“The Good Life” or El Buen Vivir: 
A North-South Binary of Sustainability and Conservation

Miami Dade College Kendall Campus Hispanic Heritage Month Presentation

Wednesday, October 3

From Stephen Johnson (2008), The Invention of Air

The faith in science and progress necessitated one other core value that [Joseph] Priestley shared with [Thomas] Jefferson and [Benjamin] Franklin, and that is the radical’s belief that progress inevitably undermines the institutions and belief systems of the past.  (Whether Adams truly shared this perspective is a more complicated question, one that was central to the initial flare-up in their correspondence with Jefferson.)  To embrace the sublime vista of reason was, inevitably, to shake off a thousand old conventions and pieties.  It forced you to rewrite the Bible, and contest the divinity of Jesus Christ; it forced you to throw out all the august, Latinate traditions of the educational establishment; it forced you to invent whole new modes of government; it forced you to think of the air we breathe as part of a natural system that could be disturbed by human intervention; it forced you to dream up entirely new structures for the transmission and cultivation of ideas.  You could no longer put stock in “the education of our ancestors,” as Jefferson derisively called it.  Embracing change meant embracing the possibility that everything would have to be reinvented. 

All of these values exist separately today on various points of the political spectrum.  But to find them strung together as a single, unified worldview is astonishingly rare.  We have always had a steady supply of politicians who speak euphorically about the great possibilities that lie ahead, and just as many who connect that sense of hope to their religious values.  But, ironically, the vision of “morning in America” usually involves a return to simpler times, the old conventions, the education of our ancestors.  Those who still argue for the possibility of radical change—in government, in faith, in our economic systems—increasingly center their arguments on the bedrock of scientific understanding, largely the ecosystem science that Priestly helped invent.  But the radical’s default temperament today is precisely the opposite of Priestley’s:  bleak and dystopian, filled with gloomy predictions of imminent catastrophe.  To be progressive today is to believe that the great engine of progress has stalled, and that we are no longer climbing the mountain, but descending into a valley of destruction.

It is possible that the circumstances of our age do, in fact, warrant these views.  Perhaps the Priestley worldview is obsolete for a reason.  Perhaps the era of radical change has passed us by, or the steady march of progress has reversed itself.  Yet one thing is clear:  to see the world in this way—to disconnect the timeless insights of science and faith from the transitory world of politics; to give up the sublime view of progress; to rely on the old institutions and not conjure up new ones—is to betray the core and connected values that Priestly shared with the American founders.  Thanks to the accelerating march of human understanding, we now see the web of relationships far more clearly than Priestley or Franklin or Jefferson could:  we can link a single molecule of oxygen; the biochemical engine of photosynthesis; the atmospheric explosion of breathable air; the immense energy deposits of the Carboniferous era; the rise of industrialization; the political turmoil of Priestley’s day; and the environmental crisis of our own.  All those elements now exist for us as a connected system, understood with a level of precision and subtlety that would have delighted Priestley, though not surprised him, given his expectations.  How can such a dramatically expanded vista not make us think that the world is still ripe for radical change, for new ways of sharing ideas or organizing human life?  And how could it not also be cause for hope

One day, Mulla Masrudin was sitting at court. The King was complaining that his subjects were untruthful. "Majesty," said Nasrudin, "there is truth and there is truth. People must practice real truth before they can use relative truth. The result is they take liberties with their man-made truth because they know instinctively that man-made truth is only an invention." The king thought that this was too complicated. "A thing must be true or false. I will make people tell the truth, and by this practice they will establish the habit of being truthful." When the city gates were opened the following morning, gallows had been erected in front of the gates and was presided over by the captain of the royal guard. A herald announced: "Whoever would enter the city must first answer the truth to a question that would be put to him by the captain of the royal guard." Nasrudin, waiting outside the gates, stepped forward first. "Where are you going?" the captain asked. "Tell the truth--the alternative is death by hanging." "I am going to be hanged on those gallows," Nasrudin replied. "I don't believe you," retorted the captain. "Very well then," said Nasrudin. "I have told a lie, hang me." The bewildered captain responded, "But that would make it the truth!" "Exactly," said the Mulla Nasrudin, "your truth."

                                                        From The Sufis, 1964, by Idries Shah

The Good Life or El Buen Vivir:  North-South Binary of Sustainabiltiy and Conservation.

PRESENTATION VENUE:

INDIGENOUS REVIVAL AND

SACRED SITES CONSERVATION

An international State-of-the-Art Conference.

April 5-7, 2012

http://geog.ggy.uga.edu/labs/

PowerPointDownload

BiLiterate Education at Coral Way K-8 Center in Miami--way to go! [NPR news story]

   and such a beautiful school--Coral Way CourtYard (from NPR story)

EDUCATION IS NOT:  Teaching people things they don't currently know

      EDUCATION IS:  Teaching people behaviors they don't currently practice

      "If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe."

