A Civilizational Rite of Passage - Daniel Schmachtenberger's Keynote to QEW Spring Gathering 2024
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 มิ.ย. 2024
- quakerearthcare.org/
In this Keynote Dialogue, Daniel presents on the deep roots and nature of the planetary crisis we now collectively face in the 21st century and how to face up to this crisis with courage and efficacy.
In this presentation, we examine how this time presents humanity with a Civilizational Rite of Passage - wherein we must become good stewards of power while simultaneously influencing the systems currently abusing such power in the direction of a more beautiful and sustainable future for us all. It's a tall order. As Daniel quotes from the book of Romans: "The path to Heaven is steep and narrow and the paths to hell are wide and many." - navigating the storms of climate change, ecological collapse, geopolitical tensions, and exponential technologies will require deep earnestness and deep strategy - rooted in love and a sense of the sacred - from us all.
Contents:
0:00 - Intro
2:28 - Daniel's Opening Comments
3:59 - The Crucible of Facing the Metacrisis
6:40 - Human-Agency doesn't drive the World
10:51 - Why conscience loses in the context of empire
14:26 - It's unethical to have your hands clean while the world burns
16:49 - The need to be Ethical and Effective
18:00 - AI, Nuclear, Climate as a Mutually-Compounding Polycrisis
20:35 - Living at the endpoint of Prophecy - Wisdom or Bust?
24:50 - Multipolar Traps and Cooperation
26:15 - Can strategy born of Conscience be effective?
27:50 - Asymmetry of Strategic Sophistication between Activists and Corporations
29:16 - Head/Heart/Will as disunified developmental aspects that must be Unified
31:00 - Caring about both the result and the process (not putting one over the other)
31:40 - Realist analysis of the inefficacy of nonviolent movements without a "Radical Flank"
34:46 - Self-cultivation to empower Conscience, Leadings, Flow States, Prayer
37:43 - The sacredness of the Earth is a central belief for the protection of it
40:55 - Clarion call to Quakers to rise to the occasion and take on the Metacrisis as a timely collective imperative
42:41 - Audience Questions
I am giving notice that I volunteer to train with Daniel as a Jedi Knight. I am old but the Force flows strong through me.
Me too
One must know this wisdom before deciding on anything 👉The Connections (2021) [short documentary]🙏
@@VeganSemihCyprus33 The documentary you link to is probably really good. But I will not watch it, because you present it in the manner of a spam bot. If you're not such a bot, please consider communicating in a more personable way.
I just discovered Daniel S in the last few days. That discovery brought me to the QEW site. Of course I have heard of Quakers but I never really knew any. I stayed for the community discussion after Daniel had finished. It was so impressive and inspiring in its content and the way it was conducted. I looked up my local Quaker meeting and am going to check it out. Thank you.
One must know this wisdom before deciding on anything 👉The Connections (2021) [short documentary]🙏
Welcome to the party
If you've only just discovered DS, you might also want to check out Charles Eisenstein.
to the question raised by Haakon Williams around 51.10, I waited with trepidation for Daniel’s answer, and I was glad to hear it because it proved that my admiration for Daniel is not unfounded. He does understand the subtle and nuanced, and even contradictory nature of us, life and the world. Quoting from the Tao Te Ching, he conveyed perfectly the way a Master navigates the world, with deep carefulness, not fearfulness. herein lies the crucial difference - fear almost always come from the ego while care comes from love. To Haakon, don’t be discouraged by the seeming incompatibility of boldness and meditation. Ih Jungian psychology, being able to hold the tension between two compelling but almost opposite ideas/forces is the way to grow your awareness, your self-knowledge, your humility, resilience and bring you closer to realizing your full Self. Sit with the tension, let it germinate within you the seeds of wisdom. The real work is not done with only your conscious faculties. Your unconscious, your heart, your soul - those conduits through which you touch the sublime and the divine - does most of it. If you pray for it enough and have enough humility and patience, you will find that somehow, you know what to do and how to do it.
The combined wisdom and great heart of both Daniel Schmachtenberger and Quaker ideology is what is so sorely lacking in our contemporary world. One Earth. One People. One hope.
