John Renesch: Exploring the Better Future

A Potentially Fatal Fallacy

You’ve heard of the “fatal flaw,” sometimes called the “tragic flaw?” It is the one thing people either ignored or forgot about when they set about to achieve something and failed. It is what the forensics people might determine as the primary “cause of death” of the ideal, the project, whatever. Aristotle might have called it hamartia which could connote a failure of morals, or character, or hubris. YourDictionary.com defines this flaw “as pride, in the character of the protagonist of a tragedy… leads to that protagonist's downfall.”

Fallacy on the other hand is “aptness to mislead…deceptive or delusive quality” as in “the fallacy of the senses.” It is a false or mistaken idea or opinion. YourDictionary.com defines is as “an error in reasoning; flaw or defect in argument; an argument which does not conform to the rules of logic, esp. one that appears to be sound.”

Now this seems so befitting to the paradigm of thought so widespread in our Western industrialized society, the misleading “fallacy of the senses” that tells us we are separate from one another, Nature’s resources are unlimited and conflict can be resolved with exacerbation rather than reconciliation. When we start examining this fallacy, it no longer becomes an interesting study of a fallen emperor’s chink, a Waterloo-like decision that brought an end to a regime or even a product launch that ruined a corporation. A fallacious worldview today can lead to extinctions like it does in Nature and collapses like what occurred to regionally isolated societies of the past. 

There’s no such thing as “regionally isolated societies” any more, at least not any modern societies. It might be argued if Western society’s current worldview continues to serve as its basis for relating with one another, continues to “not conform to the rules of logic, especially one that appears to be sound,” who’s “false and mistaken idea or opinion” continues to go unchallenged, a social collapse of unprecedented proportions could result. This would be the fatal fallacy of thought, the flawed thinking that was left unchecked until the evidence was so overwhelming it was too late to do anything but cry.

What do we tell our children? Our grandchildren? Their children? “Sorry, kids, we were too busy to notice.” Or, “Oops, I hope your generation does better than we did.” Well, guess what? Those conversations are already happening! Did you catch the 12 year old girl admonishing a large conference in South America last year on TV? Have you heard of thousands of conversations between parents and their teenage children at dinner tables everywhere? Thank God some of these young men and women possess enough awareness to start thinking differently, at least about environmental matters.

It would be different if changing mindsets were a very expensive proposition. Unlike many of the world’s problems, this challenge is not financial. All it takes is a willingness to think differently, to venture into inquiries that could challenge our beliefs, challenge our assumptions, push against our stubborn attachments to the way things have to be. The price for this change is not monetary. It is not material. It is largely a matter of ego.

Why do we continue living and working within an outmoded paradigm when it has been demonstrated how outmoded our exiting paradigms of thought really are? What a mistake it is to continue operating from their premises. Unimaginable possibilities await us if we dare to embrace new paradigms. So why do we persist in this fallacious thinking? If you answer “because we don’t know any better” that would be a lie given we’ve had people telling us this for almost a century so we could “know better” if we were interested in learning anything.

If your answer is “because we’re set in our ways” then shame on us for continuing a practice knowing it could be leading us to extinction. Sounds completely stupid? So does smoking cigarettes when you know if isn’t good for you. What about “it is too hard”? If this has any merit we must admit to being so addicted to the way we think we won’t consider changing even when it appears life-threatening. Like the alcoholic who often wants to stop and can’t, this third explanation may be the most valid. If this is so, then I propose, we tell it like it is and admit it!

We are left with the truth: we’re simply hooked on our way of thinking and either aren’t willing or don’t want to change. If this is the end game for humanity then at least we can go out in a blaze of glory like Butch and Sundance. Doesn’t sound particularly mature to me but, hey…. Party! Party! Party!

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.

My Emails with Iran

In this past week, I connected with two Iranian futurists based in Tehran who are fellow members in Shaping Tomorrow’s Foresight Network. In our first year we have grown to nearly 1,300 members, mostly professional futurists from all over the world.

I invited these two men to engage in a conversation with me given the posturing of our two governments in recent years and the growing tension and talk of invasion by the U.S. I found myself deeply touched when I learned last week they were familiar with my work. I’m known in Iran? I suspect my surprise was largely due to a complete misunderstanding of what the people and the country are like. After all, I have never been there and have only known FORMER citizens of Iran, or Persia as it was called in its past incarnation, and a relative handful at that. As an example of my ignorance, I hadn’t realized Iran is not a Arab country. They speak Farsi and English.

