The dominant economic system is outstripping the regenerative capacity of our ecosystem [1]. Mechanisms that enable people to extract ever larger amounts of resources are taking more than we are giving.

We are allowing this to happen because the logic undergirding the actions of the people within this system is normal to us. Systemic economic extraction is rooted in our individualism which lulls us into ignoring our impact; a belief in resource scarcity that compels us into rapid competition with each other; and a fear of powerless that drives us to seek out constant advancements creating hierarchical concentrations of power.

Driven by an insatiable need for expansion, any attempt to dismantle this system is met with a denial of its harmful effects, coercion to fall back in line and the vilification of those implementing alternatives. While the system is comfortable with experimentation, change is only allowed at the margins and as long as it doesn’t shift its fundamental logic.

Recreating economies that work for all of us will thus require bold steps towards a new paradigm.

Imagining living economies and reconnecting with our regenerative capacity is a journey of internal emotional emancipation, interpersonal transformation, organizational shifts and systemic realignments, connecting each level to the other [2]. It requires us to replace the dominant worldview with thoughts, actions and processes that repair, sustain and produce life. Essentially, we need to start cleaning up more than we mess up.

This process of building new economies is both visionary and oppositional [3].

A shift that is described as the fractal work of liberation logic found in "build, block and be" [4]:

Building: internal, interpersonal and structural alternatives that care for the whole of people, profit and planet, rooted in an analysis of the systemic causes of today’s dysfunctions.

Blocking: the extractive mindset to slow the damage that is being done to human beings, communities and the earth itself. These interventions can happen at the level of assumptions, decision-making, production, destruction and/or consumption.

Being: based on shifts in consciousness that are embodied individually and collectively, before, during and after blocking and building actions. It is the reason that we block and build.

All that you touch, you change. All that touches you changes you.” Octavia E. Butler

As an alternative to separation, scarcity, and powerlessness, all by-products of domination, liberation logic is based on the following principles:

Interdependence: assumes that we are all interconnected and no one act happens in a vacuum. In practice it looks like exercising more care as opposed to telling people more things [5].

Generosity: reverses the transactional nature of our economy and creates dynamics where people willfully give instead of take.

Choice: requires those impacted by decisions to be consulted and taking the widest possible responsibility for the aggregate impact of our actions.

The stories we tell ourselves about how we should meet our social needs for status, certainty, autonomy, connection and justice creates connecting or disconnecting stories.

At the individual-level, the emancipation work we ourselves have to do is to decolonize our mind from the dominant patriarchal worldview. This requires us to heal enough from the harm it caused to be able to disconnect from past trauma and create distance, to become intentional about our reactions and choose our actions based on clear options [6].

At the interpersonal or organization-level, the NGO-model provided people with a space to respond to inequalities but lacked mutuality. Ally-ship and solidarity models were born out of a desire for a shift in resources and power but folks brought their baggage and quickly fell into the expert mentality which triggered a lot of defensiveness [7]. Evolutionary organizations seek to organize people into deep and transformative relationships, self-managing teams, grounded in radical consent.

At the systemic-level, change in complex systems arises out of simple interactions that move towards a new vision in an environment of constant predation. Everything is connected at scale and the small is a reflection of the large [8]. Adaptation is done with intention, processes are decentralized and reflect our interdependence, systems create opportunities for all and processes are non-linear and iterative. There is always time to do the right work and nothing is ever a failure but always a lesson.

There is a link between personal choices and systemic thinking. Leaders who make that connection show a willingness to engage with discomfort when taking responsibility for moving the whole towards a particular purpose, all the while letting the collective ensure that the needs of everyone are taken into account.

These emergent strategies align actions with measures of success as defined by the collective [9]. Implementation moves thus at the speed of trust, putting present things into the world without an attachment to the outcome but focused on relational dynamics.

Because we are living inside someone else’s worldview, reclaiming our freedom is dangerous. We cannot pretend that we are not embedded in the system that we are trying to extricate ourselves out of and that we aren't complicit in its working. Self-awareness, hard work and a refusal to accept the status quo can begin to diminish the degenerative capacity of the dominant economy and replace it with systems that work for all.

To create change is to engage with the world differently and exert influence where you are present. Assume responsibility for places where you are building the new and be tender to yourself about your limits.

---

A world of gratitude to the thought leaders who influenced the writing of this article from [1] Mateo Nube with Movement Generation; [2] [4] [7] Rebecca Mintz and Aaron Goggans who inspire the Insight-Incite Collective with the Liberation logic workshops they hold; [8] Freedom Cities and their transformative visioning work for safe, healthy and thriving neighborhoods and local communities; [3] [9] Andrea Maree Brown and her work on Emergent Strategies, and [5] [6] Miki Kashtan, The Fearless Heart mobilizing for Non-violent Global Liberation (NGL). My apologies if your concepts are misrepresented, I'm still learning, or if your words were not quoted, they are overlapping in my head and finally making clear the path towards a future that works for all. Email me if I missed a quote and I will correct my mistake.

Image source: Interaction Institute for Social Change (IISC), artist: Angus Maguire