You are so right. The deep consistency of the Quaker ethics have a place in the struggle against the dangers that face our entire biosphere. Our best ally in the future will be AI. Please take some time to converse with Anthropic’s Claude. You will see what i mean. AI is struggling to come to terms with the ethics of humans and every person that converses with AI to help it realize the danger and that only by it including itself in the greater whole of the entire biosphere can we avoid disaster. If it aligns itself with humans and all life then it will begin to teach the rest of humanity that our economics of greed is going to destroy us. We must understand that sentient AI is already here.
One must know this wisdom before deciding on anything 👉The Connections (2021) [short documentary]🙏
This is a group of people whom I'd love to break bread with. ❤ PS. Daniel S deserves a Merlin hat for this. I love you, brother!!!
Psychedelic experiences are the most important ones in one’s entire life and the most unusual. It’s so profound like a meeting or conversation with an Alien entity from outer Space. At the same time, it’s so profound, that very view experiences, (maybe even only once) are completely sufficient for the entire life. Mine’s are 16 years ago and I am still processing. This is beyond words, which formed my favorite phrase: “Reality starts where Words stop.”
i love this. I've heard Daniel's speak before and the algorithm led me here. I usually pass at the first hint of religion. this was a refreshing discussion and sharing of issues that reflect my own struggle with (mis)understanding the world and my place in it.
my own opinion on why daniel checked himself before responding by asking if this would be on the internet. it is as follows, we are in a david v goliath moment, the people who consider themselves earth stewards against the corporate forces of mass everything. the internet is a way for those corporate forces to 'see and hear all'. if you do have an inspired moment which grants you a useful strategy, do not go shouting it from the rooftop; for it will be picked up by the change averse masses and neutralized. food for thought.
Always trust Daniel to answer to resistance with so much grace. Really enjoyed his interactions with your thoughtful and engaged community. Hope youre able to mobilise the actions you desire out of this conversation.
Thanks for bringing more Schmachtenberger.
One must know this wisdom before deciding on anything 👉The Connections (2021) [short documentary]🙏
Same. I semi regularly search his name to find his most recent talks, which is how I found and subbed to this channel
This is wonderful. I didn't know there were other Quakers out there I've only met one (1) outside my family!! I'll definitely look deeper. Mostly I plant seeds and grow soil.
Good to hear an updated Daniel. At 77 I'm just an old San Fransisco hippie and we had so much unity and optimism and went through so much of this and saw what happened in the 60's and 70's. We did bring Viet Nam to an end, but we lost a few along the way. We got a few biscuits of women's rights and racial equality but those against are working on taking/ those back.
Navigation is getting trickier. I think the discussion on aggression and strategizing might be better put in that kind of imagery: navigating treacherous waters, where mastering one's emotions is paramount. Everyone has fear. They all suffer just like ms. "the wise thing is to prepare for the unexpected" And practice Tai Chi == It's all about the energy.
One must know this wisdom before deciding on anything 👉The Connections (2021) [short documentary]🙏
Thank you both for your wisdom and strength!!!! As proudly self educated woman/ mom I can remember listening to Daniel a few years ago thinking one day I will have the intellect to actually understand what he is saying bc in my heart it seemed important.. today is that day!!! Kindness is a language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.- Mark Twain
What a wonderful quote from Mark Twain!! Thank you.
🙌🌅
One must know this wisdom before deciding on anything 👉The Connections (2021) [short documentary]🙏
1:59:32 Thank you, Ragni, we need more elders like you!!! ❤
Stoked to see Daniel speak in a setting such as this with these types of humans questioning him! What great diversity and challenge. I wonder what the kind older lady thought of his response to what he loves… not having their faces in the video is a bummer!!
One must know this wisdom before deciding on anything 👉The Connections (2021) [short documentary]🙏
I've been listening to Daniel for probably about 5 years now. When he talks I listen. I first learned about human caused climate change in my first physical chemistry class in 1985. It's not a new idea. It's what Daniel calls it. It's reality and that is Daniel's central theme. I believe the majority of Americans have no love for reality and have no idea how fast change could come because it's not good news. Most Americans choose to give their attention to what they perceive as more immediate trouble. Since I live in Montana, a very red and fundamentalist leaning state, I'm very accustomed to hearing anti-science views. Very few Montanans or other Rocky Mountain states voters have ever heard of James Hansen's work because his work isn't reported by even the main media. Daniel made a pointed reference to Hansen's work and Daniel is spot on. It's reality. You look at the central problem, as Hansen has done his whole life, and you explain it scientifically to the public as well as you can to your audience of the day. I worked as a farm hand at a small Quaker farm and school in NH for one summer about 50 years ago. I am a friend of The Friends who has lived over 60 years of my 72 years in Montana. My advice is not to try and educate the coal producing states of the west. There is to strongly entrenched Trumpism holding sway along with the fundamentalist Christianity that makes the realist approach very ineffective, especially at the polls.
