I remembered his words today as i was learning that insurance doesn’t really insure that i would get the care i need (something i knew already, at least theoretically). With a clogged up ear for two days that was starting to hurt again, i saw someone in my doctor’s office. She prescribed three things: eardrops for the pain, a nasal spray to declog me, and antibiotic eardrops to prevent the infection from getting worse. So far so good. She sent the scripts to a pharmacy a few blocks away. I walked there, stood in line for a bit, and then found out that they no longer contract with my insurance company. I wasn’t exactly thrilled by that but thought that i’d rather have the meds and go home for a nap than do anything else. I asked the person helping me how much it would cost me. All three meds would be $300! That was way over my budget, so i asked him to tell me how much each med was. It turned out that the antibiotic was the most expensive. Exactly the med i most needed (assuming this really is a bacterial infection, which is another story…). So, i asked if he could transfer the scripts to a different pharmacy. He could and he did. Except that this other pharmacy was two steep hills away – and i walked there, getting somewhat exhausted on a low-grade fever. Except that this other pharmacy was swamped with transfer prescriptions from that big chain pharmacy that no longer had a contract with a major insurance company. I would get my meds in two days. Not sure if it was my pointing out that i had an acute ear infection or my tears of frustration that convinced the person at the counter that he could expedite the process. He got it down to about an hour and a half. It took longer because they called the insurance company to find out if it indeed was true that they weren’t covering the antibiotic. So, over $150 later, i am hoping that the antibiotic really is necessary – after all this might be a viral infection – and will indeed speed up my healing.

Overall, this was a reminder of why the critique of systems is so necessary while holding the people in them with compassion. At least the two men who had helped me at the pharmacies were tremendously helpful. They were just as frustrated about the system. If insurance would work the way it is supposed to, it would help me care for my health. If there were no profit to be made from people being sick, medications would be affordable even without insurance. And, yes, i could have done my research still in the doctor’s office by calling the insurance company to find out the prices of the meds and then asked my doctor to prescribe something less expensive or something that had been on the market long enough for a generic to be available. Though when i am sick, the last thing i want to do is do research. I just want to get well again. You know, like, healthy.

I could celebrate winter solstice. I do enjoy that it means that the days are getting longer again. Yet, i also know that it marks the beginning of winter for the rain (or snow) falls heaviest in January through March – here in the Northern hemisphere. I really celebrate the appearance of berries at the farmers’ market. That marks the end of winter. And i don’t like winter. It’s dark and cold. Yeah, yeah, time to cuddle up in front of the fire. I’d rather be outside in the warm spring sun!

This post sounds like a big complaint. In a way it is. I am just tired of holding it all in, of pretending that i like this season because everybody else claims they do (and many don’t really). I wonder what would happen if those of us who aren’t enjoying winter speak up and say so. I wonder what would happen if those of us who don’t celebrate holidays around this time would stop pretending. And i wonder what might emerge instead. Maybe there is a way of being during this season that honors all of this – after all no matter how much i don’t like the shorter days and the rain, they won’t go away! They might be easier to bear if i can say “i don’t like them and i still do something to enjoy life.” Let’s see what the something will be that emerges out of this authenticity.

Okay, deep breath!

What i found most helpful in the movie was the usage of systems theory. I don’t think there’s anything that makes any sense unless we look at it from a systems perspective – it captures our interconnectedness (i very much enjoyed Jacque’s quip about free choice – all of our choices are influenced!). I found the grounding in science very refreshing (and was thrilled to hear Allan Schor and Daniel Siegel mentioned – both are active in interpersonal neurobiology – and shame researcher James Gilligan interviewed, all of whom are influencing my own work). I think there are some aspects within neurobiology, which could have even sharpened the analysis but, hey, the movie was already almost 3 hours long! Our culture creates left-hemisphere dominance, which suppresses our ability to experience our emotions, which makes it easier to become robots. The movie made a nod to this when they mentioned the lack of empathy in traders. Unfortunately, that is just the tip of the iceberg, just the most extreme example.

And the other thing i found missing is a roadmap – how do we get from here to there. Though, maybe there isn’t one. Maybe things just have to get so damn bad that we, the 99% that are asleep at the wheel finally wake up. Or at least enough of us to take our planet back…

In the end, there seems to be a glimmer of hope in being reminded that things could be different. That we know how to create global abundance. And it is up to us to make it happen – it will take a shift in consciousness. No one can do it for us. Jacque and other visionaries have accumulated blueprints of methods. One possible first step is to buy nothing this holiday season. Let’s start putting some sand into the machine.

And i also understood something from a book on Burdened Virtues by Lisa Tessman. Virtues are burdened when the agent who tries to live ethically only has painful choices. Within an oppressive system (read our society), it is not possible to live fully virtuously – all choices we make are compromises with a moral remainder. It is very difficult within the current economic system to live honoring our interconnectedness. The choices i make are not “perfect” (whatever that might mean…). I did buy some chocolate at the festival. True, it’s fair trade but cocoa production requires a lot of water and the cocoa is transported using energy that wouldn’t be used if i were satisfied with some locally grown fruit.

The spoon, fork, and chocolate are examples to highlight how our simple choices have impacts that go way beyond what is obvious. If we stop being indifferent, if we start paying attention, we quickly feel the pain of the limited impact of our choices – we’re trapped between indifference and anguish, as Lisa Tessman puts it. Overall, we need to rethink how we live, we need to figure out how to enable new choices – choices that move us beyond consumerism and the (false) idolatry of growth. Only if we step out of the current system can we heal ourselves and the planet. And that stepping out is also probably a choice that is ethically burdened…

Here is an article that covers similar ideas in more detail than this note. Hat tip to Ian.

So, i’d like to collect alternatives that can support the 99%. Supporting these alternatives helps build a society that is more grounded in equality and cooperation. Please add ideas in the comments – this list can be a collaboration! Ultimately, I’d like to offer alternatives to all the 400 on the list so that we have choice around where to spend our money.

Email groups can be set up at riseup.net. It’s not an instant set-up and it’s run by a collective. Riseup also provides email addresses.

An alternative to Facebook is Diaspora.

Of course, there’s the Move Your Money campaign, which makes it easy to get away from the Big Banks. We can also join Timebanks to build an infrastructure that is an alternative to money. This also reminds us that money is simply one way of meeting needs…

Original post
The Occupy Wall Street slogan is “we are the 99%.” It resonates with most of us (if you don’t know why, check this out). We want a society where everybody’s needs are met, not just the needs of the 1%.

So, who exactly are those 1%? The Institute for Policy Studies recently looked at Forbes 400 – they surely are in the 1% – all of them billionaires, reflecting the income redistribution to the rich since the early 1980s. And they pay much less in taxes than most of us do (about 18%). That’s at least in part because their income doesn’t come in the form of a paycheck. Yet, according to 2000 data, you would have to “earn” at least $500,000 to make it into the top 1% – most of that from capital gains and dividends. Globally, the richest 0.5% of the population – people with net worth over $1 million – own over one-third of the world’s wealth.

So what? Aside from the economic instability of these distributions, as the economic melt-down has shown., income inequality has other dramatic consequences. The higher the income inequality, the higher infant mortality and the lower life expectancy. The world could be different. And that’s one reason to be occupying together.