by Werner Erhard

You and I want our lives to matter. We
want our lives to make a real difference-to be
of genuine consequence in the world. We
. know that there is no satisfaction in merely
going through the motions, even if those mo-
tions make us successful or even if we have
arranged to make those motions pleasant. We

want to know we have had some impact on
- the world. In fact, you and I want to con-
- tribute to the quality of life. We want to make
_ the world work. -
When you look at making the world work,
_ you are confronted by, and cannot pass over,
the fact that each year 15 million of us die as
a consequence of starvation. This unparal-
leled failure for humanity enables us to see
that the world’s unworkability is located in
_ the very condition in which we live our lives.
_ Thus, it is not people "out there" who are
starving; people are starving "here"-in the
space in which you and I live. You and I are
working to make our lives work in the same
condition that results in hunger and starva-
tion.

Starvation both maintains and dramatizes
a world that does not work. Persisting
throughout history, it has accounted for more
deaths and suffering than all epidemics,
_ wars, and natural disasters combined. During
_ the past five years alone, more people have
died as a consequence of starvation than from
all the wars, revolutions, and murders of the
past 150 years. As you read this, 28 people
are dying in our world each minute as a con-
_ sequence of hunger, three-quarters of them

children.

_ The bare statistics are so shocking that we
rarely examine the further impact of starva-
tion on our own lives. Hunger, by its persist-
ence, seems to invalidate that our lives could
_ matter. It seems to prove that we are capable
_ only of gestures. It suppresses the space in
which each of us lives.

Yet, precisely because the impact of star-
vation on our lives is so great, its existence is
actually an opportunity. It is an opportunity
to get beyond merely defending what we
have, beyond the futility of self-interest,
_ beyond the hopelessness of clinging to
- opinions and making gestures.

In fact, in experiencing the truth underly-
_ ing hunger, one comes to realize that the or-
dinarily unnoticed laws that determine the
persistence of hunger on this planet are
precisely the laws that keep the world from
_ working. And the principles of the end of
_ hunger and starvation in the world are the
very principles necessary to make the world

 

   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
   
   
 

Victor Hugo said, essentially, that all the

forces in the world are not so powerful as an
| idea whose time has come.....
_When the time for things comes, the for-
_ ces in the world are transformed so that in-
stead of what you do being unworkable, what
you do works. And you do what works.

The Wright brothers would have died
bicycle merchants had flight not been an idea
_ whose time had come.

If you understand this, you begin to under-

Protect Yourself

by Chief John Snow

The idea of the elder as one who is filled
| with wisdom has diappeared from the

whiteman’s thinking. Instead, he relies on

_|igrant culture worshipping technology as
_ | though it were a god.
"| Technology is not wisdom. With technol-
| ogy it is possible to build things and build
‘them bigger-machines and roads, bridges,
_| dams and buildings. With technology it is
| possible to drill deeper for oil and gas, make
| bigger mines for iron and coal, and exploit
| the soil and the forests more thoroughly. This

science. Today the Indian people see the im- .

stand why things in the world have
progressed as they have. In 1800, slavery in
this country, exactly like hunger around the
world today, was seen as inevitable. The at-
titude was: “When you’ ve got human beings,
one is going to dominate the other."

Remember, it doesn’t make any dif-
ference what those forces were: psychologi-
cal, economic, political. The consensus
among people was that slavery was a func-
tion of inevitability. In addition, those people
knew that the economy of the country would
collapse without slaves. Everybody would be
damaged, even the slaves themselves. It was
better to be good to your slaves than end
slavery. Besides which, if we ended slavery,
all those blacks would overrun the country
and play havoc with the white citizenry.
Everyone knew you could not end slavery.
You just couldn’t do ti.

But when that idea’s time came, slavery
ended. Now, in the case of slavery, it took a
cataclysm. When something’s time comes, it
takes whatever form is available to it, and it
happens.

