Monthly Archives: May 2015

PART 3 — “SHARING POWER”

Ecosophia, People, , ,

COMMUNITY GOVERNANCE

COMMUNITY DECISION-MAKING & FAIR SHARING — THE POWER OF MANY – TOGETHER

How can we share power equitably, making decisions as inter-dependent communities of people, with engagement and respect, and for our common interests?

 

The third of three pamphlets outlines a governance system that is socially equitable and mimics the natural systems of our world.

It starts with the following prologue:

Democracy means people power, or rule by the people for the people.  But which of the people rule and for whose benefit?
In the large centralised nation states of our present world, where there is a form of democratic governance, it is one of a few people representing large electorates, who are easily influenced by lobbyists for the rich and socially powerful.
Where the social aims of these large states revolve around material consumption and comfort, and economic activity is controlled by private enterprises for ownership profits, politics becomes subservient to economics and the power of money and wealth or capital.
Social aims and economic activities are, though, defined and directed by laws, standards and regulations that are decided through governance structures and political processes.

Power can be taken by force of arms, intellectual prowess or emotional manipulation, but fundamentally it has to be given, however begrudgingly — orders have to be accepted.  It does involve an imbalance, but the needs of all parties do have to be considered  in some way to sustain the arrangement.
The tools of power may be superior weapons and extensive surveillance systems, but social power is a matter of belief and imagination.  It depends on stories of origins and purpose, and ultimately words can be more powerful than guns.
This basis in imagination allows both great extremes of power and sudden radical alteration.
Can a participatory democracy, based around collaboration and cooperation for the common good, have a governance system that is socially resilient and allows large complex societies to be dynamically stable?
The present crisis of political economy can provide the opportunities, provided we have formed the seeds, to sprout vigorously in the social clearings.

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3P-Governance-A5

PART 2 — “LIVING IN OUR WORLD”

Ecologia, Economia, Money, Nature, , ,

NATURAL ECONOMICS

LIVING with SENSITIVITY & RESPONSIBILITY — PLACE & PEOPLE CONNECTED

What is our relationship with the world that sustains and nourishes us, and how do we act and interact in a healthy and productive way?

 

The second of three pamphlets outlines a possible and internally consistent economic system based on the patterns and processes of nature, where we are one part of a much greater whole.

It starts with the following prologue:

There should be less spending on weapons of war and more on humanitarian development.
There should be enough food in the world to feed everyone.
There should not be any poverty.
Kids should not go to school barefoot and hungry in an affluent society.
There should be a restraint on the use of fossil fuels, and a reduction in our output of carbon to the atmosphere.
We should reduce our ecological footprint and protect the habitats of other species.
Food should be nutritious and healthy.
We should be able to swim in our rivers and fish in our seas.
Governments should listen to their people.
Legal systems should be just.

There are lots of ‘shoulds’.

But wishing or desiring is not reality, and is not realising.
There are good reasons why things are the way they are, and much of it has to do with the economy.
“It’s the economy, stupid.”
But it is a rapacious and highly exploitive economy with an in-built driver of economic growth.
An economy controlled and managed by corporations for private profit, where everything is a commodity to be bought and sold.
An economy driven by financial power, to give excessive wealth to a few from unearned income.
Without fundamentally changing the way the economy works, all attempts at social redress and a fairer sharing will, sooner or later, fall flat. Repeatedly.

There is a disconnection between our way of life and the economy that provides it, and the ways of nature and life on planet Earth.

To understand an economy that allows and encourages us to live in partnership and with respect and responsibility, we have to understand nature.
This means we have to reconnect.
Then we can envision a natural economics, of healthy sustenance and good living for all.  
An economy that is constructive and regenerative, providing sufficiently for our needs, while maintaining the ecosystems and habitats of our environments.

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3P-Natural Economics-A5

PART 1 — “THE CHALLENGES OF OUR TIME & PLACE”

Ecosophia, People, Wisdom, , , , ,

COMMUNITY DEMOCRACY

TO BE A PEOPLE OF OUR PLACE — WELL NOURISHED in BODY, MIND & SPIRIT

What is the character of our place and period, the conditions of our lives as human communities in the present age?

 

The first of three pamphlets sets the scene about our time and place, and its social conditions, trends and influences.

It starts with the following prologue:

If the water in a glass is half way, it is half full to an optimist and half empty to a pessimist.  Or so they say.
But being a pessimist or an optimist is just a state of mind, and is irrelevant to the reality of the situation.  When it comes to the crunch, what is important is being realistic.
Whether the level is half way is also not really the point.  What matters more is whether the level is rising or falling.  It is the direction or trend that is informative, with life being about change and processes not static states.
We live in the present, with the conditions of our time and place, but with imagination we can foresee trends and patterns of change.  This allows us to be responsive and proactive, and thereby more capable and creative in the way we live our lives.

If we look at the ‘glasses’ of our time and place, many are reaching empty, while some are overflowing.  There are severe imbalances, which have a very destructive potential.  Life is all about exchange, and the continual cycling of energy and nutrients through all parts of the whole integrated system.  Excessive accumulations and over consumption by some parts at the expense of others is distorting, and brings forth countervailing forces of destructive cleansing and re-balancing.
We respond to our excesses, or we are destroyed.
The present human population and its consumption is clearly an excessive burden on the world and life on planet Earth.
Where are the responses to this excess?  Will people respond sufficiently, and say, “Enough.”  Or will we suffer a destructive cleansing by the forces of the Earth, with a withdrawal of support from the ecosystems of life?

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3P-Community-A5