An Inspiring Affirmative Vision of the Future Is Needed to Counter Today’s Fatalism
MAFA--Mutual Aid For All--People and Nature Should Be Our Slogan!
Noted journalist Naomi Klien recently co-wrote an article stating that many in the Trump Administration and their high-tech billionaire and other authoritarian allies don’t believe in the future. Even as they fuel growing inequality, a disrupted climate system, political instability, and other troubles they believe nothing can be done to prevent “shocks, scarcity and collapse” so they are seizing more wealth and power to protect themselves from what is coming.
This raises questions about your vision of the future. Do you believe it is possible to alter the forces that have produced the climate-ecosystem-biodiversity (C-E-B) crisis and other calamities? Do you think an economic system that improves, not diminishes, social equity, ecological health, and thus human safety and wellbeing can be established? If so, do you have a sense of how this can be achieved? Your answer to these questions is very important.
There is no escaping the fact that, from mounting humanitarian issues, to accelerating economic and social inequities, the rise of far-right authoritarianism in the U.S. and elsewhere, and other trials, humanity faces serious challenges. These types of predicaments have always existed in one form or another throughout human history. But they have usually been localized and had an endpoint. Today, however, the increasing adversities generated by the C-E-B crisis are adding to the other struggles and creating hardships for people worldwide that seem to have no end point.
Catastrophe will occur, however, only if we allow it to happen. A distinctly different future is possible if we consciously choose to use the C-E-B crisis, Trump’s efforts to establish an authoritarian state, and other troubles as catalysts for deep-seated transformational change.
An Inspiring Vision of the Future is Needed
The first step in pursuing a new transformational path is to articulate an inspiring vision of the future that many people can embrace. We then need to articulate and advance norms, values, and practices that turn this vision into reality.
A vision that motivates people to help protect their fellow residents from harm, assist those who are impacted recover, and transform the economy into an ecologically regenerative system can be a game changer. This vision can be called “MAFA”—Mutual Aid for All. This includes people and the natural environment. This vision will spur tremendous innovation that transforms today’s challenges into opportunities. It will also give millions of people something they desperately want: positive meaning, purpose, and hope in life.
An empowering vision of the future became evident to me recently when I was marveling at the processes underway in our small organic orchard. Free sunlight, air, rainfall, and soil allowed the fruit trees to blossom. Throngs of bees were buzzing around the flowers collecting nectar and pollen, their primary food source. In return, they were transferring pollen from one flower to another, allowing them to reproduce.
The trees and insects clearly have a reciprocal beneficial relationship. My wife and I will also benefit from this relationship by dining on the orchard’s nutritious fruit. We will reciprocate by watering, mowing, and offering other services to keep the orchard healthy, and sharing its fruit with friends.
The orchard is a circular mutual aid system that benefits all. Everything is constantly recirculated and reused: there is no waste. Nor is there any human-generated toxicity or other harmful impacts. And the organisms that support the processes, including the bees and us, receive benefits in return.
We need a vision of the future that mirrors the circular mutually beneficial processes that are so evident in our orchard, and in the natural world as a whole.
The Ecological Harm Caused by the Western Neoliberal Capitalist Worldview
This vision will stand in stark contrast to today’s dominant way of thinking and acting that is shaped by the western neoliberal capitalist worldview. It claims humans are inherently selfish and greedy and driven by competition for “scarce” resources. Endless consumption of material goods is thus needed to meet our avaricious desires for more and more and keep the economy growing. To meet this craving, everything on the planet—from the air, land, and water, to biodiversity, minerals, and other naturally occurring substances, including hydrocarbons (fossil fuels)—must be relentlessly commoditized, privatized, extracted, converted into goods to consume, and sold for a profit.
Today’s grow-or-die, linear ‘take-make-waste’ economic system resulted from the western neoliberal capitalist worldview, and the norms, values, practices, and policies it requires.
