Towards Regeneration

Can work become joyful, useful, in service to all sentient living beings, regenerative?

How can work and society be regenerative? What must we do to pursue this?

I wrote a post in the July of 2015 called Social Technology, Community Management and Organizational Development inspired by a post and a diagram by Dion Hinchcliffe where he speaks about the potential social technologies have to bring about deep change. In the past couple of years, I have been partially disillusioned by technology as ecological calamities multiply, wars ravage countries, people die of hunger even as excess food is dumped, and species after species become extinct. The Sixth Extinction seems imminent.

“Humanity has wiped out 60% of mammals, birds, fish and reptiles since 1970, leading the world’s foremost experts to warn that the annihilation of wildlife is now an emergency that threatens civilisation.” ~reports The Guardian a couple of months ago. The picture of cattle grazing in the Amazon rainforest sent shivers down my spine.

Against this backdrop, over-reliance on technology feels foolish. Technology as panacea is definitely a dream, and the arrival of AI, Robotics, genetic reengineering, etc., feels even more disastrous. Human’s futile attempt at control.

Even as I dig deeper, I begin to hear the subtle undertones of a different story. This story is bubbling up in diverse guises and in diverse places. It arrives adorning the robe of the #MeToo moment, #ExtinctionRebellion, #NoBanNoWall, #EcoFeminism etc., happening at a global scale. I could also see local movements reflected in #metoo in India and its wide-ranging impact, the farmers’ march, and many more. They may be called grassroots activism, #urban_naxals, and any other label deemed apt, the fact is that there is an uprising that while different in content is very similar in context at a broad level. It is for humanity, for the Planet, for respect, love and compassion. It is demanding an equitable and just social order for all – and not only humans. But all sentient beings. It is against the treating of our Planet as an unending source of “resources to be monetized”. It is against the values of an Industrial Growth Society and is speaking on behalf of a Life Sustaining Society. Joanna Macy calls it The Great Turning. It is this Great Turning that I approach from the standpoint of technology and organizations.