With human survival at stake, you’re the decisive activist to save us all or not

Aug 6, 2021, 9:44 AM

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Yes, we can, maybe. A wake-up call to action to inspire a critical mass of us.

This is an emergency. Emergency measures are due and in order.

Timidity and permissiveness seem to slow down organizing our survival of climate change.

In an unexpected spur of the moment, I found myself thinking fearlessly about climate change. I wanted to write a perfect piece based on that. Perfect, it didn’t get. (See below: feedback.) But, I hope it’ll inspire you.

Here is some wide-ranging inspiration for being bold and assertive.

If we continue only another decade like this, all of humanity will die out. If, after an evolutionary process of millions of years, intelligent life would return here, they would conclude that Neanderthals were intelligent (made art), but Homo Sapience Sapience somehow wasn’t because those stormed toward an ecological abyss while they knew what was coming.

Let’s deal at once with humanity’s greatest problems. No more timid ’10-year plans’ but action and change right now. This is an emergency.

Piecemeal symbolic measures won’t cut it this time. This is an emergency.

Attitudes

With victories, songs, and jokes, we’ll keep up the spirit of hope.
“Not the threat makes people look away, but the hopelessness does that.”
“I’m not sure we’ll succeed, but that’s the aim, and I won’t give up.”
“Alone, I can’t do it. Let’s see what we can do together.”
“The shy and meek must lead us, the brave and sturdy will support them.”
“If we all die, we’ll die with honor, but perhaps we won’t.”
If we manage to survive, humanity will be in better shape than ever. We’ll have unity, banned wars, planted equality, etc. This was an emergency.

The below measures may sound harsh. Yet, they don’t install oppressive limitations on life, as dictators do. Rather, they’re only temporary emergency measures. You must comply. But if it’s hard on you, you are encouraged to say so. You’ll receive a sustained warm embrace to help you cry until full recovery. That is quite different from dictatorships where one can be punished (shot) for voicing dissent. No one demands that you like it or agree. You only must comply temporarily. This is an emergency.

Religion and Lifestyle, Entertainment and Food

Atheists are mostly trying to have a good time, while Religionists try to please their gods. When using an elevator, does one pray or press the button? When facing extinction, does one just pray? Let’s outlaw all lifestyle advocacy unless it incorporates activism. This is an emergency.

Billions believe that G^d wouldn’t destroy all life ever again by a flood. But, the threat’s not just water (forest fires, droughts), and it’s not G^d. It’s us! Rabbi Nachman says: If you can destroy it, you can rebuild it. That’s not always true, but certainly never, if you won’t try. This is an emergency.

Let’s blow up the TV studios. I mean: this, governments must do this, not activists. (There’s too much violence already. Anarchism is part of the problem.) TV saps from most of us our last energy. This is an emergency.

Private cars only on medical receipt. (Electric cars have their polluting exhaust pipes at the power station.) We’ll walk, use public transportation, or stay put. No more plane rides for pleasure. This is an emergency.

Outlaw all recreational drugs like tobacco, alcohol, and sex, all psychiatric drugs, all exercising (From now on, use your energy constructively), and all junk food, like white flour food and white rice. This is an emergency.

A couple of hours of gaming, on social media, in a restaurant, cinema, any other entertainment only on presentation of proof that each of those applying worked 20 hours for humanity’s survival. This is an emergency.

Daily meat and milk consumption is killing us all. Greenhouse gasses and cutting the last tropical forests for grassland take away our last breaths. Animal produce only doctor’s receipt. Mandatory classes on cooking good, tasty, health-sustaining, planet-sparing meals. This is an emergency.

Waste No More

Instead of non-stop lying about money and finances, economists will help us all to budget successfully. This is an emergency.

Outlaw the sale of fragile must-replace stuff. Outlaw the fashion industry. Anything is fashionable. Consumerism is outdated. This is an emergency.

Jails only to lock up violent people, not to punish. This is an emergency.

No more soiling and spoiling of nature, air and sea included. Everything that can be recycled must be recycled. Second-hand stores ‘sell’ for free. This is an emergency.

