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--GAIA: THE QUIET REVOLUTION--
A Manifesto by Thomas I. Ellis, Ph.D.
1.. THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK
Most of us probably remember the riveting scene in George Lucas's
*STAR WARS* where the huge and menacing Death Star draws a
bead on a shimmering blue Earth-like planet--Princess Leia's home--
and blows it to smithereens.
This is an apt image for what is happening to our Earth these days.
The Empire has struck back for real, by using sneering demagogues
of denial like Rush Limbaugh to stir up an antiregulatory, anti-
government backlash that elected the "Newt" Congress, whose
"Contract with America", could also be called a contract on the Earth.
The legislation they currently have on the docket, with misleading
names like the "Job Creation and Regulatory Reform Act," would
effectively eliminate 25 years of environmental protection,
suspending all further regulatory legislation and giving industry veto
power over all existing regulations based on their spurious "cost-
benefit analyses." Similarly the fraudulently named "Forest Health
Act" (SB 391) will open up large areas of public land to "emergency"
salvage logging and road building, dispensing with Environmental
Impact Statements and debarring citizen appeals, with no limit on
the number, maximum size, and duration of "emergency areas."
These devastating proposals to emasculate environmental regulation
are coming so thick and fast, and the legislative juggernaut is moving
so rapidly, that environmentalists have little or no time to mobilize
public opposition to them.
Meanwhile, the right-wing "new majority", with ample corporate
funding, has seized the rhetorical initiative in condemning, by
association, any and all proposals for maintaining or strengthening
regulatory legislation. In the public eye, "regulation" has become a
bad word, and "the environment" as a political concern has dropped
off the mass media radar screen altogether, except as an object of
ridicule and distortion by Rush Limbaugh and his cronies, who
dominate the airwaves.
We see a massive and far-reaching public relations offensive by the
corporate oligarchy and their surrogates, the Republican Party, the
Christian Coalition, and the "Wise Use" fanatics. They have unlimited
funds at their disposal; they're well organized, and they have a vast
network of grassroots support in the fundamentalist churches across
the country, to say nothing of the millions of others who are duped
by incessant right-wing talk-show propaganda on radio and
television. And these folks are constantly hearing and repeating the
message that "liberals" (now a sneer word) are responsible for all
their economic hardships, that environmentalists are a key part of a
"liberal" big-government conspiracy to strangle free enterprise and
to regulate every aspect of their lives, and that the environmental
crisis is a fabrication by hysterical doomsayers to browbeat good
decent God-fearing Americans into supporting the "liberals" and their
insidious big-government, big-brother agenda.
Confronted by this formidable web of amply funded propaganda,
distortion, and hate-mongering, what can we do? The environmental
movement is in disarray, divided between those who would curtail
their aims and soften their message in order to appease the anti-
regulatory fervor in Congress, and those who favor a more radical
course of grassroots organizing, confrontation, and public
demonstrations to draw public attention to the crisis. But the crisis is
so diffuse and overwhelming, and these public demonstrations or
acts of civil disobedience have all been seen so often before, that
they are self-stereotyping--they quickly become fodder for Rush
Limbaugh's ridicule--if the mass media notices them at all. Neither
genteel lobbying of the right-wing ideologues in Congress nor bold
and brash fist-shaking by a handful of activists will do much to stem
the anti-environmental juggernaut in Congress, nor the right-wing PR
offensive over the airwaves.
What do we do then? One suggestion I have is that we use this time
of retreat and retrenchment to reassess our goals--to consider
carefully where we've been, where we're going, and how we can
regain the rhetorical initiative.
Specifically, the time has come for the Environmental Movement to
metastasize into the Gaia Movement.
WHAT IS THE GAIA MOVEMENT?
The Gaia Movement is a far-reaching but subtle intellectual and
cultural trend that has made itself felt in practically every academic
discipline, as well as in more progressive churches and synagogues
such as the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, and in popular culture,
especially on the West Coast. It is predicated on a radical and
fundamental critique of the dualistic premises of western industrial
civilization, for its major premise is that humanity is a part of, and
not apart from, nature, and its aim is to introduce *ideas of ecology*
into the *ecology of ideas* in every academic discipline and in every
domain of human endeavor, including (and especially) the realm of
public discourse.
