Earth Community Dialogues

IMPERATIVE

Business as usual is over. The era of cheap oil is ending, climate change is real and deadly, and the U.S. economy rests on an unsustainable foundation of financial and environmental debt. For most people, the debate on each of these issues is now over. Yet there is little prospect of constructive political leadership coming from Washington, DC. The initiative in embracing the moral imperative to fashion a constructive response to a growing planetary emergency must flow from the community level upward through an inclusive process that engages the interests and participation of everyone. Earth Community Dialogues are a response to this imperative.

UNIVERSAL PRINCIPLES

Earth Community is a term from the Earth Charter, a declaration of universal responsibility to and for one another and the Living Earth crafted through consultations involving thousands of individuals and hundreds of organizations from all regions of the world. The Charter sets forth four overarching principles:

1. respect and care for the community of life;
2. ecological integrity;
3. social and economic justice; and
4. democracy, nonviolence, and peace.

These principles define universal values affirmed by all the world's major faith traditions and embraced by a substantial majority of the world's people. They are the foundation values of Earth Community and provide the guiding framework for Earth Community Dialogues.

BEING THE CHANGE WE SEEK

Negotiating a transition from the dominator relations of Empire to the partnership relations of Earth Community necessarily centers on nurturing the practice of partnership at all levels of society from local to national to global. Partnership relations are a product of trust building and the discovery of mutual interests.

By their nature, partnership relations involve a leadership of the whole and represent the highest expression of the democratic ideal. Using instruments of domination as means to achieve the end of partnership assures failure. Partnership relations must emerge from the bottom up through processes of mutual empowerment as people discover and cultivate relationships of trust and otherwise dormant leadership potentials within themselves. Think of it as a process of community building. Earth Community Dialogues, which bring together diverse elements of a community around a commitment to creating a partnership world that works for the whole of life, are an essential part of this community building process.

DEFINING CHARACTERISTICS

An Earth Community Dialogue is best understood not as a single event, but rather as an intentional, broadly inclusive, ongoing conversation centered in a community of place the embraces a commitment to: 

• The defining principles of the Earth Charter
• The moral imperative to create a world that works for all; 
• Racial, religious, cultural, political, and class diversity;
• Mutual respect, deep listening, heartfelt communication;
• Values based learning and problem solving; and
• The work of gaining currency for stories of Earth Community.

The individual dialogues take many forms and go by many names, but share an underlying commitment to turning the current planetary emergency into an opportunity to create a world aligned with the deeper values most humans share.

A small group or even a single individual might initiate an Earth Community Dialogue in a given locality, perhaps from within a local church, mosque, synagogue, interfaith alliance, local government, college, socially responsible business, or local nonprofit organization. It might build on and support existing initiatives intended to advance local agriculture, energy self-reliance, green building, or support for local businesses. It might begin with a series of discussions on The Great Turning, a YES! Circle, Conversation Café, or other regular discussion group.  As these dialogues take root in a growing number of localities, they create a growing potential to merge into ever-larger dialogues of the whole.

STRATEGIC PREMISE

We humans are captive to self-limiting stories that deny the possibility of any alternative to humanity’s current suicidal path. To change course, we must step forward to break the silence that prevails when truth remains unspoken, end the isolation that undermines community, change the stories that define the prevailing culture, and thereby turn the human species to a future that works for all. Our collective behavior will change as our collective stories change. No matter how small the individual voice, it can contribute to changing the national conversation, and thus our politics and the course of the human future.

POSSIBILITY

Possibilities for a rapid expansion of the processes of positive bottom up leadership in the United States are far greater than our nation’s bitter political divisions might suggest. Eighty-three percent of Americans believe that we are as a country focused on the wrong priorities. Substantial majorities of both conservatives and liberals want to see greater priority given to children, family, community, and a healthy environment. In short, a substantial majority of Americans feel out of step with the way things are going and embrace the foundational values of Earth Community. The result is a historic moment of opportunity to make a conscious choice to turn from away the sorrows of 5,000 years of Empire and embrace the joys of Earth Community.