Idea Title:  Renunciation

"Renunciation is the only form of action that is not degrading." Anathemas and Admirations E.M. Cioran This quote has stuck with me ever since I found it somewhere over 20 years ago. I looked up the words "Renunciation" and "Degrading" and found that it is logically absolute: To accept a thing is to change the nature of the thing that does the accepting, thus inherantly "debasing" it.

What does that have to do with Empowerment?

It boils down to the idea behind Boycott, but is more profound than that. It means that in order to maintain integrity, one must eschew things offered and forced upon oneself. It means taking responsibility for what you “want.” It means choosing to be without and not thinking of that as a “sacrifice...”

It is a spiritual thing, a more than ideological reason not to buy Coke, or Gasoline, or take work from Nuclear Waste producing industries. The reward for adopting this philosophical attitude is more than a political gain—it is to realize one’s power by refusing to accept debasement.

The power that is held currently by the WalMarts and GW Bushes and Bin Ladens of the world depends completely on all of us acceeding to their offerings… if more of us would learn to be happy without the tempting goodies they offer and not be scared by the threatening risks they direct at us, their power would diminish. A new space would open: the space in which love, justice and peace could flourish.