We must learn how to think like the planet.

Learning has to come from doing, not intellectualizing.

Civilization is based on a clearly defined and widely accepted yet often unarticulated hierarchy. Violence done by those higher on the hierarchy to those lower is nearly always invisible, that is, unnoticed. When it is noticed, it is fully rationalized. Violence done by those lower on the hierarchy to those higher is unthinkable, and when it does occur is regarded with shock, horror, and the fetishization of the victims.

To be clear, civilization is not the same as society. Civilization is a specific, hierarchical organization based on 'power over.' Dismantling civilization, taking down that power structure, does not mean the end of all social order. It should ultimately mean more justice, more local control, more democracy, and more human rights, not less.

Premise Eight: The needs of the natural world are more important than the needs of the economic system.

The global industrial economy is the engine for massive environmental degradation and massive human (and nonhuman) impoverishment.

Civilization is not and can never be sustainable.