Role of SNDEI
Marge Kaiser, Executive Director wrote on July 8, 2008 to SNDEI Advisory Board.
"As I’m watching the planetary weather extremes, I’m becoming increasingly concerned. The Sierra Nevada Deep Ecology Institute started 9 years ago with a local outreach environmental education program. At this juncture in history, such an undertaking seems even more urgent, yet I’m wondering if we’re doing enough, or enough of the right things. Do any of you have recommendations that I could take to our planning meeting for discussion and possible implementation. I believe there is a greater need then ever and unclear as to what one small organization can do. I look forward to your comments."
The following is a response sent by Robert Greenway, retired professor from Sonoma State University and current farmer in Port Townsend (see Coronafarm.com)
"Your question is a good one -- I"ll ramble a bit, then attempt to produce a list of suggestions.
I am always amazed at some aspects of this crisis. It could be seen coming a long way back, yet resistance to making moves when it would have been relatively easy was strong. This implies serious addiction -- not just to cheap oil and electricity, but to a whole way of life, and a whole
("paradigmatic"?) way of thinking. Seriously addicted, masked by myopia, denial, autism, etc.
I"m impressed with how completely and pervasively communities have dissolved in my lifetime. There are political, neighborhood, various interest groups, but by and large there is very little interactive cooperation. I believe that, if communities were functional, we"d be able to adapt to drastic changes such as climate and world hunger, even if severe -- there could be division of labor strengthening of survival lines. As it is, without community, people are getting that panicky feeling that each person, or each family, or the occasional small organization, has to "do more" or even "do it all" .... and I"m seeing people crashing under that stress. It"s not, "what can I do", but "what can we do together". I am not yet convinced that real, functioning communities can exist via the Internet. Most such communities seem to engender more games, or repetitive hang-wringing , than "actionable wisdom".
I am amazed at how easy, slick, and pervasive "green washing" is -- it goes with denial, and the "let"s pretend" nature of our society. (Let"s pretend we"re not at war, killing people, and our youth; let"s pretend the country isn"t over its head in debt, let"s pretend we"re all still young, and
let"s pretend that a few degrees of warmth might be fun rather than something to worry about. Let"s pretend this country is manageable -- let"s pretend the UN works, and that intricate social affiliations can really work to solve huge problems.
I"m amazed, also, at the growing clarity with regard to systems thinking -- how everything is connected. For example, here, on the Olympic Peninsula we"re attempting to resuscitate a local agrarian economy. A small percentage of this "community" "gets" local food". A slightly larger percentage "just loves" all the good-tasting food at the Farmer"s Market. And yet not one of us can make a sustainable living farming -- someone always has to go off the farm to support "local food growing"... and most people, comparing us with Safeway, or even the local Food Co-op, thinks our prices are already too high. So ... education is needed, as we tritely say. And the young people keep coming around "wanting to farm". And because this is a nice place (always cool, very sunny) more and more people move here, and the prices keep rising; so young potential farmers can"t support the land. And so on -- a problem with multiple linkages, multiple "critical factors" that impede change -- and all the factors have to move ahead or the whole system doesn"t move -- often hidden in various illusions. Still we farm (cf., Coronafarm.com -- link up to "The Small Farm as ARt form")
There are myriads of things people are finding to do -- from saving eel grass in local bays, to monitoring stream flows in order to fairly allocate water; from car pools and collective buying, and from (occasionally) supporting local farmers; paying attention to the health of watersheds, living more simply, and on and on. these are all good, and may be cumulatively more important than we realize as isolated individuals. But we also need organizations to link up, and MUCH better use of the Internet, and clear goals that are both earth-sustainable and survival oriented. And below all this (here comes the ecopsychology!), our theoretical understanding of the human-nature-relationship is still in a primitive state, still trapped in Western dualistic assumptions -- so that many of the so-called solutions we find turn out to be partial, or cures worse than the diseases. To know we are destroying the earth, and to not be able to stop -- that is the definition of insanity. To understand -- via current neurophysiological AND spiritual AND narrative ways of knowing -- the best we can accumulate and articulate about the human-nature relationship can give us a "forward reference" as to how best to place our energies -- especially collectively.
We must take care of our local situations -- the hypocrisy among environmentalists is immense and disturbing. And we cannot ignore the global interactions of these issues -- simply because the interactions between continents and political jurisdictions is growing daily -- distances are shrinking daily. It is an interactive world. World hunger is predicted to spiral out of control -- if it is in control now -- before the end of this year. that will affect everything -- from food availability in the rich countries, to the prices of food -- and makes growing local food more of an imperative every day. (and makes the debates between 20, 30 or 40 mpg per car appear grotesque, in the face of the level of crisis we"re dealing with; it makes fighting wars for the oil sources also more grotesque every day.
And so on.
So:
1. Become masterful at networking -- and at handling huge doses of information .... so it can be utilized.
2. comb back over Peace corps records, and the whole recent history of "appropriate technology" -- and start extending that information to the world, and to our selves.
3. Create, pull together, resuscitate, local communities -- to to try and "educate "them" -- that never works -- but just to begin the establishment of cooperative systems that might be built on as things become more intense. Build trust....
4. Try for "division of labor" in communities -- some stay in touch with the world scene, others drop down into producing food and building up soil, others bring in systems of appropriate technology. (Stop wasting time on the endless systems of "entertainment" (i.e., "avoidance") our culture spins out. work at all levels; adopt all modes of knowing; etc/
5. And don"t slight the possibility of "paradigm change" via a sorting out and creation of new aspects -- a new amalgam -- of the vast system of assumptions that have brought us to this crisis. We must be able to accurately diagnose "the wound", the ways of thinking that presume we humans are "not nature". We must be wary of systems (deep ecology, most eco-psychologies are examples) that perpetuate dualistic modes of thinking even while appearing to do otherwise. And to do all this theoretical stuff, we must clean up the language -- to eschew language is to throw out the baby with the bathwater. To understand language, and how, at its metaphorical base it can connect us with "the natural world" rather than alienate us -- that is the crucial task of theoretical work. We sdhould neither favor, nor disfavor that -- it is part of the crucial mix, part of the system, no more, no less.
6. We should invent, and play, games that reveal systems -- so that we (and our children) can better understand how they work.
7. Every day -- "one day at a time" -- we can overcome the web of addictions that bind us to this very, very destructive culture. But it has to be cooperative, it seems. I know of no better way of learning cooperation than to make beautiful music together.
..... hurriedly .... just for starters ..."
robert greenway
corona farm
Port Townsend, Washington
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