Changes – regenerative culture

In just over a week I have gone from Edinburgh to Block Island and walked on different paces, different beaches, looking at different skies, as the weather shifts from calm to wind to fog to clear sun. The photos are from my last evening in Edinburgh, then walking on BI, on Ballards and Cooneymus with Finlay the family dog while they were all away, then a lovely Easter Sunday evening. this is the same week in which the wonderful Extinction Rebellion have acted on all our behalf in London and Edinburgh, and in Paris Notre Dame has been on fire, and the Gilets Jaunes [Yellow Vests] have also been marching again. Climate change, inequalities, things are wrong. My world goes on. More comment below or just enjoy the photos, I enjoy the walks.

 

The skies are beautiful. I went to an Extinction Rebellion meeting while I was in Edinburgh and was impressed by their energy as well as their aims, and even more by their Principles and Values. All their actions are non-violent civil disobedience, and they make a good case for the disobedience – rebellion – being absolutely necessary.

They also say where they want to go. they have credible aims, shared by others e.g. those who talk about Green New Deal, and those who hear and watch David Attenborough. This contrasts with much I read after the Notre Dame Fire where immediate millions suddenly become available for bricks and mortar in the same city as the Gilets Jaunes are crying out for some sort of change in the inequalities now suffered in that land of egalité, liberté and fraternité. There some are indeed a great deal more equal than others, just like everywhere else, and we can see that it gets worse.

What I thought though, was that the donations to Notre Dame are easy to make [if you have the money] because this is not a system problem, it is just a direct straightforward place where one can see That Problem needs Money. The same thing happens after a tsunami, or earthquake, even if the millions are not quite so dramatic. The objective is clear, and the money can be pointed directly.

The other worldwide problems, the inequalities, the climate, the quite dreadful despair of war, treatment of asylum seekers and refugees, you name your worst, are all systemic problems. Money does not get “thrown” because it is totally unclear where to throw it. And indeed, it can look as if throwing away, waste without change, might be just what happens to it. The systemic nature of the problems is why our politicians look like a bunch of inept idiots, when probably many of them are trying hard to be sensible, and do their best, and maybe well aware that it doesnt seem anything like good enough.

I still think that someone with money [even my mite] could do worse than throw it at Monetary Reform – in other words create a use of money exchange for goods and services that works for people and planet without usury. Further, I would like to see all our institutions, from small local to world-wide governance, start working on Commons Principles that key into and enlist the social and caring sides of human nature, bringing collaboration to common problems and being clear about what we own, what we do not, what has been gifted to us for our use, etc. The first of Extinction Rebellion principles is “Creating a world that is fit for generations to come“. We have not done very well with current versions of democracy, or its lack, as it is operated through heirarchical forms of power, and the survival fears and fights for ascendancy sides of us get promoted.

Lets throw our money towards the groups that have a changed vision – those that see the systemic problems and look for a regenerative culture – that means healthy, resilient and adaptable – whatever the circumstances – a regenerative culture has an effect, however small, on the circumstances. Positive Money is one such group, and Extinction Rebellion is another. Both care about the world our grandchildren’s grandchildren will live in.