Giovanni Marco Scavelli
The main question is why we are worth sustaining, how we should start questioning and which is the motivation, what are the possible solutions towards a transition to a regenerative culture as whole. How we can create conditions conducive to life, which are our reflections about what future we desire for humanity.
“Live the questions now “ said Rainer Maria Rilke, where our planet is over populated, climate change is a real threat, scarcity of many non renewable resources is the present.
It’s time to feel the necessity of interdependence, not only in terms of survive but above all of thriving as one, being aware that we are interconnected and we depend on each other and on the planetary life-support system. Most of the current economic and political systems are built with a win-lose mindset (zero-sum), so it’s clear we are all going to lose in the mid-long term, if we don’t try to regenerate the healthy functioning of ecosystems, reduce the increasing rate of inequality and enhance social cohesion and international solidarity through cultures of collaboration.
Win-win-win culture places Nature first as main supplier of abundance, it makes sure that life can continue to evolve towards increasing diversity, complexity, bio-productivity and resilience.
Cultural, ecological and economic regeneration is possible only if we integrate whole system design solutions that are able to drive humanity of creating 3win patterns. The multiple converging crises time we are living need a shift, it’s fundamental that humanity understands that change and transformation are undeniable.
We need to question basic assumptions, world views and value systems, getting focus on what serves humanity and life and what doesn’t. Vaclav Havel said that regenerative culture emerge as “ and expression of life in the process of transforming itself”.
We should recognize the rise of a new consciousness, a new cultural story, a source of value creation, where the natural process of cleaning water, capturing sunlight and carbon dioxide into biomass, building fertile soils, stopping erosion and regulating climate as “ecosystems service” are our primary goals. We should celebrate life as whole by questioning the current “story of separation” that leads us to feel isolated, alienated and insufficient so to compete with each other, with the “story of interbeing” that acknowledge our relational nature and interdependence.
Our current economic system disrespects planetary boundaries and has driven the degradation of communities and ecosystems around the world. It is a dangerous ideology and we must create a new paradigm that let us share nature’s abundance collaboratively and encourage business and communities to continuously regenerate the basic resources we depend upon.
Albert Einstein said “ our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature…”
The health of the biosphere and the future of humanity are inseparable, by caring for the Earth and all of life, we care for ourselves.
Owen Barfield said “ we are part and parcel of nature and we have evolved to self-reflective consciousness and free will, which gives us the choice to participate in life’s processes in a destructive or a creatively supportive (regenerative) way. The “Deep Ecology” movement initiated by Arne Naess calls the realization of our own self as a relational reflection of the larger community of life “our ecological self”. A regenerative culture is going to help the healthy personal development of a human being from ego-centric, to socio-centric, to species-centric, to bio-centric and cosmos-centric perspectives of self.
Juan Mascaro’ believed in the recuperation of a profound humanism to unite humanity beyond its differences. Bill Plotkin proposed a model for individual human development that offers “ a narrative of how we might grow whole, one life stage at time, by embracing nature and soul as our wisest and most trustworthy guides” and “ a strategy for cultural transformation, a way of progressing from our current ego-centric societies (materialistic, anthropocentric, competition-based, class-stratified, violent and unsustainable).
We need a shift in whole and living systems thinking in order to create a regenerative culture, a deep transformation of the material resource basis of our civilization, away from fossil ones and towards renewably regenerated biological resources, along with a radical increase in resource productivity and recycling. Bill Reed wrote “ we can understand life as a whole process of continuous evolution towards richer, more diverse, and mutually beneficial relationship” .
The “story of separation” is reaching the limits , a new cultural narrative is flourishing and it’s going to help us find a regenerative way of being human in deep intimacy, reciprocity and communion with life a whole by becoming conscious co-creators of humanity’s new story.
Regenerative change is an ongoing path of evolution starting from being conscious and living new possibilities of relating to self, community and to life as a whole.
Giovanni Marco Scavelli
The contents of this article are the sole responsibility of the author, and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of ALDA and the European Union.
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