Comment

Comment by Mark E. Smith on December 19, 2011 at 10:52pm

Yes!

I'm going to quote myself from a comment I posted in another discussion earlier where some people had been asking for a model or a plan, there was a question about how a post-industrial system would differ from a pre-industrial system, and if the word "restore" was appropriate with regard to change or creating something new:

While it would be a mistake to retain or restore any model that has led or would inevitably lead to the continuation and exacerbation of our current predicament, some things, like nature and democracy, need to be restored. But I agree that's the wrong word, because both nature and democracy are natural and only need to be allowed to restore themselves. We need to get rid of models like capitalism that prevent nature and democracy from operating naturally. And of course we can't predict what form new models will take.

Hawken reaffirms that vision, and it is no coincidence that he's an ecologist (among other things).

Given time and allowed to do so without interference, nature restores itself, and I believe that democracy is also natural and that the global uprising seeks to end the interference that has kept us from reviving the human spirit, ending oppressive systems, and flourishing.

It is time. It is everywhere. It's not just me. It's not just Occupy. I think we are finally becoming a species and that we can, by shaking off oppression, fulfill our potential to be an ecologically viable species. It was only inequality imposed by violence that prevented that, not anything in our nature or our genes.

What an incredible revelation! Thanks for posting this, Gary!