• Introduction

    ‘Don’t be afraid to take a big step if one is indicated.
    You can’t cross a chasm in two small leaps.’ – David Lloyd George

‘The optimist waits for the wind to change. The pessimist says it won’t. Meanwhile, the realist sets the sails.’ In this short video, ReGen Founder Rory Spowers suggests that we all fall into one of these three categories – and may often find ourselves shifting from one to another. Maybe our collective future now depends on the speed at which a critical mass of humanity can now shift out of a recursive loop – between being pessimists or optimists – and start being the realists we now need to set the sails towards a regenerative future?

In this 15-min video, Re-Gen Founder Rory Spowers highlights some documentary films and various illuminating books that he has been inspired by over recent years.

In this video, Re-Gen Founder Rory Spowers unpacks some of the key concepts and terms within the global ideological crisis, highlighting the hallmarks of genuine systems change and the qualities that would underpin a truly regenerative culture and society. This video, along with the essay Is the Virus our Vaccine, is intended to provide the important conceptual preparation and groundwork for the unfolding journey ahead –  and both can be referred back to any stage in the journey for deeper clarification about some of these important key terms and ideas.

‘Backcasting’ – In this short 4-min video, Re-Gen Founder Rory Spowers introduces and explains the design concept of ‘backcasting’ as a basic roadmap for the principle of ‘systems change’. For a working example of this principle in action, please check http://www.riversimple.com, the UK-based hydrogen fuel cell eco car designed and developed by Rory’s brother Hugo Spowers: ‘to pursue, systematically, the elimination of the environmental impact of personal transport’.

Introduction

Q: How can we be as over-engineered as possible – as individuals, families, communities and businesses – for the worst-case scenarios that might be coming down the pipe?

This will be the central question that propels us as we take a journey through the world of regeneration, from Food, Health and Economic issues, to Community, Culture and Consciousness

Although there will be inevitable references to varying narratives trying to make sense of the current global situation, the emphasis will be on moving beyond this to physical implementation of regenerative activities, initiatives and practices.

Generally, the suggestion will be that the response to the current situation remains the same, regardless of what we think is happening:

Firstly, what might this model that we aspire to create, actually look like?

What are the core values and principles that underpin a regenerative culture?

How do we maximise solidarity, resilience and self-reliance in our communities, by taking back as much control as we can over our essential human needs?

How can we co-create the greatest possible security over areas such as our food, water, housing, health, energy, communications and transport?

How can we transmute the prevailing uncertainty and helplessness into a collective sense of empowerment, mobilisation, meaning and purpose?

How can we catalyse regenerative hubs within our communities, both urban and rural?

How did we get to where we are now and what are the systemic ideologies that appear to be driving us towards collapse, catastrophe and totalitarianism?

How did we separate ourselves from nature to such a degree that we seem intent on destroying the very systems that support life?

What are the source codes for the reconnnection, resilience, reciprocity and self-reliance that we require?

What distinguishes ‘systemic change’ from ‘ incremental change’?

Is there even anything that we can do?

Or is there another way – The Way It Could Be?

These introductory sessions aim to answer these big questions, then sketch out the existential risks posed by ideologies – such as Technocracy and Transhumanism – converging with exponential technologies like AI within the ecological crisis.

This is then followed by an exploration of the core concepts in Systems Thinking and a vision for the emerging grass-roots, bottom-up, Regenerative Renaissance, as a potentially viable, attractive, realistic and practical alternative to top-down ‘digital dictatorship’ and ‘surveillance capitalism’.