Note: Michael Lerner, a lifelong social activist and the founder and editor of Tikkun during its forty-year existence, died peacefully at his home in Berkeley, CA on Wednesday, August 28, 2024. In the last months of his life, he could no longer read or write, but he wanted to share his vision for the future with you in the dictated article below.
Rebuilding the World After the Catastrophe:
A Hopeful Vision
By Rabbi Michael Lerner / Tikkun
with assistance from Deborah Dueñas
The 21st century is likely to be one of the worst in human history, but you know about that already. There have been endless warnings about the climate, the end of regular distribution of food, large-scale wars, and the breakdown of human relationships. But as we enter the 22nd century, it becomes possible for those who have survived to imagine and construct a very different kind of world.
Yes, there will still be the ruling elites that brought on those catastrophes. But even as the number of survivors dramatically decreases, the shocks and failures will have awakened a significant percentage of survivors to the need for a fundamental reconstruction and rebuilding of the world, such as it will be.
There was such a moment immediately after the Second World War. But the hopefulness and possibilities were squashed by the ruling elites who convinced large segments of the surviving population that a new set of wars and military and political struggles between the major powers was still necessary.
The coming set of survivors in the middle of the 22nd century will be very much aware of the dangers of the Powerful and their worldview. They will have an acute understanding of the need for a fundamental transformation without the tricks and manipulations of the ruling elites of the 20th and 21stcenturies. Those elites will continue to claim that wars and inequality are necessary for the survival of Nation States. Yet for most of the survivors, the memory of the traumas caused by wars and inequalities will open for them a real desire to change rather than repeat these social maladies.
There is no guarantee that the pain from class society and the fear of creating something new would not lead to a repetition of the past. Yet the opportunities for bringing together a majority of people who reject the old order will open the possibility of a movement that can fundamentally transform the world.
A new level of solidarity and an almost universal rejection of the racism, sexism, homophobia, antisemitism, and the many other forms of manipulation will be seen by most people as not only hurtful but also disgusting, and those who participate in them as sad specimens of the human race.
One possible way that they could rebuild what remains of their world would be to embrace a practice of radical love. While there will still be a small percentage of people who continue to believe that power over each other is the best way to rebuild the world, the failure of that worldview will make it unlikely that a majority of people will continue to hold on to that outdated notion. Instead, a powerful majority of survivors will help others embrace the practices of a radical love. Here is what it might look like:
The Vision
To create a new society, the survivors will likely realize that food and other necessities must be shared. This sharing needs to be reinforced by an ethos of caring for each other and by the knowledge of what is healthy and what is not. This would be a priority. We must teach children and adults who have survived the catastrophe of the second half of the 21st century to grow and produce food that is healthy and sustainable. Food that is good for the planet and good for our health. Wherever possible we want to encourage people to share meals with each other. This will be more of an ethos than a command.
We want to build a world in which we care for each other, and that can only happen when we know what’s happening with each other. So we will encourage people to live in communities. It will be far more likely this will happen after we see more clearly all the destruction that comes from the capitalist order.
While creating communities with a high level of connection and caring, we also want those communities to provide ways for people to have some privacy and freedom when needed, like the plan in the Kibbutz movement of the sixties and seventies for people to have a small place of their own and another place where they could be in community.
The consciousness generated by ownership of private property needs to be transformed by the desire to care for each other. We are aware of the dangers of forced community, so we want to make sure that people feel free to have privacy and individual creativity without any form of coercion.
Coming out of the mass destruction of the world because of the selfishness-based capitalist society, we will not have to impose caring for each other. A large percentage of people will be able to understand the need for this. Nevertheless, we will not impose caring, but will only promote and develop institutions that encourage it.
As people find themselves in a society that promotes love and caring, kindness and generosity, sharing and helping each other, they will find themselves wanting more and more to enjoy the intrinsic benefits of those values.
In every aspect of our potential for a caring society, we will insist that the workplace manifests this vision. People will not seek money and power over love and caring. As we rebuild workplaces, they will manifest this vision in creating work that is done for the sake of the community, not for the sake of individual wealth.
The Jubilee
Economic equality will be assured by the brilliant idea of the Prophets. Namely the Jubilee, a redistribution of wealth every 50 years. To ensure that this redistribution works well, the rebuilt society will establish a new financial system every 50 years, and money accumulated in the past 50 years will no longer be honored in any financial transactions.
