We are in the midst of an extraordinary moment in history. The "democratic" capitalist model is touting itself as the victor over the socialist model at a time when careful examination reveals it is leading to cataclysmic collapse. Virtually everywhere one looks within the United States, one can see advanced deterioration, usually severe in consequences, of ecological, social, economic, and political health, despite the 1990s economic boom. The majority, deep down, have little if any long-term faith in the "American system." There is grave depletion of spiritual values. Our so-called neo-liberal, free market economy knows no limits in its exploitation of physical, biological, intellectual, and socio-economic resources. It cares nothing for preserving the importance and wisdom of historical cultures. As the neo-liberal economics rapidly expands to envelop the entire world through the operations of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the General Agreements on Trade and Tariffs (GATT), and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), among others, and the global supermarket governing body, the World Trade Organization (WTO), the global gap between the haves and the have nots is dramatically increasing far beyond the already grave disparities.
Neo-liberal economics are predicted soon to be responsible for killing far more people in a short period of time from starvation and disease than from all of the 20th Century’s wars combined. The misery index for the vast majority of the earth’s people will advance beyond already incomprehensible, immoral levels. In addition to the virtual destruction of socio-economic, community, and cultural life, neo-liberal economics promises to greatly speed up the depletion of finite resources, including precious minerals, water, top soil, and clean air, and dramatically advance the toxicity of air, water, and soil infrastructures. If not stopped by the people, neo-liberalism seriously threatens to destroy habitability on planet earth for humans and thousands of other species absolutely essential for a dignified life.
Instead of adapting to Neo-liberalism’s dictates, it seems helpful to rediscover ancient, earth-centered principles that manifest in networks of decentralized, local self-reliant communities living in conscious harmony with the carrying capacity of each bioregion. Independence from nation-state governments, from national and international economic structures, and from far-away resources, becomes genuinely possible as we recover a responsible consciousness of living in locally self-reliant and earth centered "economics."
- The need for truly decentralized, participatory, biocratic (democratic structures are conspiracies of humans against nature) processes at every local level. This includes open and full participation by women as well as men, by all ethnic and racial groups, and by the "poor." And it means participation in the spirit of stewardship and sustainability for all of life and its sacred interconnectedness.
- The need for a movement, or front, distinctly separate from any political party, that can be free from the tenacious and seductive pressures to adopt and adhere to neoliberal economics. Instead, this movement must boldly be revolutionarily nonviolent in its representation of and advocacy for the people’s genuine interests quite apart from the needs of the nation state. The latter institution increasingly satisfies the powerful, but destructive, orders of the neo-liberal, global supermarket "free" economics, of limitless consumption and exploitation. Unity among popular sectors combating this anti-life economics emerges through the honoring of principled diversity.
- People empowered in networks of decentralized, locally self-reliant communities incorporating earth-centered (biocentric), sustainable principles within a bioregion, offer a primary alternative to neo-liberal economics. (See #5 below.)
- The importance of recognizing the need for physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual healing. We are all recovering from the crippling experience of many generations dominated by classism. racism, sexism, anthropocentrism (man centered vs. nature/earth centered), and nationalism. The arrogance of these selfish values have inflicted incredible pain not only on their victims but on the oppressors themselves, especially at the inner psyche and spiritual levels. Inattention to or denial of deep feelings of hurt and pain, beginning in early childhood, have generally been repressed and carefully disguised, though unconsciously, by layers of anger and rage. Being shielded from actually feeling these most primary of feelings has prevented most of us from walking a journey of full honesty with all our personal and structural relationships. It seriously interferes with efforts for conflict resolution and reconciliation. The new man and the new woman must become vulnerable at this primary level in order to complete the necessary revolutionary consciousness and courage to live out the alternative to neo-liberal economic threats to our extinction.
- The Mayan Indigenous (Zapatista) rebellion in Mexico offers us a revolutionary model that is prophetic. Democratic, verging on being biocratic and non-elitist, they promote a model of locally self-reliant communities independent from national power. They deeply understand the consequences of NAFTA (neoliberal economics) and therefore vigorously reject and refuse to abide by it. They are profound and tenacious advocates for the poor. And they deeply respect their native wisdom peoples and an earth-centered philosophy for sustainable living.
Conclusion
I possess much empathy for our extraordinarily difficult plight, and am in solidarity with a struggle for justice, healing, and evolution of a radically new vision. I know that the nation of my birth and upbringing, the United States of America, has brought havoc, suffering and destruction beyond comprehension. It is a sickening feeling to know this. I also know that the values and policies of my nation have destroyed or are destroying not only our souls, but our physical, emotional, and intellectual infrastructure of which we are a part and cannot live without. The earth can live without human kind. Human kind cannot live without the earth. We are part of nature, not separate from or dominant over nature.
