Beyond Connecting Dots…Navigating Nonlinear Ebbs & Flows
With every one of The Great Simplification episodes, we deepen our understanding of entangled pervasive systemic problems. Looking transcontextually across all domains of society, points compellingly to the need for fundamental shifts. Inspired by regenerative commons thinking, we can widen our perspectives and choices toward life-affirming conditions and patterns for human and planetary flourishing.
Nate Hagens has now produced over125 episodes of the Great Simplification series. These are wide-ranging deep dive one-on-one and roundtable conversations with expert guests exploring interconnected systemic issues and implications of energy, ecology, economy, government, technology and beyond.
Here in conversation with Dr. Robert Lustig, additional perspectives on diet, nutrition, and health entered the frame of pervasive dysfunctional and addictive patterns that contribute to micro and macro human, local, cultural and global planetary imbalance. (See links below.)
The wild ride continues…
With every widening of our lens, we better understand the deeply embedded interconnectedness — the factors that produce and feed wicked problems affecting our daily lives and our world.
Metabolic disorder insidiously grows roots and spreads branches and tendrils, in every direction!
The extensive research fits overlapping patterns observed with the impact of fast food, nutrient (+soil) depletion, industrial agriculture, sedentary lifestyles, a runaway consumer-driven economy and more…
Sobering. Are we surprised by this?
Literally, scientifically, symbolically and paradoxically, consuming too many doughnuts (and other unhealthy habits) are driving human health into a degenerative hole while exceeding the resource boundaries of our life supporting planetary system. Kate Raworth* and so many others drive home this stark reality. (Also see the link below to the excellent episode with Kate*)
“Evolution is what happens when patterns that used to define survival become deadly.” ~ Nora Bateson**
(Also see the link below to the excellent episode with Nora**)
The slippery slope of declining health follows decades of (predominantly western influenced) industrial societal habits that have disconnected human and planetary wellbeing, despite longstanding research. A dis-ease model of health-care, economically-driven, has become the societal norm.
Tragic and costly on so many levels…
As we peel back more layers, we increasingly discover how disembodied, blind and numb our modern world has become to the life-nourishing flow of natural ecosystems. Compartmentalized decisions routinely made over decades to feed a mechanistic machine model has eroded life support for people and planet. Without a systemic appreciation, natural curiosity (and love) for biodiverse ecosystems, there are also no coherent accountability systems to safeguard, protect, repair, restore and regenerate — in symbiotic partnership with nature.
We’ve been asleep at the wheel. Are we awake yet?
Time to shift these degenerative patterns to a proactive model of health and wellbeing, (re)learning and instilling regenerative practices across all domains of society.
The compelling narrative that beckons — described and illustrated in different ways and through many stories — makes common[s] sense under any unfolding scenario.
Seriously, what is the alternative?
Ducking our heads? Holding on to short-term wins at the expense of an elusive long term? Cherry picking the facts that we prefer? Shrugging and giving in to a fatalistic dystopian fast-approaching limited future?
If this was easy, it would already be done. The groundwork, however, has been laid over decades and we aren’t starting from scratch. We don’t have to reinvent wheels. We can support various ways to help shift the trajectory based on past and ongoing solid work — adapted to divergent place-based contexts, needs, circumstances and opportunities.
When we dig beneath the surface, opening our minds and hearts, we understand that living regeneratively in its many forms has deep and wide-reaching nourishing roots that transcend and extend way beyond any trendy, catchy, buzzy washed-up labels.
Whoever we are, whatever our roles, we are all citizens on planet earth. There’s plenty of work for us all honouring and tapping capabilities, lived experience and longstanding Indigenous wisdom traditions — redirecting and amplifying our human energy and (tough) love to the small micro and far-reaching macro shifts that might help us navigate more wisely towards civilization and planetary flourishing.
Many more of us can hear the call — screaming silently — to work individually, collaboratively and creatively within and across sectors, disciplines, regions, cultures, generations and all walks-of-life! Together, those who’ve been working diligently for a long time and increasingly others getting underway, can heed the call and fuel the groundswell.
