IN CONTEXT #44, Summer 1996
© 1996 by Context Institute

From Betsy Barnum:

More of the Same: I give this an 8 for the next five years, and a 4 after that. It's clear that it is already not realistically possible to extrapolate the future from the present and recent past; things are starting to fall apart. "The center cannot hold." However, blind and denial-ridden people, esp. those who benefit most from the current world order, are determined to pretend they can do this, so policies and social actions will continue for a while to be made within this paradigm.

Disaster and Collapse: I fear this gets an 8 from me if the time span is extended to 50-100 years. I think we will know within 20 years whether this is going to be the inevitable result, but it will probably take longer than that for the full collapse to occur. When I contemplate this outcome, which seems all too likely as I look around and listen to the pratings of the people who should be leading us away from this cliff, I usually think of it as a "no survivors" scenario--only soil microbes, maybe cockroaches and rats, are left.

Eco-Tech triumph: I give this a 4. I see some movements in this direction now, but it is a big mistake to think that technology will clean up our messes and save us from our own bad decisions. It is technology that has gotten us here--it is our use of technology that has gotten us here, I should say. Without #4 (transformation of consciousness) I don't know why we would think we will suddenly become wise in our use of technology, when we have shown no such wisdom so far.

Transformation of Consciousness: 2. It is where I put my hope, but I think the chances are slim. To me, the transformation I hope for is what will happen when people are able to throw off the blinding cloak of western consciousness -- patriarchy, science-worship, disconnection from nature and intuition, etc.--and realize themselves fully as they really are. It's not ESP, or some transformation into beings who are different from us or have new powers--it is merely a coming-into-ourselves in the full knowledge of who and what we are.

This means, to start, a reconnection with the natural world, an awakening to the aliveness of the earth and everything in and on it, an ability to see every creature, including every other human being, as another embodiment of that *love* or *life* that has been pulsing through the universe since its birth. It does also include, as you postulated, a transcendence of our culture's current obsession with/denial of death and our part in the birth-death-rebirth cycles that are what really "makes the world go 'round." I think this transformation of consciousness is a process that has already begun, and in many different ways, or from many different angles. Some of the angles from which I see consciousness changing are ecological (to me the most complete, or offering an opportunity to go deeper faster), feminism, liberation movements, spiritual renewal, economic sustainability, intentional communities, the voluntary simplicity movement, to name a few. The transformations in consciousness that people who truly enter into these movements or new paradigms begin to experience are multi-layered, each layer revealing another level of change, commitment, possibility beneath it.

As to how this scenario might come about, I think it will happen at first gradually (as now, almost imperceptibly in terms of the culture and the population at large, but very noticeably to those of us who are already making the shift), and as the numbers of people involved grow, a critical mass will be reached at some point where the transformation will build up speed and sweep like a wave over the rest of the people. I don't have any example from the past to cite here, though there may be one I'm not thinking of. I don't wish to ignore the past, yet I think that what's ahead for this scenario to become reality is of a different order than anything that has happened up to now, so there may not be a precedent.

What I do know, however, is that all the worrying we do about "how do we convince others to see things the way we now see them," as well as the arguing over whether deep ecology is "more true" than, say, ecofeminism, or whether business can or can't be transformed, and other such internal bickering, is wasted energy. We should each and all do whatever we feel called or led to do, whether that is chaining ourselves to bulldozers or factory trawlers, or whether it is working in social justice movements, or challenging conventional methods of education, health care, development or government, or reducing our own ecological impact and living quietly as a model to others. We need to each go about doing what we do, and trust that the larger outcome is simply not in our hands.

One thing that I believe is essential to spur this transformation process is new myths and stories to underpin the new paradigms. As Thomas Berry says, we as a society have believed, and still largely do, in the myth of progress and industrial growth. It is our blind devotion to the myth that makes it so difficult for us to see how untenable it is. I think many people are already envisioning and expressing these new stories, from Brian Swimme and Berry and their new cosmology, to Northwest Environment Watch and its stories of "ecological wake" left by everyday products we consume in the U.S. Artists, including writers, poets, visual artists, filmmakers and others, will be (already are) a big part of developing new stories and myths, and I believe artists will become more and more important as the process moves forward. In addition, however, I think that as people talk to each other, tell each other their stories, informally, transformations will occur as individuals spark new consciousness in each other. This I have seen happen, and I know it will be a significant factor.

I think it also must be said that as the surging wave of transforming consciousness gains momentum, there will be increasing efforts to stop it by the few who benefit from the current social, political, economic and cultural paradigms of patriarchy and materialism. These attempts will undoubtedly take extreme forms, including fascist "Big Brother" type controls on people's private lives, even speech and thought, and vicious assaults on all things alternative and particularly on the arts. This, too, is already beginning--or, perhaps merely continuing--as demonstrated by a recent effort here in Minnesota by the medical establishment to outlaw all forms of alternative health care by convincing the state attorney general to close down a local naturopath for "practicing medicine without a license." There were no complaints from her patients; the AG sent in two agents posing as patients to entrap her--and all she did was give some nutritional, homeopathic and exercise recommendations. I think this kind of thing will get much, much worse before the surge of transformation overwhelms such resistance--and that will only happen if there is enough time for this more or less organic process to take its course before ecological damage forecloses the future for all of us. The other side of the process could be a renewal of human consciousness and sense of purpose, and bright new possibilities for the future of the earth, as your description of scenario 4 stated; getting there, if the universe vouchsafes us the time, will be a dark, dangerous journey.

Thank you for inviting comment on this topic. It has given me a chance to think through some of the ideas that have been simmering for a while; and shown me where I need to clarify my thinking. I'll be looking forward to seeing the results.

Betsy

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"The complex interchange we call 'language' is rooted in the non-verbal exchange already going on between our flesh and the flesh of the world."

David Abram, The Spell of the Sensuous

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