John Renesch: Exploring the Better Future

Are We Zombies Or Just Sleepwalking?

I had the pleasure to host social activist and environmentalist Van Jones as my guest yesterday for the Howard Thurman Forum Series. The format is similar to “Inside Actors Studio” which airs on the Bravo TV Network in which host James Lipton interviews a well-known actor with an audience of students at New York’s Actors Studio.

A sizable group of young people, mostly students, were in the audience to hear Van. Their presence definitely influenced the tone of the interview and the comments which followed. By the end of the Forum, it was fairly clear to most of us that we have been a disengaged citizenry for a couple of generations and that for any meaningful change to occur in the U.S., the new generation has to get more involved in the political process. Left to the people in Washington, even with the anticipated changes in the White House with the upcoming elections, things will only get worse. The systems is broken and no heroic figure is going to make much difference unless the system changes. It is also clear where this scale of change is going to come from: we the people.

We the people have abdicated our responsibility as citizens. Our forefathers and mothers made great sacrifices to create a country that could function effectively with checks and balances to maintain order and freedom. Many made huge sacrifices for their country. Nowadays, if we vote every few years we consider ourselves good citizens (the half of us who do vote). The rest is rhetoric – discussing candidates or issues along the way toward voting. Very few of us do any service for the nation such as Peace Corps or the military or even connecting with our elected officials. Most of us are disengaged, busying ourselves with relatively trivial matters like television reality shows, tabloid TV or radio, and fascination with our technologies. Regarding engaged citizenship we have essentially quit. We act as if we are asleep, impervious to the fact that we have the governments we deserve.

Van helped us see yesterday that many of us have been sleepwalking through our lives when it comes to our role as citizens in a democracy. He made an excellent point for the benefit of the younger audience members that they have a sacred responsibility to engage in the politics if anything new is going to occur, no matters who is elected to the White House in November.

The question we have to ask ourselves: can we wake up? Are we merely somnambulating (sleepwalking) or has something died inside us making us zombies, the “living dead” who are beyond recessitating?

These are questions we of the older generations need to ask ourselves now, while there is still hope for real change to occur with the upcoming elections. As Van so eloquently pointed our yesterday, any new President will fail at making real changes without an engaged electorate standing behind them – an electorate determined to fix the system, reform the way politics is done, even reinventing government if that is what it takes.

Whether you are an American or live elsewhere in the world, we are the change we’ve been hoping for. Like the U.S., our world has become too complex for any one person to be a hero and fix things. It will require many of us to get things working again, and that includes me, Van, those young students and you…yes, you the person who is reading this. Yes, you.

Maintaining Good Attitudinal Hygiene: Getting Clean and Healthy - Mentally, Spiritually and Emotionally

Most of us pay pretty close attention to our physical cleanliness. We shower, brush our teeth and perform daily bodily functions with intention and consciousness. In the West, it is considered good personal hygiene and adds assurances we’ll remain healthy.

According to Wikipedia, “The term "hygiene" is a reference to Hygieía oder Hygeía, the Greek goddess of health, cleanliness and sanitation (Roman equivalent: Salus). Hygiene is also a science that deals with the promotion and preservation of health.

In some countries, personal hygiene has become more an issue of social acceptance or fear of offending others with annual sales of deodorant, lotion, mouthwash, powder and cream in the billions. But the hygienic focus is almost always physical. We pay close attention to our hair, teeth, underarms, genitals, nails and underarms – all parts of our physical bodies. Some of us exercise regularly, watch our diets and take supplements so we feel better and enjoy better health. But how much attention do we pay to our emotional, spiritual and mental health? What about our “attitudinal hygiene?”

How much attention do we pay to our intellectual diets? How discerning are we about what we read or watch on TV or hear on radio? What attention do we pay to the lyrics of the music we listen to or the talk shows and Sunday morning pundits we endure.

What degree of consciousness are we employing when we allow ourselves to become emotionally constipated, with suppressed feelings bottled up and turning rancid inside us? 

We take such care to avoid infections of our bodies yet most of us are so careless about exposing our thinking and feelings to infection from negativity, cynicism, resentments and imagined fears. How well do we nourish ourselves spiritually? Do we maintain our spiritual practice whether it is structured religion, private meditation or walks in Nature?

How would you rate your hygiene in these three areas of your life? This might be something to consider – perform an inventory of sorts. Where could you improve your health spiritually, emotionally and intellectually?

In seems to me that we’d have a much healthier society and a much better world if we spread the idea of good personal hygiene to include the entire environment around us, the people we spend time with, the physical space we occupy, the entertainment we consume as well as what we eat and drink. Good attitudinal hygiene offers us an opportunity to be healthy emotionally, spiritually and mentally as well as physically. As comprehensively healthy people we will more likely be making wiser more mature choices and, therefore, create a better future for ourselves, our children and generations to come.