                                                            --Carl Sagan

Whoever would study medicine aright must learn of the following subjects.

First he must consider the effects of each of the seasons of the year and the differences between them.

Secondly he must study the warm and the cold winds, both those which are common to every country and those peculiar to a particular locality.

Lastly the effect of water on the health must not be forgotten. 

                                                -On Air, Water and Places, by Hippocrates

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It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society. -- Krishnamurti

"If you stand right fronting and face to face with a fact, you will see the sun glimmer on both its surfaces, as if it were a scimitar, and you will feel its sweet edge dividing you through your heart and marrow.  Be it life or death, we crave only reality."

                             --Henry David Thoreau

Here's a fascinating and scary industry--internet gold-mining:  [link]

Here's the true power of Twitter...add the Twitter search plug-in to your Firefox browser and you've access the " most contemporary thought stream humanity has ever seen" [link]

And here's how social networking causes brain damange [link]

Although we usually think of the word economy in such human terms as trade, profits, markets, and finance, it applies just as aptly to the systems of which living things other than humans are constituents and architects…An economy is a collective whole, a system of metabolizing, interacting, smaller units or entities that are themselves economies.  The constituent units adapt to, and bring about changes in, their environment as they compete locally for energy and material resources.  Economies are built on living things, which complete cycles of work by  coupling chemical transformations that alternately use and release energy in the context of an architecturally and organizationally constrained physical structure.  Economies thus have knowable properties not possessed by any one of their individual members.  The work of life—growth, replication, and activity—creates meaning and information and ultimately leads to a history in which self-interested parties who cooperate to fashion larger wholes give rise to and replace each other. Evolution—descent with modification—is thus an expected and universal historical process in economic systems.  It occurs because economic units compete locally for resources, and because only those entities that acquire and retain the necessities of life in the face of such competition and of uncertainty persist.  Cooperation among economic players reduces rivalry at one level, but creates more potent competitors on a larger scale.  Trade and cooperation (or mutual exploitation) thus lead through self-organization, or co-construction, to regulation of resource supply and consumption, and to complex interdependencies that emerge as the common good for the larger economy and for many of its constituents, especially for those that wield disproportionate power.

                                    --Geerat Vermeij, 2004.  Nature:  An Economic History, pp. 1-2

"In the new story, we discover a world where life gives birth to itself using two powerful forces:  the need to be free to create one's self and the need to reach out for relationships with others.  These forces never disappear from life.  Even if we deny them, we can't ever extinguish them.  They are always active, even in the most repressive human organizations.  Life can never stop asserting its need to create itself, and life never stops searching for connections."  

--Margaret J. Wheatley, 2005

Finding Our way:  leadership for an Uncertain Time.

"We had just paid $3 for essentially the same cup of coffee that I had paid 25 cents for in up-country Turkey.  After my friend left, I began to wonder what really accounted for the twelve-fold difference in the price of the two cups of coffee and what, if anything, this might indicate about how to break the impasse between growth and the environment...

    "To be able to live freely in a sharing, tolerant, and politically open society that is largely indifferent to race, creed, or religion, to be able to sit and watch steady streams of generally happy, healthy, well-dressed people walking by or driving past in their SUVs, to be able to enjoy the foods of the world stacked in low-cost abundance in the market stalls across the way, to breathe clean air and drink clean water directly from the tap, to be rewarded after receiving the gift of a good education with steady, satisfying employment, to be able to connect electronically to friends and colleagues, to be able to travel anywhere, are all benefits derived from growth.

    "The levels of wealth, comfort, health, and general welfare enjoyed by Canadians exceed those achieved in any previous age, including that of the Roman Empire at its height.  Yet in contrast to Roman times, these levels have been attained without resort to slave labour and with a feeble military capacity that is focused on international peace rather than on conquest.

    "Affluence, comfort, social harmony, and security:  these are not trivial benefits!  By any yardstick, it would be hideously poor judgment to suggest otherwise.  If growth can create the same increase in societal wealth described above and confer the same diversity of opportunity and the blessings of choice on other people as it does in leading economies, then 'globalization,' to the extent that it helps spread these benefits around the world, clearly holds enormous promise for improving the lot of humankind.

    "Yet here I was, sitting in the coffee shop puzzling over these questions and visualizing the cataclysmic bunching of ecological and equity issues that are now making the world a more dangerous place and putting at risk the impressive gains of economic growth.  So, why the difference in the price of a cup of coffee, and what does this have to do with these big issues?"

