Social Ecosystems as Living Systems
Part 1: Leveraging disruption to change the game
By Jamaica Stevens
In this ongoing series I will explore the application of Living Systems principles to inform the reshaping of our social ecologies, illuminating the fundamental frameworks and belief structures that our current systems are built upon, and — hopefully — inspire a shift in the way we perceive ourselves and our relationships to the living world.
With billions of years of evolution shaping the diverse living systems present today, we have only begun to comprehend the fascinating complexity and nuance that constructs the organizing patterns, processes, and principles of life.
Many of these principles can seem contradictory to those who view life through a reductive and binary mindset- those that can’t comprehend the essential nature of life as a paradox of “both/and”, the simultaneous and inter-related, yet distinct occurrences of seeming opposites. Many, particularly in Western societies, hold a compartmentalized worldview that sees through the lens of “this or that”, particularly in our experience of “human or nature”- a polarizing perspective and belief that then defines our values, which then informs our behaviors.
Long ago, philosopher Rene Descartes surmised that human intellect was far superior to that of the animate world—including our own bodies—perpetually influencing a construct of separation of humans and nature AND humans as nature. This tendency towards compartmentalization is an antiquated and dangerous way of approaching the world and our place in it.
If we go back further in our human story, we recognize that the only way we survived as a species was through collaboration and cooperation, with each other and with nature, the non-human communities we share a home with. Isolation cut us off from the benefits of reciprocity, diversity, mutual aid, and shared effort. Working with the natural world and each other allowed us to flourish. Many indigenous cultures remember this and hold a worldview of respect for how we depend on the living world and therefore have a responsibility to care for those relationships. As indigenous author, biologist, and educator Robin Wall Kimmerer puts it, “When you are truly in a reciprocal relationship with life, the question becomes what can we give, instead of what can we take?”
In contrast, the Westernized systems are, by design, based on the premise of separation and “othering” that incentivizes hoarding, extraction, domination, competition, and superiority. These design principles will always lead to a “finite game” that cannot persist past inherent limitations. Even if these behaviors seem successful (to some) for a period of time, inevitably they will falter. These approaches always demand more, and therefore will ensure the continued depletion of resources, creating scarcity, further fueling incessant demand and causing conflict if those resources aren’t replenished. We are now seeing the increasing ramifications of exhausting our planetary resources and the strife these dwindling resources create in our societies. The finite game also perpetuates inequality and violence, and relies on the continued oppression of those whose backs our economies and infrastructures have been built upon. The gap between the few who benefit and the many who struggle is increasing and the pressure is mounting. We are reaching an apex.
Throughout history, even those civilizations who dominated, conquered, colonized, and persisted have all met their eventual downfalls. To believe that any one country, culture, paradigm—or even species—will persist indefinitely is witnessed as the arrogance of an immature consciousness when perceived from the vantage point of the totality of human history and billions of years of planetary evolution. Ages and epochs come and go, and the one certainty in life is that it is constantly changing.
Leveraging the inevitability of change
This is the nature of iterative cycles, the chaordic processes—or “disruption that allows for new order”—that have shaped all life as we know it. We are changing. And the planet is changing. How we respond to this time of not only societal disruption, but also to the disruption of the relatively stable biosphere that thousands of years of humans have experienced—how we ride the flux of inevitable transformation—will determine what next version of us emerges. New order will indeed arise—yet what new order will be established is a question I ponder often.
There are many who continue to cling to the existing paradigm and power structures, fixed in a way of being that—when reconciled—serves very few. There are those who have no interest in a world that works for all, as long as they continue to dominate, and will defend their entrenched positions and systems at all cost. There are also many who simply do not see another way, are so embedded in existing constructs that they don’t realize that they are participating by consent and that another way is possible. Many can’t perceive that we have a choice in how this time of chaordic, disruptive re-organization plays out, believing that we are at the mercy of forces (natural or societal) bigger than ourselves.
It’s a radical notion (and considered a privileged perspective to some) that we have free will and agency to sway the direction we collectively head. Most struggle with an indoctrinated perception of powerlessness that results in overwhelm, apathy, uncertainty, depression, and complacency. I hold a belief that most people are inherently beneficent, want a healthy planet and just societies, and are simply overcome with the effort to just survive the day to day to think about societal change.
