When was the last time you felt truly alive?
There are these moments, where we feel truly alive. When we are here, now. Standing on a mountain, feeling insignificant and small, in awe of nature, its beauty, it's intelligence. Embracing someone you feel deep love for. Feeling compassion for someone who suffers. Hearing music that stirs you, being mesmerised by a piece of art. Feeling your body, your heart beating, the sun on your skin. Laughing so hard it makes you cry.
How it is possible we live in a society that constantly steers us in the opposite direction? In which we often feel numb, exhausted and alone? How can we live in a society that has depleted us and the planet to a point it threatens our very existence? How can it be, that we collectively face this existential threat, but don't act?
What happened to us? How did we get here? With this project we want to create clarity on where we stand as a society, at this moment in time. So that we can, from this place of clarity, consciously decide what to do. Decide what action we can take, to find our way back to ourselves, to each other, and to the rest of this beautiful world.
If you've made it to our website, chances are you're well aware of the crises that confront us and are seeking ways to address them. The sheer magnitude of these challenges and the lack of consensus in public discourse can be daunting. So, we did some research of our own to help ourselves frame the problems and find strategies to confront them. On this page, we'll share a way of understanding the problems and opportunities, and provide a simple strategy to confront our crises that we hope works for individuals, businesses, and government. We'll blaze through the doom & gloom by summarizing how we got here, show we’re not stuck by looking at history, and then introduce a new way to look at and confront our challenges.
As civilizations rise, people distance themselves from nature and use up resources at an unsustainable rate, forcing the civilization to relocate or collapse.
Despite our technological advancements, our current industrial society faces the same fate, as we run out of critical resources and lose contact with nature and our humanity.
With our current knowledge and expertise, we can create a society that is trúly advanced, built in symbioses with the natural world.
A brief history
of civilization
To understand where we are right now, let us first look back. We are not the first civilisation on earth. The Romans, Khmer, Sumerians, Han and Gupta are only a few of the sophisticated civilisations that existed before us.
They all spent great amounts of energy to tame the wild chaos of the natural world. Creating smart strategies to survive and make life just a bit easier. And, all of these civilizations ultimately collapsed from running out of critical resources. They ceased to exist, disappeared.
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In the past, civilisations have always progressed by creating an environment that is under people's control. You could say, civilisation is the opposite of nature and the more energy a society puts into distancing itself from nature the more ‘civilised’ it is perceived to be.
This detachment from nature explains our exploitation of it. When you distance yourself far enough from something, you lose your connection with it, until at some point the effects of your actions become completely invisible and unfelt.
This distance to nature and lower civilizations enabled: slavery, industrial farming, nuclear energy and many other practices that throughout history were en vogue with the more 'civilized' crowd.
Progress is a race to not fall behind, in which, ever greater amounts of energy and resources are sacrificed. This race is run at every level; between friends and neighbors, companies and countries.
The more civilized we are, the more we’re submerged in man-made environments and exposed to man-made concepts that shape our thinking and reinforce the idea of control over nature and progress driven by technological innovation and unlimited energy and resources.
But no matter how vast our natural resources may be, they are not unlimted. As other sophisticated civilizations before us collapsed from running out of essential resources. At some point, controlling the environment required too much energy. They same will likely happen to us. We reached peak oil in 2005, meaning oil extraction will become more complicated, less reliable and way more expensive. We are running out of sand for the production of concrete and glass. And so on... depleting seas, soil, etc.
All this is not immediately obvious as the wealth and reserves we accumulated give us the impression that everything is fine. We don’t really feel the pain yet. And the most priviledged and wealthy among us -who have more wealth and reserves- will be the last to feel it. Which, for people in power, makes it easier - and more tempting- to stay in denial.
Technology Will
Not Save Us
Our civilisation is the first to use non-renewable energy. This allowed us to build complex tech structures (power grid, internet), and an advanced society that relies on them. We built our society on the availability of abundant, affordable energy.
