I'm an optimist... really. part 1

There seems to be critical decision that many of us are finding ourselves making on the conscious or the unconcious level. Do we try to fix this system and make it work? Do we actively challenge those who are fouling things up for everyone? Or do we walk away from the pyramid and do our own thing. Some say you have to work the system from within and play by the rules. Other prefer to challenge those rules. And others still, walk away and establish their own.

But how can we choose? Is there even a choice? Can anyone ever truly escape this mess? I think not, because there is no boundary to the Empire. It is all encompassing. And the future of the Empire is critically tied to the future of Life as we know It.

What follows are some of the conclusions understandings I have reached:

We can't just establish another program to save the system, so it won't be as simple electing the right official, or diverting more funds to piecemeal conservation and humanitarian efforts (as important and noble as that is). This culture has built massive momentum, like a rock rolling quickly downhill, or a stream that has turned into a roaring river. Through Quinn, the teacher B showed us that a program is like a stick in a river. The water quickly moves around it. Likewise, you can not resist a rolling boulder.


So how do we influence a moving mass, so as to not end up where its heading?
To continue with the metaphor: While we can not directly resist the flowing water, or the falling boulder, but we can direct its path. We can shape the land down which it flows.

How can we shape the path WE are taking?

To clarify, I am certainly not saying that we can not resist the systems of oppression and domination that have been exploiting people and planet for centuries. This is absolutely critical. The machine must be held back in areas, so that something else can grow. The maladies of the self-destructive system must be constantly revealed and exploited. But the key here, is that something new must grow to take its place, and to eventually overgrow it and transform the system as a whole. What grows, is up to us. :)

The colorful metaphor here, of course, is the caterpillar being transformed from the inside. A foreign and novel creature originates from the dissolving tissues of body which came before it. The transformation starts with a few cells working together, and grows out, from within.

We can be those "imaginal cells", and work together, and grow. We will meet resistance from the old, but we are creating something new, with a new path, a new idea, a new way of relating to each other and the planet. Or perhaps a very very OLD way, which we somehow forgot. We will bring the light back to the darkness. We will carry that light and utterly transform the reality of human existence.

It will have to be this radical.
Otherwise, the system will end up where its heading.

This is how I consider myself an optimist. I know this simple, undeniable fact. If human culture is still around 100 years from now, it will be so radically different that what we know today. This has to be true, because this culture of competition and domination is killing itself. If we continue playing out this story, as these characters, we will reach the end of the story, very soon. We will figure this one out. Or we will no longer exist. Either way, things will work out. :)

So, reality check. We currently find ourselves in a precarious position. Our actions up to this point have left us with an interesting convergence of resource depletion, conflict and climate change. Before we even consider where we're going, we must understand how we got here. Fortunately this has been investigated and laid out several times, by many great minds of our time.

As far as recent documentaries go, I would suggest "What A Way To Go: Life at the End of Empire." You can watch the trailer here. This is quite an amazing mind-fxck of a movie, and I would not suggest watching it in any sort of altered state. As for good books on how we got here, in "The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight" Thom Hartman provides a critical resource for understanding of how We have systematically overtaxed and sullied our nest. (I would suggest this book to anyone concerned with the environmental crisis.)

So where do we go from here? What will our glowing centers of enlightened resistance look like? How do I know?! All I know is we are dealing a changing world, and inheriting a boat-load of baggage. Surely, we need to be ready to adapt and respond to the ramifications of our prior short-sightedness.

On his website, FutureScenarios.org, one of the OG's of Permaculture, David Holgrem uses a scenario planning model to understand the potential interaction between Climate Change and Peak Oil. "In the process," He says,

I introduce permaculture as a design system specifically evolved over the last 30 years to creatively respond to futures that involve progressively less and less available energy.

That's what we're working with. Things as simple as "where do we get our food" and "where does are waste go" are becoming not so disconnected from daily life. Whatever we do, we better wake up to the natural cycle of resources and the reality of the world we've created.

Let's see what we can do...