There is an Alternative
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Show Notes
What if the system isn't broken? What if it's doing exactly what it was designed to do? If that's true, tinkering with capitalism won't save us. We need to imagine a different civilization altogether.
In this episode of Edgy Ideas, Simon Western talks with Jeremy Lent, author of Ecocivilization: Making a World that Works for All. Jeremy's argument cuts deep: our ecological and social crises come from a worldview built on separation. Humans from nature. Mind from body. A civilization that prizes control, extraction and competition over connection. Simon brings his own work on Eco-Leadership into the conversation, wrestling with how hard it is to think outside a modernity mindset that shapes everything, how we lead, organise, even how we see ourselves.
So what does a life-affirming civilization actually look like? Less control, more collaboration with living systems. Less abstraction, more reconnection with embodied, animate intelligence. And crucially, Jeremy insists these alternatives aren't hypothetical. They're already happening in communities around the world.
This isn't a conversation that flinches from the scale of the crisis, but it doesn't collapse into despair either. Jeremy pushes for something harder: full honesty about ecological breakdown, paired with a real belief that transformation is possible. He points to how neoliberalism spread, starting at the margins, until it reshaped the entire world, and asks whether life-affirming ideas could do the same. His closing line says it best: the future isn't a spectator sport. We're all in it, shaping it, whether we notice or not.
Key Reflections
- The system might not be broken. It might be working exactly as designed.
- Our ecological crisis is a crisis of worldview: separation, control, extraction.
- Moving past modernity means working with living systems, not controlling them.
- There is an alternative. Much of what we need already exists, somewhere, in practice.
- Face the crisis honestly, without tipping people into despair or paralysis.
- Big ideas start at the margins, then quietly redraw what's possible.
- The future isn't something we watch. It's something we build.
Keywords
Ecocivilization, Modernity, Ecological Crisis, Life-Affirming Systems, Capitalism, Systems Thinking, Regeneration, Transformation, Collective Action, Eco-Leadership
Brief Bio
Jeremy Lent is an author and speaker whose work investigates the underlying causes of our civilization’s existential crisis, and explores pathways toward a life-affirming future. His new book, Ecocivilization: Making a World that Works for All, lays out the potential for a fundamentally different world system based on life-affirming principles.
His previous books are The Patterning Instinct: A Cultural History of Humanity's Search for Meaning and The Web of Meaning: Integrating Science and Traditional Wisdom to Find Our Place in the Universe. He is the founder of the Deep Transformation Network, a global community exploring pathways toward a life-affirming future on a regenerated Earth.
He has written extensively about the vision and specifics of an ecological civilization, is co-founder and executive director of the Ecocivilization Coalition, and president of its parent, the Institute for Ecological Civilization.