GREAT TURNING vs DEEP ADAPTATION
GREAT TURNING vs DEEP ADAPTATION
SQUARING THE CIRCLE (Hazel Hill Wood – 31st March 2019)
On 31st March 2019, the participants of the FDA (Facilitator Development Adventure for the Work that Reconnects) held a world-café Going Forth discussion using Jem Bendell’s 4 R’s Deep Adaptation Agenda. What follows is a transcription of the insights gathered during that session. At the end of this paper you will find Joanna Macy’s Vows.
RESILIENCE
In pursuit of a conceptual map of “deep adaptation,” we can conceive of resilience of human societies as the capacity to adapt to changing circumstances so as to survive with valued norms and behaviours. Given that analysts are concluding that a social collapse is inevitable, the question becomes: What are the valued norms and behaviours that human societies will wish to maintain as they seek to survive? That highlights how deep adaptation will involve more than “resilience.”
INDIVIDUAL DIMENSION
• Hygge (Danish concept for a feeling of cozy contentment and well-being through enjoying the simple things in life)
• Space for JOY
• Aikido
• Learning how to saw + find a manual machine
• STORYTELLING
• Deep questions (Humanity – keep asking)
• Learn Poems by heart
• Restoring Old Crafts (Local, Low-tech, biomimetic)
• NVC (Non-Violent Communication)
• Clarifying what values/norms we want to hang on to
• Much less Screen time
• Non-Market activity
• Meditation to celebrate
• Personal Therapy
• Local Renewable Energy & Water
• Music (flute, harmonica)
• Ask for Support
• SILENCE
• PRAYER
COLECTIVE DIMENSION
• Sanctuary
• Feeding people
• Eating together
• Making my home + woods available
• TRAUMA Work
• Community Citizen’s Assemblies
• Physical Whole
• Hand-made Life (veg, wood skills)
• Quaker meeting style gatherings
• Peer-support
• Men’s circles & Women’s circles (+ succession)
• CELEBRATION
• Elders, teachers, guides, mentors
• Promotion of volunteering
• Safe-guarding
• Diversity, Inclusion (training, Community events eg religious dialogue, multifaith
• WISDOM
• Conflict Resolution
• Inspiration from Geese flight
• Collective Intelligence + Shared Governance
• Education promoting Values + behaviours that contribute to Resilience
• Sharing
• Eco-Village Style Living
• Radical MOOCs on-line seminars
• New Talent Map/Recognition (incl. facilitation)
• Friendship
• Community about the Great Turning
RELINQUISHMENT
It brings us to a second area of this agenda, which I have named “relinquishment.” It involves people and communities letting go of certain assets, behaviours and beliefs where retaining them could make matters worse. Examples include withdrawing from coastlines, shutting down vulnerable industrial facilities, or giving up expectations for certain types of consumption.
INDIVIDUAL DIMENSION
• HOPE
• Luxury/Indulgent/High cost lifestyles – in excess
• Unsustainable (behaviours)
• Judgement
• Delegation of Power to change
• Social Media
• Guilt
• Small I
• Latest Tech (Echo Dot..)
• Out of season Food (Strawberries at Xmas)
• FLYING (less)
• Alone in Car (cycle & carshare)
• MEAT & Animal products
• Hyper-individualism
• Shopping
• Clothes/shoes
COLECTIVE DIMENSION
• Separate Lives (alone in Castle)
• Inequality
• Plastics
• Unsustainable Tourism
• American dream
• Career
• Entitlements
• Reframe taxes as social contribution
• Personal comfort & ease
• JOB
• Instant gratification – self-righteousness
• Personal space?
• Pension (intergenerational equity)
• GDP
• New Stuff
• Expensive Health Care
• Narrow definition of health
• Re-use of Land Management
• Consumerism
• What is in it for me? – What about me and my plans?
