She left a PhD program to do the research that she felt driven to do. 

For over 15 years, Ella has been working on a theory of society, and she wants to freely share the results with you: We create our reality–not just by what we do–and not just by what we say–but also by what we believe and the energy we put into the world. 

On some level, we all know this already. We are all important, and we’re all in this together.

As we go about our lives, we can all see the injustices that our communities are experiencing. But it doesn’t have to be like this. We can change our future.

So what are we going to do with this information?

Let’s Change the World

We all know why the world needs to change: Our current globalized system is too damn expensive, costing us clean water, air, soil, and our health. We can’t put a price tag on it all.

The entire biosystem is being polluted, and people are treated like serfs and slaves to the abusive, globalized structure. We can’t put a price tag on people, either.

Money is being used on a systems level to manipulate people, and it’s time to move our imagination beyond accepting cyber-money as wealth.

Our minds, bodies, and the Earth we are given are wealth. We are all stewards.

This is a case for conscientious objection to social and planetary destruction. We can flip the narrative and change the world by transforming the destructive habits of our minds and bodies.

Building upon what we collectively know, we can heal ourselves and our earth.

Imagine all the best ideas actually happening. Things like: healthy people, flow states, good communication, belonging, healthy communities, healthy ecosystems, and love for all.

How do we get there?

Each of us can take whatever situation we are in and, choice by choice, make it better. Through all our lives, we can continually learn from our environment, our social interactions, our bodies, even our dreams. We can change the world!

Let’s do it for all of Earth’s future generations.

Let’s do it together.

The day of the conscientious objector is not yet at hand.

John F. Kennedy in 1945,
strikethrough by Ella Zimmerly in 2018

Duke et alios Publishing, LLC, an Ohio non-profit 

The mission of Duke et alios Publishing (DEAP) is to encourage everyone to join in this holistic activism. We want to help you do your thing, to be your best, amazing you, and to change the world with all of us.

Together.

For more information on how we can accomplish a social transformation, check out the e-book >7 Billion Ways to Change the World by Ella and published by DEAP. 

To make the research available to the greatest number, it is a free download and dedicated to the public domain (not under copyright).

Yeah, that’s right. 

You can print as many copies as you like.

You can use the ideas, words, pictures in any way you want. 

If you want to print the book and sell copies, we’re not stopping you.

Spreading the word is the point.

…it was an inspiring and unusual mix of science, art, poetry and photography…I also think this is a very good time for books like [this], as our entire world is having a what-the-f[***] experience right now and we all are seeking some guidance.

Susan P., copy editor

Never read anything quite like it.

Keith P., college senior

…epic and mind-blowing project…Mostly, I am hugely impressed with [her] writing, reasoning, and photography and the ways [she] blended them toward a synthesis…It is impressive…

Ted B., retired college professor

More on Conscientious Objection

Pacifism runs deep for Ella; she would rather struggle as a flower farmer than work for the violent and unjust institutional system that collectively works to subjugate the people of earth. Her pacifism is different from yet similar to the pacifism demonstrated both in her family and surrounding historic peace church communities: the Mennonites, Brethren, and Amish.

While Ella was never Mennonite and today is a Buddhist, her parents grew up in Mennonite communities. Her father was a conscientious objector to war, serving for two years as a hospital orderly with Mennonite Volunteer Service. He refused to watch boxing, and American football was too violent for his taste.

Generations earlier, some of Ella’s family were Amish. Both Christian sects grew from a common time period in Europe and were historically persecuted, even killed, for holding religious beliefs that were contrary to law and policies from the government. These persecutions drove some folks to the United States of America, where the struggle continued. For example, the Amish have had to go through the court system to continue their way of life, especially to educate their children in small, local parochial schools and then through apprenticeships in trades. 

One of Ella’s aunts has documentation on how thoroughly her brother was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation when he applied for conscientious objector status during the World War II era. In that time before cell phones, social media, internet and satellite surveillance, they extensively interviewed his neighbors and other acquaintances to find out if he actually practiced the pacifism he claimed. 

Years earlier during World War I, the same aunt’s father was harassed to buy war bonds. He conscientiously objected. Harassed is putting it mildly. Shoeless and in his pajamas, he was hauled off by two men who then decided they didn’t want his blood on their hands. Miles down the road, they dropped him off in a field, and he had to find a way home in the middle of the night.

These were just a few of white pacifist people’s experiences. Oftentimes after Ella thinks about her personal, family’s, and agriculture’s challenges, she remembers some of the egregious injustices that non-white people have faced and continue to face. Their struggles can also be life-long, resulting from historic and current unequal access to resources, knowledge, and skills.

She remembers her social privilege: she’s a white female, born into a family with homes, land, stable communities, and access to credit, and born during a time of economic prosperity. Through those advantages and others, she has been able to commit over a decade of her life to doing big-picture research on society and how we can change our future, and she works to make the information accessible to anyone. This a large part of her nonviolent activism.

There is a lot more to Ella’s story, but the bottom line of her research is that now we are all in the struggle together, and the way to a healthy future is through pacifism. She encourages you to embrace your place in life, grow through your struggles, and find your way to your better self, too, so we can make a better future, together. View and download her first book for free here.