But, we ravaged our reserves. Between 2040 and 2050 we are at the peak of fossil fuel. Production will decline, extraction become more difficult and prices rise. And we will not 'innovate' our way out of this. There is no scenario in which we can sustain the tech structures underpinning the global, industrial economy on sustainable, renewable energy. No scenario in which everything stays the same.
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We have been able to use non-renewable energy sources, turning hundreds of millions of years (100.000.000 years) of sunlight captured in fossil fuels into heat and transforming raw materials into waste.
As soon as we entered the industrial age and started using cheap abundant energy (coal, petroleum, nuclear), we started transforming the biosphere into waste and adding heat.
The seemingly limitless availability of affordable energy made it possible to (together with our imagination, collaborative skills and drive for progress) build highly advanced tech structures that are so omnipresent it is hard to imagine life without them. The internet, the power grid, the financial systems, our lives, our businesses and our economies rely on them to function.
And it all works (pretty impressively, when you think about it) as long as energy is cheap and abundant.
But, at this point, the peak of oil availability is already in the past (2005). Extraction is becoming more complicated, less reliable and more expensive. The same will happen for other sources. Between 2040 and 2050 we are at the peak of fossil fuel. Meaning we used up half, production will decline, extraction becomes more difficult and prices rise.
This means our tech structures - and thus our global, industrial, economy - will face real limits to continue to operate.
Even when we switch to more sustainable energy and materials. It will certainly help to come up with sustainable and renewable alternatives. But it wil not be possible to simply replace a system that is built with limitless amounts of energy in mind to continue working in exactly the same way, in a new reality, where energy is simply not as cheap and abundant as it was.
In other words we had a great run, we achieved a great many things, but we now need to start working with a new reality.
If we don't, this will result in scarcity and rising cost for anything from healthcare to transportation and groceries. Without these tech structures in place the global industrial society will grind to a halt.
Or, if we are not fast enough switching gears, our civilisation will at some point collapse, like every civilisation before us.
And, sorry to be such a downer (we promise we will become more optimistic in the end) - but even if technology would save the day and we can continue to operate/expand our tech structures, there’s an even bigger crisis going on.
We’re in a
Spiritual Crisis
And, even if there would be a magical way to get 'limitless' access to energy, would all be good? Are we happy and fulfilled with the way we live in our current civilization, with they way we spend our one wild and precious life?
As painful as it is to admit, in the Global North* we have (relative, material) wealth but we áre not well. In our quest for progress, in building our advanced society, we achieved a great many things. But we also became disconnected. From ourselves, from each other, and from the rest of the natural world. And it hurts us all, real bad.
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In pursuit to create physical safety, security and prosperity for ourselves and our communities, we shifted our focus:
from taking care of ourselves and each other as part of the natural ecosystem;
to providing for our family through smart use of the natural ecosystem;
to an increased specialisation to create prosperity, progress and consistent wealth;
to a state in which we all work to create economic growth, supported by technological progress.
And in this process, we became increasingly removed from nature. We now see nature as something that happens 'outside of us', a decor, a backdrop to our activities, our created, (wo)man-made lives. A superb resource to use, a relaxing setting to enjoy. Very interesting to learn about - if we are really honest, often with the purpose to control- and almost never with the purpose to 'learn from'. A key part of our 'civilisation' has always been to control nature, so it would not control us.
A believe in something that is bigger than us (be it nature, one god(ess), multiple gods) became overshadowed by a believe in science -measure, calculate, regulate- ánd a believe in economic, limitless growth- a concept that defies all natural laws.
We also became increasingly disconnected from each other. We went from a world in which our main goal was to thrive as a community to a world in which the main goal is to contribute to the growth of the (world-wide, quite intangible) economy and to accumulate material wealth for our ourselves. Us, our needs, our goals, our ambitions come first.
Our main responsibility was to take care of yourself, the economy would fix the rest...