The intellectual foundations of the Gaia Movement lie in the theory
of self-organizing, self-regulatory systems and specifically in the
ideas of Gregory Bateson, whose masterpiece, "Mind and Nature: A
Necessary Unity" provides the epistemological foundations for Gaian
thought. It derives its name from the Gaia Hypothesis, developed in
1970 by James Lovelock and Lynn Margulis, and based on the
cybernetic thinking of Bateson and others. The Gaia Hypothesis
models life on Earth as a self-organizing, self-regulatory system in
which the biota collectively maintain vital thermal, atmospheric, and
geochemical variables in far-from-equilibrium steady state
conducive to life, despite a steady increase in solar radiation. But
besides being a fruitful scientific model, the Gaia concept (named
after the ancient Greek Earth-Goddess) has also become a nodal idea
in leading-edge thought, as a metaphor for systemic, post-Cartesian
epistemology and the policies and perspectives that arise from such
thought.. It is the only word we currently have for conceptualizing
humanity and the natural world as a single system. Besides Bateson
and Lovelock, leading Gaian thinkers include William Irwin
Thompson, Francisco Varela, Humberto Maturana, Norman Myers,
Fritjof Capra, Hazel Henderson, Ralph Abraham, and John and Nancy
Todd.
The Gaia Movement includes but transcends the Environmental
Movement. Whereas the Environmental Movement is essentially
political and reactive, the Gaia Movement is essentially philosophical
and transformative. Gaians seek not only to pass legislation, but to
promote active inquiry into the very terms of the "environmental"
debate, by questioning the Cartesian premises in which that debate is
normally cast--the idea that the natural world is nothing more than a
"resource" for humanity to exploit at leisure. Gaians recognize that
nature inherently cannot be "managed" by humanity, for nature is
the larger system of which humanity is a part, and, as Gregory
Bateson repeatedly emphasizes, no subsystem can unilaterally
determine the behavior of the larger system of which it is a part, and
attempts to do so (as we have seen) always generate pathology.
Gaians therefore call upon politicians, industrialists, and citizens--
everyone, in short--to recognize that we are *a part of nature* and
that our stance regarding the natural world should be one of
humility and emulation, not domination and control. By "emulation" I
mean that we strive to model social and industrial processes on the
processes of the larger system that sustains them. Our industrial
policies (for example) should be geared at creating an "industrial
ecology" in which, as in the natural world, everything is recycled and
nothing is wasted; where the waste products of one industrial
process become the raw materials of the next. Furthermore, the
shibboleth of "economic growth" as a goal of public policy is, from a
Gaian perspective, obviously "the ideology of a cancer cell." Gaian
economics would therefore seek to evolve toward a steady-state,
sustainable and just economy, again modeling the steady-state
ecosystem that sustains it. There is no alternative, if we wish to
survive.
Such ideas, of course, are far too radical for most people,
especially the average idiot who listens to Rush Limbaugh. So there
must be a practical side to the Gaia movement, to correspond to our
initiative to introduce Gaian perspectives into the academic and
cultural mainstream. My idea in this respect is to launch an
aggressive and far-reaching public relations campaign called "The
Quiet Revolution" whose purpose above all is to use stratagems
perfected by Madison Avenue to give people a vested interest in
taking responsibility for the social and ecological consequences of the
money they spend and invest, their livelihoods, and their attitudes
and behavior.
3. THE QUIET REVOLUTION
The Quiet Revolution is envisioned as a systematic grass-roots
educational campaign whose purpose is to cultivate awareness
of the ways in which our personal decisions collectively shape
our world.
Each person impinges on his or her society, species, and
biosphere in six ways: spending money, earning or investing
money, voting, using resources, relating to others, and paying
taxes. Of these, five are largely or wholly a matter of personal
choice.
The Quiet Revolution is based on the premise that the Earth
can be saved--our terminal global cancer can be cured--to the
exact extent we each take personal responsibility for the Earth
in all of our decisions. The basic maxim is this:
Make all choices on the basis of what promotes the health,
competence, and adaptive flexibility of self, community,
society, species, and biosphere.
Specifically, this translates into the following:
GOOD BUY: Cultivate awareness of the personal and systemic
effects of your spending habits. Before you purchase anything,
ask yourself two simple questions:
(1) Where is most of the money for this thing going? (i.e. to
support the local economy and/or sustainable enterprise, or to
enrich the polluters and exploiters)
(2) Does this purchase constitute a responsible (i.e. sustainable)
use of the Earth's resources?
GOOD WORK: Cultivate awareness of the personal and systemic
effects of your livelihood. Before you take a job or make a
decision about your career, ask yourself to what degree it is
slavery (squandering your vital energies for someone else's
vested interests that may be detrimental to the health of the
planet) or work (doing what you are best at for the best
interests of self, community, society, species, and biosphere).
GOOD WILL: Cultivate an awareness of the personal and systemic
effects of your interactions with others: those you love, work
with, compete against, do business with, or involve yourself
with in any way. "Do unto others as you would have them do
unto you," whether the "other" is your lover, your cat, a
homeless person, a wilderness area, or the Earth herself. This
has never been improved upon as the central axiom of
enlightened personal and planetary ethics.
To the exact extent that people apply these principles--acting
on the basis of what is best for self, community, society,
species, and biosphere simultaneously--to every nontrivial
decision they make--what to buy, where to work, how to
relate--the Earth will be transformed into a healthy and
balanced planet once again.
