How we can organise human society in a way that doesn’t involve the destruction of our planet?

This is a big question and there are a million ways of approaching it. I want to take the next 29 days to come up with some answers.

I believe that human success on this planet is underpinned by our ability to organise large scale collective action. We are able to mobilise hoards because we tell powerful stories. Stories we identify with, that define our purpose, give us a sense of belonging, and something to work towards.

An approach to help change our ways then would be to craft a story in which we can all find our sense of belonging with humans and non humans alike. A Neo-animism if you will. Academics like Donna Haraway who speaks of making kin with other species and Robin Wall Kimmerer who ties science with indigenous wisdom both look at addressing our relationship with non humans in response to the trouble we have made.

An economic approach would be to reconsider ownership. It is bizarre that people are just allowed to cordon off spaces, call them their own and use and abuse them in whatever way they like without consideration for the impact on the others in and around them. Loads of ideologies, initiatives and communities have worked on collective ownership of land and resources.

I also want to explore the way we define success in our society and relatedly the disproportionate value we place on growth and productivity. A lot is being said about the destructiveness of our productivity (read capitalism) and I’d like to look into some alternate ways of being.