And, we became more and more disconnected from ourselves. We learned to see ourselves as rational super-humans to whom the laws of nature do not apply (sure, we still die, but we are working on that as well). The ideal is to be rational, positive, and consistently productive.
We learned to ignore our ówn humanity, our messy, emotional, inconsistent, bodily selves, and don't allow ourselves rest, emotional pain, grief, and other 'unproductive' human conditions. This also makes it less easy to recognise ourselves in each other - because we all present an 'economically acceptable image' of ourselves, leaving us not only feeling exhausted and unhappy but lonely as well.
And it makes it less easy to recognise ourselves in nature, which in and of itself is life-giving, constantly changing, defined by cycles, thrives through relationships, breathes diversity, depends on flow and is an interconnected whole. All things that we came to believe we are nót.
Practicing Uncivilize
If you've made it to our website, chances are you're well aware of the crises that confront us and are seeking ways to address them. The sheer magnitude of these challenges and the lack of consensus in public discourse can be daunting. So, we did some research of our own to help ourselves frame the problems and find strategies to confront them. On this page, we'll share a way of understanding the problems and opportunities, and provide a simple strategy to confront our crises that we think works for individuals, businesses, and government. We'll blaze through the doom & gloom by summarizing how we got here, show we’re not stuck by looking at history, and then introduce a new way to look at and confront our challenges.
The Problem with Capitalism
Our Spiritual Crises
When was the last time you truly felt alive? For us, it's those moments money can't buy: feeling humbled by nature, being exposed to the elements, finding fulfillment in lending a hand or gratitude in receiving help, enjoying the company of friends, or the satisfaction of creating or discovering something on your own. So why do we persist in the illusion that happiness can be purchased? And why have we structured our lives around a single job to make money to do so?
This mindset is relatively recent in human history, stemming from Enlightenment concepts that heralded progress as an unstoppable force, viewed nature as an external entity, and divorced the mind from the body. These false notions continue to shape how we think about and measure prosperity today, as the growth of material wealth. Let’s explore how this leads to a sense of alienation, emptiness, and anxiety.
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The separation of man from nature combined with the belief that humans inherited the earth severed a sacred bond, distancing ‘civilized’ societies from nature, lower civilizations, and women who were considered closer to nature and, consequently, exploitable. This mindset justified land grabs, slavery, colonial endeavors, and deforestation, among other exploitative practices. Similarly, the division of mind from body allowed labor to be treated as a tradable asset, resulting in increasingly unfavorable work conditions.
The evolution of these practices went hand in hand with further alienation from ourselves, others, and our environment.
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The capitalist pursuit of profit has yielded material wealth, but at a cost: As we switched from many jobs and roles to provide for ourselves and our communities to a single job that provides income to buy things we gave up rewarding and meaningful activities. Now our daily grind often boils down to a single job that’s increasingly abstract and under pressure of efficiency thinking. It’s merely a means to obtain our 'necessities', while everything else is commoditized. This trend, started with material goods, it soon extended to roles like caregiving and education, and now encroaches on our friendships, ideas, and attention.
It's little wonder we yearn for deeper purpose and creativity. When everything becomes a purchasable product, even attention and friendships, it erodes our sense of fulfillment and leaves us feeling empty.
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Homo economicus measures well-being solely in economic terms. So to live up to its promise to grow prosperity people are incentivized to consume more every year. This establishes a culture of competitive consumption, bolstered by media, advertising, legislation, and government support. This leads to a cycle where individuals strive to maximize income through, education that maximizes you economic potential, increasingly stressful and specialized jobs, to ultimately compete with friends as success is equated with material possessions.
With our worldwide view we’re exposed to unattainable standards set by influencers and celebrities, as well as problems and challenges far beyond our control, resulting in the stress of grappling with unfixable issues and striving to meet unattainable standards.
