Suzanne, what feels right about Now What? is that it does not separate inner change from collective responsibility. The same instinct that surfaces in disasters, when people drop pretense and take care of one another, is the instinct worth organizing around. Not someday, not after collapse, but now.
The idea of a Team of Humanity does not strike me as naive. It names a hunger for leadership rooted in care, intelligence, and moral courage rather than control. History does not move only through institutions. It shifts when people recognize themselves as participants again.
I am also drawn to your insistence that this be a conversation, not a platform. Responsiveness is part of the ethic. Listening is part of the leadership. Meaning does not arrive fully formed. It emerges through relationship.
So yes, I say yes. Not because I know what comes next, but because keeping the possibility of something better alive is how futures change.
We'd be so good living together. We could take a lot of philosophers' walks that were a practice in the Pythagorean mystery school. I had a friend who was a great avatar, where it was like that with him holding court at my house for the last couple of years before he died at 54 from cancer. You would have loved being here then. Lex Hixon was my bigger-than-life ally before Brian Swimme: https://suespeaks.org/mightycompanions/lexhixon. When he got sick, we were working on Celebrations of the Human Spirit, to be held in stadiums.
Relationship is key to progress, so how to hammer out a new reality in this impersonal internet space? I say to get humanity informed about overshoot so everybody gets that it's life or death to deal with that, and how to deliver the info so everyone gets it is something people like us can be talking about.
Suzanne, I hope this doesn’t sound mean, but noble as the lofty ideals are, they mostly appeal to people who have the bandwidth to appreciate them (i.e. educated, affluent … and probably “white”). The masses for whom day to day life is an insecure, fear-filled struggle don’t have time to marvel at the wonders of the universe story. Existence probably doesn’t feel very wonderful to them.
At this point, surveying all human-caused problems and their proposed solutions, I’ve simplified down to one tack: limit the individual’s ability to accumulate wealth — perhaps to somewhere between 30 and 100 million. And do something similar for corporately held wealth.
I’m hard pressed to think of any human-caused problem that at the bottom isn’t driven by the need to hoard as much wealth as possible. Instead of struggling to fight “fires” on dozens or hundreds of fronts, would it not be more effective to take away the fuel that drives them all?
Have you followed my billionaire playlist: https://suzannetaylor.substack.com/s/billionaires? I say no more billionaires. It's the unworkable reality we are stuck in. But how to change it? With them in control, how to get the downtrodden public on board? How would you go about eliminating the super-rich?
Ah, good going! I wasn’t aware of that page of yours!
But as to how it will happen, it will probably have to be a frustratingly gradual, step-by-step process. A few political and corporate leaders seem to be turning in that direction, and there seems growing public outcry about the ever-increasing inequality. Yet at the moment, it still seems deeply imbued in the public consciousness that the super-rich have somehow earned or deserve their wealth. Robert Reich has done a couple Substacks on how billionaires get to be billionaires — it has little to do with “earning” it.
Also, I’d recently heard an interview with economist Rob Larson around his new book “Mastering the Universe: The Obscene Wealth of the Ruling Class, What They Do With Their Money, and Why You Should Hate Them Even More”. I haven’t yet read the book but the interview I’d heard is at https://kpfa.org/?s=Rob+Larson
What seems to me is that everyone is aware of how so few control so much money, but the issue is that does give them control. One of the problems in the community of the super-rich, that I've had some exposure to, is the misery many of them are in having inherited wealth they did nothing to deserve. Patriotic Millionaires I see as all shoulds and oughts, that are pretty tame at that, and no action, where I'm too threatening to their passivity to allow me in.
How would I go about eliminating the super-rich? By encouraging them to share!! The planet is like a sound-system - only as good as its weakest part. A wonderful amp is a waste of time if the speakers are no good!! So for the 'educated, affluent and probably white' folks, wealthy or otherwise, when they understand and feel to share fairly (and maybe are rewarded with a 'Kind to the Planet and All' Award) they will help to support a way of life that involves Conscious, Compassionate Collaboration for All.
