BK: My answer to your question is humble and tentative. Indeed, the first thing I would say is I have no idea what it means. Having said that, I start to think, well " maybe the first thing we need to do (and by "we" I mean the rich and comfortable First Worlders, the ones who leave the biggest carbon footprint on the planet) is reconnect with who we used to be: with the indigenous peoples of the planet. Let's begin by no longer calling them "primitive"! In the column I wrote this week, I talked about British Columbia's coastal First Nation peoples. An article on the website phys.org described how their presence in the temperate rainforest over some 13,000 years has resulted in a healthier forest than is otherwise the case, because of how they lived. Their behavior enhanced the natural world rather than exploiting and ravaging it. In a similar vein, the concept of Restorative Justice, which I have been been writing about for seven years -- a concept of justice based on healing and communication rather than punishment -- which is taking hold all across the planet, has its modern roots, back in the 1990s, among tribal peoples in Canada and New Zealand. Both physically and spiritually, we have to re-enter the Circle of Life! Whatever that might mean. No one really knows what it means. But we have to reach beyond contemporary political and economic thought -- into the deep unknown.
JB: You're definitely asking all the right questions, Bob. Part of the problem is that large swatches of the world's population and leaders operate as if those questions don't even exist. Back to The Worst Hard Time. I'm right at the point where FDR commissioned agrarian experts to analyze what caused the conditions leading to the Dust Bowl and if man and government were the chief culprits. The report concluded that the damage was caused by greed and exploitation, aided and abetted by uninsightful public policy. That realization struck FDR at his core, since he strongly believed in the humanitarian aspect of government. He was forced to ask many of the hard questions you're raising. I'm eager to continue reading and see what exactly his administration did about it and if it worked. We might be able to learn something from that experience.
BK: The planet's leaders are probably the ones least likely to stand for and implement core social change, since the world they occupy is the present one. This is the world in which they are able to maneuver. Perhaps FDR is something of an exception. He did implement structural changes in the U.S. government, making humanitarian outreach part of the role of government. In doing so, he stood up to his own class: the ultra-rich. I don't know what changes he implemented to address the Dust Bowl, but I'm glad he was in office rather than pretty much any of the presidents who have run things in my lifetime. In any case, what the official acknowledgement of the Anthropocene says to me is that the status quo of nationalism cannot possibly sustain itself for much longer, and a new, expanded human sense of living on Planet Earth must emerge. We have, by failing to act as responsible stewards of this planet, set a force into motion that is in the process of changing the climate that makes life possible. We have to, first, recognize this and begin absorbing the implications, then start asking how we should respond. I would say we need to begin redefining politics and economics. We have to end war and all preparation for war and learn to acknowledge our connectedness to the whole planet. And we have to create an economic system that isn't a zero sum game, a system that measures success not by how much money an action produces but by how much good it does, environmentally and spiritually. This is big. We need a new default setting. I call it finding power with one another rather than lusting for power over the other person.
JB: It's awfully big and bold, what you're proposing. But I also know that what appears daunting can often be broken into teeny, tiny steps that together add up to something big and meaningful. Any thoughts regarding specific, concrete steps we little people can take to accomplish anything on your wish list?
BK: I think we have to start with awareness, at many levels. What is health -- physically, spiritually? I don't think there are proscribed steps people should take so much as there's a courageous awareness people must open themselves to. For me, this awareness is only in a small way related to environmental matters. I recycle, I compost, I walk a lot, I try to live with care. The opening I see in my own life is more in terms of how to relate to others. The Restorative Justice movement I mentioned earlier represents a huge paradigm shift, something that perhaps could equal the geological shift embodied in the Anthropocene transition. We have to learn to live without enemies, without entitlement. We have to learn to listen. We have to build peace every way we can: with ourselves, with one another, with Mother Earth. We have to find love and do what we can to let it flourish.
JB: You've given us a lot to think about, Bob. Thanks once again for sharing your thoughts with us. It's always a pleasure.
BK: Thanks, Joan! I agree. Our conversations are the best.
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Bob has provided some links:
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