[chrisagnosKeymaster]

The extreme focus on materialism is having a disastrous effect on the environment and biodiversity, but it is also affecting our communities with lower levels of trust and a general lack of concern of the well-being of others. Something seems to rotten at the core. Our values, at both the collective and personal levels, are maligned with a sustainable future. Greed, conquest, acquisition, power, control are values that not only are prevalent but are also rewarded and valued throughout Western society. These values are reinforced through the media and pop culture with programming that essentially tells us we aren’t good enough, leading to an epidemic of apathy, despair, and depression. This hardened world compels many us to erect walls and barriers to protect our hurt feelings, most of us at a subconscious level.

When 7 billion people are encouraged to take and consume as much as possible (it’s good for the economy, after all) rather than just what one needs, it leads to infinite material demands. When the planet is finite, we have a problem. The question we must ask if we are serious about creating a sustainable society is, “what are the sustainable values that form the foundation of a society that can sustain itself over millions of years?” It obviously cannot be a society that predicates well-being on exponential growth of the economy, natural resource use, and pollution. So just what are sustainable values?

This pillar explores the concept of sustainable values – values such as empathy, compassion, kindness, trust, integrity, transparency, love, gifting, honesty. The one thing sustainable values share in common is their abundance. To be greedy and self-interested generates a mentality of scarcity. It turns everything into a zero sum game. More for you is less for me. But sustainable values are different. If I offer love, it grows. When I empathize with another and they feel the courage to reciprocate, both are better off. Sustainable values embrace Nature’s natural tendency towards abundance.

Inside each of our hearts, there is a knowing of a world the way it is supposed to be. Can we develop the courage, personally and collectively, to dare to live according to the values we know to be true? What are the values from which you believe we can live in a sustainable world? What stories can you share around the idea of sustainable values?

For more links to videos, articles and graphics on sustainable values, click here.

[Jon BrownParticipant]

“To those who can hear me, I say – do not despair. The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed – the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress. The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish.”

Charlie Chaplin’s words aren’t fading with time, they’re getting louder. http://bit.ly/1oSC3ce [youtube]

Every new story requires a transition, and transitions are defined by the very qualities that we tend to avoid: confusion, seemingly aimless wandering, struggling, and pain. These are growing pains. We do not learn from comfort, and we have been comfortable for far too long. It’s time to re-synchronize with the very process of growth, and begin again to hurt, to fail, and to try, try, try until sustainable resynchronization is achieved, whereby we as a species and earth as an environment treat each other with equal love and respect. Failure to act is a by-product of comfort. Be uncomfortable. Learn about ourselves and become more than we were.

[Author]

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