The more we care, the more we share. And the more we share, the better we feel - as individuals as well as the Whole!!
The rationale is easy; the practice is a challenge. My playlist is full of encouragements, and I would like to see any others that could be successful. Want to take a whack at one?
I like this post, of course. Having been privileged to attend some of those gatherings with you, I’m delighted to close out the most turbulent year in our history reading pure intelligence mixed with compassion, courage and empathy, and feel hope for humanity.
I would encourage you to add a few men like Raj and Johan to that list of admirable women. In the futuristic book, “The Fifth Sacred Thing,” the author, Starhawk, wrote about an America even more divided than it is now, and militaristic/religious. In the midst of this, an idealistic community evolved that lived communally and consciously aware.
A council of 12 women ran the community and did it well…until the militarists and religious leaders began to move on the community, and it was decided that men should have a place on the council…not just because they were men but because there needed to energetic balance.
What happened in the end, we can only hope and pray happens with us before it gets much worse. The soldiers laid down their arms and would not follow their orders. Their system collapsed under the weight of their own greed, ignorance and corruption.
I wish you, and ALL of us soldiers of a different kind the very best in this coming year. May Courage, Kindness and Respect prevail. 🙏💖
We do go back a long way!!! Good to have you here to corroborate my reports on days of yore.
We can't be anti-male, but we've gone so far to the masculine side, as we understand the distinctions, that radical redress from women in charge seems like a good bet. Then men can have big jobs as committee heads and whatever else runs the government, but I'd stick with the feminine in the highest office being what would serve us best now. However, it is a discussion topic, as are all the other possibilities, and I very much encourage more opinions, like this, that others hold.
Suzanne, what feels right about Now What? is that it does not separate inner change from collective responsibility. The same instinct that surfaces in disasters, when people drop pretense and take care of one another, is the instinct worth organizing around. Not someday, not after collapse, but now.
The idea of a Team of Humanity does not strike me as naive. It names a hunger for leadership rooted in care, intelligence, and moral courage rather than control. History does not move only through institutions. It shifts when people recognize themselves as participants again.
I am also drawn to your insistence that this be a conversation, not a platform. Responsiveness is part of the ethic. Listening is part of the leadership. Meaning does not arrive fully formed. It emerges through relationship.
So yes, I say yes. Not because I know what comes next, but because keeping the possibility of something better alive is how futures change.
We'd be so good living together. We could take a lot of philosophers' walks that were a practice in the Pythagorean mystery school. I had a friend who was a great avatar, where it was like that with him holding court at my house for the last couple of years before he died at 54 from cancer. You would have loved being here then. Lex Hixon was my bigger-than-life ally before Brian Swimme: https://suespeaks.org/mightycompanions/lexhixon. When he got sick, we were working on Celebrations of the Human Spirit, to be held in stadiums.
Relationship is key to progress, so how to hammer out a new reality in this impersonal internet space? I say to get humanity informed about overshoot so everybody gets that it's life or death to deal with that, and how to deliver the info so everyone gets it is something people like us can be talking about.
Suzanne, I hope this doesn’t sound mean, but noble as the lofty ideals are, they mostly appeal to people who have the bandwidth to appreciate them (i.e. educated, affluent … and probably “white”). The masses for whom day to day life is an insecure, fear-filled struggle don’t have time to marvel at the wonders of the universe story. Existence probably doesn’t feel very wonderful to them.
At this point, surveying all human-caused problems and their proposed solutions, I’ve simplified down to one tack: limit the individual’s ability to accumulate wealth — perhaps to somewhere between 30 and 100 million. And do something similar for corporately held wealth.
I’m hard pressed to think of any human-caused problem that at the bottom isn’t driven by the need to hoard as much wealth as possible. Instead of struggling to fight “fires” on dozens or hundreds of fronts, would it not be more effective to take away the fuel that drives them all?
