Suzanne, I resonate with your seeming frustration. We need a breakthrough, but seem stuck in a hall of mirrors — ping-ponging from one issue to another, knowing what needs to happen, yet at the moment we seem to be going backwards rather than progressing.
I myself have been through a number of initiatives, mostly related to economics and monetary policy (complementary currency, UBI, wealth tax, MMT, not-for-profit, etc.) — yet I am realizing the truth of the Einstein observation that “problems cannot be solved from the same level of thinking that created them”. It’s not about a policy change or new regulations — we can’t fix the current system, we need to transcend it.
Virtually all human-created problems stem from our loss of a sense of community — that we are all one living organism, one body, one family — and we move and grow best when we all care for each other and realize our joint enterprise. Yet historically, cultures were physically separated, resources were often scarce, and technology was limited, so competition seemed a practical survival strategy. Today, there need be no more scarcity, yet all of our institutions evolved to function on this model, so now perpetuate it unnecessarily.
I used to be part of a Palo Alto-based NGO “Foundation for Global Community” which unfortunately closed in the early 2000s. Clearly, the mission was far from complete. At the time, “global community” was a charming, idealistic concept, yet I think it failed to thrive because it was just that — an abstract concept. In practice, people don’t *experience* themselves as fundamentally connected. (I’m writing this in the comfort of a cafe while others are being burned, bombed, and starved to death in the Middle East. How are we “connected”?)
Yet I believe it is time to restart such an initiative. New understanding in domains ranging from consciousness studies, paranormal inquiries, renewed interest in the philosophy of Analytic Idealism, NDE/post-death recall, and the academics of Quantum Theory suggest we are on the cusp of a major expansion of reality.
It is not a matter of improving or creating greater access to existing institutions but developing fundamentally new institutions. Everything that exists is re-formed moment by moment by drawing from a common set of sources in the subtle domain. There is enough to sustain a universe – no need for us to be fighting and competing over the illusion of scarcity.
What will it look like? One of your past interviewees Brian Swimme once stated that it is difficult to envision a new paradigm from the vantage point of the old. (One practical example, can we imagine a society whose operation does not principally revolve around the use of money?) Yet it will emerge gradually as we continue to explore and broaden our understanding of consciousness.
This is wonderful. Thanks so much for making such an intelligent comment. One thing to note is the pattern of evolution where we go from what works to what doesn't, which prompts a course correction. All well and good to be aware of that as an understanding that guides us about what needs to happen, but the entrenchment of our system, built on economics rather than on humanitarian concerns, is so strong that we aren't being guided by Bucky Fuller famously saying, "You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”
I contacted The BF Institute to try to get them to do something with our finalists' essays in our contest, that are in that sprit of what to do that's new, but my case in point is illustrated by their response: "Glad you have been gathering these essays. Thanks for the invitation for BFI to be involved, we’re going to have decline given our many other commitments."
And the uniqueness of our situation is that the world has become so globally interconnected and humanity has gotten so good at destruction that if we wait for the normal progression to swing us back to sanity we could find ourselves with few survivors and back to the Stone Age.
Yes, a question I often ponder is whether the focus should be on creating something new, or whether the new would emerge naturally, except that there are some blockages. That’s why I often turn to the monetary system — particularly one that seeks wealth accumulation above all else. In his Substack today, Robert Reich puzzled over why our current election appears so tied when the choice is so stark. Yet we have a system and a media that *needs* it to appear so (in order to attract viewers and advertisers). Apparently money trumps democracy (ironically accurate pun).
Since we were evolved/created to be social beings, global community would be natural. Yet especially in the West, we live in a competitive, comparative, exclusionary context where being wary and mistrustful of others (and engaging in a little schadenfreude now and then) seems like a prudent default strategy.
Practically speaking, I still think a progressive tax on wealth would moderate a great many problems.
Love this Sue!! Definitely in line with what we're doing at VillageCo - bringing neighbors together and letting the beauty of community flourish. We're into our first pilot project and so far the response has been wonderful! villageco.org We're also running "Spirit Camps" for those looking to go deeper outside of community gatherings.