It is nota solution which makes something
happen. It is its time coming which makes the
space for creative solutions and enables the
solutions you use to work.

If you have traveled in Asia or Africa in
the past, you know that smallpox was a
scourge there. People died from it. They were
disfigured by it. Recently, there have been
signs in red on the walls of towns in Asia, of-
fering a sizeable reward to anyone who lets
the health authorities know about a case of
fever and spots.

Nobody collected those rewards while I
was in Asia the last time. Why? Because, for
all practical purposes, there is no more
smallpox on this planet. It was not the solu-
tion that ended smallpox. We have had the
solution to the end of smallpox-the vaccine-
for over 150 years.

As anybody who has worked with the
problem or studied the problem knows,
smallpox persisted, not because of a lack of
solutions, but because of the economic,
political, sociological, psychological forces
in the world. For example, we couldn’t get
into some countries because they didn’t want
any outside help. Some people didn’t want to
be vaccinated. And so forth. But somehow
smallpox ended when the time came for it to
end.

When an idea’s time comes, whatever you
do works, and you do what works....

An idea’s time comes when it is trans-
formed from content into context...

Context is not dependant on something
outside itself for existence; it is whole and
complete in itself and, as a function of being
whole, it allows for, it generates parts- that is
to say, it generates content. Content is a
piece, a part of the whole; its very nature is
partial. Context is the whole; its nature is
complete...

When an idea is transformed from content
to context, then it is an idea whose time has
come....

On May 25, 1961, President John F. Ken-
nedy initiated a context when he told con-

can be good; but without the application
of wisdom in its use, technology will only
change our world into a vast quarry which
provides material for great factories while
the people live in cities which resemble
mighty beehives. Only wisdom can harness
technology so that man can build a better
world where people can live in pride,
freedom, dignity, equality, and brotherhood.
My people must never lose their respect for
the wisdom of the elders, wisdom which will
balance all human activity. My people say:
"If you destroy nature and the environment,
you ,are destroying yourself. But if you
protect the environmentand safeguard the
water,ultimately you are protecting your-

 

gress: "This nation should commit itself to
achieving the goal, before this decade is out,
of lading a man on the moon and returning
him safely to the earth."

By creating the context, "A man on the
moon in 10 years," Kennedy transformed
space travel from merely a good idea-which
had not succeeded despite considerable at-
tempts, the feasibility of which had been
questioned, argued, and discussed-into an
idea whose time had come...

It is important to get that opposing posi-
tions actually contribute to establishing a
context. In the case of the civil rights move-
ment during the 1960’s, for example, all
those people who opposed civil rights for
blacks actually contributed to creating a na-
tional dialogue that demonstrated to the
country that the issue could no longer be ig-
nored. Every government official in the
South who stood in the doorway of a school
and prevented black children from entering
had been a cause, a part of the persistence, of
the problem, of oppression. After the crea-
tion of a context- "equal rights and dignity fir
blacks"-the very same action that had been a
part of the problem’s persistence became an
action contributing to the end of legal dis-
crimination against minority races.Then,
every such action contributed to an increased
awareness of the issue, to the passage of civil
rights legislation, and to the gradual change
in attitude that ultimately evidenced itself in
the recognition that civil rights was an idea
whose time had come....

Every action taken in acontext is a fulfill-
ment of, an expression of, and a manifesta-
tion of that context. The pessimism, the
cynicism; the position, "It can’t be done," are
ground up by the process generated by the
context, and are transformed into the
material out of which the result is achieved.
When an idea is transformed so that the ap-
parently opposing idea actually validates and
gives expression to the idea, then it is an idea
whose time has come...

There isn’t a person reading this who does
not know the power of context in his or her
own life. Whether you were conscious of ti
or not at the time, there have been times when
you created a context in your life. As a con-
sequence of your doing so, suddenly things
started to work: That which previously did
not work, that which was stuck and not
moving, suddenly began to move and start
working. When you create a context, it’s not
that you are now doing something very much
different from what you were doing before or
even that you now know something very
much different from what you knew before.
It is the shift in climate, the space-specifical-
ly, the context-in which you work, that
makes things suddenly workable...

