As Bill McKibben says in a cover blurb for this book, we need to reinvent the world. Tim Hollo has surveyed citizen efforts all over the world who are working to do so and he's brimming with news. He's found that many communities are living by "new models of change-making that are dissolving and distributing power". He calls this summary of findings "an ecological manifesto for the end of the world as we know it".
Yes, he says, the world as we know it is ending. But that doesn't mean it's the end of the world.
His is clearly a bottom-up approach. Gone are the fantasies we might change the system by changing our economy and governments from the top. I've linked to an introductory chapter below. In it he cites activist and blogger, Sophia Burns: "It begins with dropping conventional activism and finding ways to build institutions that can weave into people’s daily lives. It begins with taking on small projects that win credibility and expand capacity.”
Hollo finds hope in the power of local communities working together. As Rob Hopkins was quoted in this letter three weeks ago: ‘If we wait for governments, it will be too late. If we act as individuals, it will be too little. But if we act as communities, it might just be enough, and it might just be in time.’
Book Excerpt: Building a Living Practice of Democracy
Related Article: Living Democracy: Not a Blueprint, But a Pathway
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