An interesting idea for educating our clueless and insulated world leaders. But…fat chance.

Real systemic change — cultural transformations — never come from the top down, because established leaders always have an enormous vested interest in the status quo, however dysfunctional it is. Rather, history shows that true cultural transformation proceeds from the grassroots, and is only adopted by the ruling elite when they have no other option. Simple and obvious examples of this are the rise of Buddhism in Asia, Christianity in the Mediterranean, and Islam in North Africa and the Middle East. None of these culturally transformative movements started at the top; they took root and spread rapidly among common, ordinary people and only later became institutionalized by the elite.

This is why I put my faith in the most radical, culturally transformative, worldwide grassroots revolution of our time: PERMACULTURE. At its foundation is the idea that we don’t need to rely on our economic and political leadership for anything, if we cultivate self-reliance and ecological wisdom within ourselves and our communities, by growing gardens, growing community, and growing awareness. And the beauty of Permaculture is that it is not simply a set of techniques, nor an ideology — it is rooted in a way of thinking, beginning with the understanding that we are a part of, and not apart from, “nature” or our biological support system. So it begins, literally, from the ground up — by using our ecological understanding of life itself to regenerate the topsoil, and then emulating biological ecosystems by catching and storing available energy flows to create abundance. But this cannot be done by isolated individuals, nor by corporations or governments. It can only be done in community, working together to learn, teach, heal, and create.