National and international help for the communities hardest hit by climate change and systematic environmental injustice. This is an emergency.

Community and international help to relocate people to higher grounds because the seas will rise and rivers will swell. This is an emergency.

We must speed up science to help us find solutions. We need to build weightless human shelter based on nanostructures. This is an emergency.

We’ll fight drought and hunger threatening billions. This is an emergency.

In international programs, we’ll preserve all (edible, medical, and otherwise) plant and (big and tiny) animal species. This is an emergency.

Enormous rescue programs must try to stop as much as possible and turn back the melting of the poles and tundra and the destruction of rainforest. This is an emergency.

Rather than timidly trying to slow down the warming of our planet, the effort must be to cool the planet below the situation that we had before the Industrial Revolution. This is an emergency.

Democracies Only

We’ll replace all dictatorships with democracies with separation of powers and press freedom. Replace all liars with honest leaders. Only people who believe in the equality of all people can be elected. This is an emergency.

Local and national agitators and dictators are removed from power by a wider alliance against them, if needed by force. This is an emergency.

Aggression, Therapy, and Empathy

For thousands of years, men cause most of the world’s worst problems by far. Competition, bloodshed, rape, murder, war. No one waits in a cave for his game or victory anymore. Should we regulate the maximum amount of testosterone allowed in the blood? Men, be warned. This is an emergency.

Collective buyback programs for weapons and cars. This is an emergency.

No more permission to anyone annoying everyone around them always shifting the blame. Mandatory therapy. This is an emergency.

Empathy can be learned. The time to do that is now. This is an emergency.

Anyone having a hard time gets organized empathy but no permissiveness. “No” must be part of the coming of age of humanity. You’d so much miss all the freedoms, liberalism, and privileges? Most of these options were destructive for you and others anyway. This is an emergency.

Learn assertiveness to fight malignant liberalism. This is an emergency.

Learn other cultures/languages to network better. This is an emergency.

Time and Activism

On average, fewer jobs will be left, so, we’ll work fewer hours and have more time and energy to save the world. We’ll need less money. Everyone should get a guaranteed modest basic income. This is an emergency.

By law, the news, presently designed to keep the masses feeling stupid, powerless, and confused, must become fact-checked and empowering. This is an emergency.

Do you dream of new lease of life in space? Anywhere we know is far less hospitable than on earth. Earth will be best. This is an emergency.

Governments and the wealthy will not implement what is needed unless faced with decisive numbers of activists. You’d rather look at Netflix or a football match than be an activist? My sympathy, but this is an emergency.

Do you think the above is rough? How does extinction in a decade sound to you in comparison? There is no day to lose. This is an emergency.

There’s no need to wait until billions are starving, billions are chronically sick until they die in great agony, and millions drown. And, worst, by then, anything we’d do could be too late for humanity. The time to act is now.

Read the above with friends and say what you love and hate about it.

To-do list, for you alone, or organizing others to join

Don’t try to do everything at once. Step for step, every day more.

Read the above with friends. What do you love and hate about it?
Do you understand deeply that this is an emergency?
Memorize victories, songs, and jokes, to keep up the spirit of hope.
Atheists, promise to do what’s needed, also if you don’t feel like it.
Religionists, commit to taking charge, not leave it to higher powers.
Pressure the government to shut down all TV except the news.
Demand free public transportation. Sell the car.
Quit all recreational and psychiatric drugs, exercising, and junk food.
Quit entertainment until you spend 20 hours on humanity’s survival.
Learn to cook and commit to eating only vegan meals soon.
Ask help from an economist with budgeting.
Quit buying fragile must-replace stuff or being fashionable.
Demand the banning of fragile must-replace stuff and fashion.
Demand closure of all jails except for violent people.
Commit to recycle, buy second-hand, retrieving waste from nature.
Demand help for those hardest hit by environmental injustice.
Demand assistance for communities in danger of drowning.
Demand more funding for the applied sciences.
Demand international action to stop all hunger and thirst.
Demand international action to save all plant and animal species.
Demand immediate rescue programs to reverse the melting of the poles and tundra and the destruction of rainforest.
Demand policies that today reduce/reverse the warming of Earth.
Demand (inter)national coalitions that now oust all dictators.
Demand programs that help men to cry instead of being violent.
Demand collective buyback programs for weapons and cars.
Go to learn empathy. Claim courses in empathy, and free empathy.
Go to learn assertiveness to fight malignant permissiveness.
Go to learn other cultures and languages to better network.
Commit to working less, earning less, and spending less.
Demand a guaranteed modest basic income for everyone.
Demand that all news will be fact-checked and empowering all.
Go to require of all governments and the wealthy to comply.
Support each other to choose for activism over entertainment.
Remember, this is for all of us to survive. Comfort will come later.
Remember that “being comfortable now” will lead in our lifetime to untold suffering and death. After activism, we’ll be pleased.

