“It is now highly feasible to take care of everybody on Earth at a ‘higher standard of living than any have ever known.’ It no longer has to be you or me. Selfishness is unnecessary and henceforth unrationalizable as mandated by survival… Political leaders look out only for their own side. Politicians are always realistically maneuvering for the next election. They are obsolete as fundamental problem-solvers… Either man is obsolete or war is. War is the ultimate tool of politics. War is obsolete. We are not here to fight something or tear something down; We are here to be the example of what is possible. Any sane individual will tell you that violence is … not the way” R. Buckminster Fuller.
I have studied worldviews for over 30 years, and am always interested to look at the apparent splits that seem to occur within modern society. I find it fascinating that Hollywood encourages extreme violence in its ‘non-war’ movies; even in the so called good-guys versus bad guys like Marvel comic characters or vigilante movies where the good guy gets the shit beaten out of him (or more increasingly her) but somehow, despite the fight that manages to destroy a whole room (or building), the fighters barely have a few bruises or minor cuts that somehow heal quickly. First, it makes it seem like violence is a good way to solve a problem against antagonists, and second, you can engage in violence and walk away with relatively little harm to the body or psyche.
I recently read two books War of the Worldviews: Science Vs. Spirituality (2011) By Deepak Chopra and Leonard Mlodinow, and The War of Worldviews: Choosing Connection in a Culture of Separation (2026) by Jamie Winship. The first talks about how our culture of separateness has created modern problems, and the second “a series of essays that address 18 questions, with each author presenting their side and the other’s rebuttal. Deepak Chopra, a global leader in mind-body medicine, and Leonard Mlodinow, a physicist, engage in a discussion that explores the nature of the universe, evolution, life, and the human experience.” To me, the one thing that stands out is the stubbornness of each polarized side of this debate – but especially the scientific materialism side – is that we either live in a ‘dead and random universe’ or a conscious universe. What is happening now is that both can co-exist quite readily, and indeed, the future of humanity and the earth require that we do.
The books are a testament to the growing collaborative effort between science and spirituality aiming to bridge the gap between these two worlds and contribute to the betterment of humanity. This is evidenced by physicists like Fred Alan Wolf and Amit Goswami (among many), who talk about consciousness and our connections in this universe. I talked in the last post and more to come about how Robin Wall Kimmerer (RWK – a SUNY distinguished Teaching Professor for Environmental Biology) merges spirituality with a science for a new worldview. It’s not essential that you believe in a conscious universe, but I do think it is important that we accept how interconnected we all are within this universe. There is no real separation. Connection brings us a sense of compassion that in turn brings us a more realistic vision of what doesn’t work in our modern world. It’s not enough to demonize technology, as Hollywood has also done in movies like Avatar. We have to bring a moral sense to our worldview that embraces all life.
As economic Anthropologist Jason Hickel states, “The problem is not simply that capitalism produces too much stuff, but that it produces the wrong stuff: SUV’s, fast fashion, and planned obsolescence instead of public transit, affordable housing, and universal healthcare. It overuses resources to meet even basic needs. In this respect it is a wildly inefficient system. This is the sort of irrationality you get when production is organized around the interests of corporate profit and elite accumulation, rather than around human well-being and ecology.” And here we come back to my maxim, the hierarchical system is the creator and perpetuator of the root of our problems. The great healing is for ourselves, which requires us to meaningfully reconnect with the natural world. Something the hierarchies will not and cannot do.
We are an intelligent species, but we lost our way when we misconstrued being smart with being intelligent. As that great philosopher Aldo Leopold recognized back in 1949, “the first step of intelligent tinkering is to save all the pieces.” In her book (RWK) emphasizes a great need for ‘Ecological Restoration’ when she quotes a profound statement by The National Research Council about ecological restoration; “The return of an ecosystem to a close approximation of its condition prior to disturbance. In restoration, ecological damage to the resource is repaired. Both the structure and function of the ecosystem are recreated. Merely recreating form without the function, or the function in an artificial configuration bearing little resemblance to a natural resource does not constitute restoration. The goal is to emulate nature.”
Our current worldview sees us as overlords of the natural world where fixing ecosystems means imposing industrial monoculture mentalities to complex problems and systems. “This kind of fix is at the core of the mechanistic view of nature, in which the land is a machine and humans are the drivers” RWK. As my late ecological science colleague Bill Mitsch realized when he did his wetland restoration studies. The wetlands designed by his lab were slow to recover, whereas the wetland sites left to regenerate on their own flourished quicker and more profoundly. This highlights a profound truth about the natural world, “The land knows what to do when we do not” RWK.
My 5 items gives us a chance to listen to the natural world in a way that the global corporate model is incapable and unwilling to do, because restoration requires intelligence apart from financial constraints. “…it is not the land that has been broken, but our relationship to it. Restoration is imperative for healing the earth, but reciprocity is imperative for long-lasting, successful restoration. Like other mindful practices, ecological restoration can be viewed as an act of reciprocity in which humans exercise their caregiving responsibility for the ecosystems that sustain them. We restore the land and the land restores us” RWK.
As environmental activist Freeman House stated, “We will continue to need the insights and methodologies of science, but if we allow the practice of restoration to become the exclusive domain of science, we will have lost its greatest promise, which is nothing less than a redefinition of human culture.” And that is where my vision for humanity lies. Not a tweaking of what exists but the co-creation of a new humanity on a smaller scale everywhere – relocalization – where we can control our own work and thinking as sovereign beings working collaboratively to create a better world.
“What is we could fashion a restoration plan that grew from understanding multiple meanings of land? Land as sustainer. Land as identity. Land as grocery store and pharmacy. Land as connection to our ancestors. Land as moral obligation. Land as sacred [and alive]. Land as self” RWK. When we can make that transition to seeing humanity and the world as a co-creative system. Far from superstition, but as a model for thriving. Relocalizing means we can deconstruct the old abusive system to transform and reconstruct it, even as we live within it.
As ecologist and philosopher David Suzuki said, “Unless we are willing to encourage our children [and ourselves] to reconnect with and appreciate the natural world, we can’t expect anyone to help protect and care for it” … “The way we see the world shapes the way we treat it. If a mountain is a deity, not a pile of ore; if a river is one of the veins of the land, not potential irrigation water; if a forest is a sacred grove, not timber; if other species are biological kin, not resources; or if the planet is our mother, not an opportunity — then we will treat each other with greater respect. Thus is the challenge, to look at the world from a different perspective.”
To Be Continued ……………..
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