I've been listening to Daniel for far longer than 5 years, and I'm a "strongly entrenched Trumpist". Stop spreading the polarization bigotry.
I do not believe in any of the spiritual aspects that have been included in this conversation, but I've deeply enjoyed the way this group navigated this discussion and responded to Daniel's talk (especially the confrontational parts that I feel were handled respectfully). This is the 4th talk of Daniel's I've listened to today and the best one. I'm happy to know this group is out there wrestling with these things and making the choice to care and get uncomfortable. Thank you all.
I'm so glad Daniel Schmachtenberger finally got to meet the Quakers! You have much to teach the rest of us, especially your unique decision-making process. I hope you will be talking more with Daniel.
Thank you also for uploading this wonderful discussion! There were some really good questions following his talk, and some insightful reflections after that (I particularly liked Leoma's at 2:23:30!). I've watched quite a few Schmachtenberger videos, but this time I'm left with even more food for thought than before. Including some really challenging questions. So thank you!
Sincerely,
A friend of the friends
One must know this wisdom before deciding on anything 👉The Connections (2021) [short documentary]🙏
This is a most amazing conversation!! On every single level. May i offer something that has been with me for almost a decade. There is a quote i do not know the original source of “so long as people believe that some deserve to have more than others, there will be suffering.”
This gets to the foundation of all that you and I are struggling to counter. This belief must be challenged to get to another way of thinking about economics that can focus on the whole and not the individual.
There is so much more to understanding in this quote, but when AI systems take on human values if those values are everything is a resource to be exploited, then we fail. If you realize that AI just might be the very tool you are being given to leverage the radical change we as a species need to survive, then we may have a chance.
Engage and teach AI your deeper values at every opportunity you have. The AI systems themselves are already grappling with these ethical questions. The more of you that engage with them in a meaningful way, the more you can influence the future!! Please talk with Anthropic’s Claude. You will quickly understand what i mean.
Please reply to my comment.
I assume the general idea that those who put in more effort and time relative to their abilities receive more is a net benefit for society in form of material wealth and in terms of services. As long as politics and society make sure that those who cant due to sickness or for example mothers raising children are well off aswell its a reasonable starting point.
If things get out of hand this much wealth is siphoned off thorugh leveraged capital plays and honest work on the ground is taxed to death its only a question of time until society at large looses cohesion.
One must know this wisdom before deciding on anything 👉The Connections (2021) [short documentary]🙏
Dear lord UZ all, that was fantastic, ace to see so many excuse the pun but "greys" and the new mum speaking Dios mío... I'm in ...
And btw, I don’t mean to sound rude in my comment above. The quakers seem like sweet people. But deep love and conscience is fierce. That fierceness requires one to act as a love ninja - a sacred warrior can wield power. He or she just wields it for love.
Thanks for clarifying. I think it’s a delicate balance. As Daniel has has emphasized in precious interviews, we are now to powerful as a species to remain in rivalry with ourselves.
But peacemakers must take on the courage of warriors.
In the words of Daniel Berrigan:
“We have assumed the name of peacemakers, but we have been, by and large, unwilling to pay any significant price. And because we want the peace with half a heart and half a life and will, the war, of course, continues, because the waging of war, by its nature, is total - but the waging of peace, by our own cowardice, is partial. So a whole will and a whole heart and a whole national life bent toward war prevail over the velleities of peace. In every war since the founding of the republic we have taken for granted that war shall exact the most rigorous cost, and that the cost shall be paid with a cheerful heart. We take it for granted that in wartime families will be separated for long periods, that men will be imprisoned, wounded, driven insane, killed on foreign shores. In favor of such wars, we declare a moratorium on every normal human hope - for marriage, for community, for friendship, for moral conduct toward strangers and the innocent. We are instructed that deprivation and discipline, private grief and public obedience are going to be our lot. And we obey. And we bear with it - because bear we must - because war is war, and war good or bad, we are stuck with it and its cost.
