Where do I start?

   A good starting point is to review one of our most powerful tools: Consumerism.

We can take control of what we buy and how much we spend. It's a major turning of the tide when we take consumerism and make it ours (as until now it has been used to hold us captive and to benefit only the few). Our conscious choices regarding what we do or do not consume can become our power.

 

   What are we Consuming? What do we need? What do we want?

   The words ‘need’ and ‘wealth’ are most ambiguously used. The common understanding is that anything you ‘want’ is something you ‘need’ and that owning lots of property, money and stuff makes you ‘wealthy’. The decades of brain washing will take time to eradicate and for our poor half poisoned and glutted out consumer selves to wise up. Irrational and ignorant spending creates waste, obesity and severe detrimental effect on the habitat.

   In the case of so called 'food', shoppers are bamboozled with a ‘choice’ of almost identical stuff. Among hundreds of products there may be only one that is an acceptable choice, yet the Consumer feels overwhelmed by what appears to be the most tempting array.

   We have no right to allow ignorance to be an excuse anymore. Cosmetics, cleaning products, paper and everything bleached to the brightest of whites, every chemical and toxic process used in packaging, production, dye and stone wash and our addiction with acquiring, owning and dumping everything from electronics to garments are the most toxic of our obsessions. I can’t emphasize how important this is as a pivot point in the history of humankind and this planet.

 

   Everyone can decide what they eat, everyone has control over what they buy and this enormous power is the one that will shift the power balance to the people. Buying (or not) and using resources responsibly will be our liberation. The words ‘wealth’ and ‘need’ will have been reconceptualised.

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One day  it will be no longer fashionable to wear or use anything that is known to be damaging.

One day everyone will know stuff about food (like that sugar is really cheap to make but kills cows and is highly addictive which is why they feed it to us instead).

One day we will think before we buy and the shame will be upon those who show off a new and pointless acquisition.

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Some Possible 'Manifesto for One' Action Points 

Pick at least one from the Action Prep section and one from the Action Points section. (If you can do more than one of each go ahead!) 

The below are meant as a guide, some may be impossible to implement where you live, but there are many other much better ideas that you can come up with instead. Try adding a new Action Point to your life every week and maintain them. 

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Action prep :

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Self development. 

• Read more about Nurturance, Conscious Evolution.

• Read one article a day from an opposing view point. 

• Learn about something (like gardening or philosophy).

• Learn a skill (plant a potato in a bucket, fix something)

• Listen to people and improve empathy and communication skills

• Learn about other people and other places and see how we are connected

• Brain storm about action points

• Look after One (exercise, meditate and spend time in nature)

 

Action Points: 

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Food

• Stop buying any palm oil products. (it's in 10% of products. Read the labels and learn why palm oil is top of this list!)

• Make your own chocolate spread or peanut butter... it's easy!

• Try bake and cook healthy home foods and share (see below) to avoid processed and packaged stuff.

• Stop or limit eating beef (and all red meat)

• Limit eating imported meat, cheese and fish.  

• Only buy organic, seasonal and local.

• Only buy free/green trade.  

• Stop/limit buying sugar (it is one of the worst offenders for loss of biodiversity and habitat destruction)

• Stop eating fast food and packaged, processed foods.

• Eat vegetables and fruit (local)

• Create edible garden (even in urban settings)

• Only buy local organic free range chicken and eggs 

• Only buy milk from free range cows.

• Learn what the food we eat really is and make conscious decisions about this.

 

Packaging and products

• Avoid all plastic (packaging, bags) Use reusable shopping bags.

• Become a zero (non organic) waste family 

• Don't buy packaged products, bottled water 

• Support businesses that don't use packaging and sell ethical products

• Only buy ecological cleaning products (or learn how to make your own)

• Don't buy anything that's wrapped in non reusable packaging (hand soaps and shampoo include) Find stuff you can buy in bulk or that refills or is wrapped in paper... (or make your own)

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Recycling and waste

• Give away and upcycle everything not needed: furniture, books, clothes, electronics, kitchen ware... 

