CHAPTER 18

A Truly Revolutionary Revolution

Dark and difficult times lay ahead. Soon we must all face the choice between what is right and what is easy.

—DUMBLEDORE, TO HARRY POTTER

For several years I’ve been compelled to speak of a local food revolution without fully comprehending what I was pointing to. I have felt the revolutionary nature of what’s happening around local food—that this is not just a social movement, but an expression of something much deeper emerging in our world.

Being able to see that the evolution of modern human civilization has brought us to an evolutionary threshold is useful, especially in the larger context of the evolution of the universe. Without this perspective, it would be reasonable (but shortsighted) to conclude that humanity’s trajectory can end only in the tragedy of irreversible entropy.

But, as we have seen, with the broader evolutionary perspective—and understanding something of the dynamics of cataclysm and emergence122—we can anticipate that the Turn in human evolution is naturally a time of extreme chaos and confusion, as patterns and structures held to be fundamental are radically transformed or even destroyed. Many individuals sense these things, of course, but have no adequate conceptual framework in which to hold them, let alone a pathway to follow.

I have great empathy for the individual who feels or sees all this and feels called to some greater level of participation, that of being an evolutionary catalyst (consciously or not). It is not within the scope of this book to explore the reasons why someone may feel called, as this is a matter of destiny and purpose, which each individual must ultimately pursue for himself or herself. I can, however, offer heartfelt confirmation that these feelings and intuitions are real and meaningful, are intimations of what seeks to emerge in our troubled world, and are indicators that one has a potential role at this crucial moment in human evolution.

For the last year or so, I’ve struggled to grasp the connection between revolution and evolution. The long history of revolution is dominated by bitter and often violent conflict. For instance, “A Brief History of Revolution,” a 2010 Adbusters essay, characterizes revolution as “the ultimate social leap—a period when the gradual accumulation of mass bitterness and anger of the exploited and oppressed coalesces and bursts forth into a mass movement to overturn existing social relations and replace them with new ones.”123 This is clearly the riot, revolt, resistance, rebellion, and insurrection of which Chris Hedges writes so eloquently in Wages of Rebellion,124 and which we have become accustomed to seeing played out in the daily news.

This view has been troubling, for I have somehow known that the revolution I was seeing and feeling was not at all like this. While I could not articulate it, I sensed that the inevitable revolution Robert Kennedy alluded to in the 1960s could not have been mere revolt.125 To me, it seemed to point to much more of a step toward Teilhard de Chardin’s Omega Point and the arrival of something new and generative on the planet, not a mere uprising against the evils of the world.

The kind of rebellion or revolt of which Hedges writes can lead only to further entropy. But what the local food revolution embodies is a reversal of entropy. Here we witness the emergence of an entirely new human capacity, of aligning with evolution’s arrow rather than making our own way. This is not a subtle distinction; it is fundamental.

Thus, the revolution manifesting around local food can occur only at the moment of the death of a civilization, at the Turn, in the same way that the supernova process is possible only with the death of a star. At the Turn, our challenge is quite simply whether we humans will choose to continue on our path of at least the last twelve thousand years, on which we seek control and manipulation of the resources around us, or whether we will yield to the evolutionary force seeking to emerge within us.

In the process of evolution, we know there are spontaneous and radical phase shifts that can occur and, along the way, moments that open up the space for the shift from one phase to the next. These are revolutionary moments.

Because the word revolution has been largely associated with confrontation and violent conflict, I have felt uncomfortable in using it (and I’ve certainly observed the discomfort of those who’ve heard me speak about it)—and yet there has seemed to be no viable substitute. There was no getting around the reality that most revolutions have historically ended in failure or have, at least, devolved into a repeating cycle of conflict. I now see that this is because previous revolutions have derived exclusively from the first three or four stages of the evolution of modern human civilization.

