New consciousness: the brass ring
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“We won’t get far in addressing our major challenges unless there is a parallel, ongoing transformation in values and culture.”
Let’s face it, it is going to be damn hard to protect the human and natural communities we love. Big changes in public policy are needed as well as big changes in individual and social behavior, moves that are difficult and far-reaching by today’s standards. It is important to ask what might make them possible.
Strong social and political movements come to mind, but I believe the changes needed will also require the rise of what we will call a new consciousness. For some, a new consciousness can arrive as a spiritual awakening—a transformation of the human heart. For others, it is a more intellectual process of learning to see the world anew. From a society-wide perspective, it involves major cultural change and a reorientation of what society values and prizes most highly.
The father of the land ethic, Aldo Leopold, came to believe “that there is a basic antagonism between the philosophy of the industrial age and the philosophy of the conservationist.” Remarkably, he wrote to a friend that he doubted anything could be done about conservation “without creating a new kind of people.”
Paul Raskin and his Global Scenario Group have developed many scenarios of world economic, social, and environmental conditions, including scenarios where there are no fundamental changes in consciousness and values. But without a change in values, all their scenarios run into big trouble. So they favor the “New Sustainability” worldview where society turns “to nonmaterial dimensions of fulfillment...the quality of life, the quality of human solidarity and the quality of the earth.... Sustainability is the imperative that pushes the new agenda. Desire for a rich quality of life, strong human ties and a resonant connection to nature is the lure that pulls it toward the future.”
My early mentor, Charles Reich, the author of The Greening of America in 1970, concluded that, “At the heart of everything is what must be called a change of consciousness. This means a new way of living—almost a new man.”
I would never say that no progress can be made until America’s dominant culture has been transformed. But I do believe that we won’t get far in addressing our major challenges unless there is a parallel, ongoing transformation in values and culture. Einstein said that today’s problems cannot be solved with today’s mind. That is a difficult conclusion but one with which we must contend.
So, two important questions emerge. First, what are the social values required by today’s circumstances? And second, what forces can drive cultural and consciousness change of the type and on the scale needed?
The culture shifts we need
The most serious and sustained effort to date to state a compelling ethical vision for the future is the Earth Charter, which has gained wide endorsement and support around the world. The Earth Charter is an eloquent statement of the ethical principles needed to “bring forth a sustainable global society founded on respect for nature, universal human rights, economic justice, and a culture of peace.” Over 2,000 organizations representing tens of millions of people have endorsed the Earth Charter.
After a lot of reading on this subject, here are the value transformations I believe we need. We want our dominant culture to have shifted, from today to tomorrow, in the following ways:
Instead of viewing humanity as something apart from nature, and nature as something “other” to be dominated, we will see ourselves as part of nature, as offspring of its evolutionary process, as close kin to wild things, and as wholly dependent on its vitality and the services it provides.
Rather than seeing nature as humanity’s resource to exploit as it sees fit for economic and other purposes, we will see the natural world as holding intrinsic value and having rights that create for us the duty of ecological stewardship.
We will no longer discount the future by focusing so intently on the short term, but instead take the long view and recognize our duties to human and natural communities well into the future.
Instead of today’s corrosive individualism and narcissism, we will foster a powerful sense of community and social solidarity, in all venues from local to cosmopolitan (from me to we).
Violence will no longer be glorified either at home or abroad, nor wars easily accepted, and peace will be a priority.
The spreading of hate and invidious divisions will be rejected. We will move from racism, sexism, and nativism to tolerance, an embrace of cultural diversity, and protection of the rights of all.
Materialism, consumerism, and the primacy of ever-more possessions will give way to a culture that grants priority to family and personal relationships, learning, experiencing nature, service, spirituality, music and dance, sports, the arts, and play.
Rather than tolerate gross economic, social, gender, and political inequality, we will prize and demand a high measure of equality and social justice in all these spheres.
I agree, that’s a mind-full! The good news is that we don’t need to wait on these changes but can help bring them about. This jewel was from Senator Pat Moynihan: “The central conservative truth is that culture, not politics, determines the success of a society. The central liberal truth is that politics can change a culture and save it from itself.”
As Moynihan suggests, we actually know important things about how values and culture can be changed. Here is a partial inventory to consider.
One sure path to cultural change is, unfortunately, the cataclysmic event—the crisis—that profoundly challenges prevailing values and delegitimizes the status quo. The Great Depression is the classic example. I think we can be confident that we haven’t seen the end of major crises that will shake things up.
Milton Friedman was an accomplished economist and a fierce advocate. I did not often agree with his positions on policy, but he was right to point to the way crises can bring ideas to the fore: “Only a crisis—actual or perceived—produces real change,” he wrote. “When that crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around. That, I believe, is our basic function: to develop alternatives to existing policies, to keep them alive and available until the politically impossible becomes politically inevitable.”
I think ongoing climate change is a crisis of sufficient potential to be transformative. The reality of global warming and climate change is already hard upon us, and it will worsen. My guess is that the world will soon be consumed with the consequences of climate calamity. The climate crisis is the strongest possible argument for transformation of today’s dominant social values.
A thorough look at this issue is Thomas Homer-Dixon’s The Upside of Down. Homer-Dixon believes that foreshocks and breakdowns can lead to positive change if the ground is prepared. “We need to prepare to turn breakdown to our advantage when it happens—because it will,” he says. Breakdowns, of course, do not necessarily lead to positive outcomes; authoritarian outcomes are also possibilities. Turning a breakdown to advantage will require being crisis-ready.