————————————
See the article in Time Magazine: "I’m a Millionaire. No One Needs More than $30 Million". https://time.com/7325632/universal-basic-income-millionaire
Have you followed my billionaire playlist: https://suzannetaylor.substack.com/s/billionaires? I say no more billionaires. It's the unworkable reality we are stuck in. But how to change it? With them in control, how to get the downtrodden public on board? How would you go about eliminating the super-rich?
Ah, good going! I wasn’t aware of that page of yours!
But as to how it will happen, it will probably have to be a frustratingly gradual, step-by-step process. A few political and corporate leaders seem to be turning in that direction, and there seems growing public outcry about the ever-increasing inequality. Yet at the moment, it still seems deeply imbued in the public consciousness that the super-rich have somehow earned or deserve their wealth. Robert Reich has done a couple Substacks on how billionaires get to be billionaires — it has little to do with “earning” it.
Also, I’d recently heard an interview with economist Rob Larson around his new book “Mastering the Universe: The Obscene Wealth of the Ruling Class, What They Do With Their Money, and Why You Should Hate Them Even More”. I haven’t yet read the book but the interview I’d heard is at https://kpfa.org/?s=Rob+Larson
I also continue to be a fan of Patriotic Millionaires’ “The Money Agenda: America 250” https://patrioticmillionaires.org/perspectives/america-250-the-money-agenda/
What seems to me is that everyone is aware of how so few control so much money, but the issue is that does give them control. One of the problems in the community of the super-rich, that I've had some exposure to, is the misery many of them are in having inherited wealth they did nothing to deserve. Patriotic Millionaires I see as all shoulds and oughts, that are pretty tame at that, and no action, where I'm too threatening to their passivity to allow me in.
How would I go about eliminating the super-rich? By encouraging them to share!! The planet is like a sound-system - only as good as its weakest part. A wonderful amp is a waste of time if the speakers are no good!! So for the 'educated, affluent and probably white' folks, wealthy or otherwise, when they understand and feel to share fairly (and maybe are rewarded with a 'Kind to the Planet and All' Award) they will help to support a way of life that involves Conscious, Compassionate Collaboration for All.
The more we care, the more we share. And the more we share, the better we feel - as individuals as well as the Whole!!
The rationale is easy; the practice is a challenge. My playlist is full of encouragements, and I would like to see any others that could be successful. Want to take a whack at one?
I like this post, of course. Having been privileged to attend some of those gatherings with you, I’m delighted to close out the most turbulent year in our history reading pure intelligence mixed with compassion, courage and empathy, and feel hope for humanity.
I would encourage you to add a few men like Raj and Johan to that list of admirable women. In the futuristic book, “The Fifth Sacred Thing,” the author, Starhawk, wrote about an America even more divided than it is now, and militaristic/religious. In the midst of this, an idealistic community evolved that lived communally and consciously aware.
A council of 12 women ran the community and did it well…until the militarists and religious leaders began to move on the community, and it was decided that men should have a place on the council…not just because they were men but because there needed to energetic balance.
What happened in the end, we can only hope and pray happens with us before it gets much worse. The soldiers laid down their arms and would not follow their orders. Their system collapsed under the weight of their own greed, ignorance and corruption.
I wish you, and ALL of us soldiers of a different kind the very best in this coming year. May Courage, Kindness and Respect prevail. 🙏💖
We do go back a long way!!! Good to have you here to corroborate my reports on days of yore.
We can't be anti-male, but we've gone so far to the masculine side, as we understand the distinctions, that radical redress from women in charge seems like a good bet. Then men can have big jobs as committee heads and whatever else runs the government, but I'd stick with the feminine in the highest office being what would serve us best now. However, it is a discussion topic, as are all the other possibilities, and I very much encourage more opinions, like this, that others hold.