Sharings!

Happy Gregorian New Year

Happy Gregorian New Year!

What follows are personal reflections, evolving thoughts on the war in Gaza, and a few notices about current projects. I also want to express gratitude for all of you who subscribe to this newsletter. Please feel free to write to me and let me know what you would like to see me cover in the next Gregorian cycle.

I took a few days off to reflect on what I actually feel, now, about things. I’ve tried to formulate and then had to dissolve various thought structures. Sometimes, as a writer, you have to just wait. Personally, I much prefer being “in the flow,” writing continually, pushing through blockages. But I lost that flow for a bit. I have felt quite uncertain, although clarity is slowly starting to emerge again.

I think, in a way, diving deep into the Indo-Tibetan philosophy of Dzogchen was destabilizing. It is hard to think about anything else when you start to focus on primordial awareness and the non-existence of the self (or anything), on the universe as an illusion projected from Mind. To return to “normal” topics after that is like falling back into the world from a great height. I feel there is a necessary integration to be made between this esoteric understanding of the nature of reality and our social/political/techno-industrial world, which seems in an increasingly chaotic state… I don’t quite have it yet.

The situation in Gaza continues to be unspeakable sadness and torment. At times, I have felt like I am going insane: I have found it more difficult to wholeheartedly condemn the Israeli campaign than most of my friends and extended community. I have been trying to understand how much of this is simply tribal affiliation or epigenetic resonance.

I don’t feel the “White settler colonialism” label that the Left has put on Israel fits perfectly. This is because the Jews were originally from that region and, also, hundreds of thousands of Middle Eastern Jews were forced to move there after 1948. I feel Israel exists due to a unique set of historical circumstances that still need to be taken into account, including the Holocaust, which left millions of European Jews homeless and abandoned. These survivors needed a home.

I recognize it was a terrible crime to force 700,000 Palestinian Arabs out of their lands, but, unfortunately, modern history registers many crimes of this magnitude. There are times and circumstances when the needs of one group take precedence over another. There are 22 Islamic countries in the Middle East and one Jewish nation, with less than one percent of the land mass. If the other Arab countries had been willing to absorb the Palestinian population, as Israel absorbed the Middle Eastern Jews, we would never have reached this impasse.

As Hamas uses its own people as “human shields” and puts its military bases under hospitals and schools, I don’t see how, in such a conflict, large-scale civilian casualties could be avoided, as well as some level of urban destruction. Unfortunately, it is also clear the Israeli government intends to use the October 7 attacks as a pretext for emptying out Gaza, resettling Palestinians in the Sinai Desert, in Egypt, if possible, or shipping them to foreign lands — whatever they can get away with. The amount of destruction is incomprehensible. This is not purely a military campaign but a vendetta, an excessive retaliation, with the intention to complete the ethnic cleansing of the 1948 Nakba, whatever it takes.

For anyone who wants to join me in diving into the subject: I have been reading and studying from across a wide spectrum of opinion, as well as academics and historians. I’ve read Sylvain Cypel’s The State of Israel Versus the Jews, Benny Morris’ 1948, Noam Chomsky’s On Palestine, and Ari Shavit’s My Promised Land. I watched the documentary Israelism, along with interviews with Gabor Mate, Rashid Khalidi, and others, as well as Ezra Klein’s podcasts on this. I’ve followed coverage in The Intercept, Unherd, Jacobin, as well as The New York Times and New Yorker. I’m currently reading Ronen Bergman’s Rise and Kill First, on Israel’s targeted program of “extrajudicial killings” or assassinations, and Rashid Khalidi’s The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine. I’ve even gone so far as to read and consider very negative, conspiratorial histories of the Jews, including Laurent Guyenot’s From Yahweh to Zion, which accuses the Israeli secret service of being behind John F Kennedy’s assassination and 9/11, among other atrocities. I’m also reviewing The Jewish Writings of Hannah Arendt, and I read Robert Wright’s The Evolution of God, which is largely a history of the Abrahamic religions. I’m still planning to write more about all of this when I can.

