Four Part Series -
From suburbanpermaculture.org and
Creating A Preferred Future Radio
January 2023
Primer for Paradigm Shift
Part 2 of a Four Part Series
Aspects Of A Preferred Future
A Primer For Paradigm Shift
The primer encourages personal and cooperative movement towards an uplifted society with its goals to live within the boundaries of the natural world and to bring out the best in positive human potential. That preferred future will have an economic system that is honest and serves the needs of a society with healthy ideals and goals.
There have never been more reasons for paradigm shift. The behavior of capitalism and the seduction of the consumer culture are at odds with sustainability and the well being of people and planet.
The most important breakthrough for creating a healthy, uplifted and sustainable future is in our own consciousness - how we value ourselves, our friends, families and the natural world. And then, how do we prioritize our own time and money.
There are many inspiring examples of paradigm shift in action, on the ground, all over the world and they point the way towards a preferred future.
There are surprising allies and assets in almost any city and town to work with in common cause for a preferred future.
Contents Part 2
Aspects of Paradigm Shift
You Can Pause the presentation at any time
to take a closer look at text, fotos, graphics
Technology and Paradigm Shift
A Smaller and More Equal Pie
Precaution
Footprints and Our Lifestyle
The Calculator
More Footprints
Back to The Land, Back to The Suburbs
A Functional Society
No Need For Heroes
Civic Culture
Wisdom of the World’s Great Spiritual Traditions
Re sensitize
Permaculture
Prioritize Time and Money
The Double Benefit
Review
Imagine
A short review of part one.
Part 1 described the reasons for paradigm shift and touched on the terms social engineering, sequence of paradigm shift and liberation. Over consumption of energy and resources were explained as the driving force of capitalism and the consumer culture and as the common denominator to practically every major social, economic, political, environmental and even spiritual problem of our time.
The concern of damage from over consumption is not only about the environment but also the damage to public health, social well being, positive human potential and uplift of the spirit.
The distractions and seduction of the consumer culture was described as having disempowered critical thinking and the capacity to imagine, much less create, healthy alternatives to capitalism and its consumer culture.
Part 1 included a deconstruction of the mythologies of capitalism such as the magic hand, efficiency, informed choice and American exceptionalism. America is exceptional in its capacity to turn Nature into money. The phrase “the American way of life is non negotiable” received attention.
Living within the boundaries of the natural world and bringing out the best in positive human potential were described as a primary goals of paradigm shift.
You can see Primer part 1 at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGrQfnoCXdY&t=600s
Short preview of parts 3 and 4.
Part 3 will focus on real life examples of paradigm shift. We will see what 22 years can do for transforming a suburban property along with a site tour of the nearby neighborhood. Part 3 will take a look at urban eco villages in Eugene, Portland, Los Angeles and Cincinnati, Ohio. Also a look at City Repair in Portland, the Onondaga Earth Corps in Syracuse, a permaculture bootcamp near Missoula, Montana, a maker space in Oakland and Urban Harvest in Houston.
Part 4 will show and tell about taking paradigm shift to a wider audience. Virtually every progressive public interest organization exists to repair some kind of damage caused by capitalism and the consumer culture. That means 1000s of progressive organizations big and small, have a common interest and they are all on the same team.
Each organization can advance their own goals, benefit the lives of their members and support the goals of 1000s of other progressive organizations when they explain to their members and the public that reducing eco footprints, building civic culture and making purposeful use of time and money is an appropriate set of vital actions for addressing the many problems and challenges at this point of history.
Technology and Paradigm Shift
Technology is an enormous issue and its a core part of the human experience. Tech can degrade the environment and public health. Tech can and does benefit the environment, public health and the human experience.
The primer advocates putting technology in its place. A very important question to ask ourselves is, what is the role of technology in our own lives, our community, our economic system and our relationship with sustainability and the natural world.
Curiosity, science, discovery, invention and application are all core parts of the human experience. Our affluent lives have been made more comfortable and healthy in many ways thanks to sanitation, comfortable shelter, food safety, electricity, mobility, health care, communications and a lot more.
But along the way, technology has become a package deal. Technology can be a wonderful benefit to humanity. It has also become prioritized as a servant of the economic system's profit motive and need to grow as we saw in Part 1 of the Primer. The external costs and damage caused by the consumer culture - social, economic, political, environmental, even spiritual - have been multiplied by the power of near unregulated technology as a primary tool of a predatory economic system.
Along with the positive aspects of technology, a package deal means we also have tech that damages people and planet.
We celebrate incredible technology to save lives, but with a closer look, much of that damage was caused by technology with inadequate supervision. Both damage and repair can be highly profitable. Recall from Part 1. We have millions of jobs and products that exist to repair the damage caused by millions of other jobs and products.
So the wheel is great for a bicycle but even better for a 3 ton recreational vehicle because that 3 tons of excess and vanity creates a lot more economic activity than a bike. It also creates a lot more damage. Computers and digital tech provide us with near miraculous opportunities to learn and connect with others. The same technology is used for social engineering, data collection, political and economic skulduggery. Artificial intelligence and other emerging tech offers their own sets of possibilities and dilemmas which we sometimes don't realize until its too late.
We currently have a society that is shaped by the needs of a growth based economic system where technology is, first and foremost, a tool to make money. We have been taught that quality of life requires lots of stuff and technology is a huge part of that equation. Tech is an enormous money maker. The many external costs mentioned in Part 1 provide only a partial look at what happens when tech is let loose with only modest regulation or concern for people and planet.
Under the protocol of the market, its fine to sell products, even to encourage their use, that are known to damage public health and the natural world.
One of the greatest challenges for humans in regard to technology is to have the wisdom to manage technology in a responsible way. We are in midst of another test for our accumulated human wisdom what to do about climate change. Have we learned anything?
Energy is one of our greatest concerns. We know co2 in the atmosphere is making our climate more erratic and that affects many many other human made and natural systems. All those affects are adding up to a future that is looking to be much less stable and friendly than what we are familiar with and are calibrated to.
The mainstream hope is to find a breakthrough source of cheap abundant energy that will continue to power this growth based economy so we can continue to consume more stuff even when we are already well aware that overconsumption is making enormous problems for people and planet.
We have already experienced what happens with abundance guided by the magic hand of the marketplace as described in part 1. Practically all the social, economic, political, environmental, foreign relations problems of our time have been the product of abundance and excess consumption. Capitalism does not have an adequate feedback mechanism for responding to problems like climate change and economic disequity.
We had steam and coal. Next, oil and natural gas, which has been a remarkably cheap source of energy. Decades ago, modest amounts of money and energy invested in oil, lead to fantastic amounts of energy made available to the growth economy.
Capitalism has a lengthy record for economic malpractice. The abundance of the natural world has been used to construct the consumer culture where excess is celebrated and we have climate change, mass species extinctions, sea creatures with stomachs full of plastic and the richest 1% of Americans owning 16 times more than the least wealthy 50%.
Recall the declaration in part 1 of the primer, from the A list of business and government leaders – the American way of life is non negotiable. We are told by these leaders there is no other choice than excess. That declaration, essentially, makes everyone and the natural world hostage to this economic system & those who control it, whether they want it or not.
We have clearcuts for oversized homes, cars instead of rail, junk food in schools, unaffordable housing for many, nuclear waste, rampant drug abuse. Excess is celebrated and the cost is more than we know.
More mis guided abundance and more consumption means more income for more advertising, more social engineering and more problems.
Talk of carbon capture, electric cars, safe nuclear power or limitless energy from fusion serves to promote the belief that we can count on some kind of tech breakthrough to solve our problems so we don't have to take responsibility for our individual and society's disfunction or make any changes in how we think or live.