The Future of Organizations

Two weeks ago I delivered a two-day workshop on systems thinking to a group of 40 executives for a business school in Trinidad. Subsequent mail exchanges with some of the participants has moved me to start this conversation, specifically on organization systems and their functionality, leadership and vitality. So here goes....

One cannot engage the subject of the future of the world without engaging the organizations we have created and address their dysfunctionality, the way they seem to resist change and the apparency that no one is in control of them sometimes.  The world will never change unless our organizations do.

When one is anticipating making meaningful change occur in a system - be it a company, institution, government - systems thinking is not only a huge advantage I would say it is essential if the change is major and you want it to last. Some people merely want to "tweak" their organizations, make an improvement in some aspect of its functioning. Sometimes incremental change can be perfomed linearly. But others may want to reinvent the culture entirely, or make significant changes to it. This would be meaningful change or what many call "organizational transformation."

I have written a lot about The Conscious Organization, which I envision as the ultimate system for functionality and effectiveness. You can read some of these articles and past issues of my newsletter at www.Renesch.com.

I would be interested in hearing of real life situations where meaningful change is desired but thwarted by the system. Anyone interested?   

NEW QUERY: See another inquiry that may interest some of you.

Rallying the Collective Will to Transform

Thanks to Yvonne from Canada for the challenging query (see her comment under "It doesn't have to be this way!"

There are a few things I know and many more I don't know when it comes to social transformations, such as the challenge of shifting from a global culture/paradigm of separateness, fear/terror, scarcity, reductionism to one that allows humankind to get along as a family, caring for one another and having a sustainable home planet. This can seem daunting for some, most of whom choose to simply occupy themselves with things they feel they have more control over, such as amassing more toys, having fun or doing the best they can "under the circumstances" Never mind the "circumstances" may mean significant degradation of the quality of life for more and more people on this planet, living more in fear and denial, and increasing division amongst people and nations making the arms industry the primary gainer in the marketplace.

Others may wring their hands about how sad this state of the world is, perhaps forward emails and go to see movies (911, The Corp, Truth, etc.), recycle, march, etc. A few of us (probably several thousand in the world) have been beating a drum of social change / transformation for a few years and more are joining our ranks every day. I do know many of these people and I can say from experience that they, like me, feel called to continue the rallying cry for change. It's our job.

Another thing I know: there is real possibility for this to happen. Despite the growing wave of cynicism on this earth, I KNOW we can collectively shift the paradigm, reach a tipping point (plus all the other cliches). It has been done before in human history and it can be done again.

Another thing I know is it will not take a majority of people to shift the collective consciousness for this to happen. Everyone needn't be a holder of this vision of a better future as long as some committed people are (ala Margaret Mead). I also know that it will only come about if we are talking to one another, having meaningful conversations about important things like where are we headed as a species, what is our destiny and other inquiries into our consciousness about the future. Conversations about trials, Anna Nicole, scandals, celebrities and such occupy precious amounts of consciousness that could be much better applied to constructive dialogue about changing the status quo.

So, I speak at conferences, write books and articles, publish my newsletter, even start a blog (thanks to the Global Dialogue Center) as my part in helping to bring forth this sea change in worldview. My work is to get better and better at communicating a vision, provoking and challenging existing entrenchments in thought, and trusting that someone is impacted to start thinking differently and taking greater responsibility for our future. Like a nulear reaction that accelerates exponentially, the collective will could be an "overnight phenom" once ignition takes place.

What I do not know is when that ignition will occur. Or even if it will happen at all? It is, after all, a question of will - more willingness than will power - not ability. But I continue to do what i do because it is my calling, it is my job, and it makes me come alive!

What say all to that?

Conscious Futures

This is my first experience at blogging so my rookie eyes and mind can be easily surprised, I suppose. I just heard there have been 150 visits to my last post of mine and I'm surprised there hasn't been at least one posting. So...since somebody is actually reading these, here's another thought fresh from my afternoon walkabout along the streets of San Francisco.

Envision a future where almost everyone makes each choice with consciousness and full attention on what they were doing. Think of the world we could have!

Look at how we got this far in our survival of the fittest evolution. Most people through the ages have been well-intentioned, passionate, caring folks who were doing the best they could with what they had and knew. A few gifted people did magnificent things with their passions and skills, inventing, discovering, creating art and literature, leading movements and serving humanity. And civilization as we know it has evolved pretty positively despite a relative few dark individuals who were more infatuated with hate and power over others than love for their fellow human beings - as most were.

Considering there has been almost no consciousness in play through the millennia, we've done all right so far! But now, for the first time in history we have a new ability...we can destroy ourselves, annihilate the human race. One person can destroy millions of us thanks to our technological advances.