What seems clear to me is that Israel — as the utterly dominant military and financial power — had the moral responsibility to resolve this conflict and alleviate the horrific suffering of the Palestinians under occupation, despite all the contributing factors making this difficult, including Islamic extremism. Israel absolutely needed to find a way to change this situation, even if it required creative approaches and a “leap of faith.” The government did not make this a priority, choosing instead a policy of apartheid-like containment. We are seeing the result now, to Israel’s disgrace and, perhaps, eventual ruin. If everyone with a conscience leaves the country, they will abandon it to the most Orthodox and ideologically fixed, who will continue the process of turning Israel into a hyper-militarized, theocratic, ethno-state.   

Yet I have mixed feelings about the extraordinary global protest movement that has developed around the Palestinian crisis. On the one hand, it is really good to see people motivated by compassion and anything that isn’t mainly self-interested. On the other hand, it feels like there is a hyper-focus on this issue, partly because the war is funded by the US, but also partly because — one senses — Jews are the aggressor. Many other global conflicts that produce far worse casualties are not being addressed with the same passion, such as the civil war in Syria, or the civil war and famine in Sudan. In South Sudan, a million children are starving. In any event, I agree that Israel needs to change. Hopefully the public pressure will have an effect.

Building Our Regenerative Future

It is a week until our new seminar, Building Our Regenerative Future, launches, and, if you haven’t signed up, I still very much want you to be part of it. I believe we have assembled some of the best, most incisive minds of this time — including Douglas Rushkoff, Margaret Klein Salamon, Jem Bendell, Jamie Wheal, Alex Ebert, and Quanita Roberson — for what is, essentially, a six-week colloquium on our ability to address the ecological and geopolitical emergency we face as a species.

For me, it is really important that we educate ourselves deeply on these areas, and, also, that we come together to form communities of shared ideals and ongoing reflection on what we can do, both individually and together. I don’t pretend to be any kind of guru or expert here: I am a journalist, a curious explorer, always seeking to learn more.

The current price for the six-week seminar is $300, but for us, it is more important that people join and be part of it than the financial amount (which I do think is reasonable for those who can afford it). What I am saying is, if you want to be part of the course but the price is an issue for you, please write to us and let us know what works for you. We particularly want younger people to be part of the seminar and can offer partial or full scholarships depending on need. I have learned from past workshops that people tend to stay more engaged if they do pay a reasonable amount for it. Email us - admin@regenerativefuture.net - and let’s figure it out.

The Elevator

With Guy James and Tharald Nustadt, we have been slowly developing a new nonprofit initiative, The Elevator ( https://www.theelevator.earth/ ). We are completing an initial white-paper which I will put out on this newsletter soon, explaining the scope of the project. We have a (more or less) weekly newsletter that covers the global consciousness movement, with each issue exploring a different theme. Here are some links to the recent ones. Please subscribe to make sure you do not miss them:

Issue 10 - Focus On The Big Three Abrahamic Religions

Issue Nine: Focus On Sex

Issue Eight: Focus on Cults (Part Two)

Issue Seven: Focus On Cults

Liminal Literary Journal

Arielle Friedman and Reivin Alexandria are editing the Liminal literary journal, which has just released a new issue, featuring a collection of stories and essays on the theme of “Automaton”:

The Antikythera mechanism is widely considered the world's first computer. Made of bronze, containing over thirty interlocking gears, and hailing from Athens in the period between Plato and Christ. Its purpose? Enter a date, and receive a flurry of astrological and calendrical information, including the positions of the planets, and the timing of eclipses.

One has to wonder—did ancient Astrologers denounce this technology, complaining it was putting them out of work? Did commentators grudgingly acknowledge its uses, while assuring themselves it was no substitute for the Oracle at Delphi? Did some view the device as the herald of a new age?

What follows are thirteen pieces on the theme of Automaton. They trawl the ancient past and forecast the uncertain future, touching on mythology, singularity, existential crisis, and frat parties. Enjoy!

Please read the journal here (and also subscribe for future updates!): https://liminal.ghost.io/automaton/

Thank you!

Daniel