. Seven years from now your body will have replaced every one of your cells.

So, to answer the age-old question “Where are we going?” I must say that we are going to our ultimate demise. It may take awhile, but it is a grim fact nonetheless. But it is the truth. As a species, I think we were too smart for our own good and found a way to control everything around us for a feeling of security that was never fully satisfied. The more land we control, the more we want to control. There is actually someone who bought space on the moon. He claimed the moon. Now real estate is going outside the planet. What does that say about our universe? Pretty soon, to steal a quote from Fight Club, there will be a Planet Starbucks. A Microsoft Galaxy. Just think how pissed the aliens from another galaxy would be if they found out they are now property of Microsoft, Inc. I would be, too.

Some people would say this is a pessimistic take on the state of the world. That is not so. It is basically a factual observation. It is facing the truth of what we have done. It is knowing that our lifestyles are unsustainable. It is knowing what factory farms are doing to our ecosystem. It is simply knowing that something is fucked up. And you can try and put it out of mind, drown out your sorrows with television, which ironically conveys a materialistic lifestyle only attainable by those who are rich far beyond your wildest dreams and only encourages you to buy more things you cannot afford and do not need at the expense of your wallet and the planet. But I don’t have any solutions. I know where we are and I know what we are doing is unsustainable, but no one is going to take this seriously. As the old quote goes, “Human beings cannot bear very much reality.” It will be our utter demise. We spend so much time trying to support a family or whatever else you do and when it comes time to worry about the sustainability of our species, no one has the time, nor the energy to put forth. It is a giant commitment. And everyone else around you is living lavishly while you are recycling aluminum cans and not buying new stuff. People start to talk about how you’ve lost your mind. And you eventually assimilate yourself back into the culture of unsustainability. Just so you can fit in again.

And every time you buy a new thing, a new car, a new stove, you get this feeling of temporary satisfaction, but then you go back down to the state I would call “normal.” And you need to buy something else to get that “high” again. And after you do that, you go down a bit below normal. And now you need more just to sustain that same feeling of satisfaction. And eventually, you have all this stuff in your house and you’re miserable because you are in credit card debt and have a foreclosure on your home. And then you’re living on the streets because you had to have that Hello Kitty desktop organizer/mp3 player. You’ve sold much of the stuff you bought and now you spend your whole life trying to get out of credit card debt, but the wages you get are so low that it seems impossible. And the planet is worse off because of all that wasted stuff you never got to use because you were too busy either working to pay for the stuff or out getting better, newer stuff. And you forgot. You forgot the key to happiness is inside yourself, not out there in some object of your desire. But now you remember. You remember that you no longer need all these things to be okay. You are okay right now. And now is all that really matters because you see the grim future ahead, and do your best to enjoy every passing moment.

And that may be the best we can do right now. Adopt a minimalist lifestyle, do not contribute to the consumption so much. Minimize our “ecological footprint.” Not drive so much, which is not so easy because most cities are designed for driving and not walking. Where I live there aren’t any sidewalks and every grocery store is at least five to ten miles away. But I can only do the best I can right now, but so can everyone else. It may lessen the blow on our species. I don’t want to see us crash and burn so quickly. Stop having so many kids in affluent nations. I can understand a woman giving birth to eight children in Africa because the odds of them all surviving are low. But in America, it is not necessary. Stop at one. This will slow the population growth if everyone does that. But I know what you are thinking. For every person who has one child, six or seven will have more. Yes, I know. But if you spread your message to many people, then maybe they’ll pay it forward to others and the message will spread everywhere. If we cannot control our nature, we can at least try to control our population. The more of us there are, the worse life gets for most of them. That’s all I have to say for today.

Nature is the most beautiful asset out there right now, which is why I am such an advocate of sustaining it. When I am in the woods, away from any man-made structures, on a path through trees and shrubs, it just makes my day. Some people may call it an escape, but I call it going home. That is where we came from. The forest. Our biology is rooted there. I am a strong advocate of naturalism, and I know for a fact we are not supposed to live the way society conditions us to do so. If God has a Divine Plan, I’m pretty sure a credit report was not any part of it. Neither was the IRS.

