Adapted from the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America, Thomas Jefferson, 1776
With apologies to Thomas and Dr. Susan Krumdieck’s Transition Declaration of Independence, 2008
A Sustainer
Declaration of Independence
hen in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate station to which the Laws of Nature entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of humankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation from the TechoIndustrial Growther's Consumer Society.
We hold these truths to be self-evident to all who would be Ecolate, that all organisms are endowed by Nature to possess certain unalienable Rights, that among these are the right to live and die as Responsible Members of a Sustainable Community of Evolving Beings.
— That to secure these rights Organizations, as social control systems, are instituted among Human Communities, deriving their just powers from the consent of the Ecolate Members whose Best Judgments of and concerning Biophysical Laws are implemented through mutual coercion, mutually agreed upon as determined by Nature's Laws.
— That whenever any Form of Unsustainable Anthropocene Enthusiast Culture becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of Ecolate People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new set of Cultural Memes, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, in accordance with Natural Law, as to them shall seem most likely to effect the Prosperity and Long-term survival of Future Generations.
— Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Sociopolitical-economic Patterns long established should not be changed for frivolous and transient causes. However, all experience has shown that humankind is more disposed to suffer evil, while evils are sufferable, than to right them by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed, thus we carefully consider change.
— When a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Growth Object evinces an unintended design to reduce Humans and their Environment to Ruin, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Cancerous Maladaptive Customs, and to provide new Guards for future security and sustainability.
— Such has been the patient sufferance of Sustainers; and such is now the necessity which constrains us to alter the former SYSTEM of Growth and Exploitation for its own Sake. The history of the present Theory of Economic Growth is a history of repeated planetary disasters, injuries and usurpations, all having in direct Object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over Society and the Global Commons. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
- The Growth Culture for its own Sake, pursuing only the contingencies of profit, has regarded Earth as a planet for the taking, has plundered Earth's seas, ravaged her coasts, felled her forests, eroded her soils, polluted her waters, and fouled her air.
- The Growth Culture for its own Sake, unable or unwilling to understand the exponential function, has encouraged population Growth and Consumption for its own Sake, in spite of the foreseeable Overshoot and potential Unmanaged Collapse to come.
- The Growth Culture for its own Sake has convinced us to ignore the voice of Scientific Knowledge and Reason in order to continue Unsustainable Growth powered by the profligate combustion of fossil fuels unto Overheat.
- The Growth Culture for its own Sake has exploited our talents, forced us into debt, degraded our culture, and eroded our relationships with the members of our Community and Life on Earth.
- The Growth Culture for its own Sake has overconsumed energy and all exploitable planetary resources, which by right should be managed for the benefit of Posterity and other Creatures in perpetuity, in order to enrich a few in the short term.
- The Growth Culture for its own Sake has paved our farms, nucleated our families, sprawled our towns, overpowered our lives, and diminished the quality of life of the people for generations past, current and yet to come.
- The Growth Culture for its own Sake has exploited peoples and environments that have no protection from ill use, and has persecuted those who worked to oppose it.
- The Growth Culture for its own Sake has assaulted the sensibility of our youth and treated them as a commodified Target Market rather than show them the respect to be accorded junior citizens.
- The Growth Dynamic has corrupted the purpose of our governance and civic institutions, it has usurped the purpose of our curiosity and research efforts, and it has shifted the motivation for the education of our young from development of their intellect and character to exploitation of their labors for further Growth of the Economy.
We, Representatives of the Sustainer Movement, therefore Assemble Online, appealing to the Supreme Judge of Reason and Evidence for the rectitude of our intentions to Transition Now, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of this planet, solemnly publish and declare, That our Communities are and of Right ought to be Free to live Sustainably, that we are Absolved from all unsustainable and self-destructive requirements of the Cancerous Growth Culture for its own Sake, and that all connection between our Intentional Communities and the Growther's Politico-Economic SYSTEM, is and ought to be dissolved; and that as Self-directed and Sustainable Watersheds of the Federation, we have full Power to reduce Energy and resource consumption, control population growth, recycle our waste, restore our environment, evolve our Culture, nurture our agricultural assets, set aside our resources, refrain from overexploiting minerals and fossil fuels, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Local Commerce and Interwatershed Trade based on Systems Principles, and to do all other Acts and Things which Sustainable Communities must of right perform.
— And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the existence of Natural Law, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our childrens' Future, and our Sacred Inquiry.