Blessed Unrest
Next Business Book Talk is March 20th at LPL
Book Review by Tim Zaun
  

Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming
By Paul Hawken
Published by Viking, 2007

Blessed Unrest chronicles today’s juggernaut global environmental movement.  Author Paul Hawken is an environmentalist, entrepreneur, journalist, and bestselling author of six previous books.  He has presented nearly 1,000 environmental talks over the last 15 years and estimates that there are between one and two million organizations championing environmental causes.  He concludes that it is the largest social movement in human history, and that its full scope may never be known.  Traditional causes have both a leader and an ideology.  This one has neither, and is based on a bottom-up, grassroots approach.  It encompasses environmental activism, social justice initiatives, and indigenous cultural concerns.

Hawken admits his North American environmental bias, stating that it is the only perspective he owns...

“This bias is important to acknowledge because global history is invariably skewered when seen through the eyes of Western culture, no matter how hard one tries to be objective,” he says.

America’s environmental imprint is illustrated by strong 19th century influences, notes Hawken.  Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Nature, Henry David Thoreau’s Walden, and Lincoln’s signing of the Yosemite Land Grant Act in June 1864 (presaging our national parks system) helped define the era.

The second half of the 20th century marked the initial modern environmental movement.  Leaders were more iconoclastic and radical, as they witnessed increased damage to living systems.  Rachel Carson’s revolutionary Silent Spring was first published in 1962.

“Her genius was to link the loss of human health with the mind-set of biological dominance, with the idea that business and science had a mandate to conquer and exploit nature,” writes Hawken.

Mahatma Gandhi, Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. personified social justice.  Hawken reminds us of life’s proverbial “fork in the road.”  We are free to walk a convenient path or choose a less-traveled road to integrity.  These icons displayed deep, unswerving intent.  While world events were out of their control, their resolve was not.

Native populations have sacrificed both culture and language at the hands of self-righteous invaders since the 16th century.  Now, approximately 5,000 indigenous cultures are seeking to protect their homeland, which constitutes one-fifth of the earth's land surface.

“Today, it is the indigenous people whose blogs and political action express distance from and disapproval of Western culture.” says Hawken.  “Jesus was very clear about who will inherit the earth; so too are most indigenous people.”

All life forms share a cellular-level connection, which drives today’s nameless movement.  Ecosystems and the human body are profoundly resilient, yet each is vulnerable to ultimate destruction.  Biological immunity is Hawken’s metaphorical answer to today’s global disharmony.  He describes the immune system’s dependency on diversity to maintain homeostasis, respond to surprise, learn from pathogens and to adapt to sudden change...

“The shared activity of hundreds of thousands of nonprofit organizations can be seen as humanity’s response to toxins like political corruption, economic disease, and ecological degradation.”

Today’s movement replaces ideology with a value-based system, and is focused on remaking, instead of saving the world.  Universally solving for problems promotes solutions based on multiple situations instead of just one.  It occurs naturally when issues are perceived as symptoms of systemic failure, not chance.

Blessed Unrest explores dark periods of civilization, yet consummately emerges as an optimistic view of worldwide environmental and social challenges.  Readers searching for topical, intellectual perspective will appreciate Hawken’s message.
 

Tim Zaun is a Cleveland, Ohio-based freelance journalist, speaker, trainer and a member of the Lakewood Entrepreneurs Group.  Visit Tim's website by clicking here.

For more details about Tim Zaun's series of business book talks, visit the Lakewood Public Library site.