“A civilization is only as free as the individuals who comprise it. Reclaim your mind” Jordan Peterson.
“The indigenous ways of knowing and being that European colonists saw as primitive and uncivilized are now being actively sought out to save our environment and humankind from the brink of extinction” Sherri Mitchell Weh’na Ha’mu Kwasset.
We are living through a time of creative disruption and technological advancement but it is not managed by any wisdom. There is no shortage of brilliant and entrepreneurial people on this planet who are poised ready to solve our social and ecological problems. BUT; they are not sought after or allowed a reach into markets by corporate and governmental systems wanting to keep the status quo intact for short-term profit and corporate control.
I have spoken a lot about how we can begin the process of change to a sustainable world. I get a lot of questions about the process of the change itself once we commit to a path where we co-create a sustainable future together. Obviously, I can’t give you any specifics but I can give you a glimpse of the path that will, indeed must, happen as we move forward.
As I have said and will continue to say, the biggest change will have to be in our worldview about ourselves, our interconnectivity, and the cosmology of the human being in the world. Once we make those kinds of choices to think from a spiritually internal place, we will finally transcend our left-brain dominant materialistic worldview and start to see the more abstract qualities that life offers – such as truth, goodness, and beauty. This will be profound, for it will give humanity a new perspective where each of us will express humility, compassion, awe, and wonder at the world. Let me reiterate this yet again; this kind of better world is a choice we consciously make. We will change, but, “what we value and prioritize? What would it feel like to treat each day as a gift rather than a problem to solve, and how might that shift our relationship with time, mortality, and meaning?” Iain McGilchrist, The Great Simplification.
In the link is an inspiring short video about something I have talked about – Restoration. How many of our planets ecological disasters can be solved by having humans step away and letting nature engineer the solutions? This video is a superb account of what happens when we do just that.
“Every creature has a role, even the ones many people overlook or fear. Frogs consume vast numbers of insects, bats keep mosquito populations in check, and spiders quietly reduce agricultural and household pests every day. Together they perform [ecosystem] services that would cost billions of dollars to replace artificially,” [and without the need for poisons and toxins contaminating the environment for all life]. When [biocides] are used excessively, they harm these natural allies along with the pests they are intended to control. The result can be a cycle where beneficial species decline while pest populations eventually rebound, creating even greater dependence on chemical solutions. Nature has spent millions of years building systems of balance that work better than we realize. Protecting frogs, bats, spiders and other insect eating species is more than wildlife conservation, it is about supporting healthier ecosystems, cleaner environments, and more sustainable food production. The best solution is not adding another chemical but allowing nature to do what nature has always done best… Nature already has a pest control. Stop spraying poison; let them do their jobs” PowWows.com.
I had a discouraging week dealing with an old friend who is completely locked into the old worldview where money, power and greed dominate her worldview. She cannot fathom a different way to live and so supports a failing capitalistic paradigm that harms and marginalizes her. She like so many others vainly hopes for a change in the hierarchical system to create a better world. This change is a singular idea of course – the magic bullet approach, much like a belief in the ultimate efficacious pharmaceutical drug – “just give me the one thing that will cure everything.” She believes only lots of money will change anything because nothing is free in life. In a way she is right when you live within a paradigm of scarcity within the modern global capitalist system. I tried to tell her much of what I talk about in this blog, but her fears, anxieties and crippling doubts are so deeply entrenched that they just keep her a prisoner in her own mental prison. I do think that if she saw the needed changes actually occurring, she would break out of this self-imposed prison. That is why it is crucial for the awakened ones among us to show a new and better path to light the way forward. We, the vanguard of a sustainable future, can influence so many who sit on the fence waiting to see any possibility of a brighter future.
Resilience to my friend is a dream. She posts wonderful memes about sustainability on Facebook to inspire others, but cannot seem to embrace that mindset in her own life. She is the epitome of an external Locus of control (eLOC – the belief that life outcomes are primarily determined by outside forces such as luck, fate, or other people, rather than by one’s own actions). The lasting changes we are facing require us to live through an internal locs of control (iLOC – the belief that your own actions, decisions, and efforts primarily determine the outcomes in your life) – (see link for more about LOC). We need to take back the global commons from those that have taken it away from us over the past few centuries to fill their own ill-gotten gains at our expense. That is a lasting change of the magnitude and complexity of things to come but it is not one plan or one big thing. It is a process that we create and build. It is not any single plan. We move forward with a vision of what we want to see and then let our localized plans unfold, making adjustments as we go along. Note I said localized for each community will initially work from its own strengths within the ecological system in which it exists.
Ecological resilience shows the path to build social and cultural resilience. Nature works through redundancy and variation with many niches that are quickly filled as they are vacated – taking back our commons and finding resiliency is similar for the human solution. The reason I always refer to say ‘sustainability principles’ is that each place, each community, whatever its size, will organize ‘organically’ around its own place, context, resources, and culture. Embracing ecological and cultural diversity is the bedrock of creating a resilient future. Like nature, each local experiment will adapt and replicate what works using continuous feedback systems to learn what works (or doesn’t) and then with share with neighboring communities in a naturally occurring synergistic way. “Every local success or failure thus potentially contributes to collective learning—provided it’s shared.
This latter point is crucial, because it’s how social movements that achieve lasting behavioral change actually grow” Sustainable Human.
“Ecological economists argue for reforms that would ground economics in ecological principles and the constraints of thermodynamics. They urge the embrace of radical notion that we must sustain natural capital and ecosystem services if we are to maintain quality of life. But governments still cling to the neoclassical fallacy that human consumption has no consequences… The idea that we should put limits on growth because of some natural limit is a profound error. Our leaders willfully ignore the wisdom and the models of every other species on the planet – except those that have gone extinct” Robin Wall Kimmerer (Braiding Sweetgrass 2013).
Research by sociologist Damon Centola shows that, “meaningful social change rarely begins through viral messaging or celebrity influence. It starts on the margin – in small circles where people know and trust each other—and spreads through strong, overlapping social ties.” It also expands through lived demonstration: people can see and feel the benefits for themselves and then choose to imitate, adapt, or share. We break the trap of scarcity thinking and restore the world by building the new caring, sharing global society. “The miracle is this: The more we share, the more we have” Leonard Nimoy.
To Be Continued ……………………
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