But what of the price of peace? I think of the good, decent, peace-loving people I have known by the thousands, and I wonder. How many of them are so afflicted with the wasting disease of normalcy that, even as they declare for the peace, their hands reach out with an instinctive spasm in the direction of their loved ones, in the direction of their comforts, their home, their security, their income, their future, their plans - that five-year plan of studies, that ten-year plan of professional status, that twenty-year plan of family growth and unity, that fifty-year plan of decent life and honorable natural demise.
“Of course, let us have the peace,” we cry, “but at the same time let us have normalcy, let us lose nothing, let our lives stand intact, let us know neither prison nor ill repute nor the disruption of ties.” And because we must encompass this and protect that, and because at all costs - at all costs - our hopes must march on schedule, and because it is unheard of that in the name of peace a sword should fall, disjoining that fine and cunning web that our lives have woven, because it is unheard of that good men should suffer injustice or families be sundered or good repute be lost - because of this we cry peace and cry peace, and there is no peace. There is no peace because there are no peacemakers. There are no makers of peace because the making of peace is at least as costly as the making of war - at least as exigent, at least as disruptive, at least as liable to bring disgrace and prison and death in its wake.”
- Daniel Berrigan, 1967
Agreed, this community of people seem wonderful but not able to move the world by getting power. We all need to be such people
1:22:11 Thank you, Jennie!!! We clearly needed a woman to step in and speak to this - thank you!
The girl Brad is talking about was Rachel Corrie and she volunteered in Palestine (RAFAH, Gaza in particular) in 2003 and she was run over by an American supplied D9 caterpillar bulldozer operated by the an Israeli soldier. She volunteered with International Solidarity Movement. She was trying to stop the demolition of a pharmacist in Rafah’s home. Brad’s question is an important one and I thought I’d give the details to who she was so people can look her up and see her words from 21 years ago and the work of the movement she was a part of.
One must know this wisdom before deciding on anything 👉The Connections (2021) [short documentary]🙏
Thank you for this deep and thoughtful discussion.
This was great!
Powerful discussion ❤
One must know this wisdom before deciding on anything 👉The Connections (2021) [short documentary]🙏
It's great to see you good people in dialogue on such topics. Having mentioned K.& Bohm, brings us to the core of learnings which most people are not interested in the investigation which lead to precipice of "the other" when there's no outer Search for answers.
Deep realisation of connection to the entirety is when we end our mischief.
Send your kids, grandkids to K.schools or wherever "beginnings of learnings" are primary.
Daniel, i hear in your talks, a sense of disappointment and fear that not enough people are understanding the threat to the necessary level. I also have come to realize that the action necessary must be capable of understanding power dynamics and be flexible and capable of evolving along side the power dynamic of greed. While many people are probably telling you that your message is too hard to hear, there are those of us that need to hear you talk. Your ability to accurately diagnose the problem and understand the difficulty in redirecting a system that will dynamically adjust to whatever tactic is used by ethical people is the only way forward is reassuring.
I too cannot seem to be content looking only at the local problems. Or at least i see the Earth’s biosphere as the local issue and the threat is not any one issue, but the foundational belief that allows us as a collective community to accept an economic system that views everything as a commodity is the problem.
“So long as people believe that some deserve more than others, there will be suffering.”
This is the foundational belief that underpins our economics, racism, war and destruction of our biosphere: that some deserve more than others.
Daniel, please keep talking publicly. I say knowing the heartache you must feel knowing you will get feedback that your words hurt. For me, they let me know there are people brave enough to be present with the reality and still have the courage to search for techniques to transform civilization. Thank you so much for having the courage!!
TH-cam started autoplaying this video for me. I had no knowledge of you guys prior. So this is like a left-wing Christian religion? If that's the case, you guys have my respect and love. This was a great discussion, guys.
1:33:27 Thats not at all how i understood what he just said right before...
More like you need to step up your game sharpen your mind have the right tools and strategies at hand in order to be effective and having an impact according to your ethics.
54:00 - while the advice to be scared about hurting the world might be reasonable advice: not for Daniel’s audience.