Alienation, emptiness, and anxiety have given rise to a range of contemporary afflictions, encompassing financial woes, diminished self-esteem, burnout, eating disorders, attention deficits, and more. This isn’t even taking into account the averse effects of human ‘progress’ on the natural world that result in an entirely new array of mental health issues, such as guilt, climate depression, and the heartache of solastalgia, when the place you know and love changes. Let’s conclude that progress and material wealth are not a measure for health and happiness and that we’re facing some serious mental crises.
Fuel to Fire
Our Material Crises
Throughout history, our energy landscape has undergone significant shifts. Two and a half centuries back, coal emerged as the powerhouse behind the industrial revolution, reshaping societies worldwide. As the 20th century dawned, oil took the lead, further propelling us into an era of automation and specialized professions.
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In our industrial age, we're confronted with a harsh reality: our once abundant energy sources are depleting rapidly. Over half of the Earth's oil reserves have already been tapped, pushing us to reach for harder-to-access reservoirs. Resources like sand, phosphorus, clean air, water, and rare earth metals, once taken for granted, are now becoming scarce. This shift is starkly illustrated by the fact that human-made matter now outweighs all the bio-mass on Earth, a transformation that has occurred just in the last century.
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The capitalist pursuit of profit has yielded material wealth, but at a cost: As we switched from many jobs and roles to provide for ourselves and our communities to a single job that provides income to buy things we gave up rewarding and meaningful activities. Now our daily grind often boils down to a single job that’s increasingly abstract and under pressure of efficiency thinking. It’s merely a means to obtain our 'necessities', while everything else is commoditized. This trend, started with material goods, it soon extended to roles like caregiving and education, and now encroaches on our friendships, ideas, and attention.
It's little wonder we yearn for deeper purpose and creativity. When everything becomes a purchasable product, even attention and friendships, it erodes our sense of fulfillment and leaves us feeling empty.
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Homo economicus measures well-being solely in economic terms. So to live up to its promise to grow prosperity people are incentivized to consume more every year. This establishes a culture of competitive consumption, bolstered by media, advertising, legislation, and government support. This leads to a cycle where individuals strive to maximize income through, education that maximizes you economic potential, increasingly stressful and specialized jobs, to ultimately compete with friends as success is equated with material possessions.
With our worldwide view we’re exposed to unattainable standards set by influencers and celebrities, as well as problems and challenges far beyond our control, resulting in the stress of grappling with unfixable issues and striving to meet unattainable standards.
This pivotal juncture in our history demands a reevaluation of the inefficiencies woven into the fabric of the world we've created. Do we continue to double down on extraction, gambling the fate of the planet on endeavors like space mining, geo-engineering, and nuclear fusion? Or do we acknowledge the simple truth that perpetual growth is unnatural, that in nature, every system grows to ultimately reach a state of balance. It's time to explore the alternatives available in our own history.
The complexity and our society’s complete dependence on technology suites makes it really hard to address the issues we’re facing in terms of depletion, waste and pollution.
We’ve swapped nature as an all inclusive system that produces shelter, building materials, medicine and food for all beings without waste for a global industrial system that turns nature into products exclusively for humans at the cost of all beings and the planet itself. And it doesn’t even make us happy…
3 Redefining Progress
Learning from History
Consider this: there are 2.5 million ants for every human, outweighing our combined mass. Yet, the idea that ants could cause global crises akin to humans seems absurd. Like ants for 99.9% of human history, we coexisted harmoniously with the natural world. Let's revisit those practices and craft alternative approaches aligned with modern sensibilities and knowledge.
To do so let’s borrow the the concept of the four stages of civilization, this is a debunked theory and gross simplification but we can use it to illustrate that societies can function in different energy modes. Throughout history, societies have grown by increasing labor, expanding population, and adopting new energy sources. Energy empowers them to access resources and shape their culture and can be taken as a measure of progress. However, as crucial resources become scarce, this growth becomes unsustainable, leading to societal decline. These activities also affect the environment in proportion to available energy, causing depletion, waste, and pollution.
