Oct 18, 2011 | Options/ New Paradigm
It began in Tunisia and Egypt, then spread throughout the Middle East and North Africa. It spilled into Spain, Greece, and Ireland. It leapfrogged to Wall Street. And this past weekend it erupted in London, Rome, Paris, Tokyo, Taipei, and Sydney. In hundreds of towns and cities around the world the uprising’s refrain is similar: economic misery resulting from fizzling economic growth is leading protesters to question corruption both in governments and in financial institutions, and to demand an end to extreme economic inequality.
Sep 19, 2011 | Options/ New Paradigm
If, in the midst of converging global crises, we wish to enhance our awareness of the interrelatedness of all things, and promote genuine spiritual contentment, we must emphasize and live by another way of life: the steady-state economy. In this fashion we can minimize, for ourselves and others, the social difficulties of transition from decades of economic growth to decades of economic contraction.
Aug 16, 2011 | Options/ New Paradigm
To portray the richness of simplicity as a theme for healthy living, here are eight different flowerings that I see growing consciously in the “garden of simplicity.” Although there is overlap among them, each expression of simplicity seems sufficiently distinct to warrant a separate category. These are presented in no particular order, as all are important.
Jul 26, 2011 | Options/ New Paradigm
“How can we nurture and raise children so they can grow into adults who are able to survive, thrive and contribute to new ways of being with the Earth and each other? ” This how I pose this question to myself as I look into the hopeful eyes of the children whose lives I have the opportunity to touch through my work. It is perhaps this sense of contributing to new ways of being with the Earth and each other that will make it possible for the youth of today to survive and thrive in a challenging and rapidly changing world.
Jul 21, 2011 | Economic Meltdown, Options/ New Paradigm
We have lived in an Age of Separation. One by one, our bonds to community, nature, and place have dissolved, marooning us in an alien world. The loss of these bonds is more than a reduction of our wealth, it is a reduction of our very being. The impoverishment we feel, cut off from community and cut off from nature, is an impoverishment of our souls. That is because, contrary to the assumptions of economics, biology, political philosophy, psychology, and institutional religion, we are not in essence separate beings having relationships. We are relationship.
Jul 15, 2011 | Options/ New Paradigm
Money is woven into our minds, our perceptions, our identities. That is why, when a crisis of money strikes, it seems that the fabric of reality is unraveling, too—that the very world is falling apart. Yet this is also cause for great optimism, because money is a social construction that we have the power to change. What new kinds of perceptions, and what new kinds of collective actions, would accompany a new kind of money? – The fourth installment from Sacred Economics: Money, Gift, and Society in the Age of Transition.
Jul 4, 2011 | Options/ New Paradigm
What Transition calls “reskilling” – what other people call by other names, including Christian homemaking and radical homemaking, and “doing it like Grandma used to” is actually the reinvention of the most important resource we may have for our future – the restoration of the informal economy. It is a hugely political and hugely important act, being done by multiple ends of the political spectrum at once, and this matters.
Jun 20, 2011 | Options/ New Paradigm
Intimate awareness of nature and its cycles, as we saw, was an ancient mode of survival. But survival is at issue again. Noticing the length of light now, reveling in the sun’s achievement, rejoicing in Earth’s perfect balance, honoring the summer solstice — loving it: This is how we became human, and it is how we stay human.
May 30, 2011 | Options/ New Paradigm
Despite four decades of detailed warnings, industrial civilization has failed to turn aside from self-destructive policies of exponential growth and dependence on nonrenewable resources. At this point, stark limits of time and resources as well as a failure of political will make attempts to prevent the fall of industrial society an exercise in futility. Individuals, small groups, and communities can still prepare for the approaching crises by mastering low-tech survival skills now to lay foundations for a sustainable society in the future.
May 25, 2011 | Options/ New Paradigm
I would like to point out a little bit of insanity. On the one hand, most people don’t really like their jobs; at least, they wouldn’t do them unless they were paid to. On the other hand, we are seeking to create yet more of these jobs — not because we need more stuff on this earth, but simply in order that they have money to live. We already have enough stuff. Why is the only way to distribute it seem to involve the production of even more of it?
