Planet and PEOPLE

Is it climate change? Is it human greed? How can we ‘be the change’ if we don’t know what that change has to be – or if the change is too uncomfortable to contemplate? It’s easy to feel despair and powerless – the present moment feels so awful that we can’t even think straight about the future at all, let alone how we might get there. If we are all doomed anyway, why now just bring out the champagne and have a party. Maybe something will turn up. Maybe technology, the God of the 20th century will save us from ourselves?

Does A A Milne’s poem ( see below) speak to you?

Unfortunately no-one is going to come to our rescue. Some claim they will – on condition we follow their orders to the letter. Don’t believe them. Every dictator and autocrat starts with promises that turn out to be false.

The real problem – as far as I can see – is that we are living with an ideology, a philosophy, that is out of date and unfit for purpose. There’s an old joke about a tourist asking for directions, who is told ‘Well sir, if I were you, I wouldn’t start from here’.  This is actually better advice than it seems. What we may need to do first is to look hard at where we are starting from – at least in terms of our assumptions. What if the way we have been brought up to see the world and its problems is the biggest obstacle in our path?

We are living at a time of the collapse of very deep seated ideas for us in the west, ideas that we have never seriously questioned, but are now at the root of all the problems we face. They are ideas rooted in fear, that feed on fear. Fear is really at the root of what is killing us. Fear of nature, fear of each other, fear of sickness, old age and death. And as social animals that evolved to operate in co-operative groups, extended families, kindreds, tribes, we have a deep fear of isolation and exclusion. It has become very clear that ‘survival of the fittest’ does not mean ‘survival of the most violent, most ruthless, most reckless.

In this blog I want to explore all this, then move on to suggest ways we can build a future for ourselves – planet and people together. Some may prove impractical – if so please comment and tell me why. But I hope we can at least try to move on from the endless, soul destroying nihilism and negativity that seems to have got so much of the world in its grip.

So here’s the first challenging idea: we live in an Orwellian world. Do you agree? Whether you do or not, it seems to have some of the symptoms, so the diagnosis is surely worth exploring if we are brave enough. If it is not Orwellian, we need to see some alternative explanation. Whatever words we use to describe our situation, it is not a good place to be. Surely the immediate questions are why is the world in such an apparent crisis? How did this arise? And of course most importantly, how can we change the situation? Not just theoretically but in concrete practical ways.

Whatever the diagnosis, the times they are a-changing, whether we like it or not. As the old order collapses we need to do better than rearrange the deckchairs. WE need to start building a whole new ship – an Ark in fact. This is perfectly possible because life does have ‘meaning’ after all: we are living beings, on a living planet; part of a complex ecosystem, with a niche to occupy. We don’t understand that much about it, but it’s plain to see that living ecosystems are able to evolve, adapt, regenerate, heal. They do that because each element contributes to the whole. The cells in our bodies do not struggle for dominance or seek overall possession or control. Bodies, species, ecosystems, are are not computers to be ‘reset’ or ‘hacked’. Artificial intelligence is not real intelligence at all: garbage in, garbage out. Real intelligence is a product of life. Biology cannot be controlled by technology.

Nihilism is a belief that life and the universe are ultimately meaningless. It’s a useless starting point for a journey of discovery, and a hopeless foundation for any future at all. And fortunately science itself has moved on. We are rediscovering how utterly wonderful and even beautiful the universe – and especially the planet we are part of – is. Instead of arrogantly talking about ‘saving the planet’, perhaps we should be asking the planet to save us. After all, who or what are we really trying to ‘save’ – and from what, if not ourselves?

The Old Sailor

by A. A. Milne

There was once an old sailor my grandfather knew
Who had so many things which he wanted to do
That, whenever he thought it was time to begin,
He couldn’t because of the state he was in.

He was shipwrecked, and lived on an island for weeks,

And he wanted a hat,
and he wanted some breeks;

And he wanted some nets, or a line and some hooks
For the turtles and things which you read of in books.

And, thinking of this, he remembered a thing
Which he wanted (for water) and that was a spring;
And he thought that to talk to he’d look for, and keep
(If he found it) a goat, or some chickens and sheep.

Then, because of the weather, he wanted a hut
With a door (to come in by) which opened and shut
(With a jerk, which was useful if snakes were about),
And a very strong lock to keep savages out.

He began on the fish-hooks and when he’d begun
He decided he couldn’t because of the sun.

So he knew what he ought to begin with, and that
Was to find, or to make, a large sun-stopping hat.
He was making the hat with some leaves from a tree,
When he thought, ” I’m as hot as a body can be,
And I’ve nothing to take for my terrible thirst;
So I’ll look for a spring, and I’ll look for it first . “

Then he thought as he started, ” Oh, dear and oh, dear!
I’ll be lonely to-morrow with nobody here! “
So he made in his note-book a couple of notes:
” I must first find some chickens “
and ” No, I mean goats . “

He had just seen a goat (which he knew by the shape)
When he thought, ” But I must have a boat for escape.
But a boat means a sail, which means needles and thread;
So I’d better sit down and make needles instead. “

He began on a needle, but thought as he worked,
That, if this was an island where savages lurked,
Sitting safe in his hut he’d have nothing to fear,
Whereas now they might suddenly breathe in his ear!

So he thought of his hut … and he thought of his boat,
And his hat and his breeks, and his chickens and goat,
And the hooks (for his food) and the spring (for his thirst) …
But he never could think which he ought to do first.

And so in the end he did nothing at all,
But basked on the shingle wrapped up in a shawl.
And I think it was dreadful the way he behaved —
He did nothing but basking until he was saved!