Hunter Gatherer
In this early phase, property extended only as far as one could carry. Hunter-gatherers were integral parts of their ecosystems, directly consuming and reciprocating with nature. Their impact was minimal, leaving the balance of nature largely undisturbed.
Pastoral
With the advent of herding and horticultural societies, energy was invested in domesticating animals and transforming the land. This shift in focus led to the externalization of costs, as it became advantageous to sacrifice nature in favor of personal gains.
Agricultural
Agriculture's ascension from subsistence farming to specialized industry brought forth new specializations. This phase witnessed the birth of professions like milling, baking, and water management, further shaping human culture and the built environment.
Commercial
In the modern age, we find ourselves in a global industrial system, defined by mass production and free trade. This phase, is characterized by a global industry that exploits nature's resources.
Understanding these historical modes allows us to see that societies have thrived with smaller footprints, even without coming close to Earth's boundaries. With a population of eight billion, we can still live well within our means. This is not a proposal to regress but an invitation to modernize these practices and question how we operate, creating a sustainable mix of modes that prioritizes well-being over material wealth.
In contemplating these modes, it's crucial to understand that they never existed in a pure, isolated form. They don't map out an inevitable trajectory toward a more advanced society. Our current commercial civilization isn't an automatic byproduct of progress. Instead, people -throughout history- have woven together various ways of life, often shunning what they saw as inhumane and exploitative in "more civilized" societies.
“The love of possessions is a disease in them. These people have made many rules that the rich may break, but the poor may not! They have a religion in which the poor worship, but the rich will not! They even take tithes from the poor and weak to support the rich and those who rule. They claim this mother of ours, the earth, for their own use, and fence their neighbor away. “
Tȟatȟáŋka Íyotake, Sitting Bull
Modern examples abound where groups prioritize human well-being over sheer economic growth. The Amish, for one, challenge and reject modern technologies that jeopardize their way of life. The Zapatistas in Mexico have forged a self-governing autonomous zone that upholds indigenous rights, democracy, and social justice over economic growth. Numerous smaller endeavors, like ecovillages and cooperatives akin to Mondragon in the Basque country, spotlight sustainability, social equality, and community, eschewing the relentless pursuit of economic progress.
Let's entertain a fresh perspective on these modes of civilization. Across history, all these modes have stayed accessible to us into the present, and we possess the autonomy to apply them as we see fit. Each mode mirrors a distinct relationship with the natural world, ourselves, and those around us.
Consumer mode
In a way this is the easiest. You continue in the same role but make better choices. We’ve made loads of changes that don’t really hurt. We cut down on flying, showering, consumption, installed solar panels, switched to an electric occasion, stopped eating meat and buy more local seasonal food etc. Some things feel like giving up like air travel to exotic locations but then you find lovely alternatives closer by. Feels considered.
When we participate in a global industry that exploits nature's resources, we become consumers who can order any food we like online to be delivered within minutes. Our role as consumer is strictly separated from our role as producer (our job).
Contributor mode
This mode is much harder for us. We’re introvert and pretty individualistic, we’re not super comfortable engaging with our community. But we are part of a pilot in energy, we add scraps to the local compost heap. But really this mode is about expanding your role and finding purpose in other things than your job. Like helping my aging dad clean up the garden. An enjoyable activity that fels more meaningful and rewarding than a day at the office. Volunteering and community participation have been proven to have health benefits and add to longevity. Feels like belonging.
Plan is to start an intermediate tech lab to help people explore ways of becoming independent of tech suites.
By harnessing renewable energy and fostering local industries that produce goods and culture, such as farmer’s markets, we become communities of specialists. We take on a meaningful role within the community to strengthen it with our unique skills.
Maker mode
As a designer I’m way more comfortable in this mode. What do you do already? Make furniture, repair, grow food… etc Cook. Feels like building something yourself. Pride.
