Ecological Networking

Philosophy Forums Society, Government, and Economics
1

A democratically structured cooperative should engage multi-laterally both internally and with the rest of the world. The first necessary part of the cooperative is a theoretical faculty which would further construct the practical or working faculties. The theoretical faculty will then launch a work group or multiple groups. These groups may or may not consist of the same members as the theoretical faculty. Work groups have the task of cultivating, constructing, producing, refining, or distributing resources geared towards survival, such as nourishment, shelter, sanitation, and other necessary goods and practices.

‘Start-ups’ should have relatively short-term goals, which is to gain control over a locus of resources and cultivate those resources until a surplus is consumed, with respect to tending and nourishing the natural environment. Once the work hub has produced a surplus, then the surplus can be used to create new start-ups which obtain and make usable practical resources.

The goal is to connect hubs which produce real and necessary resources with hubs for goals and planning. These ”theoretical hubs” could and should ultimately exist within the working hubs, as each individual making plans towards those things which are necessary and desired within the community. All hubs should exchange regular communication, both in terms of information and exchange of resources. By reporting to one another, each hub can calibrate its goals and plans in unison.

The goal is to have every start-up stabilize its surplus relative to the environment’s resources, and in cooperation with other relevant hubs, each connecting further geographically in a network which can extend globally. The network of cooperative hubs have the ultimate goal of creating harmony among each other and with the ecosystem, including other biological life, physical forms and necessities, and our existential relation to a greater cosmos.

Theoretical faculties should work on attracting new members, educating and training them to plan new start-ups which will become part of the greater ecological network.

Information and resources for communication can be send out to attract outside agents into forming spontaneous start-up cooperatives, with the goal to unify and synchronize with the rest. This could be done through targeted educational and action-oriented missions, start-ups, etc. The ecological structure thinks globally, and seeks to create an interconnected process of cooperation between all parts of the Earth, between human, plant, animal, inanimate objects, and physical forces.

This is a simplified illustration of a potential network: https://waderbyorchard.files.wordpress.com/2021/07/eco-structure.png

In reality, the potential variations are infinite. Any of the hubs or lines of exchange may be greater or smaller, depending on things like flows of resources. The hubs could be positioned anywhere geographically to one another, and lines of communication could run in any direction between any parties desired. Many hubs may not be geographically separated at all but rather organized as multiple branches within one physical structure. The more that networks of information and resource exchange are decentralized and lateral, the less hierarchical the greater structure will tend to be.

The functions of the hubs should be economic, diplomatic, and cultural. The diplomatic is a subset of the relation between the economic and cultural functions. The economic and the cultural functions must deliberate with the diplomatic functions about how to negotiate over resources with agents outside of the social organism in order to further cooperation.

The cultural sphere deals with unifying local and global economic issues on an ecological scale, relative to the immanent interrelations of the social interaction and the environment. The cultural sphere considers the manifestations, transformations, and interrelations of diverse forms of life and psychological experience. A cultural function is a subset of the theoretical faculty, but it acts by unifying our knowledge, needs, and plans into modes, goals, and practices which contribute the holistic thriving of beings on in this cosmos.

This is an excerpt from a larger work I’ve written but was originally posted in its current form on our blog: https://waderbyorchard.wordpress.com/2021/07/15/ecological-networking/

2

The Ecological Silk Road

A free source map of the world: https://www.nationsonline.org/maps/Physical-World-Map-3360.jpg

The Silk Road, in our meaning, signifies a kind of hypothetical line we could draw on a map which connects necessary resources to their sources in the natural environment.

In order for us to even understand the concept of our silk road, we must be thinking about knowledge as something practical for us, and apply this knowledge in the model of Maslow’s hierarchy: https://waderbyorchard.files.wordpress.com/2021/07/maslow.jpg

We must first have control over the sources of our physiological needs, before we can even begin to cultivate and maintain them so that they will continue to be bountiful over a long period of time. Wäderby’s model is that we re-conceptualize our connection to agriculture and house design so that we are sure that we can maintain them, and get from them what we need.

This in itself is no simple task. In order to build a house, or do work of any kind, one needs tools. In order to have tools, one needs metals, and processes of refinement, smelting and so on. We are at a stage in history where we do not need to relearn these techniques, but rather we all stand at greater or lesser distances from any of these processes. Yet, we are already tied into them naturally, as lines of trade are in motion all around us at all times.

Our goal is, with bases around forest gardening, green energy, education and planning centres, connect into the silk road of those necessary tools and other resources that we can use to construct ourselves further.

