When Pieter Bruegelsketched The Beekeeper in 1568, the dogma of religion and mythic systems that had characterized the Middle Ages was beginning to give way to what we have come to call the Scientific Revolution, with the ascendancy of observation and experimentation. Intellectual authority as presented by giants like Galileo, Descartes and Newton with their assertion that truth can be weighed and measured, replaced revelation as the source of knowledge, and with it came a new view of the world.
The assumption was (and often still is) that the universe is a vast machine with interacting parts, much like a clock. Each part, viewed as separated and isolated, has a few properties and movements determined by its mass and the forces acting on it. In the event of a break down the apparent solution is to identify the malfunctioning part and repair it. And if we know how the parts work then the world is not only predictable but controllable. The universe is to be conquered and exploited and in so doing we have become increasingly detached from the natural world.
We have extended this image of a machine to the social system; human behavior too can be broken down into separate parts which are measurable, predictable and controllable.
Clearly there are those few who supposedly can predict and control, a learned elite who determine this capitalist-industrial paradigm. Industry produces goods which need to be sold, so progress is measured in material terms and a self-serving consumer society is lauded; we are encouraged to buy our way out of a depression, or shop our way out of the feelings that followed the attack on the Twin Towers of New York City on September 11th, 2001.
In a competitive, dominant culture that rewards power and control and promotes obedience and compliance, we are defined by our possessions, not least our houses, clothes and vehicles.
Ironically though, the scientific and industrial revolutions, which were expected to save mankind from the instabilities of the environment, improve the quality of life and enhance one’s freedom, have also engendered disability, condoned suffering and promoted divisions in society. Thus we have a population explosion, urban gridlock, increased incidences of diseases related to pollution and fast food diets, the obesity of a couch potato society, mental stress and depression caused by materialism, the imperialism of agri-business companies and an environmental crisis that threatens our very existence. Future generations may well call the nineteenth and twentieth centuries “The Age of Emissions.”
Watching a colony of honey bees at work suggests an alternative way of being. A colony is communal. Each worker bee has different tasks that change during her short life, the purpose of which is the well being and survival of the community. The satisfaction comes from contributing vitally to the greater whole. Indeed, if one essential part of the colony dies then all die, so there is a vested interest in the health of all.
Over millions of years honey bees have learned to adapt to the environment without needing to control it. A colony displays complex social and organizational behaviors which, without the need for any ruling body, is the result of cooperation among the bees correlated to available materials and energy. The whole is more than the sum of the parts while at the same time determining the behavior of those parts.
It is an ecological rather than an industrial paradigm. The universe is seen as a living organism with which we interact, just as every bee is unique yet inseparable. It is a partnership that involves cooperation, nurturing, mutual benefits, team work, openness, accountability and, believe it or not, peace. Honey bees are defensive rather than aggressive; they will defend their home if they feel it is being threatened, as would we all. Remarkably, no life form is harmed as the bees go about their work. They take only what they need and in so doing enable the reproduction and continuation of many other species.
That’s not a bad set of objectives as we set about moving from a mind set of sustainability, which implies accepting our current level of degradation, to one of regeneration, which involves recovering what we have lost. It is a matter less of ‘accepting the things I cannot change’ and more of ‘changing the things I can no longer accept.”
Our Green Cathedral 