Plans. Build a house
When we use our physical strength and simple tools to shape nature according to our needs, such as tending a vegetable garden, we embrace the role of makers. We cultivate skills and knowledge to become more autarchic and take care of our own.
Regenerator mode
Enjoy nature. Feels like camping. Connected, humble.
When we gather berries or forage from the land, we embody the spirit of commoners, taking from the commons and reciprocating as part of the interconnected natural world. We realize we’re an integral part of nature and work to restore that bond.
So what if we embraced these alternative modes, and started trying them out, see what fits. We believe you can do this as an individual, a business as a government or legislator. And that together we can start to put these alternative modes in place while we shift away from our consumer mode. In doing so we create a cushion that dampens the decline of society so it can stabilize in a sustainable mix of modes that is not about growth and material wealth but about the genuine wellbeing of all.
So what if we embraced these alternative modes, and started trying them out, see what fits. We believe you can do this as an individual, a business as a government or legislator. And that together we can start to put these alternative modes in place while we shift away from our consumer mode. In doing so we create a cushion that dampens the decline of society so it can stabilize in a sustainable mix of modes that is not about growth and material wealth but about the genuine wellbeing of all.
5 Build your Uncivilize Practice
For far too long, we've been confined within the invisible walls of a metaphorical prison. We’re behind bars of legislation, education, advertisement, and the very culture that surrounds us—all underpinned by an unwavering faith in perpetual progress. We've grown accustomed to this comfortable captivity, yet deep down, we sense the cost of this comfort, and we understand it's a bill we can no longer afford to pay. For the first time, we're witnessing a decline in the quality of life within these confines.
Stepping out of this familiar but confining space is a daunting prospect. However, it's essential. This chapter offers straightforward strategies and valuable insights for governments, businesses, and individuals to begin forging new pathways towards a more sustainable future. So, let's get practical. In this chapter, we'll explore two simple yet powerful strategies to guide us towards a better, more balanced future.
Shift Away from Consumer Mode
Rather than measuring our worth by material possessions, let's adopt a mindset of deliberate, conscious consumption. This entails understanding the genuine costs associated with consumer goods. By reevaluating our roles as consumers, we can free ourselves from the trappings of luxury and convenience.
Embrace Alternative Modes
Exploring new modes of living offers a richer, more sustainable way forward. By relinquishing the role of a mere consumer, we open ourselves to experiences that are authentic, meaningful, and deeply rewarding. This shift fosters genuine connections, revitalizes communities, and restores harmony between humanity, autonomy, and ecology.
5.1 Shift Away from 'Consumer Mode'
After exposing "man as consumer” as inherently unsustainable and detrimental to our physical and mental well-being, as well as the environment, the question arises: How can we liberate ourselves from this mode that so completely defines our lives? Where do we start?
Let's begin by acknowledging that the monumental amounts of energy that were poured into science and technological innovation propelled scientific and technological progress, gifting us with invaluable knowledge and groundbreaking inventions. Let’s safeguard and nurture this reservoir of wisdom, channeling talent and resources away from market-driven ventures and towards vital pursuits that enrich our lives. This shift entails redirecting funds that subsidize the global industrial economy, such as fossil subsidies, towards endeavors that address our pressing crises.
For consumers, the journey starts with discernment. Distinguish between what genuinely enhances our lives and what is driven by mere comfort, convenience, trendiness, or radical monopolies, leading to isolation, disconnection, feelings of inadequacy and dependence. Much like the Amish, let us meticulously identify the elements that truly foster well-being and equality. As consumers, we exercise our influence through financial choices, opting out of needless purchases, and through activism, challenging advertising, lobbying, and unethical practices.
In the realm of consumer goods, businesses can turn to regenerative production methods: closed-loop systems, cradle-to-cradle approaches, and biomimicry. The focus here lies in making essentials universally accessible without stimulating further, needless expansion.
