DGBS Core Principles
Joe Moncarz, May 2016
The purpose of the Deep Green Bush-School is to raise a new generation of youth who are deeply connected with the Earth and who will have a deep understanding of the world around them. They will care about what is being done to the planet, they will care about what is being done to them by the industrial world, and they will care about the denial of traditional indigenous wisdom and knowledge. With their deep awareness, our students will have the confidence, knowledge, skills, resilience, emotional intelligence, wisdom and courage to do whatever is necessary to heal society, heal the planet and live well.
We recognise that our children will judge us by the world we leave to them. They will not thank us for having bought them ipads and cell phones, or for having taken them to amusement parks or on airplanes. Rather, they will thank us for leaving them with air they can breathe, with water they can drink and with a healthy Earth.
We recognise that we currently live in a “ten percent world”. Ninety-percent of the natural world has already been destroyed by industrial civilisation. When the final ten percent is gone, so too will humans disappear. We recognise that it is irresponsible of us to raise our kids without a deep connection to the Earth, a deep understanding of what is going on and the skills to do something about it. It is irresponsible of us to continue to act as if everything is okay.
We recognise that it is not computers or phones that keep us alive and sustain us – it is the natural world which sustains us. It is not shopping malls or amusement parks that keep us alive and sustain us – it is the natural world which sustains us. It is not a world of jobs and “the economy” which keeps us alive and sustain us – it is the natural world which sustains us.
We reject the belief in human superiority (i.e. humanism) which enables Western science to exploit nature as a dead resource and which is a basic tenet of all major belief systems. Humanity does not need “salvation”; rather, the solutions to our global problems lie in embracing the understanding that enabled indigenous cultures to thrive for tens of thousands of years: that we are just one among countless life forms on this Earth and we are not here to impose our will on them. We embrace basic ecological principles which dictate that the more humans there are, the less of every other life form there will be. We understand that we cannot base our life philosophy on 'growth' on a finite planet.
We recognise that, in fact, the Maori lived better than us. The Polynesians lived better than us. The Australian Aborigines lived better than us. The American Indians lived better than us. The San Bushmen lived better than us. All these other cultures lived in ways which did not destroy the natural world. All these cultures lived in ways which enabled them to thrive.
We recognise that children will grow into wise, mature and responsible adults only when they bond to the natural world and form a deep connection with all of existence. Human evoution demonstrates that this is only possible by allowing our kids to spend their entire childhoods with the complete freedom to play and explore in the natural world. We are not separate from nature. We have always been part of the wild, and we have only ever lived fully when we have lived in the wild, participating through unrestrained direct experience with all of existence. Our health is based on rewilding ourseves and the planet.
We are not raising a new generation to be mindless slaves for the industrial machine. We are raising a new generation who will know how to live in harmony with each other and with the natural world and will do what is necessary to ensure a healthy planet for future generations.
We are raising a new generation who will be both Earth healers and Earth warriors. They are one and the same.
We recognise that our children will judge us by the world we leave to them. They will not thank us for having bought them ipads and cell phones, or for having taken them to amusement parks or on airplanes. Rather, they will thank us for leaving them with air they can breathe, with water they can drink and with a healthy Earth.
We recognise that we currently live in a “ten percent world”. Ninety-percent of the natural world has already been destroyed by industrial civilisation. When the final ten percent is gone, so too will humans disappear. We recognise that it is irresponsible of us to raise our kids without a deep connection to the Earth, a deep understanding of what is going on and the skills to do something about it. It is irresponsible of us to continue to act as if everything is okay.
We recognise that it is not computers or phones that keep us alive and sustain us – it is the natural world which sustains us. It is not shopping malls or amusement parks that keep us alive and sustain us – it is the natural world which sustains us. It is not a world of jobs and “the economy” which keeps us alive and sustain us – it is the natural world which sustains us.
We reject the belief in human superiority (i.e. humanism) which enables Western science to exploit nature as a dead resource and which is a basic tenet of all major belief systems. Humanity does not need “salvation”; rather, the solutions to our global problems lie in embracing the understanding that enabled indigenous cultures to thrive for tens of thousands of years: that we are just one among countless life forms on this Earth and we are not here to impose our will on them. We embrace basic ecological principles which dictate that the more humans there are, the less of every other life form there will be. We understand that we cannot base our life philosophy on 'growth' on a finite planet.
We recognise that, in fact, the Maori lived better than us. The Polynesians lived better than us. The Australian Aborigines lived better than us. The American Indians lived better than us. The San Bushmen lived better than us. All these other cultures lived in ways which did not destroy the natural world. All these cultures lived in ways which enabled them to thrive.
We recognise that children will grow into wise, mature and responsible adults only when they bond to the natural world and form a deep connection with all of existence. Human evoution demonstrates that this is only possible by allowing our kids to spend their entire childhoods with the complete freedom to play and explore in the natural world. We are not separate from nature. We have always been part of the wild, and we have only ever lived fully when we have lived in the wild, participating through unrestrained direct experience with all of existence. Our health is based on rewilding ourseves and the planet.
We are not raising a new generation to be mindless slaves for the industrial machine. We are raising a new generation who will know how to live in harmony with each other and with the natural world and will do what is necessary to ensure a healthy planet for future generations.
We are raising a new generation who will be both Earth healers and Earth warriors. They are one and the same.