Greetings!
I hope this finds you safe, well and surrounded by living creatures who bring you joy.
Okay, so you know when you can’t unknow something once you know it? And then you kind of want to do something about it? That’s what I’ve been mulling over these days.
We know more about the truth of our current social and industrial (aka economic) paradigm than ever. We know that it harms the biosphere and humanity, and that leading economic actors are rewarded financially for doing so. Some people benefit in the short term, but most people suffer from this approach in the long term. We know this.
We’re also coming to see that trying to fix the problems using the rules of the current system is akin to the moth-to-flame approach rather than the caterpillar-to-butterfly approach.
So, knowing this, how do we find a better paradigm? What does that even mean?
Fuss Is Good
For starters it means we can’t be quiet about the truth of the current paradigm – something I’ve been working on though I’m still learning more about the truth and how to speak it, every day. It’s been easy to miss some things. I am a white descendant of the people who colonized Canada through land theft and genocide. And I am someone who participates comfortably in the economy built on that land theft and genocide – aided and abetted by slavery and ecological destruction. And I was raised in an education system that smooths over the rougher edges of the story, even making Canada out to be the peace-keeping, slave-rescuing hero, so it took me a while to fit the pieces together. But that’s no excuse. I know better now, and I can do something about it now.
For added insult, the voices of women were largely silenced, so I’m having to overcome my own indoctrination of mouth-shutting, even if more powerful ears (and less powerful ones, too) are designed to disregard me as heretical or as someone making an unnecessary fuss. I’ve come to realize that fuss is good. Even when it feels icky.
Nature Knows
Okay, so we need to speak up about the unacceptable realities of the current paradigm. Check. There’s lots of that going on these days.
But where can we look for the truth about what would be better in these complex and polarized times? Well, we’re surely not going to find it in the for-profit, advertising-funded media that is part of the system that rewards financial growth, as opposed to rewarding truth. Having worked with dozens of large companies for the last 20 years – including several media companies – I see media companies doing exactly what they’re designed to do: make money through advertising. Mainstream media might serve a purpose (such as providing entertainment, and promoting its advertisers) but that is a far cry from propagating truth with the intention of creating a regenerative economic paradigm.
So if not the nightly news, whence the truth that can help us move towards where we’d rather be?
Nature. Nature knows stuff. She’s continued to evolve life on earth for nearly 4 billion years, rather excellently in my humble opinion. While we have plenty more to discover, we know enough already to see the basic principles that allow us – and all life – to thrive: diversity, resilience, cooperation, interdependence, to name just a few of those principles. This is how life works. This is how our economy can and should work, too, since it is just an extension of us, made up of our choices. Right now industry rewards sameness, productivity, growth and dominance. What would it look like to reward diversity, for example, or cooperation? The mind reels with delight.
Heresy Or Wisdom?
I’ve been trying to understand how profound new ideas catch on – especially ones that reward actions that help us thrive – and what happens to those who step forward and share these ideas. This is something I explored in my recent blog post, Sex, Religion And Regeneration using the film Jesus of Montreal to see what happens to the messianic actors out there.
In our current times, there are more and more people acting messianic, seeing the opportunity of propagating social justice or restoring natural systems, or both (realizing they are directly connected). The new paradigm is visible, and it has clear, knowable characteristics. A compelling book on the matter, with conceptual and practical information, was recently published for free on-line (how messianic!). In Joe Brewer’s “The Design Pathway For Regenerating Earth” we learn about bioregional restoration which grounds regenerative ideas in the places where the impact happens. It’s so full of common sense that it is astounding that it even needed to be written down – yet it did and we need to now make this sense much more common.
Here’s a quote of Joe’s that sums it up well:
To become bioregional is to become the ancestor of future indigenous people. There are two forms of this — the first one is to learn from, collaborate with, and support current indigenous practices today. The second form is to create new appropriate and adapted indigenous practices for the changed environments of the future. Both need to support each other.
In case being good indigenous ancestors of the future seems like a crazy idea, note that it’s already happening in some places. For example, in New Zealand the idea of a river having rights akin to legal personhood has been enshrined in law for several years now, with the local Maori community playing a key role in interpreting this legal person (the Whanganui River)’s needs. What might be different if the lake, river or forest near each of us had as much say in decisions as have, for example, real estate developers or mining companies? These are the kinds of questions that will determine what kind of ancestors we are.
There is lots of room for different thinking to turn things around for the better, and it is already happening in many places. In another blog post I shared the story of a field trip to a manufacturing plant where transformative ideas are changing the way electronics are made. In Going in Circles (The Good Kind) we see what life looks like at a company that answered a fundamental question back in 2012: What would it look like to close the loop on all of our raw materials? The answer is pretty amazing, for both the people and the planet.
This Paradigm Is Ours To Find
So many people are putting the principles of regeneration into action. You’ll know it’s the case when you see diverse voices being heard and respected, when injustices are being righted, and when natural systems are recovering. Wherever we see that, we can act – inquiring deeply about how it works, looking for ways to deploy what we hear into new places where it’s not yet the norm, and sharing what we learn with others.
That, I believe, is the better paradigm found.
Yours in connectedness,
Lorraine
