people and plants

People like Masanobu Fukuoka have lived incredibly rich lives while farming in ways that benefit the entire ecosystem they are a part. I used Fukuoka's book "the one-straw revolution" as a model for social change, as human communities/individuals have similarly been domesticated to the detriment of our experiences of this life.

Now this may sound crazy, and I hope it does, because a lot of things that are happening - substance abuse, violence, suicide, apathy, depression - are symptoms of a system that does not work for humans.

Just as industrial rice operations suffer from blight, insect infestations, and declining nutrient levels, so too do human communities suffer from maladies brought on by systems that decrease the resiliency of natural systems.

Blight and insects live in all ecosystems, however the capacity to withstand adverse conditions has been reduced by monocultures.

Industrialization, capitalism, and globalization have been the recent manifestations of an older process of patriarchy and social hierarchy that began 10 000 years ago.

We know this stuff. Diarmuid O'Murch wrote a great book entitled Religion in Exile. Anne Bishop wrote a great book entitled Becoming an Ally. The archeologists understand the social change in Old Europe 6400 years ago that marked a drastic beginning to competitive, hierarchal societies. what were human communities like before that??
take a trip and explore, you may be pleasantly surprised and less afraid to dream about how rich and fulfilling being alive can be.

oh, and if you want to read the paper I wrote, send me an email.