Some 37 years ago I was still a biochemical lab researcher. I was always an environmentalist even if I didn’t actually call myself that as such at the time. I had observed the rise of the environmental movement in both Britain, Europe and then the USA. What had struck me was how there were big leaps forward in environmental protection. But this was because of massive governmental environmental legislation during the 1960s, 70s and early 80s pressured by a growing global environmental consciousness. After that with the rise of globalization in the 1980s I saw the environmental movement stall, with any further improvements in environmental protection more individual non-governmental legal battles than conscious acts of concern by any governments. And any gains made in protecting the biosphere were diminished as the environmental problems went from local and regional to global in scope.
It was no surprise that I made it my life goal to find ways to reverse this trend. As sustainability became the common focus, I still saw no real improvements, just different lip-service from global media. I went deep to understand what it was that were barriers to creating a truly sustainable world. No small feat. I was not alone as there were many great thinkers from which to draw wisdom. I am what a call a dot connector – I think holistically and see the big picture quite easily. Again, I naively thought that if I could just get people to see the 300mile high big picture then action at the ground level would naturally ensue.
As I wandered down deep rabbit holes and read more and more scientific data, what was obvious to me, seemed uninteresting and oblivious to others, including my academic brethren that I thought would more readily see my conclusions. I dove deeper in worldviews, beliefs and values as the primary factors that served as barriers to creating a sustainable future.
What I saw from an environmental perspective was a very broad and general theme of if we can just get the word out better, or more commonly, scare people in to action, then things will improve as the powers that be listened to the people as they had done during ‘the rise of environmentalism.‘ At conferences both in North America and internationally, I talked more and more about worldviews as the focus to be understood. Individually I had a lot of amazing agreement and support from a great many people, but organizationally and academically, my words seem to fall on deaf ears – indeed, still do.
I have said it often, sometimes I feel too often, but here it is again; ‘We cannot tweak our way to a sustainable world. Until we come to terms with our worldview of how we view the world, and it is the worldviews that created all the problems, nothing will change overall.’ Nothing short of us transforming ourselves first will lead us to the better world we all know we want. There are psychopaths that want to control us. And the saddest part is that we let them. Long ago they convinced us that only they had the solutions, whatever those might be at any historic time and through to today. Their control with its dominance and exploitive worldview created all those problems to begin with, and nearly all of us became complicit in helping them get to the world we now inhabit.
The ones who historically resisted (the indigenous peoples) were either sidetracked into reservations or eliminated. However much we thought we could dominate the natural world, we never have. In smaller regional scales we have much history to show how humanity never dominated the natural world. Now on a global scale, the repercussions of ignoring historical knowledge, is bringing us to the edge of the ecological abyss. Maybe not next year, or even in the next decade. But the reality is that the planet is shrugging us off like a nuisance parasite. We can’t control the worldviews of the entrenched hierarchies, but we can change our own.
“Guy Ritchie once said, “If you change the rules on what controls you… you will change the rules on what you can control.” You can be aware of what’s happening but choose not to absorb the panic. Knowledge of what’s outside your control, helps, but it doesn’t fix the problem. It can, however, change your relationship to it. You stop being a subject of forces you can’t control. And get back to your micro but powerful agency. Even when the game is rigged, you can still make choices inside it. How you respond to a setback. Whether you make a life or contract inward. Whether you consume the outrage or redirect the energy. Viktor Frankl, who survived the Nazi camps and built a psychology from that experience, said everything can be taken from you but the freedom to choose your attitude in any given circumstance. That’s your leverage.” Thomas Oppong.
Monk and theologian Thomas Merton said, “You do not need to know precisely what is happening, or exactly where it is all going. What you need is to recognise the possibilities and challenges offered by the present moment, and to embrace them with courage, faith and hope.”
This is a time of chaos and technical disruption that is forcing unprecedented change. The world we once thought we knew is changing, whether we want it or not. Thomas Oppong says, “Witness to difficulty is itself a form of revolt. It insists that this experience be seen, understood, and remembered. Things are bad. They may get worse before they get better. The system is not designed with your happiness in mind. But you are not helpless. You have attention, relationships, skills, agency, anger, and time. You have the capacity to understand what’s happening. Don’t just absorb it. You have the ability to build things that outlast the crisis. The boulder is real. The hill is steep. The whole situation is, in the “Camusian” sense absurd. Push anyway.”
“One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star” Friedrich Nietzsche. A question I have asked before, “What kind of world do you want to live in?” Unless you are a closet psychopath, then you want a world where Love and Compassion rule over Hate and Fear. If you are apathetically waiting for someone else to lead the way, then look around more. The leaders are there. They just don’t proclaim themselves as the leaders that will solve everything. They are people like you that just live their lives and inspire by example. Notice them. The only difference is that they made a choice. They made the choice internally. They started living in the world they want, even if the world doesn’t know it, yet! Even mighty Oak trees begin as a seed growing roots and then the trunk and branches, not as a tree growing roots. Internally changing ourselves is the seed of a better world. When more of us do this, the sustainability revolution grows exponentially from the grassroots, and the world transforms.
To Be Continued ………………….
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