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 _