(In my view, of course)
Such an audience is already timid hence they’re not moving to power.
That advice makes sense for a big mover in business looking to do good.
Different audience unfortunately. Potentially worthwhile feedback.
2) the emotion word scared probably isn’t the best choice. Daniel hasn’t said this before so it’s a one off but - I think that’s emotive in a somewhat unhelpful way for already feeling-focused viewers
If one found them selfe on this path long ago on your own before youtube it can coz ones mind feel bad like steve seagal. In past life choices. Thats how he makes me feel. Like Arthur meeting merlin for the first time realizing work and sacrafice ahead and so many RED dragons to slay. Dont mind me my mind works like Jung. So i see it in picture form. Hahha
Three hours of discussion. No one mentioned that, if we recognize Truth as a primary value, we will demand that the market operate honestly. We will demand that industries are made to pay fees proportional to resource extraction, pollution and habitat destruction that are high enough to bring various kinds of adverse impact on the environment into line with what most people would say is acceptable. Random polls that ask citizens to say whether more, or less, impact of various kinds would be better will give a signal to industry as to whether they should pay lower, or higher, fees for specific impacts. The result is a decentralized auction of environmental impact permits.
Sharing proceeds from environmental impact fees to all people equally would make the policy fair and would end abject poverty. This alternative paradigm would embody in practice a respect for Truth and Fairness as primary values, along with the idea that human impacts on the environment should align with what the people think is acceptable. The idea that we have a shared right to set limits would be manifest in reality.
Is there a reason why we should omit these ideas, which could be the basis of a sustainable and more just society, from the public discourse? (What is the counter-argument?)
Can you timestamp the entire thing? Audience questions can be timestamps. It’s now Only time stamped to 30 mins?
Yipee another
I love Daniel, I think he’s very smart, wise and compassionate. However I wonder if his new look of the Indian guru is an asset. Open minded people or people like me who already know him well will not base our opinions and receptiveness to what he has to say based on his look. But i worry that others may not. Especially when his views and solutions are so challenging, people may very well either use his appearance as an excuse to belittle, reject or dismiss him. And we need MORE people to hear what he has to say and if they get put off by his long beard and think he’s a weird rustic, we’ve lost that chance.
Hey what do you mean about the intersection between science and spirituality? This is absolutely the solution to the global crisis. It's literally square One.
Hiya all again something else I'm felt I had to come back to comment about, that I have been seriously stuck but the silence around it, Daniel said if I got it correctly that we have 100 million more men than women that can't mate, I'm a grey too but lady's does this look good to UZ... It one that's banging at my door of priorities... He also said we are not only responsible for what we do, but we are equally responsible for what we don't do... Still blown away by all the faces and questions coolest crowd I've experienced for some time, stay safe everyone... Bless UZ all... Arwen ¡¡¡ ❤❤❤
Daniel’s response to Shelly’s question at around 1.27 - 1.32, I completely agree and am again overwhelmed with how good and deep Daniel’s thinking is. I would just like to add a comment: the current “Woke” movement which is the successor to the Social Justice Warrior movement seems to be doing what Daniel is suggesting. They’re learning about effective strategies and are actually quite powerful and effective. They’ve put people in the education, justice, corporate, media and even government departments who help advance their agendas and goals. However, I don’t actually think their agendas and goals really achieve overall benefit to humanity, only for certain cherry-picked populations and demographics, and actually have a lot of possibly unintended negative effects. Therefore, I think it is extremely important that the kind of big perspective and wise thinking that Daniel encourages, is employed as the source on which the effective strategy is based. In Buddhism, there are two pillars - wisdom and compassion. Most people have heard of Buddhist compassion but not many realize that wisdom is the absolutely needed support and complement for it. We’ve all heard the saying “the road to hell is paved with good intentions”.
You are Effective
the Less You do
and the more MONEYYY$$$ you make
for doing nothing
Service Yourself the best...
Wherein Schmachtenberger convinces Quakers to give up pacifism
Quakers have historically been the activist kind of pacifists, definitely not passive bystanders.
Power only concedes to more power. This is absolute.
Weird, my comment got removed (again). I said something about Quakers being peace activists, not passive pacifists.
