Jeremy Lent - The Web of Meaning - Nov/Dec 22

A remarkable conversation with the author of our deep read for November and December, Jeremy Lent, a visionary genius hailed as "one of the greatest thinkers of our age" by George Monbiot.

We heard about Jeremy's own journey and how after folding his dot.com startup and the death of his wife, he retreated into nature in search of true meaning in life.

It was out here he developed his understanding of the connection and oneness in all life that he articulates in 'The Web of Meaning', summed up by the Albert Schweitzer quote he shared:

"I am life which wills to live, and I exist in the midst of life which wills to live."

Jeremy provided a fascinating explanation of the connected living systems that are life on Earth, and we discussed how our dominant culture and worldview disregard this connections, resulting in the many crises of modern times.

In search of sources of change, Jeremy pointed to two pressure points:

The opportunity of transforming all businesses to being benefit driven, of BCorps, incorporating the needs people and planet alongside shareholders, and

The adoption of Universal Basic Income to enable people to spend their time supporting well-being along with traditional 'work', breaking with connection with labour having to support the destructive system of capitalism.

As we sought hope for the future, Jeremy introduced the term Evolutionary Civilisation to describe the goal that positive change-makers are working towards. He discussed how change is never linear and that the unravelling of society actually presents opportunities to do things differently.

Jeremy ended with a powerful call for hope and action:

"Life is calling on us to feel it's pain, but not get so pulled down that we give up. We must turn out attention instead to what is life affirming."

What an incredibly comprehensive worldview, and all gained from time spent with nature listening and learning.

An inspiration!