However, human societies are capable of learning. Societal learning occurs in a manner analogous to how our immune systems “learn.” Such learning is directly encoded in the structure of the system itself. For an immune system, the physical shape of harmful intruders such as viruses or bacteria is imprinted into specialized cells which “recognize” and destroy these pathogens whenever they reappear. For human societies, institutions perform this function. National level institutions such as the Securities and Exchange Commission, founded in 1934, seek to incorporate the lessons learned by past disasters—the Great Depression for example—into the behavioral repertoire of government so that whenever conditions such as those that caused the past disaster recur, they will be identified and neutralized before they can cause harm. International level institutions such as the United Nations, founded in 1944, similarly seek to incorporate the lessons learned by past global disasters—World War II, in this instance—so that similar disasters can be prevented.
Unfortunately, as a direct consequence of the core values of our civilization which prioritize endless material acquisition above all else, one form of human organization—the global corporation—has with rapidly increasing effectiveness, subverted all forms of institutional memory along with all methodologies of popular control—democracy for example—over the agendas of governments across the planet. This has occurred not through the action of some nefarious conspiracy but rather through what amounts to faulty programming. Corporations exist solely to make profits—as much profit as possible, in as short a time as possible. This profit obligation is encoded into law which effectively “programs” corporate behavior. Responsible behavior, such as control of their pollution, occurs at the expense of increased profit. For corporations, the institutions which seek to constrain their activities for the “greater good” are impediments to profit maximization, and impediments that must be removed. These “impediments” which obstruct profit maximization unfortunately are also our societal “memory” and the institution of popular democracy itself. Public good and private gain, are generally different things. Thus, the maximization of corporate private gain requires the subversion of the public good.
Once corporations achieved the legal status of “persons” by means of the legal doctrine of corporate personhood, these artificial entities were able to out-compete all other flesh and blood persons such as ourselves. A contest between natural persons and these world-spanning artificial persons is no contest at all. In single minded pursuit of profit maximization, all human institutions along with human control over government itself have been progressively swept aside.
Yet ultimately these cancerous monstrosities are not alien impositions upon our planetary civilization, they are, in fact, nothing but the embodiment of our own individual desires for ever more material wealth. The corporations are our self-centered, materialistic values made tangible, and then subsequently run amok to trample us as they follow their pre-programmed agenda of profit maximization above all else.
Thus, at the supreme moment of crisis for our global civilization, at the time when the greatest possible civilizational adaptability and the most rapid possible civilizational learning and capacity for restructuring are required—at this supreme moment of existential crisis for all of humanity—our capability for navigating these crises is declining precipitously towards zero.
Consequently, it is too late to use our existing political system to avert our rapid rendezvous with disaster. It is also too late economically and technologically. We simply cannot quickly replace most of the energy which we are about to lose due to declining supplies of hydrocarbon energy. Indeed, given the reality of corporate dominance of our political processes, attempts to develop technologies to avert the crises will likely turn out to be scams by which wealth is taken from people via taxation and given to corporations—or more specifically—to the wealthy elites who control them.
So if we cannot look to government for our salvation, where can we turn?
We can look to ourselves and to others who see the reality of the present age as we do. We can begin now to improve ourselves—our ability to think clearly and logically, our skills, our basic health. We can network with others locally, regionally and globally. We can each become a nucleus for a self-organizing movement operating at each of these levels of organization. We can become the instigators of a new and sustainable system of human organized complexity which coexists with our biosphere.
We need not revolt directly and forcefully against the present order because this order is inherently doomed. Past revolutions have required force to remove the oppressive presence of a tyrannical old order; but today’s revolution is a struggle for the survival and future of humanity and for the biosphere. However, since our opponent is busily engaged in its very own destruction, we do not have to struggle against it to bring it down. It will fall of its own weight.
We can therefore concentrate upon our new order’s process of self-assembly. The more that we do this, the more we entice others to join us and to defect from the old order. And the more that this occurs, the more the old order is undermined by this process of quiet secession from it.
I do not believe that future human societies will entail reversion to a pre-technological, pre-scientific order. Nor is such an order inherently benevolent; for example, there were few to no cities under feudalism, but the few still dominated and oppressed the many to their material enrichment. Needless suffering occurred, where the application of reason could have alleviated such senseless pain.
What is necessary is a fundamental change within us—a change in our values and our understanding of our relationship with our environment. We must understand that we are integral parts of a greater whole, which encompasses all other humans and indeed all other life. We must use available renewable sources of energy with this understanding firmly in mind, and in ways which do not conflict with or undermine this understanding, or harm other life forms upon which our web of life depends.
We must institutionalize the lessons learned from the collapse of our present order in such a manner as to prevent its mistakes from being repeated in future ages. One planetary disaster is more than enough!
I personally believe that we can do these things and still in the fullness of time rise to challenges which we of this present age can only dream. In a very real sense we can look at crises engendered from our present crises of civilization as a learning experience—but only if we actually learn from them.
We are the creators of this future, and we must start with ourselves—right here and right now.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
