New KEPW program to explore societal paradigm shift

Presenter: Jan Spencer’s book is available free online — APrimerForParadigmShift.org — and he’s launching a companion podcast on KEPW Radio. Jan Spencer:

Jan Spencer: I’ve decided to put the book online, disguised as a website. Making money is not my motive. The motive for writing this book is to encourage paradigm shift.

That’s purposeful movement towards a society that takes care of its needs within the boundaries of the natural world; a society that places a very high value on bringing out the best in positive human potential; a society that’s served by an honest and responsible economic system.

A small but appreciable number of people are already living a significant part of paradigm shift in terms of food choices, shelter, transportation, how they manage their time and money. I can speak from personal experience.

And the primer will show and tell all kinds of different examples of paradigm shift already happening in the real world: rural, urban, suburban, ecovillages, young people, permaculture, appropriate economic development, pushing back on cars, reducing eco footprints, and a lot more.

From this perspective, paradigm shift is not some kind of future utopia. Rather, it’s making purposeful use of our own time and money in the here and the now—no permission required. Just about anyone can experience the benefits of paradigm shift in their own lives, with family, with friends, with neighbors.

That said, paradigm shift does take effort and the primer is here to help.

I make reference in the primer to a set of ideals and principles I call the wisdom of the world’s great spiritual traditions. That wisdom is the social, ecological, uplifted behavior that humans are capable of. 

I see five main points in that wisdom that go like this: Care for the natural world. Uplift of the spirit. Service to the community. Modesty of lifestyle. And accountability for our actions.

The primer explains the principle: When we prioritize our own time and money, we shift our identity from consumer to sustainability and uplift.

There’s no shortage of money and time and talent for creating a preferred future. The task is to identify our priorities and make them happen.

Have a good look at the sound bites. Learn more about permaculture. Spend some time thinking about the wisdom of the world’s great spiritual traditions. Spend some time with those aspects of paradigm shift and create some of your own tangents from those aspects. The primers critique of the mythologies of capitalism are excellent material.

So overall, the primer is loaded with useful information to empower anyone to advocate for sustainability and uplifting society and paradigm shift.

At the core, every progressive public interest organization exists to repair some kind of damage caused by capitalism and its consumer culture. Recognizing a shared identity among thousands of public interest organizations can steeply empower and fortify all involved.

Those public interest organizations can be focused on all kinds of issues, the environment, affordable housing, homelessness, substance abuse, electoral politics, foreign policy, economic justice, public health, we can add to this movement ready to discover itself non-hierarchical movements such as Black Lives Matter, Defend the Sacred, Occupy Wall Street, Climate Justice.

These organizations already address a wide variety of important issues, and some even touch the sacred realm of lifestyle at the risk of upsetting some of their members and benefactors. They could take their advocacy just a little bit further by placing blame where blame is appropriate. And of course, that is our very own economic system and its obvious disregard to the well-being of people and planet.

For example, the American Association of Retired Persons already advocate healthy food choices and walkable communities. Um, totally for it. Imagine the AARP explaining to its 35 million members the reasons we have junk food and dysfunctional cities dependent on automobiles and freeways and suburbia is simply because those who control the economy to a large degree control the policies and the budgets that deliver a food system, urban design, and transportation that makes them rich at the expense of people and planet.

If all these public interest organizations explained to their memberships how the malpractice of capitalism is the reason for these organizations to exist in the first place, they could motivate many of their own members to take action on behalf of paradigm shift.

These organizations could explain the many benefits for reducing our ecological footprints and helping to build civic culture and salvage a political system that against all odds could become a real democracy.

Another way to bring the ideals and vision of paradigm shift to a wider audience would be to stage a truth and reconciliation process for capitalism.

Truth and reconciliation is a public process to address systematic wrongdoing a powerful entity has imposed on a less powerful entity over a considerable period of time. The goal is to acknowledge the wrongdoing and to achieve an understanding and accountability for that wrongdoing. 

You can contact me via the website APrimerForParadigmShift.org. I welcome the opportunity to share primer ideas, ideals, and positive stories with a wider audience.

I can present by way of Zoom to university classes, conferences, symposium, or any gathering with an interest in sustainability, social justice economics, suburban permaculture, pushing back on cars, and civic uplift. 

This is Jan Spencer, coming to you from Eugene, Oregon. 

Presenter:  Jan Spencer will be livestreaming this Saturday, Jan. 31, with a virtual tour of the new website. Find the links at APrimer ForParadigmShift.org. Starting Feb. 10, you can hear his companion radio program every Tuesday at 4 p.m., just before Democracy Now, right here on KEPW 97.3, Eugene PeaceWorks Community Radio. ​​