{"id":296,"date":"2012-09-17T11:17:49","date_gmt":"2012-09-17T16:17:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ecooptimism.com\/?p=296"},"modified":"2013-07-07T14:36:56","modified_gmt":"2013-07-07T19:36:56","slug":"falling-forward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ecooptimism.com\/?p=296","title":{"rendered":"Falling Forward"},"content":{"rendered":"

Political slogans are, almost of necessity, excruciatingly bland and generic, typically with a cap of whatever you\u2019d call the Muzak\u2019d version of patriotism.<\/p>\n

I won\u2019t spend time on the recent Republican convention slogan \u201cWe Built It,\u201d particularly as it\u2019s built, as it were, on several fallacies. The DNC\u2019s slogan, too, was marvelously vague, with \u201cForward\u201d replacing \u201cYes We Can.\u201d It is, presumably, a good way to point out that the Republican Party\u2019s direction, as hijacked by the Tea Party, is somewhere between sideways and backwards.<\/p>\n

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This question of directionality came to mind as I was perusing Andy Revkin\u2019s blog<\/a> where, in the \u201cabout\u201d sidebar he quotes Ralph Waldo Emerson:<\/p>\n

Let us draw a lesson from nature, which always works by short ways. When the fruit is ripe, it falls. When the fruit is despatched, the leaf falls. The circuit of the waters is mere falling. The walking of man and all animals is a falling forward.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Revkin then concludes \u201cThe human trick in this century is to foster practices and policies that result in us FALLING FORWARD without falling down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now I\u2019m not sure how far the metaphor of nature falling and \u201calways work[ing] by short ways\u201d holds up. Many of nature\u2019s systems are highly complex and, furthermore, often battle gravity. Before that fruit that Emerson refers to can fall, its tree has to grow. Before water can fall, it has to evaporate upward into the atmosphere.<\/p>\n

But \u201cfalling forward\u201d is still an apt way of looking at EcoOptimism. I proposed the term EcoOptimism because we seem to be in such a depressed and pessimistic state \u2013 a state of falling. The \u201ctrick,\u201d as Revkin terms it, is to use that falling motion, the energy of that movement, to transport us in a better direction. In other words, don\u2019t fall back.<\/p>\n

Another way to put it is with the old and overused (and perhaps inaccurate<\/a>) statement that the Chinese character for crisis is the same as the character for opportunity. Putting translation issues aside, the idea that opportunity can arise from crisis is a powerful one. Crises shock us and allow us to look for answers in places that complacency either kept us away from or blocked our view of. It could also be termed \u201cthrowing caution to the wind\u201d (so long as we\u2019re casting idioms about), but I prefer to think of it in terms of seeing things that were not visible before.<\/p>\n

Perhaps even more significantly, crises can jolt us into questioning our assumptions. I stress this questioning process with my design students \u2013 and I hope to write about it some more. Bringing the point back to EcoOptimism, it can involve wondering about the things that we take for granted and asking whether these things really are our values. How, for instance, did single-family suburban homes become the \u201cAmerican way of life?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

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A family in Pearland, Texas, 1993 with their belongings. Image from Material World: A Global Family Portrait.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(In the post \u201cThe Story of Change\/Changing the Story<\/a>,\u201d I wrote \u201cThe irony of the vaunted \u2018American way of life\u2019 of commuting from detached houses in suburbia is that it was created by exactly the kind of government intervention and social policy that conservatives now decry. Without tax deductions for mortgages and without the massive investment in highways and bridges (accompanied by disinvestment in mass transit), the great suburban exodus would not have occurred.\u201d How were we <\/em>unwittingly maneuvered into thinking that a lifestyle of car commuting, child ferrying and lawn mowing is what we yearn for?)<\/em><\/p>\n

The thesis of EcoOptimism is that we can solve our interdependent crises and end up in a better place. It doesn\u2019t say there won\u2019t be areas of painful changes such as industries that no longer make sense, but there will be greater new ones to take their place. And if we do this right, the new jobs will be more satisfying and healthier.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t mean to imply one-size-fits-all solutions here. I fully realize, for instance, that my love of urban living is not everyone\u2019s cup of tea. But let\u2019s look at our choices clearly rather than through the lens of, if I may borrow a term usually applied differently, the nanny state. Some complain that the government has become a nanny state in which it tells us what\u2019s best for us. (Wear your seat belt, don\u2019t drink too much sugary soda, don\u2019t do this or that or you\u2019ll get a ticket.) But that assumes that we live the way we do now by our own unmanipulated choice. And that simply ain\u2019t true.<\/p>\n

The subtitle of EcoOptimism is \u201cFinding the Future We Want.\u201d It has meaning, for me, on at least two levels. The first is that we shouldn\u2019t let our future be determined by default. We have the unique ability to change things, to play an active role in events.<\/p>\n

It also, though, means we shouldn\u2019t let our future be determined by forces or groups that don\u2019t necessarily have our best interests in mind. In today\u2019s politicorporate (dang, I thought I\u2019d just created a new term, but Google says otherwise) reality, what that translates into is whether those with deep pockets will maneuver us (again) in directions in their favor. Because, you see, we are indeed falling. What we haven\u2019t determined is whether we will fall martial arts style, guiding the momentum of the fall so that instead of injuring ourselves, we roll out into an advantageous position.<\/p>\n

Damn, I think I just used a sports metaphor.<\/p>\n

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