This may seem radical to you now, but in the world that we hope to rebuild, we don’t want to repeat all the forms of wealth inequalities that made it possible for a small percentage of the population to have wildly more than the rest, and to use their money and other forms of wealth to shape a world that values money and wealth over caring for the earth, giving people adequate healthcare, education, and a zillion other things that make up the society based on inequality that has led to extreme destruction.
Rebuilding our world will require both a set of skills that many may not have and learning opportunities that are equally available to all. There may be moments in which people prioritize the needs and demands of those who have the skills that are most needed. However, we will find ways to prevent those with more skills from gaining more power.
We will also encourage people to learn new skills that may be needed. Again, those opportunities must be readily available to anyone willing to learn. In the world that has just broken down it was often the case that the rewards of certain types of work were unequally distributed to a small portion of the population in order to insure that people who had those particular skills would be able to command disproportionate economic power. This is often the case in the medical field in which generally only a small elite portion of the society are able to attend medical school and become doctors.
In the world we hope to rebuild we will no longer value people solely by their work. Once we have reduced production to things we really need, a huge number of workplaces and jobs will no longer be needed.
The Society We Hope to Build
In the world that failed (from Capitalism) the only motivation for working was for economic survival and the benefits that society gave to those who had money. In the society we hope to build, the benefits would be offered equally to everyone.
The task is to help people understand that their value is not tied solely to the workplace. Once the absolutely necessary production of food, housing, clothing, healthcare, and transportation are made available, a significant part of the population will have nothing that they have to do but will have all of their material needs met. This, in turn, will allow for more leisure time, creativity, and learning new skills of interest to the individual. It will also make possible workplaces in which people participate in the shaping of that workplace.
Because benefits will be distributed equally, the struggle to “be on top” will not be necessary. Instead, people will be rewarded for the degree to which they manifest caring for each other. In such a society, racism, sexism and other forms of oppression will likely disappear over the first three generations.
We will also give high priority to ensure that marginalized people of every sort and women will have equality both in the world of work and in their home life. Here too we want to ensure that people are not coerced into any particular style of living as long as they are consistent with our goal to ensure maximum care for each other and for the planet.
Caring for the Planet
Love for the planet will lead to a worldwide understanding that any rebuilding must be accompanied by caring for it both as a collective and as individuals. Having seen the great destruction when people used scientific knowledge of the Earth to maximize their own wealth and wellbeing, we will dedicate the two last years of high school to create ecological awareness projects.
These projects will give teenagers a deeper appreciation and reverence for the complex workings of our planet. The projects will also give them an understanding of the psychological, spiritual, and emotional foundations for a loving and caring society. Building on those foundations, the new generations will be prepared to create caring societies and a loving world.
Building a loving society is the ongoing responsibility of people at every stage of life. Elders will be encouraged to share their wisdom and experience with children, youth, and adults. They will also benefit from a psychological climate in which they are valued for their life experience. They will also be offered opportunities for continued learning in a wide range of topics including music, history, the use of the most current technology, painting, and a hundred other ways in which their skills become vehicles to show caring and love.
Three to four generations of caring for each other and building a new way of living will still not be enough to sustain the new society. We will need ongoing reinforcement to maintain this world of love and caring. We need to remind people that the world of selfishness and materialism will be an ongoing temptation. The rebuilding of a new world is likely to take ten or twelve generations to take hold but once it does, there will be liberation, fun, and joy in all aspects of daily life.
Epilogue
Writing this piece is a sacred way to end my life. Any way you can pass this vision on from generation to generation in the future would be sweet and wonderful. Teach your children, grandchildren, and students, and share it with future generations who may be doubtful that it could take hold but nevertheless are willing to consider it.
Final Note
Michael asked for any donations in honor of him to go to: American Friends of Neve Shalom/Sahat al-Salaam (“Oasis of Peace” in Hebrew and Arabic), a nonprofit organization committed to supporting Israel’s only intentional Arab-Jewish village. www.oasisofpeace.org/donate
Share your memories of Rabbi Lerner here:
Remembering Rabbi Michael Lerner (google.com)