Rather than viewing the continual ecological damage the system produces as customary outcomes, they are defined as extraneous “externalities,” meaning they are unrelated to the essential nature of the system. In a pattern regularly seen with addicts, many people consequently deny, downplay, or completely ignore the ecological harm it produces. When impairment cannot be denied, people grounded in the neoliberal perspective often proclaim it is the only way things can be.
The C-E-B crisis is as a natural outcome of this system and the faulty worldview that promoted it. Global temperatures have now risen by 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 F) above pre-industrial levels for an entire year. Recent research also indicates temperatures are likely to hit 2 C (3.6 F) at least temporarily in most regions of the world within 5 years, and permanently within 20 years.
Linked with the rise in temperatures is accelerating widespread degradation of our planet’s ecological systems. Humans have altered natural systems for centuries. But the magnitude of the impacts generated by the take-make-waste economic system are beyond anything that occurred in the past. Over 488 million hectares of forest cover have been lost worldwide just since 2000 (California has 40.5 million hectares of land). Biodiversity is declining faster today than at any time in human history, and nearly 70% of wild animal populations are now extinguished. Oceans are heating up and rising, and some regions have passed critical tipping points of dangerous acidification levels.
These and other ecological impacts are diminishing nature’s capacity to sequester carbon, effecting local weather patterns, and contributing to rising temperatures. This underscores that humanity is in the midst of a climate-ecosystem-biodiversity (C-E-B) crisis, not just an atmospheric climate emergency. It also shows that eliminating fossil fuels, while essential, will not be enough to prevent serious harm. Ecological systems must also be protected and regenerated.
Without a swift fundamental change in direction, these blows mean that, in different times, ways, and magnitudes, everyone will experience more intense, prolonged, and surprising extreme weather disasters.
In addition to the injuries, deaths, and physical damages that result, the disasters will activate, and in turn often be aggravated by, compounding damage to the systems people rely on for food, water, shelter, jobs, incomes, health, safety, security, and other basic needs.
Accelerating humanitarian problems, widespread mental health, psychosocial, and physical health problems, and growing social and political unrest will be just some of the outcomes.
These are undoubtedly the type of shocks Trump’s high-tech billionaire and other right-wing cohorts fear are coming.
A Different Vision is Needed to Change Course
Given what is occurring, our goal must now be to do everything possible to limit the rise in temperatures to 2 C (3.6 F) and then, over time, reduce them to manageable levels. This will require swiftly transforming today’s linear take-make-waste economic system into what I call a circular borrow-use-return system, which I will explain in a moment.
First, it is important to understand that the starting point for this transformation is a more complete view of human nature.
An overwhelming body of research, and likely your own life experiences, show that when the right norms, values, and social structures are present, most people will think and act pro-socially. They will care about and, when they are able, voluntarily assist others in need. Those who have been helped will reciprocate by assisting others.
Pro-social norms, values, habits, and rituals also motivate people to alter their practices if they are found to cause harm, and adopt methods that benefit others and society as a whole. When engaging in these activities, people often develop meaningful relationships with others, which is a fundamental human need, and experience many other important physical, psychological, and emotional benefits as well.
This is very different from the idea that humans are just inherently selfish and greedy. Those qualities obviously exist and some people exhibit them more than others (the current U.S. President and many in his buddies come to mind). But the principal qualities exhibited by a majority of people always depend on the norms, values, and social structures that dominate their culture. If we promote the norms associated with Mutual Aid of All, practices will emerge to advance it.
In sum, we are at a time in history when a new transformational vision of the future is urgently needed that helps people see the world, think, and act in ways that leads them to reciprocally address the needs of others and the natural environment in order to help themselves—this is the meaning of Mutual Aid for All. A central element of the new MAFA vision is to shift from today’s damaging linear take-make-waste to a regenerative circular borrow-use-return economic system that meets basic humans needs and restores the earth’s climate and ecological systems.
Does this vision resonate with you?
How the New Vision Can be Implemented
Operationalizing this vision must start at the local level. As seen from the limited progress made after three decades of international climate talks, and the mostly marginal effects of national climate policies, the transformation will not occur from the top down because vested economic and political interests will prevent this.
