The Ecomodel or Ecomodule
John L. Waters
October 19, 2005
The ecomodule or ecomodel is a community plan based on hard-working human beings living happily in tune with nature and with one another. This happiness is based on being in accord with the universal accord and feeling this unitive sense. While these words may sound lofty, idealistic, and impractical, the basic concept is no more lofty than being a dog lover and being good provider for your beloved dog. In fact all over the world the basic concept is in use today.
The natural world forms an ecosystem, and humans living in tune are part of the ecosystem. For thousands of years humans lived in tune with the ecosystem along with their beloved dogs. Similarly, our ancestors kept other beloved animals and cared for them the way today's plant lovers care for their beloved plants. These are human beings living symbiotically with one another and with the plants and animals that sustain them!
The plant lover interacts with his or her plants by lovingly handling them and providing for their every need. Nature repays the plant lovers by providing them with luxuriant gardens. Similarly the good shepherds are kind to their sheep and so they do not want for wool. The Earth itself needs love and care to provide for our needs. By cutting into the Earth and mining the Earth, and dumping poisons into the Earth, humanity is damaging life and the Earth itself. Furthermore, today's youth want more and more and more and more, and many species of plant and animal life are being driven to extinction or at least threatened with extinction. A kinder, more considerate, and more symbiotic human society is needed. This is the ecomodel or ecomodule society.
To avoid being dismissed as "high-minded" or "lofty," I bring your attention to most every child who enjoys living symbiotically with a beloved animal pet. We see examples of this symbiosis most every day when we are around a child who loves and cares for an animal pet. We see it in the gardener who lovingly cares for a beloved garden. There is nothing "lofty" and "impractical" about this! The caregiver simply works to care for the beloved object and the beloved object works to provide for the caregiver. This is not a "utopian" vision, because symbiosis is everywhere a reality! Symbiosis exists. "Utopia" means "non existent."
Laying the dark ages of unreason to rest, we proceed to study examples of symbiosis, and include symbiotic relationship in the framework of our ecomodel community. For example, earthworms aerate and enrich the soil, so we raise lots of earthworms and provide them with fine places to live and breed. For another example, we grow plants whose roots fixate nitrogen and thereby help fertilize the soil. These include legumes, alders, and other plants. We also employ well-known and proven methods of agriculture which do not require expensive gas-guzzling machinery, methods such as the Fukuoka method, Permaculture, and water farming.
Without a doubt, growing food is the basis for any sustainable human society. Making soils more fertile is obviously a fundamental practice in any sustainable human society, because growing food and consuming food tends to deplete the soil. By living symbiotically with soil-enriching creatures, the ecomodel society demonstrates the fundamental survival need. Non-pollution of the water, soil, and air is also a requirement for long-term human survival.
To conserve energy, ecomodel houses are built underground, or at least draw from an underground reservoir of air which is much warmer than surface air in winter and much cooler than surface air in summer. In this way humans need not work so hard to heat their homes in winter and cool their homes in summer. Living in thrift and in tune with nature is the ecomodel rule.
At first there need to be a few experimental pilot projects to work out the basic ecomodel design, with small houses, garden plots, light industries, schools, healing centers, and markets. There can be an auditorium where visitors come and learn something about this new design for more symbiotic living. Some of the visitors will want to try living at the ecomodel community because their present living situation is unpleasant. The new way of life will seem better to them or at least worth a try. Many locations today are dangerously toxic or at least the neighbors are dangerous.
The ecomodel community is slow-paced. Caring lovingly for animals and plants is slow work. What is the rush when haste makes waste? When work is pleasant and enjoyable, there's no rush to get it done fast. One needs to love one's work and be devoted to one's work. Otherwise, what's the point of life? Moreover, we humans are utterly dependent upon plants and animals for life. If we don't lovingly care for plants and animals, we're breaking the rule of symbiosis, that is the rule that is demonstrated by any true dog lover.
One well might say that "love" is the basis for the ecomodel community. For example, the ecomodel community takes in persons who feel at risk in the traditional community of "dog-eat dog." Therefore, the new ecomodel community is like a good shepherd who cares for his sheep. The good sheep trust in the good shepherd and do not run away from him. In symbiosis the people who live in an ecomodel care lovingly for their community and work for their community. On the other hand, the ecomodel community doesn't force people into slavery. The work has to appeal. The work has to be made to appeal to persons who don't want to feel like slaves.
The good dog lover doesn't feel enslaved by his or her dog. There is a mutual affection between the dog and the dog's keeper. The good gardener loves caring for plants and doesn't feel enslaved by the plants. When a person feels like a slave, it means that he or she doesn't like the work. So a major part of ecomodel life is finding the right persons for the right ecomodel. With different light industries featured in different ecomodel communities, not everyone belongs living in the same ecomodel.
Our present society is bad, because certain kinds of work do not pay well. Young people get pushed into doing work they can't do easily or well. At the ecomodel every line of work pays the same wages. No person is richer than any other person. This is the society based on love, not money. What children naturally do well, they learn to do as adults. There is no forcing of children to sit for years on their butts, trying to master certain kinds of work that they will never be good at.
Today in many modern nations the divide between rich and poor is widening, and there are more poor people than ever before. At the same time, more and more young people are wanting more and more expensive goods to be happy. Meanwhile, the reserves of oil and gas are being exhausted. The cost of transported goods is increasing. Fewer and fewer persons can afford their own personal airplane, helicopter, boat, bus, or car. Yikes, even bikes are getting expensive! Soon the ecomodel way of life will seem more desirable.
