Many people are concerned about the future and since I keep predicting that big changes are coming, they always want to know what might be occurring. I heard a great story about change that I think mirrors in many ways the transitions we will be going through. I remember in my college worldviews class when talking about Christian dogmatism of the early centuries. As I was covering this in the pre-Renaissance period, one of my students asked whether this was about the Catholics or Christians? After looking confused at him for a few seconds, I realized what he was saying. I told him that this was pre-reformation, and with the exception of the Christian Orthodox church that began around the fifth century, in western Europe there was only the Christian Church overseen by a Pope. He then said, “I’m a Baptist, so where were they?” I was surprised at his unfamiliarity of Christian history, but assured him that in 1517, Protestantism arose from the Catholic faith that today gives us the myriad protestant denominations of Christianity worldwide.
My point here is that from what was the ‘one’ Christianity, we have many variations today with many varied sets of rules and practices even within denominations. As the ‘church lost its dogmatic grip on society, there was born a new worldview – the material-scientific worldview that excluded religion and gave rise to our modern worldview. Even though many stayed with religions, they became dogmatic in other ways – mainly that we were subservient to an external deity. We lost the truly spiritual one that gave us a sense of who we were in the greater picture. Western society then went on to impose that worldview on every culture we came across during the western colonization of the planet. It gave more power and control to the monied elites and further alienated us from each other, let alone the natural world. Today we have ample evidence of how that separation has created myriad environmental problems.
I’m sure that in 1517 the idea that the ever-omnipotent church breaking up into multiple denominations must have seemed like the ending of the world. But after a few decades of serious contention between the protestants and the Catholics we now accept multiple practices of the same basic religion. Now apply that idea to modern capitalism that drives every industry and business and the material-consumer paradigm; however, there have already been alternatives arising. Thankfully not as contentious as the Christian religion saw, but economic protestants have been around for a couple of decades already. We see them by names like Bitcoin, B-corporations, and Local Economic Transfer Systems (LETS) for example. And in the coming next few years, we will see a blossoming of many more grass roots models arising as the global economic system starts to unravel further.
I see a lot of emphasis on eco-catastrophe narratives at this time. We have some bad problems around the world. But I think the narrative that needs to be emphasized is the human narrative that we are somehow apart from nature and each other. That return to personal sovereignty and greater connection with community (both human and natural) is the one we now need to return with a sense of unity where we respect each other and the web of life we live within, yet to our detriment, many still deny or are oblivious.
I’ve said it so many times, ‘Walking-the-Talk’ for a thriving sustainable future is more about how we interact with each other and the natural world, not only about how we use technology. And I don’t think it is about having the ‘right’ religion – I think we have fought enough wars over the centuries about having the ‘right’ deity. We need to free our minds and spirits from any control. “I’d rather let my spirit fly free, than be caged by religion. Become a Buddha, not a Buddhist; become a Christ, not a Christian;. One implies an awakened state of consciousness, the other a dogmatic approach to life” anonymous. I like the quote by John Lennon; “God” is too big for one religion. Love and quantum physics are my religion. At one level, all religious traditions have the same aim – to transform the individual into a positive being. I love Jesus, I love Shiva, I love Krishna, I love Buddha. All rivers lead to the same ocean.”
I have used the next couple of quotes before but I use them again as they capture the more crucial needs of change. Olga Evans; “You can argue all day about whether one person not using straws or going vegan makes a global difference. The point is the mindset. We need to change our thinking from this idea that the earth is a bottomless pit of resources and start acting like what we do matters. Changing the philosophy of cultures and societies starts with individuals changing their own hearts and minds. That’s the importance of grassroots action. It’s not that my composting will empty landfills of food waste, but my changed mind and heart may influence others, and that could spread and change the world“. And Gus Speth’s; “I used to think the top environmental problems were biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse, and climate change. I thought that with 30 years of good science we could address those problems. I was wrong. The top environmental problems are selfishness, greed and apathy…and to deal with those we need a spiritual and cultural transformation. And we scientists don’t know how to do that.”
Modern capitalism is a kind of religion in how money is worshipped and treated as the sole source of abundance. People all around the world are waking up to how the world has been run these past millennia, and for the first time we are sensing that a great healing is occurring. The traditions of all the indigenous peoples are coming to light and showing us how humanity can live a better life and hence create a better world. We now have amazing technology and are awakening to a greater understanding of how innate wisdom is set to play a role in humanity’s transformation.
It’s not return to some half-life of hunter-gatherer system, but a creation of humanity that is ready to reach out to the stars with respect and a spiritual framework of creation and a sense of oneness with the divine. Meliorism is the idea that progress is a real concept and that humans can interfere with natural processes in order to improve the world i.e., technology can be a good thing if used wisely and within the ability of natural systems to regenerate themselves. Meliorism is a late 1800s philosophy that we can make a better world. How that might be achieved was severely criticized during the early part of the 1900’s. If we look at it as a creative idea and not as a political tool, then it has merit in showing all humanity what is of value that we need to keep, and what coopting values need to be discarded.
I haven’t linked to any of my previous posts since most of my blog is about building a better world. The big change coming is going to be a transformation of what we value, recognizing that what we truly value will reform the metrics of what we measure, because this will reset our global focus about what success as a species really means. As a prompt, it will be about all of us all focused on what creates true value and value for others – not financial rewards, but a well-being economy. We could have made these choices during the last 50 years, but now I feel that the choices we need to make will be imposed upon us by the crumbling of an outdated economic system that has finally run its course. As my Espe character said in future views (see Espe posts starting December 2022), the coming transition may no longer be a smooth one but a better system will arise out of it like a phoenix out of the ashes.
“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” Yoda, Star Wars.
To Be Continued ………………
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