Cutting through, debunking myths and widening collaborative pathways can engage any and all of us — to make a meaningful difference in local communities, cities and bioregions while shaping some of the needed global enabling supports and policies. This calls upon many (more of) us, seeding and germinating those first principles, working in a variety of ways…pulling together, fuelled by passion and respons-ability guided by a moral compass and integrating what’s known in ways that are made accessible and transparent.
Beyond connecting dots, we see the patterns. The patterns fill in many of the gaps. They interweave through many stories — old stories, stories of hope and despair, stories of resilience and joy, emerging stories of what might be possible…
Grounded in practical shifts in our everyday lives — in communities, organizations and institutions — we can apply well-researched knowledge, tools and lived experience — consciously choosing healthier, life-affirming pathways…
Strategic and emergent.
We gotta step it up with intentionality and eyes wide, gaining (trans)contextual insights, inspired by the what ifs and learning-in-action how to:
🔹 Shape governing guardrails
🔹 Incorporate guiding principles
🔹 Adapt and flow with the synergies and opportunities that open up as we navigate
Arguably, the biggest challenges we face — often hiding in plain sight — are human system related. When we create the contexts and conditions to overcome and/or dance with some of these barriers, working with the best of science, technology and (human) nature, amazing creative capacity can help us break-through. We can potentially pick up the pace of human (consciousness) development, channeling our collective efforts more effectively. (More on this later…)
The stakes are higher than most of us have experienced during our lifetimes. Shaming and guilting, fear, frustration and anger — understandable human emotions rise to the surface or lurk in the shadows. While these feelings might create some impetus for change…they often fuel more dysfunctional polarization and denial.
Bigger than all of us. Let’s honour and build upon and beyond the pioneering natural and social sciences work and Indigenous wisdom pointing the way for decades. Let’s dance.
Nature truly doesn’t function mechanically or mechanistically. Recursive ebb and flow patterns are everywhere from the smallest micro organisms to the largest macro wholes. Our practical survival and thrival is a web of nested symbiotic interdependent relationships — whether we’re considering:
🔹 Our wringing hearts
🔹 Our gut-brain axis
🔹 Our whole physiological functioning
🔹 Living environments (the land, rainforests, soil, oceans etc.)
🔹 Climate and seasonal patterns and events (sunlight, rain, snow, winds, floods, drought, forest fires etc.)
Wherever we reside, however we interact, reciprocal value exchanges and flows are integral — often invisible and nonlinear — with very real, practical functions, impacts and consequences.
Well beyond the metaphors that compare us to nature — we truly are one-with-nature. We are nature.
And yet, entrenched in modern society, we have forgotten our basic life-giving roots. We take these nature-based ebbs and flows for granted. We break things down, decontextualizing and reducing them into separate disconnected parts, categories, departments and silos.
We forget to breathe fully. We forget to listen to our hearts. We forget that our food, food sources and healthy nutrition are connected to the web of life. We lose touch with life in its varied wondrous forms. And while our humanness is not the centre of the universe, dominating Anthropocene era patterns and perspectives, have led us unwittingly to forfeit these interdependent life-force flowing elements and what it means to be fully human-in-nature.
Our potential for inner and externally-directed outer development — is also a continuous ebb and flow — a naturally ever-present, holistic way of (inter)becoming better humans and better ancestors.
This is hard, given ingrained patterns and circumstances shaped by mechanistic industrialized world influences …the meaning we attach to our (own separate) thoughts and ideas and our attachment to them…
And yet…there are more harmonious, fulfilling and juicy ways to live and work with open, nonlinear ebbs and flows. Paradoxically, we can take our inner selfness (artificially separated self-limiting narrow interests) a little less seriously.
We can navigate with intentionality. We can recognize that our ideas and actions flow with and through a much richer collective semi-permeable energy field — supporting dynamic learning exchange.
When we work together, our creativity flows naturally. We contribute, add, build, extend, modify, combine. When we flow in (co)creativity…it really doesn’t matter who’s idea ignited the spark and took the lead. Where we each begin and end kinda dissolves somewhat…
That is how nature works, symbiotically and synergistically — nonlinear and messy — yet coherent. Syntropy and entropy flow, functioning invisibly as balancing forces of energy.
