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16 October 2024
The sun sets behind a marshmallow cloud. The only cloud in the sky. Just that one soft blanket for the sun to tuck itself behind as it settles down for the night. The world is silent. Not for fear. For peace. The day is done. It is time for rest, decompression, connection, and community.
Like the sun, everyone makes their way home. They head off to their families, their friends, their pets, their homes. Safe. Streets are clean not because they were cleaned but because nobody litters. The hustle and bustle of the day has died down yet still a few shops and restaurants stay open, swapping their days for nights. They provide a quiet ambience and food prepared slowly with garden-grown produce and sprinkled with generous helpings of love. A solace for connection and quality time over nutritious, wholesome dishes. Meals are paid for with doctor’s visits, home schooling sessions, haircuts, and newly dyed textiles for clothes.
Offices are closed, shutting down as the natural light leaves their walls and floors. It is time to stop toiling for today. No one stays in town after the sun goes down. The CBD is a place for the daytime. After sunset, tall skyscrapers look exactly like what they are, the gravestones of a now long-gone civilization. These monuments intentionally left behind as reminders of what we used to be. Zombies. Robots fueling a corrupted, destructive system. No one will step foot in those concrete monstrosities anymore. Tourist attractions. Souvenirs, photos, and unwanted memories.
No, the world of the future is a better one. Hollywood was wrong. There is no apocalypse. There are no horsemen. We managed to sidestep famines, armed conflict, and death and destruction because we transformed our systems. Now, AI does the job it was initially designed to do – freeing human beings from the incarceration of menial labour, giving everyone time to be exactly what they are – human. GDP is no longer allowed to grow on an infinite trajectory. Those long, bony outstretched greedy fingers on graphs plateaued long ago. The Anthropocene almost took everything from us, but the power of nature, the power of humanity – they were so much stronger.
Our new system runs on compassion, not capitalism.
Compassion towards each other, empathy for all living things, open-minded conversations, deep listening, holding space, truthful communication, and an understanding that we’re all in this together.
We are mere Earthlings living on a ‘mote of dust suspended on a sunbeam.’
We live in an era of sufficiency.
We have what we need.
We have each other.
We have communication.
We have compassion.
We have an economy, yes. But it is a far cry from the late-stage capitalism and neoliberalism rubbish we left behind. No longer do income inequality, erosion of worker rights, consumerism and overconsumption, financialization, market monopolization, environmental degradation, debt and economic instability, political influence and corruption run rampant. The capitalistic system of our past did more harm than good in the world.
How did this evolution happen, you ask?
We all listened to the Windigo (wétiko) story, ‘the embodied nightmare of greed’. A storyteller traversed the world, bringing this story to all who would listen. The story revealed “the dangers of greed, excess, and the consequences of straying from traditional values and respect for nature.” The storyteller told us that Pachamama was sending us messages and if we did not listen, her wrath would become unstoppable.
Yet, most did not listen. Our world was ripped apart by disasters that were not natural. Floods, typhoons, hurricanes, and wildfires plagued us. But still, many did not listen. Those that did spoke up for nature. But they were silenced. Then came the wars. Oh, so many wars. Resource wars, civil wars, nuclear wars… Wars. Blinded by intense greed in an attempt to conquer, an arms race spread globally. We teetered precariously on the precipice of self-destruction.
But there were still some who kept the storyteller’s story alive. Those brave ones. They worked hard to disseminate the story. They challenged the narrative. They kept pushing and demanding better behaviours. They taught us alternative ways of living. They spread awareness about the consequences of denialism. They fought against the powerful, the lauded, and the sought after.
The storytellers.
The dreamers.
The poets.
The creatives.
The playful.
The simple.
The imaginative.
The grateful.
The empathetic.
They showed us what our world could be if we worked together. If we realised that we were not put here on this earth to enjoy, exploit, or protect nature. They made us see that we were nature ourselves.
We threw off the blinders of power, extortion, and ego and exchanged our lenses for those of a mother, a sister, a nurturer, a friend. We started to look at climate change and decision making through more feminine eyes. White patriarchy no longer controlled the markets, created policies, or caused any more damage. We stopped creating more, transformed the already there. We refused, reused, refurbished. We slowed growth, using what we had instead of inventing something else. We pooh-poohed the myth of the technocratic saviour.
We worked toward a collective vision of togetherness. Intricate mycelium systems of communication with hearts instead of heads spread slowly but surely throughout the globe. We joined hands in finding solutions rather than pointing fingers in blame.
We were once blinded with apathy, denialism, and selfish egoistical motives. We were driven down this path by decision makers who preferred their places of power than to make a real change. Herded with carrots and sticks, we were corralled into our unconscious, brainwashed harder-better-faster-stronger lives and our linear economies of take, make, waste.
But our new collective vision showed us ways that were not new, simply lost. Ancient wisdom, forgotten remedies, and misplaced alchemies. Sitting and talking to each other without devices, without deadlines, without motives. Mending and fixing broken relationships, garments, and hearts. Walking outside, not for fitness, simply for the outside, stopping to smell the roses along the way. It took us away from the concrete into the natural. It showed us there was no need for more.
We have everything we need.
Rewilding efforts worked tremendously. Companies invested all their money into buying up land so they could be made into parks with nature put first. They now overflow with wildebeest, saiga antelope, and samba deer. Apex predators control ecosystems, keeping them in check. They leave us alone since we do not encroach into their territory or hunt them as a commodity. There are birds now. Everywhere. So many different species, so many different colours, and they’re allowed to be beautiful, just for them. Not for our entertainment.
Sufficiency opened up a new concept of sharing. Those who have give to those who don’t. Freely. Markets are not monopolised and permaculture has healed overcultivated fields. There is soil now. Rich, earthy, dark soil. Full of dopamine-stimulating bacteria. Full of life-giving nutrients. GMOs were eradicated along with hormones. Subsistence farming and barter trading allow us to eat the rainbow.
This is our world. Our more beautiful world our hearts always knew was possible.
It was not easy to get here. Everyone had to do the work. We had to look within and question the primal impulses and fears that were leading us to destruction. The fear of conformism, the fear of hostility, and the fear of scarcity whipped us down that road to an ominous existential crisis. We had to find our own detours to get off it. Each of us had to consciously try to make mindful decisions, to slow down, to consider morally, and to choose compassionately.
Those that initiated the changes were first humiliated and mocked. But they were the trailblazers. They knew what they had to do. They stood their ground, and slowly, slowly, we reached a social tipping point. We tipped the scales. Sustainable behaviours became widespread normal behaviour. Everyone who boasted, showed off or bought frivolously were now deemed outsiders.
Some couldn’t adapt to our transformed world. They were so entangled in their selfish lives of wanting that they drove themselves crazy. They did anything possible to get more. Anything. Even eventually killing themselves when faced with only having enough.
As the crazies departed, so did their narrative. We adapted and evolved without them. With a new majority narrative, apathy died too. There was a sort of conscious evolution. Impulse reactions gave way to mindful behaviours. Anger turned into understanding and communication. Jealousy morphed into love and gratitude. Human beings transformed from human wantings to human havings.
We are Earthlings.
We live in an era of sufficiency.
We have what we need.
We have each other.
We have communication.
We have compassion.
We have enough.
We have peace.
We all live in this brave new world now.
The better world our hearts always knew was possible.
Looking forward to the Better Future Narratives.
Beautifully written @marla 😊 We have the solutions!