Eco-democracy 101: Taking the long view

In the The Road from Empire to Eco-democracy crafted by members of the Symposium for Realistic Living, the thinking breaks into four parts; this is the second in a series of four. The first part was 10 wake-up calls for today’s civilized sleepers: ecology, democracy, fossil fuel, population, patriarchy, racism, theocracy, money, and poverty.

This installment looks at the long view from the dawn to the demise of the civilization of our familiarity. Taking the long view on anything is not the preferred mode in our current menu of social behavior. We’d rather protest someone else’s deeds, which fuels our anger when unheeded, or react in a kneejerk fashion, giving temporary therapeutic relief but often resulting in long-term damage. Or, fall into denial and indifference.

The corrective action proposed in The Road is to move “beyond empire,” a radical step in the entire history of the planet. The needed transition is not about fixing what is broken, it is about “getting beyond civilization” toward a new mode of social organization, style of living, cosmic and personal story, and creating a realistic symbol system that unifies our knowing, doing, and being.

Sixth graders in the CNMI study ancient civilization and are familiar with the ascendancy of out-of-towner Sargon, an early empire builder who rebelled against the ruling class of Akkad and started Sumer of Abraham’s legendary Ur, to conquer Mesopotamia and parts of Syria, Anatolia, and Elam (western Iran).

Sumer’s literary tradition sent us to the world of the Torah, the Biblos and the Koran, then to Constitutions, Contracts and Compacts. The famous Garden of Eden account is situated at the convergence of the Tigris and the Euphrates, and Moses’ infant story tells like that of Sargon’s.

From Ziggurat towers, the apex of the Egyptian pyramids, the burning bush of Sinai, the gods of Olympus, Constantine’s Cristo Rei, the Prophet’s divine revelation in Mecca, Il Papa, the conquistadores with the cross and the blade, to the masculine obelisk of the Washington Mall, patriarchy ascended and reigned. Unfortunately, it also split body and mind, divorcing physical being from spirit, making the Earth’s processes secondary to the hope of a paradise beyond the grave. It created a deep gulf between our umbilical ties to Mother Earth, transforming the promise of mindful tranquility not as a recovery of lost innocence in the garden of original blessings but a salvation to an other-worldly Other World in the by-and-by.

Patriarchal theocracy undergirded more than 5,000 years of Western civilization. It is now in a state of frantic collapse and quietly celebrated demise. Noam Chomsky of MIT in 2006 projected a U.S. failed state. Congress’ recent failure to address a $2 mil budgetary need of the FAA at the altar of “principle,” losing $200 mil in revenue, reflects a government high on checks but sorely deficient in balances. Hypocritical anarchic “high-mindedness” prevails with apparently, from our view, the sole intent simply of replacing the skin color of the current White House resident!

We live in a time of transition, at the conjunction of what is no-longer and what is not-yet. We are addicted to la-la-land escape, we ignore the pain of colliding cultural plates. However, there are those who decide to be an incisive wedgeblade in the mysterious yet awesome challenge of deciding and creating the new. No longer willing to simply rely on the natural course of evolution, we choose to stage of intentional reformulation. The Road follows this path.

Democracy remains an unfinished revolution. Some still view it as a theocratic gift bestowed on the chosen few rather than a human choice. Those who dare decide to give their lives on behalf of furthering neighbors’ authentic voices exhibit courage to care, an uncompromising decision to choose. They heed the 10 warnings mentioned in the previous reflection, all of it, and deal with them comprehensively and simultaneously.

Ecology is more than just picking up trash, or recycling bottles so we can qualify to be “green.” It is living in a new age, what Thomas Berry called “ecozoic” era, where the sustainability and integrity of Gaia becomes the organizing principle of our lives. Democracy is not just town meetings and one-person one-vote. It is recognizing the innate value of every person born, empowering the marginalized and disenfranchised, liberating the downtrodden, encouraging free markets for all (not a favored few), and extending social services that do not demean recipients to postures of subservience and debilitating entitlements.

Our mode of knowing hinges on verifiable facts and transparently assessed practical workability, with authority granted to those who claim authenticity rather than traditional scribal roles foisted by guardians of ancient texts and traditions. Science has become a reliable methodology as a starting point of knowing.

We face a new spectrum of political doing that requires diversity within a long view of terrestrial and human history, in a circle big enough to enclose heretofore competing and conflicting perspectives. In here lies our future and the recreation of our common humanity. Eco-democracy holds a vision of the future that invites/compels intentional behavior today.