Still, technology is an essential part of a preferred future. What paradigm shift calls for is responsible technology that serves our higher interests rather than our consumer culture's socially engineered excess wants.
There is potential to have many of the benefits of technology and reduce some of the problems - some how to make the package deal less rigid. Would the government or big business support better regulation of technology for the good of paradigm shift? Not to be expected. One item for sure, people in their own lives can make healthy choices in regard to tech and paradigm shift. Are there enough people willing to make those paradigm shift choices to make a difference? Not to be expected. But the more people making these sensible choices the better.
Paradigm shift not only calls for the consciousness raising of business and society in regard to the environment, public health and technology, it also calls for a much greater degree of equity between society's haves and have nots. The pie of human needs needs to be sliced up in a way that is more equitable, fair and humane. And more stable.
And thats not all. The pie to serve human needs has to fit within the boundaries of the natural world - the pie needs to not only be divided more fairly, it needs to be smaller, too. Given current economic practice along with the entitlement expectations of the consumer culture, going along with a more equal and smaller pie is a lot to ask for.
And thats not all, the paradigm shift pie needs to be made of healthy ingredients. Many aspects of lifestyle familiar to today's middle class, not to mention the rich and really rich, will not exist in a preferred future simply because they are not sustainable.
For the creation of a more wholesome future, paradigm shift calls upon some kind of mechanism to protect society and the environment from capitalism's excess and external costs. Those products and harmful use of technology might be avoided by way of the precautionary principle, or, ideally, people will simply either lose interest in conspicuous consumption or become too ashamed to have a big house or car. For many, what good is excess if you can’t show it? If no one buys harmful or excess products, no one will fabricate and sell them. Best to bake that smaller, more equal and healthier pie by choice.
So far, much of the Primer has pointed to a number of problems caused by the consumer culture. There are far far more examples not mentioned. Please build on the Primer in a positive spirit. Use what’s here and build on it.
Much of this discussion about technology is wishful. Still, people can make smart choices in their own lives. We will either make the changes history calls for or we will wish we had
The fact is, we do have surprising allies and assets to work with in our homes and communities for moving towards a preferred future.
Overall and by far, the Primer’s content is positive and encouraging.
The Precautionary Principle
From Wikipedia - the precautionary principle [PC] is a broad epistemological, philosophical and legal approach to innovations with potential for causing harm when extensive scientific knowledge on the matter is lacking. The precautionary principle emphasizes caution, pausing and review before leaping into new innovations that may prove damaging.
Several words and phrases related to precaution include – margin of safety, risk management, cost benefit, informed prudence, proportionality of risk.
Discussions about the effects technology to back centuries. 400 years ago, Ottoman rulers opposed printing the Koran. The fear being, with copies easily available, new unauthorized interpretations might undermine and challenge those in control.
Various discussions about the PC have taken place in international forums and academic conclaves. Even an effort by concerned citizens in one Oregon city to write the precautionary principle into city regulations that govern toxic materials.
These gatherings, discussions and city initiative are challenged to break through the barriers of mainstream thinking and economic interests.
Another approach to making tech safe is social entrepreneurship, a mechanism where public oversight looks after society’s interests in regard to new technology.
Given tech’s track record, how to manage innovation for the good of people and planet will be a very important aspect of paradigm shift.
Preview, Eco Footprints
Eco footprints, closely related to external costs, is the damage imposed on the natural world by human activity. It is one of the most important features of modern life. As mentioned earlier, tech and consumption are a package deal.We expect what we like to be cheap. Cheap access to affluence challenges movement towards a preferred future.
The term “ecological or eco” footprint is only part of the story. Directly connected to the ecological footprint are are social, political, economic, public health and spiritual footprints.
They are all products of over consumption. When we purposefully reduce our ecological footprints, we can also reduce those other footprints at the same time.
Humanity, lead by the affluent countries of the world and the United States above all, have eco logical footprints far larger than the world can sustain. Over consumption is the fuel to climate change and many other social, political and environmental problems. The more affluent the country or individual’s lifestyle, the larger the footprint and harmful impact on people and planet.
The distractions dumped on us by the consumer culture – entertainment, self medication, social engineering and much more - effectively disempowers people and society from taking initiatives that could address their footprints that could benefit themselves, others and the planet.
Moving towards a preferred future, there are creative ways to reduce eco footprints under almost any personal circumstance whether poor, middle class or wealthy.
Footprints And Lifestyles
The American Way of Life is Non negotiable. Reducing eco footprints is not an option. One of the most telling reasons why the mainstream economy, its owners and its elected servants are not up to the task of honestly and effectively dealing with climate change and the many other problems is, no where is the idea of simply consuming less a topic of discussion.
Instead, growing the economy and pushing the consumer culture is more important than fixing its problems. The well being of people and planet is not a priority. The hype for a tech breakthrough like fusion, miracle battery storage of electricity, etc, is to keep people consuming.
The strongest statements we can make on behalf of paradigm shift is showing what purposeful living can look like by our own example. Its easy to talk about a preferred future, its easy to write a letter or show up with a sign. Those acts can be helpful but openly living the ideals and values of paradigm shift in the real world makes a far greater impression.
If you are already a practicing pioneer of paradigm shift, very good! Please share what you learn in the Primer and your own first hand experience in your daily life, perhaps writing and speaking. Be modest but don't be shy sharing what you know for a preferred future!
Footprint Calculator
You may or you may not want to know, but we can measure our ecological footprints. The calculator is not perfect but can still be very useful. If your score is unsettling, good. You have found something you can work on. And you have the opportunity to make some positive changes in your life, that can benefit you, those you care about and the planet.
Typically, a footprint calculator asks questions about one's lifestyle – food, shelter, recreation, transportation, buying habits. The calculator figures a score from answering the questions and that score tells the user how many planet earths would be needed for all of Earth's 8 billion residents to live like you. Here is the url for one calculator from the New Roadmap Foundation https://www.footprintcalculator.org/home/en
A common figure, for everyone in the world to live like the average American, we would need something like five planet earths to supply the resources and for natural systems to process the waste. Thats remarkable and much of the less affluent world is trying to catch up. The growth based economic system depends on more people consuming more stuff.
As individuals and a society, we are currently drowning in excess and the economic system spends billions pushing us into deeper water.
A comparison, calculations often put the USA at 5 earths while assigning about 3 earths to France, Germany, Japan and Italy. About 2 to Brazil. Most African countries would be less than 1. Australia, about 4.
Overall, the larger the eco footprint, the greater the damage and related footprints.
More Footprints - Social, Political, Spiritual
Various types of footprints happen when time and money is spent on vanity, passive entertainment. Non productive consumption means lost opportunity to participate and contribute to personal and community well being and civic culture.
Consider the time involved at a neighborhood work party to put in a community garden or some other positive activity compared to watching, say a football game or recreational shopping. The garden can lead to many positives like making new friends, healthy exercise, a community resource, personal satisfaction, uplift of the spirit. What is there to show for a football game, a tractor pull or vanity shopping.
Healthy entertainment can be a healthy and positive human experience, who can imagine a world without music, art and people who can share their hard work, skills and talents. But in the pie chart of how to manage our time and money, entertainment should be put in its place, especially when there are so many important tasks begging for attention for the good of people and planet.
Managing our own time and money in positive ways is a fundamental part of moving towards a preferred future. Reducing our social, political and spiritual footprints is just as important as reducing our damage to the natural world. All those footprints are related. In the same purposeful act, we can reduce all of those footprints at the same time.
Back To the Land, Back To The Suburbs
In past years, dropping out became a popular exit from the mainstream culture, also known as the Establishment. Thousands of mostly young people went back to the land and off grid to minimize their interaction with the mainstream.
