Interconnections

I see these four principles (SECS as I call them) as being interconnected and intersupportive.

Simple living is sustainable living. In order to live sustainably, we need to live simply. As we need and use less, we also allow those who don't have to have more, thus moving toward equality.

Living cooperatively and/or communally allows you to share stuff, which means you can live more simply and sustainably. It also mean that those who share have somewhat of an equal access to stuff, reducing the disparities between people.

Income sharing communities are consciously egalitarian. In fact, the main organization of income-sharing communities is called The Federation of Egalitarian Communities.

Egalitarian is only sustainable if it's simple. As many people have put it, if everyone lived the way that the average American lives we'd need several planets worth of resources. We can get away with living so unsustainably now because of how unequal our consumption is. A simple life is the only life that promotes equality and sustainability--and cooperative and/or communal sharing can help us live simply.

To see how these are all connected, I'll quote from an interview with Oren Lyons, the 'faithkeeper' of the Onondaga Nation. He was speaking with Tim Knauss, of the Syracuse (New York) Post-Standard, about the traditions of the Haudenosaunee, or the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy. One of these traditions is the oft-cited admonition to consider the seventh generation to come in every decision you make. (In other words, make decisions that will be sustainable.)

Lyons talked about Sen. Henry Dawes, of Massachusetts. Dawes sponsored legislation (the Dawes Act) which broke up the collectively owned Indian land, because he thought Indians needed individual ownership in order to become successful.

Lyons claimed that Dawes said that "I just came back from the Cherokee Nation ... in Oklahoma. Well, he said... they had schools, there was no war, they had their statehouse, they were living communally. They were very happy, he said, if not blissful there. They were all working like an Indian community. And he says, and that's the problem.... He says, well, as you know, if somebody is living in those terms, they're not going to progress. They're just going to be happy just the way they are. There'll be no progress....

"I think he said. ... the bottom line of our civilization was selfishness. We have to teach them to be selfish, so they can progress. ... It's about progress."

Here's an example of SECS, where the Cherokees (and other tribes) were living simply, communally, sustainably, and to a large degree, equally. And it was deliberately destroyed because of someone's ideal of 'progress' and the notion that we need selfishness and greed in order to progress.

But SECS isn't enough. Now, to make things more complex, I want to put out a set of principles that may at first seem to contradict my principles of Simplicity, Equality, Community, and Sustainability. I think, though, they complement them.

But first, let me give a living example of what I think is interconnected SECS.


Quote of the day: "When a system is whole and healthy, when it is based on relationships of interdependence and cooperation that further resilience, diversity, abundance, sustainability, creativity, and freedom, it exhibits that balance that we humans call 'justice'." - Starhawk
Word (or phrase) of the day: Co-Intelligence
Hero(es) of the day: Judi Bari