Copyright 2005 by John L. Waters. All Rights Reserved
LINKS
My website at Humboldt State University
My search for a publisher
My letters of recommendation
The natural world forms an ecosystem, and humans living in tune are part of the ecosystem. For thousands of years humans lived in tune with the ecosystem along with their beloved dogs. Similarly, our ancestors kept other beloved animals and cared for them the way today's plant lovers care for their beloved plants. These are human beings living symbiotically with one another and with the plants and animals that sustain them!
The plant lover interacts with his or her plants by lovingly handling them and providing for their every need. Nature repays the plant lovers by providing them with luxuriant gardens. Similarly the good shepherds are kind to their sheep and so they do not want for wool. The Earth itself needs love and care to provide for our needs. By cutting into the Earth and mining the Earth, and dumping poisons into the Earth, humanity is damaging life and the Earth itself. Furthermore, today's youth want more and more and more and more, and many species of plant and animal life are being driven to extinction or at least threatened with extinction. A kinder, more considerate, and more symbiotic human society is needed. This is the ecomodel or ecomodule society.
To avoid being dismissed as "high-minded" or "lofty," I bring your attention to most every child who enjoys living symbiotically with a beloved animal pet. We see examples of this symbiosis most every day when we are around a child who loves and cares for an animal pet. We see it in the gardener who lovingly cares for a beloved garden. There is nothing "lofty" and "impractical" about this! The caregiver simply works to care for the beloved object and the beloved object works to provide for the caregiver. This is not a "utopian" vision, because symbiosis is everywhere a reality! Symbiosis exists. "Utopia" means "non existent."
Laying the dark ages of unreason to rest, we proceed to study examples of symbiosis, and include symbiotic relationship in the framework of our ecomodel community. For example, earthworms aerate and enrich the soil, so we raise lots of earthworms and provide them with fine places to live and breed. For another example, we grow plants whose roots fixate nitrogen and thereby help fertilize the soil. These include legumes, alders, and other plants. We also employ well-known and proven methods of agriculture which do not require expensive gas-guzzling machinery, methods such as the Fukuoka method, Permaculture, and water farming.
Without a doubt, growing food is the basis for any sustainable human society. Making soils more fertile is obviously a fundamental practice in any sustainable human society, because growing food and consuming food tends to deplete the soil. By living symbiotically with soil-enriching creatures, the ecomodel society demonstrates the fundamental survival need. Non-pollution of the water, soil, and air is also a requirement for long-term human survival.
To conserve energy, ecomodel houses are built underground, or at least draw from an underground reservoir of air which is much warmer than surface air in winter and much cooler than surface air in summer. In this way humans need not work so hard to heat their homes in winter and cool their homes in summer. Living in thrift and in tune with nature is the ecomodel rule.
At first there need to be a few experimental pilot projects to work out the basic ecomodel design, with small houses, garden plots, light industries, schools, healing centers, and markets. There can be an auditorium where visitors come and learn something about this new design for more symbiotic living. Some of the visitors will want to try living at the ecomodel community because their present living situation is unpleasant. The new way of life will seem better to them or at least worth a try. Many locations today are dangerously toxic or at least the neighbors are dangerous.
The ecomodel community is slow-paced. Caring lovingly for animals and plants is slow work. What is the rush when haste makes waste? When work is pleasant and enjoyable, there's no rush to get it done fast. One needs to love one's work and be devoted to one's work. Otherwise, what's the point of life? Moreover, we humans are utterly dependent upon plants and animals for life. If we don't lovingly care for plants and animals, we're breaking the rule of symbiosis, that is the rule that is demonstrated by any true dog lover.
One well might say that "love" is the basis for the ecomodel community. For example, the ecomodel community takes in persons who feel at risk in the traditional community of "dog-eat dog." Therefore, the new ecomodel community is like a good shepherd who cares for his sheep. The good sheep trust in the good shepherd and do not run away from him. In symbiosis the people who live in an ecomodel care lovingly for their community and work for their community. On the other hand, the ecomodel community doesn't force people into slavery. The work has to appeal. The work has to be made to appeal to persons who don't want to feel like slaves.
The good dog lover doesn't feel enslaved by his or her dog. There is a mutual affection between the dog and the dog's keeper. The good gardener loves caring for plants and doesn't feel enslaved by the plants. When a person feels like a slave, it means that he or she doesn't like the work. So a major part of ecomodel life is finding the right persons for the right ecomodel. With different light industries featured in different ecomodel communities, not everyone belongs living in the same ecomodel.
Our present society is bad, because certain kinds of work do not pay well. Young people get pushed into doing work they can't do easily or well. At the ecomodel every line of work pays the same wages. No person is richer than any other person. This is the society based on love, not money. What children naturally do well, they learn to do as adults. There is no forcing of children to sit for years on their butts, trying to master certain kinds of work that they will never be good at.
Today in many modern nations the divide between rich and poor is widening, and there are more poor people than ever before. At the same time, more and more young people are wanting more and more expensive goods to be happy. Meanwhile, the reserves of oil and gas are being exhausted. The cost of transported goods is increasing. Fewer and fewer persons can afford their own personal airplane, helicopter, boat, bus, or car. Yikes, even bikes are getting expensive! Soon the ecomodel way of life will seem more desirable.
Copyright 2005 by John L. Waters. All Rights Reserved
LINKS
My website at Humboldt State University
My search for a publisher
My letters of recommendation
Print
Email