Paradigm shift calls for the exact opposite. Paradigm shift calls for engaging with where we live, to revitalize civic culture, our neighborhoods and communities.
Instead of heading for the woods, paradigm shift calls for heading to one’s neighborhood association monthly meetings or transforming a suburban property or buying a run down apartment complex and turning it into a thriving and affordable eco village. [true stories, see Part 3]
One might observe that so many of our current social, economic, political and environmental problems are a result of so many people dropping out to their middle class lifestyles that, can we tactfully say, is short on civic involvement.
Modern life is hectic, schedules are full, multi tasking is the norm. For understandable reason, many people have had enough by the end of the day and simply want to chill out. There are plenty of distractions to choose from. This is a big part of social engineering. Along with over consumption, we have many lives that are too busy to make time for building civic culture.
A Functional Society
The final major critique of the Primer
Our society is productive, it is a wonder of complexity that offers much to be grateful for. It is remarkably functional. People pay taxes, obey most of the laws. Kids go to school. People buy stuff, recreate, hang out with friends and go to work. City services look after streets, parks and safety. Water and electricity is delivered. Public health is important. Most people have plenty of food. Yes, there are some problems but so what?
We are functional!
The functional cities and towns we live in contribute their part to the overall downslope of society, the environment and lost human potential. They can all claim a share of virtually all the external costs described in Part 1.
Functional does not deserve flattery.
What can you say about a functional society where many millions of people, along with the natural world, are on the receiving end of chronic economic mal practice dating back generations. That malpractice is so ingrained we consider extreme social and economic dis equity, pollution, climate change, junk food, homelessness, a dispiriting urban landscape and a raft of other problems as acceptable and business as usual.
What can we say about a society that submits to that malpractice, invests in it, participates in it and even celebrates it while proclaiming its exceptional status to the world. What can you say about a society that gives away its own personal and collective positive power and potential for vanity, distractions and excess.
Functional does not deserve flattery and limiting ourselves to functional means more of the same and worse.
No Need For Heroe
Our society does cheer and praise groups, organizations and individuals who do ex ceptional good for the benefit of people and planet far above and beyond the usual. Those heroes exist because the broader population and its leaders, the overall society itself, has failed to solve those problems. Thats why we have heroes and celebrated people like Martin Luther King, Ralph Nader, Naomi Klein, David Brower, Rosa Parks, Rachel Carson along with untold lesser known heroes in their local communities. [Part 3 of the primer will present many of these local heroes.]
Heroes have devoted so much of their own personal life to addressing issues neglected, ignored, perhaps not even recognized, by society and its leaders.
Heroes exist because the broader society has not been up to the task of addressing these many problems. Functional life gets in the way. Just taking care of daily needs for those with modest means can leave little time or energy for anything else. Many who are more financially capable seem to prefer the distractions and comforts of the middle class or wealth rather than engaging in the life of the wider community.
The consumer culture promotes buying, selling and clever distractions at the expense of addressing the many problems and challenges that, in notable irony, the meritocracy economy & the consumer culture has created in the first place such as climate change, extreme economic dis equity, epic species extinction and rampant drug abuse.
The economic system, with its advertising and fancy products, creates conditions that dis empower many millions of people from participation in making where they live, better places for people and planet. Heroes are the product of a failing social & economic System.
A responsible, healthy society doesn’t need heroes to solve public problems for several reasons.
1] The members of society in a preferred future would not likely buy damaging products and services or engage in activity that might cause such problems to occur in the first place
2] A preferred economy would not knowingly produce products and services that might cause such problems to occur in the first place
3] If large problems did unexpectedly present themselves, there would be a strong and widespread citizen response to address the issue
4] There would be a responsible government and accountable process to deal with the problem that did not require a hero
Of course, this all sounds like utopia. Why not?
Part of our social engineering includes creating the belief that humans are not capable of uplifted behavior and we should be skeptical of ideas that humans have far more positive potential than we are used to.
A preferred future, not a perfect future, would not need public heroes.
Civic Culture
The Primer has contained a fair amount of critique about our current social, economic, political and environmental conditions and problems. From this point on, most of the Primer’s content will be describing the elements of paradigm shift such as civic culture, the wisdom of the world's great spiritual traditions, permaculture, prioritizing time & money and re sensitizing.
A mature preferred future has minimal need for heroes. That said, in the early going of paradigm shift, people who take initiative and point the way might qualify as heroes. We will see many local heroes of paradigm shift and what they are doing to help bring about a preferred future in Part 3 and how to take these ideas to a wider audience in Part 4 of the Primer.
The Primer is basically a how to for building civic culture. Paradigm shift is moving towards civic culture. Civic culture refers to the social condition of a community and society.
Civic Culture [CC], as used in the Primer, refers to the multi polar relationships between people, their friends and neighbors, business, education, community organizations, government services and authority, plus the history and any other attributes of a place, rural or urban. Some of these relationships are formal, some are casual. Civic culture goes far beyond functional and has no real finish line. It can simply become better and better.
Civic culture is self replicating. It is a positive feedback loop. The more people who participate, the better for everyone and the environment, too.
Almost every existing functional city or town has surprising allies and assets to help make significant progress towards a preferred future. See Part 3 of the Primer.
Civic culture is an expanding destination where people go beyond functional. People embrace and participate in moving towards a shared vision that includes care for the natural world, modesty of lifestyle, uplift of the spirit, service to the community and personal accountability.
People can engage in building civic culture even on their own, with friends and networks. Civic culture starts at home, how we manage our own time and money. The more people involved in paradigm shift and building civic culture, the better. The more people involved, the more connections and common cause, the larger the scale for moving towards the preferred future.
Imagine a sequence over time, we start out hearing about a preferred future, then maybe wee see some examples in a video and then in person, then we start our own adventure of paradigm shift, then make common cause with others, more common cause and with luck, we find ourselves with civic culture and greater amounts of our own lives within a preferred future. There is no end to positive potentials.
More Civic Culture.
A mature civic culture and preferred future would not need heroes. It would not leave so many people depleted at the end of the day and too tired out or disinterested for building civic culture regardless of their financial or social status. Reducing economic and social disequity helps people with less financial means gain the time, security and capacity to participate in the community and contribute their talents. The well off learn their best interests are better served by supporting the well being of the community.
In paradigm shift people learn the skills of civic culture and managing their lives to benefit themselves, their communities and the natural world. A preferred future calls on personal liberation from merely functional.
Civic culture is based on people participating in the affairs of their community. People believe they have a part to play. They are valued. They feel their efforts are making a difference. People acknowledge each other’s participation.
There are projects to be part of. There are community building events open to everyone. There is a growing shared vision and appreciation for the goals of an uplifted society. People are consciously aware, they are contributing to a larger positive social change.
A mature civic culture exists to help bring out the best in all its members. Members help create, maintain and enhance civic culture. Civic culture and its members have a reciprocal, mutually beneficial relationship, based on sensible ideals, values and goals.
Parts 3 and 4 of the Primer will continue with positive actions where we purposefully trade the amount of time we spend with over consumption and merely functional for paradigm shift and a preferred future. We can gain the benefits from those efforts as soon and as deeply as we like.
Wisdom of the World's Great Spiritual Traditions
Any movement needs inspiration, practicality and direction. One highly inspiring and practical set of ideals to help point the way towards a preferred future is the wisdom of the world's great spiritual traditions. These ideals are the accumulated wisdom from millennia of human experience. These ideals are timeless and come to us from nearly every geographic part of the planet, from diverse languages over the entirety of human history.
