I planned on giving my final presentation on Earthships. They keep popping into my mind as an intriguing concept, something beautiful and unique. But I realize that this is the inherent problem. It is the problem with Earthships, the problem with Ecotopia, and the problem with climate change. They are all intriguing concepts, but that is where they remain.
We seem to have backed ourselves into a perceptual corner. I touched on some of these ideas when talking about Beyond Civilization and hate to be redundant, but I cannot seem to avoid the overwhelming feeling that all of these things, and many more, are not actually solutions because they reside in the same inherently flawed system that produced the issues in the first place. The “answers” and debates are all based on some version of an adversarial hierarchy. That must be focused on, or at least maintained in awareness, to make any action effective.
Ecotopia only works in the long term if the people within it are different, not just acting different, but thinking and being different. The geopolitical reality imposed by hypothetical secession is only a means of reinforcing the ideas which come into practice once the people change. That means that any scenario can be theoretically successful if we can manage to create, or more accurately empower, significant and authentic change within the individual. Personal individual change may not occur fast enough to save us from the crisis of climate change. But I believe speed is not the most critical factor in this equation. I think what we should focus on is the type of change.
Change that is defined by the same programs that lead us to crisis is not the answer; it is only a stop gap solution. We must push ourselves to be the best and truest versions of ourselves. If we can identify in that way, see ourselves and each other in that way, as fellow humans connected through and to everything around us in a common interest, namely that of Life, then all we must do then is act accordingly towards our own individual best interests. This isn’t as new age as it sounds. It is just the logical extension of the idea that if some of us fail, none of us succeed. Unfortunately, those who are currently the greatest failures environmentally are the most successful by our societal criteria of wealth and consumption. They have been strongly reinforced by the very people they are failing. Fortunately, perception change is much more effective utilized through a bottoms up approach than a top down one. A top down approach is based only on power and the rewards and punishments which it can provide. When something is changed from the foundation it is based on need and can be made as a conscious choice.
I know, all this is easier said than done, but if this can not save us, perhaps we were not meant for survival. Or perhaps, as I think in my cynical moments, we do not deserve to survive as a species after the way we have behaved. If it is true, that we have waited until it is quite literally too late, then our extinction, or at least the end of life as we currently know it, is something that we will have to come to terms with. Whether we accept it or not, those terms will be enforced. Earth will continue creating life, no matter what we choose, we just may not be a part of the plan.
I know that sounds brutally harsh but we have reached a point in history where mere survival should not be enough. Simple awareness of these issues, and this I feel is true for really any important issue, is not enough. This is especially true when things like acculturation prevent us from even being aware that we are unaware. We have forgotten that these things are merely first steps. There is much to be done and an almost infinite amount of ways to act. Any action away from the culture of maximum harm is a start. We can only hope that the cumulative effect results in an overwhelming snowball. One way or another, life will not be the same.
I've really enjoyed this class. The discussions were excellent and consistently surprising. I would like to thank you all for being a part of it and showing that education can function in such a stimulating and respectful manner. This has not always been my experience. I am quite happy to be graduating on this note. I hope this is not the last we all hear from each other. Good luck to you all.
-- Scott
A few links of interest in closing:
http://earthship.com/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/331645193563218/
--Facebook group for Earthship Biotecture TN
http://tinyhouseblog.com/ -- I just think these are neat
https://www.facebook.com/groups/334993393195494/?fref=ts
-- Facebook group for Rosewater, a community I am a part of that is more theoretical than geographical at this point. But who knows what the future may hold. Feel free to join us.
Is “ecotopia” our glorious Tomorrowland? Can we ditch the fossil fuel burners, get off the grid, give up heavy consumerism and the forty-hour workweek, and get on with better lives in the great Pacific Northwest? Doubtful, but for some of us irresistibly alluring (except for the war-games and some of the emotional histrionics and cringe-inducing male casual-sex fantasies). But even if the late Ernest Callenbach‘s vision is all a pure fictional fantasy,
can plausibly imagine there will be a flourishing and recognizably-human civilization still here in a century. Surely not, if we’re committed to keeping on doing what we’ve been doing. We need to commit to something better.
Bill McKibben 