Until now, each time someone died as a
consequence of starvation, that death was
further evidence of the persistence of hunger
and starvation. The instant you create a con-
text-the end of hunger and starvation on the
planet-then deaths resulting from starvation
occur in that context, and suddenly the same
deaths that had been a manifestation of the
persistence of the problem become a

self." Wisdom harnessed with technology
can go a long way in creating a better social
order, a world in which all creation can sur-
vive and enjoy life to the fullest.

As I look across the beautiful valley, it
seems as if I am looking across the next one
hundred years. I am reassured about the fu-
ture because I have great faith in the Great
Spirit, the Creator, and I am reminded of the
words of the Hebrew prophet of odl and I
repeat:

They that wait upon the Great Spirit shall
renew their strength,

They shall mount up with wings as eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,

They shall walk and not faint.(Is. 40:31)

“and languages who live on this Great Island|

 

~THE END OF STARVATION:

| CREATING AN IDEA WHOSE TIME HAS COME

manifestation of, virtually a contribution to,
the end of the problem.

When a space in which something hap-
pens is transformed, the same happening
takes on a different meaning and therefore
leads to a different result. No one would ask
anyone to die as a contribution toward the
end of death-and it is a fact that when you
create a context around death and make that
context real, it does shift and result of the
event.

A person can die as evidence of the per-
sistence of hunger and starvation, in which
case that person’s life and death have been
reduced to meaninglessness. A person can
die in the context of the end of hunger and
starvation, and the context affords meaning-
almost purpose-to that life and death....

I know that underneath our facades, un-
derneath the junk that we bother ourselves
with in life, right underneath the surface-and
I have been underneath the surface of tens of
tens of thousands of people-is the experience
of an innate and natural responsibility for the
world in which we live. It is not something
you have to jam in there or convince people
of.

I want to convince you of nothing. I have
nothing to convince you of. The experience
of responsibility already exists within your-
Self. The Hunger Project is a natural conse-
quence of the experience of individual and
personal responsibility, of yourSelf’s ex-
perience that hunger and starvation exist in
your space, in your world.

Now as a practical expression of that, you
will ask:"What can I do?" The Hunger
Project does not answer that for you. It goes
out of its way to not answer that question for
you. Instead, it creates a context in which you
get to answer that question yourself, so that
the answer is your own answet....

I talked to about 40,000 people in a series
of presentations of The Hunger Project in
September and October of 1977. Those
40,000 people experienced alignment and
began to talk to tens of thousands of other
people, who, in turn, have enrolled tens of
thousands who are now enrolling hundreds
of thousands. The Hunger Project will con-
tinue to grow exponentially because people
want to make a difference in the world, and —
are naturally committed to making the end of
hunger and starvation an idea whose time has
come."

About The Hunger Project

In study after study, prestigious interna-
tional commissions have come to one con-
clusion: Humanity now possesses the resour-
ces, technology and know-how to end
hunger. The key ingredient missing is the
will to act on that ability, to actually bring
hunger to an end.

The work of The Hunger Project is to
generate that will, that global commitment to
eliminate the persistence of hunger and star-
vation by the end of this century.

Hunger will end by
the end of this century.

The old path is a proven path to travel on,
it has withstood the test of time, not over cen-
turies, but over thousands of years.This is the
path my ancestors walked and it shall be the
path my future generations will walk on and
on and on. It is the path of the Great Spirit,
the Creator.

Our proud history is unequalled and un-
surpassed on this Great Island. Each of us can
hold his or her head high, as one of the
original people of this beautiful land, and
say, "Iam an Indian."The Stoney philosophy
of living in harmony with nature and in ac-
cord with the creations of the Great Spirit
will be the theme of many peoples, cultures,

 

in the future _