From kowens@teleport.com Fri Jun 4 11:41:22 1999 Date: Fri, 04 Jun 1999 08:36:25 -0700 From: Jeff Owens Reply-To: ecopath@csf.colorado.edu To: ecopath@csf.colorado.edu Subject: [ecopath] Building a Sustainable World The following is taken from a post to the Deep Ecology discussion list. I'm not sure everyone views deep ecology this way, but it is a viewpoint i enjoy. ---- From: Betsy Barnum Social and cultural solutions are certainly required to move successfully to sustainable ways of life. But these are not going to happen from the top down. Grassroots change has to happen first, people changing their way of life and gradually spreading their ideas and practices, and systematic change happening rapidly from there. To say "I won't do it because it won't be effective" is so pessimistic, in two ways. One, it is ludicrously stubborn. If I don't take responsibility for my own impact on the Earth, who will? This argument is like saying, "I won't do it until you do it. No, you first, no, you first...." Somebody has to go first. Why not me? Why not you? Also, this comment implies a fundamental doubt that people will change their ways before ecological crisis changes them for us, or that people *can* change. This makes me feel sad and disheartened, a mood that *really* makes me ineffective! Second, this word "effective" is a real red herring, in my opinion. It's a buzzword of the industrial economy, of human-only thinking, a false value in my opinion. It has its place, it is a value, but it doesn't deserve its place as a primary measure of behavior. It's passionless, bloodless, dry--it's about accounting, "bang-for-the-buck," quantification. Does everyone use effectiveness as a measure for all their decisions? I don't. Why use it as the only measure for decisions to reduce ecological impact? Aren't there lots of other good reasons to simplify? The argument that "it isn't effective" or "it won't work" also is imbued with the notion that simplifying one's life will be a sacrifice, not pleasurable or satisfying or joyful. This is a misunderstanding of simplicity, in my opinion. I suppose on one level your friends are right--if simplifying entailed huge sacrifice, then nobody would want to go first, enter into that suffering, unless they knew for sure it would "work." But reducing ecological impact is never going to be voluntarily embraced if it is a sacrifice. The truth is, the way of life most people aspire to brings satisfaction that is fleeting and empty at best, destructive of something essentially human at worst, and growing numbers of people know this. A life embedded in a place, in a community, with minimal need for money and things and a healthy fabric of relationships for help and celebration is so much richer than a life characterized by owning and maintaining a huge house, huge vehicle and all the toys. This awareness, the yearning for something truly, deeply satisfying, is right on the edge of consciousness for a huge number of people, I think. WRT "if you don't use it, someone else will," I can hardly think of a worse reason to continue in a wasteful life. Why is it better for me to use "it" than someone else? This leaves me feeling not just empty, but dirty. This thought to me is the flip side of the economics argument--we have to keep buying stuff to keep the economy going. These notions exemplify one of the worst misapprehensions that modern culture teaches people: that we must always compete with each other for everything. This includes competing with other creatures as well as with other people. That's how we've gotten into the mess we're in, or one way. So how does deep ecology answer these arguments? To me, DE is an invitation to explore a deeper connection with all life. It's a call to examine how I live, and how I can bring the way I live into some degree of balance with the ecosystems I live in, as well as understanding on a spiritual level that I *am* the Earth, and learning from that awareness. Part of what I have come to through living with DE is that no matter what is happening around me, it's of utmost importance that I live a life of integrity and wholeness, to the best of my ability. Live in harmony, reduce the negative impact of meeting my needs, maintain a respectful relationship with all beings including all humans, and experience as deeply as possible my oneness with the Earth. Not out of duty, not out of fear, but out of love, joy, the profound contentment and even ecstasy of participating consciously in *life*. Whether or not this is "effective" in any external way doesn't really matter. Betsy -- Betsy Barnum bbarnum@wavetech.net http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/1624