the protest alternative

Much has been said about protests and cultural events which sprout around large decision-making festivals, like those at the recent COP 26 27... Corporations and dominant destructive power players control the discussion and framing to the extent that any side helping of art or protest, however well-meaning and brave, is likely still to barely get through to decision-makers or have much impact at all on public awareness of the issues. It can be inspiring and educational for those involved, yet for many, each big event becomes yet another reason to stay home. Festivals, climate-themed art, and clever prank-art can educate us and wake us up to the need to do something. Yet, with these events and their associated commentary, how many people actually shift how they live to reflect these values? How long might these effects last?

It’s a conundrum. If you isolate and step away from the dominant culture you might lose many of the levers of influence that computers, fossil fuels, and destructive infrastructure offer. If you hold your nose and try to work at the World Bank or EXXON or some government Department so you can change things from within those systems, are you having to live in ways that are far from “low footprint” and Earth-centered, and therefore perpetuating those practices? Where to devote our energies in the precious time we have left?

Of course, there is no one answer and it’s certainly not one or the other. Buddhist eco-philosopher, Joanna Macy talks about the need for a balance of approaches, as does Gandhi, with his focus on the “obstructive” and “constructive program”. People have different gifts, circumstances, and passions. What does appear to be missing for many people (particularly those, like myself, who are largely estranged from their pre-colonial indigenous roots), is a lived sense of what a more life-sustaining culture might look like in contemporary terms. What do we want to see/live/be?

What if instead of (or in addition to) direct action, public protests, and policy papers, we directed more of that energy and creativity towards how to actually live simply in a more beautiful, delicious, and metaphorically-rich culturally supported matrix of wonderfulness? Less head - more heart and hands. If that’s really what we need and where we want to go, let’s try to live in a more aligned and low-footprint way now. Turns out, it can be really hard to do, especially in hard, compacted, separation-poisoned soil, but cultural support can help! Indigenous cultures around the world - and often nearby - struggle mightily to preserve their ancestral stewardship practices and languages in the face of ongoing genocide, systemic oppression, and mass-media consumer culture. Working with folks who already know how to live is an enormous and vital part of this challenge.

What we call culture probably emerged as a way to help humans thrive. Without beauty, celebration and creativity, life was a drag and people didn’t do so well (lower reproductive success, etc.). Without figuring out the practical skills necessary to live within the ecological means of their environment, plus some baseline resilient behaviors, adaptability, equitable decision-making, and practical infrastructure, people didn’t do so well either. Together? Mmmm…

So, what if we tried something like this:

Climate Protest Articulture

A life-scale proposal for artists, scientists, and their allies in 5 parts:

Part 1: Seed

Form a diverse team of under ten people to describe and evaluate the practical scope of the challenge. Gather knowledge, wisdom, and resources necessary to develop the general framework for personal practices and guidelines for participants willing to prototype low-footprint lifestyle commitments. 

These may include (but would not be limited to) food, clothing, consumption, remediation (carbon capture), and outreach elements. Much as wearing monastic robes or a uniform, praying, and creating altars can express certain life path commitments, adopting visible manifestations of a personal commitment to pursuing a low-footprint life could help provide cultural touchstones for the practitioner along a challenging path and serve as an educational public expression of that commitment. 

Part 2: Sprout

Identify people who want to try this and create support infrastructure for them. Meetings in person and information sharing online would be held to further deepen the practice and evaluation of these commitments. Begin the experiment with an initial commitment for one year. 

Part 3: Grow

Encourage the development and sharing of expertise, techniques, and healthy feedback among practitioners. Are there support structures, service activities, or funding initiatives that might help people achieve their goals or deepen their effectiveness? How can these experiences be expressed most effectively? In what ways might this be productive or harmful? Encourage the group to grow stronger together, and leverage the interaction and interrelationships between people and expressive elements. Question assumptions and challenge ecological footprints and effectiveness regularly.

Part 4: Flower

Select a grouping of 5 (as a start) interrelated cultural elements that support and express the personal commitment to some challenging aspect of this path. These may take the form of food or celebratory practices (foraged tea ceremony, all home-grown meal, etc.), clothing, flags or ceremonial/practical objects (hand-made tools, shelters, vessels, etc.), work songs or other transferable elements designed to inspire, signal and support a personal commitment for anyone attempting to live simply and within the ecological means of their immediate environment. 

Part 5: Fruit / Seed Dispersal

Highlight and begin to distribute these articulture “kits” or tips (perhaps as gifts) to other individuals committed to continuing this work, evaluate the effectiveness of practices people have tried and adopted, and work with others to amplify and support the infrastructure to continue to support anyone who chooses to live this way. 

The idea is that what’s good for the Earth and humans needs pervasive and compelling cultural support and encouragement. The more open-source, non-commodified, and service-oriented, the better. These cultural elements are designed to be interconnected, modifiable, and inseparable from the journey towards a more Earth-centric and ultimately more viable way of life for humans. Layered over each other over time, they might begin to help reknit connections and support a long-term, paradigm shift in how we live.

With initial seed funding and administration, it could be self-sufficient and self-perpetuating on a national and international scale. The goal would be to begin small, however, and increasingly make a low footprint deeply interconnected lifestyle commitment visible, through beauty, metaphor, and deliciousness. We can say we want to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions and foster non-polluting, locally-generated alternatives to the dominant culture of extraction and consumption, but what, concretely and compellingly, could that look like?

What are the conditions necessary for such a flourishing to emerge?

Next big protest or galvanizing political turning point, what if we directed some of that energy into supporting local regenerative culture (or cultures!), testing and ground-truthing art-systems, and supporting healthy practices and places we’d like to see and live in?