Ecocities 1 & 8, Behavior Change

I really enjoyed reading the First and Eighth chapters of Richard Register's Ecocities. In the introduction and first chapter he gives us the scathing and disturbing picture of earth as we know it and the trajectory we as humans have sent it in, whether by action or inaction. It's easy to argue with some of the points Register brings up, and I think this was a conscious choice on his part to instigate honest and blunt discussion about what he understands to be the greatest task of humanity now: how to deal with our dinosaurs.

I especially appreciated his call for "a fundamentally new approach to building and living in cities, towns, and villages" (1) and his quoting Einstein: one cannot solve the problem with the thinking that created it. We need a profoundly new and creative way to interact with the world we've built. But, this brings me to a point on which I cheerfully disagree, and am happy to think more about. I don't know who said it, but it was a female poet of the Beat Generation who corrected a fellow poet who had proposed that form is an extension of content, by posing that form is a revelation of content. Thus I believe that although Register is doing the brave deed of imploring us to address environmental degradation by facing what he calls the root problem: the way we build our "built" environment. Now, I can see this is true, but my intuition tells me, screams at me, that unless we can dig deeply within our own individual human nature and create the paradigm shift within ourselves that we will be condemned to another round at this game of life. Unless there is a fundamental change in the way people choose to live, it will not make any bit of difference how many land uses we can fit in a block.
He writes on page 3, "If the fear of this prospect , instead of the thing itself, motivates us, the next opportunity could be humanity collectively learning how to build a healthy future." Maybe, but I sincerely doubt that fear will make a "sustainable" change, or rather one that heads us in the direction of harmony. It might seem to be working for the Bush administration, but fear mongering will not work in the end.
I think this is a parallel process, a breathing in and breathing out; form affects content and content form.

Also, his emphasis on history, although important (of course!) makes me question him a bit again. We can and better learn from history (or we will be doomed to repeat it). Is he asking for us to repeat some of it? Is that based on needs he has observed? What if humans aren't as social as we think they are? We are madly in love with privacy, even social butterflies. Anyway, lots of thoughts.


As far as Behavior Change, I need more focus. The last week has been maddeningly busy, and entirely without rhythm, and lots of time on the road, which makes all of my goals difficult. But I am still conscious of them and I think it's like McDonald's french fries. I used to love them, but for years and years I slowly quit eating them, and now I never ever want them. So I'm getting there, and it's a longer process than this semester.

I want to add two things to my goals. One is to keep my house clean. It's not that I'm messy, but certain others are, and it clogs my creativity to live in squalor. Another is to support my housemate who started a compost by getting a bucket for the other kitchen that doesn't have one and vocally supporting her with the others.