Our Beloved Earth: songwriter: Cat Stevens

"In the most general terms, there are but two world views. One can take the view that life is sacred or that life is a commodity. A sacred view of life gives birth to feelings of duty, protection, and love. It emphasizes values of joy, beauty, happiness, and caring and sets up an internal constraint against the exploitation of other individuals, groups, or species. Our word sacred comes from the Latin sacer from the root seen also in sanus, sane. A sacred view of life, then, is a sane view of life. A commodity view is interested in profit, domination, and control. It seeks to "gain the world" and subjugate it to the will of man (and only "the fittest" men at that). At the core of the commodity view of life are two seeds: individual self-interest economics and man against nature technology. Planet Earth is choking on these seeds."

L.G. Boldt