I have made a big deal about us all needing to be involved as active participants in manifesting a new and better future. I get a lot of comments from friends and students about what kind of political and economic system this involves. Whatever comes out of this transition it will not be labeled like anything we currently suffer through today. It will be more organic in how it forms and be different in different places based on societal needs and cultural backgrounds. I alluded to a different kind of system in a previous post (Adapting to Transformational changes 4 – Synergistic Democracy (Synocracy) that nurtures all people) that could be a model to think about. What will be obvious is what I said in the last lines of my last blob post, “Will we continue to choose a dark path of Greed, Hate, and Fear, or can we choose a path of light with Generosity, Love, and Connection.” The solutions lay in not trying to force-fit any current model but to break out of the box completely with sustainable living principles to guide us (hence the title of my textbook that prompted me to do this blog in the first place). Politics and lobbying will not get us to a better world, only a more spiritual connection to each other and to the earth will do that. Since I am not naïve enough to believe that we will all start singing “kum by Yah my lord” in some weird revivalist fashion, what I recognize is that we need to express what it is we all want no matter where we live, with whatever positive creed, we live by. More on this spiritual aspect in another post. For now, what are the aspects we need to support now from a more political perspective.
Paul Hawken has written about Project Drawdown (https://www.drawdown.org/) in which he focusses on reversing global warming. Whether you accept or deny global warming is irrelevant! The same plan he uses is similar to many others (e.g David Korten) is also one that follows a path to a sustainable future. The Cabal loves it when we get bogged down in arguing about singular issues (like global warming) rather than focusing on the big picture of where we would like to be heading in a transitional society. I have often talked to business groups that initially seem cold and unresponsive when I am announced as a environmentalist. I focus on what we share not on the minutia where we are different. I ask, who believes that unhealthy air, contaminated water, food with harmful toxins, and destruction of natural areas are a good thing? Nearly everyone thinks those issues are not a good thing, although I occasionally get a die-hard who says everything is about money and the economy. To be honest, they are a lost cause and I don’t waste energy trying to override their dogmatic belief system. People who think they are doing well within the existing system and believe that all environmental issues are merely scare stories put out by ‘environmentalists’ are not worth your time or effort. Concentrate on the great majority that do want to transition to a better world. Together we need to achieve four conditions critical to the transition.
1. Finding a Balance with Planet Earth. In our consumerist lifestyle the planets ecosystems are used beyond their means to regenerate themselves. WE have to reduce our overall impact on the planet (basic Human Ecological Footprint) if we expect to resolve this issue and live sustainably. It doesn’t mean we have to start living like the third world, but we do have to greatly reduce and then get rid of nonessential consumption. A new kind of non-consumerist infrastructure would make it easy to do the right thing and be a good planetary citizen. Living in new kinds of transitional communities would decrease the separateness from each other and allow new connective sustainable communities to develop naturally.
2. Living in new transitional communities. Much of our problem stems from the individuation (me first) and separateness that a consumer lifestyle promotes. To thrive we need to build relationships with each other and also with the natural world so that we see everything as connected. At this point ‘synocracy’ can thrive and communities can build either local currencies or even non-at all, depending on the structure of a community – the key being to keep everything as localized as possible. Stemming the economic pump of money uphill to the rich elites and corporations would reduce their power and control. As David Korten says: “Immediate action is required to block further concentration of corporate power, while taking longer-term steps to break up existing concentrations, secure the accountability of governments to the people, advance equitable participation in local cooperative ownership and shared housing, and establish rules that assure the accountability of businesses to the communities in which they operate.”
3. Equitable distribution of wealth and resources. No, we are not talking centrally controlled systems (i.e. Communism and Totalitarianism) but a system based on fairness and equity (see previous post, Adapting to Transformational changes 3 – Creating dialogue for ‘JUST’ Sustainability for Transformational changes). Again, depending on the organically developing community system this would allow options such as equitable cooperative ownership, restoring the commons both locally and globally, and making individual ownership meet equitable responsibility to all stakeholders who are affected by such ownership.
4. Develop Green and life-sustaining technology. Whatever technology we employ, basic questions must be asked for every technology before it is used or rejected. Does it advance life (human and ecosystem), and does it allow nature to regain its regenerative ability? Is it damaging or harmful, even if it is more economically efficient, and therefore needs to remain unused? Is there any toxicity involved, and can it be rendered harmless? Are the consequences of using a technology as low risk as possible with none to minimal consequences? Does the technology benefit everyone and does everyone have access to it? Obviously, we will not do away with manufacturing and even democratic capitalism so that innovation can be rewarded appropriately. But, in a new system, the communities will invest in the innovation and therefore reap the benefits. A system for sharing such innovations will have to be in place, but in a world where people are off prime consideration, making money will not be the end goal. Money (if used at all) will merely be the tool it is supposed to be.
As for what a community system might look like that fits all these conditions is not easy to describe, because every culture is unique in how it forms respect to aspects like Hofstedt’s 6 Dimensions. What can happen in the USA will look different from what might work in Japan, because the structure of society, culture, and even the cultural cosmologies are different. The basic principles for living sustainably should look similar, but the community structures would be unique. Hofstedt’s 6 Dimensions in the next post to clarify what I mean. TBC….
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