This wisdom is simply guidance towards uplifted human behavior that can be applied at all scales from individuals, neighborhoods, to society, economics, policy and budgets.
1] Care for the natural world
2] Modesty of lifestyle
3] Service to the community
4] Uplift of the spirit
5] Accountability for our own actions and behavior
Important, people can practice this wisdom with no permission needed from elsewhere. This wisdom is thoroughly up to date.
These ideals and wisdom can inform mission statements for a neighborhood group, a non profit, a meet up group or a multinational organization dedicated to restoration of the natural world. They can inform articles of incorporation for a planet and people friendly business. A clergy member could call these ideals to the attention of the congregation. One can simply adopt these ideals to guide their own life.
Perhaps one of the most important potentials for this ancient wisdom is for diverse cultures and belief systems to recognize their fundamental kinship and common cause with each other and strategize with each other at both the organizational and personal level on behalf of a preferred future.
A great project would be for spiritual leaders to reach out to their congregations and colleagues to advocate these ideals, issues and kinship to take initiative in personal lives, entire congregations and beyond. In Part 4, we will see more about reaching out to the wider world.
Resensitize
We have grown up with the instruction that having more and bigger stuff is a primary goal of life and a measure of a person’s value and success.
The fuel of the consumer culture, climate change and a long list of other negatives is buying bigger stuff and more of it. Social engineering effectively exploits the very real human character traits of vanity and excess and that engineering includes directing our attention towards more and bigger stuff which also serves to desensitize our capacity to enjoy what we already have and the more subtle aspects of life.
A critical part of paradigm shift is to resensitize. That means slowing down, putting aside the need for multi tasking, making time for regaining the capacity to enjoy small and beautiful parts of life like our friends, family, nature and our own selves.
Resensitizing means gaining more enjoyment from less stuff and that choice can be low cost or even no cost.
Resensitizing is a perfect complement to reducing eco footprints, enhancing community involvement, having a garden and moving towards a preferred future.
Permaculture
Permaculture is a holistic approach for designing systems to take care of human needs in ways that are healthy for people and planet. Permaculture is the accumulated knowledge of modern science, folk wisdom and what has been learned by way of countless practitioners and projects gained from real life experience.
Permaculture is far more than about gardens. Permaculture principles can be applied to an economic system that can serve the needs of an uplifted society. Social permaculture is all about creating collaboration and mutual benefits.
Permaculture principles include working with nature, designing for multiple benefits with the smallest resource input as possible - reducing eco footprints. Catch and store energy, make best use of what is available, integrate rather than segregate, use small and slow solutions. There are other principles.
Another principle is Edges - a transition between systems particularly rich in potential. We are in an historical edge where we can make the most from what we have learned from an older declining system & use it to help fertilize a new emerging system. Paradigm shift is the edge.
Permaculture is a global movement. It is like an emerging language. When you meet someone who is familiar with permaculture, you know immediately, you have much in common. Permaculture is a perfect compliment to the wisdom of the world's great spiritual traditions, reducing eco footprints, prioritizing our time and money and paradigm shift.
Prioritize Time and Money
Pay For Paradigm Shift
There have been references to prioritizing time and money already. Without prioritizing time and money and acting on those priorities, paradigm shift does not happen and neither does the preferred future, so let’s emphasize the down payment
Building civic culture, pushing back on external costs and reducing footprints will not be free. It will take a lot of investments in time and even money.
For example. Imagine, instead of a kitchen remodel or any other vanity expense, we spend that 25K on a rain water system for our house, edible landscaping, solar hot water, heat pump, taking a permaculture design course, donating to a worthy cause.
People of less robust financial capacity can still choose personal or family goals and actions that fit paradigm shift instead of the consumer culture, like self educating about permaculture, healthy food choices and creating mutual self interest associations with others who have similar needs and find ways to help each other.
For the wealthy, they can downsize their lifestyle and donate money to organizations that are doing good work for people and planet.
Almost everyone, regardless of money, has more opportunities for moving towards a preferred future than they realize. A critical skill for creating a preferred future is learning to recognize allies and assets that can be found in almost any city or town. Self empowering, taking the time and learning those preferred future skills may well be more important than money.
The Double Benefit
The double benefit is a tangent to how we prioritize time & money. When we avoid non productive spending, we can use that same money for productive spending instead.
Recall in Part 1, we had a good look at external costs. Those are the costs, typically damage to public well being and the environment, caused by a product or service that are not accounted for by the price. We used cars as an example of a product with enormous external costs such as 40,000 people killed in traffic accidents every year in the US. Hundreds of billions of dollars in property damage. Expensive infrasturcture. The damage caused by oil extraction, refining and air pollution. On and on. Almost any product has external costs.
When we don’t buy those ill advised products in the first place, we save the money we don’t spend for better use. That’s the first benefit. When we pass up those products and avoid their expensive external costs that’s the second benefit. Together, they are the double benefit. That’s a lot of money we can put to better use.
The US economy in 2022 weighed in at about 20 trillion dollars. Imagine, not just the kitchen remodel but cars, oversized homes, vanity purchases, junk food, excess consumption of all kinds. Add to that the secondary savings of avoiding hundreds of billions in external costs.
If the entire nation prioritized its money [and time], there would be literally trillions of dollars [and trillions of hours] available, each year, for investing in paradigm shift. That’s hopeful, but for sure, people can gain the double benefit in their own lives, with no permission or delay needed. The more people putting the double benefit to work, even at personal and home scale, the better. Especially when others see what you are doing.
Review Part 2
Paradigm shift has a lot of moving parts. PS is above all, common sense. Even self preservation. It is not complicated, it is accessible to practically everyone. A smaller pie, divided more humanely, can even benefit those who might downsize their oversized slice of pie. A humanely shared pie could unleash the talents of millions who currently have too much or not enough.
Technology is a vital part of a preferred future but its use needs to be driven by safety and benefit for people and planet. The overall goal of PS is to take care of human needs within the boundaries of the natural world. When we learn about own footprints, we can learn how to reduce their size, all of them.
A functional society is holding itself back in a negative feedback loop. A healthy civic culture encourages & welcomes those who drop in rather than drop out. A preferred future will have declining need for heroes. It has the wisdom of the world’s great spiritual traditions, its members are loving the benefits of re sensitizing. They have permaculture.
Prioritizing time and money, motivated by uplifted spirit and consciousness, frees up remarkable levels of financial & time assets for investing in a preferred future. Millions of people putting the double benefit to work and building the early examples of civic culture, clearly visible to the wider world, creates a magnetic and positive welcoming impression & incentive for newcomers.
Paradigm shift transforms positive human potential into action to build civic culture. Civic culture nourishes even more human potential. A very positive and powerful feedback loop good for people and planet.
Short preview of parts 3 and 4.
Part 3 will focus on real life examples of paradigm shift. We will see what 22 years can do for transforming a suburban property along with a site tour of the nearby neighborhood. Part 3 will take a look at urban eco villages in Eugene, Portland, Los Angeles and Cincinnati, Ohio. Also a look at City Repair in Portland, the Onondaga Earth Corps in Syracuse, a permaculture bootcamp near Missoula, Montana, a maker space in Oakland and Urban Harvest in Houston.
Part 4 will show and tell about taking paradigm shift to a wider audience. Virtually every progressive public interest organization exists to repair some kind of damage caused by capitalism and the consumer culture. That means 1000s of progressive organizations big and small, have a common interest and they are all on the same team.
Each organization can advance their own goals, benefit the lives of their members and support the goals of 1000s of other progressive organizations when they explain to their members and the public that reducing eco footprints, building civic culture and making purposeful use of time and money is an appropriate set of vital actions for addressing the many problems and challenges at this point of history.