Governments shoulder a crucial role in reevaluating how technological suites operate, ensuring sustainability takes precedence over unfettered growth that could push us beyond Earth's limits. This reimagining extends to global communication, transportation, and power supply, guaranteeing their availability well into the future for essential tasks.
Understanding the Consumer Dilemma: Breaking free from the role of consumers, which defines how we live, can be a daunting prospect. Our dependency on complex technology suites, from smartphones to public infrastructure, often feels inescapable.
The Power of Discernment: Discernment is our first tool. It's about distinguishing between genuine needs and superficial desires. By understanding the true costs and consequences of our purchases, we can begin to make more mindful choices.
Redirecting Resources: Embracing a mindful, intentional approach to consumption involves redirecting resources towards endeavors that enrich our lives. This may entail reevaluating where we invest our time, energy, and finances.
5.2 Embrace Alternative Modes
By abandoning our role as consumers, where we passively acquire things that make life more convenient, without grasping the consequences of these purchases on wealth distribution, inequality, self-sufficiency, personal fulfillment, freedom, and the environment, we abandon the comforts we have grown accustomed to and taken for granted. This ‘giving up’ is the focal point of the current discourse surrounding the numerous crises we confront. It’s all about what we stand to lose, However, these other modes reveal the potential gains; experiences that are genuine, meaningful, and deeply rewarding, fostering connections and authenticity.
As you shift away, with each step you get a better sense of true cost, connection to others and nature. You start living a more natural life, with the seasons, natural rhythms, within a sustainable footprint, enjoying the simple meaningful connections, gentle activities, human scale experiences, problems and challenges you can deal with.
Specialist Mode: Rebuilding local economies and meaningful specializations is at the heart of this mode. It involves moving away from unsatisfying jobs and revaluing essential skills, pride, and satisfaction.
Maker Mode: Here, we restore home economies and craftsmanship. We tap into our innate ability to create, appreciating handmade goods and self-sufficiency. The act of making connects us deeply with what we create.
Commoner Mode: In this mode, we embark on the journey of restoring ecology through reciprocal relationships with nature. We become stewards of the Earth, actively contributing to ecological restoration.
Specialist Mode
In the Specialist Mode, we dive deep into the practice of rebuilding local economies and meaningful specializations. By honing essential skills and contributing to our communities, we find satisfaction and pride in our roles. As we transition into this mode, we free ourselves from the confines of unsatisfying jobs and rediscover the value of hands-on, purposeful work.
Rediscovering Pride in Specializations: In the world of specialists, every skill is valued. From traditional crafts to modern-day expertise, we recognize the significance of each specialization in contributing to the well-being of our communities.
Local Economies for Sustainable Growth: By redirecting our efforts towards local industries and economies, we create a resilient foundation. This shift not only fosters self-sufficiency but also reduces our reliance on globalized, resource-intensive systems.
Empowering Communities through Expertise: As specialists, we play pivotal roles in our communities. We become the go-to individuals for essential services, building stronger connections and fostering a sense of pride in our contributions.
Maker Mode
In the Maker Mode, we embark on the journey of restoring home economies and craftsmanship. This mode celebrates the joy of creating and cherishing what we make. By reconnecting with the act of crafting, we gain a deeper appreciation for handmade goods and self-sufficiency.
The Joy of Creation: Creating something with our own hands is an inherently fulfilling experience. It reconnects us with the essence of craftsmanship, allowing us to take pride in our creations.
Cherishing the Handmade: Handmade goods carry a unique energy and authenticity. By valuing what we make, we break free from the cycle of disposable consumerism and cultivate a deeper appreciation for craftsmanship.
Self-Sufficiency and Autonomy: Through making, we become less reliant on global supply chains and industrial processes. We reclaim a level of autonomy over our lives, knowing that we can create what we need.
