Depaving the Highway Paradigm

Do the environments we live within shape the ways in which we operate and interact?  Or is it the ways we operate and interact that shape the environments we live within?

I think we now realize that both are true, they reinforce each other in the same vortex pattern that natural systems evolve. It can be an upward or a downward spiral, and unfortunately considering the state of our current environments and current behavioral health conditions... it's not feeling too upward, yet current systems and structures continue onward with increasing momentum.

How do we steer the titanic? How do we re-code our default operating system and collectively adopt a new worldview before the icebergs... melt?

In our left-brain focused culture, we have a fairly calcified shell of systems that narrowly define and reinforce our definitions of "progress" and "success" - all of the ways in which we humans measure our own worth and potential. In this little shell within which we operate, we focus on what we know. We place certain expectations on how things will unfold, we tell and re-tell the same stories that define our "human nature". We act as if we know almost everything, yet over 95% of our universe is made up of dark energy and dark matter that we still haven't figured out. We travel down information highways, magnified through monopolized media, and we "make our living" in the same kind of constrained way. This all seems to be upheld in the name of "efficiency", yet nature has proven to be the most efficient system and does not organize and operate in this way.

It's as if our humanity, as a species, is traveling a vortex highway of collective psychic information. Everyone is moving so fast that it seems impossible to exit without a crash. How do we break through without breaking down? In my work to study and plan for resilience, I have noticed a division in approaches. The oldschool approach is like a highway paradigm, the noo-school approach is one of many paths:

The Highway Paradigm	Many Paths Paradigm
Protecting ourselves	Promoting planetary resilience
Linear processes, one-size fits all	Dynamic interactions, adaptive, complex
Single actors, silos, sectors	Networks, patterns, interactions, processes
Risks, vulnerabilities, needs	Assets, strengths, collaborations
What do I know? What can I do about what I know?	How do we collectively navigate our uncertain future?
Evidence-based practice, "hard" science	Practice-based evidence, traditional and cultural knowledge
Command-and-control	Engage-and-change; multi-level interaction
Mitigate risks to soften the blows	Harness challenges to catalyze transformation
Crises management	High performance management
Scarcity, limited resources	Alignment, leveraging, capacity building
Homogenous and dominant-culture decision-making,  reliant on historical patterns	Diverse leadership, invitations to diverge and experiment, risk-taking
Resistance to change	Listening and lifting up what is already working
Interventions;  a patchwork of strategies w/ single outcome objectives	Innovations;  investment in emerging community initiatives with co-benefits
Sustain; capacity for systems to remain unchanged	Adapt; Capacity to evolve and change in response to new conditions
Institutional rigidity, hierarchies, low morale	Feedback loops, participatory democracy, public-private partnerships, engagement, empowerment
Quantifying and predicting specific risks and exposures	Characterizing and clarifying community concerns and solutions
highlighting victims of tragedy and increasing warnings	Inviting stories of strength and survival, capturing and scaling up lessons learned

If our actions reinforce the highway paradigm mode, we can say that we are just a product of the system, we are "making our living". What are we willing to risk? How will we each start to change lanes, start to slow down, and shift the traffic patterns? And will this kind of incremental shift happen soon enough? Are we willing, as a human species, to get behind a 10-point plan for getting off the global highway paradigm? How are we honoring the trail-blazers, the traditional ecological knowledge, the natural systems that support and nurture us? How are we honoring those who are different from us? How are we honoring the "different" within ourselves? 

Resilience requires us to listen to each other and listen to ourselves. It is a call to follow our own personal truths, however far off the beaten path they may take us. Perhaps the most surprising thing I am realizing, is that we should not waste our time de-constructing the current mess we find ourselves in,  instead the solutions may be to simply broaden our perspectives and mindfully model something new and better. Exit the highway, it's time to go 'take a hike'.