Feedback

I send the above to a few friends. This is some of what they wrote to me:

It is wonderful – and scary!
This text is brilliant. It’s really important and most thought-provoking. While reading it, I had to pause many times because many ideas were very new and challenging for me. I got many new ideas for therapy (and after that, maybe also for action).
I really like it, and I agree, forget [about trying to make it] perfect. It will make people laugh, and be mad, and think you’re nuts—close to perfect.
I found many of the needs presented here to make sense in the emergency we are in.

About the Author

MM is a prolific and creative writer and thinker, previously a daily blog contributor to the TOI. He often makes his readers laugh, mad, or assume he's nuts—close to perfect blogging. He's proud that his analytical short comments are removed both from left-wing and right-wing news sites. None of his content is generated by the new bore on the block, AI. * As a frontier thinker, he sees things many don't yet. He's half a prophet. Half. Let's not exaggerate. Or not at all because he doesn't claim G^d talks to him. He gives him good ideas—that's all. MM doesn't believe that people observe and think in a vacuum. He, therefore, wanted a broad bio that readers interested can track a bit what (lack of) backgrounds, experiences, and educations contribute to his visions. * This year, he will prioritize getting his unpublished books published rather than just blog posts. Of the 15 (!) books he has in mind, the next two are about homosexuality in Judaism and new rabbinics. Next year, he hopes to focus on activism against human extinction. To find less-recent posts on a subject XXX among his over 2600 archived ones, go to the right-top corner of a Times of Israel page, click on the search icon and search "zuiden, XXX". One can find a second, wilder blog that also may contain updates to Times of Israel posts, to which one may subscribe, here: https://mmvanzuiden.wordpress.com/ or by clicking on the globe icon next to his picture on top. * He's getting ready to publicize books on: "Free Will, "Judaism and Homosexuality, "His parents in the Holocaust, "Judaism, "A New Torah Translation and "A New Hebrew Grammar, "Co-Counseling, "Vegan Facts, "Immortality, and more. * Like most of his readers, he believes in being friendly, respectful, and loyal. However, if you think those are his absolute top priorities, you might end up disappointed. His first loyalty is to the truth. He agrees that in a post-truth world, that's irrelevant, but then this is for the record. He will try to stay within the limits of democratic and Jewish law, but he won't lie to support opinions or people when don't deserve that. (Yet, we all make honest mistakes, which is just fine and does not justify losing support.) He admits that he sometimes exaggerates to make a point, which could have him come across as nasty, while in actuality, he's quite a lovely person to interact with. He holds - how Dutch - that a strong opinion doesn't imply intolerance of other views. * Sometimes he's misunderstood because his wide and diverse field of vision seldomly fits any specialist's box. But that's exactly what some love about him. He has written a lot about Psychology (including Sexuality and Abuse), Medicine (including physical immortality), Science (including basic statistics), Politics (Israel, the US, and the Netherlands, Activism - more than leftwing or rightwing, he hopes to highlight reality), Oppression and Liberation (intersectionally, for young people, the elderly, non-Whites, women, workers, Jews, LGBTQIA+, foreigners and anyone else who's dehumanized or exploited), Integrity, Philosophy, Jews (Judaism, Zionism, Holocaust and Jewish Liberation), the Climate Crisis, Ecology and Veganism, Affairs from the news, or the Torah Portion of the Week, or new insights that suddenly befell him. * Chronologically, his most influential teachers are his