Our world is full of extremes. One group feels superior to another and this intense duality is manifested in a visceral level of judgment, projection, and self-righteousness. This false divide, fear, and intense emotion enable greenwashing and window-dressing by powerful elite groups who hijack beautiful regenerative movements as an excuse to concentrate power and keep control, as they pretend to ride to the rescue as an antidote to the fear and division. As Einstein famously said “we cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
What is painfully obvious when you observe all the moving parts of our chaotic and rapidly changing reality (the first principle in permaculture is observing and it is the most important step, but often the most difficult as you have to shine a light on some very dark places in our society), is that the fear induced by the dualistic projections of all the different groups across society is actually helpful to cartels of power which they then use to manipulate people and keep control of all aspects of society. They decide the definition of words. They describe what science is. They describe what the word sustainability and regeneration mean. They describe what you can or can not say and what can or can not do with your own body. They describe how you educate your kids. As long as we continue to give our power away and let this all fool you into thinking there are actually sides to fight, we will not make progress in our world.
Somehow almost all money made in the so-called sustainability and regenerative movements is flowing up to this elite cartel of power, deliberately and consciously. Some fancy buzzwords fly around about how they are saving the people, improving diversity and helping the environment. The reality is the extreme fear in our society right now is really the fuel for an organized, authoritarian, global, top-down movement across society. They masquerade as helping people and it is sad to see how many well-meaning people are sucked into this charade. It is hard today to speak out against powerful groups of people with established “group think” narratives as they throw out awards, lots of money and fancy titles and discredit anyone who does not follow the crowd. You can sit around and judge others that are different from you and feel very good with your allies that think exactly the same way as you (which for the record is not exactly diversity in action….it is more like machines talking). You can censor everything in society and keep taking down Youtube videos and Facebook posts, but it will fix nothing. What we call capitalism today is the fuel that keeps this crazy system in place. It is not capitalism that is the problem, but how we define it and like everything else in our society, it is a word that has lost its true meaning and authenticity. The answer to these problems is not communism or socialism so extreme that people are no longer empowered. This is just another form of top down control. It is time to wake up people. It is long overdue. We do not need to fear our own power. We do not need to fear our differences. We do not need to fear change. We can embrace the chaos and really transform our world.
There is only one real way to model a new model for wealth building that is truly sustainable and regenerative and that is a model that borrows these principles from natural regenerative systems. These principles are best articulated in permaculture. There are other ways people discuss using nature as a guide but these 12 principles are truly magical. They are the true “order in the chaos” that we need today. They are the creative light we need to follow. Even with chaos all around us, they are a guide for inner power, truth, fairness, true regeneration. They help us remember our true interconnection and the interrelationships of all life. They naturally empower and help you confidently share your unique gifts with the world. They help you remember your resiliency, your true inner beauty. They help you understand the power of self-organizing groups, of the true model of wealth which is bottom-up and decentralized. It is the opposite of the tremendous concentration of wealth and power which is truly the polar opposite of these natural principles. No system of sustainability that continues to concentrate power the way we have today is really sustainability.
These beautiful principles are a true quantum leap. The truth of the real principles of sustainability helps to remind us of the beautiful and non-linear aspects of complex systems. It is nothing but ego and arrogance when technologists, bureaucrats and scientists discuss what they say are big breakthroughs but are actually distortions of the truth of this beautiful complexity. It creates a false sense control that is just an illusion and has many unintended consequences. We are evolving to a new place, a better place. That is where the true advanced science is taking us. True science does not dishonor people who are creative, inspiring, intuitive, curious, and diverse. True science does not discriminate on where you went to school. It does not care what individual politicians or bureaucrats say. The beauty of the most advanced science and technology truly empowers all people, regardless of their background. The wealth system necessary to embrace this truth needs to be modeled on these same natural permaculture principles to restore our society on all levels. There is nothing “airy fairy” about these principles. When enough people follow these principles, the old system of control will collapse around us, but instead of causing fear, it could be a time to rejoice as this means that there are many phoenixes rising from the ashes and that hope and empowerment have returned to our world. The true creatives with the most inspiring and breakthrough solutions are the ones that embody these principles in their DNA.
The following article is from Alexis Baden Mayer of “Local Futures of Economic Happiness” and it should be mandatory reading, beautifully articulating the issue of how big business is hijacking the regenerative agriculture movement: