Why is the Novasutras movement growing a spiritual community, instead of focusing on direct activism and/or lifestyle changes to promote agaya and ubuntu? I talk about these ideas a bit in this video:
Change the Paradigm, Change the System
Unlike most activist organizations, Novasutras starts from the intention of inspiring a movement large enough to change the whole paragdim of civilization. We believe that we must change the underlying system, the ideas of our culture that are so fundamental, they go largely unspoken and unchallenged. In Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System, beloved ancestor (late, great) systems thinker Donella Meadows says that it is at the vast and profound level that you can make the most change:
12. Constants, parameters, numbers (such as subsidies, taxes, standards). 11. The sizes of buffers and other stabilizing stocks, relative to their flows. 10. The structure of material stocks and flows (such as transport networks, population age structures). 9. The lengths of delays, relative to the rate of system change. 8. The strength of negative feedback loops, relative to the impacts they are trying to correct against. 7. The gain around driving positive feedback loops. 6. The structure of information flows (who does and does not have access to information). 5. The rules of the system (such as incentives, punishments, constraints). 4. The power to add, change, evolve, or self-organize system structure. 3. The goals of the system. 2. The mindset or paradigm out of which the system — its goals, structure, rules, delays, parameters — arises. 1. The power to transcend paradigms.
The Level of Urgency
Right now, our civilization is at a time of awesome and terrifying risk, approaching some tipping points that threaten to completely destabilize the way modern humans live. Things are already changing rapidly, but the ways that things are changing are not all good, and some of the things that most need to change are stuck.
We are on the crumbling edge of climate catastrophe. We have polluted air, water and soil in ways that may take millennia to heal. We are in the midst of a major species extinction crisis. Global economic and power structures are moving toward ever-greater inequity, a trajectory that has historically led to revolution and the collapse of great civilizations. People around the world are increasingly unhappy, with attendant problems of violence, substance abuse, and angry, polarized discourse. Each of these alone is bad, but they have synergistic effects that reduce our chances of resolving any of them independently.
Our chances of solving any one of these crises is much better if we work toward solving all of them at once. This kind of broad approach is not compatible with the usual strategies of political parties, NGOs and issue-driven social movements. Spiritual movements can provide people with the kind of new cultural template that will allow for radical changes throughout the system.
New religions have often emerged from times of great turmoil and cultural upheaval. We are on the threshold of such a time of dire beauty*. It is up to us to decide how to proceed with our dangerous, beautiful assignment* in light of these challenges. Will you join in this dance to create a sane, reverent* civilization, and midwife together a renaissance that will rise from the rubble* of what is wrong today?
*phrases borrowed from Caroline Casey, with much respect and admiration
Michelle Y. Merrill, Ph.D., is an expert in international sustainability, systems and complexity, teaching and learning, biologically-inspired design, anthropology and ecology. Over decades of research, she has worked in the US, Asia and Africa studying rainforest primates and Higher Education for Sustainability. She is a published author, a respected educator and international speaker, and the founder of Novasutras. She earned her doctorate from Duke University in 2004.
Ecospirituality supports well-being in people of all ages. Our allies at The Resilient Activist have great resources for nurturing kids to maintain their resilience through a healthy relationship to living Nature. These include an upcoming class for families, Nature Stories videos and recommended activities, plus links to research on the relationship between climate, nature connection, and mental health for young people.
We focus on progress-to-date on the Novasutras goals for movement-building, gathering the people and resources we need to accomplish our larger projects.
Environmental science fiction storytelling can shape our thinking and subsequent technological and social innovations. Solarpunk and other imagined futures can inspire us. Many include messages about the need for an ecospiritual movement to deal with climate and other environmental crises.
…Huge fruits fall, bounce, roll, break and squish flinging pungent seeds.
Lured by the scent, desert beasts appear lumbering out of mirage in wary zig zags.
They stare at the jungle beasts as they feed.
Soon the mating begins…
~Leoma Scott
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