Ecotopia Revisited

In Ernest Callenbach's semi-utopian 1975 novel Ecotopia, advertising is strictly regulated. Ads can only give factual information about products. No psychological warfare arm twisting victims into buying things they don't need in the name of profit in this sustainable society.

I could love this book for that alone, but it has so much more to offer. It serves up a working model of what-could-be, an alternative to our current race to extinction. It has answers for the person looking at what consumer capitalism has done to our planet, and asks "what can I do?"

In 1981 he wrote a prequel called Ecotopia Emerging, in which he describes how society began to be changed from one in which "Toxic contamination of air, water, and food has become intolerable. Nuclear meltdowns threaten. Military spending burdens the economy. Politicians squabble over outdated agendas while the country declines."

Hmm, sounds familiar. Ecotopia Emerging is on my reading list, but it feels like I am living it every day. This is our reality. Will we evolve to a sustainable, cooperative society in time?

Callenbach returned his component parts to the Earth in 2012, but his legacy carries on in millions of readers and admirers. Many people are already living Ecotopia lifestyles, and it is only a matter of time before everyone else will be forced by necessity to adopt one-planet living.

A document was found on the computer of Callenbach after his death. In it he addresses his audience to open the essay.

"To all brothers and sisters who hold the dream in their hearts of a future world in which humans and all other beings live in harmony and mutual support -- a world of sustainability, stability, and confidence. A world something like the one I described, so long ago, in Ecotopia and Ecotopia Emerging."

Hey! He's talking to us.

Toward the end of the piece he writes,

"Since I wrote Ecotopia, I have become less confident of humans' political ability to act on commonsense, shared values. Our era has become one of spectacular polarization, with folly multiplying on every hand.

That is the way empires crumble: they are taken over by looter elites, who sooner or later cause collapse. But then new games become possible, and with luck Ecotopia might be among them."


Again, sounds eerily familiar. But as he points out, when things break down, new possibilities emerge, and we should therefore seize the day and make sure that all economies move toward sustainability as soon as possible.

"Let us embrace decay, for it is the source of all new life and growth."

We can all help manifest a better world through our behaviours, habits, and expectations. Ecotopians are building an alternative to the madness - a sustainable society in which all living things benefit mutually.

"So it behooves me here to gather together some thoughts and attitudes that may prove useful in the dark times we are facing: a century or more of exceedingly difficult times. 

How will those who survive manage it? What can we teach our friends, our children, our communities? 

Although we may not be capable of changing history, how can we equip ourselves to survive it?"

 Read the rest of Ernest Callenbach's last essay at "Common Dreams".

Ecotopia

"Let us embrace decay, for it is the source of all new life and growth." 
- Ernest Callenbach

In 2012, at the end of times, there is no shortage of nightmarish events, real or imagined. Decay is delicious, and sickness sells whether it is newspapers or entertainment.

Violent post-apocalyptic movies like The Hunger Games is what people want to see. The morose movie-going public vaulted that bad dream into several box office records.

But what about perfections for the pacifist, hope for the incurably hopeful, and caring for the compassionate? What about utopian visions that help us stretch our minds to consider outcomes of balance and beauty?

Unfortunately, utopian optimism does not seem to have the same box office draw as its darker, more chaotic sibling. Utopian visions are often accused of being pollyannaish, which is a belittling insult for being absurdly optimistic and unrealistically good-hearted, as if there is something wrong with that. 

Why is it so hard to believe that the world really could be a place where things work out, everyone gets along (more or less), and compassion toward all living things reigns?

Ecotopia, written by Ernest Callenbach in 1975, is one such vision, built on the principles of ecology and the concept of living lightly on the earth. And what is its 'absurdly optimistic' vision? Simply that of an ecologically sustainable society triumphing over one that continues on the path of death and destruction.

Although it has some excellent ideas, I admit that it may be overly optimistic to think that California, Oregon, and Washington State could ever split from the rest of the US to become an ecological utopia.

Or maybe not. Perhaps we could get British Columbia, Canada included in the new nature paradise (Cascadia as the real incarnation is called).

I first became familiar with the ecological novel when I came across Callenbach's The Earth's 10 Commandments online.

The Earth's Ten Commandments

1. Thou shalt love and honor the Earth for it blesses thy life and governs thy survival.
2. Thou shalt keep each day sacred to the Earth and celebrate the turning of its seasons.
3. Thou shalt not hold thyself above other living things nor drive them to extinction.
4. Thou shalt give thanks for thy food to the creatures and plants that nourish thee.
5. Thou shalt limit thy offspring for multitudes of people are a burden unto the Earth.
6. Thou shalt not kill nor waste Earth's riches upon weapons of war.
7. Thou shalt not pursue profit at the Earth's expense but strive to restore its damaged majesty.
8. Thou shalt not hide from thyself or others the consequences of thy actions upon the Earth.
9. Thou shalt not steal from future generations by impoverishing or poisoning the Earth. 
10. Thou shalt consume material goods in moderation so all may share Earth's bounty. 

I recently picked up Ecotopia at the public library, and have found that it is full of life-guiding ideas like The Earth's 10 Commandments. Others ideas that have piqued my interest so far are:

• Ecotoptians have TV, but use it very selectively. They do not let TV use them.
• All TV commercials are between programs, not during programs. Most are simple product descriptions and ingredient lists.
• Advertising can not use adjectives, nor appeal to 'specialists'.
• Before any product is built, regular people have to prove that they can repair the prototype themselves with simple tools.
• There is much more leisure time with a 20 hour work week.
• Bicycles and trains are the most popular modes of transportation.
• Before you build a house you have to spend time in the woods planting, and cutting trees.
• Fossil fuels were banned, and all infrastructure such as gas stations were dismantled.
• All food is grown organically and sustainably. 
• Individual cars are outlawed, and most streets have been converted to linear parks complete with creeks, trees, and wildlife.
• Community building is essential to the running of Ecotopia.
• Nature and happiness are more important than 'the economy'.