From suburbanpermaculture.org and
Creating A Preferred Future Radio
January 2023
Primer for Paradigm Shift
Part 2 of a Four Part Series
Aspects Of A Preferred Future
A Primer For Paradigm Shift
The primer encourages personal and cooperative movement towards an uplifted society with its goals to live within the boundaries of the natural world and to bring out the best in positive human potential. That preferred future will have an economic system that is honest and serves the needs of a society with healthy ideals and goals.
There have never been more reasons for paradigm shift. The behavior of capitalism and the seduction of the consumer culture are at odds with sustainability and the well being of people and planet.
The most important breakthrough for creating a healthy, uplifted and sustainable future is in our own consciousness - how we value ourselves, our friends, families and the natural world. And then, how do we prioritize our own time and money.
There are many inspiring examples of paradigm shift in action, on the ground, all over the world and they point the way towards a preferred future.
There are surprising allies and assets in almost any city and town to work with in common cause for a preferred future.
Contents Part 2
Aspects of Paradigm Shift
You Can Pause the presentation at any time
to take a closer look at text, fotos, graphics
Technology and Paradigm Shift
A Smaller and More Equal Pie
Precaution
Footprints and Our Lifestyle
The Calculator
More Footprints
Back to The Land, Back to The Suburbs
A Functional Society
No Need For Heroes
Civic Culture
Wisdom of the World’s Great Spiritual Traditions
Re sensitize
Permaculture
Prioritize Time and Money
The Double Benefit
Review
Imagine
A short review of part one.
Part 1 described the reasons for paradigm shift and touched on the terms social engineering, sequence of paradigm shift and liberation. Over consumption of energy and resources were explained as the driving force of capitalism and the consumer culture and as the common denominator to practically every major social, economic, political, environmental and even spiritual problem of our time.
The concern of damage from over consumption is not only about the environment but also the damage to public health, social well being, positive human potential and uplift of the spirit.
The distractions and seduction of the consumer culture was described as having disempowered critical thinking and the capacity to imagine, much less create, healthy alternatives to capitalism and its consumer culture.
Part 1 included a deconstruction of the mythologies of capitalism such as the magic hand, efficiency, informed choice and American exceptionalism. America is exceptional in its capacity to turn Nature into money. The phrase “the American way of life is non negotiable” received attention.
Living within the boundaries of the natural world and bringing out the best in positive human potential were described as a primary goals of paradigm shift.
You can see Primer part 1 at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGrQfnoCXdY&t=600s
Short preview of parts 3 and 4.
Part 3 will focus on real life examples of paradigm shift. We will see what 22 years can do for transforming a suburban property along with a site tour of the nearby neighborhood. Part 3 will take a look at urban eco villages in Eugene, Portland, Los Angeles and Cincinnati, Ohio. Also a look at City Repair in Portland, the Onondaga Earth Corps in Syracuse, a permaculture bootcamp near Missoula, Montana, a maker space in Oakland and Urban Harvest in Houston.
Part 4 will show and tell about taking paradigm shift to a wider audience. Virtually every progressive public interest organization exists to repair some kind of damage caused by capitalism and the consumer culture. That means 1000s of progressive organizations big and small, have a common interest and they are all on the same team.
Each organization can advance their own goals, benefit the lives of their members and support the goals of 1000s of other progressive organizations when they explain to their members and the public that reducing eco footprints, building civic culture and making purposeful use of time and money is an appropriate set of vital actions for addressing the many problems and challenges at this point of history.
Technology and Paradigm Shift
Technology is an enormous issue and its a core part of the human experience. Tech can degrade the environment and public health. Tech can and does benefit the environment, public health and the human experience.
The primer advocates putting technology in its place. A very important question to ask ourselves is, what is the role of technology in our own lives, our community, our economic system and our relationship with sustainability and the natural world.
Curiosity, science, discovery, invention and application are all core parts of the human experience. Our affluent lives have been made more comfortable and healthy in many ways thanks to sanitation, comfortable shelter, food safety, electricity, mobility, health care, communications and a lot more.
But along the way, technology has become a package deal. Technology can be a wonderful benefit to humanity. It has also become prioritized as a servant of the economic system's profit motive and need to grow as we saw in Part 1 of the Primer. The external costs and damage caused by the consumer culture - social, economic, political, environmental, even spiritual - have been multiplied by the power of near unregulated technology as a primary tool of a predatory economic system.
Along with the positive aspects of technology, a package deal means we also have tech that damages people and planet.
We celebrate incredible technology to save lives, but with a closer look, much of that damage was caused by technology with inadequate supervision. Both damage and repair can be highly profitable. Recall from Part 1. We have millions of jobs and products that exist to repair the damage caused by millions of other jobs and products.
So the wheel is great for a bicycle but even better for a 3 ton recreational vehicle because that 3 tons of excess and vanity creates a lot more economic activity than a bike. It also creates a lot more damage. Computers and digital tech provide us with near miraculous opportunities to learn and connect with others. The same technology is used for social engineering, data collection, political and economic skulduggery. Artificial intelligence and other emerging tech offers their own sets of possibilities and dilemmas which we sometimes don't realize until its too late.
We currently have a society that is shaped by the needs of a growth based economic system where technology is, first and foremost, a tool to make money. We have been taught that quality of life requires lots of stuff and technology is a huge part of that equation. Tech is an enormous money maker. The many external costs mentioned in Part 1 provide only a partial look at what happens when tech is let loose with only modest regulation or concern for people and planet.
Under the protocol of the market, its fine to sell products, even to encourage their use, that are known to damage public health and the natural world.
One of the greatest challenges for humans in regard to technology is to have the wisdom to manage technology in a responsible way. We are in midst of another test for our accumulated human wisdom what to do about climate change. Have we learned anything?
Energy is one of our greatest concerns. We know co2 in the atmosphere is making our climate more erratic and that affects many many other human made and natural systems. All those affects are adding up to a future that is looking to be much less stable and friendly than what we are familiar with and are calibrated to.
The mainstream hope is to find a breakthrough source of cheap abundant energy that will continue to power this growth based economy so we can continue to consume more stuff even when we are already well aware that overconsumption is making enormous problems for people and planet.
We have already experienced what happens with abundance guided by the magic hand of the marketplace as described in part 1. Practically all the social, economic, political, environmental, foreign relations problems of our time have been the product of abundance and excess consumption. Capitalism does not have an adequate feedback mechanism for responding to problems like climate change and economic disequity.
We had steam and coal. Next, oil and natural gas, which has been a remarkably cheap source of energy. Decades ago, modest amounts of money and energy invested in oil, lead to fantastic amounts of energy made available to the growth economy.
Capitalism has a lengthy record for economic malpractice. The abundance of the natural world has been used to construct the consumer culture where excess is celebrated and we have climate change, mass species extinctions, sea creatures with stomachs full of plastic and the richest 1% of Americans owning 16 times more than the least wealthy 50%.
Recall the declaration in part 1 of the primer, from the A list of business and government leaders – the American way of life is non negotiable. We are told by these leaders there is no other choice than excess. That declaration, essentially, makes everyone and the natural world hostage to this economic system & those who control it, whether they want it or not.
We have clearcuts for oversized homes, cars instead of rail, junk food in schools, unaffordable housing for many, nuclear waste, rampant drug abuse. Excess is celebrated and the cost is more than we know.
More mis guided abundance and more consumption means more income for more advertising, more social engineering and more problems.
Talk of carbon capture, electric cars, safe nuclear power or limitless energy from fusion serves to promote the belief that we can count on some kind of tech breakthrough to solve our problems so we don't have to take responsibility for our individual and society's disfunction or make any changes in how we think or live.
