Legacy and the Good Ancestor #35 #cong24 #legacy

Synopsis:

Changing representative democracy (or electoral fundamentalism) into real deliberative democracy is the way forward to impact our future prospects.

Total Words

784

Reading Time in Minutes

3

Key Takeaways:

  1. Citizen´s assembly
  2. Communal democracy
  3. Reinventing politics
  4. Environmental personhood

About David Iguaz:

  • Former archaeologist
  • Political end environmental activist

Contacting David Iguaz:

You can connect with David by email

By David Iguaz

I am not lazy, I am just a slow thinker. That is my excuse to leave the writing of this piece to the last minute and it certainly has its advantages. One of them is that it gives you more time to ponder about the ins and outs of drafting a readable essay. The other one is that the probabilities of getting lucky and stumble upon an inspirational event increase as times goes by. This is exactly what happened to me recently upon reading Roman Krznaric´s book “History for Tomorrow” which incidentally has some close parallels to my inner desires to improve my legacy potential and increase the chances to influence people around me. In another inspirational piece, Krznaric talks about the idea of the “Good Ancestor” which talks about how to come to terms with the state of things and understand how they will irreparably influence future generations. And in my view that is exactly the point, that is to ask how to repair the state of the two fundamental pillars of our civilization, politics and the environment. Both are crucial to our very survival as a species.

As far as the former is concerned Ireland is in the forefront of such a repair job with the adoption of the citizen´s assemblies. As Krznaric rightly puts it “Citizen´s assemblies seem to embody the very best of the communal democratic tradition”. This tradition has been going on for centuries, ever since the Athenian democracy in the 5th century BCE and has known enlightening examples such the Althing parliament in Iceland (930-1798 CE) and the Rhaetian Free State (1524-1799) whose legacy lives on in Switzerland which conducts more referendums than any other nation in the world. On the contrary Spain and Portugal, countries where I have lived most of my life, are still at the backwaters of such a movement and the degradation of the political and environmental situation in these countries creates the urgent need for a clear break of the actual status quo and towards the adoption of a more deliberative democracy.

I think it is fair to say that we are pillaging the inheritance of our descendants and colonising their future by carelessly dumping waste and consuming resources. Our future generations are being rendered powerless. There is hope however. There are signs that tides may be turning. For example the Future Design Movement in Japan is currently aiming at eliminating the short term cycles that dominate politics by drawing on the principle of 7th nation decision making practiced by many Indigenous American communities. They gather and 50% they have to imagine they are residents on the year 2060. These future residents advocate for more changes in their cities, from improvement in the health care system to climate change action: It is like a future citizen´s assembly to extend our vision far beyond the now.

This where the good ancestor in me comes to life. Having been positively influenced by these currents of thought I am now directly involved in the creation of a citizen´s assembly in an area North of Lisbon that will debate by mid-November the way forward to decontaminate two rivers and find solutions to reconvert the area so the local inhabitans may once more enjoy the natural habitat around them. We are still a long way away from granting legal personhood to Nature but a movement has started to do just that to River Whanganui in New Zealand or the Ganges in India. The organization Our Children´s Trust has filed a landmark case against the US government on behalf of 21 youngsters campaigning for their legal right to have a safe climate and healthy atmosphere for them and future generations.

We do not realize it but most of us are already involved in politics from the moment we step out of our doorsteps. When we engage in a conversation and exchange points of views with someone we do just that: politics. Unfortunately the word has become a swearword in today´s society thanks to the subversion of our flawed democratic system. It is our duty to change it in order to to revitalize democratic decision making and to turn electoral fundamentalism a relic of the past.

Let´s all become good ancestors within our possibilities and leave a long lasting legacy, shall we?

IS REALITY FOR REAL? #41 #cong23 #reality

Synopsis:

Is there really one reality?

Total Words

849

Reading Time in Minutes

3

Key Takeaways:

  1. Look
  2. Observe
  3. Ask
  4. Question

About David Iguaz:

Studied to be an archaeologist but circumstances steered me towards the ceramic industry in Portugal. Apart from my bread earner I try to be useful in environmental activism as well as to try and raise the political awareness of the population.

Contacting David Iguaz:

You can contact David by email.

By David Iguaz

I would like to start by apologising to the organisers and participants of this year´s edition of CONGREGATION for my late submission but only this weekend everything came together after a few months of reflecting on this nuclear subject. I did not want to write just anything to just satisfy Eoin and that of course meant some unbridled reflection on my part which requires some degree of not just free time but peace of mind as well.

It all came together somehow this weekend when I participated in this year´s EXODUS AVEIRO FEST which is a big get together of photojournalists and travellers that takes place every year in Aveiro on the north of Portugal where I have lived for the past 30 years. In a way it is a kind of visual CONGREGATION if you like.

The presentations I assisted made it very clear once more that the “reality” that the Western world lives in is very far away from the reality that countries outside this peculiar world actually live in. When you see images of dead whales stranded on the beach because of plastic poisoning, dead bodies on the street in Bucha, starving situations across the world, environmental catastrophes north and south and migrations crisis arising in every corner of the planet you continue wondering if the “reality” we live on in the western hemisphere and particularly in Europe is a reflection of the world as a whole.

Of course, is not but we Europeans tend to think it is because quite normally we unconsciously try and reflect our “reality” on everybody else and when the result does not come up to our expectations we somehow think that everybody else will sooner or later see the light of our “reality”. This idealist projection is a mental thriving force that keeps us going unconsciously mainly because we do not realize we live in a golden bubble. To see other widespread realities, we should ideally exit our comfort zones and get out onto the brave new world out there but I realize this is easier said than done. Funnily enough, the need to get out and see the other realities is becoming less needful since those other realities are knocking on our front door almost daily making the need of an actual trip outside our bubble almost useless. Climate change is one of those calling warnings. We do not need to go to Antarctica, Greenland or the South Pacific to feel the consequences of our actions. Pity we always have the comfort of our own homes to shield us from the everyday pain.

