Awakening

In the expression “Awakening Manifesto”, we attribute a cluster of meanings to the word “awakening”. Awakening, as we understand it, refers to a combination of three meanings.

The first meaning that we retain is that we have observed, since the end of the 20th century, the budding of an awareness of the importance of our ecological footprint on land and marine ecosystems, on the loss of ecological diversity, on climate change and on the prevalence of polluting externalities. This awareness takes the form of a progressive awakening to the ecological question following, so to speak, a long period of deep sleep in which we were immersed.

A second meaning of the word awakening is related to the way we will have to behave in the future. That is, in a socially responsible and ecologically respectful way. There is in the idea of “awakening” a presence of the first manifestations of a recomposition of our attentions towards, for example, the societal stakes in terms of social justice and environmental justice. To awaken to the answers to be brought to these questions is therefore to make them one’s own, in the first instance, and, in the second, to want to transform reality so as not to sink again into a de-responsibilizing lethargy.

Finally, a third meaning is of a defensive nature. The word “awakening” also refers to the idea of being in a state of warning, of vigilance against the danger of going backwards. This meaning, we give it a particular function, that of being attentive to the temptation to return to the evils at the source of the great current problems. Yes, it is important to become aware of and awaken to new ways of being, acting or thinking. But be careful, it is also important not to give back to the old watchwords, ideological postures, attitudes and behaviors.

Why speak of a civilization of Awakening ? Because this awakening is the level of the awakening is global. We cannot contact ourselves with minor changes, it is the whole societal body that requires to be recomposed. Historically speaking, we have externalized so many elements to achieve the type of progress that illustrates globalized modernity that the internalization of externalities will require a long period of transition. A transition whose scope will be as global and all-encompassing as modernity has become.