The Upward Spiral
From SolSeed
The Upward Spiral is an hour-long video by Paul Krafel, describing a novel way to look at the natural world in terms of flow. The full version is available on Google video, as is a 40-minute edit by Arthur Brock.
Contents |
Discussion at Sol 2009
Participants
- Paul Krafel
- Alysia Krafel
- Arthur Brock
- Brandon CS Sanders
- Kim Edwards
- Ben Sibelman
- Steve Sibelman
Examples of upward vs. downward spirals
- Art: Main St. vs. Wal-Mart's "gully economy"
- When people's local rural economy gets too weak to support the Wal-Mart, it moves out, leaving nothing
- Paul: Education: making kids passive vs. responsible
- Politics: where are the "headwaters?"
- Bottom up: school boards and city councils
- Top down: President is at the headwaters
- Alysia: our goal should be to act in our own spheres of influence
- Paul: divorce between science and religion is a big gully
- Or there might be three entities involved, the third being magic/enchantment
Advantages of fast-moving civilization
- Brandon: We're not just wasting natural resources, we're making an investment
Lessons for individuals
- Paul: Start by studying the power within ourselves, making our inner energy flow more and be more visible
- Author of book Small is Beautiful: We shouldn't be optimists or pessimists about the future; just do the work
- Quote from the movie: "Don't let your current understanding prevent you from doing this work"
- Kim: Example of individual "upstream" action: went to a local college's council and brought up the idea of benefits for domestic parnters of college employees
- The effects rippled up to the state chancellor
- Defining "what's right" is a never-ending process
- Increasing possibilities makes it more likely that a "right" path will be available
