Riane Eisler speaks of the “dominator mentality”; B of the “Taker culture”; Fritjof Capra of “mechanism”; and Ernest Becker of our problematic “need to spiritualize human life.” All of them discuss fundamentally interrelated aspects of our cultural vision, and all are, of course, interdependent. How can we turn understanding into action? How can we not “save the earth” but rather “save the people”?

I’m afraid I don’t see the point of your distinction between saving the earth and saving the people. We can’t live here if we make the earth uninhabitable. If we want to save ourselves, we MUST save the earth. You ask how to turn understanding into action. It’s not useful to think of them this way. Action is simply understanding in its outward mode. All action is an expression of understanding. When our understandings change, our actions must necessarily change as well—it can’t be otherwise. That’s why Ishmael says “teach a hundred and urge each of them to teach a hundred.” This is why B says: “If the world is saved it will not be by old minds with new programs but by new minds with no programs at all.”

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