Parable of the Rosebush & Parable of the Tribes - The Geotribal rEvolution

A Syntropian Antidote to Dystopia

There’s no denying the prescient power of Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents. Written decades ago, Butler’s dystopian vision, set in 2024, is more relevant today than ever, eerily capturing the fractured state of our world, torn apart by climate change, economic disparity, and authoritarianism. Her stories reflect the worst-case scenario of human nature under the relentless pressures of scarcity, domination, and fear—a world where survival becomes a brutal competition.

But Butler left her Parable series unfinished. While she prophetically mapped the downward spiral of our existing systems, she also left us with a glimmer of hope through her young protagonist, Lauren Olamina, whose vision of Earthseed—the idea that “God is Change” and that humanity can evolve into something greater—hints at the potential for transformation. Butler was both warning and preparing us for a crossroads, one where we must choose between continuing the collapse or stepping into the unknown future of evolution.

So here we are, in the real world of 2024, standing at that very crossroads.

If Butler’s Parable of the Sower is a warning about the dangers of unchecked societal decay, then my forthcoming books, Parable of the Rosebush: rEvolution Z and Parable of the Tribes: The Geotribal Age, offer a syntropian antidote—a vision of what we can create if we choose a different path.

Parable of the Rosebush: Planting Humanity in New Soil

Inspired by Edward Bellamy’s vision in his book Looking Backward, published in 1888, Parable of the Rosebush asks: What if humanity is not inherently flawed or doomed to self-destruction, but simply planted in the wrong soil? Like a rosebush struggling to bloom in toxic ground, humanity’s full potential has been stunted by the systems we’ve built—capitalism, tribalism, competition, and scarcity. Bellamy’s utopian ideas suggest that just as a rosebush will flourish in healthy soil, humanity, too, can thrive if we change the conditions we’ve been rooted in for millennia. These "bad soils" of systemic inequality, scarcity and competition have kept us from reaching our full potential.

But the rosebush has potential and can flourish—if we change the soil. This is the essence of syntropy and a syntropian vision: rather than spiraling into chaos and collapse, we evolve toward order, harmony, and mutual flourishing.

However, there’s a deeper antagonist lurking behind these systems—the force of Moloch. Moloch represents the destructive dynamics of scarcity, competition, and misaligned incentives that have ruled humanity for millennia. It is the force demanding sacrifice—sacrifices of our time, our humanity, and even our children—to feed a broken system. Moloch’s grip keeps us locked in the mindset of domination and fear, telling us there is never enough for everyone. But Parable of the Rosebush challenges this by suggesting that we can create the conditions for humanity to flourish, not through sacrifice, but through cooperation and abundance.

Parable of the Tribes: Towards Geotribalism

But shifting the soil isn’t enough. We also need to change the way we see ourselves and each other.

My Parable of the Tribes, The Geotribal Age book builds on the foundational work of Andrew Bard Schmookler, who argues that competition between groups inevitably leads to domination and conflict—this is the core dynamic behind human history's wars and power struggles. In Schmookler's The Parable of the Tribes, humanity has been locked in a cycle of "survival of the fittest," where the only way to avoid being destroyed by others is to dominate first. This destructive pattern mirrors the forces of Moloch whose grip on modern systems amplifies these cycles, turning human societies into machines of war, inequality, and ecological collapse. 

But this is not the only way. My Parable of the Tribes book asks us to imagine what could happen if humanity collectively evolved into a new kind of tribe—a geotribe—one that understands its interconnectedness not just with each other, but with the entire planet. Geotribalism isn’t about returning to small, isolated tribes, but about embracing a global consciousness that allows us to coordinate and cooperate as one planet-wide "tribe of tribes."

Where Parable of the Sower reflected the dystopian tendencies of scarcity-driven competition, Parable of the Tribes offers a vision of syntropian cooperation. Instead of tribes at war over resources, we become a global tribe focused on creating a regenerative civilization.

From Dystopia to Syntropia: A New Collective Hero's Journey

Parable of the Rosebush and Parable of the Tribes are not just stories. They are calls to action—a challenge to break free from the toxic soil of the past and to co-create the conditions for humanity to thrive in the future. They represent the potential for a collective hero’s journey, where instead of waiting for a singular savior, we all rise as one to shift the paradigm.

Lauren Olamina’s vision of Earthseed was about survival in a broken world. rEevolution Z and Parable of the Rosebush are about creating the conditions where humanity can not just survive, but flourish. Butler’s Parables showed us the consequences of failing to adapt; now, we must write the next chapters, with the story’s beginning timeline set in the now of 2024, where we take control of our evolution and steer it toward a future rooted in syntropy and regenerative culture.

The world is crying out for this evolution, and the conditions for change are ripe. Like Butler’s Earthseed, we recognize that "God is Change." But we are not just passively awaiting change; we are actively shaping it…conscious evolution. Parable of the Rosebush shows us the importance of planting ourselves in new soil. Parable of the Tribes invites us to transcend competition and fear, building a global tribe rooted in cooperation and mutual respect.

But here’s the twist: We can’t wait for someone else to make this change. This rEevolution requires all of us. If Parable of the Sower was the wake-up call, then Parable of the Rosebush and Parable of the Tribes are the blueprint for what comes next.

Let’s plant a future worth nurturing.