She further observes that when we vanquish the inner predator, we are "filled with intensity, vitality and drive"; for we have taken back from him what he stole from us: "vigor and substance." She suggests that we can then transform the predator's rage into "a soul-fire" for accomplishing visionary projects in the world. We can transform his cunning craftiness into insight and assessment of things from a distance, which gives us a choice about whether or how to get involved. His killing nature can be transformed into discrimination about what to let go of and leave behind. And the predator demon's stubborn refusal to give in can become our own refusal to give in to him!
The next question is, 'But what about Bush & Co. and the capitalist elites they represent? How do we deprive them of their murderous energy?' Obviously we have to dismember them in consciousness, and expose them in whatever ways we can. There is much work of this kind being conducted collectively right now, such as efforts to prevent and counter election fraud, to charge Bush and Rumsfeld with war crimes, to impeach Bush and Cheney, and to reopen the 9/11 investigation. Efforts on internet news sites and blogs to expose the truth about the state of the United States and the world have exploded in recent years, thanks to Bush & Co. A great deal of creative work has emerged through books, websites, radio programs and documentary films. All of this is raising consciousness and changing minds, despite appearances. To me this is evidence that the consciousness revolution is in progress.
But even if Bush & Co. hadn't managed to steal the last two elections, the predator demon that has been acting through global elites for a long, long time would still need to be dismantled and exposed. Bush & Co. are merely the most virulent and flagrant representatives of Western Civilization's predator demon and the collective delusion that it has fomented, like a miasmal fog, over human consciousness. Efforts to vanquish the pathology of the global economic system still have a long way to go.
The mind of a bigot is like the pupil of the eye; the more light you pour upon it the more it will contract. — Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Naomi Wolf’s The End of America and Naomi Klein’s The Shock Doctrine, both published in 2007, are exactly the kind of work that needs to be done to expose America’s predator demon. Likewise, John Perkins’ earlier Confessions of an Economic Hitman exposes the way the entire enterprise of American imperialism has been conducted over previous decades. Perkins’ book was the first time a former insider disclosed the covert operations of the predator demon within the global economy.
As with many other former government insiders who have written exposés in the last few years, Perkins was stricken with conscience. All of this work of exposing and dismembering is essential and healthy and will eventually yield results. It is central to humanity’s collective initiation rite and must continue until the current predator culture is completely vanquished. Until that time, the world will never be at peace.
How do we refuse to comply with the predator demon in global capitalism and economic globalization? The global economy depends ultimately on two things: ‘consumer confidence’ and our fear of not playing the consumer game. Since we comply with this system as long as we believe in it and give it our attention, time and dollars, we must withdraw our attention, time, money and energy from the corporate-driven consumer society as much as possible. This means turning off the damned TV with its constant barrage of commercials that colonize our minds. It means refusing to shop and eat at chain stores, and giving our business to independent progressive enterprises instead. It means kicking the shopping addiction altogether. It means going organic wherever possible. Voluntary simplicity doesn't give the predator demon much to chew on, and it frees up time and energy for collective efforts to create sustainable alternatives. Of course, resistance through organized boycotts of major corporations is effective and can become even more so.
