Places to intervene in the system Point No.3 Self-Organizing

3. The power of self-organization.

“The most stunning thing living systems can do is to change themselves utterly by creating whole new structures and behaviors. In biological systems that power is called evolution. In human economies it's called technical advance or social revolution. In systems lingo it's called self organization. Self-organization means changing any aspect of a system lower on this list adding or deleting new physical structure, adding or deleting negative or positive loops or information flows or rules. The ability to self-organize is the strongest form of system resilience, the ability to survive change by changing. The human immune system can develop responses to (some kinds of) insults it has never before encountered. The human brain can take in new information and pop out completely new thoughts. Self-organization seems so wondrous that we tend to regard it as mysterious, miraculous. “ Extract from the Dona Meadows paper.

Under these current circumstances of existing climate change and being in the 6th extinction, we need to mimic a living creature that has a successful life. A successful life is adaptable, opportunistic, tenacious, interconnected, and fecund. We are currently in an off-balance state. We have breached so many planetary limits in pursuit of growth so far. At least half of the tipping points (several points of no return are already here). 

When the balance is off, nature has taught us that while chaos exists, we can always have balance.  These are resilience messages from nature that we ought to listen to. When the balance is off and chaos enters, elements of the ecosystem fail, life is harmed, relationships are damaged, sacrifices are made, new ways of being emerge. Nature makes shifts to resist, rebuild, restore, and recreate. It strives towards balance.  We also as humans need to create possibilities, we need to evolve into a new emergent strategy to deal with the situation that we are in right now.

We are all at the same edge, climate change catastrophes do not discriminate between poor and rich, Global North or Global South, it hits across all levels. We are all stuck under the same norms of economic growth at whatever costs and fiat money scheme that requires all of us to pay our debts (individuals and countries). We all operate under a set of norms that causes harm and perpetuates a positive feedback loop for the top 1% to grow richer.  We are trying to survive under an enormous number of challenges that we have no structural underpinning to address. We need to see this as an opportunity for us all to self-organize to have a better future for ourselves, our children, and our grandchildren.

Earth as a self-organizing body including us humans in it, does not dispose of anything. Part of the resilience of nature is that nothing is wasted. The earth swallows it all through mouths, soil or water. This is such a simple truth. Everything is food, fuel, compost, a home for another creature. Earth teaches us that everything is interconnected. The soil needs rain, organic matter, air, warms, and sun to do what it does to give and receive life. Each element is an essential component. Earth teaches us persistence and perseverance because in the end nothing stops a rose from growing out of crack in the concrete, so we do have hope.  

We need self-organizing in order to curb the degradation of the earth conditions of human and animal life. Self-organizing means participation of all willing and allowed players in the society to advocate for a common sensical approach to solving the climate change problem. Unless all sector of the society has a say in the new global rule making process we are doomed to repeat and propel the same systematic failures (again and again and again), we need to include indigenous communities, cities, voters, local governments, non-government organizations, environmental advocates, social justice advocates, etc. We need to cultivate an enough sense of “We”, a “We” that is strong enough for this moment.

We need to move beyond pitting each other against ideologies that do not serve us and divisions that does not help our grandchildren. The world currently is adapting (self-organizing)  through running the capitalistic model to the ground for whatever number of years until we realize the disaster that this model is creating in terms of creating authoritarian and apartheid regimes, colonization, extraction, maximization of profits at the cost of people and the planet, militarization , which will end up in high conflicts, world wars, and barbarism.  The other alternative is that nature, earth, and us humans evolve a new model that is more collaborative, cooperative, and respects the resources of the commons- eco-socialism.

Reference is made to the work of Adrienne Maree Brown in Loving Corrections and Emergent Strategies books as well as the work of Dr. Delton Chen of the Global Carbon Reward organizations.