The local level is also where most people spend the majority of their time, interact most directly with friends and neighbors, and where in-groups can most easily be expanded to include those who look, think, and act differently. In addition, it is where the impacts of the C-E-B crisis are felt most directly, and conversely where local regenerative actions can have the most visible effects. Further, it is at the local level where the influence of special interests and authoritarian political forces have the greatest chance of being obstructed.
To advance transformation at the local level every neighborhood in large urban areas, and every mid-size and small community worldwide, should establish the ‘social infrastructure’ needed to operationalize the vision. My organization calls it a Transformational Resilience Coordinating Network (TRCN), but each community resilience initiative should choose a name that makes sense to local residents.
These are broad and diverse multi-sectoral coalitions composed of people who represent or work with every population and sector in the area. Together they assess current conditions, and then plan, implement, and continually improve actions that normalize norms, values, and practices that foster and sustain mutual care, cooperation, and reciprocity as they transform their economy and regenerate the natural environment.
What Community Resilience Initiatives Should Prioritize Today
As previously stated, the accelerating stresses, emergencies, and disasters generated by the C-E-B crisis means the top priority of community resilience initiatives should now be to mobilize residents to protect everyone from harm, and help those who are impacted heal and remain healthy and resilient.
Form mutual aid networks everywhere
One of the best ways community resilience initiatives can do this is by organizing mutual aid networks. They are essentially the groups that form organically during what is called the “Honeymoon” or “community cohesion” phase of disasters. In this phase residents that don’t know each other spontaneously come together to voluntarily assist each other.
Mutual aid networks should be formed now everywhere, before the next major C-E-B crisis-generated disaster or other serious adversity occurs, and maintained into perpetuity. They will enable residents to personally experience the benefits of solidarity, cooperation, and reciprocity, and develop beneficial new relationships, all of which are vital to prevent and heal physical health as well as mental health and psychosocial struggles. Engagement with others will also lead many people to band together to oppose authoritarian actions that harm their fellow residents. These actions can create powerful new sources of meaning, purpose, and hope in their lives.
There are numerous ways to approach this work, and many initiatives do not call themselves mutual aid networks.
The Neighborhood Resilience Project in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, for example, is an outstanding initiative that uses an approach they call ‘trauma-informed community development.’ This involves community-based interventions to enhance health and well-being including micro-community interventions, community health centers, trauma response teams, and more. The meaningful relationships formed through these activities become networks that introduce and positively reinforce interventions that enhance health and resilience.
Other communities use different approaches to achieve similar ends. Some of the core principles used by many mutual aid networks can be found here.
Shift to local borrow-use-return economic systems
Another closely related focus community resilience initiatives should prioritize today to implement the transformational vision of MAFA is to actively engage residents in establishing local circular borrow-use-return economic systems. In this system humans understand that they are merely borrowing materials from the earth, and must do so without degrading ecosystems and biodiversity, use them efficiently and without harm, and then return them either to nature or society for continued use without damaging the climate, ecological systems, or people.
Borrow-use-return systems expand on what is called the ‘closed-loop’ economic approach by focusing on the material extraction phase, not just production, reuse, and recycling. In practice, it involves working with local private, non-profit, and public organizations to implement five core actions: redesign, replace, reduce, refine, and recirculate.
The first priority involves redesigning all products, processes, services, and physical spaces (buildings, infrastructure) to eliminate harm to the climate, ecological systems, and people. This includes designing material extraction practices to eliminate impacts, designing out greenhouse gas emissions and toxic substances, and ensuring that industrial by-products and end-of-life materials that are now considered waste are designed to be either fully recirculated for continued use by industry, or reintroduced into nature without harm.
Although a complete redesign is the most needed solution, it is not always feasible. Many of today’s products (e.g. housing stocks) will likely be in use for decades. While the entire transformation unfolds, it will therefore be important to make significant improvements to existing processes, products and services. This requires replacing ecologically harmful materials, substances, and energy sources with those that are safe for the climate, ecological systems, and people.
