Agents of Habitat: Lesson 1

Our task is to create the world we want for our great grandchildren . . . the seventh generation.

Our great grandparents are the first generation.

We are the fourth.

The seventh generation is our great grandchildren.

It will take 21st century wizards to create this world.

20th century wizards created wonders by taking things apart and understanding the parts. 21st century wizards will create wonders by putting things together and understanding the function of wholes. These wizards we need will be agents for building up the habitat. I call them Agents of Habitat.

An Agent of Habitat realizes that it is up to them. No one else is going to create the world we want for our grandchildren. Unless they do it our grandchildren cannot have that world.

It does not take money. The world we want is a pattern of activity that includes everyone and all the many species. The world we want has a place for everyone. It is a world where everyone can get what they need to thrive. The resources we need are all the people and all the species without a place in the pattern we have now.

The people and the species without a place in our world are resources.

They represent potential. They represent the potential to create a pattern of activity that includes everyone. They are unrealized potential because the market has no use for them. But the market is not the only way to produce things. We can also engage the unrealized human and biological potential where we live in new patterns of activity that produce what people need to thrive.

When we pave a piece of ground we reduce the biological potential of that space to zero. But, if you stop sweeping it, nature will begin to reclaim that potential. The difference between what could be living in a space and what is living in a space is unrealized biological potential.

Now think of all the contributions that could be made by people who are unemployed, or all the people in prisons, or the 4.3 billion people living on less than $5 a day, or even the student or home maker who is not producing anything in their spare time. That which people could produce but do not, because no one will pay them, is unrealized human potential.

You may be grateful that you have found a place in the market.

You may have a niche that allows you to provide for your needs. You may feel sorry for those who cannot compete in the market. You may give what you can to charity because you are concerned about social justice and the environment. There is still a need for Agents of Habitat. Even if you have your niche in the market it would be better for you if we had a complimentary system of production where anyone could participate . . . a place where you could go if you got laid off . . . a place to go if you wanted to develop a new marketable skill . . .

As good as your life is because you have a place in the market, our world suffers from the waste of human and biological potential . . . and because your habitat suffers so do you . . . our individual well being is inseparable from the well being of the pattern of activity in which we find ourselves. We owe it to our great grandchildren to be the wizards that learn to tap into that potential and create a pattern that includes us all.

It will take Agents of Habitat to build the world we want . . .

it all depends on individuals making that choice . . . why not you?