In his words:

If a new thought can enter the mind, even for a brief moment, then change has a chance. Photography for social change was created out of a need to do something bigger than photography. Using photography and turning it into advocacy, helping others in need, and allowing art to spread positivity.

25% of all photos sold will be going to unique nonprofit organizations that are striving to help others in need. Organizations that have teamed up with Photography for social change are Hear The Hungry (NYC), Hug It Forward (CA), and Saint Joseph Music Program (NYC). More TBA.

Our thoughts become our words.

Our words become our actions.

Our actions become our habits.

Our habits become our values.

Our values become our destiny.

-Mahatma Gandhi

But where do we get our beliefs?  We develop them from the words and actions of the people around, the books we read, the movies we watch, the music we listen to and the games we play and the feelings those things cause within us.  More simply put our beliefs are a combination of the world around us and our genetics.  Who we are, where we are and what happens there.

And where do other people get their beliefs?  They come from the words and actions of the people around them.  When you speak, when you write, when you create a work of art you are affecting the thoughts and beliefs of the people around you, the people who hear you, read you or see your art.  You are affecting our destiny.  Therefore, it is our belief that writers and artists have a responsibility to the people they influence with their creation.  Since art and writing has great power to influence, artists and writers have great responsibility.  We choose to use our responsibility as writers to do our best to influence people around us to be healthier, more peaceful and to act in a more environmentally friendly manor.  While we are not encouraging censorship of any type of expression we are trying to inspire others to use their favorite form of expression for positive change and to help promote those who do.

- Will

It is here that on June 17th, one hundred brave recruits began their training, gaining the skills, the support, and the inspiration to make their mark on the world.  Some of these weekend warriors had been working on their “cover” for decades.  They were well established consultants, engineers, and designers.  Many worked for nonprofits and others for Fortune 500 companies.  But they all worked for Mother Earth.

It is here that our heroes learned to be creative, to communicate through visual recording and charades, to dance like no one is watching, and to trust themselves as much as well as others.  They accomplished amazing feats of cooking (and eating).  They honed their skills with fire staffs and poi, practiced ninja sustainability while slacklining between trees, and tossed biodegradable organic grenades safely across remarkable distances.

It is here where the super geniuses made their mark.  Master plans emerged to make environmental issues an important part of the 2012 elections.  Aspiring heroes shared ideas on how to create change through better conversations and better storytelling.  Brainstorms attacked poverty, education, personal well-being, propaganda, technology, leadership, sustainable business practices, health, new models of ownership, gamefication, fun, and even how to deal with an earthquakeAnd it is here that we began to see the formation of future icons.  The golden jock strap twins began their dancing alliance.  Unicorn woman took on multiple shapes.  Oven mitt man made the rounds, and even spider man was spotted as the heroes gathered around campfires for song and dance while wielding rainbow nunchuks and devastating rhyme.

So who do you put in charge of a hundred costumed avengers?  No one.   Superheroes must walk their own path, find their own futures.  At this Greenermind Summit, our heroes found a place to dream big, explore, learn, and find the inspiration to become the heroes they have always wanted to be.  But this isn’t your typical organization or conference.  There’s no one in charge.  There’s no one you runs it.  Like their own futures, the destiny of this unconference was decided by the choices of the individuals.  And if the results of the Greenermind Summit was any indication, the future looks bright indeed.

Click here for more information on the Greenermind Summit.

The term “killer robot” was likely coined approximately 3 seconds after the first usage of the word “robot.”  The concept of mankind’s creations turning into our own demise is a story as old as time, and one that has had a rather successful history in science fiction.  So many of us have enjoyed watching humanity’s fight with the Terminator robots, Battlestar Galactica’s escape from the Cylons, and Neo’s slow motion kung-fu against the Matrix’s agents, but most of us have missed one thing: the underlying theme here is not that far from our own reality.

I don’t mean that there is literally a humanoid robot waiting outside your door waiting to enslave you.   But that’s largely because we haven’t focused all our technological efforts on making metal things that look like either humans or very large bugs.  Yet we have created entities that have their own autonomy, their own simple programming, and are growing more powerful every day, so powerful, that mere humans bow before their will.  Yes, we have created corporations.

