Banksy and the Power of Saying What’s True

[00:00:00]I've long been someone who, if you said to me, "Marianne, who do you think the greatest genius is who is in the public eye working on the planet today?"

[00:00:10]I would say the artist Banksy.

[00:00:13]And today I had the good fortune of seeing an exhibit of his work in London.

[00:00:18]He is I don't think anybody on the planet names it the way he does.

[00:00:23]He just it's a truth-teller on the most grand scale, his art.

[00:00:30]It's unsparing, but at the same time it's very loving.

[00:00:34]He is unsparing about the catastrophic results of unfettered consumerism, Western imperialism on every level, late-stage capitalism, all of that stuff.

[00:00:50]And yet he's such a moral voice. He makes it so clear what this is doing to, particularly children. He clearly has a love of children.

[00:01:00]And you know, you can't argue with him.

[00:01:02]It's like it's so obvious that everything he's saying is correct.

[00:01:06]In the meantime, with or without Banksy, we know what's going on now.

[00:01:11]I think many people realize that this is the karmic payback of decades of irresponsibility on the part of huge powers, particularly the powers actually of the United States, so much of the West. I'm not saying other parts of human civilization don't have their issues, because they do, but for many of us we know that our issue addresses this one here.

[00:01:37]So we need to hunker down for the storm now. There's no longer any preventing of the storm. I I was very aware of the storm that was coming, and many people were, and we talked about it and all of that stuff, but the systems economic, political, and social that prevail were so resistant to real mitigation of the trajectory that led to all this. That now all we can do is mitigate the effects of the storm while we're going through it. In the Course of Miracles, it says it's not up to you what you learn, it's merely up to you whether you learn through joy or through pain.

[00:02:10]America was going to be brought to its knees, the way we operate both domestically among ourselves, towards the earth, and towards other nations as well, had become so to say irresponsible means unnatural, so lacking in ethics, so lacking in true moral vision, true so lacking in adherence to our own principles. So, now we're learning uh America has to fall to its knees.

[00:02:39]And we should have lived from that more humble place before, and now we are what we are.

[00:02:43]Contrition, remorse, sober understanding that most of us in some way or another were complicit simply through our complacency, through our willingness to look the other way.

[00:02:58]Anybody wanted the information knew uh the suffering that was going on on the other side of town just so that we could live decent lives, the suffering was going on on the other side of the world just so we could live decent lives.

[00:03:09]And now we must course correct. But it's no longer a time when it's, you know, it's easy enough to attack here, attack there.

[00:03:19]Uh we're this is kind of like when, you know, the hurricane's here and have to take care of each other while it's happening. We have to do everything possible to save that which remains.

[00:03:30]Um last thing we want to do is come up with escapegoats that are so uh that are so prevalent now. On the right, they have their favorite scapegoats. On the left, they have their favorite scapegoats. Scapegoating, scapegoating.

[00:03:44]It's when we look to one group of people or one um whoever it is that in that particular time and place is like it's all their fault. Well, it's not all their fault.

[00:03:54]It's all our fault. And we are responsible. And now, as [snorts] each of us in contrition and in remorse and in genuine and humble willingness to be the people and to be the nation that we are capable of being as we pray for that in our own way. And ask how we can serve this moment, how we can help elevate this situation in order to have as harmless a transition as possible. And so that we can give birth to a very, very beautiful new chapter of human civilization. And for those of us who are Americans, a beautiful new chapter in our history as well. This does not have to lead to this mass dystopia which some people are seeking to foist upon us. A tsunami is coming. It's either going to be a tsunami of darkness or a tsunami of light. It's either going to be a chapter of dystopia beyond well, sort of in keeping with the worst nightmares that we're already seeing take shape. Or bursting into an age of sustainability and evolutionary potential that is more beautiful than anything we can imagine.

[00:04:58]So, let's go for that.