--Roy Woodbridge, 2004

The Next World War:  Tribes, Cities, Nations and Ecological Decline

"Can we move nations and people in the direction of sustainability?  Such a move would be a modification of society comparable in scale to only two other changes:  the Agricultural Revolution of the late Neolithic and the Industrial Revolution of the past two centuries.  Those revolutions were gradual, spontaneous, and largely unconscious.  This one will have to be a fully conscious operation, guided by the best foresight that science can provide....If we actually do it, the undertaking will be absolutely unique in humanity's stay on the Earth."

--William D. Ruckelshaus, 1989

"Never deny the power of a small group of committed individuals to change the world.  Indeed that is the only thing that ever has."

--Margaret Mead

"How good a society does human nature permit?  How good a human nature does society permit?
--Abraham Maslow

Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution

                                    --Theodosius Dobzhansky

EXAM FOODS

RED FOODS.  Tomatoes, Grapefruits, Watermelon, Papaya, Guava.  Contain lycopene, a powerful antioxidant being studied for its ability to fight heart disease and some cancers.

GREEN FOODS.  Spinach, Kale, Broccoli, Cabbage, Brussels Sprouts, Cauliflower, Turnips, Greens.  Contain phytochemicals--carotenoids, lutein, zeaxanthin keep retina healthy, may reduce risk of cancers.

ORANGE AND YELLOW FOODS.  Sweet Potatoes, Mangoes, Carrots, Apricots.  Contain beta-carotene, a natural anti-oxidant that may strengthen the immune system; Vitamin C and E

BLUE AND PURPLE FOODS.  Blueberries, Blue Corn, Black Rice.  Contain anthocyanins, a photochemical that may reduce cancer risks.

WHITE FOODS.  Onions, Garlic, Chives, Leeks.  Contain allicin which may lower cholesterol and blood pressure and strengthen immune system.

"We had just paid $3 for essentially the same cup of coffee that I had paid 25 cents for in up-country Turkey.  After my friend left, I began to wonder what really accounted for the twelve-fold difference in the price of the two cups of coffee and what, if anything, this might indicate about how to break the impasse between growth and the environment...

    To be able to live freely in a sharing, tolerant, and politically open society that is largely indifferent to race, creed, or religion, to be able to sit and watch steady streams of generally happy, healthy, well-dressed people walking by or driving past in their SUVs, to be able to enjoy the foods of the world stacked in low-cost abundance in the market stalls across the way, to breathe clean air and drink clean water directly from the tap, to be rewarded after receiving the gift of a good education with steady, satisfying employment, to be able to connect electronically to friends and colleagues, to be able to travel anywhere, are all benefits derived from growth.

    The levels of wealth, comfort, health, and general welfare enjoyed by Canadians exceed those achieved in any previous age, including that of the Roman Empire at its height.  Yet in contrast to Roman times, these levels have been attained without resort to slave labour and with a feeble military capacity that is focused on international peace rather than on conquest.

    Affluence, comfort, social harmony, and security:  these are not trivial benefits!  By any yardstick, it would be hideously poor judgment to suggest otherwise.  If growth can create the same increase in societal wealth described above and confer the same diversity of opportunity and the blessings of choice on other people as it does in leading economies, then 'globalization,' to the extent that it helps spread these benefits around the world, clearly holds enormous promise for improving the lot of humankind.

    Yet here I was, sitting in the coffee shop puzzling over these questions and visualizing the cataclysmic bunching of ecological and equity issues that are now making the world a more dangerous place and putting at risk the impressive gains of economic growth.  So, why the difference in the price of a cup of coffee, and what does this have to do with these big issues?"

--Roy Woodbridge, 2004

The Next World War:  Tribes, Cities, Nations and Ecological Decline

"In the new story, we discover a world where life gives birth to itself using two powerful forces:  the need to be free to create one's self and the need to reach out for relationships with others.  These forces never disappear from life.  Even if we deny them, we can't ever extinguish them.  They are always active, even in the most repressive human organizations.  Life can never stop asserting its need to create itself, and life never stops searching for connections."  

--Margaret J. Wheatley, 2005

Finding Our way:  leadership for an Uncertain Time.

"How good a society does human nature permit?  How good a human nature does society permit?
--Abraham Maslow

"It makes just as much sense to think of agriculture as something the grasses did to people as a way to conquer the trees."

--Michael Pollan, 2001, The Botany of Desire

"Never deny the power of a small group of committed individuals to change the world.  Indeed that is the only thing that ever has."

--Margaret Mead

"Can we move nations and people in the direction of sustainability?  Such a move would be a modification of society comparable in scale to only two other changes:  the Agricultural Revolution of the late Neolithic and the Industrial Revolution of the past two centuries.  Those revolutions were gradual, spontaneous, and largely unconscious.  This one will have to be a fully conscious operatino, guided by the best foresight that science can provide....If we acutually do it, the undertaking will be absolutely unique in humanity's stay on the Earth."

