I have an idea. The world abounds with writers reporting on what’s going on, echoing each other’s outrage. I read the ones who write so beautifully that no matter how familiar the material is, I snap to attention. And I look for good writing about what isn’t familiar, that says something about what got us here so we can understand where we are, or something that encourages the leap we need to make from being selfish and antagonistic to becoming kind and cooperative.
Pieces I’ve cross-posted to send to you meet these criteria, and I have some hankering for them not to just pass through me but for them stick around, along with other great pieces, in one place. For getting informed about what is and getting inspired by what can be, it would be a treasure trove, so I’m creating such a thing.
To find the best-of-the-best to include, I’m deputizing you subscribers to my Suzanne Taylor’s Now What? to be talent scouts for what could move the needle toward salvation. Send me things of yours or your favorites by other people for my INTELLIGENCE RESOURCE BANK, with notes about why you think they belong there. If I agree, I’ll send you $100 if it’s your work, and I’ll send $100 to you and another $100 to an author you submit. And, I’ll respond when I pass on something, to say why. To submit, reply to this email or email suzanne@mightycompanions.org. Comment here with anything you have to say about this.
Why oh why are we proceeding as if Trump has his marbles? The link is to a piece I’ll include in the Resource Bank, from Frank George, who’s worth reading whatever he posts, so do subscribe. Why aren’t we in a public disaster conversation? Situation dire; intervention needed. How is it that every gear that runs us is being corrupted and we’re not even trying to stop that? With the intelligence that’s pouring out of Substack now, how about a WHAT TO DO Movement?
I’ll start.
How about a coup to install a presidential team? Let’s say Heather Cox Richardson, Joyce Vance, Anne Applebaum, and Marianne Williamson. Others could substitute, but I track them. Just picture such warm, smart, human-loving human beings leading our way. If they state that they are taking charge, I’d see so many millions on the streets in Washington that they couldn’t be thwarted.
How about an ad hoc WISDOM COUNCIL? If the coup worked, the four of them would pick the fifth, the five pick the sixth, in that pattern, where as they become familiar with each other a thinking body emerges. Or, one beloved person could volunteer to start it. It would give directives to a massive COALITION FOR THE GOOD, to be johnnys-on-the-spot for boycotts and whatever else it would call for, where some ideas would come from a SUGGESTION BOX that would be open to everyone.
How about getting humanity informed about overshoot, so everyone gets how it’s life or death to deal with it?
How about PEP TALKS FOR HUMANITY coming from everywhere, with special listening to Marianne Williamson, who does them regularly and has my vote for being our world teacher?
How about humanity tuning into Brian Swimme for the science that can inspire a new creation story where humanity is heroic?
I know in my heart we’re a wave in an ocean of decency in this country—a massive sea of untapped goodness that will yet rise up and reach the shores of electoral power. I’ll continue to strive to serve that vision: the emergence of a coalition of decency that will overwhelm the indecencies of our degraded times and return us to our better selves. —Marianne Williamson
Suzanne, we’re both pointed at the same thing—igniting a great raging forest fire of love that will sweep us forever out of this deadening sadness of egos and superficiality. —Brian Swimme
PS: Hold the press. I just discovered something to pass along that’s emblematic of this idea I have for us relative nobodies to be creative with each other. It’s a source I always read, and I got a thrill seeing myself pointed to as someone to pay attention to for “an Awakening Movement.” Crisis and Transition is several authors, writing pieces I’ll put in the Resource Bank, and they reference one another doing the basic job of building on each other. When I read what their writer, Christy Shaver, one of my favorites, wrote in How Real Change Begins, it pointed to Ronald Logan’s How Do We Get There?, where there’s the writing about me. Something seems so right about that interchanging, and do subscribe to them in this pebbles in the pond rippling out that’s going on.
A sampling of points made:
This [popular mobilization] is the stage that Substack activist Suzanne Taylor has been urging Substack writers to step into. And it’s what motivated the Crisis and Transition Substack to put out the Agenda for Economic Democracy…Thought-leaders first need to build mass awareness and inspire mass engagement.
What is needed…is an accelerated paradigm shift, a kind of revolution of consciousness, not in the sense of violence or force, but in the sense of clarity, coherence, and shared moral direction…Paradigm shift revolutions play out organically over time. But we don’t have time. Humanity’s situation is nearing Code Red as we face the growing intensity of the polycrisis...It needs to occur in the second sense of a “revolution”—as “a sudden, complete, and radical change.”…Revolutions that aim to bring sudden and systemic change require strategy for success. They cannot be run as an Occupy Movement one year, March for Our Lives the next, Me Too after that, then No Kings, etc….There’s much more to say about “How do we get there?” This topic is to be continued.
For my Followers who aren’t Subscribers, where this year more than 800 of you signed up, “A follower is someone who has chosen to follow a writer’s work for free, while a subscriber is someone who has paid to receive exclusive content from the writer.” That’s wrong. I don’t charge anyone. And when you followed me instead of subscribing, it became accidental for you to see what I put out rather than coming into your inbox. You are followers rather than subscribers because that just took pushing a button, and Substack gets more participants that way, but please do become a subscriber, where it wouldn’t be so hit or miss to forge some family here.
To get immersed in the point of view I argue for, have a look at comments I’ve made in Substack Notes.
Suzanne Taylor’s Now What? advocates having a revolution. You could say an evolution, to a next phase of consciousness where we act from our interconnection as one humanity. In not having paying subscribers I lose the support the gods of Substack might give, where I am so uniquely revolutionary that I’d think they would sing some praises. But, all I have for support is you.
Beyond Liking and Commenting on this post, here’s how you can help Now What? to be seen:
1. Substack writers can Restack this post for Notes.
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The best thing Substack writers can do is to Recommend my Now What? Substack to your subscribers. There’s a direct link if you are on the net. If you are in email, go to your Dashboard. Under Creator Tools on the left click Recommendations → click Add recommendation → search for Suzanne Taylor’s Now What?
A team of people to be at the ready for Boycotts, marches, etc, seems like the perfect idea at the right time. A little gang of good. I've not heard anyone say that before. Seems like a winner idea.
Suzanne, I appreciate this. You’re thinking out loud in a way that feels honest about the moment we’re in. You’re putting a real call to action on the table, and the push toward system change is clear. The Resource Bank feels like one concrete step in that direction, something that can support the work that needs to happen. And the way you included other writers made me think more about how our efforts intersect, which feels important for the work ahead.