| Civilizations have come and gone, and those long gone mostly vanished because they despoiled their commons, allowed small elites to control their economies and governments, and lived in ways that were unsustainable. Those that survived for centuries or millennia are the ones that learned how to protect their commons, engage in non-toxic commerce and governance, and organize their culture and lifestyles in ways that could continue in the same place and same way down through the ages. We have the power to think differently about our cultural story. The way through lies in learning to act as if we are part of, instead of separate from nature; in dispelling the belief that an abstraction - an economic system - is divine and separated from us; through integrating in ourselves and demanding in our leaders the realization that the best way to influence people is never through fear, but through the power of love, support, and compassion. |