--William D. Ruckelshaus, 1989

"My home and possessions serve me and shelter me and are never a burden that requires more than I am willing to give (such as a thirty-year mortgage).  I am well on my way to becoming sustainable on this land, and a small home is part of what allowed me to see my way there.  Now, whenever I am inside large, enclosed spaces, I feel lost, disassociated and adrift.  I wouldn't trade my casita or my experiences of creating it for a mansion any day." 

--Patricia Kerns, 2000, "Journey to a Small Place", The Last Straw

A Natural Economy

Adapted from Hal Brill, Jack A. Brill and Cliff Feigenbaum (2000).   Investing with your Values:  Making Money and Making a Difference

How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in your life you will have been all of these. 
--George Washington Carver

"Have we not come to such an impasse in the modern world that we must love our enemies - or else? The chain reaction of evil - hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars - must be broken, or else we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation"
--Martin Luther King, Jr. 
 

"Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend."
--Martin Luther King, Jr. 
 

Through the cracks of the aged battlements,
The wind whispers softly to me.
"Come," it says, "Come and listen to my story."

The quiet laughter of children surrounds me,
Hushed voices of mothers, shouting from men.
Dogs bark, horses whinny, and babies cry.
"This is life," says the wind, "Loud and soft, happy and sad."

The sounds disappear and others replace them.
The clash of steel against steel,
Cries of the wounded, the silence of the dead.
"This is death," says the wind, "Dark and sad, painful and silent."

There I stand, mezmorized by the sounds.
I want to hear more, to finish the story,
Yet the wind is hushed and a new voice is heard.
Now the stones speak, and I am silent.

"Nuestra lucha no es fácil. Los que se oponen nuestra causa son ricos y poderosos, y tienen muchos aliados en los altos niveles. Nosotros somos pobres. Nuestros aliados son pocos; pero tenemos algo que los ricos no poseen. Tenemos nuestros cuerpos y nuestros espíritus y la justicia de nuestra causa es nuestra arma.

Cuando somos realmente sinceros con nosotros mismos, debemos admitir que nuestras vidas son lo único que nos pertenece realmente. Por eso, es el modo en el que utilizamos nuestras vidas el que determina la clase de hombres que somos en realidad. Tengo la creencia profunda de que sólo entregando nuestras vidas podemos hallarlas. Estoy convencido de que el acto más verdadero de valor, el más firme exponente de la hombría, es el de sacrificarnos por otros, dentro de una lucha totalmente no violenta en pro de la justicia. El ser hombre es sufrir por otros. Dios nos ayude a ser hombres"

["Our struggle is not easy. Those that oppose our cause are rich and powerful, and they have many allies in high places. We are poor. Our allies are few. But we have something the rich do not own. We have our own bodies and spirits and the justice of our cause as our weapons.

When we are really honest with ourselves, we must admit that our lives are all that really belong to us. So it is how we use our lives that determine what kind of men we really are. It is my deepest belief that only by giving of our lives do we find life.  I am convinced that the truest act of courage, the strongest act of manliness, is to sacrifice ourselves for others in a totally nonviolent struggle for justice. To be a man is to suffer for others. God help us to be men."]

--Cesar Chavez

"La educación como un hecho social es un proceso de comunicación profunda entre el mundo interior y el exterior, que desarrolla las potencialidades del ser humano, quien en el trabajo transformará su mundo en busca de justicia social y dignidad, a fin de lograr la inter-independencia (independencia con mutua relación) real.

"Es comunicación profunda, no significa solamente conversar o intervenir para decir algo, significa, sobre todo, reconocerse como persona con identidad individual y social, con cultura y con capacidad de organización.  Significa, también respetarse respetando a los demás, rescatar las posibilidades, habilidades, aptitudes, vivencias, experiencias, conocimientos, saberes; es decir, potencialidades para, a base de ellas, crecer, crear, imaginar y cambiar."

--Juan E. Díaz Bordenave (1998)

"It makes just as much sense to think of agriculture as something the grasses did to people as a way to conquer the trees."

--Michael Pollan, 2001, The Botany of Desire

"By the time Europeans arrived, North America was a manipulated continent. Indians had long since altered the landscape by burning or clearing woodland for farming and fuel.  Despite European images of an untouched Eden, this nature was cultural not virgin, anthropogenic not primeval, and nowhere is this more evident than in the Indian use of fire...So important was fire to the maintenance of grasslands that after Indians died from disease or abandoned them, these clearings quickly reverted to forest.  Eliminate fire and the change from a mixed grassland-forest habitat to forest alone could be rapid."

--Shephard Kreck III, 1999, The Ecological Indian:  Myth and History

Here's the history of life, the universe and everything from the Cassiopeia Project [link]