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What's
My Message?
Over the past few
years I have used
this site
as
a
notebook to record my thoughts about some of the large-scale
developments in
the world. It started with
my discovery of Peak Oil, and gradually broadened to cover a range of
topics like
climate change, overpopulation, ecological damage and food security. The ongoing theme has been the realization
that
our
global industrial civilization is facing imminent biophysical limits to
its
growth.
As
my investigations broadened, I discovered that we are on the threshold
of a civilizational emergency. The moment
of Peak Oil has already passed; there is no combination of
alternative energies that can
keep our
industries running as they have on oil and gas; we have
passed the climatic tipping point; the oceans will not recover
their
former
glory; we are even
facing the limit
of our ability to grow food. Sealing our fate is our apparent
inability as communities, nations or as a species to make
the preventive changes in attitude and behaviour that are so manifestly
necessary. The things that must be done to avert the looming
crisis will
by and large be done only as its consequence.
These realizations
threw me headfirst into a long dark night of the soul. Despite
occasional glimpses of hope such as my discovery of Deep Ecology and “Gaia’s
antibodies”, for several years my spirit was overwhelmed by
dread.
Further
exploration in areas not directly related to ecology, population
or energy finally allowed me to understand that there are avenues
of hope even in the teeth of our
Perfect Storm. The reason it was so hard for me to see them at
first is that they do not occupy the same worldview as the problems I
was investigating. I had to completely change my understanding of
the crisis as well as my definition of what a successful response might
look like in order to accept that these signs of hope were legitimate.
The signs of hope
are not couched in the language of science or technology, and do not
partake of politics or economics. In fact, they have virtually no
direct relationship to the ecological, energy and economic problems
that we are told constitute this crisis of modern civilization.
In the language of taxonomy,
the signs of hope and the apparent problems are orthogonal sets:
the two classes are non-intersecting.
If you pursue the
root causes of our crisis as deeply as possible, you may come to the
same startling conclusion I have. The crisis of civilization is
not, at its core, a convergence of technical, environmental and
organizational problems. These visible problems are only symptoms
pointing to a deeper malaise. Driving all these symptoms is a
philosophical and perceptual disconnection so deep that it is best
understood as a spiritual breakdown. The disconnection goes by
the name of Separation. This sense of separation is what allows
us to see ourselves as different from and superior to the rest of the
apparently non-rational universe we live in. In this worldview
the mutual interdependence of all the elements of the universe is
replaced by a simple dualistic categorization: there are human
beings, and everything else in the universe—without
exception—is
a resource for us to use.
The only way to
keep this planet, our one and only home in the universe, from being
ultimately ravaged and devastated is to change our worldview and heal
that sense of separation. Unless we can manage that breathtaking
feat all the careful application of technology, all the
well-intentioned regulations, all the unbridled cleverness of which we
are so proud will do little to delay the final outcome, and nothing
whatever to prevent it.
There are two
pieces of very good news in all this. The first is that the
efforts to change humanity's worldview or cultural narrative can
proceed at the same time as all our traditional efforts to solve the
physical problems. There is no conflict between the two, and even
the failure of one will have no effect on the possibility of success in
the other. We can, indeed we must, do both.
The second piece
of good news is that success in the domain of the cultural narrative is
virtually guaranteed, regardless of the outcome in the physical domain
of resources and environment. My recent thoughts, as set out in
the more hopeful articles below, lead me to this inevitable
conclusion. I hope after reading and thinking about these issues
for yourself you will come to share my deep optimism, even in the face
of a rapidly deteriorating physical situation here on Planet Earth.
The coming changes represent not only
the greatest
challenge humanity has ever faced, but also the greatest opportunity
that
has ever been presented to us. Embracing
our interdependence with each other and the rest of the universe,
transforming the story we tell about ourselves, and becoming
wise in the process is the most crucially important work any of us can
undertake. In the final analysis it is not only the best chance
we
have but the only way we can become sane,
sustainable
members of the community of life.
Wishing you transformation,
Bodhisantra
May 25, 2009
This
web site is dedicated to my
partner, lover, teacher, guide and soul-mate Estelle, who showed me
that awakening to
the true state of our world has genuine value only when we awaken to
the true state of our selves. As a result, we can heal the outer
world
only by healing our inner world.
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