The Power of Individual Choice
Life at its fundamental core is about choice. Each one of us has to make a choice at some point about how we are going to live. Are we going to live our lives at the sufferance of the planet host or are we going to get in sync with the plan of the planet? As Daniel Quinn so eloquently points out in his writings (Ishmael, The Story of B, etc.), the Taker culture will continue to usurp control of the food supply in order to ensure that the human species can proliferate, regardless of all other life on the planet or the environment. Takers hold the view that the world belongs to them, their divinely appointed destiny is to conquer and rule it and their way is the only "right way". Leavers, on the other hand, are humans who consciously choose to serve the earth, living in such a way that they seek to minimize their impact on the environment, modifying their lifestyle in order to preserve natural resources. They are people who do not seek to follow personal will, but rather to serve the planet’s evolution.
The current strategy of developing faster and more efficient ways to grow and produce food is getting more insane, consequently contributing to the explosion of the population. The answer is not to produce more cattle and grain or altering the genetics of plants to resist bacteria and pests; the answer is to stop expanding, let the dust settle and get back into the flow of nature.
It is here that individual choice becomes crucial. Society is not going to change any time soon. The karmic wheels are already in motion. The future is bleak. At the present rate of expansion, some have said we have only about 50 years before the population doubles and triples, causing a devastating consequence to future generations and the planet. The answer lies in the power of individual choice, personal life decisions that will disentangle the nemesis caused by the Taker society.
How can the planet handle 12 billion people, 20 billion, 25 billion? How many more cars are we going to produce? How many more landfills? How are we going to wash away the sewage of that many people, and where? Think about it! The choices we make right now about lifestyle, food, fuel consumption and entertainment are going to affect everything in the future.
The Taker mentality is all about control. That’s it in a nutshell. It’s not about care-taking and respect for the planet. It’s about personal will, personal evolution, expanding, even to the point of colonizing space and other planets…dominion and conquering…and yet, we can’t even master ourselves and our insatiable desires.
Life is about choosing between personal will or planetary evolution. Personal will says, "I want a big house and a nice car and lots of money and a big piece of land…I want security…I want to see the world, have fun… I want control of my life. I want to be comfortable". Planetary evolution says, "My life is about harmony with this planet…how can I live differently in alignment with the earth, in all aspects of my life?" The Takers, those with the power and the money and the control of the food supply are abusing this planet. Takers want to improve themselves; Leavers want to serve. That’s the difference.
"Social consciousness" is the term we use to describe the Taker mentality of living under the programming of society, which promotes personal evolution rather than planetary service. "Primal consciousness", on the other hand, is about making choices from a higher, non-personal perspective…in consideration of the environment and the planet. As we’ve said before, "the plan of the planet is in its’ plants". The survival of all physical life on earth depends on how we choose to live on a personal level, which has a rippling effect reaching all the way to the survival of the plant life on this planet. (Read Diet for a New America: How Your Food Choices Affect Your Health, Happiness and the Future of Life on Earth, by John Robbins.)
Unfortunately, in modern developed world , the term "environmentalist" has a nasty connotation to it. Environmentalists are regarded as wackos, misunderstood as people who want to mess up jobs and productivity in order to save the whales and the spotted owls. What other conclusion can one expect from an immature Taker mentality? It’s wise not to resist or lobby against these issues, but instead, to make responsible individual choices about the way we live our everyday lives.
For example, Sun Bear, a Native American elder who founded the Bear Tribe back in the 1970’s, taught a valuable lesson. There were a few members of his community who were outraged by the destruction that was being caused by a local utility company. They were asking him why he wasn’t telling people to protest the "big business monster" in order to save the environment. Sun Bear said, "Do you really want to stop that power company?" "Of course", they said, "yes, we do!" So Sun Bear walked over to the light switch and turned if off and said, "there, that’s how you stop them".
The more we resist anything, the more power we give it. The way to effect change is to make individual choices by considering the environmental impact and then seek to minimize that impact as much as possible. For example, we mentioned in our essay, Why I Chose the Simple Life, that Federal Income Taxes go toward dropping bombs and building nuclear weapons instead of dropping seeds. The only way to legally not pay so much in taxes is by earning less, specifically, below the poverty level (less than $18,000 per year.) That is a practical solution, but to do that requires a radical change in lifestyle, developing specific life skills that enable one to utilize such a strategy. Of course, we realize that this is not appealing to the vast majority, but none-the-less, it is a realistic answer. Yet how many people are willing to give up their personal desires in order to serve the planet? Probably not many.
Another answer is to radically change ones eating habits from commercially grown meat, dairy and non-organic cooked grains to a diet of sprouted seeds, grasses, fresh raw fruits and vegetables, and home grown, wild or free-range dehydrated meat. The Taker society has its’ expansive roots in agriculture and conquest, of mowing down the diversity of species in favor of only a few, such as wheat, rice and corn. As more and more people depend upon those huge corporations that grow the food, individual choice and freedom will continue to diminish. The answer is to choose to eat differently, to curb the gluttonous and insatiable cooked grain addiction. Learn to eat more simple, basic foods.
And what about our water supply? Living beings cannot live without clean water. Life would cease to exist if not for rain, rivers, lakes and oceans. And yet people continue to defecate and urinate in the water supply daily. Every time you flush a toilet, you contribute to the death of the planet. Can you imagine yourself looking into a clean bucket filled with 3 gallons of crystal clear water and then turning around and defecating in it? That sounds crazy, doesn’t it? It would totally ruin the water. But that’s what billions of people do every day when the toilets are flushed. And where does that polluted, toxic water go? It goes right back into the water supply, back into our rivers, lakes and oceans which is totally irresponsible. So what is the solution? One answer is to compost the "humanure" as it is done in nature. Here again, that’s not likely to happen on a grand scale anytime soon.

Individual choice is very important. There is no way one cannot choose. Each volition comes with a resulting effect. That is why it is so powerful. The world we experience is the result of what we have made collectively.