parents, Nico (natan) van Zuiden and Betty (beisye) Nieweg, Wim Kan, Mozart, Harvey Jackins, Marshal Rosenberg, Reb Shlomo Carlebach, and, lehavdil bein chayim lechayim, Rabbi Dr. Natan Lopes Cardozo, Rav Zev Leff, and Rav Meir Lubin. This short list doesn't mean to disrespect others who taught him a lot or a little. One of his rabbis calls him Mr. Innovation [Ish haChidushim]. Yet, his originalities seem to root deeply in traditional Judaism, though they may grow in unexpected directions. In fact, he claims he's modernizing nothing. Rather, mainly basing himself on the basic Hebrew Torah text, he tries to rediscover classical Jewish thought almost lost in thousands of years of stifling Gentile domination and Jewish assimilation. (He pleads for a close reading of the Torah instead of going by rough assumptions of what it would probably mean and before fleeing to Commentaries.) This, in all aspects of life, but prominently in the areas of Free Will, Activism, Homosexuality for men, and Redemption. * He hopes that his words will inspire and inform, and disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed. He aims to bring a fresh perspective rather than harp on the obvious and familiar. When he can, he loves to write encyclopedic overviews. He doesn't expect his readers to agree. Rather, original minds should be disputed. In short, his main political positions are among others: anti-Trumpism, for Zionism, Intersectionality, non-violence, anti those who abuse democratic liberties, anti the fake ME peace process, for original-Orthodoxy, pro-Science, pro-Free Will, anti-blaming-the-victim, and for down-to-earth, classical optimism, and happiness. Read his blog on how he attempts to bridge any tensions between those ideas or fields. * He is a fetal survivor of the pharmaceutical industry (https://diethylstilbestrol.co.uk/studies/des-and-psychological-health/), born in 1953 to his parents who were Dutch-Jewish Holocaust survivors who met in the largest concentration camp in the Netherlands, Westerbork. He grew up a humble listener. It took him decades to become a speaker too, and decades more to admit to being a genius. But his humility was his to keep. And so was his honesty. Bullies and con artists almost instantaneously envy and hate him. He hopes to bring new things and not just preach to the choir. * He holds a BA in medicine (University of Amsterdam) – is half a doctor. He practices Re-evaluation Co-counseling since 1977, is not an official teacher anymore, and became a friendly, powerful therapist. He became a social activist, became religious, made Aliyah, and raised three wonderful kids. Previously, for decades, he was known to the Jerusalem Post readers as a frequent letter writer. For a couple of years, he was active in hasbara to the Dutch-speaking public. He wrote an unpublished tome about Jewish Free Will. He's a strict vegan since 2008. He's an Orthodox Jew but not a rabbi. * His writing has been made possible by an allowance for second-generation Holocaust survivors from the Netherlands. It has been his dream since he was 38 to try to make a difference by teaching through writing. He had three times 9-out-of-10 for Dutch at his high school finals but is spending his days communicating in English and Hebrew - how ironic. G-d must have a fine sense of humor. In case you wonder - yes, he is a bit dyslectic. If you're a native English speaker and wonder why you should read from people whose English is only their second language, consider the advantage of having an original peek outside of your cultural bubble. His posts are spell, grammar, and style polished by AI, but all written by himself. * To send any personal reaction to him, scroll to the top of the blog post and click Contact Me. * His newest books you may find here: https://www.amazon.com/s?i=stripbooks&rh=p_27%3AMoshe-Mordechai%2FMaurits+van+Zuiden&s=relevancerank&text=Moshe-Mordechai%2FMaurits+van+Zuiden&ref=dp_byline_sr_book_1