Seminario Latinoamericano en Politica y Manejo Forestal

To: hawken@wisreearth.com">hawken@wisreearth.com
Subject: A Gaian Paradigm

BE:
Paul, I have read 'Blessed  Future' with excitement and much interest.  it is the culimination of my past 25+ years of networing the alternative and transformational world wide as the General Coordinator, editor and publisher of TRANET (a TRANsnational NETwork of, by and for local entrepreneurs).  This follwed 20 years as a science policy consultan for orrganizations like NSF, UNESCO and The World Bank.  Now I am drafting a book on what I learned about "the movement."  "Blessed Unrest" is the summary I have always hoped some one would create.  Thanks.

I would make one important suggestion for the future of Wiseearth.  The one area I found missing in "Blessed Unrest"  was the transition we are now experiencing of the end of the education/teach/school syndrome and the emergence of 'Personal Learning'" and the "deschooling of society.

In 1970 Ivan Illich wrote "Deschooling Society."  Paul Goodman had suggested in earlier, and Paulo Friere,  Jerry Mintz, Alfie Kohn,Janish Main  (in India) and Roland Meighan (in the Uk) are among those who have promoted "school leavers" since.

Their principle argument is that schools lock young people away from families, communities and societies for the most formative years of their lives to instill in them the values of corporate greed -- self-interest, competition, and materialism.
With this brainwashing they prevent any semblance of social change.  If we want "the movement" to move on we have to eliminate schools and install programs of life-long self-learning.

Fortunately (or perhaps unfortunately) people at the grassroots (and even governments) have recognize the failures of the education system.  One of the most robust elements of "the movement" is school leaving.  Homeschools, democratic schools, cyber schools, Waldorf schools, and many other modalities for self-learning make up one of the fastest growing elements of the movement.  The unfortunate part is that only a few of the participants recognize the argument of Illich and the rest on the value of deschooling to deschooling society.  Even the homeschoolers often stick to the values of teaching for jobs.  They feel that schooling must be for future rewards just as working if for future rewards.  They do not recognize as Illich did that both learning and life should be convivial --- that is joyous collaborations with friends and colleagues.

In my book, "A Gain Paradigm,  in progress, I emphasize that Chaos, Complexity and Gaia theories give a new foundation for society.  The most deep and profound social transformation since humans firs cam down from the trees 5 million years ago is not emerging.  It follows Galileo's introduction of the heliocentric theory that took man and Earth out of the theocratic center of the Cosmos.  It follows Newton's theory of gravitation that holds that the heavens move by the same force that governs life on Earth, and Darwin's theory that humans, and the cosmos itself evolved by simple entities combining to form more complex ones.  Each changed the future just as a Gaian paradigm will now change out future.

This new concept of Gaia (The Earth and all of its life-forms, including humans) is a tightly linked and interdependent network of holons within holons composed of holons.   It is a new world view that must replace the system that has created the 'dominator paradigm' by replacing the values we are taught by values we must live by  -- from self-interest, competiton and materialism to public-interest, cooperation, and life-long self-learning.

IMHO
Bill Ellis   <tranet@rangeley.org">tranet@rangeley.org>==========================