David Korten: Sharing and Caring for the Commons We All Inherited

An excellent article by longtime author, activist, peacemaker, teacher and truth-teller, wisdom-keeper and visionary David Korten. — Molly

David Korten | May 30, 2023

A viable human future requires the rapid navigation of deep transformation to restore Earth’s health and equitably distribute Earth’s natural surplus. It will rest on recognition and embrace of these tragically forgotten foundational truths: 

1. Life, the sacred product of Earth’s commons, is the source of our being.
2. Money is a number with no utility or meaning beyond the human mind.
3. There will be no winners on a dead Earth.
4. We will prosper in the pursuit of life, or we will perish in the pursuit of money.
5. The choice is ours to make.

A choice for life, presents us with three key priorities for action:

Priority Number 1: Earth First. We must learn to share and care for the living Earth commons. That commons is the collective creation of the living beings that preceded and ultimately birthed the human species. We can destroy it. We cannot control it. We have an inherent responsibility to care for it. None among us has a right to monopolize or attempt to control it.

Priority Number 2: Humans follow Earth. We must facilitate Earth’s healing and assure that its gifts are equitably shared in support of life’s continued evolutionary unfolding. To that end, our societies must support every person in meeting their essential material needs in ways that are satisfying to themselves while contributing to the wellbeing of the whole.

Priority Number 3: Institutions follow Humans. Human institutions are human creations that guide us in our relationships with one another and Earth. Our current institutions are guiding us to self-extinction, which does not serve. We have the right and means to eliminate or change them, beginning with the institutions of military and financial domination that bear major responsibility for our crisis.

Advancing these priorities will be a foundational purpose of eco-nomics, the moral philosophy needed to guide us to a viable human future.

The barriers to transitioning to an ecological civilization are daunting but reside mostly in the human mind, which can—and must—quickly change.

Far from calling us to sacrifice for the wellbeing of Earth, the essential transformation requires only that we relieve ourselves of forms of consumption that are ultimately self-destructive.

We can cheerfully shed: the massive consumption entailed in war; frivolous consumption driven by advertising rather than need; planned obsolescence; financial speculation and cryptocurrencies; global supply chains; and cities designed to make us dependent on cars for transportation and to provide office space for activities best eliminated. All are sources of our dehumanization. 

Let our joyful celebration of the gift of life reawaken us to our true nature as caring living beings and to our potential to create a future in service to the wellbeing of all of life.

https://davidkorten.org/

With David Korten, Seattle WA