Sometimes also opportunistic, in a good way. When we are serving some larger unifying purpose while nourishing an inner need and passion — we look for points of leverage, ways to amplify our voices and reach.
This is naturally emergent and strategic — with no guaranteed certainty of where our efforts will land, take root and take off…
Zooming in and zooming out — the interplay of (intrapersonal) inner development and (interpersonal) relationship development coalesce in the context of mission critical work — and spirited play-full-ness — toward the common good.
The journey toward (higher) human consciousness development is an ongoing natural process. It isn’t limited to those with privilege, specialized knowledge, education and training opportunities or retreats. With 8 billion people on the planet, enabling conditions and circumstances can support and integrate learning and development in the context of everyday life and work.
With personal agency, we’re able to make more conscious choices in our lives and work. There are many things outside our (direct) control and influence. When we work in collaboration with others, toward common[s] purpose, together we can gain collective coherent agency, consciously directing our energy and efforts in ways that can have wider and deeper positive impact.
“By evolution, I mean simply that change is integral to life. We are becoming something that is not yet known. To live in evolution is to let go of structures that prevent convergence and deepening of consciousness and assume new structures that are consonant with creativity, inspiration, and development.
Evolution requires trust in the process of life itself. There is a power at the heart of life that is divine and lovable. In a sense we are challenged to lean into life’s changing patterns and attend to the new patterns that are emerging in our midst. To live in openness to the future is to live with a sense of creativity and participation, to use our gifts for the sake of the whole by sharing them with others.” ~ Ilia Delio, The Hours of the Universe: Reflections on God, Science, and the Human Journey
Individually and collectively, none of us are masters of the universe. To think we can definitively know how to change the world, to think any of us can do so through our direct actions or interventions — is arrogant. Another misguided Anthropocene orientation.
Together and working with naturally emergent ebbs and flows, we can make more of a difference. Nonlinear complexity and and the reality of living in an uncertain non-ergodic world means, even with the best of intentions (strategy and plans) and capabilities, we cannot map, forecast and adhere to a preset course that anticipates all the outcomes and downstream consequences.
And so, no matter how much we know and even with our abundant reservoir of knowledge — this is a humbling learning journey for us all!
Full circle, back to Nate Hagens’ insightful discussion with Robert Lustig…knowledge about our personal health and the impact of our environment opens up more choices for each of us. It also helps us connect more dots — from the smallest micro decisions about what we eat (e.g. real versus processed food) to the sweeping macro implications of human health, food systems, the environment, medicine, consumerism, big industry, economics and much more.
Well beyond connecting dots conceptually and hypothetically, we discern:
🔹 The multiple overlapping patterns that have shaped (are shaping) our society
🔹 Our roles within it and the challenges and opportunities we face
🔹 How we might — with gifts differing — help shift the trajectory of our own lives as well as pathways for future generations
Navigating nonlinear ebbs and flows isn’t limited to destination-driven finite conclusions and solutions. It’s about the ongoing work-in-progress. It takes us beyond aggregating the many moving parts of complex systems (dots) toward a more messy, holistic open-ended engaging collective journey.
While we might describe this in different ways, using different words, sharing different stories, drawing from diverse disciplines and lived experience — in essence — we think this is what underlies the science and spirit of regenerative living.
Perhaps looming and escalating food system and health crises, triggered by environmental degradation, biodiversity loss and cascading climate events — will ultimately mobilize us toward essential life-affirming regenerative pathways that might shift the trajectory for people and planet.
“Civil society needs ‘teeth’ and business and government need to gain wisdom, for us all to have hope.” ~ Unstitution
With appreciation for the ongoing expansive Great Simplification odyssey that Nate Hagens invites us to explore with fellow travellers who share this quest.
