What FUTURE Do You Prefer?

Why and how to avoid the biggest threats to humankind.

There we are, on a cross road deciding our collective future. Global Warming, mass extinctions of wild life, insects and forests threaten our eco-sphere*. Which FUTURE do you prefer? And let me tell you, when you don’t take any action in the right direction, it will not be one you’ll like. Sorry.

*)Google it, enough scientific proof to warrant daily updates on this in the news.

Four Futures and only one seems safe.

The four distinct futures in front of us.

Each future offers, like a good science fiction writer would focus on, an overemphasized tendency we are heading towards. Which one will win?

1. WAR!! We withdraw behind borders, blame others and wave our flag until our generals decide it’s time to punish those ‘damned others’. If you want this: Rob what you can, believing the ‘others’ are out to get you. Ignore all crimes by your own side. Forget nobody wants war, but a few profiteers!
2. LIES!! Or we keep pushing our economies up, because it makes the richest richer. If you want this: Keep believing things get better when you consume more. Forget global warming, nor address the mass extinctions or our descend into dystopia. Stay distracted and keep shopping!
3. AI RULES!!! Or create a technological dystopia full of more dangers, of machine realities run amok. If you want this: Keep believing the next tech breakthrough will save us. Don’t adapt lifestyles; start geo-engineering! Take an overdose of this medicine, ignore all side-effects. Believe human dominance can outsmart millions of years of nature developing itself.
4. FOOD FOREST!! Or do we accept we are biological beings on a living planet we can save from dying. If you want a flourishing future: Accept it will take all of us working together for a huge shift. We need to stop all destructive industries (starting with oil and food) and regenerate nature everywhere. The happy side of this are many new possibilities, having a life of meaning, improved general happiness and more festivals and walks in abundant parks everywhere.

Do you prefer the lies of the corporate media, nationalistic anger, technological dominance or a more natural life? The 4-Worlds Model offers you the choice: War, Dystopia, Machine or Regeneration? One could also say the choice is between the greedy industries, the nationalist military, the mad scientists or the natural activists.

More Nuance Doesn’t Make it Better.

I know that reality is more nuanced than this. I may add that the military intelligence also loves lots of new tech, so do the industries. They are perfecting the art of manipulating civilians away from threatening their profits to a perfection. And they offer arms to both sides of most conflicts. And everyone with loads of power and money just buys governments or helps the critical ones to disappear. The meddling behind Trump, Bolsonaro, Brexit and many more places should make you distrust any outrageous news about kinder candidates. Oh, wait, we distrust all media and can’t tell right from wrong any more, becoming more aggressive towards the ones we blame, because of the news .. oh wait, they’re lying too? But good thing that the government takes action against plastic shopping bags to make you feel this is not a pressing matter.

“Earth is a spaceship and we’re all crew.” ~Bucky Fuller

Three great realizations we must embrace.

1. All life on our planet is one huge interconnected system. We are all interdependent on each other. Therefore overcome the illusion of duality and separation. Many countries don’t even provide enough food, thus would a economic or natural system crash or war bring untold suffering. We can’t solve anything believing others are separate. Nobody should be entitled to take at the cost of other lives and nature. If we don’t act, the system will get sicker, our planet more and more poisoned. Each of our actions must seek to wake up from ignorance and stop further destruction. Let’s heal.
2. Accept that you too are responsible. If you are part of the web of life, than you too are a butterfly that either helps storms to develop or nature to pollinate. The amount of people who despair, who flee, have burn outs or are depressed is astonishing. They are not losers, it’s our killing system of infinite growth and corporate greed. Lobbies daily manipulate regulations and governments to look away while they poison planet and people for profits. And you either work for them, buy from them or seek a way out. And that’s tough, because especially living in the Western world you are forced to be complicit to have a ‘decent’ life.
3. Infinite growth at the cost of a finite planet is impossible. We must learn to work with nature. Move beyond the lie that we are free from the system and can control it. Not all steps forward are better. More fracking may mean cheaper oil but also untold suffering in the future, especially for the inhabitants of the region where fracking happens. Everyone buying more gadgets that keep us safe, brings more plastics and metals into the garbage cycle. We much learn to humbly bow to the realization we are biological beings with feelings, in need of living nature in abundance or we’ll suffer the same fate as the many animals we displaced for our greedy hunger for more and more and more….

It’s clear that our leadership is failing us. They put self interest over shared responsibility. That means we must learn to act jointly. Millions are exploring new networking systems, new participative models and have found all the natural solutions we need. Join them. You are not alone!

The Way Ahead.

I know, it’s not as simple as I describe. There are politicians, industrials, military working hard to keep us safe. Even within the CIA one team may manipulate elections for American corporations; another may warn against Global Warming as a security threat. And we must also acknowledge that most of us, in our lifestyles are part of the problem. We must also admit that regenerative design may benefit from more sensitive technologies, that are more in accordance with natural principles. So what simple principles can we personally embrace to move ahead with a clear head? Here’s three:

1. Be Like a Bear.

Look at your local nature. Is it improving or degrading? Bears love peace and quiet, but when someone even seems to endanger their surroundings or their young the monster awakes. Bears don’t mind national politics. Bears don’t care about peoples colours, convictions or beliefs. Bears do care when you pollute, rob, waste or destroy. Bears want respect and health at home. Bears sniff if their food is real food, or industrial junk. And they don’t vote for politicians who promise work in exchange for a desolate dystopia. If we all care like this for our own local community we already take steps ahead. Regenerate your locality.

2. Be like a Butterfly

Enjoy the beauty of all magic around you. Butterfly are sensitive and tender. They don’t seek to destroy. Their former self may have been quite a ravaging eater, but now they’ve grown above that. Now they just make all more beautiful by free being. They don’t need greedy careers. They just love being with more butterflies in fields of flowers. They understand that each of them may be fragile, but they don’t mistake that for insecurity. They know their quality is sensitivity. They avoid hurting, damaging, maltreating others just for their own well being. They feel most healthy when all of nature and society around them is natural and sensitive to the more empathic kinder ways of being. Regenerate your empathy and relationships.

3. Be like a Bee.

Bees collaborate with a collective intelligence. They copy what works. They’ll dance where the flowers are, or a possible new nesting place. They’ll do each their own thing, trusting all work to benefit the nest and the future for their young. Bees don’t ravage nature. They pollinate flowers towards new life and growth into seeds and fruits, when they come for the honey. Their actions are to mutual benefit. Thus bees profit nature everywhere where they thrive. Seek to adapt your company, work, life style to do the same. You are part of a huge nest, not an separate being. We have meaning when we enrich others and make them shine. The hive is buzzing you, we can do this! Regenerate your planet.

Notes

Google: Regenerative Design, and Daniel Christian Wahl to get a good introduction into what that is, if you didn’t know already. I call the action of a Great Green Overhaul towards a flourishing world the Gentle Revolution.

The icons are all from the Commons, and may be freely used, especially for purposes like this. The 4-worlds model is of my own making, though I used planets from other sources. To my best knowledge are they cc too, and meshed into a new product, for a great cause. If you however wish me to exchange one of these pictures because you have rights to them, send me a notice.

On Facebook are many groups that feel like part of this growing collective intelligence towards change. One is mine, called the Gentle Revolution. If that doesn’t feel like a tribe you’d flourish in, here are many more Change Tribes around the World.