Last 4th of July Carlin and I decided to get out of town and watch the parade in Mendocino. I brought a book to read while we waited for the parade to begin–Countdown: Our Last, Best Hope for the Future of the Earth by Alan Weisman. Weisman also wrote the widely acclaimed The World Without Us.
In his review of Countdown in the New York Times, Nathaniel Rich begins with these unsettling words: “If we wanted to bring about the extinction of the human race as quickly as possible, how might we proceed? We could begin by destroying the planet’s atmosphere, making it incapable of supporting human life. We could invent bombs capable of obliterating the entire planet, and place them in the hands of those desperate enough to detonate them. We could bioengineer our main food sources — rice, wheat and corn — in such a way that a single disease could bring about catastrophic famine. But the most effective measure, counterintuitive as it may be, would be to increase our numbers. Population is what economists call a multiplier. The more people, the greater the likelihood of ecological collapse, nuclear war, plague.”
How can we keep from being overwhelmed with fear and anxiety facing these kinds of realities? Do we simply “eat, drink, and be merry” and deny that anything bad can happen? Do we sink into depression and despair or check out with Alzheimer’s? If we believe humanity still has a “last, best hope,” what can we do to make a difference?
I’ve been wrestling with these questions since 1995 when I sat in a sweat lodge at the 4th Annual Men’s Leaders’ Conference in Indianapolis, Indiana. During the third round I had a vision of how the “Ship of Civilization” was sinking. Fortunately, I also saw that many people survived in lifeboats and created a world where humans lived in balance with nature. The human species woke up from our destructive dream of domination and once again claimed our place in the community of life.
I’m still learning lessons from that original vision and many more people are now recognizing that our present Civilization, with its belief in continued growth and unsustainable use of the Earth’s resources, is heading for collapse. There are also more and more people who recognize that there is a better life “beyond civilization.”
In his book, Beyond Civilization: Humanity’s Next Great Adventure, Daniel Quinn says, “If a team of Martian anthropologists were to study our culture, their initial findings might read something like this. These people have the strange idea that the thing they call civilization is some sort of final, unsurpassable invention. Even though vast numbers of them suffer in this oppressively hierarchical system, and even though it appears to be plunging them toward a global catastrophe, they cling to it as if it were the most wonderful thing (as they quaintly say) since sliced bread. That a more agreeable (and less catastrophic) system exists BEYOND civilization, seems to be entirely unthinkable to them.”
In my 1995 vision a lot of people went down with the Ship of Civilization. This statement by Rob Watson, CEO and Chief Scientist of the EcoTech International Group, who Pulitizer-Prize winning author Tom Friedman calls one of the best environmental minds in America, captured what I saw in the vision. “People don’t seem to realize it that it is not like we’re on the Titanic and we have to avoid the iceberg. We’ve already hit the iceberg. The water is rushing in down below. But some people just don’t want to leave the dance floor; others don’t want to give up on the buffet. But if we don’t make the hard choices, nature will make them for us.”
Although many stayed on board, others got into lifeboats, moved away from the ship, and over time came together to create a more sustainable way of being on the planet. This way of life is much more fun, much more healthy, and much more sustainable than anything we have yet known. For them, the day they accepted that the Ship of Civilization was sinking and got into their life-boat was truly “Independence Day.”
The Emergence of Civ 2: What I’m Learning About Life Beyond Civ 1
- Life beyond civilization is a state of mind not a place.
For most of human history, people physically moved to a new environment if the old one was becoming less habitable. But now there is no place we can go. This is the only planet we have. It is our home and we will learn to live here or we will die here. We need to change our way of thinking away from “an ever expanding economy” to one that lives within the limits of natural world, of which we are a part.
- We’re all going to die someday, but humanity will live on if we choose to make it so.
It’s not easy to accept our own death, but we all know that someday it will be out time to leave. We cannot continue to populate our planet with more humans. Like any species that expands beyond the limits of the environment, our population will decline. Some seven billion people are alive today; the United Nations estimates that by the end of the century we could number as many as 15.8 billion. Biologists have calculated that an ideal population — the number at which everyone could live at a first-world level of consumption, without ruining the planet irretrievably — would be 1.5 billion.
Though there may be some scientific disagreement about the numbers, everyone agrees that we must decrease the population and consume less of the Earth’s resources. Although the birthrate is declining, we are still adding 1,000,000 people every four-and-a-half days. A lot of people may die if we don’t reverse these trends right away, but humanity will continue to live if enough of us take steps to live in balance with nature, not in opposition to it.
- A new Civilization is in the making. Are you ready for Civ 2?
It’s clear to many that Civ 1 is unsustainable and going under. Global warming, economic dislocations, increased violence, depression, and suicide are just a few of the symptoms of collapse. But all over the world people are coming together to develop a civilization that is sustainable and works well for all living things. We call it Civilization 2 or Civ 2.
According to Mark Feenstra, one of the founders of the organization Civ 2, “More and more of us are developing and accessing innovative ways to contribute to a civilization that works for all—for ourselves, our communities, our work, and our lifestyles. We call it Civ 2.”
Feenstra notes that thousands of social and cultural movements bear witness to our efforts to make a better world for all. But as a sub culture we’re still fundamentally fragmented and therefore more vulnerable than we could be to ingrained Civ1 tendencies, such as prioritizing economic growth above all else, promoting images of success that discount true wellbeing, externalizing social and environmental costs and under-investing in cultivating deeper awareness.
He concludes, “Our big idea is that we unite around holding space for one another to discover, co-create and share our best contributions to a civilization that works for all.” If you’re interested in hearing more about Mark’s big idea and joining in creating Civ 2 email Mark. Tell him you read my article and are interested in more information. We’d also enjoy your comments here.
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If only the majority of people were rational beings. But that’s about as uncommon as common sense.