I miss the days when the human potential movement was buzzing and bubbling, with local projects that no longer exist in our globalized, indifferent world, and local communities are in all models of a future that works. We've prospered ourselves into separation from each other and from nature that doesn't feed our souls but does feed global warming, and you are doing the groundwork that is the future if we have one. People should check you out for what they might be able to do wherever they are.
Thanks, Sue! And the experience I'm having / perspective I see, is that we are in a time of upswing yet again. As Robert Putnam (check out his new documentary on Netflix - Join or Die) puts it - before the time of decline, there was a time of coming together. That time is here yet again. Very exciting!
Absolutely. There is synergy here with Dr. West as well as Thomas Hubl (Pocket Project). And it is responsive to Pope Francis' call for a new kind of solidarity, one that transcends borders and race and social class. Count me in. I've even thought through a new, positive psychology for post-moderns, with a call to my profession to take a more pro-active role in calling out collective pathologies and offering a viable alternative that is conducive to regenerating as an ecological civilization. Let's do this!
"So there you have the opposite poles of the great global struggle that has reached its most critical pivot point right now. The middle cannot hold. This all is going to break one way or the other on November 5, as the U.S. is both the world’s biggest troublemaker and its best hope (I first heard that from H.H. Dalai Lama in Washington, D.C.).
"Nothing less than the future of life on planet Earth depends on which way this breaks. Either we begin to come together in this new kind of solidarity, based on shared responsibility and human ingenuity, or we gather on the battlefields of Armageddon."
I'm with you here. But you have faith it will break well since the good always prevails, and I say that's till now, when we are too good at being able to destroy ourselves to be sure we won't. That impels me to push on getting whatever we can do to be done now!
October 26th is an important date in the history of our world. So important that it goes unnoticed. To quote, or paraphrase, or even misquote Albert Einstein, "A problem is never solved by using the same mind that created it." In other words, we need to look beyond the norm and beyond ourselves. Take it for what it's worth but I offer this blog post from a few years ago. No doubt it will be ignored, or dismissed, or considered stupid. Such an attitude towards Cosmic Truth is why we are where we are today; but I offer it anyway. After all, as Goethe pointed out, "Boldness has genius, power and magic in it." https://www.sedimentofmysoul.com/blog-1/28gkh4wg11ld30v9bwq2os1mtfg8m6
Yes we need to organize so that our voices are loud enough to be heard above the din of millions of organizations speaking separately into the wind. Those who are in favor of the deadly business as usual like to keep us scattered, polarized and disorganized.
We need a public outcry for which we need a rotating group of leaders to be speaking on behalf of. Marianne would be a fantastic first out of the gate leader. We need others to reach different niches of people.
In addition, we all need to be talking with our various networks about the cliff we will be going over on the next years or few decades. We need a massive turning inward to evaluate how we really want to be living or for that matter IF we want to be living! We are all important for reaching our networks. Ask others to help you do that! You are vital
Then we need to be funding and working on those things that will make the most difference and talking about those things--calling for our governments to make those investments.
We are much more powerful than we think. Especially of we know we matter, our actions matter, and we act together!
Pam, getting this Marianne idea in play came out of our conversation talking about what to do!!!
We would BE the millions of organizations, joined together. What I'm talking about isn't the battle between us and them but a next step where "us" gets it together.
After putting out a lot of ideas for how things could be done differently, I'm suggesting some action now, where out of all possibilities for action we try to create the Beloved Community. How it would run itself and how to use it to create changes and dealing with with what you've written about would come next.
Let's do more than hope. Let's each personally talk with our networks--the grocery, PTA, chamber of commerce, neighbor...... Our voices matter and take someone along with you if it is scary. Scary places is where we grow and become all of who we can be!
I'm just thinking that if we had our Beloved Community there could be "trainings" for people to teach others, and to find local people to do it with. This is all part of getting organized that the pundits are saying is necessary now.
Suzanne, I resonate with your seeming frustration. We need a breakthrough, but seem stuck in a hall of mirrors — ping-ponging from one issue to another, knowing what needs to happen, yet at the moment we seem to be going backwards rather than progressing.
