Reflections on Unlearning Escape to Humanity -- Escape to "belonging" "Unlearning," "deschooling," "deculturing," and even "learning" all have the same goal, to help people think out-of-the-box. To help us transcend those beliefs that we don't even recognize we have because they are taken for granted in our cultures. Particularly in the dominant EuroAmerican cultures those beliefs are centered around materialism and the social/economy of measuring a person's worth by material ownership. The personal stories in the pamphlet, "Paths of Unlearning," are from seven young people who have transcended this cultural pattern in both word and lifestyle. They are about an American graduate of Harvard on the verge of a $100,000 law career who chose to go to India, her ancestral home, to live among and be one of the poor; a privileged upper-class native of Uganda who chose to forgo success in the industrial world to create his own "vision of realty" fromthe history and culture of his African tribe and serve the youth of his country; a proclaimed American "geek," hooked on the forefront of computer hacking, who sees the spread of free software bringing civilization out of the dark hole of secretive competition for material greed; a young oil company executive who witnessed the major Esson/Valdez oil spill and changed sides to work toward a pollution free sustainable world; a London born product of the industrial school system who broke from the "upward" climb to express his inner thoughts in writing and in action with "Pioneers for Change; and other authors, from all parts of the world and many diverse backgrounds. Individually and together they remind us of the stories of Buddha, Gandhi, the Dali Lama, Jesus, Martin Luther King, Einstein, Lao Tzu, and others who have chosen a life of service to humanity rather than the material self-interest dictated by the "dominator paradigm." These wise people, the elder leaders and the seven young storytellers, are among the few humans who have escaped the dictates of the dominator paradigm. Perhaps they have not unlearned as much as they have just never learned the inhumanity of the EuroAmerican culture. This culture, rooted in the dominator paradigm, has a long history. It grew from the Jewish creation myth that held that the earth was created for the use of man. It was strengthened by Greek philosophy with its postulate that "Man is the measure of all things. It held that a "chain of being" that put man at the top of a ladder with only a few celestial being above. Below were women, children, other races, animals, plants and the Earth. Each there to serve and be dominated by the rungs above. It was stamped in the minds of Europe by the thousand year Inquisition that burned some one million people, mostly women, at the stake for believing in Earth as our creator. It was perpetuated and spread worldwide by the sword (technology), the cross (Christianity), and the flag (nationalism) in the age of "discovery" and colonization. It was fixed in our moral system by the acceptance of Adam Smith's economy that claims that human "self-interest" should, and does, dictate all human actions. This abomination of the essence of humanity now rules the world. The customs, tenets and mores of this culture are accepted as truisms for our values and lifestyles. From our birth, and throughout our most formative years in our schooling, competition, materialism, ownership, money, individualism, and other tenets of the dominator paradigm are drilled into us by example as cultural norms not to be questioned. Somehow people of wisdom, including our seven story tellers, escape and are able to transcend the culture in which they were born. This unnatural dominator civilization has not always been so. Most, if not all, other cultures had social and economic systems based on "reciprocity" or "gifting." They held the belief that we were created by mother Earth. That each of us "belongs" to the Earth and one another. That there are laws of nature that dictate that if we don't live together as one, we will die separately. In these cultural systems everyone produces for the well being of all. Many cultures have no words for "ownership." "exchange," or "self-interest." The purpose of life is to produce, and to help others produce, so that all people, including oneself, can continue to exist. In a reciprocity economy goods and services are gladly given without thought of a 'prid pro quo' exchange. Whoever gives the most is honored with abundant gifts from others. Mutual aid and cooperation are the natural laws that make human existence possible. A few such cultural norms still exist. But in the main they have been dominated by the dominator paradigm Modern science has revealed this interdependence as natural law. Chaos, Complexity and Gaian theories have shown that the cosmos is in fact one. It exists and evolves as a unit. It is holonistic. That is, each entity of the cosmos is a holon, a whole system composed of other whole systems embedded in other whole systems, or holons within holons. All holons, including every human being, is interlinked and interdependent with all other holons. The Gaian theory of the Earth shows that life on earth is dependent on life on earth. That is, that the temperature on Earth, the percent of oxygen in our air, the amount of salt in the ocean, the radiation reaching the Earth, and all other conditions necessary for life are kept constant by physical/biological processes. Gaia, the Greek name for the Earth goddess, was taken as a name for this theory. It has also been suggested as a name for a new social paradigm. The "Gaian Paradigm" is replacing the long standing "Dominator Paradigm" as the foundation for new emerging cultures based in "belonging." Humans "belong" to Gaia (the Earth and all life on Earth) in a very deep way. We belong to the webs-of-being -- to Gaia. Belonging is the protovalue from which all other values derive. We belong to the physiosphere, to the biosphere, to the noosphere. We belong to Gaia. As the aboriginals said it we are the ownees of the land not the owners of the land. Chief Seattle said, We can not own the land, we are part of the land. We belong to and are inseparable from our culture -- from one another -- from Gaia. We are interdependent with all. Belonging is scientific fact; and, belonging is more than scientific fact. Belonging is not merely being a member of, but it is being subject to -- being in partnership with -- being responsible for. We belong to -- are responsible for -- the web of being -- the universe -- to Gaia. Belonging-to-Gaia means recognizing that we are enmeshed in the webs-of-being and that our well-being is dependent on the well-being of Gaia. If we destroy Gaia, we destroy ourselves. Belonging implies cooperation -- working with what is -- with Gaia--the web of being. Belonging implies community. In our face-to-face relationships with people we form community -- we belong to community. Belonging implies responsibility. We are responsible for Gaia. We are responsible for one another. Belonging implies love. We cannot separate love (agape) from the fact that we belong to Gaia. We love because we must love to preserve Gaia -- to preserve ourselves -- to preserve the web of being. Cultures built on values other than belonging are doomed to self-destruct. A culture built on domination of the earth, and all the animals therein, is doomed to disappear. A culture based on self-interest is doomed to disintegrate. A culture based on competition will destroy itself. To be stable and sustainable a culture must be based on cooperation, community, responsibility, love, honesty, caregiving, and the other values which are implied by and intertwined with one another and with belonging. We can no more separate ourselves from belonging -- from Gaia, and remain a viable culture; than an oxygen atom can separate itself from hydrogen atoms and retain the qualities of water. ******************************************************************** |
