Joanna Macy at Bioneers 1/3
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well, this is Sunday morning
Planet Earth, this beautiful world
you know, this time that we are living is so extraordinary
that I keep trying to believe it, and to understand it
and as I do, and ispired by what Nina quoted from Scott Momaday, and her words as well
that we make sense of life and we guide ourselves by the stories we tell ourselves
about us and the context in which we live the larger story, that can give meaning to us
and so, I want to talk this morning about three stories that we're living in this time
and as I do, there will be, I hope
yes, there, that's us!
that's a story and that story is coming forward now, our cosmological story
but these pictures that will come up refer to all three of the stories
since because they interweave, they're not gonna be any particular order
are you dying to know, what these stories are?
the first, that most people believe, and particularly those in economic and political power
is business as usual in the industrial growth society
the second story that follows from that, the first kind of slides into it
which is the story, that I know, many of you
particularly those who are activists and scientists carry in your heart
the story of the Great Unraveling of living systems and this Planet Earth
and there is an other story, the third: and that is the story of the Great Turning
that shift from the industrial growth society to a life sustaining society
and that is what you are all involved in, that is what Bioneers is dedicated to
so I would like to look at these three in turn
business as usual is very successful at that, we ceaselessly tell ourselves
we are to keep us in comfort, convenience, security
no cost is spared
and the power-holders in this society are actually proud of that
can you believe it? they are proud the fact, that no cost is spared
to keep us comfortable, to keep the lights on
we're ready to explode the mountaintops, we're ready to peel off the boreal forest
we're ready to let miles, the size of Texas of plastic sweep over the Pacific
for our convenience, for our security
this society only asks in return for that, very little of us actually
doesn't asks much: it asks to consume, and it asks us to shut up
to be silent, to consume, and to obey
but there are lot of people in this hall and in this movement and in Bioneers
who are already breaking the mold on that
and the secret of the power behind this main story, and of also of its downfall
because it is in the process of self-destruction, you know that as well
if you don't know it in your mind, your body knows it, the erosion of life
but anyway it is because this industrial growth society
sets its goals and measures its success by how fast it grows
haha, grows in what? wisdom? fertility? health?
one thing only, you know it: corporate profits, market share
now, systems thinkers know, and it's common sense as well
that you cannot maximize one variable in an open system, without it going out of control
and this system is on runaway, it's out of control
and so it slides, and it's sliding into
and you here at Bioneers, you've seen evidence of that in your life
that it's sliding into the second story, which is the Great Unraveling
I don't even know how to begin to talk about that
I mean I can make lists of words
I can say words like sixth mass extinction
I can say words like economic meltdown
I can tell words like loss of biodiversity
billion people living in slums, and those words, it doesn't begin to encompass
something that is really beyond our capacity to comprehend
and yet it won't leave us alone
it resides in the grief that we carry, each one of us
each one
I think that I'll move on to the third story
I'll come back to how we handle this
but the third story of course is this transition from the industrial growth society
to a life sustaining society
we are alive at this time
you have managed, as have I, to get ourselves born into this epochal transition
it's the third revolution of this magnitude and scope of our journey on this planet
it's as vague the agricultural revolution which took centuries to unfold
it's as vague as the one that happened three hundred years ago, in England
the industrial revolution, which changed everything all over again
and changed our relations to each other and to the Earth
and turned the Earth into what we see now as mainly a stockhouse and a sewer
for drawing up its resources we need and dumping our waste
we aren't putting up with that
and so there is this revolution, that is happening
but as you know, in spite of the cameras here, this real revolution is not televised
we're living it, though
and it's happening in our resistance to the desecration of lifeforms
it's happening in the farmer's markets, and green building, and the new kind of shools
and the technologies safe, renewable, it is happening, and also in our heart-minds
and the voices that we are hearing, the indigenous voices that has come here
and the indigenous voice inside each one of us
from science and from spirituality, and it is at the core a recognition
that our Earth is alive