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  • From: Lawrence London <lfljvenaura@gmail.com>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [permaculture] Karl North Eco-Intelligence | systems thinking learning and design tools for a sustainable future
  • Date: Sun, 11 Dec 2016 00:36:07 -0500

Karl North Eco-Intelligence <http://karlnorth.com/> systems thinking
learning and design tools for a sustainable futurehttp://karlnorth.com/

Reality 101: Some Notes on Teaching Humanity’s Predicament
<http://karlnorth.com/?p=866>

*By Karl North* | September 10, 2016

Our species faces a predicament: the inevitable decline of industrial
civilization as we know it, and possible extinction. Decades ago, a small
but growing group became aware of the situation and began to create ways to
communicate it to the general public. An ‘energy descent’ literature
appeared that has described it using terms like overshoot (Catton), the
limits to growth (Meadows et al), a long emergency (Kunstler), catabolic
collapse (Greer), die-off (Hanson) and peak everything (Heinberg), just to
name a few. They faced a mass media which did not consider the news fit to
print, and a public who so far has denied it outright.

Gradually most of the group recognized their effective quarantine as The
Cassandra Complex. Cassandra was the legendary daughter of the king of Troy
who warned her father not to allow the Trojan horse into the besieged city.
She was under a double curse: that she always had to tell the truth, and
that no one would ever believe her.

Still, some of the group who understand the situation continue trying to
find ways to break through the denial and provide enough explanation of how
the world really works so that those who can handle the information might
begin to adapt their lives. One example is a set of talks by Chris
Martenson, *The Crash Course.* This essay takes its title from one of the
more ambitious and comprehensive results, a college course designed and
taught by Nate Hagens.

These educational efforts generally have two main themes. One is an
explanation of the biophysical system in which our species exists, and how
our violation of its rules is creating the predicament. This theme often
includes a segment on evolutionary biology and psychology that tries to
explain humanity’s predicament behaviorally mainly in those terms. The
second theme is an analysis of the present organization of humanity, a
globalized capitalist system, which explains its ability to persist in a
pathway of self-destruction while keeping most people in the dark.

Because the members of the initial group who became aware of the
predicament were and still are mostly people trained in the biophysical
sciences, there now exists a large literature that explains that aspect of
the predicament. Their attempts to explain the role of the present social
system in causing the predicament have not been as accurate or successful,
in my view, for a couple of reasons.

One is the historical antagonism between physical scientists and social
scientists. The former have questioned the scientific status social
science, going so far at times as to describe all behavioral science as
nothing but noise. Margaret Thatcher epitomized this view when she said
that society does not exist. Ideologically in line with her capitalist
handlers, she meant that our species will prosper as a collection of
individuals each pursuing his/her self-interest, and has no need for
theories or analysis of society as such.

In reaction to their detractors in the physical sciences, many social
scientists have tried to give their discipline independent status by
ignoring biophysical realities in their research. C. P. Snow’s *The Two
Cultures*, written half a century ago, summarized the antagonism, coming
down heavily on the side of physical science, and kicking off a debate that
continues to this day. Many who write accurately on the energy crisis
retain residual loyalty to their training in reductionist science despite
its inability to cope with the interconnected nature of the universe as we
know it. They therefore tend not to take too seriously anything that can’t
be empirically demonstrated by reductive methods.

The second reason that the presentation of systemic social analysis has not
been as successful is the subversive nature of critical social science.
Ruling strata have therefore traditionally demonized it, penalizing and
marginalizing its producers, and making their writings easy to ignore even
by highly educated publics.

One area of social organization that energy descent educators have singled
out for special treatment and covered well is the role of money, finance
and debt under capitalism. Understanding how financial structures and
forces are combining to bring down the capitalist political economy is
important in exposing the deep delusions of most of the public about these
things and helping people to project alternative scenarios of social
organization for the era of transition. Writers who are renegades from
careers in finance have been particularly effective in this area (Chris
Martenson, Paul Craig Roberts, Michael Hudson, Charles Hugh Smith, Nate
Hagens). As these writers document, the policy of using interest bearing
debt to enable capital investment, while not unique to capitalism, is
intrinsic to capitalism as a system, and is essential for an understanding
of the impetus to endless growth in our economy.

Without attempting a full-blown treatment, these notes will point out
elements that critical social science reveals about our society as a
system, which I argue that younger generations need to know to better
confront the industrial melt-down that lies ahead.



  • [permaculture] Karl North Eco-Intelligence | systems thinking learning and design tools for a sustainable future, Lawrence London, 12/11/2016

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