[PAA-Discuss] Fw: The "Complaint-Free World" - the answer to allour problems

Mon May 14 16:07:49 EDT 2007

Like Carole (and very likely many others), I have had to question the notion 
of the 'movement' of 'no more complaining' in our world.  I can see how this 
could be very relevant on one level, that of a person whose 'complaint' is 
simply an expression of their discomfort with their 
judgment/evaluation/frustration/distaste/repugnance/dislike/anger/offense/hatred/hostility 
toward some environmental situation.  That situation may be the email 
sentence, a spoken statement, a visual portrayal, or even a gesture (e.g. 
middle finger salute).
   The significance to one person may be entirely different from that evoked 
in many others about the same stimulus.
   Now this may all sound like screwing around mentally, such that people 
who dislike investigating meanings will react with their own venomous 
retorts to those who do engage in this.
   I thought to m yself, why is it some reactions turn out to be useful and 
constructive, while others merely serve to add to the soup of negativity, 
with no positive action taken to alter the perceived reality that is 
identified as the source of the reaction one is having. Now I am here 
wishing to make a distinction, that for me makes a difference. To accept 
wholly the responsibility for one's reactions, one's perceptions, and one's 
'ownership' of the situation makes that person not a complainer/whiner but 
rather one who is a 'seeker'. That seeker differs from the whiner in one 
significant way, and perhaps many others as well.
  That significant difference is in how you take it upon yourself to 
communicate in an advocacy position for the reality that you stand for, and 
for how your recognition of what others may simply be whining about is part 
of a positive intention. Thgis intenetion may be in a state of fundamental 
being, and range to being in a fully expressed and articulated state. That 
state is the one driving your choices and your actions. The intention to 
bring about the world you stand for, for which you willingly put yourself 
ont he line, is an act of creation and courage. The courage to face the 
slings and arreows of those who dislike those of us who say "No, we do not 
accept this situation that is manuifestly one of uncaring, or even worse 
hatred of some of us in our world. That kind of declaration is absolutely in 
my mind an honorable act, and deserving of respect, for the one who lives 
upon some principles unlike the complainer/whiner. Not that you are better 
than those, rather you are different in your willingness to assert your vote 
for a world that has qualities different than those about which so many 
expend so much energy from the point of view of one helpless about that 
which evoked their complaint. Their complaint in a way is a mindset that so 
many things trigger that soon there is no room for affirmative action, for 
peaceful behaviors, for goodness to show, for kindness to express, for 
gentle nurturance of one in distress or in poverty of mind, spirit or 
finances.
We can share our desires and encouragement for their highest good, and the 
realization that there are choices they have, and power to express 
themselves positively about that which they now seem simply and helplessly 
complaining.
   My 2 cents worth.
  I know the place of the whiner and that of responsible action-taker.
   I wish us all to have the blessings that can make our world one of agape 
love and care.
Joseph Kaye

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----Original Message Follows----
From: carolekeene at juno.com
To: discuss at paa-tx.org
Subject: [PAA-Discuss] Fw: The "Complaint-Free World" - the answer to allour 
problems
Date: Mon, 14 May 2007 09:00:21 -0500

This is an interesting take on something that I had originally thought
was a good idea...but for reasons not really articulated by this author.
I am now quite interested in viewing Sally's documentary.
Hmmm...
Carole
--------- Forwarded message ----------
From: dave at reststop.net

------- Forwarded message follows -------

http://carolynbaker.org/archives/how-i-learned-to-stop-complaining-and-lo
ve-fascism-by-sally-erickson

HOW I LEARNED TO STOP COMPLAINING AND LOVE FASCISM,
By Sally Erickson
May 08, 2007

Sally Erickson and Tim Bennett are producers of "What A Way To Go: Life
At The
End Of Empire"--a documentary I can't stop being excited about.  They
will soon
begin and East Coast screening tour of the film to be followed later this
year
by a West Coast tour.  Carolyn Baker

Nobody wants to be a complainer.

It´s not cool. It´s not empowered. It´s not enlightened. It´s not
positive or
proactive. It´s certainly not attractive or sexy. Complaining is almost
as
unattractive as whining, but not quite.

Lucky for us, someone has started a movement to stop all this
unattractive and
negative complaining. It´s called The Complaint Free World movement. The
man
who started it is Will Bowden. He is the pastor of a Unity Church in
Kansas.
And he´s been on Oprah.

 >From Oprah´s website: "It´s like if you´re not articulating the
complaint, if
your complaint has no where to go, your mind stops creating the
complaint." And
what´s the difference between a comment and a complaint? "If you´re
putting a
lot of energy into it, if you want it changed, you´re complaining."

By that definition, our documentary What A Way To Go is soundly guilty of

the label "complaint" and Tim and I are master complainers. Going on four

years now, we´ve put huge amounts of energy into research, writing,
production and now promotion of what Marc Maximov called "a bleak,
relentless, ecological horror film."