The fact that the news we receive everyday are a tiny representation of the truth does not help either. This of course varies from country to country. In Spain, where I am originally from, the news are more biased than the ones from Portugal but again it depends on the medium you get your information from.

At the end of the day, no matter where you live in this world, you should always assume that somebody somewhere is trying to manipulate you into their point of view.

To avoid that, one should always use two powerful tools at our disposal. They are simply two question words, made up of three letters each, they are the words WHY and HOW, and I firmly believe they are very powerful indeed. They are the ones that invariably spark our instinct and imagination and above all our curiosity. If you keep asking them long enough until you are satisfied you will eventually come up with a satisfying answer that will explain the reality at hand.

This is not very different from our teenage times when we were growing up. For some reason at one stage, we stopped asking those two simple questions which explains in a way why we find ourselves where we are today. History and Prehistory play a crucial role in finding some of those answers and imply looking back in order to understand where we are and where we are going (or should be going).

Observation is another powerful tool at our disposal and we should always use it and abuse it at will. Nowadays there is a lot of background noise in our brains and it prevents us from thinking clearly but in those cases, we should always fall back on the two words we spoke earlier. In theory, it should pave the way to make things clearer and simpler.

I would like to finish with a simple thought:

Realities are all around us, we should always strive to perceive the ones that matter.

Is there a Purpose to Find Purpose? #38 #cong22

Synopsis:

The world is what it is today mainly because many people have refused to accept things the way they are and keep trying finding answers to our everyday dilemmas. In such a process we may find the all desired purpose that has been waiting for us, only to find out that perhaps there is more than one.

Total Words

964

Reading Time in Minutes

4

Key Takeaways:

  1. Never supress curiosity
  2. Never be afraid to ask questions
  3. Keep an open mind while looking for a purpose in life
  4. There may be more than just one purpose.

About David Iguaz:

Studied to be an archaeologist but circumstances steered me towards the ceramic industry in Portugal. Apart from my bread earner I try to be useful in environmental activism as well as to try and raise the political awareness of the population.

Contacting David Iguaz:

You can contact David by email.
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By David Iguaz

Is there a purpose to our existence? If so, it seems sensible to try and find out what that would be. On the contrary if there isn’t one the whole exercise could prove in fact to be a little futile. However are we asking the right questions? and most importantly, do those questions matter? I am truly convinced that is always meaningful to keep asking questions even if that implies showing some degree of ignorance which for some reason sometimes goes hand in hand with a certain feeling of insecurity. When we are younger questions seem to be floating permanently in the air like pending questions marks which must be caught to further our understanding of our surroundings. From the moment we become aware of our surroundings we embark on a discovery quest which involves asking endless questions specially at an early stage in our lives when the world around us opens up and reveals parts of its secrets.

As life moves on the level of questioning seems to decrease proportionally to the ageing process. This process is a mystery to me. Maybe is due to increased awareness of our environment, social constraints or simply an admittance that things are just the way they are. In the long run this attitude of surrender can only have negative consequences for our mental wellbeing. If we still manage to keep an inquisitive mind that is. Otherwise, ignorance will be bliss. Albeit somewhat redundant we should also ask ourselves what purpose truly means. For simplicity´s sake let´s assume that it implies conceding meaning to our existence fulfilling objectives, desires and dreams conferring an overall sense of achievement.

Despite agreeing with Darwin as regards the fact that we are in this world to secure the survival of our very selves and ultimately the survival of our species and also the fact that we are here due to a long and complex evolutionary purpose that is part of an ongoing experiment, I also believe this is indissociable to the very nature of keeping asking questions and try and make sense of it all. Maybe if is just to achieve just that, our survival. I ignore if the constant surge of questions will tell us if there is a purpose to our existence, but one thing is for sure, not asking them will keep us further from finding out. The why and the how will always be powerful search tools.

To be perfectly honest with you I do not pretend to answer the question poised at the heading of the essay, but I sincerely hope that a hint will be construed by the end of it. One way to get there is to observe and carefully analyze everything that goes around you permanently. It may seem obvious but sometimes the trees do not let us see the forest. Believe me, observing is crucial to everything. This advice comes from someone who has been useless at it from most of his life. Without such a tool the questions will not arise, and we will fall into the generalized complacency that seems to be all around us nowadays. Three things that have helped me improve my observation abilities are undoubtedly travelling (in terms of a learning process as supposed from moving from one place to another oblivious to the signs around us), reading and living in diverse environments. All of them profusely. I admit there has been a certain degree of luck in such a journey although it must be said that some of that luck had to be found first. What I mean is that sometimes luck must be sought after and is not just always willing to knock at your door disinterested. Most of us do not realize how fortunate we are to be born in this wonderful part of the planet called Europe taking things for granted like living on much more than a mere 10 $ a day like 50% of our planet´s population. That should not stop us from trying to improve our lives and the lives of others continuously specially when it comes to inner knowledge.

The more that my life is lived the more I come to the conclusion that the means of trying to achieve meaning or purpose is as important as the end itself or perhaps even more. Again, complacency is always lurking in the background and we should always carry some level of dissatisfaction with us in order to push us harder and forward towards that goal. During the process of writing this paper I have come to realize that not only there is a purpose to what we do but there may be many purposes waiting for us out there. Finding purpose may well turn out to be a never-ending quest for the inquisitive mind. Nothing wrong with that.