In this process, we are working by the principles of permaculture. That is to say, we are working with nature, understanding how nature and the world works, using the strengths and weaknesses inherent in the environment to design our strategies.

This was adapted from a post on our blog: https://waderbyorchard.wordpress.com/2021/07/16/our-ecological-silk-road/

3

Our Ecological Goal

If you and I worked together, we could combine our skills and do something greater. We have come to a point in history where information and techniques are available which will help us accomplish those goals, we set for ourselves.

The things we devote our time and our effort to throughout our everyday lives both create the character of our lives and shape the way the world around us looks and behaves, because it is our work which builds physical structures and creates institutional codes of conduct.

We know that in order to live and live well, we only need to satisfy the requirements for our survival in such a way that makes us feel that we live somewhere beautiful, and that the things we consume and spend our time with make us thrive and feel like life is worth living.

Our physical needs are part of a symbiotic relationship with nature. The food we eat grows from the Earth, and the water we drink runs through the Earth’s veins, the materials we use to build our houses are those found on and within the Earth’s surface, and in the end, to Earth shall all return. The cycles of birth and death, consumption and releasing are the Earth recycling its nutrient systems in further manifestations of birth and fertilization.

This Earth, or natural environment, is everywhere in the landscape, where you stand and all around you. From this land comes the crops to provide you food, the wood and stone to build your houses and metal to support the structures. If you cultivate a garden in your yard, and if the world around you was filled with fruits and vegetables and forest orchards with berries and much more, then you would have access to these things all around you all of the time.

We realize that in cooperating, combining our efforts, we can learn and accomplish more, but also that if we cultivate the entire natural ecosystem, make it healthy and thriving, the fruits of nature will return to us through its natural cycle. When our neighbour does well, and by doing well one means living in a thriving ecosystem, then not only will those fruits of nature spill onto our lawns, but our neighbours will have more to contribute as we in turn will have more to contribute to them, so that we are in a state of harmony with each other as we are with the Earth.

This was originally posted on our blog: https://waderbyorchard.wordpress.com/2021/06/30/our-common-goal/

4

As a Pagan I’m all in favour of protecting the environment and building sustainable communities. But also, as a Pagan, I’ve had experience of attempts to set up networks with similar aims to the ones you’re proposing here. And in my opinion, all of them make the same basic errors, so I’d like to offer some constructive advice, if I may.

The main problem, I think, is the emphasis on having a democratic structure. It sounds all well and good in principle, which is why everyone proposes it, but what it means in practice is that no one actually takes responsibility. I was once part of a group whose aim was to establish a network of sustainable communities, among other things. They met every couple of months in a pub function room, and spent a few hours reading the minutes of the last meeting, proposing ideas, making amendments, voting on pretty much everything, and never actually doing anything, because no one individual was willing to take the lead. What you need, in my opinion, is one person, namely, the founder, to take all the responsibility for decision making, and doing all the work, delegating where appropriate. This also inspires confidence in the other members, knowing that someone is actually running things. That’s how organisations are succesfully set up.

The other main problem, I would suggest, is that you’re trying to do too much, having all these different and potentially confusing ideas. I think you should focus on one or too things, and keep them simple. Any other stuff can easily be added later, once you’ve actually got something going.

5

We want to separate Wäderby Orchard from other institutions we are making and proposing. The models we are proposing on this website could effectively be used in other start-up models. Wäderby Orchard is a personal project of ours which represents a philosophy in itself. We will be engaging in our own practices here locally, but wish to invite people internationally to engage with our work. At the moment we are doing outreach as part of our planning phase which we will use for an advertising phase. But as an organisation we want to stand open and provide new opportunities to our society as part of our model. This would include building up contacts throughout the society. But the same principles outlined here could potentially be outlined remotely and even for other purposes.

I do appreciate your critique of democracy, because it puts the responsibility on the individual. But I do like that awakening to awareness, because when we take responsibility onto our shoulders we also take our power to put our time and effort into what we believe in, rather than abnegate the responsibility to someone else.

Some may say that it is only an aristocratic ideal, that some few will rise up, but the few always ride the tide of the many. We have considered how mass media can be harnessed to push some goals and push others out of the way. There are manuals about how one can use signs as merely signals to prime large groups of people into a given behaviour. That is the general approach adopted by large corporations, together with the help of usury.

Because my girlfriend and I are artists, I do think there is a degree of ‘performance’ to what we do, but we wish to put a certain degree of integrity of that performance. Often we speak about how being an organisation feels like we are a mirror of all the world because we see their practices and know our own goals and intentions and how they are like parallel opposites.

6

Seems good advice. I would add even more - but as pointed out - there comes too much upon the plate.