(Written in February 2008)
Somebody sent a link to a YouTube video of Paul Hawken’s talk at the bioneers conference. He’s talking about the “biggest movement in the world and how no one saw it coming.” “It is non-violent, grassroots, it has no central ideology, a male vertebrate is not in charge… No one started it, no one is in charge of it, there is no orthodoxy. It is classless, global, unquenchable, tireless… Shared understanding arising spontaneously. There is no center, no one spokesperson. This is where salvation will be found … in diversity. This movement is humanity’s immune response to resist and heal political disease, economic infection, ecological corruption, caused by ideologies.”
Spent a lot of time on YouTube — watched the Paul Hawken video 4 times. I’m realizing that Paul Hawken’s description of the movement that’s “under the radar, grassroots, no one is in charge, there is no orthodoxy” would be terrifying to your standard control freak. My father would have been horrified — and I’m sure all those other white males who are desperate to control “them”, the “great unwashed”, “hoi polloi”, the dark, indigenous, out of control masses. But we are tireless and unquenchable, and we will win. Salvation is to be found in diversity. True for ecosystems, agriculture, and investment portfolios. True for democracies who want to be truly democratic.