I was again looking over The Patterning Instinct by Jeremy Lent who really does have fascinating insights into how humanity has historically created our worldviews and the cultural norms we take for granted (see earlier post Cultivating a Flourishing Future 3 – Manifested New Perspectives {November 2018}). Lent shines a light on two possible worldview futures for humanity: one is a homogenized technological world of artificially enhanced humans, and the other as one that enables a sustainable future arising from our intrinsic connectedness with each other and the natural world. No prize for guessing I support the latter.
We are on the razor’s edge of choosing our next cultural future. And yes, as I have said many times, we choose even when we abdicate our right to choose and let others make the choice for us. Jeremy Lent explores our current crisis of consumer driven unsustainability, arguing that it is not an inevitable result of human nature, but actually a simple culturally driven product of a way of thinking. To change that pattern means to simple think differently and create a better experience by choosing a new cultural experience.
We are busy eliminating diversity in all its forms when we continue to choose the technologically driven consumer world. We are letting it go because this current cultural system does not value diversity, but in order to control it believes that simpler is easier and by some strange logic, therefore better. Root metaphors of many cultures show that the human conquest of nature and other humans is not inherent in who we are but merely an extension of our cultural norms. The Renaissance was when scientific thinking began rejecting dogmatic religious thinking as it began to shape the modern worldview borne out of Islamic and Christian rationalism, with the latter taking it to a secular form as we currently experience modern living. In a nutshell, we took dominance of the natural world as a literal and convenient aspect to shape the consumer worldview and thereby, without any forethought except monetary profit, to eradicate the very life we need to survive. If we are to retain our humanity and not go down the artificial technological human path, we need to reconnect with the natural world in a meaningful and spiritual way.
By necessity, the way we look at and reflect about life will have to morph, and quickly, if we are to still avoid the ecological problems rushing towards us. Rather than trying to dominate and control the natural world, we need to understand and integrate human living within natural systems. What nature does very successfully is to preserve diversity in which myriad species live harmoniously as they move energy around through tropic levels (see previous post Economics and Energetics of farming 1 – a reality check on the food system {July 2018}). Natural systems work efficiently because everything at all levels has evolved to balance out, as each species moves though its life cycles in symbiotic collaboration with the whole web of life. While catastrophes may occur to cause a reset of ecosystem balance, only humans working with twisted worldviews that do not value life, do shock and awe attacks on all of life.
I recommend reading Jeremy Lent’s article about the ‘6 Rules for Humans Rejoining the Natural World’ (google this title). Couple this with David’s Orr’s work and you start to see clearly how a new worldview can form that values life and the natural systems, without diminishing the ability of humanity to technologically thrive on the planet – without becoming slaves to technology. This all starts with changing how we educate ourselves and our children. Noted environmental educator David Orr has written copiously about the need to change education towards this end. I know from my own experience as an educator that most students do not get more than a cursory overview of how the world really works even if they should take an environmental science course. And even then, the course is usually still framed through a consumer worldview with the belief that we can somehow tweak our way out of the many ecological issues we face. Few students make the choice to delve deeply and major in Environmental and/or Sustainability Studies.
David’s Orr’s book ‘Earth in Mind’ is a good source to understand the problems and dangers of modern education and where it minimally needs to go. I advocate for the worldview change as well as educational reform. But for now, think about David Orr’s basic educational topics for a well-rounded understanding of how the natural world works and how to live well in a place:
- The Laws of Thermodynamics – how energy moves through physical and biological systems and limits what can occur in a material world (Energetics). I would add that all goods be priced with the energy it took to make and dispose of them so real end-use analysis can be applied.
- The Basic Principles of Ecology – how trophic systems use energy and how different species exist in predator-prey and symbiotic relationships to create Carrying Capacity (the number of people, other living organisms, or crops that a region can support without environmental degradation). I would add special emphasis on local conditions (soil, flora, fauna, and watershed dynamics).
- Sustainable Agriculture and Forestry, and Permaculture Principles – a thorough understanding of how crops can be grown efficiently and organically, so that we can manage human food and resource needs in a harmonious and fashion to support health and vitality. By necessity, this would mean a full appreciation of diversity in all its forms biologically and in human culture.
- Limits of Technology, Appropriate Scale, and Steady-State economics – thinking like a natural economic system. This would naturally flow into the final category;
- Environmental Ethics – the difference between should-do and can-do. A thorough and on-going philosophical analysis of human thinking towards the natural world. This is where I would insist that everyone write their own ‘Ecological Identity’ (I did this with my students to get them to thoroughly understand their own worldviews. See post Richard’s Research on Worldviews and why he is optimistic about a transformation {June 2018}). According to Mitchell Thomashow, your Ecological Identity is more than knowledge about the environment. It involves how humans relate to the world around them and to each other.
If I had to point to one single assignment that impacted my students more than anything else they did in college, it would be the ecological identity. The whole course was free-flow reflective writing of their individual views and comments of prescribed readings, chosen to make them think about their personal experiences and beliefs – hence their worldview(s). At first, this bothered many of my students in this class because they are so used to giving the ‘right answer’ and not simply what they think about something they had to read. There was no right or wrong answer, but they had to justify their perspectives by using quotes from the readings or anything else they read. It was amazing to me to see their thinking and rationale of their beliefs as they started to understand their cultural conditioning. We think we know what and why we believe something until we are asked to explain a belief to someone else outside our immediate conditioned cultural setting.
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