WIld Lives, 08/08/07

Wednesday, August 08, 2007

By Brooke Williams

In his new book, “Blessed Unrest,” Paul Hawken makes a distinction between ideology and ideas. He says that ideas are based on personal experience and observation where ideologies are based on beliefs. He refers to Charles Darwin, whose intention as he embarked on his around-the-world journey was not to disprove creationism. What he witnessed and experienced led to his theory of the role of natural selection in the evolution of species.

Hawken’s book is an articulation of years of observing thousands of organizations engaged in the work of environmental conservation and social justice. He’s convinced that together these groups form the “movement with no name.” He believes that by connecting the people working in these organizations in ways that will leverage rather than drain their energy, we have the potential to create an immune system for our species that is mirrored in the immune system that protects our bodies. I love this idea.
I’ve always believed that inside all of us, is a biological organism that has the task of seeing to it that we pass on life to the future. Hawken supports this belief:

…the movement is that part of humanity which has assumed the task of protecting and saving itself. If we accept that the metaphor of an organism can be applied to humankind, we can imagine a collective movement that would protect, repair, and restore that organism’s capacity to endure when threatened.

For me this was an ideology because it was based on a belief. I say “was” because it is now an idea, based on a series of personal interactions with amazing people that I’ve had over the past few weeks. These people are all involved in deep changes within their own lives that are motivating them toward being active participants in this “movement.”
A longtime environmental activist came to the Murie Center with a group of her peers. The purpose of their workshop was to reassess their individual connection to the natural world. “We need a new story,” she said. “Our strategies don’t work anymore.”

A theater professor from the south came to talk about ideas that would combine theater with conservation. She said that she wants her students to have real opportunities to use their art to effect large scale change.

I met a successful real estate developer from Georgia who has purchased numerous commercial businesses in Silvergate, Mont. “I knew I had to give something back,” he said. “I’m still not sure how, but I’m setting up the organization to create projects for getting city kids into nature.”

The dean of a major university’s humanities department came to the Murie Center to discuss a collaboration. “We need to find real projects for our students,” he said. “We want them to get a sense of what it feels like when they direct their intellect and skills toward saving the world.”

And an amazing woman with a lifetime of experience in the environmental movement who has turned me down numerous times when I’ve asked her to be a board member has changed her mind. “It hit me the other day,” she said. “We need a new way to do this ... the world has changed.”

Finally, the president of an international outdoor products company came to talk about having a retreat at the Murie Center. “We get so jammed by production and profits. I want to be reminded of why the act of moving around in wild country is part of who we are as a species.”

These six people, only two of them traditional conservationists, all looking for more active roles in “the movement,” represent what Hawken refers to as “a current of humanity that dates back to the Paleolithic.” He elaborates:

Its lineage can be traced back to healers, priestesses, philosophers, monks, rabbis, poets, and artists who speak for the planet, for other species, for interdependence, a life that courses under and through and around empires.

It’s easy to let climate change, environmental degradation, war and injustice get us down. Hawken’s book has helped me think about the possibility that the same innate survival force that has always existed inside us is alive and well. My own recent experience is proof.

I love that the word immunity comes from the Latin im munis, which means, “ready to serve.”

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WIld Lives, 08/08/07 | Planet JH News Article: Left Wing Local

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