Still, technology is an essential part of a preferred future. What paradigm shift calls for is responsible technology that serves our higher interests rather than our consumer culture's socially engineered excess wants.
There is potential to have many of the benefits of technology and reduce some of the problems - some how to make the package deal less rigid. Would the government or big business support better regulation of technology for the good of paradigm shift? Not to be expected. One item for sure, people in their own lives can make healthy choices in regard to tech and paradigm shift. Are there enough people willing to make those paradigm shift choices to make a difference? Not to be expected. But the more people making these sensible choices the better.
Paradigm shift not only calls for the consciousness raising of business and society in regard to the environment, public health and technology, it also calls for a much greater degree of equity between society's haves and have nots. The pie of human needs needs to be sliced up in a way that is more equitable, fair and humane. And more stable.
And thats not all. The pie to serve human needs has to fit within the boundaries of the natural world - the pie needs to not only be divided more fairly, it needs to be smaller, too. Given current economic practice along with the entitlement expectations of the consumer culture, going along with a more equal and smaller pie is a lot to ask for.
And thats not all, the paradigm shift pie needs to be made of healthy ingredients. Many aspects of lifestyle familiar to today's middle class, not to mention the rich and really rich, will not exist in a preferred future simply because they are not sustainable.
For the creation of a more wholesome future, paradigm shift calls upon some kind of mechanism to protect society and the environment from capitalism's excess and external costs. Those products and harmful use of technology might be avoided by way of the precautionary principle, or, ideally, people will simply either lose interest in conspicuous consumption or become too ashamed to have a big house or car. For many, what good is excess if you can’t show it? If no one buys harmful or excess products, no one will fabricate and sell them. Best to bake that smaller, more equal and healthier pie by choice.
So far, much of the Primer has pointed to a number of problems caused by the consumer culture. There are far far more examples not mentioned. Please build on the Primer in a positive spirit. Use what’s here and build on it.
Much of this discussion about technology is wishful. Still, people can make smart choices in their own lives. We will either make the changes history calls for or we will wish we had
The fact is, we do have surprising allies and assets to work with in our homes and communities for moving towards a preferred future.
Overall and by far, the Primer’s content is positive and encouraging.
The Precautionary Principle
From Wikipedia - the precautionary principle [PC] is a broad epistemological, philosophical and legal approach to innovations with potential for causing harm when extensive scientific knowledge on the matter is lacking. The precautionary principle emphasizes caution, pausing and review before leaping into new innovations that may prove damaging.
Several words and phrases related to precaution include – margin of safety, risk management, cost benefit, informed prudence, proportionality of risk.
Discussions about the effects technology to back centuries. 400 years ago, Ottoman rulers opposed printing the Koran. The fear being, with copies easily available, new unauthorized interpretations might undermine and challenge those in control.
Various discussions about the PC have taken place in international forums and academic conclaves. Even an effort by concerned citizens in one Oregon city to write the precautionary principle into city regulations that govern toxic materials.
These gatherings, discussions and city initiative are challenged to break through the barriers of mainstream thinking and economic interests.
Another approach to making tech safe is social entrepreneurship, a mechanism where public oversight looks after society’s interests in regard to new technology.
Given tech’s track record, how to manage innovation for the good of people and planet will be a very important aspect of paradigm shift.
Preview, Eco Footprints
Eco footprints, closely related to external costs, is the damage imposed on the natural world by human activity. It is one of the most important features of modern life. As mentioned earlier, tech and consumption are a package deal.We expect what we like to be cheap. Cheap access to affluence challenges movement towards a preferred future.
The term “ecological or eco” footprint is only part of the story. Directly connected to the ecological footprint are are social, political, economic, public health and spiritual footprints.
They are all products of over consumption. When we purposefully reduce our ecological footprints, we can also reduce those other footprints at the same time.
Humanity, lead by the affluent countries of the world and the United States above all, have eco logical footprints far larger than the world can sustain. Over consumption is the fuel to climate change and many other social, political and environmental problems. The more affluent the country or individual’s lifestyle, the larger the footprint and harmful impact on people and planet.
The distractions dumped on us by the consumer culture – entertainment, self medication, social engineering and much more - effectively disempowers people and society from taking initiatives that could address their footprints that could benefit themselves, others and the planet.
Moving towards a preferred future, there are creative ways to reduce eco footprints under almost any personal circumstance whether poor, middle class or wealthy.
Footprints And Lifestyles
The American Way of Life is Non negotiable. Reducing eco footprints is not an option. One of the most telling reasons why the mainstream economy, its owners and its elected servants are not up to the task of honestly and effectively dealing with climate change and the many other problems is, no where is the idea of simply consuming less a topic of discussion.
Instead, growing the economy and pushing the consumer culture is more important than fixing its problems. The well being of people and planet is not a priority. The hype for a tech breakthrough like fusion, miracle battery storage of electricity, etc, is to keep people consuming.
The strongest statements we can make on behalf of paradigm shift is showing what purposeful living can look like by our own example. Its easy to talk about a preferred future, its easy to write a letter or show up with a sign. Those acts can be helpful but openly living the ideals and values of paradigm shift in the real world makes a far greater impression.
If you are already a practicing pioneer of paradigm shift, very good! Please share what you learn in the Primer and your own first hand experience in your daily life, perhaps writing and speaking. Be modest but don't be shy sharing what you know for a preferred future!
Footprint Calculator
You may or you may not want to know, but we can measure our ecological footprints. The calculator is not perfect but can still be very useful. If your score is unsettling, good. You have found something you can work on. And you have the opportunity to make some positive changes in your life, that can benefit you, those you care about and the planet.
Typically, a footprint calculator asks questions about one's lifestyle – food, shelter, recreation, transportation, buying habits. The calculator figures a score from answering the questions and that score tells the user how many planet earths would be needed for all of Earth's 8 billion residents to live like you. Here is the url for one calculator from the New Roadmap Foundation https://www.footprintcalculator.org/home/en
A common figure, for everyone in the world to live like the average American, we would need something like five planet earths to supply the resources and for natural systems to process the waste. Thats remarkable and much of the less affluent world is trying to catch up. The growth based economic system depends on more people consuming more stuff.
As individuals and a society, we are currently drowning in excess and the economic system spends billions pushing us into deeper water.
A comparison, calculations often put the USA at 5 earths while assigning about 3 earths to France, Germany, Japan and Italy. About 2 to Brazil. Most African countries would be less than 1. Australia, about 4.
Overall, the larger the eco footprint, the greater the damage and related footprints.
More Footprints - Social, Political, Spiritual
Various types of footprints happen when time and money is spent on vanity, passive entertainment. Non productive consumption means lost opportunity to participate and contribute to personal and community well being and civic culture.
Consider the time involved at a neighborhood work party to put in a community garden or some other positive activity compared to watching, say a football game or recreational shopping. The garden can lead to many positives like making new friends, healthy exercise, a community resource, personal satisfaction, uplift of the spirit. What is there to show for a football game, a tractor pull or vanity shopping.
Healthy entertainment can be a healthy and positive human experience, who can imagine a world without music, art and people who can share their hard work, skills and talents. But in the pie chart of how to manage our time and money, entertainment should be put in its place, especially when there are so many important tasks begging for attention for the good of people and planet.
Managing our own time and money in positive ways is a fundamental part of moving towards a preferred future. Reducing our social, political and spiritual footprints is just as important as reducing our damage to the natural world. All those footprints are related. In the same purposeful act, we can reduce all of those footprints at the same time.
Back To the Land, Back To The Suburbs
In past years, dropping out became a popular exit from the mainstream culture, also known as the Establishment. Thousands of mostly young people went back to the land and off grid to minimize their interaction with the mainstream.