With great power comes responsiubility say sages through the ages. With this significant increase in our ability to do great harm,  comes a need to be a bit more mature in the choices we make, recognizing the long term impact of our actions and converting all the wealth of information we have available to us to practical wisdom.

If we evolved this far without thinking much about it, merely following invention after invention, discovery after discovery, cure after cure, think of what an exciting, sustainable, peaceful and compassionate future we could have if we stayed awake all the time.

It Doesn’t Have to Be This Way!

I was walking in the rain, quite a torrential storm actually, somewhat of an oddity here in San Francisco. Rain-geared to the hilt, I was trudging up one of our steep hills with parka hood snuggly fastened leaving me a tiny face hole for visibility and air. As often occurs during my daily schleps about the city, my mind was somewhat blank for the moment, free of thoughts about the day. Then the now famous scene from the 1976 movie “Network” popped into my mind, where actor Peter Finch, playing the part of a deranged news anchor, asks his television viewers to go to their windows, open them and scream into the night, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!” 

I have been writing and speaking about creating a different kind of world for many years. There’s no question that the consensus reality is pretty resigned to it being “the way things are” as people go about doing “the best they can under the circumstances.” Yet their very behavior argues for the circumstances. Most people’s consciousness is rooted in this resignation, this defeated state of mind that accepts small consolations instead of holding out for larger visions.

As this movie scene from the 1970s flashed by it dawned on me that this might be a good subject to explore in a blog.

There is little doubt the human mind is a powerful force, for good or evil. We have plenty of examples which I needn’t detail here. Ideas can be transformative, uplifting and awe inspiring as well as destructive, depressing and the cause for widespread suffering in the world.

An idea that is killing us spiritually, emotionally and even physically is one that puts limits on what is possible for the world and all living things that reside here. This idea, this thought, is reinforced with lots of rationale conjured up by our collective ego-minds. Each of these reasons seemingly add legitimacy to the idea that we can do nothing to change things; that things simply are the way they are and our job is to do the best we can within that limitation. Here are a few samples:
• I’m only one person and don’t have the power to change things;
• There are too many big problems; the situation is out of hand; 
• Better people than me have tried and failed;
• I have enough challenges on my own without taking on the world’s problems;
• I’m much too busy to think about it much less do anything.

This is the litany with which we fill our head instead of putting our values into action. They are excuses for inaction. That’s all they are. Democracy is a team sport and we’re all on the team. Many people who claim to be champions of democracy have taken to sitting in the grandstands, self selecting to be spectators instead of players or coaches. They have chosen to observe democracy like a play or a movie rather than performing their role as a team player.

Reviewing the five excuses I mentioned above, do you see a common thread that runs through each of them? Besides each of them being a cop-out, they all reside in a context of self-pity, martyr or victim. Each of them is a means to avoiding that feeling of powerlessness one is bound to encounter when one takes on a project of global scope, a project beyond one’s familiar comfort zone. By avoiding that feeling of powerlessness, those who rely on these excuses argue for their own powerlessness. Ironic huh?

Can you imagine how the world would be if everyone subscribes to these excuses? How would the world be if everyone watched from the sidelines? Well, for one thing, there’d be nothing to watch!

Now can you imagine how the world would be if most of us got back onto the playing field and rejoined the team, either as a suited-up player, a coach, team managers or whatever role was there to be filled? Can you imagine an organization or a country where there were more players than onlookers? Wouldn’t that be exciting! Can you imagine the kind of company or nation we might have with enthusiastic, completely engaged workers or citizens? And what about a world that consisted on actively engaged global patriots?

What would this cost? What would it cost us to stop settling for a resigned reality and start creating the reality that we really want? It will cost us our cynicism. It will also cost our resignation. It will cost us our excuses. It will cost us our victimhood and self-pity. From where I sit, these are all things I’m very willing to let go of, perhaps even eager to turn loose. After all, holding onto them sucks vitality from my soul and occupies space in my consciousness that I could put to far better use.

The world doesn’t need to be this way. It doesn’t need to have growing disparity between the haves and the have-nots. We don’t need to be so damn busy all the time. We don’t need to be worried about spoiling our Natural home, destroying our environment. Our world doesn’t need to endure genocide, wars, murder and all the other violence.

Life for our kids doesn’t need to be an endurance contest, filled with shallow consolations here and there while individual spiritual fulfillment, a sustainable environment and social justice remain only dreams. It can be different. But it will take a bunch of us to get into action. Let’s get our butts off the bleacher seats and find out where we can be of the most service and have the most fun while doing it. Let’s get back into the game and shout “It doesn’t have to be this way and I’ll play my part in changing it!”