Invitation to join a new Meetup: Toward fostering bioregionalism
. . . this was sent out to the members of:
https://www.meetup.com/EcoVillage-New-Jersey-Meetup/
and
https://www.meetup.com/South-Jersey-Ecovillage-Meetup/
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Ecovillages model the kind of society we need to be striving for: eco-communitarian.
That’s a big word, but it encompasses the vision: Ecology and Community.
Our current society, unfortunately, is not conducive to either. Its mass-consumerist ways are anti-ecological. And as its urban labyrinth has grown up around us over the centuries, local community life has withered and we’ve been increasingly alienated from nature.
So a significant change of direction is badly needed. But it’s hard enough just to get one ecovillage built! A transformation of the whole society, based on turning things toward a radically new direction, seems like wild speculation — until we realize that most humans, during most periods of our species history, lived in an eco-communitarian way. We wouldn’t be here now if the lifeways of our forebears were not sustainable.
Anthropological re-examinations have shown that people thrived prior to the rise of developmentalist, expansionist civilization. The quality of life was fine when people lived simply in humanly-scaled tribes and villages. They were more grounded in place. They enjoyed familiarity and stability. They were more attuned to natural limits and balances.
Such were the characteristics of what we would now call bioregionalism:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioregionalism
It was the original way, the natural way; so it’s not exotic or utopian. It fostered ecology and community. And it could guide our social-change work to heal, regenerate, and revitalize our current society.
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We can build ecovillages to indicate the way forward. Or we can work with the Transition Network to transform our extant localities as we build the new within the shell of the old. We can join a permaculture group or initiate a community energy project. We can foster mutual aid and a solidarity economy. These are all righteous eco-communitarian endeavors. But it would be instructive to have in mind the overarching vision of where we hope our efforts will lead in the long run. That’s what will be addressed in the new Meetup called “Toward fostering bioregionalism”:
https://www.meetup.com/toward-fostering-bioregionalism/
Its first gathering is scheduled for September 12. It will be kind of a book club and discussion salon. We’ll start off by reading together the book that introduced the concept to a wide audience:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1354974.Dwellers_in_the_Land
Set aside the date and then join us!