If I had the survival skills and was able to, I would go into the woods in a heartbeat. I’d build a log cabin and live out my days in a peaceful setting. But you can’t do that stuff anymore. Every square inch of land is owned by somebody and God forbid if you step on “their property.” It still does not make sense to me. How can someone “own” land? I know you people paid good money to get the particular lot you have, but whenever I think of the space in which I occupy, I can’t help but think of all the wildlife that was displaced because of our need to get a bigger house with a bigger yard and a perfect lawn, and the trees imported from their native areas projected onto our land, out of place.

What gets to be really depressing in some respects is I can see the deforestation happening before my eyes. Every day, another forest gets ripped up in the name of “progress,” while we cut down the Earth’s biodiversity more still. But we all put it out of sight, out of mind, but you can’t be living consciously if you do not acknowledge the atrocities us humans have bestowed upon our Mother Earth. And we also treat Father Time like a commodity. “Time is money.” “Stop wasting time.” I remember Jerry Seinfeld talking about time, how people go around, trying to save time, and then when they’re about to die, they’re like, “Wait a minute, what happened to all the time I saved? There has to be some left!” I don’t have the exact wording, but the idea remains complete.

I can tell you the answer to “Why are we here?” has nothing to do with building more malls and boutiques, not to mention displacing millions of animals and plant life. We are not here to dominate the Earth, and make it our bitch. We are not here to go into fictitious wars for oil and to stage terrorist attacks. To tell you the truth, I do not know exactly why we are here and what all this means, but if you look at everything we do as a species from a global/spiritual perspective, you start to see how insane a lot of it is. Our lives, everything we stand for, is so trivial, and yet we keep moving onto the next socially conditioned activity, pretending we like it, pretending that everything is fine. But it’s not. And nature helps me remember that. Nature helps me feel whole. It is my home away from home (or lot).

We are a genetic experiment gone awry at this point, and although I know the human race’s time is limited here, I do not root for us. I know we will eventually destroy ourselves somehow in the near future. But it’s okay. The Earth will just shrug and say, “Well, that one didn’t work either.” More than 25 species go extinct every day, and we’ll just be another one of them. Sure, we’ll be the one that caused the most damage, but in the timelessness of nature and the universe, we will be forgotten. If there is no one left to observe us and record our activities, we will simply fade away. And there’s nothing bad about it. It just is. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

If you look at life from the perspective of the entire universe, you start to see how trivial a lot of the things you worry about are. Life is something that is infinite, at least for the time our planet exists, and no matter what happens (even an asteroid smashing into our beloved homeleand), the universe will survive, persevere. Just think about how the dinosaurs felt when they were wiped off the planet. It was a sad time, no doubt, but the Earth recovered and eventually it will have to go through another “cleansing phase.” Do not fear this, as it is just another way the ecosystem rebalances itself. Maybe it’s a little payback for our destructive behaviors. I don’t know. I didn’t write the manual on how the universe works, I just love to observe it in its glory.

I think the main reason why people don’t respect nature is because they don’t spend enough time in it to really experience it. This is why I encourage you to take some time, whenever you have some, and go out into the wilderness and see the amazing things that go on there. They may not be newsworthy, like the murder downtown, but it will be an experience you will enjoy. Never take the forests for granted because they may not be here for long. But I know they will return, once we realize what we are doing on a global level, or alternatively, we are wiped off of this blue-green marble due to an extinction event such as a pandemic. And that’s okay. I can live with that. The universe knows what it’s doing, probably a lot more than we do. Maybe one more strip mall is all it will take before it says, “Enough!,” and casts us off into oblivion. Or maybe it will take centuries. Either way, I’m here for the ride. I hope you are, too.

What is truly important to you? What couldn’t you live without? What could you get rid of that is causing unnecessary stress/clutter? How can you bring yourself to get rid of all these unwanted items, thoughts, or emotions? I don’t claim to have all the answers, but I do know that there is a way to get yourself in a state of joy without succumbing to complexity and stress. You can live a simple, yet fulfilling life, filled with the people who care about you and the things you treasure most (e.g. my laptop). You can pretty much dump the rest. All the negative relationships, all the things you own that do not contribute to your goals or bring you joy, dump them. I believe everyone strives for happiness. In my world, happiness is abundant and I do not go looking for it. I possess the ability to access it from within and spread it out throughout the world. It is my gift to you.