Like the toaster, we originally thought corporations would help us.  And they did.  They helped us industrialize, turning a world of want into a world of industry.  Corporations helped us dramatically improve our ability to produce goods, allowing us to churn out massive amounts of goods.  But it didn’t stop there.  You see, corporations may not have a positronic brain, but they do operate under one rule that for all intents and purposes, gives the corporation a unique will.  A corporation must maximize profits.

It is important to understand that though people work in a corporation, the corporation is separate from the people.  No one individual, not even the CEO, can stop a multinational, trillion dollar corporation.  Corporations are not intelligent per se, but they are giant machines aimed at one solitary purpose: maximizing profits.  How do you turn off the Exxon machine?  The CEO can’t do it.  He would just be replaced by the Board.  The Board just represents the shareholders.  The shareholders are 50 million individuals and institutions, many of which are also profit maximizing corporations.  The machine moves onward.

I’m also reminded of the Sorcerer’s apprentice.  Remember, corporations aren’t intelligent, just programmed.  Mickey needed water moved, so he magicked up a broomstick to transport the water and off he went.  But then the broomstick kept going, it made other broomsticks.  It did too good of a job, and couldn’t be stopped.

Our corporations are also doing too good of a job.  We made corporations because we needed stuff.  The corporations did as they were told and made us stuff.  Now we have too much stuff, but the corporations make stuff.  So now the buzz word is “Demand generation”.  That’s right, because corporations make stuff, they now change HUMAN behavior so that we’ll satisfy the corporation’s needs.  We have become the slaves to our own creations.

So how do we fix this?  Well. let’s look at science fiction.  We already tried Arnold Schwarzenegger as Governator, but perhaps that’s too literal of a solution.  But we could try reprogramming some machines to be “good”.  That’s right, we need to change the central programming of corporations, build some legal code, something a little more complex that allows corporations serve the people rather than enslave them.

For information about B corporations and other similar efforts, click here.

So what does this mean for writing?  Like food, writing has always existed.  But back in the day, literacy was rare, and the ability to publish even more rare.  As such, there was a relatively high bar to  get published, and really, people read the same 10 books for hundreds of years (reference: this is a blog, so no data, just a point to be made).  Likewise, in the food industry, each meal was made by hand, and if not delicious, at least it wasn’t made primarily from ingredients that you couldn’t pronounce.

Then enter the food industry.  As Food Inc, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, and countless other books and movies will tell you, Food underwent a tremendous transformation.  Essentially, we learned to SCALE food, enabling food to become ridiculously cheap.  And lo and behold, we began to consume all this cheap, delicious food, not because we needed the calories, but because we hungered for that spark of stimulation.  Consumption took on a whole new meaning as we consumed.  And like it or not, processed foods have become the true winners in this new form of consumption because it embraced SCALE.

Some things are strikingly familiar in the writing space.  No longer is the primary written word a novel that has taken a decade to write.  Words are being consumed by the thousands, skimmed over as they go down our gullets by giant spoonfuls.  We don’t read too carefully.  Who cares about the grammer in my tweetfeed or friendfeed or facebook feed or… is it a coincidence that everything is a feed?   We just open up our mouth, stick it up against the trough that is the internet and let the calories come piling in.

So, do I turn up my nose in disgust at these “empty calories?”  Or do I embrace this world, realize that editing this blog post isn’t worth the time, and focus on turning myself into a writer that can withstand the changes that are rocking the medium.  Faster, shorter, cheaper…  Are we delivering depth or just stimulus?  Or perhaps the challenge is the same that it is in any industry.  I have a story to tell.  Now how do I tell that story faster and cheaper.

What is it about disaster movies that draw us to them?  Why do we want to be horrified as our national monuments are incinerated by alien laser beams, entire cities are engulfed by the ocean waves, and millions and millions of people die as a giant lizard crashes through a crowded city, toppling buildings and smashing cars beneath his reptilian feet?  The first thing that comes to mind is… special effects.

It is undoubtedly cool to see something we could never truly witness (until the events in Japan) come to life.  The promoters know this, filling trailers full of jaw-dropping spectacles, digitally created scenes of fire and destruction that we can only hope never leaves the screen.  But there’s something more than just the arresting visuals (there are disaster novels as well), and that’s the story.  It’s a story that tells us a lot about our culture, what we value, and what we aspire to.  In almost all disaster movies, the central theme is triumph over adversity.