I myself have been through a number of initiatives, mostly related to economics and monetary policy (complementary currency, UBI, wealth tax, MMT, not-for-profit, etc.) — yet I am realizing the truth of the Einstein observation that “problems cannot be solved from the same level of thinking that created them”. It’s not about a policy change or new regulations — we can’t fix the current system, we need to transcend it.
Virtually all human-created problems stem from our loss of a sense of community — that we are all one living organism, one body, one family — and we move and grow best when we all care for each other and realize our joint enterprise. Yet historically, cultures were physically separated, resources were often scarce, and technology was limited, so competition seemed a practical survival strategy. Today, there need be no more scarcity, yet all of our institutions evolved to function on this model, so now perpetuate it unnecessarily.
I used to be part of a Palo Alto-based NGO “Foundation for Global Community” which unfortunately closed in the early 2000s. Clearly, the mission was far from complete. At the time, “global community” was a charming, idealistic concept, yet I think it failed to thrive because it was just that — an abstract concept. In practice, people don’t *experience* themselves as fundamentally connected. (I’m writing this in the comfort of a cafe while others are being burned, bombed, and starved to death in the Middle East. How are we “connected”?)
Yet I believe it is time to restart such an initiative. New understanding in domains ranging from consciousness studies, paranormal inquiries, renewed interest in the philosophy of Analytic Idealism, NDE/post-death recall, and the academics of Quantum Theory suggest we are on the cusp of a major expansion of reality.
It is not a matter of improving or creating greater access to existing institutions but developing fundamentally new institutions. Everything that exists is re-formed moment by moment by drawing from a common set of sources in the subtle domain. There is enough to sustain a universe – no need for us to be fighting and competing over the illusion of scarcity.
What will it look like? One of your past interviewees Brian Swimme once stated that it is difficult to envision a new paradigm from the vantage point of the old. (One practical example, can we imagine a society whose operation does not principally revolve around the use of money?) Yet it will emerge gradually as we continue to explore and broaden our understanding of consciousness.
This is wonderful. Thanks so much for making such an intelligent comment. One thing to note is the pattern of evolution where we go from what works to what doesn't, which prompts a course correction. All well and good to be aware of that as an understanding that guides us about what needs to happen, but the entrenchment of our system, built on economics rather than on humanitarian concerns, is so strong that we aren't being guided by Bucky Fuller famously saying, "You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”
I contacted The BF Institute to try to get them to do something with our finalists' essays in our contest, that are in that sprit of what to do that's new, but my case in point is illustrated by their response: "Glad you have been gathering these essays. Thanks for the invitation for BFI to be involved, we’re going to have decline given our many other commitments."
And the uniqueness of our situation is that the world has become so globally interconnected and humanity has gotten so good at destruction that if we wait for the normal progression to swing us back to sanity we could find ourselves with few survivors and back to the Stone Age.
Yes, a question I often ponder is whether the focus should be on creating something new, or whether the new would emerge naturally, except that there are some blockages. That’s why I often turn to the monetary system — particularly one that seeks wealth accumulation above all else. In his Substack today, Robert Reich puzzled over why our current election appears so tied when the choice is so stark. Yet we have a system and a media that *needs* it to appear so (in order to attract viewers and advertisers). Apparently money trumps democracy (ironically accurate pun).
Since we were evolved/created to be social beings, global community would be natural. Yet especially in the West, we live in a competitive, comparative, exclusionary context where being wary and mistrustful of others (and engaging in a little schadenfreude now and then) seems like a prudent default strategy.
Practically speaking, I still think a progressive tax on wealth would moderate a great many problems.
Susanne, you tirelessly seek to embolden others to bring out their best so that we can work together to build anew. Keep up the great work.
Herb
Love this Sue!! Definitely in line with what we're doing at VillageCo - bringing neighbors together and letting the beauty of community flourish. We're into our first pilot project and so far the response has been wonderful! villageco.org We're also running "Spirit Camps" for those looking to go deeper outside of community gatherings.