Paradigm shift calls for the exact opposite. Paradigm shift calls for engaging with where we live, to revitalize civic culture, our neighborhoods and communities.
Instead of heading for the woods, paradigm shift calls for heading to one’s neighborhood association monthly meetings or transforming a suburban property or buying a run down apartment complex and turning it into a thriving and affordable eco village. [true stories, see Part 3]
One might observe that so many of our current social, economic, political and environmental problems are a result of so many people dropping out to their middle class lifestyles that, can we tactfully say, is short on civic involvement.
Modern life is hectic, schedules are full, multi tasking is the norm. For understandable reason, many people have had enough by the end of the day and simply want to chill out. There are plenty of distractions to choose from. This is a big part of social engineering. Along with over consumption, we have many lives that are too busy to make time for building civic culture.
A Functional Society
The final major critique of the Primer
Our society is productive, it is a wonder of complexity that offers much to be grateful for. It is remarkably functional. People pay taxes, obey most of the laws. Kids go to school. People buy stuff, recreate, hang out with friends and go to work. City services look after streets, parks and safety. Water and electricity is delivered. Public health is important. Most people have plenty of food. Yes, there are some problems but so what?
We are functional!
The functional cities and towns we live in contribute their part to the overall downslope of society, the environment and lost human potential. They can all claim a share of virtually all the external costs described in Part 1.
Functional does not deserve flattery.
What can you say about a functional society where many millions of people, along with the natural world, are on the receiving end of chronic economic mal practice dating back generations. That malpractice is so ingrained we consider extreme social and economic dis equity, pollution, climate change, junk food, homelessness, a dispiriting urban landscape and a raft of other problems as acceptable and business as usual.
What can we say about a society that submits to that malpractice, invests in it, participates in it and even celebrates it while proclaiming its exceptional status to the world. What can you say about a society that gives away its own personal and collective positive power and potential for vanity, distractions and excess.
Functional does not deserve flattery and limiting ourselves to functional means more of the same and worse.
No Need For Heroe
Our society does cheer and praise groups, organizations and individuals who do ex ceptional good for the benefit of people and planet far above and beyond the usual. Those heroes exist because the broader population and its leaders, the overall society itself, has failed to solve those problems. Thats why we have heroes and celebrated people like Martin Luther King, Ralph Nader, Naomi Klein, David Brower, Rosa Parks, Rachel Carson along with untold lesser known heroes in their local communities. [Part 3 of the primer will present many of these local heroes.]
Heroes have devoted so much of their own personal life to addressing issues neglected, ignored, perhaps not even recognized, by society and its leaders.
Heroes exist because the broader society has not been up to the task of addressing these many problems. Functional life gets in the way. Just taking care of daily needs for those with modest means can leave little time or energy for anything else. Many who are more financially capable seem to prefer the distractions and comforts of the middle class or wealth rather than engaging in the life of the wider community.
The consumer culture promotes buying, selling and clever distractions at the expense of addressing the many problems and challenges that, in notable irony, the meritocracy economy & the consumer culture has created in the first place such as climate change, extreme economic dis equity, epic species extinction and rampant drug abuse.
The economic system, with its advertising and fancy products, creates conditions that dis empower many millions of people from participation in making where they live, better places for people and planet. Heroes are the product of a failing social & economic System.
A responsible, healthy society doesn’t need heroes to solve public problems for several reasons.
1] The members of society in a preferred future would not likely buy damaging products and services or engage in activity that might cause such problems to occur in the first place
2] A preferred economy would not knowingly produce products and services that might cause such problems to occur in the first place
3] If large problems did unexpectedly present themselves, there would be a strong and widespread citizen response to address the issue
4] There would be a responsible government and accountable process to deal with the problem that did not require a hero
Of course, this all sounds like utopia. Why not?
Part of our social engineering includes creating the belief that humans are not capable of uplifted behavior and we should be skeptical of ideas that humans have far more positive potential than we are used to.
A preferred future, not a perfect future, would not need public heroes.
Civic Culture
The Primer has contained a fair amount of critique about our current social, economic, political and environmental conditions and problems. From this point on, most of the Primer’s content will be describing the elements of paradigm shift such as civic culture, the wisdom of the world's great spiritual traditions, permaculture, prioritizing time & money and re sensitizing.
A mature preferred future has minimal need for heroes. That said, in the early going of paradigm shift, people who take initiative and point the way might qualify as heroes. We will see many local heroes of paradigm shift and what they are doing to help bring about a preferred future in Part 3 and how to take these ideas to a wider audience in Part 4 of the Primer.
The Primer is basically a how to for building civic culture. Paradigm shift is moving towards civic culture. Civic culture refers to the social condition of a community and society.
Civic Culture [CC], as used in the Primer, refers to the multi polar relationships between people, their friends and neighbors, business, education, community organizations, government services and authority, plus the history and any other attributes of a place, rural or urban. Some of these relationships are formal, some are casual. Civic culture goes far beyond functional and has no real finish line. It can simply become better and better.
Civic culture is self replicating. It is a positive feedback loop. The more people who participate, the better for everyone and the environment, too.
Almost every existing functional city or town has surprising allies and assets to help make significant progress towards a preferred future. See Part 3 of the Primer.
Civic culture is an expanding destination where people go beyond functional. People embrace and participate in moving towards a shared vision that includes care for the natural world, modesty of lifestyle, uplift of the spirit, service to the community and personal accountability.
People can engage in building civic culture even on their own, with friends and networks. Civic culture starts at home, how we manage our own time and money. The more people involved in paradigm shift and building civic culture, the better. The more people involved, the more connections and common cause, the larger the scale for moving towards the preferred future.
Imagine a sequence over time, we start out hearing about a preferred future, then maybe wee see some examples in a video and then in person, then we start our own adventure of paradigm shift, then make common cause with others, more common cause and with luck, we find ourselves with civic culture and greater amounts of our own lives within a preferred future. There is no end to positive potentials.
More Civic Culture.
A mature civic culture and preferred future would not need heroes. It would not leave so many people depleted at the end of the day and too tired out or disinterested for building civic culture regardless of their financial or social status. Reducing economic and social disequity helps people with less financial means gain the time, security and capacity to participate in the community and contribute their talents. The well off learn their best interests are better served by supporting the well being of the community.
In paradigm shift people learn the skills of civic culture and managing their lives to benefit themselves, their communities and the natural world. A preferred future calls on personal liberation from merely functional.
Civic culture is based on people participating in the affairs of their community. People believe they have a part to play. They are valued. They feel their efforts are making a difference. People acknowledge each other’s participation.
There are projects to be part of. There are community building events open to everyone. There is a growing shared vision and appreciation for the goals of an uplifted society. People are consciously aware, they are contributing to a larger positive social change.
A mature civic culture exists to help bring out the best in all its members. Members help create, maintain and enhance civic culture. Civic culture and its members have a reciprocal, mutually beneficial relationship, based on sensible ideals, values and goals.
Parts 3 and 4 of the Primer will continue with positive actions where we purposefully trade the amount of time we spend with over consumption and merely functional for paradigm shift and a preferred future. We can gain the benefits from those efforts as soon and as deeply as we like.
Wisdom of the World's Great Spiritual Traditions
Any movement needs inspiration, practicality and direction. One highly inspiring and practical set of ideals to help point the way towards a preferred future is the wisdom of the world's great spiritual traditions. These ideals are the accumulated wisdom from millennia of human experience. These ideals are timeless and come to us from nearly every geographic part of the planet, from diverse languages over the entirety of human history.