We all possess this ability. I am just someone who found the access code in one of the file cabinets up in my brain. Soul searching is a very enlightening activity and you all need to realize that it is a choice to be happy. It is a choice to be depressed. These emotions do not rely on external circumstances. You can be flat broke and happy, or you can be a billionaire and sad. Or, if you are an idealist, you can be a happy billionaire (my personal choice). Part of being filled with unconditional joy is letting go of any attachments you have to anything. You need to acknowledge that everything, even your physical body, is temporary. Once you fully grasp that, once you really, really know it, you can show gratitude for everything you experience, but no longer be attached to it. You will no longer fear change because no matter what happens, you still retain joy. It is a remarkable state to be in.

When I started decluttering my home, I actually felt lighter and lighter each time I threw some unwanted item away. Same with my negative and limiting beliefs. Each belief thrown in the proverbial wastebasket allowed me to open up to more abundant happiness. I did some things I never thought I could do. I finally started to live freely, without limitation. The only limitation is your own mind. This is true on so many levels. There are no words to describe the feeling of lightness unless you experience it yourself, but once you do what it takes to get there, it will fill your days with joy. And it’s good on so many levels.

Spending time in nature really helps, too. Be amazed at the wonders of the forest, the desert, and the jungle. The ecosystems are so complex, so beautiful in their own rights that it saddens me how much we’ve destroyed them. I am grateful there is still some left and I strive to encourage others to live a simpler life, a life that does not damage the world, a life that is so fulfilling once you commit to it, there will be no going back. It’s the whole concept in rooting yourself in what is permanent, not what is temporary. All your material possessions will end up being dust. Your physical body will be dust. But your spirit, your marvelous and virtuous spirit is eternal. And raising the consciousness of that spirit, moving beyond unconscious consumerism and evolving to a state where you no longer look towards items to fill a void in your life because that void is already filled with unconditional love, joy, and acceptance.

I wrote something on a message board like this, “The lighter you are, the closer you are to ascending into the heavens.” I believe this rings true, at least in my life. I hate when I see people weighed down by debt, by personal problems, by bad situations. I can try and help, but some people are stubborn. They deny that there is anything wrong, they are attached to the very things they loathe. It gives them identity. It is part of their ego. Once you let go of the ego, let go of the past, let go of everything and embrace right now, really feel it, you can move into a whole other state of being. Your ego melts. Your problems go away. You are here and you are now. And allowing yourself to just allow the present to be and not letting past or future worries interfere is the best thing you can do. Show gratitude for each and every morning you wake up. Isn’t it wonderful how you get to live? Isn’t it great to be alive? I am starting to feel this way more and more every day. I wish the same for you. Wouldn’t the world be such an amazing place if everyone was like this? Just sit back and wonder…

This is something I composed while sitting in my backyard outside in 100 degree heat (in the shade). I was in a very natural kind of mood, so here is the excerpt from my rant:

There are millions/billions of things going on in a small patch of grass, but we are so concerned with ourselves we never take the time to explore. I feel more at peace when I am away from physical, man-made constructs. In a way, I feel home. Pulling weeds is insane. Weeds are one of the most adaptive plants out there, as it can grow with hardly any nourishment. Why is it we are compelled to destroy that which we believe is undesirable? Without human beings, the world would be covered in these “weeds,” as we call them. I don’t even think the weeds know they are undesirable. So they are most likely shocked when we pull them, a sort of, “Who the hell do you think you are, taking my life with absolutely no justification for doing so, other than the fact you do not find me ascetically pleasing?” Imagine if we did that with our children. All ugly children get killed and are thrown away. And who are we as a species to make the judgment as to what stays and what goes? Who the hell do we think we are?

P.P.P.S. Writing on paper takes up way more space than typing on the computer. These paragraphs looked much bulkier outside. I’d blame the heat exhaustion.