WiserEarth: cambio social desde internet

Paul Hawken, es de esas personas que logra sintetizar lo que 10 años sucederá. La actual ola de negocios ambientalmente responsables, ya la veía él hace 15 años, por lo que fue uno de mis héroes intelectuales desde la universidad. Ahora ha sacado un nuevo libro y debido a él ha producido un increíble websitel: WiserEarth. Lo entrevista AlterNet, y así lo introduce: "Paul Hawken has spent over a decade researching organizations dedicated to restoring the environment and fostering social justice. From multimillion-dollar nonprofits to single-person dot.causes, these groups collectively comprise a movement that has no name, no leader, no location, and that has gone largely ignored by politicians and the media. Like nature itself, it is organizing from the bottom up.

Hawken's new book, Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming, explores the diversity of the movement, its ideas, strategies and hidden history."

Y afirma Paul Hawken: I estimate today that there are between one and two million organizations in the world that are addressing social justice and the environment, human rights and ecological restoration. It's not only the largest movement in the world, it is so large compared to any other thing that exists or has existed, that there is really no second place. And I think the reason we don't see it as a movement is because it is so different from anything we've seen before. We see movements as ideological, as starting in some center and spreading out from that place, as having leaders that we look to for inspiration, and who then manage and guide.

At the same time, most movements have wanted to amalgamate power to themselves in some form or another. They've looked at concentrations of power and said, "We want some." But this movement is very different. It's not ideological, it's based on ideas. Ideologies constrain and dictate what you can and cannot do.

Terrence McNally: Right, they choose a certain set of ideas and declare, "This is us," and outside is outside.

Paul Hawken: For instance, there's Catholic theology, but then there's also liberation theology, and "woops - oh no, you've stepped out of bounds," and the Vatican's going to come down on you. Well, that's an ideology. You call it religion, but it's an ideology.

This movement is about ideas, and ideas open and liberate, they evolve. When ideas don't work, you throw them away and try new ones. No one's the worse for it, or the better for it, and no one's attached to it, because it's about process. It's about making things work, as opposed to holding on to something as a belief.

The intention of this movement is to disperse the pathological concentrations of power. That doesn't mean that it wants to take power for itself, and so it's seen as powerless. It's not powerless at all: It takes a great amount of courage and fierceness and dedication. To me this is the most powerful movement in the world - not in terms of gunships and fighters and helicopters, but in the sense of people's hearts and their stamina and endurance..."

¿Cómo facilitar toda esta sinergia? Paul Hawken ideó WiserEarth, un website/portal para hacer más inteligente a este movimiento sin nombre que está trabajando por un cambio social en todo el mundo, sea en medio ambiente, derechos humanos, paz, género, salud.... Continúa la entrevista:

Terrence McNally: What do you hope that this book can accomplish by pointing it out or naming it?

Paul Hawken: We've created a website - wiserearth.org - that allows organizations and people to enlist. It's a wiki, a relational database.

On the site, you can start to see this movement yourself. You can use the tools there - or create your own - to connect and to collaborate with people all over the world. In a sense, what we're trying to do is create an information commons for this movement. It isn't really owned by anybody. There are no ads; we are not benefiting from it. Wiserearth.org is a nonprofit, and you're as welcome as anyone else to become an editor and co-create it with the community itself. That's one of the goals.

A second goal of the book is to explore the history. It's so interesting to see how deep this movement goes. It's not really new, though it's growing very rapidly. The book tells its deep and honorable and ancient history.

The third goal is to hold a mirror up to the movement itself and say, "See."....

Visiten WiserEarth.