I realize you can't have the light without the dark, but I will probably never see The Hunger Games. I don't need its message of doom and despair.

I am holding out for more positive portrayals of a good old boring world such as Ecotopia where people get along with each other and with nature, and everything works just fine. Not that I think that sustainability is boring - quite the opposite. It is the ultimate adventure for a more hopeful future. 

Dystopian thinking leads us to believe that the worst is inevitable. Utopian thinking reminds us that a better world can be imagined and made real.

Ernest Callenbach returned to the earth that he loved so much in April of this year. He was 83. Ecotopia sold over a million copies and has been translated into several languages.

You can read a piece of writing found on Callenbach's computer after his death here. In it he hopefully says, "A vision of sustainability that sometimes shockingly resembles Ecotopia is tremulously coming into existence at the hands of people who never heard of the book."

An optimist to the end. Thank you Mr. Callenbach.

Ego vs. Eco

Ego and hubris vs. Eco and humility

Ego and pride have lead to a dangerous level of hubris in the world which is endangering the irreplaceable ecosystem upon which we all depend. If we fail to recognize our true place in this world - as only one species among millions of others - we will perish due to a lack of humility.

"Man" has been demoted, removed from a perch he never deserved in the first place.

Humans are not the only species to possess language. We are not the only creatures that play. We do have the largest brain-body-mass ratio, but dolphins are a very close second. Although we are smart, most of our best ideas come from mimicking things in nature.

What humans have that no other life form does, as far as we know, is ego. The ego is especially powerful in western cultures. Competition, success, achievements and potential are things we are programmed for since birth. We’re taught to achieve more endlessly, and it has burned us out, as well as our environment.

Not all cultures are like this, and ours wasn't either before money and commerce came to dominate our lives. Since then we have gone from an 'eco' focus to an all out indulgence of 'ego'.

We have left behind cooperation and public, and have embraced competition and private. We thought we could step out of our responsibilities and relationships with no negative consequences, but we can't.

Ram Dass thought that, "Indians live like they are their souls (eco), and Americans live like they are their egos." So how do we overcome ego so we can shift back to an eco-focused life? The following tips are adapted from Dr. Wayne Dyer. The full article can be read here.

7 Steps For Overcoming Ego

1. Stop being offended. The behavior of others isn’t a reason to be immobilized. That which offends you only weakens you. If you’re looking for occasions to be offended, you’ll find them at every turn. This is your ego at work convincing you that the world shouldn't be the way it is.
2. Let go of your need to win. Ego loves to divide us up into winners and losers, but there are no losers in a world where we all share the same energy source.
3. Let go of your need to be right. Ego is the source of a lot of conflict and dissension because it pushes you in the direction of making other people wrong. Stop yourself in the middle of an argument and ask, "Do I want to be right, or do I want to be happy?"
4. Let go of your need to be superior. True nobility isn’t about being better than someone else. It’s about being better than you used to be. Stay focused on your growth, with a constant awareness that no one on this planet is any better than anyone else. We all emanate from the same creative life force.
5. Let go of your need to have more. The mantra of ego is more - it’s never satisfied. No matter how much you achieve or acquire, your ego will insist that it isn’t enough. When you stop needing more, more of what you desire seems to arrive in your life. Since you’re detached from the need for it, you find it easier to pass it along to others, because you realize how little you need in order to be satisfied and at peace.
6. Let go of identifying yourself on the basis of your achievements. This may be a difficult concept if you think you are your achievements.  It’s when you attach yourself to those achievements and believe that you alone are doing all of those things that you leave behind peace and gratitude.
7. Let go of your reputation. Your reputation is not located in you. It resides in the minds of others. Therefore, you have no control over it at all. If you speak to 30 people, you will have 30 reputations. If you’re overly concerned with how you’re going to be perceived by everyone, then you’ve disconnected yourself from your own plan, and allowed the opinions of others to guide you. This is your ego at work.

Eco must win over ego if we are to survive and flourish, but it will be an epic battle for each and every one of us. It is a battle worth fighting. Victory means freedom for us, and good health for the planet.

Then we can let go of our victory and get on with life.

Earth's Ten Commandments

Ernest Callenbach, American author of Ecotopia (1975) and other green books, has long been passionate about environmental issues and their connections to human value systems, social patterns, and the way we live our lives. He was ahead of most on the sustainability learning curve, and has good things to share as we begin to adopt 1 earth lifestyles.

The following are Callenbach's wonderful Earth-friendly commandments to live by. 

Earth's Ten Commandments

1. Thou shalt love and honor the Earth for it blesses thy life and governs thy survival.

2. Thou shalt keep each day sacred to the Earth and celebrate the turning of its seasons.

3. Thou shalt not hold thyself above other living things nor drive them to extinction.

4. Thou shalt give thanks for thy food to the creatures and plants that nourish thee.

5. Thou shalt limit thy offspring for multitudes of people are a burden unto the Earth.

6. Thou shalt not kill nor waste Earth's riches upon weapons of war.

7. Thou shalt not pursue profit at the Earth's expense but strive to restore its damaged majesty.

8. Thou shalt not hide from thyself or others the consequences of thy actions upon the Earth.

9. Thou shalt not steal from future generations by impoverishing or poisoning the Earth.

10. Thou shalt consume material goods in moderation so all may share Earth's bounty.