• MY RIGHTS
WORLD DIMENSION
• GROWTH
• CARS
• Politics
• Adversarial US & Them
• Cultures
• Species
• Idea of Being Superior
• Science will Save us with Technology
RESTORATION
The third area can be called “restoration.” It involves people and communities rediscovering attitudes and approaches to life and organisation that our hydrocarbon-fuelled civilisation eroded. Examples include re-wilding landscapes, so they provide more ecological benefits and require less management, changing diets back to match the seasons, rediscovering non-electronically powered forms of play, and increased community-level productivity and support.
INDIVIDUAL DIMENSION
• Walk & Run
• Turn-off the WIFI
• Hand-made Life
• Personally-nourishing activities
• Connecting with Nature (no separation)
• Consider action, no re-action
• Eat locally-grown food
• Meditation retreats
COLECTIVE DIMENSION
• Awareness around river pollutions (e.g.) quantifying
• Indigenous knowledge
• Seed saving democratically
• Schooling Outside (What is a School?)
• Workship & Shared Rituals + Celebration
• Neighborhood - know your Neighbours
• Local Live Music – Jams/open spaces
• Restoration Agriculture
• Sanctuaries
• Nature & Youth work – Scouts, Forest Schools, woodcraft Folk
• Circle Dance
• Co-Living
• Eating together
• Growing food
• Humans no dominant Species (predator?)
• Sharing resources
• Spend time together (non-goal)
• Building Diverse community
• Healing Circles (acknowledging new belongings)
• Singing & eating together
• Create vegetable gardens
• Shared allotments
WORLD DIMENSION
• People’s Assemblies
• Re-evaluating who are the EXPERTS
• Wisdom instead of Knowledge
• Landscape Restoration
RECONCILIATION
Reconciliation with one’s death, including any difficulties and regrets in one’s life, any anger towards existence itself (or God). It also invites reconciliation between peoples, genders, classes, generations, countries, religions and political persuasions. Because it is time to make our peace. Otherwise, without this inner deep adaptation to climate collapse we risk tearing each other apart and dying hellishly.
INDIVIDUAL DIMENSION
• Grief work (Stephen Jenkinson)
• Peace work
• Soulcraft work (Bill Plotkin)
• COMPASSION
• Physical Limitations
• Indigenous inspiration – Ancestors
• Read books, be curious of other views
• AWE
• Making peace with myself/others specific + take action
• Addressing my own bitterness & hate
• Identifying my areas of war
• ACT (Acceptance & Commitment Therapy)
• Meditation
• Reclaiming Cast-out parts
• Addressing Othering – Wide awake workshops
• Single family tree
• Being involved in Death
• Palliative Care
• Death procedures & Ceremonies
• Being transparent about Age
COLECTIVE DIMENSION
• ACT (Acceptance & Commitment Therapy)
• Mankind Projects
• Grief work
• Collective Shadow work
• Intergenerational Dialogue
• Acknowledging Consequence
• Religion, Collective Spirituality
• Peace work & apology
• Asking Forgiveness
• Men/Women Work
• Social cohesion work
• Neighborhood mediation
• Creating space for voices that need to be heard
• Owning privilege
• Making BEAUTY (Art, Poetry, Food growing, Dance)
• Re-enter relationships
• Eldership Responsibilities
• YOGA, MINDFULNESS
• Vision Quests
• Passage Rituals
• Name DEATH
• Being around Death
• Reconciliation to Natural Cycles
• Respect Elders
• Seek Elders
• Celebrate
• Initiations
• Death Cafés
• Community Grief
• Gratitude Rituals
WORLD DIMENSION
• Truth & Reconciliation Committees
• Oil Companies
JOANNA MACY’s VOWS
I vow to myself and each of you
To commit myself daily to the healing of our world and the welfare of all beings.
To live on Earth more lightly and less violently in the food, products and energy I consume.
To draw strength and guidance from the living Earth, the ancestors, the future beings, and my brothers and sisters of all species.
To support each other in our work for the world and to ask for help when I feel the need.
To pursue a daily practice that clarifies my mind, strengthens my heart and supports me in observing these vows.
