Building positive alternatives and sustainable ways of living
While the first dimension expresses our NO to the things we oppose, the second focuses on what we want to say YES to. Positive vision is needed here, as we develop ways of living and organising ourselves that are in alignment with the desire of life to continue. There are so many inspiring examples of this already happening. Here are just a few:
ecological design and sustainable energy
holistic approaches to education and healthcare
non-violent communication training
permaculture
the ethical business movement
approaches to economics that count the things that really matter
a psychology that cultivates positive qualities and connection with life.
In their book The Cultural Creatives, Paul Ray and Sherry Ruth Anderson write about the birth of a new culture that is happening in our time. This is something we can all be part of, as we take the steps that build a life-sustaining society. By developing this now, we ensure that when the old unsustainable institutions start to collapse, a new sustainable alternative has already started to grow beneath this.
If you’re wondering how to help move this process forward, here are three suggestions:
- move your savings to ethical banks like The Triodos. They only invest in projects that have social and environmental benefits. See www.triodos.co.uk
- Switch to an electricity company that sources renewable supplies. Ecotricity is a good example: see www.ecotricity.co.uk
- Get locally grown organic vegetables through box schemes. For a list of suppliers in the UK, see www.theecologist.org and click on ‘box scheme’.
However, in order for these new green shoots to survive, they need to be accompanied by another shift. As Joanna Macy and Molly Brown Young write in their book Coming Back to Life:
“These nascent institutions cannot take root and survive without deeply ingrained values to sustain them. They must mirror what we want and how we relate to Earth and each other. They require, in other words, a profound shift in our perception of reality – and that shift is happening now, both as cognitive revolution and spiritual awakening.”
This shift is the third, and next, dimension of the Great Turning.