This wisdom is simply guidance towards uplifted human behavior that can be applied at all scales from individuals, neighborhoods, to society, economics, policy and budgets.
1] Care for the natural world
2] Modesty of lifestyle
3] Service to the community
4] Uplift of the spirit
5] Accountability for our own actions and behavior
Important, people can practice this wisdom with no permission needed from elsewhere. This wisdom is thoroughly up to date.
These ideals and wisdom can inform mission statements for a neighborhood group, a non profit, a meet up group or a multinational organization dedicated to restoration of the natural world. They can inform articles of incorporation for a planet and people friendly business. A clergy member could call these ideals to the attention of the congregation. One can simply adopt these ideals to guide their own life.
Perhaps one of the most important potentials for this ancient wisdom is for diverse cultures and belief systems to recognize their fundamental kinship and common cause with each other and strategize with each other at both the organizational and personal level on behalf of a preferred future.
A great project would be for spiritual leaders to reach out to their congregations and colleagues to advocate these ideals, issues and kinship to take initiative in personal lives, entire congregations and beyond. In Part 4, we will see more about reaching out to the wider world.
Resensitize
We have grown up with the instruction that having more and bigger stuff is a primary goal of life and a measure of a person’s value and success.
The fuel of the consumer culture, climate change and a long list of other negatives is buying bigger stuff and more of it. Social engineering effectively exploits the very real human character traits of vanity and excess and that engineering includes directing our attention towards more and bigger stuff which also serves to desensitize our capacity to enjoy what we already have and the more subtle aspects of life.
A critical part of paradigm shift is to resensitize. That means slowing down, putting aside the need for multi tasking, making time for regaining the capacity to enjoy small and beautiful parts of life like our friends, family, nature and our own selves.
Resensitizing means gaining more enjoyment from less stuff and that choice can be low cost or even no cost.
Resensitizing is a perfect complement to reducing eco footprints, enhancing community involvement, having a garden and moving towards a preferred future.
Permaculture
Permaculture is a holistic approach for designing systems to take care of human needs in ways that are healthy for people and planet. Permaculture is the accumulated knowledge of modern science, folk wisdom and what has been learned by way of countless practitioners and projects gained from real life experience.
Permaculture is far more than about gardens. Permaculture principles can be applied to an economic system that can serve the needs of an uplifted society. Social permaculture is all about creating collaboration and mutual benefits.
Permaculture principles include working with nature, designing for multiple benefits with the smallest resource input as possible - reducing eco footprints. Catch and store energy, make best use of what is available, integrate rather than segregate, use small and slow solutions. There are other principles.
Another principle is Edges - a transition between systems particularly rich in potential. We are in an historical edge where we can make the most from what we have learned from an older declining system & use it to help fertilize a new emerging system. Paradigm shift is the edge.
Permaculture is a global movement. It is like an emerging language. When you meet someone who is familiar with permaculture, you know immediately, you have much in common. Permaculture is a perfect compliment to the wisdom of the world's great spiritual traditions, reducing eco footprints, prioritizing our time and money and paradigm shift.
Prioritize Time and Money
Pay For Paradigm Shift
There have been references to prioritizing time and money already. Without prioritizing time and money and acting on those priorities, paradigm shift does not happen and neither does the preferred future, so let’s emphasize the down payment
Building civic culture, pushing back on external costs and reducing footprints will not be free. It will take a lot of investments in time and even money.
For example. Imagine, instead of a kitchen remodel or any other vanity expense, we spend that 25K on a rain water system for our house, edible landscaping, solar hot water, heat pump, taking a permaculture design course, donating to a worthy cause.
People of less robust financial capacity can still choose personal or family goals and actions that fit paradigm shift instead of the consumer culture, like self educating about permaculture, healthy food choices and creating mutual self interest associations with others who have similar needs and find ways to help each other.
For the wealthy, they can downsize their lifestyle and donate money to organizations that are doing good work for people and planet.
Almost everyone, regardless of money, has more opportunities for moving towards a preferred future than they realize. A critical skill for creating a preferred future is learning to recognize allies and assets that can be found in almost any city or town. Self empowering, taking the time and learning those preferred future skills may well be more important than money.
The Double Benefit
The double benefit is a tangent to how we prioritize time & money. When we avoid non productive spending, we can use that same money for productive spending instead.
Recall in Part 1, we had a good look at external costs. Those are the costs, typically damage to public well being and the environment, caused by a product or service that are not accounted for by the price. We used cars as an example of a product with enormous external costs such as 40,000 people killed in traffic accidents every year in the US. Hundreds of billions of dollars in property damage. Expensive infrasturcture. The damage caused by oil extraction, refining and air pollution. On and on. Almost any product has external costs.
When we don’t buy those ill advised products in the first place, we save the money we don’t spend for better use. That’s the first benefit. When we pass up those products and avoid their expensive external costs that’s the second benefit. Together, they are the double benefit. That’s a lot of money we can put to better use.
The US economy in 2022 weighed in at about 20 trillion dollars. Imagine, not just the kitchen remodel but cars, oversized homes, vanity purchases, junk food, excess consumption of all kinds. Add to that the secondary savings of avoiding hundreds of billions in external costs.
If the entire nation prioritized its money [and time], there would be literally trillions of dollars [and trillions of hours] available, each year, for investing in paradigm shift. That’s hopeful, but for sure, people can gain the double benefit in their own lives, with no permission or delay needed. The more people putting the double benefit to work, even at personal and home scale, the better. Especially when others see what you are doing.
Review Part 2
Paradigm shift has a lot of moving parts. PS is above all, common sense. Even self preservation. It is not complicated, it is accessible to practically everyone. A smaller pie, divided more humanely, can even benefit those who might downsize their oversized slice of pie. A humanely shared pie could unleash the talents of millions who currently have too much or not enough.
Technology is a vital part of a preferred future but its use needs to be driven by safety and benefit for people and planet. The overall goal of PS is to take care of human needs within the boundaries of the natural world. When we learn about own footprints, we can learn how to reduce their size, all of them.
A functional society is holding itself back in a negative feedback loop. A healthy civic culture encourages & welcomes those who drop in rather than drop out. A preferred future will have declining need for heroes. It has the wisdom of the world’s great spiritual traditions, its members are loving the benefits of re sensitizing. They have permaculture.
Prioritizing time and money, motivated by uplifted spirit and consciousness, frees up remarkable levels of financial & time assets for investing in a preferred future. Millions of people putting the double benefit to work and building the early examples of civic culture, clearly visible to the wider world, creates a magnetic and positive welcoming impression & incentive for newcomers.
Paradigm shift transforms positive human potential into action to build civic culture. Civic culture nourishes even more human potential. A very positive and powerful feedback loop good for people and planet.
Short preview of parts 3 and 4.
Part 3 will focus on real life examples of paradigm shift. We will see what 22 years can do for transforming a suburban property along with a site tour of the nearby neighborhood. Part 3 will take a look at urban eco villages in Eugene, Portland, Los Angeles and Cincinnati, Ohio. Also a look at City Repair in Portland, the Onondaga Earth Corps in Syracuse, a permaculture bootcamp near Missoula, Montana, a maker space in Oakland and Urban Harvest in Houston.
Part 4 will show and tell about taking paradigm shift to a wider audience. Virtually every progressive public interest organization exists to repair some kind of damage caused by capitalism and the consumer culture. That means 1000s of progressive organizations big and small, have a common interest and they are all on the same team.
Each organization can advance their own goals, benefit the lives of their members and support the goals of 1000s of other progressive organizations when they explain to their members and the public that reducing eco footprints, building civic culture and making purposeful use of time and money is an appropriate set of vital actions for addressing the many problems and challenges at this point of history.