Two other key factors in cultural change are leadership and social narrative. Harvard’s Howard Gardner has written, “Whether they are heads of a nation or senior officials of the United Nations, leaders . . . have enormous potential to change minds . . . and in the process they can change the course of history.
“I have suggested one way [for leaders] to capture the attention of a disparate population: by creating a compelling story, embodying that story in one’s own life, and presenting the story in many different formats so that it can eventually topple the counter-stories in one’s culture. … The story must be simple, easy to identify with, emotionally resonant, and evocative of positive experiences.”
New story, new consciousness, new models
Bill Moyers, a powerful force for good in our country, wrote that “America needs a different story. … The leaders and thinkers and activists who honestly tell that story and speak passionately of the moral and religious values it puts in play will be the first political generation since the New Deal to win power back for the people.”
Others like the cultural historian Thomas Berry have written about the need for a new story. The Rev. Jim Antal, author of Climate Church, Climate World, is one who recognizes that need. “It’s the very structures of the world that need to be challenged if we are to live into a new story.”
There is some evidence that Americans are ready for another story. Large numbers of Americans express disenchantment with today’s lifestyles and offer support for values similar to those discussed here. But these values are held along with other strongly felt and often conflicting values, and we are all pinned down by old habits, fears, insecurities, social pressures and in other ways. A new story that helps people find their way out of this confusion and dissonance could help lead to real change. I was once part of an organization with the fetching name "Center for a New American Dream."
“There is some evidence that Americans are ready for another story. Large numbers of Americans express disenchantment with today’s lifestyles and a new story that helps people find their way out of this confusion and dissonance could help lead to real change.”
Another source of value change is social movements. Social movements are all about consciousness-raising. In my lifetime, I have seen hard-fought change in civil rights, women’s rights, gay rights, and other gender, race and ethnic issues, including Black Lives Matter. Two of my heroes here are the Rev. William Barber on social justice and Bill McKibben on climate.
Another way forward to a new consciousness lies in the world’s religions. Mary Evelyn Tucker, an authority on world religions, has noted that “no other group of institutions can wield the particular moral authority of the religions.” Faith communities played key roles in ending slavery, in the civil rights and voting rights movements, and in overcoming apartheid in South Africa. Led by the remarkable Pope Francis, they are now turning special attention to issues of social justice, peace, and climate.
An awakening to new values and new consciousness can also derive from the arts, literature, philosophy, and science. Consider, for example, the long tradition of “reverence for life” stretching back to Emperor Ashoka more than 2,200 years ago and forward to Albert Schweitzer, Aldo Leopold, Thomas Berry, Terry Tempest Williams, Wendell Berry, Mary Oliver, Oren Lyons and many others. Consider as well the wisdom traditions of Native Americans and other indigenous peoples.
In 1977, the elders of the Iroquois Confederacy issued a remarkable statement, Basic Call to Consciousness: Address to the Western World: “the Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy has existed on this land since the beginning of human memory…. Our essential message to the world is a basic call to consciousness. The destruction of the Native cultures and people is the same process which has destroyed and is destroying life on this planet. The technologies and social systems which have destroyed the animal and plant life are also destroying the Native people…. It is the people of the West, ultimately, who are the most oppressed and exploited. They are burdened by the weight of centuries of racism, sexism, and ignorance which has rendered their people insensitive to the true nature of their lives…. The people who are living on this planet need to break with the narrow concept of human liberation, and begin to see liberation as something which needs to be extended to the whole of the Natural World.”
Another major and hopeful path is seeding the landscape with innovative, instructive models. A remarkable but under-appreciated trend in the United States today is the proliferation of innovative models of community action and business enterprise, many promoted by groups like the Solidarity Economy, the New Economy Network, and the Wellbeing Economy Alliance.
Local currencies, co-ops of several types, community wellbeing indicators, slow money, community supported agriculture, downshifting and living simply, community wealth building, community-owned power and solar net metering, and on and on—these are bringing a positive future into the present in very concrete ways. These actual models will grow in importance as communities search for answers on how the future should look, and they can change minds. Seeing is believing.
Finally, there is the great importance of sustained efforts at education. Here one should include education in the largest sense as embracing not only formal education but also day-to-day and experiential education. It includes the education we get from personally experiencing nature in all its richness and diversity. My Yale colleague Steve Kellert stressed that such exposure to the natural world, especially for children, is important to wellbeing and human development.
Education in this broad sense also includes social marketing. Social marketing has had notable successes in moving people away from bad behaviors such as smoking and drunk driving, and its approaches could be applied to larger themes as well.
These are all things within the power of citizens to make happen! The psychologist Tim Kasser has provided good advice about two factors that can improve receptivity to messages conveying new values. One is to turn down the incessant triggering of our materialistic impulses, e.g. escape from advertising! The other is to improve people’s sense of economic security, personal safety, and social connectedness—good advice for many ailments.
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With great thanks to all the insightful authors who contributed chapters to Kellert and Speth,The Coming Transformation: Values to Sustain Human and Natural Communities, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, 2009, available at https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/fes-pubs/5/
Gus Speth is a Distinguished Next System Fellow at The Democracy Collaborative. He has worked as a key environmental movement leader and has authored several books. He was also editor of The New Systems Reader.
