Jack Burns Lives!

The Movement With No Name

My good friend, fellow enviro-meddler and frequent curmudgeon, Michael Lewis, is acting funny. He’s optimistic about the future. Well, to be fair, he’s usually optimistic about the ultimate victory of mother nature over the mega-machine, but he seems more upbeat than usual. He’s talking about immediate, measurable results in the ongoing battle to bring some level of rationality to our current society.

Just today, for example, there was good news. Yahoo News reported that the economy nearly stalled in the first quarter with growth slowing to a pace of just 0.6 percent. Best news I’ve heard all week.

When Michael says something, I generally listen, and I listen because he’s usually right. Not always, but his batting average is far better than Ted Williams, not to mention, my own.

It seems a recent article by Paul Hawken caught his attention. Michael was kind enough to post about it on his blog, HaydukeSpeaks. I recommend you read it, because I think it makes some excellent points and validates all this typing, googling and reading we’ve been doing on the Internet. Not to mention the cycling, walking, planting, conserving and recycling. The really important stuff.

Basically it says we’re witnessing and involved in the “largest social movement in all of history.” The Movement With No Name.

Hawken’s research reveals that perhaps “tens of millions” are actively engaged in the battle to turn things around for our troubled planet. Far more than I originally believed appear to be working daily, behind the scenes, to return balance to ecosystems, make a stand for social justice, restore habitat and protect the voiceless.

It’s rooted in three basic areas of focus: the environmental and social justice movements and indigenous cultures’ resistance to globalization.

Encouraging, indeed.

Can it succeed? And if yes, why will it succeed?

It’s really anarchism at work. A free association of non-violent people working at the grassroots level without hierarchy and without “organization.” It’s a movement bound by ideas and principles. Governments and stubborn capitalists can’t attack it or stop it because there’s no single entity to target. It’s too diverse. Too complex and distributed. As Hawken states, the “movement can’t be divided because it is atomized — small pieces loosely joined. It forms, gathers, and dissipates quickly. Many inside and out dismiss it as powerless, but it has been known to bring down governments, companies, and leaders through witnessing, informing, and massing.”

You and I are part of it. Everyone that’s buying local, cycling, growing food, recycling, trying to conserve and not waste energy is part of it. And so are bloggers and people that post on the Internet. Don’t underestimate your contribution and how valuable the Internet is as a tool to disseminate information and place valuable information in the hands of those that need it.

Despite what the journalists say, bloggers and the Internet have a place in our discourse. An important place, perhaps more so than mainstream journalism, since you rarely get the unfiltered truth from the news entertainment media.

This is where we meet to share ideas and formulate strategy. It’s where we bond together for support and encouragement and to buoy one another up during difficult times.

The Internet is anarchy.

But what are the real prospects? Are we really going to be able to pull off a peaceful revolution with the Internet being a major tool? I’m not sure. I believe things will improve in pockets. More places like Willits, CA will emerge. Other places may see little or no change and simply maintain the status quo for as long as possible.

Without change, those towns and cities and perhaps the people in them will perish because the status quo cannot be infinitely sustained.

One thing is certain. Humans certainly can’t have another fifty years of business as usual, because that will take us beyond the point of no return. Perhaps even another twenty-five years could take us over the edge. No one really knows, but when I hear that glaciers are retreating, in some cases, at a rate of 120 feet per day, discharging 11 cubic miles of ice annually, I get a little anxious for immediate action.

I read last night where Greenland lost a total of 54 cubic miles of ice in 2005, yet in my community, the SUV’s roll onward. Swimming pools are full, AC is going full blast and the mindless consumption and expansion continues.

So, like a lot of folks, I go through waves of cynicism and optimism. Up and down. One day is full of sunshine and blooming flowers, the next seems full of smokestacks and eighteen wheelers jamming highways. I’ll get all excited when I see a piece like Hawken’s, but then I’ll start thinking about the bigger picture, the magnitude of the losses and sink back into despair.

It’s a daily battle to keep despair from turning into anger and allowing anger to ruin my spirit. But today, I’m optimistic. I’m hopeful that humans can finally figure it out and find the right balance, a sustainable balance, between industrialism and ecosystems. To find a way to make capitalism sustainable, although I’m beginning to have serious doubts that is possible.

Abbey asked these same questions and died before finding the answer. Ed’s been gone eighteen years, and I’m not sure we’re any closer to finding that answer. The good news is there are apparently a lot more folks that agree we have a problem. A big problem. The biggest problem we’ve faced in our time on the planet, and we don’t have much time left to fix it. Yet, we will try. At least some of us, maybe even tens of millions. Our best effort, and as I often tell my children “Just do your best. Even if you fail, all that I ask is that you give your best effort.”

So, that’s where we are. The planet needs our best effort, and I commit to giving mine. Consider doing likewise and let’s find strength in one another.

Welcome to the revolution.