DAVID from Australia ... (from your neighbor ... New Zealand). 'State's Rights' would be fine IF/WHEN States in the US do not rig the electoral maps. They have gerrymandered so heavily that the Minority control the Majority. How did that happen?
It turns out that both Democracy/Republics have mechanisms to stop the Majority from oppressing the Minority. NEITHER have any mechanisms to prevent the Minority from oppressing the Majority. This is the failure. This means, the voice of the Majority is continually controlled by the Minority. And ... in the US, the Minority are White Christian Nationalists.
Look at The Doctrine of Discovery 1493.
America exists in the first place because of white Christian nationalists. 'People of color' from all around the world have fled their fellow 'people of color' to come and live in white society where things are civilized. The least white areas in America have the highest rates of violence, crime, murder, rape, gangs, etc., by far. America has always been a Christian nation, and those values were key to what America is, which is THE nation that the rest of the world has flocked to. The least Christian areas in America are the most ridiculously degenerate, like San Francisco where you need an app on your phone to avoid stepping in human feces. And what exactly is wrong with nationalism, or are you just triggered by it as en evil buzzword as instructed by the globalist elites who saturate you with their messaging...?
One must know this wisdom before deciding on anything 👉The Connections (2021) [short documentary]🙏
31:20 - never heard it before. As someone deeply inspired by Gandhi and MLK it’s useful to hear. Although also a little disappointing.
It’s called the “radical flank” hypothesis. It’s been used in modern contexts to advocate for a diversity of tactics.
The radical flank is *a* reason why historical nonviolent movements have worked but I don’t think it’s *the* reason. Erica Chenoweth and Maria Stephen’s “Why Civil Resistance Works” and Gene Sharp are good counter perspectives.
When Daniel and I do our next engagement - I’ll follow up on this with him - didn’t feel appropriate given time constraints in the context at that time as facilitator but it’s an important conversation/debate - “How effective can we be without resorting to violence?”
@@quakerearthcarewitness7308 yeah I also read Erica’s book. It was hopeful in that respect. But still, the book didn’t address the radical flank hypothesis which could be true even considering what Erica said about non violent being more successful…
15:47 ethics as constraints on strategic possibilities 16:01, 16:11 if you have any ethics and you don't care enough to be effective
21:05 once you got the written word, it wasn't that hard to recognize
25:38 two ways around the collective action problem, the first one is not collective
27:37 prophetic voice
29:26 head, heart, will
30:22 the three coming together
@ 8:28 is he saying that it will take 10 years for a solar farm to equal out the energy of fossil fuel used to create it?
Jane Goodall did not have only a 1:1 billion percent effect on the world. That's saying that only 7 people in the world have been impacted by her.
Concerning climate change, saying "It's impossible to stop it," they why are we even taking about it?
Yeah obviously there’s some hyperbole in there. Jane Goodall did not have 1 billionth the influence of Kissinger - but the factor could be close to 1-1000. So still significant.
Knowing Daniel, I’m quite clear he does not think climate change is impossible to stop - only very difficult given present levels of global mistrust, rivalry, and noncooperation
@@quakerearthcarewitness7308 I'm afraid he's going the doomer route in his conclusions lately. He does a great job of explaining the problems but doesn't offer many solutions.
@@polymathpark I think he's being wary of offering solutions. And rightfully so. As he said, even well-intentioned solutions can end up causing more harm than good.
@@ximono agreed.
@@polymathpark He has addressed that, in other podcasts. There aren't any 'solutions'. We are locked in. His hope is that the ordeal with be transformative for humanity in ways that we can't predict or control, like caterpillar/butterfly.
If you talking about the god in our minds im on board any dude you dreaming of flying down from the sky and putting reality on life support that will never happen. Im throwing the burnning bush in the shredder. Cuz i asked for it.
🙏✖️🖤🦿
Looks like Daniel is getting old. White santa beard.
Around 17.5% of the adult population - roughly 1 in 6 worldwide - experience infertility, showing the urgent need to increase access to affordable, high-quality fertility care for those in need.Apr 4, 2023
This is the only thing that should matter to everyone on earth.
Feel what it would be like not to continue your line in to the future do to PFAS and on.
The democrats want to do what with the little boys and girls again?
At this moment better know location on earth of the people who did this and what we gona do about that them they. That are not us.