permaculture

[Keith Johnson <keithdj@mindspring.com>]

Humanity's Immune Response
The largest social movement the world has ever known is upon us
by Paul Hawken
The social justice movement, environmental movement and indigenous
movements are intertwining and morphing, and are becoming the
largest social movement in the history of the world. They are, in
essence, humanity's immune response to political corruption,
economic disease, and ecological degradation.

It is the first time a movement understands that honoring the web of
life is integral to addressing poverty, violence, and oppression.
There are still separate movements, though. There is an
environmental movement and there is a social justice movement. They
are definitely coming closer, but they are not yet one. If they
could truly become one movement, the transformation possible would
be unimaginable. When a black child in Oakland winces at the thought
of an ancient tree being cut down in northern California, and when
an ex-logger in northern California winces at the thought of a black
teenager being cut down on the streets of Oakland, we'll know that
day has arrived.

The environmental movement seems to have the upper leg because the
house is burning down. Literally. So it is very easy for the
environmental movement to turn to the social justice and say, yes I
know how important your issues are, but the house is burning down.
You should come and join us on the environmental bus. I think that
it is upside down and backwards. Global warming is injustice. It is
a type of colonialism. If we are going to be effective over the
short time we have, we have to slow down, stop, and change the bus.
I think the environmental movement has to get on the social justice
bus.

There are one million organizations in this world that are here to
transform the nightmares of empire and the disgrace of war upon the
people and places on this Earth. We are the transgressors and we are
the forgivers. We means all of us, everyone. There can be no green
movement unless there's a black, brown, and copper colored movement.

This movement is about ideas, not ideologies. We have to make those
ideas better known to the world. This movement claims no special
powers. It grows up in small ways, but now we have to become more
powerful. Rather than control, it seeks connection and now we must
become much better connected to each other. Rather than seeking
dominance it strives to disperse concentrations of power, but now we
have to aggregate our voices.

We have to make it known that this movement is about addressing the
suffering on this planet and those who bear the suffering. Knowing
its weakness, it creates innovative tactics to leverage itself. It
forms, gathers, and dissipates without central leadership command or
control. No one knows its size, especially those inside it. There is
such fierceness here. There is no explanation for the raw courage
and the heart seen over and again in the people who march, speak,
create, resist, and build. It is the fierceness of what it means to
know that we are human and want to survive.

To witness the worldwide breakdown of civility into camps and
ideologies and meaningless wars, to watch the accelerating breakdown
of our environmental systems is harrowing and dispiriting. I said
this movement is an immune system. Well, immune systems fail too.
This movement most certainly can fail. What stands before us, I
think, is a gift of self-perception, the gift of seeing who we
really are. We will either come together as one globalized people or
we will disappear as a civilization.

Our minds were made to defend us, born of an immune system that
brought us to this stage in development and evolution. We are so
surfeited with the metaphors of war that when we hear the word
defense, we think attack. But the defense of the world can only be
accomplished by cooperation and compassion.

Science now knows that every child while still in diapers exhibits
altruistic behavior. It's hardwired. It's in our genes. Concern for
the well being of others is something we are born with. We become
human by helping and working with others, and buried in our genes
literally is faith and love. What it takes to arrest our descent
into chaos is one person after another remembering who they are,
where they are and joining together to save and restore life on
Earth.

Paul Hawken is the author of numerous books, including the
forthcoming Blessed Unrest. Excerpted from "Biology, Resistance and
Restoration: Sustainability as an Infinite Game,"

--
Keith Johnson
"Be fruitful and mulch apply."
Permaculture Activist Magazine
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also APPLE-Bloomington (Alliance for a Post-Petroleum Local Economy) It's a 
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also Bloomington Permaculture Guild