We can propagate the Quiet Revolution by using it as a collaborative
fundraising campaign for environmental groups, community groups,
churches, etc. We can market buttons, posters, T-Shirts, bumper-
stickers, etc featuring (1) a photo-image of the Earth, and (2) a
slogan-with-variations, such as "Join the Quiet Revolution: Ride a
Bike" or "Join the Quiet Revolution: Recycle" (etc.) We can supplement
this by organizing community events, public access television
programs, and Internet initiatives,. all to propagate "The Quiet
Revolution" and to drive home the message that "What is best for the
Earth is best for you and your family."
For coherence, all materials associated with the Quiet Revolution
should display the GAIA International Logo--a white Solar Cross
framed by a dark-blue square, with a green "G" and "I" monogram
superimposed on the Solar Cross.. Also, all of the posters and bumper
stickers should feature the iconic symbol of the Gaia Movement: the
photo-image of the living Earth. The aim is to give average people a
felt sense of identification with the living Earth--to make "Gaia" and
"The Quiet Revolution" into essentially synonymous household words.
Our purpose, in short, is nothing less than to catalyze the
spontaneous remission of the Cancer of the Earth.
To these ends, I am starting a nonprofit organization called GAIA
International. If you wish to get involved in planning The Quiet
Revolution (in theory or in practice), send me a message.
Thomas I. Ellis, Ph.D.
Founder and Director,
GAIA International.
TIELLIS @ DELPHI.COM
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>From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sun Mar 26 18:58:15 MST 1995
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Sun, 26 Mar 1995 20:58:44 -0500
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Kansas Abortion Bill
This article may tread a fine line as regards this discussion list, but I
felt that those of you living in the State of Kansas might like to know (if
you don't already) how your senators plan to spend your tax dollars.
--Katharine English
By Judy Lundstrom Thomas, The Wichita Eagle, Kan. Knight-Ridder/Tribune
Business News
TOPEKA, Kansas--Mar. 24--The Kansas House on Thursday, for the second time
this session, passed a bill that would require physicians to report abortions
to the state.
The action, on an unrecorded voice vote, sends the abortion bill back to the
Senate, where its fate is uncertain.
Under the bill, all medical facilities and private physicians would be
required to submit annual reports to the Kansas Department of Health and
Environment listing the number of abortions that occurred and the type of
medical facility they were performed in.
The reports would not include the patients' names, and the information
contained in the reports - including the name of the doctor or facility that
submitted the report - are required to be kept confidential.
Thursday's brief debate came about because of the tactic used to bring the
bill back to the House floor. The bill had passed the House 98-26 on Feb. 10
but was killed last week by the Senate Judiciary Committee.
On Monday, however, Rep. Carlos Mayans, chairman of the House Health and
Human Services Committee, gutted a hepatitis-screening bill in his committee
and replaced it with the abortion-reporting bill. The committee approved the
action and sent the bill back to the full House for debate.
Mayans, R-Wichita, said he made the move to gut the hepatitis bill because
senators have not had "the intestinal fortitude" to deal with abortion bills
this session. Conservatives say that is because senators are afraid to have
their votes recorded and used against them when they run for re-election next
year.
The bill that Mayans' committee gutted, Senate Bill 309, was requested by the
Department of Health and Environment and would have required that doctors
test pregnant women for hepatitis B. According to the department, about 1
percent of Americans are infected with hepatitis B. About 90 percent of the
children born to infected mothers - if untreated at birth - will become
infected, and about one-fourth will die from complications of the disease.
During Thursday's debate, Rep. Nancy Kirk, D-Topeka, offered an amendment to
gut the reporting bill and replace it with the original hepatitis- screening
bill.
"It seems to me that if we're concerned about the children in the state of
Kansas and their health, we cannot gut an important piece of legislation in
order to send a message to our senators," Kirk said.
Mayans strongly opposed that amendment. "Let me ask you this," he said to
Kirk. "Are there more people who die by abortion than by hepatitis B?"
Mayans added that the hepatitis bill would cost the state $6,000 and that it
had not received a hearing in the House.
"We didn't have hearings on the bill because we didn't have an opportunity,"
Kirk retorted.
Her amendment failed, 68-55. She then offered an amendment that would add the
hepatitis-screening bill to the reporting bill. That passed on a voice vote.
Senators are not expected to concur with the House version of the bill but
rather send it to a joint conference committee where the differences between
House and Senate versions can be hammered out. Some legislators said Thursday
that the bill might stay there, unresolved, for the rest of the session.
The House's action upset abortion-rights activists. "This shows there are
more people in the House who put statistics over saving the lives of
children," said Peggy Jarman, lobbyist for the ProChoic Action League. "It's
despicable what they did. It's a very sad statement for the House to make.
They should be embarrassed."
END!A6?WI-ABORT-BILL