And we aren´t apologizing or protesting such a description. In fact, when
I
read the review to Tim we donned big smiles. We will use Maximov´s words
in our
promotional literature.

Now I learn that despite our best efforts to incite and support
complainers,
The Complaint Free World movement is growing. 4,062,000 little purple
plastic
bracelets have been distributed to 78 countries. Sixty six newspapers
have run
articles about it. And if you want to join the movement, you too can
obtain a
free purple plastic bracelet of your very own, embossed with the words "A

Complaint Free World."

This is a dangerous movement.

This movement aids and abets the Culture of Denial, the real religion of
the well-fed and well-entertained masses of Americans. The Culture of
Denial poses a greater threat to life on the planet than terrorism. After

all, terrorism threatens only rich, First World human beings. The Culture

of Denial, of which the Complaint Free World movement is a branch
congregation, threatens to eradicate most life on the planet as we
mindlessly continue to spew carbon atoms into the atmosphere at ever
increasing rates as if there were no tomorrow.

Do you know that carbon emissions climbed again in this last year,
despite the
fact that "An Inconvenient Truth" won the Academy Award for Best
Documentary?

The inconvenient truth is, at some point there will be no tomorrow if we
keep this up.

The Complaint Free World movement is dangerous in the same way that many
pseudo-
spiritual systems are dangerous. These thought systems suggest that there
is
nothing wrong outside of the individual. They proffer the idea that we
are each
individually and solely responsible for our suffering. They suggest that
the
world out there is fine, that it is our own limited thoughts and beliefs
that
create our reality.

Thus, we are advised to change our thoughts and everything will be fine.
Bring
God into your heart, cheer up, be good, be nice, stop complaining and
step
outside the bounds of time and space and everything will turn out okay
after
all. You were just dreaming the 90% reduction (otherwise called
"population
collapse") of large fish in the ocean. You just had it conjured up in
your
little mind that the glaciers that used to provide fresh water and
reflect
sunlight have all but melted. Clean up your thinking folks. It´s all you
complainers´ fault that we are losing more than 200 species a day. So
stop your
damn complaining!

Let´s think about this.

A complaint, as defined by the dictionary I recently discovered on my
iMac is
"a statement that a situation is unsatisfactory or unacceptable."

What happens then if we eliminate complaints from the world?

It´s pretty simple and pretty sad. We stop speaking up about situations
that
are unsatisfactory or unacceptable. Like global warming, like top soil
loss and
degradation, like toxic waste in our air, water and furniture. Like
epidemic
cancer rates.

We stop examining and talking about what is oppressive, destructive and
life threatening. We effectively repress whatever is unsatisfactory or
unacceptable. In the words of the good pastor we stop "articulating the
complaint," and "if your complaint has no where to go, your mind stops
creating the complaint."

What happens when we do that?

In psychological terms we would call that repression or denial. In
political
terms, that would be called fascism. My trusty dictionary confirms this.
Fascism is "any movement, tendency, or ideology that favors dictatorial
government, centralized control of private enterprise, repression of all
opposition..." Do I think the pastor of that Unity church is a fascist?

Of course not. I´d probably even like him. If I asked him to sit with me
and talk and grieve about the loss of the life-support systems on the
planet, he´d probably say something like "Yeah, it´s really sad."

My guess is that the good pastor believes that if he can get people to
stop
complaining about the little stuff that they will feel better about
themselves
and so be in a better position to do something about the big issues.

There may be some truth in that. But I wonder. I wonder if people just
end up
repressing how they really feel and retreat into a kind of spiritual
la-la
land, out of touch with the realities of their bodies and the world, out
of
touch with their need for a real voice in the world, lost in passive
hoping for
a better tomorrow.

I often say to Tim, "Let´s not throw the baby out with the bathwater." No

matter how stinking and polluted the bathwater is, I like to make sure
there
isn´t a brilliant baby in there struggling for breath. I look for the
baby
before we sling the bathwater into the hazardous waste lagoon. But it is
equally important to take note of the very real and toxic pollution in
the
bathwater. The quantities of denial and fuzzy thinking that permeate the
bathwater of The Complaint Free World movement, look pretty toxic. The
baby may
already have suffocated.

I´ve thought about issuing a general disclaimer to my blog posts. This is

what it would be:

"No matter what I write here, and no matter how emphatically I write it,
be
advised that I am always open to examine and suspend my assumptions. I´m
always
open to listen to other´s points of view, if those people with different
points
of view will likewise agree to examine and suspend their assumptions.
This is
the crux of true dialogue."

That being said, I will state:

"It is unacceptable for one species to destroy the world. It is not
satisfactory. I don´t approve. It does not please me. "

If that makes me a complainer, so be it. I´ll pass on the purple
bracelet.

------- End of forwarded message -------

_dave_(peace _on_ Earth requires peace _with_ Earth)
http://www.reststop.net/NCEP/index.html
http://www.attractionretreat.org/
Catalyzing personal healing, cultural transformation, and planetary
sustainability

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