Moving Like Water

I should begin by explaining why I’m here. The reason is simple: I know nothing. Or at least next to nothing. And it’s time to learn.

Since I was quite young I’ve been intrigued by collapsed societies. What happened to them? Why did they fail?

As a child the ancient Egyptians and ancient Romans were particularly fascinating to me. It’s almost heartbreaking to imagine where we would be as a species if some of these great societies had continued their advancements. Just in ancient Rome alone, the steam engine and electricity were close to being discovered outright. Or, to look ahead, where could we be in another 100 or 1,000 years if our society somehow manages to avoid collapse?

On the most basic level, it seems to me, the thing that leads to most directly to societal collapse is the success of that society. As it thrives it grows. And grows. To the point where the land/water/food can no longer support it. You see this in the animal kingdom in ecosystems that get messed with by man. For example, the classic island where bears, wolves or other predators of deer are removed. Soon the deer overrun the land until there is no longer enough food to support the population. Then starvation takes over.

If we don’t change our ways, we’ll end up just like those ancient societies. Our lifestyle isn’t sustainable and it’ll kill us eventually.

This is why I’ve called this site Moving Like Water. I believe we as people and we as a society can move more like water. Moving in concert with nature, not disrupting it for our purposes. And I believe moving like water is easier, cheaper and healthier than the typical approach to things in modern America.

Part of moving in concert with nature, means moving in concert with human nature. We cannot continue to rely on the altruistic nature of a tiny minority of the population who does the right thing. To get to a truly sustainable society, we must put economics in play. And, yes, greed. When the driver of that pollution-spewing SUV switches to an electric car to save a few bucks, we’ll know we’re on the right track. When the most anti-Al Gore Republican is installing solar panels on his roof to save some cash, we’re going to be OK.

It’s going to be quite a journey to get to that point, but it’s where we need to be. Like I said, I know nothing. I do not live a sustainable life now, nor do I know how to at this point. And so begins my education, which I will share here. I hope within some reasonable amount of time I can call myself semi-knowledgable about these issues and maybe someday even be an expert. For now, though, I take it one day at a time.

PS: Oh yeah, and Moving Like Water is a cool song.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 24th, 2007 at 10:48 pm and is filed under General, Sustainable Living. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.