In a recent post I described what I mean by "real" and "green" - things like real food, real relationships, real connections to nature and to our own deep values, and living regeneratively or at least in ways that do less harm.
I think there are (at least) three particular challenges that make "a real green life" something we have to put awareness and effort into building and claiming for ourselves. In this post I'll describe these three challenges, and then I'll borrow from the Permaculture Principle "the problem is the solution" to turn them inside out and unpack three useful keys from within them.
Challenge #1: Our culture discourages us from thinking for ourselves
To a very large degree we’ve become “institutionalized” by experts and social institutions who wait at our elbows to provide for us, think for us, and rescue us from our mistakes -- which erodes our capacity to think for ourselves, take appropriate risks, and claim responsibility for our own lives.
In addition, global corporations invest tremendous resources to influence our thinking for two very specific outcomes:
- to create a sense of lack and inadequacy, a hunger for "more," in our lives, and
- to direct our focus towards the gadgets, gizmos, and entertainment that they imply will fill the void.
The technology used to direct our thinking in this way is extremely sophisticated, and the budgets allocated to it are enormous. Unless we make a conscious effort to screen out the constant stream of suggestions (most of which goes on below our conscious awareness when we expose ourselves to the channels it uses), our minds are no longer our own.
"From the moment you first see a TV screen or a billboard your mental health is under attack."
Steve Biddulph, Raising Boys
"Western civilization is a sophisticated propaganda machine."
Challenge #2: Our culture doesn't support us in taking care of ourselves
The second of our 3 challenges relates to the "institutionalized" thing I mentioned above: we've become conditioned to rely on others to provide for us.
We've lost the practical skills of self-reliance and community interdependence that sustained us before experts, institutes, corporations, supermarkets and superstores took over providing for our needs.
It's far easier for most of us to pay an expert or go shopping, than it is to ask a neighbor for help, take the time to figure it out for ourselves, bruise our knuckles, go hungry once in a while, make mistakes, learn from them, try again, make more mistakes...
Food and medicine which once came from the living world around us via the ingenuity and hard work of self, family, and friends, now come from supermarkets and pharmacies -- which disconnect you from your local community and ecosystem and turn you into a consumer in a vast globalized system of industrial extraction and manufacturing.
Which leads me to challenge #3...
Challenge #3: Our culture doesn't encourage us to connect
Our authentic connections to our inner selves, each other, and our natural world are rapidly being superseded by a fake, virtual reality and digital social media.
Our reliance on (and therefore connection to) each other and the natural world around us is being (or has been) replaced by supermarkets and superstores.
The more we rely on these fake, hollow substitutes, the more disconnected we become AND, the hungrier we get for the real thing that's now missing from our lives. Which leads us into addictive behavior, seeking another fix, and another fix, that never satisfies the underlying need.
Our third challenge is that our connections to each other, to any strong internal sense of meaning or purpose, and to the natural world, are under sustained attack.
We've forgotten how to live in community, how to rely on ourselves and each other, how to anchor our every day lives in the sacred, how to align with nature's rhythms, and how to recognize and connect with our own deepest needs and values.
"Competition and individualism ... is the religion of our time, justified by a mythology of lone rangers, sole traders, self-starters, self-made men and women, going it alone. For the most social of creatures, who cannot prosper without love, [this is a recipe for misery]."
~ George Monbiot, "The Age of Loneliness is Killing Us"
Turning the problem into the solution
Can you see where I'm going with all this? Turned inside out, each of these three challenges obviously holds it's own solution.
1. Thinking For Ourselves
As Einstein said, we can't expect to solve our problems with the same thinking that created them. Challenge #1 was that our culture discourages us from thinking for ourselves, and the first key to a real green life is that we need to take responsibility for our own thinking.
I'm not just talking here about the ruminations that go on in our heads. I'm referring to the entirety of our inner lives -- because how we conduct our inner lives and care for our inner selves shapes the way we show up for the world outside ourselves.
The Thinking For Ourselves essays on A Real Green Life explore ideas for examining our assumptions about our selves and our purpose in the world, reclaiming our sovereignty as individuals, and building our capacity to care more effectively for everything that's important to us, including our inner selves.
2. Caring for ourselves
Challenge #2 was that our culture doesn't support us in taking care of ourselves, and the antidote is obvious. The second key to a real green life is caring for ourselves and each other in ways that minimize harm and prioritize well-being and regeneration.
That doesn't have to mean we have to do it ALL. Trying to do that would be disastrous for most of us. We're after community sufficiency, not self-sufficiency, and "community" can mean many different things.
For what we can't or don't want to do, we can look for ways to trade with others near us, and to support local, ethical craftspeople and small businesses.
And there is a lot we can do ourselves. The Caring For Ourselves content on A Real Green Life delves into things like growing some of our own food and taking back our basic healthcare, both of which will get easier the more we engage with them in small, manageable ways.
3. Reconnecting
Challenge #3 was that our culture discourages us from connecting authentically to our selves, each other, and nature. The third key is simple to state: we need to re-connect.
Which might be simpler than you think, because actually everything is already connected.
The trouble starts when we lose track of our connections, when we forget that we are both held by, and also responsible to, the web of life that sustains us.
As social activist Grace Lee Boggs said, "It's never a question of 'critical mass.' It's always about critical connections."1
You'll find the theme "everything is connected" running through a lot of my writing one way or another. I also explore the whole topic more directly in "Reconnecting," which is a sub-category under " Thinking For Ourselves."
Related posts
This post follows on from "What I Mean by a Real Green Life."
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