What Drives Us
“Our stories are powerful. If we see the world as dead, we will kill it. And if we see the world as alive, we will learn how to serve its healing. A flame of knowledge burns in every person that earth, water, soil, air, the sun, the clouds, and the wind are alive and aware, feeling us at the same time as we feel them.” Charles Eisenstein
Our Mission
The Sixth Festival, Chicago, is a dynamic organization and festival of stories, artists, celebrations, forums, technology, and ideas
to educate and inspire audiences,
to motivate individuals and communities to act now for a livable world,
and to create narratives and constructs of a future re-imagined.
Our Guiding Principles
Principles we hold necessary or sacred:
The Health of the Earth; Sacredness of Nature; Importance of Science; Truth-Telling; Acknowledgement of All Interdependence; Radical Participation and Inclusion; Sharing; Right Livelihood*; the End of Colonialism; the End of white supremacy**.
Principles of action:
Rebellious Urgency; Value the Devalued; Transform through Empathy;
Multiply Collective Power; Decommodification***; Creativity and Celebration as Engines of Change; Leave No Trace, ZeroWaste, and Leave it in the Ground.
Our Vision
To change human activity and culture in order to stop the destruction of the planet.
Our Strategies
Create platforms for scientific, Natural, and human truths.
Educate.
Activate.
Multiply our numbers.
* ”The idea of ‘right livelihood’ is an ancient one. It embodies the principle that each person should follow an honest occupation, which fully respects other people and the natural world. It means being responsible for the consequences of our actions and taking only a fair share of the earth’s resources.” rightlivelihood.org
** “You can’t have climate change without sacrifice zones, and you can’t have sacrifice zones without disposable people, and you can’t have disposable people without racism.””When we pollute the hell out of a place, that’s a way of saying that the place—and the people and all the other life that calls that place home—are of no value. The ideology of white supremacy leads the way toward disposable people and a disposable natural world” Hop Hopkins, Sierra Club.
***Commodity means something that is bought and sold. Nature is not a commodity although we treat it as such. “Decommodification strategy targets the institutional context in which consumption takes place. It aims to decrease the influence of commodities and to limit the effect of commercialization.” (wikipedia)