history

ECOoutpost was conceived in the early 21st century at the end of an epoch. The signs are as disturbing as they are increasing in occurrence and severity. We now understand the industrial revolution has overheated the Earth to the point of disassembling its life support systems; and oil, which fueled its rise and perhaps its demise, may be running out as well.

There is an eery feeling that our present world is unsustainable, that, without change, its end is perhaps near; that a feared apocalypse may be upon us, though not necessarily in a form we expected. Systems that previously promised to lead us to a better world have been found to be wanting.

A new global culture and consciousness, however, is beginning to take root and grow in the world. This represents a shift in consciousness, one as distinct and momentous as the transition from the agricultural era to the industrial era roughly three hundred years ago. Because communications technology is a powerful force driving the emergence of this new epoch, it seems convenient to call it the communication era. But in reality, that name is ill suited, since the most distinctive feature of this emerging era is not a technological change, but a change in human consciousness.

With the explosive growth of mass communications, a new global consciousness and culture is emerging. Already a majority of the worlds peoples have access to television and are being profoundly influenced by the communication era. The rapidly emerging global brain is weaving the human family together with more intensity than ever before. The communications revolution is pervasive. The combined power of the Internet, television networks, global satellite systems, cellular telephones, fiber optics, and many more devices has created a perceptual framework within which even those who are agrarians or industrialists in their daily work will increasingly orient themselves.

As pervasive as the communications revolution is, it seems to be taking place within a larger and deeper revolution in consciousness and culture. The dawn of the 21st century is the beginning of this paradigm shift.

For the last several hundred years in Western industrial societies, a materialistic-scientific mindset has dominated. In this view, what is real is the material world as perceived by our senses and organized by our intellect. The universe is viewed as filled with lifeless matter and empty space. The welfare of the whole is left to the working of the free market or government bureaucracies. By contrast, in the emerging perspective, seemingly empty space is not empty, but filled with immense amount of energy. Our cosmos is seen as a living, unified system. This new paradigm moves from a view of separation and isolation to one of profound wholeness and interconnection. At a fundamental level, people are viewed not as separate beings, but as intimately involved with one another in the deep web of life. Each person takes responsibility for the well-being of the world, enabling a high level of decentralization and freedom at the local level, and a sustainable harmony at the global level. The economy, the environment and human cultures are inseparable parts of an integrated whole, where each piece of the puzzle depends on the others to give the whole its shape.

If everything is intimately interconnected, then the quality and integrity of all kinds of relationships are of paramount concern. A natural expression of this paradigm is to bring into balance all the key relationships in our lives. This perspective tends to bridge differences, connect people, celebrate diversity, harmonize efforts and look for higher common ground. The choices made within this generation will reverberate into the deep future. Although human societies have confronted major hurdles throughout history, the challenges of our era are genuinely unique. Never before have so many people been called upon to make such sweeping changes in so little time. Never before has the entire human family been entrusted with the task of working together to imagine and then consciously build a sustainable, just and compassionate future.

'It really boils down to this: that all of life is interrelated. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied to a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.'

–Martin Luther King, Jr.