So please, I pray, separate from our model. It is being offered, really coerced, upon the world as our "salvation." It clearly is not! It will continue to destroy social, cultural, community, and justice values. It will destroy physical, emotional, and psychological health. It destroys intellectual honesty and integrity. It destroys "democracy," biocratic processes, and social justice. It destroys nature and ecological health. It destroys spiritual essence. It destroys life itself!
We need to look deeply within ourselves and at our social relationships with one another wherever we are standing on the earth. An ancient wisdom resides deeply within our genetic code and within our suppressed memories and knowledge. Recovering historic consciousness of mutual aid is part of our hope and liberation. It is so simple as to almost elude our grasp. It is the most fundamental and powerful foundation of nonviolence. It enables us to boldly, but nonviolently, resist dependencies upon destructive values and structures, while experimenting with locally self-reliant community building. We are all in sacred interconnectedness with everything. Let us help each other take these empowering steps to our liberation through mutual aid and local self-reliance. Let us listen to the voice of Mother earth. She resides within us, and we within Her.
One Comment
Brian, I’m glad I found this post, your thinking is very on-target. I was led to this blog after hearing you speak at the beginning of the new Ungrip video, these words particularly resonated with me:
“We have become detached from the Earth… the course we’re on is a course of ultimate destruction…”
With the above article I have a few comments on some segments:
“The majority, deep down, have little if any long-term faith in the “American system.” There is grave depletion of spiritual values.”
Yes, and social systems are in fact opposed to spiritual values, namely compassion and freedom.
“Our so-called neo-liberal, free market economy knows no limits in its exploitation of physical, biological, intellectual, and socio-economic resources. It cares nothing for preserving the importance and wisdom of historical cultures.”
Social systems destroy natural cultures and replace them with a homogenized, stale disturbed technocratic culture in its place; modern fashion, entertainment and sports are overblown and twisted manifestations of this cultural decimation and restriction, allowing the arts to only flourish through corrupted channels of expression.
“As the neo-liberal economics rapidly expands to envelop the entire world through the operations of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the General Agreements on Trade and Tariffs (GATT), and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), among others, and the global supermarket governing body, the World Trade Organization (WTO), the global gap between the haves and the have nots is dramatically increasing far beyond the already grave disparities.”
All of these pinnacles of centralization have at their root the inability of the masses to survive in a localized way, due to land control and taxation.
And that issue of land control must be addressed; calling for more localization and community when people don’t have the land to do that on is short-sighted. The insurmountable obstacle to the right vision a “Decentralist, Self-Reliant, Earth-Centered” society is the forcible restriction to living naturally on the Earth. Telling people “Hey you should grow a food garden and barter with your neighbors” when they cant afford the land (or time) to do so is not exactly helpful. We are money-slaves because we can’t live self/community-sufficiently, we can’t produce what we need ourselves so we need to be consumers; we need to depend on governments and corporations that together are leading the way to the collapse of our ecosystem and the completion of an Orwellian techno-tyrannical world police-state.
Something like two acres of arable land per family (whatever form that “family” may take), free of cost and taxation, is getting at a real tangible answer. Land needs to be fairly distributed; empty concrete lots, golf-courses, etc. need to be claimed and occupied by families. Those that already have a home and land to grow food on can of course just stay put, except they stop paying the mortgage and taxes, so they will have the free-time (no longer being $-slaves) to live self-sufficiently.
In Sir Thomas More’s Utopia, he says of its residents that they, “account it a very just cause of war, for a nation to hinder others from possessing a part of that soil of which they make no use, but which is suffered to lie idle and uncultivated; since every man has by the law of nature a right to such a waste portion of the earth as is necessary for his subsistence.” BY THE LAW OF NATURE A RIGHT. The reason we live in this exploitative/destructive/unnatural society is because we are not claiming our NATURAL RIGHT to live as natural women and men on the earth. LAND & WATER IS A HUMAN RIGHT! Not something to be given to us by government officials, something we should have automatically; we are said to be “born into” whatever nation-state and therefore automatically be a “citizen” of whatever unnatural/unjust social-system exists at that time and place. And this social contract doesn’t require our signature of course, that’s automatic too. Bullocks! We are HUMANS first, not “citizens!” This is the age-old “Devil’s Bargain”: in exchange for added “security” and “services” we have to relinquish our freedom, we have to give up the possibility of living natural, fulfilling and ethical lives, we have to submit to an unprincipled, tyrannical and totally unsustainable system of false authority and hierarchy. The answer is personal SOVEREIGNTY, more specifically, sovereign veganic homestead communities, which are the most ethical and sustainable.