Once safe processes, materials, and energy are in use, the next step is to significantly reduce the amount that is consumed throughout the community’s entire value chain. This requires engaging residents in discussions to determine the level of material consumption that is essential to meet their basic needs, and what is superfluous and can be eliminated.
Significant refinements should then be made by engaging local businesses and residents in measures that greatly increase the efficiency of their use of energy and water, production processes, delivery systems, how goods and services are used, and more.
Finally, methods should be adopted to ensure that all of the byproducts and end-of-life materials are recirculate back into new processes or products or back into nature with no harm to the climate, ecosystems, or humans.
From Austin Texas, to Kamikatsu Japan, Goonj India, and European cities like Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Gothenburg, Berlin, Glasgow, and Barcelona, a number of communities around the world pursuing versions of the transformation to borrow-use-return economic systems. Amsterdam in particular is a leader in what they call Smart City Development.
Although some people will claim the transformation to borrow-use-return systems will create significant economic hardship, the opposite is true. Even without a global imperative to establish them, they are projected to generate $4.5 trillion globally by 2030. These numbers will skyrocket if communities worldwide make it a top priority to shift to borrow-use-return systems.
Research also projects that the shift to circular economic systems can generate millions of good paying meaningful jobs. They will be found in product design, logistics, transportation, remanufacturing, repair and refurbishment, recycling, ecological restoration, renewable energy, and numerous other fields.
Closely link the economic transformation with local ecological regeneration
Interlinked with transforming the economy, community resilience networks should today also actively engage residents in regenerating their natural environment. MAFA needs to apply to ecological systems and biodiversity, not just humans.
I’ve had personal experience that confirms that mutual aid, cooperation, and reciprocation can regenerate ecological systems and biodiversity. In the mid-1980s I directed an organization focused on watershed and aquatic health. We realized there were many private and public landowners and different users in each watershed that influenced their condition. So we formed ‘watershed councils’ that brought the different players together to assess current conditions and then implement plans to restore the health of their basin. The outcomes of this approach have been remarkable.
We started with a pilot project in the McKenzie River watershed in Oregon, and the approach quickly became so popular that a state policy was enacted that became a core focus of what is today called the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board. OWEB now has 54 active watershed councils that cover almost the entire state.
Watersheds include aquatic, riparian, and upland areas and biodiversity. Since 1995, OWEB watershed councils have implemented restoration treatments in 2,532.2 in-stream miles, 8,509 miles of riparian areas, 1,656,133.85 acres of upland areas, and 65,307.87 acres of wetlands. Since 2015, the percentage of monitored native fish species exhibiting increasing or stable levels of abundance has ranged from 65% to 88%. Over the past 10 years, “excellent” or “good” ambient water quality has been found at 64% of the monitoring stations.
The success of this community-based approach to restoration led Washington, Idaho, Montana, California, Utah, and other states to form watershed councils. This shows that bringing diverse individuals and organizations together to regenerate the natural environment can be very successful.
Does forming mutual aid networks, shifting to a borrow-use-return economic system, and regenerating local ecological systems inspire you? Can you see yourself, or your family and friends participating in this type of transformation?
Conclusion
Rather than getting caught-up in the fatalism Naomi Klein describes as permeating Trump’s far-right billionaire and other cronies, by embracing the transformational vision of MAFA we can find hope by shifting to a healthy, regenerative, and resilient path. The community resilience initiatives underway in different parts of the world show this is possible. As more communities participate, pressure will build from the bottom-up for action by governments that leads to new policies and programs that support the transformational vision.
Launching the MAFA transformation won’t be easy. It will require an unwavering commitment by communities to not be deterred by naysayers, vested interests, or authoritarians, and not giving up when obstacles appear. However, pursuing Mutual Aid for All people and nature, and the methods involved with achieving it, is certain to inspire billions to engage and give them faith, hope, and confidence that a better future is possible.