It is becoming increasingly clear that we can’t continue the systems of extraction, destruction, and toxicity whose consequences are the imminent collapse of the biosphere. We can’t perpetuate societies that incentivize inequity, injustice, imbalance and diminishment of the inherent worthiness of every being without violent repercussions. With the increasing impacts of climate change and the constant threat of war looming, we can’t hide our heads in the sand and pretend that there is a way “back to normal”. The finite game is approaching its end.
We can’t dominate our way through this inevitable transition. We can’t control the forces of nature that are rampantly proving their might beyond the constructs of man, making small even the most aggrandized bastions of power and structure who will equally succumb to the ways of wind, fire, water, earth, and ultimately- time.
And yet….
And yet, the core premise that I advocate for is that we do have free will and that we can and must choose our collective experience. We can change our trajectory and untangle this tragic mess. Every part of our existing societies and systems are a series of collective agreements- from money, to government, to markets, to cultures, to religions, and beyond. Together we choose these constructs that inform every facet of our lives. These are all stories we collectively believe and participate in. These are the stories we pass from generation to generation, in our DNA and cultural beliefs. Every part of human civilization that has been created thus far has been created by a series of compounding choices. Therefore, only we can change the predominant experiences we are currently living by reframing the narratives that influence our common mindsets, our collective agreements, and therefore our patterned behaviors that determine what stories we are playing out. Only together can we shift our dire outlook and choose what kind of world the next generations inherit.
We can change the story. We can decide that we want to find a way to create balance in our lives and on the planet and cooperate to tackle these compounding crises- social, economic, political, and ecological. Only by coming together to solve our collective challenges can we emerge through these uncertain times. We can, and must, work with Nature and Living Systems to repair our rampant disregard for life and restore the planetary functions that ensure the flourishing of all life. We can choose to align with the Living Earth, becoming conscious of the natural processes and patterns all around us—and within us—that model the elegance of highly functioning, distributed and coordinated, complex and adaptive systems. This foundational shift is the requisite that will allow us in parallel to dismantle imbalanced human made constructs, retrofitting and redesigning our systems, infrastructures, economies, and societies to work for 100% of life and not just the 1%.
We can again be a symbiotic and beneficial species working WITH and AS the intelligence of the planet to cooperatively wield the conditions of this inevitable transition towards thriving instead of collapse.
THIS IS POSSIBLE. This response IS HAPPENING and gaining momentum all around the planet. As Paul Hawken illuminated in his book “Blessed Unrest”, the organic responsiveness of People of Place to address their local challenges with ecologically and culturally relevant solutions is happening everywhere. Like the immune system response within our bodies, people everywhere are innovating solutions to address the dis-ease and imbalance of our current systems. They are cooperating to forge partnerships for mutual thriving. They are addressing systemic dissonance with holistic practices that realign human efforts as part of the natural world and provide the conditions for the betterment of their communities and the planet.
While these are decentralized occurrences and often unseen as a collective effort, when made visible and relevant, we can see the swell of many cells of a shared organism, playing their part to ensure the well being and functioning of the whole. The transition towards a more regenerative paradigm is playing out all around us, as we begin to recognize ourselves as- and operate like- mycelial webs underground, interconnected and vital to each other and the whole. Like mycelia and their fruiting bodies, mushrooms, we may seem invisible until the conditions are right for emergence, revealing a cooperative ecosystem that is intact and strengthening.
A groundswell movement is beginning to rise as the efforts of “many to many” global citizens are gaining momentum. More and more courageous individuals, neighbors, community groups, networks, impact organizations, businesses, and thought leaders are coming together to forge partnerships to address our common issues. This r)evolution will not be televised. Mainstream media may not ever tell this story, may never showcase the solutions and innovations emerging to resolve the world’s complex challenges, may never share the experience of people coming together to do what must be done. The existing construct benefits from the status quo and relies on our continued participation to keep this global machine running.
But the time of asking permission has ended. The time of waiting for nation states to care for their citizens and address the needs of people and planet is over. The time of looking outside of ourselves for an answer, for a solution, for a leader is coming to a crashing halt. Our resilience relies on our ability to adapt, to shift our patterns, to rewrite the stories and to start making the changes we can in our own lives and our own communities while forging relationships of learning and cooperation with others also striving for coherence. We must begin to restore our relationships with ourselves, each other and the planet. In a moment of extreme divisiveness, our continuation as a species relies on our ability to find common ground with each other and understand our interconnectedness as woven parts comprising a whole Living Earth.
