It seems that everyone has rants and complaints, but no solutions. There is a real long-term solution, but one must understand the difference between vision and programs first. A vision is the underlining story that perpetuates a culture. Our cultures story, “the world belongs to man”, is describe below in the “Its Our Culture Stupid” blog entry.

Programs are attempts to solve problems caused by a culture’s vision and programs run contrary to that vision. Programs try do to more of the same to solve a particular problem. For example, if our form of education is not working do more of it. If the war in Iraq is not going well, send more troops, instead of avoiding the war in the first place. programs are like sticks in the river of a vision—they will not stop the river. To solve problems caused by a vision, you have to adopt a new vision, not just plant sticks in the river.

The reason this is so difficult, it that adopting a new cultural story or vision is in reality birthing a new culture. Now you just do not go inventing a culture. We have been trying to makeup a new culture ever since the agricultural revolution and it has failed miserably—read Culturequake. For a culture to last, it must adopt a story that is proven evolutionarily for millions of years not just 10,000 years.

To survive long-term a species has to follow with nature’s laws. Humans first have to live within their local bioregion’s carrying capacity—this means we have to not interfere with the earth’s resilience system called biodiversity and building top soil. Then humans have to do what we are here to do—that is to make food for plants and then plants make food and atmosphere for us. Humans and all other mammals make food for plans by creating CO2 when we breath, nitrogen when we urinate, and compost when we poop. That is our sacred role on earth. You could say we are the earth becoming self-aware, but if we do not follow the laws of nature, we are not going to around to be aware of anything.

Each specie has its evolutionarily proven way to live. Bees live in hives, deer live in herds, wales live on pods, and skunks live under the porch—ha ha. The point is though, that humans live in tribes. The key is that a tribal lifestyle allows humanity to live within the carrying capacity of a bioregion and enables us to follow the laws of nature. There are other advantages to following what Daniel Quinn calls a Leaver lifestyle such as cradle to grave security. I will write more about Leaver wealth in a future Blog.

So how do we get from modern culture back or forward to tribes and the story that “humanity belongs to the earth”? Thats the 64 dollar question, but that is where all of the solution lies to our greatest problems. Our poverty, hunger, war, social inequity, crime, problems all comes from living the failed story that “the world belongs to man”. The one and only big solution is to regain the story that “humanity belongs to the earth.” And by belonging to the earth we will regain our original Leaver lifestyle and wealth.

We are not going to get there overnight, but every journey starts with the first step. We can start changing our mindset. Here is small example from the Telluride’s beavers. Remember, our culture’s story is that the “world belongs to man.” So, our culture’s way of dealing with this beaver dam is to tear it down. The beavers will rebuild it again somewhere else, next time maybe in a place that threatens property. If on the other hand we adopted a new story of  “humanity belongs to the earth”, maybe we would let the dam be. Let the beavers enhance biodiversity and build topsoil in this small riparian area.

Its taken us 10,000 years to get here. It took 300 years for the Fall or Rome to unwind alone. These things take time to cycle through. So tell your children to be patient, but to try everyday to live closer to their the earth. Tell them to allow the earth to what it needs to do—to allow the riot of life to continue by living within the carrying capacity of their local bioregion—start paying back our ecological debt—live light on the land in a close community of like minded people—and most of all, live with a sense of joy.

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Visit www.culturequake.org to read the most updated version of this essay and to read the blog as a whole work, visit the Culturequake amazon.com book store, and learn more about the book Culturequake: The Fall of Modern Culture and the Rise of Earth Culture. Visit www.restorationfarm.org to learn what we are doing to grow new stories and cultures. ©2008 Chuck Burr LLC.