Currently reading “The Book” by Alan Watts – a stunning essay on “the taboo against knowing who you are.”
In particular, he offers a devastating critique for any looking to “change the world”:
“The startling truth is that our best efforts for civil rights, international peace, population control, conservation of natural resources, and assistance to the starving of the earth -urgent as they are – will destroy rather than help if made in the present spirit.
For, as things stand, we have nothing to give.
If our own riches and our own way of life are not enjoyed here, they will not be enjoyed anywhere else. Certainly they will supply the immediate jolt of energy and hope that methedrine, and similar drugs, give in extreme fatigue. But peace can be made only by those who are peaceful, and love can be shown only by those who love.
No work of love will flourish out of guilt, fear, or hollowness of heart, just as no valid plans for the future can be made by those who have no capacity for living now.”
View more Alan Watts clips here.
Ian MacKenzie is a filmmaker based in Vancouver, BC. He shoots video journalism, documentary films, and original webseries, with a focus on "new paradigm" thinkers, artists, and activists. 