We love to kick ass.  It’s true.  Who hasn’t at some point imagined themselves conquering some foe?  The bigger the challenge, the greater the reward.  And there’s no adversary more universally accepted as “the bad guy” and nothing that forces us to perform great feats of heroism, than a global disaster.  Examine any disaster movie, and you’ll find that the movie is hinged around the stories of the people involved.  The destruction of the world is just a backdrop that allows them to come to grips with their shortcomings and their strained relations to come together as a family, nation or world and step up to become a hero.

Global events such as the one in Japan have the potential to shape the world.  How we react to them as a society can chart out the future of global cooperation, investment, and individual heroism.  But as we examine the following weeks through the telling of personal stories of the heroes of Japan, let us not forget that this power is closely mirrored by the power of film and books.  The stories in Godzilla, Independence Day, 2012 and countless other works of fiction inspire countless millions and may have helped to shape the ideals that have created the real-life heroes that are acting even now to defeat the devastating aftermath of the Japan earthquakes and tsunami.

At the hip hop dance fest, I saw a choreography about human slavery in the modern world. It was very blunt, giving its message in voice-over narrative, but it was powerful. As a result, I’ve decided that my next choreography will need to have global meaning. I’ve been looking for good songs, but it’s hard to find one that says what I want. I care about environmental disaster, challenges around the scaling of government and corporations, and finding the hope and courage to try to make a difference. Anyone have any suggestions?

You cannot make someone stop believing something.  You can only make him believe something else even more.

This thought has been kicking around in my head for a while. It’s a single thread that I’ve pulled out of a whole host of articles, books, movies, and (yes, I put this last) actual real-world experiences.

Have you noticed how 99% of debates (whether personal or political) don’t ever result in someone changing their mind? This article from Slate talks about how once people become disposed to believe something, they hold onto that belief regardless of logical argument or hard evidence. This is very evident in the political sphere. Shankar Vedantam asks, “when was the last time you heard about a liberal who was persuaded by Rush Limbaugh? Or a conservative who switched parties after watching a Michael Moore movie?” The truth is that almost all the effort that goes into debating and trying to change people’s opinions is completely wasted.

But I want to be able to change people’s minds, not just reinforce their existing beliefs. But how? I find that lots of our beliefs, whether it’s that we should tax the rich, that housing is a good investment, that you should buy things on sale…. most of those beliefs can be attached to a famous saying or adage. I believe it comes out of our need to create structure around the way the world works. Gravity pulls down and patience is a virtue are both simplified representations of our world. Most interestingly, for any famous adage or proverb, it isn’t too hard to find something that is its opposite:

You can’t teach a dog new tricks: It’s never to late to learn

Seize the moment: The best things come to those who wait

Sink or Swim: You have to walk before you can run

So it seems to me that while trying to argue AGAINST someone’s belief is like running into a brick wall, it may be possible to just persuade them to latch onto another belief that may then supercede their previous belief.

You do see a variant of this in politics all the time. When party A attacks party B about kicking kittens, instead of refuting the point, party B realizes that facts are irrelevant and moves on from the kitten kicking issue to instead attack party A for killing babies knowing that many voters care more about baby killing than kitten kicking.

I feel that this may have some use in our daily interactions. Instead of arguing any point, you should analyze your “opponent,” first to understand what proverb or story he is basing his belief on. For instance, not supporting government subsidies may be based on the classic story of corrupt politicians lining their pockets with corporate money. No matter what evidence you bring out, this person probably has a strong distrust of politicians and believe that something “under the table” is happening even if you can’t see it. You can’t prove to him that politicians aren’t corrupt.

So, instead of arguing about corrupt politicians, you should search for another story that they respond to even better. Maybe they believe that all politicians are corrupt, but that also believe that all farmers are saints. So if subsidies are good for farmers…

Of course, fighting with stories is already quite common and successful. But if we realize that what we debate and what can change minds are often different, it may help us have more fruitful discussions. Much of what we debate boils down more to core beliefs than actual facts, and yet we often trade facts back and forth as if we expect them to change anyone’s minds. Instead, framing things in terms of the adages that reflect our beliefs may bring us closer to understanding our true beliefs and the reasons we have for believing in them.