Within the story of Business as Usual, a commonplace saying is "you can't change human nature." But when we look at the breathtaking span of our planetary history, the idea that "we'll never change" seems absurd. We are part of the most extraordinary unfolding. Where will it go next?...
In the Business as Usual culture of industrialized economics, it is considered normal to consume 32 times the quality of resources and to produce 32 times as much waste as those living in non-industrialized societies. What is not being seen is how little fuel we have left and how much harm we are causing. Because our culture is not looking at where it is going, we are like the Titanic moving very quickly but heading for a crash.
If we're only interested in "facts," we limit ourselves to looking at what has already happened, which is a bit like trying to drive a car by looking only in the rear view mirror.
If land-based mammals can return to the oceans and evolve into dolphins, then it is not such a stretch to think that modern human beings could return to a state of connectedness with the land and evolve into a wiser form of life.
Many of the advances we take for granted today were thought of as impossible before they were imagined...
We can remember the vaster story of our planet and let it imbue the most ordinary acts with meaning and purpose. Each of us is an intrinsic part of the story, like a cell in a larger organism. And in this story, each of us has a role to play.
- Joanna Macy & Chris Johnstone
Excerpted from Active Hope: How to Face the Mess We're in
Without
Going Crazy
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