My Fall Workshops, Lectures, Conferences

IFG Teach-In on CONFRONTING THE TRIPLE CRISIS
September 14-16, Washington DC
http://ifg.org/events/TripleCrisisUpdatedSchedule.pdf
My workshops are Sunday Morning

• Consumption Addiction with Thomas Princen and Michael Maniates
• "Rethinking Freedom in a World with Limits"
  
• We live in the era of limits, of the consequences of our actions, addictions and avoidances of the truth. Freedom as no limits, the American cowboy, cornucopia and individualist ethic, has hit a wall of reality. Oil, gas, water, fisheries, agricultural land are all stressed. The nation and individuals are so far in debt financially and ecologically that our "structural adjustments" will be fierce. And soon. The good news, though, is that life after excess will be better. Amazing breakthroughs can happen as we hit the reality wall if we know how to absorb the shock of limits and transform them. Authentic freedom is the mastery of limits. Facing the death of a way of life will take inner work as well as outer change. Getting sober after our addiction will return us to our families, communities and integrity. There are skills of feeling free in a finite world. We can practice stopping when we are stopped, looking at how we got here and the clear instructions written on the wall we just hit, and listening for wisdom to learn the lessons we need to live well locally... on less stuff ... but with a large spirit of possibility and opportunity. Activists who learn the concepts, tools, techniques and processes of liberation at limits will lead the way in their communities. Without facing limits and finding authentic freedom, all actors in the system will make matters worse.
  

WHAT'S THE ECONOMY FOR ANYWAY? CONFERENCE
October 5-7, Washington DC
http://www.timeday.org/economyconference/agenda.asp
Dare to ask the BIG QUESTION: What’s the economy for, anyway? Is it just about having the biggest GDP or the highest Dow Jones average? Or is it about providing for a healthy, happy, fair and sustainable society?

My lecture October 6 at 9 AM "What Does Freedom Mean?"

• Freedom as "no limits" is the toxic mindset that drives hyper-consumption, hyper-competition, hyper-individualism and hyper-speed. They all lead to "hyper-whatever", an inability to develop shared cultural values and a lax permission for consumerism and "more is better" to continue as our one shared story of the good life. "This is a free country" we say as though that entitled us to compete for the last ounce of goodness in the commons. But "freedom within limits" is actually and always the truth, and transforming our economy will come naturally as we understand our limits and work with them rather than straining against them. Insanity is trying to enact limitlessness - a spiritual truth - in the material world. America leads the world in this cowboy, cornucopia freedom. Our debt and domination of the rest of the world's resources is testimony to our failure to grow up and show up as a mature global player. The good news is that once you are clear about your limits, you are free to put them where they will channel the essential freedom at the heart of the Universe towards healthy ends - like shorter work time, healthy living, great relationships and lots of fun. We need to give up what we never had - the freedom to go beyond all limits.

GREEN FESTIVAL
October 5-7, Washington DC
My workshop is Saturday October 6^th at 3PM in room 204AB.

Speaking – and Listening – Across the Divides

Red-Blue. Rich-Poor. Culture wars. Nimby. Money. Power. Resources. The issues we care about most are dying on rhetorical battlefields. Are our efforts to fight pollution, corruption, destruction, genocide being lost because of our un-civil wars of words? How can we speak our truth without polarizing? How can we win without assassinating our adversaries in our minds – and words? What strategies work for softening rigidity and discovering fresh solutions? When have your ideas prevailed without antagonizing ‘the other’? Share your stories of speaking and listening across your front line divides. Learn ways to invite ‘the other’ into conversation, to pose questions that open minds and hearts, to turn down the heat when tempers flare, to turn polarization into inquiry and to move your message non-violently