How to galvanize the broad support of global humanity – “the every-day people”, “the 99%” – in shouldering the responsibility for ensuring the future of the planetary biosphere, and with it, the future of human civilization?
Janez Drnovsek:
“We are the people of the world, yet are we conscious of what is happening around us every day? Conscious of our world heading toward an abyss? – conscious of the imbalances of this world growing from one day to the next?
“What kind of a world are we leaving to future generations of humankind – and how will they reflect on us? Will they reflect that we were the generation who still had the chance to stop the destruction of our planet? That we failed to awaken? Failed to act?”
Janez Drnovsek, Former President of Slovenia, ‘An Open Letter to Humanity’
Joanna Macey:
“A revolution is under-way because people are realising that our needs can be met without destroying our world. We have the technical knowledge, the communication tools, and material resources to grow enough food, ensure clean air and water, and meet rational energy needs. Future generations, if there is a liveable world for them, will look back at the epochal transition we are making to a life-sustaining society. And they may well call this the time of the Great Turning. It is happening now.
“Whether or not it is recognised by corporate-controlled media, the Great Turning is a reality. Although we cannot know yet if it will take hold in time for humans and other complex life forms to survive, we can know that it is under way. And it is gaining momentum, through the actions of countless individuals and groups around the world. To see this as the larger context of our lives clears our vision and summons our courage.”
Joanna Macy, www.joannamacy.net/thegreatturning.html
Due to the denial, over-looking and minimilization of the severe crises facing humanity right now – by governments, media, and so-called “experts” – many people’s grasp of the extremity of humanity’s common and urgent “sustainability crisis” has been effectively obscured.
In this modern psuedo-cultural era of corporate consumerism, many assure me (the developer of the Earth Holocracy Proposal) that “the people don’t care about the future”, that “they are only interested in their things”.
But, while researching their 2008 book, Good News for a Change: how everyday people are helping the planet, David Suzuki and Holly Dressel found everywhere that as soon as people understood the nature of the sustainability crisis and its direct connection to the kind of future that their children would inherit, they tended to throw themselves into meeting the sustainability challenge with the ferocity of a protective parent.
As Naomi Klein observes:
“This is one of those moments when the barriers between who’s a regular person and who’s an activist need to break down. Capitalism has succeeded in convincing us that we’re not worth saving, that we can honestly look each other in the eye and say, ‘We can never do it.’ The job of any social-justice movement is to hold up another image of society and say, ‘We can be more.’ I know it’s possible to change things. I’ve seen it. I’ve seen moments when a whole society goes off script.”
Derived from an interview by John Powers, August 26, 2014, ‘Naomi Klein on This Changes Everything, Her New Book About Climate Change’
If the key motivational factor for people to throw themselves into working for sustainability is having “realized that if our activities are not sustainable, we’re dooming our children and grandchildren to disease, misery and unbearable levels of social inequality”, then spreading public awareness on this matter must be a core tactic of our movement.
At this point, we are going to divide this Vital Conversation into two distinct foci.
Please proceed through to discuss the sub-topics of:
ONE
Opening Up Public Dialogue and Debate
and
TWO
Establishing Civil Organizations for Whole Community Engagement
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