• Fix stuff rather than chuck stuff

• Use gadgets and smart phones etc for as long as possible.

• Don't use disposable plates, straws etc. Refuse the straw at the restaurant (you really need a straw?!) Tell a server in a restaurant that you don't want the straw in advance and say it loudly. 

• Recycle along with the local initiatives and help instigate more

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Energy

• Minimize electric and water consumption (retro fit grey water usage system, consider a composting toilet)

• Install solar or wind turbine, consider sharing within the community of with neighbours

• Insulate house (using natural materials?) and wear a sweater in the house rather then turn the heat up.

• Use public transport 

• Bicycle and walk 

• Share car rides

• Share shopping trips (and bulk buy with neighbours to minimize packaging) 

• Learn what is in the so called Bio-fuel that you use... palm oil is not ecologically produced.

• Buy an electric car

• Limit international travel or flights in general

• If you are a scientist develop an ecologically sound airplane fuel (please!)

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Teach

• Teach kids that they don't need an egg surprise or a new toy or an other pointless wrapped thing.

• Teach kids that they can make their own fun/toy/ice cream. 

• Teach them (and learn) how to grow real food, even just one tomato plant on a balcony.

• Teach kids to consume responsibly ... set the example.

• Teach kids to nurture 

• Teach kids to not compete against but to collaborate with their friends. Read about this subject.

• Teach kids how to shop so they are being conscientious and not being manipulated by the packaging etc 

• Share knowledge and know how with anyone who is interested.

• Be prepared for the fact that many don't want to be lectured, but they might listen if you just sahre how making a small change has made you happier/healthier/more productive etc

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Nature

• Develop an urban garden

• Plant pollinators so bees hang out

• Bicycle or walk in nature as often as possible 

• Consume only that which is respectful to our ecosystem (see lists above)

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Money

• Stop using banks with unscrupulous affiliations

• Donate (to who ever you see fit)

• Create or join any collaborative group or enterprise that supports a good initiative (for example joint buy land and make an urban garden for the community, joint fund an education program for city kids to learn about nature, support the local library or art project etc) 

• Spend less on useless, wasteful stuff, only buy what you 'need' (see above)

• Spend more on quality organic living and shared experiences

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Specific skill based Action points:

• Use career and skills to good use for your community and beyond. 

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Activism

• Sign campaigns and join activities that promote change 

• Use social media to share this or any thing that inspires you

• Get your council to install (regionally appropriate) sustainable energy

• Learn about something (like the benefit of cutting beef or palm oil consumption) and spread the word

 

Sharing:

• Share information and knowledge freely on every platform available. 

• If you can bake for example, share with your neighbours so they too won't buy processed packaged and palm oil laden stuff or offer something else in return for their baked goods.

• Share time: volunteer work and collaborative enterprise.  

• Share garden produce with neighbours and encourage them to plant edible gardens

• Share positive energy.

• Set up (or join) community sharing/repair system

• Share your tools, your car, your garden, your house (if you have room available).

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And many more possibilities that are yours to manifest, this is your manifesto, adapt from some of the above or invent your own.

 

Maintain any of the Action Points you choose indefinitely, they should not be short lived but become a lifestyle. Have long term ambitions too, but don't let future intentions delay starting something today.

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​   Conclusion:

   You cannot expedite a result by jumping to the conclusion and missing out the intermediary evolutionary process that will get you there. One, because everyone will reject a result that they have not participated in achieving and two, because you are bound to miss something, it’s impossible not to, so disintegration and failure would be inevitable.

It is the process itself that is an organic response to multiple and complex influences and is the result in essence, effect and proficiency. We regard a job well done if it is complete, labelled, shelved and finalized somehow, but this job is the job of existing, one of perpetual change and ongoing evolution. It may seem that we have been in a period of regression, certainly a dire interval, but our slow gain of cognitive comprehension will guide us to the next steps so that we may rise to a plane of multilateral empathy and awareness. How each step will evolve to the next one remains to be seen but the world depends upon our quest. So go, create your 'Manifesto for One' and start. Good luck to us all.

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