Commoner Mode
In the Commoner Mode, we embark on a journey of restoring ecology through reciprocal relationships with nature. This mode invites us to become stewards of the Earth, actively contributing to ecological restoration. By engaging in practices that give back to the environment, we foster a deep sense of connection and responsibility.
Reciprocity with Nature: In the commoner mode, we recognize that our well-being is intertwined with the health of the Earth. We engage in practices that restore and regenerate the natural world, creating a cycle of reciprocity.
Stewardship and Responsibility: As commoners, we take on the role of stewards, actively caring for the land, water, and air. This sense of responsibility guides our actions, ensuring that we leave a positive impact on the environment.
Fostering Ecological Restoration: Through our efforts, we contribute to the restoration of ecosystems. Whether through reforestation, regenerative agriculture, or other practices, we play a vital role in healing the Earth.
5.3 Navigating the Shift:
As we consider these alternative modes, it's essential to remember that they are not mutually exclusive. Instead, they offer a spectrum of possibilities, inviting us to explore and adapt based on our unique circumstances and values. The transition is not about immediate, drastic change, but rather a gradual, intentional shift towards modes that resonate with our innate connection to the natural world.
Rediscovering our Connection: In embracing these modes, we rediscover our innate connection to the natural world. We move away from a consumer-centric existence and towards a way of life that honors reciprocity, sustainability, and well-being.
The Power of Small Steps: The journey towards embracing alternative modes is not about overnight transformation. It's about taking small, intentional steps towards modes that align with our values and aspirations.
A Spectrum of Possibilities: These modes offer a spectrum of possibilities, allowing us to find a balance that works for us. Whether we gravitate towards one mode or explore a combination, the key is to embark on this journey with open hearts and minds.
Creating a Sustainable Mix:
Ultimately, the path forward involves a thoughtful blend of these modes, creating a sustainable mix that prioritizes the well-being of all. By reimagining how we live, work, and interact with the environment, we pave the way towards a more balanced, meaningful existence.
Empowering Change: Whether as individuals, businesses, or governments, we all hold the power to enact change. By embracing alternative modes, we contribute to a collective shift towards a more sustainable future.
Examples
From Exploitation to Alienation
The separation of man from nature combined with the belief that humans inherited the earth severed a sacred bond, distancing ‘civilized’ societies from nature, lower civilizations, and women who were considered closer to nature and, consequently, exploitable. This mindset justified land grabs, slavery, colonial endeavors, and deforestation, among other exploitative practices. Similarly, the division of mind from body allowed labor to be treated as a tradable asset, resulting in increasingly unfavorable work conditions.
The evolution of these practices went hand in hand with further alienation from ourselves, others, and our environment.
From Commodification to Emptiness
The capitalist pursuit of profit has yielded material wealth, but at a cost: As we switched from many jobs and roles to provide for ourselves and our communities to a single job that provides income to buy things we gave up rewarding and meaningful activities. Now our daily grind often boils down to a single job that’s increasingly abstract and under pressure of efficiency thinking. It’s merely a means to obtain our 'necessities', while everything else is commoditized. This trend, started with material goods, it soon extended to roles like caregiving and education, and now encroaches on our friendships, ideas, and attention.
It's little wonder we yearn for deeper purpose and creativity. When everything becomes a purchasable product, even attention and friendships, it erodes our sense of fulfillment and leaves us feeling empty.
From Consumerization to Anxiety
Homo economicus measures well-being solely in economic terms. So to live up to its promise to grow prosperity people are incentivized to consume more every year. This establishes a culture of competitive consumption, bolstered by media, advertising, legislation, and government support. This leads to a cycle where individuals strive to maximize income through, education that maximizes you economic potential, increasingly stressful and specialized jobs, to ultimately compete with friends as success is equated with material possessions.
With our worldwide view we’re exposed to unattainable standards set by influencers and celebrities, as well as problems and challenges far beyond our control, resulting in the stress of grappling with unfixable issues and striving to meet unattainable standards.