Only life matters.

The world creates and sustains us, giving most of us all we need to thrive physically. Humans have one thing to give in return, and that is love.

I’m not speaking of love the emotion, neither the sexual eros nor the affectionate philia . Whether we are their subject or object, these types of love happen to us. I’m talking about willful love, which takes our time, energy, and being and is an expression of our moral values to the world. This willful love goes by many names, agape or charity in Christian thought, mettā or loving-kindness in Buddhism. It is the act of giving part of yourself for the benefit of another. (We won’t get into self-love here since this page is about activism.)

As we mature, we realize that living for oneself, no matter how right and fulfilling it may feel at times, is insufficient. We know instinctively that a man who has lived only for himself has not lived a good life. We know that our time here is limited and our essence is one of change. We see many focused tightly on themselves, trying to sustain and hold constant what they believe to be their essence, saving themselves for themselves, but they are chasing shadows.

Wisdom consists partly in embracing change as the only constant in life, letting it inform us of our own nature and of the limited time we have to express ourselves. The truth, as nature shows us clearly, is that there is no discrete and static I, only a progression of changes we identify as our self, and that there is a point in this change when consciousness dissolves and we return physically to the earth.

My thesis here is that since there is no way to preserve ourselves, that the self is only an illusion and our consciousness limited, we are most alive when we partake in the larger project of life by devoting ourselves to others so that our will is useful for the benefit of the whole.

You can live for an idea (or set of ideas), someone close to you, a species of animals. There are many worthy objects of your love. The only requirement is that you live to support life. Few of us have the means, will or focus to devote ourselves completely to our object, but all of us can devote ourselves in part.

For those of us fortunate enough to have both the means and the understanding, political activism is an effective means to support life. Political structures are very effective at both supporting and destroying life.

You don’t have to agree with any one person’s political or ethical positions. In fact, it’s your duty as a human and a citizen to think through your positions and support those that further life. Here are my current activities and the positions behind them.

It remains for you to decide what is for life and what is against it. This should be the primary driver of your choices as an activist.