Shifting the Trajectory — 05: Best Case (2) A Safe and Just Space for Humanity and all Life on Earth
We have at our fingertips an incredible storehouse of wisdom and knowledge from the past and new knowledge, new wisdom, new science and technology from our discovery-minded present that, together, offer great resources for the rebuilding of peaceful lifeways for the planet as a whole. A richer and more diversified peace culture than any of us can now easily imagine, an interconnected global peace culture, is there to be built out of the languages and lifeways and knowledge and experience worlds of the “10,000 societies” now spread across the 185 states of today’s world.
Elise Boulding Cultures of Peace: The Hidden Side of History, 2000
In the 1950s, when I was a young boy, my mother Elise Boulding taught herself Dutch so she could translate Dutch sociologist Fred Polak’s book De Toekomst is Verleden Tijd. The translation was published in English as The Image of the Future in two volumes in 1961 and later abridged into one volume (Polak, 1973). Polak’s basic thesis was that our human ability to imagine the future shapes the dynamics of the historical process. The rise and fall of civilizations is foreshadowed by the positive or negative images that people hold of what is to come.
I would like to continue my previous StT Blog #4 Shifting the Human Extinction Trajectory (1): Best Case — A Quantum Leap in Human Consciousness to explore what the future of humanity might look like with a quantum leap in human consciousness. I find University of Oxford economist Kate Raworth’s Doughnut Economic Model provides a good starting point for this exploration. In the model a safe and just space for humanity on Earth exists when the social foundations of human society provide a good life for every human without exceeding planetary ecological ceilings:
As much as I like Raworth’s model, it’s a bit too human-centric for my taste and I’m grateful for the Australian organization Greenprints for revising the diagram to reflect a more Earth-centric approach by adding a bioregional foundation incorporating indigenous practices of caring for country:
100,000 Peaceful, Creative Societies
The “10,000 societies” referred to in the opening quote by my mother is an approximation of the known cultural diversity that exists among indigenous and other peoples, and the first time I heard this number, it fired my own imagination of what a future might be like in a world that fostered rather than suppressed human expressions of diversity.
A quantum leap in human consciousness would allow us to focus on healing ourselves and the planet at many levels — personally, in family relationships, as communities, and as societies. We would also work collectively to preserve all remaining areas of biodiversity and heal the physical wounds we have created on planet Earth, allowing humans and other species to re-inhabit the areas we have desolated. This is the wonderful work that could lie ahead of us.
As I imagined a better world with 10,000 societies, I wondered, why restrict ourselves to regenerating 10,000 societies? Let them become 100,000 societies! This could happen in several ways. There could be a revitalization and proliferation of indigenous cultures, an archaic revival, to use ethnobotanist Terence McKenna’s term. The indigenous cultural path would tend to focus geographically on areas that are not suitable for supporting dense populations (deserts, semi-arid grasslands, mountains, tundra and boreal forests) and tropical areas where biodiversity and indigenous cultural diversity are still high (Africa, the Amazon, Papua New Guinea, Caledonia, etc.). The indigenous cultural path would tend towards hunting/gathering, nomadic herding and low intensity agriculture with adaptations required for the local effects of global warming and greater climatic extremes.
For those who feel drawn to a more settled relationship with the land, the agricultural path would be available. This would be concentrated in areas of the planet that are suitable for intensive agricultural production, the bread baskets of the American Midwest and Europe, and the historical areas of intensive crop production in Asia. The distinctive regional characteristics of agricultural production in Europe and Asia, with historical roots of hundreds to thousands of years, would flower again and diversify. Areas of large-scale, intensive, agricultural production in the Americas, Australia, New Zealand and Africa that have lost character, or never had a distinctive regional character, could be divided into areas of family-size holdings, or communally owned, based on natural geographic boundaries using the principles of bioregionalism and permaculture.
I can imagine a time when the Napa Valley wine producing region in California will have as distinct a cultural character as the Loire valley in France and Rhine Valley in Germany. Eventually, national, provincial, and state political boundaries might be redrawn to reflect cultural regions. If an existing cultural region succeeds in diversifying further, the boundaries could be redrawn. We would no longer have a political map of the planet, but a cultural map, with the number of cultures a measure of our success in achieving cultural diversity (I’m rooting for 100,000).
If billions of people are to live in harmony on Earth, the majority of us would live in urban areas as is the case today. I’m a country boy so its not quite as easy for me to imagine what it would be like to live in a city where the positive aspects are enhanced and the negative aspects are eliminated or minimal. Perhaps those who value a sense of ethnic identity would live in ethnic neighborhoods and those whose prefer cultural diversity in multiculturally-oriented neighborhoods. Indigenous and agricultural cultural diversification would take place within relatively large geographic areas. In high-density urban areas perhaps cultural diversification could take place at the neighborhood level or between towns and cities.
I envision this planetary cultural diversity as being free of the negative aspects that sometimes accompany tribalism and ethnicity. With a quantum leap in human consciousness, suspicion and non-acceptance of those who are not a member of the group would cease, as would oppressive demands for conformity within the group. We would have the freedom to choose our cultural identity, with the advantage of knowing when, where and how we can best accomplish this through our connection to the collective human consciousness that knows what is best for us as individuals and all of humanity. But best of all, we would not have to change our sense of cultural identity to experience other ways of living. The “stranger” would always be welcomed wherever he, she, or they go. Live in the city and feel a yen to experience some country living? You would be welcomed as a helper at planting or harvest time at any number of locations around the planet that supply the food you eat.
With a quantum leap in human consciousness technology would serve humanity rather than be its master. There would be no need for fast food restaurants because we would no longer be in a rush. Technology would be used as a means to increase leisure rather than be a tyrant that requires us to accomplish more and more during an eight to ten-hour work day. Those who are attracted to computers would use them as an outlet for creativity rather than a dulling of the senses through keyboarding data that has no meaning to the person entering the data. Creative expression through art, music, theater would flourish.
Imagine Your Own Possibilities.
I have shared my own vision of a possible future where health and wholeness for ourselves, for all of humanity and for the planet are the norm, but it is only one of many possible positive futures. Each of us would experience a quantum leap in human consciousness in our own way. I invite you to spend some time imagining what you would like to be different for yourself, those you love, all of humanity, and the rest of life on planet Earth. Are you able to imagine life free of fear and limitation, free of physical and emotional problems? Where does your passion lie and what might your life be like if you could give it full expression?
Concluding Thoughts
Is the positive future I have described in the realm of possibility? Yes. Is it likely? As I write in December 2022, I have to say No. Nevertheless, by envisioning a positive future I may increase its likelihood, and the more people who envision a positive future the more likely it becomes. It may be that there is a percentage threshold of humans envisioning a positive future that triggers a quantum leap in human consciousness.
In the meantime I hold the possibility of the best future I can imagine in my heart as I continue to seek ways to help shift the human extinction trajectory in less dramatic ways.
You can find an index of all blogs in this series at the end of StT Blog #1 Introducing the Shifting the Human Extinction Trajectory Blog
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