I miss the days when the human potential movement was buzzing and bubbling, with local projects that no longer exist in our globalized, indifferent world, and local communities are in all models of a future that works. We've prospered ourselves into separation from each other and from nature that doesn't feed our souls but does feed global warming, and you are doing the groundwork that is the future if we have one. People should check you out for what they might be able to do wherever they are.
Thanks, Sue! And the experience I'm having / perspective I see, is that we are in a time of upswing yet again. As Robert Putnam (check out his new documentary on Netflix - Join or Die) puts it - before the time of decline, there was a time of coming together. That time is here yet again. Very exciting!
We’re in a time of crisis again, and crisis motivates us — either to get on a better path or to collapse. Keep your fingers crossed.
Absolutely. There is synergy here with Dr. West as well as Thomas Hubl (Pocket Project). And it is responsive to Pope Francis' call for a new kind of solidarity, one that transcends borders and race and social class. Count me in. I've even thought through a new, positive psychology for post-moderns, with a call to my profession to take a more pro-active role in calling out collective pathologies and offering a viable alternative that is conducive to regenerating as an ecological civilization. Let's do this!
From your Substack:
"So there you have the opposite poles of the great global struggle that has reached its most critical pivot point right now. The middle cannot hold. This all is going to break one way or the other on November 5, as the U.S. is both the world’s biggest troublemaker and its best hope (I first heard that from H.H. Dalai Lama in Washington, D.C.).
"Nothing less than the future of life on planet Earth depends on which way this breaks. Either we begin to come together in this new kind of solidarity, based on shared responsibility and human ingenuity, or we gather on the battlefields of Armageddon."
I'm with you here. But you have faith it will break well since the good always prevails, and I say that's till now, when we are too good at being able to destroy ourselves to be sure we won't. That impels me to push on getting whatever we can do to be done now!
October 26th is an important date in the history of our world. So important that it goes unnoticed. To quote, or paraphrase, or even misquote Albert Einstein, "A problem is never solved by using the same mind that created it." In other words, we need to look beyond the norm and beyond ourselves. Take it for what it's worth but I offer this blog post from a few years ago. No doubt it will be ignored, or dismissed, or considered stupid. Such an attitude towards Cosmic Truth is why we are where we are today; but I offer it anyway. After all, as Goethe pointed out, "Boldness has genius, power and magic in it." https://www.sedimentofmysoul.com/blog-1/28gkh4wg11ld30v9bwq2os1mtfg8m6
Yes we need to organize so that our voices are loud enough to be heard above the din of millions of organizations speaking separately into the wind. Those who are in favor of the deadly business as usual like to keep us scattered, polarized and disorganized.
We need a public outcry for which we need a rotating group of leaders to be speaking on behalf of. Marianne would be a fantastic first out of the gate leader. We need others to reach different niches of people.
In addition, we all need to be talking with our various networks about the cliff we will be going over on the next years or few decades. We need a massive turning inward to evaluate how we really want to be living or for that matter IF we want to be living! We are all important for reaching our networks. Ask others to help you do that! You are vital
Then we need to be funding and working on those things that will make the most difference and talking about those things--calling for our governments to make those investments.
We are much more powerful than we think. Especially of we know we matter, our actions matter, and we act together!
Pam, getting this Marianne idea in play came out of our conversation talking about what to do!!!
We would BE the millions of organizations, joined together. What I'm talking about isn't the battle between us and them but a next step where "us" gets it together.
After putting out a lot of ideas for how things could be done differently, I'm suggesting some action now, where out of all possibilities for action we try to create the Beloved Community. How it would run itself and how to use it to create changes and dealing with with what you've written about would come next.
It seems like, between the internet, Marrianne Wiliamson and you, something could actually happen to improve this dire situation. Let's hope
Let's do more than hope. Let's each personally talk with our networks--the grocery, PTA, chamber of commerce, neighbor...... Our voices matter and take someone along with you if it is scary. Scary places is where we grow and become all of who we can be!
I'm just thinking that if we had our Beloved Community there could be "trainings" for people to teach others, and to find local people to do it with. This is all part of getting organized that the pundits are saying is necessary now.
Good idea. Let’s try it.
Will you help organize?