What we are calling deep revolution is profoundly distinct, radically expanding our collective context, and drawing all of humanity toward a higher level of evolution and engagement. Deep revolution is emergent and cannot be created by force of will. It is an invitation the universe offers us in times of evolutionary crisis to align with the fundamental flow of unfolding evolution, even in the face of apparent cataclysm. As evolutionary catalysts, we can declare that we join this deep revolution, a greater force for good, now beginning to take hold, invisibly, everywhere on our planet.

This deep revolution appears to be guided and inspired by the angels of evolution (past and present, visible and invisible) who gently and often silently assist us as they serve a Higher Order seeking to emerge and manifest here, expressing itself through nearly fourteen billion years of evolution’s unfolding in this universe. We are the servants of this deep revolution, the willing and sometimes unconscious vehicles through which it is moving. While this is beyond our current ability to fully comprehend, it is not beyond our ability to purposefully and gladly join.

In searching my memory banks for historical examples, it began to occur to me that the Buddha, Jesus, and Muhammad—and the resulting movements of Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam126—perhaps represent the essence of early deep revolution, clearly catalyzing historical moments of evolutionary emergence. In this context, the evolutionary perspective pioneered by Teilhard de Chardin and his spiritual and intellectual descendants similarly represents the emergence of deep revolution.

Deep revolution must be ignited by a higher purpose, aligned with evolution’s own purpose. Whether humanity as we know it will survive its current phase shift is, for now, unknowable. But we can now see that the evolutionary thrust of deep revolution is to usher in the Ecozoic era.

The local food revolution offers a doorway to all this—certainly not the only doorway, but perhaps one of the most inviting and open these days—and heralds the deep revolution that is soon upon us. The local food revolution is a powerful emergent center of aliveness in the midst of a dying civilization.

I cannot really explain any of this, nor am I convinced it is remotely explainable. Perhaps it can only be known in the core of one’s being. For now, I find myself unable to construct a manifesto for deep revolution or even to define explicitly what it means. It may be that I can only point. But I sense that this deep revolution is the evolutionary opposite of “the one truly revolutionary revolution” of which Wendell Berry writes, by which he means the Industrial Revolution and its accumulating excesses, “which has proceeded from the beginning with only two purposes: to replace human workers with machines, and to market its products, regardless of their usefulness or their effects, to generate the highest possible profit—and so to concentrate wealth into ever fewer hands.”127

It’s significant that the local food revolution finds its emerging center in the American landscape.

In the American Revolution of the eighteenth century—and in the French Revolution that followed—we can perhaps perceive that what was attempting to emerge in those fertile times, rich with potential, did not come to full fruition. A profound course correction was possible at that time, but it did not completely manifest. As a result, our troubles have grown to encompass the entire planet.

In evolutionary terms, however, perhaps enough was accomplished in those days to lay the foundations for such a needed course correction now, when the conditions for deep revolution are present once again. Today, we face our global emergency just at the moment when many among us are awakening to who we are, where we are, and what our purpose is as humans, signifying that the conditions conducive to a global deep revolution have at last arrived.

Time does not appear to be on our side, however, for the accumulating effects of the last twelve thousand years of humanity’s descent into stage four are just now becoming obvious—and they are increasing at a fearsome pace, far beyond worst-case scenarios. Now, in this extreme situation, we will either respond decisively or our emergency will become a global cataclysm.

There seem to be few visible signs that the kind of deep revolution needed is actually emerging or even could emerge any time soon. After all, part of our collective condition is a tendency toward self-deprecation, depression, and despair. But I submit that deep revolution is emerging with great vigor and creativity in what we have called the local food revolution. If we nurture this center of aliveness, there is great potential for the underlying values and commitments and purpose of the local food revolution to become highly contagious, to go viral, and to ignite other emerging centers of aliveness, creating a truly revolutionary deep revolution.

The time has come on this planet when a deep revolution is necessary. It is stirring in many individuals and in many places among us, but it seems to be most visible and most robust in the local food revolution, which we can now see as the emerging edge of a breakthrough in human evolution.