A good place to start, this 32 minute animation film: The Great Simplification — Energy, Environment & Our Future
Here are just a few of the podcast/video episodes:
The full episode l The Great Simplification l Processed Food, Metabolism and The Ills of Society
This later episode connects agricultural practices, soil health and declining human health. Anne Biklé and David Montgomery: “Nourishing The Land and Ourselves” | The Great Simplification
There’s a growing body of research that correlates, pointing the flashlight at unhealthy dietary patterns. This 2024 paper, co-authored by Dr. Robert Lustig, substantiates the science. Obesogens: A Unifying Theory on the Global Rise of Obesity
Here’s another eye-opening article linking the effects to obesity and diminished cognitive capacity: Fast food suppliers contribute to increases in BMI and decreases in IQ.
This 2024 article by Sam Knowlton sheds light on rhizophagy, a groundbreaking discovery in soil microbiology, that has the potential to shift farming and agriculture toward a new biological paradigm. We are still barely scratching the surface to understand the full implications and apply this knowledge for the benefit of humanity and a living planet.
Advances in neuroscience, psychology and other disciplines also point compellingly to dysfunctional societal patterns as well as opportunities toward healthy shifts.
Nate’s interview with Kate Raworth: “The Superorganism V. The Doughnut” | The Great Simplification, illuminated her “oh no!” and “aha” moments that led to integrative living system Doughnut Economics and the ongoing unfolding of Doughnut Economics Action Lab — D.E.A.L.
Nate’s interview with Nora Bateson: “Complexity Between the Lines” | The Great Simplification, unpacks the meaning of living systems, the relationships between parts and interconnectedness to wholes, exploring how and why we must “discontinue in order to continue.”
Nate’s interview with Dr. Iain McGilchrist: “Wisdom, Nature, and the Brain.” Our article building on McGilchrist’s work, Left…Right…Whole, reflects on the logical, linear reductionist reasoning and hard data emphasized throughout the Industrial Age that appeals more to our left brain orientation. Stories, intuition, narrative and warm data reflect more of our nonlinear creative right brain ways of making meaning. More than ever, given the complexity of interconnected systemic issues, we need our full human intelligences and capacities to navigate wisely with more balance AND heartfelt spirit.
Our article building on The Great Simplification Episode | Nate Hagens & Gaya Herrington | “Humanity’s Soul: Life or Growth?” Gaya tracks the trajectory from The Club of Rome Limits to Growth findings spearheaded by Donella Meadows over 50 years ago, to the current and ongoing climate crisis — the real and predictable effects of unlimited [material] growth on a finite planet.
We also have legal (re)incorporation, governance and investment avenues available at the interdependant ecosystem layers that enable and protect the rights and right relationships of nature and all the capitals beyond [and including] financial. In this Regenerative Rising Podcast: How to build a regenerative economy, Graham Boyd unpacks myths about companies — the legal aspects — and connects this to apartheid, freedoms and democracy. He builds bridges between multiple concepts — regeneration, capitalism, business, economics, ergodicity etc. Moreover, he speaks to adaptive scaffolding and building blocks available to support the transformative societal shifts so many of us are working (struggling) to birth.
We are all late adopters at this critical fragile juncture. We need wisdom with teeth — many of us creating and applying enabling conditions and contexts that can help (more of) our efforts grow roots and gain resilience.
*This article was updated May 2024, reflecting additional perspectives and ongoing action research, as we continue to observe, listen, assimilate, curate and adapt — a learning journey for us all.
Unstitution was birthed as a collective creative commons and nested ecosystem. We (co-)catalyze and support collaborative communities, initiatives and coalitions where people from across sectors, disciplines, cultures, generations and walks-of-life work together on mission critical issues. From readiness through to regenerative progress — moving beyond polarization — is how we roll. The links embedded throughout this article are a warm invitation to go a bit deeper, at any time. For more insights reflecting our ongoing journey, our suite of Unstitution articles are published on Medium. They portray a small sample of the ways we are adapting and contributing among ever-expanding commons-based communities and initiatives inspired and fuelled by citizens — perhaps better described as denizens — anywhere in the world — living into the principles and spirit that govern our collaborative work.
You can follow Unstitution and engage with us on LinkedIn. Many of our posts and perspectives also pop up under hashtags #messyhumanness and #wisdomwithteeth.
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