The conversation has just begun, only a couple of days now, but I can already see we have much to learn from one another. One of the men sent me two documents yesterday; one was a 2002 open letter to Americans which he translated for a student-friend of his. It pleads for a creative, conscious and wise approach to resolving conflict rather than the saber-rattling and blustery rhetoric by both governments. Here is a link to the Letter.

The other document was a white paper created by Israeli intelligence on the subject of Iranian cultural values, self-image and negotiation style. He thought that while Israelis may be most critical and judgmental of Iran, I would still find their assessment interesting and informative. Indeed, I did.

I have invited each of them to post here if they so choose and invite anyone else to comment on this entry for the month of May. 

Liberating Ourselves From Our Slavemasters

In my newsletter this month, I wrote about liberating ourselves from the unwanted influences of all the systems in which we find ourselves - family, industry, schools, friends, work, location, race, nationality, religion, etc. Perhaps hundreds of systems find their way of influencing what we do and how we think and we are mostly unaware of theses forces.

New Dimensions Radio's Justine Toms emailed me after reading my editorial and asked:

You point out that emancipation "from insidious systems cannot take place until 1. we learn to recognize systems dysfunction and 2. we become more aware of the various systems affecting us. . . "

Good advice . . now, how do we do this? . . . after all, we are swimming in the sea of this dysfunction and, like fish in water, we are not aware of the very sea we are in.   To begin to actually name the various dysfunctions, and then to hear many points of view as to how others are going about dismantling them in their business and in their lives would be of interest to me.

Prompted by Justine's question I thought this month's blog subject could be sharing experiences others have had in breaking free of multiple insidious system influences.

I invite you to share your experiences or yoru challenges.

I also want to share this very inspriting video with you all: http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/229 .

If I’m So Sane the World Must Be Nuts!

Either I’m insane or the world is! Since I feel pretty much okay, I surmise that the world around me in certifiably insane.

Remember that old saw about the definition of insanity: continuing to do the same thing expecting a different result each time?  Well the collective consciousness we call society-as-a-whole appears to either insist upon or at least condone doing things we know don’t work. Yet we keep doing them, over and over again!

We resort to war when we know wars don’t resolve the conflict. We claim to want a better life for our children and heirs yet we continue sacrificing the environment and spoiling the ecosystem which future generations need for sustained life on Earth. We demand freedom, democracy and human rights yet we enslave ourselves with debt and a variety of addictions that rob us of free choice. We demand fairness and social justice but witness gross injustices without muttering a word of protest.

Most of the systems we have created are compromised. Their primary purpose is no longer what we created them to do but simply to survive. In systems lingo this means “not change” or remain stable. So the legal system may not be just. People may get ill in hospitals. Deaths increase when doctors take holidays. Democratic governments forget to serve the people and start serving themselves. Aggressive war decrees against drugs, terror and poverty results in escalating their use not diminishing them. Schools stunt learning in children. These are just a few of the examples of systems gone astray from their original purposes.

Our revered sciences tell us that we’re all interconnected yet we act as if we are quite separate from one another, almost alien to one another! We rush to fundamentalist viewpoints of all varieties despite knowing that it polarizes rather than integrates us. We engage the complex systems we have created with childish naiveté, as if the problems facing us can be solved simplistically. We are so in love with our technologies that we rush to put them to work for us without concern for the long-term effects they will have on life as we know it. If we possess the ability to do something, we feel compelled to do it! Discernment be damned, “progress” at all costs!

And, despite the feedback and the gross breakdowns we keep doing it over and over again!

Just who is insane here?

There’s been talk among modern mystics of a coming Age of Wisdom, when a more mature human surfaces to bring wise counsel to the widespread adolescence running amuck in the world today. But where are these wiser, more mature people who would bring sanity to today’s dominant cultures? Where are the elders who will show the rest of us what impact our insanity will have on us, our children and our children’s children?

Are these prophesized wise elders going to show up and save the day like modern day superheroes? Or are they already here, quietly pretending to be sane like the rest of us? Does this Age of Wisdom depend on people who haven’t yet arrived on Earth or is it living in potential within all of us, waiting to be called forth like the innate adult strength that resides in the older teenager, able to be tapped as soon as adulthood is fully embraced.

Are we all pretending everyone else is nuts so we can feel sane? Are we waiting for someone else to take the lead and save us from ourselves? Or, are we denying that we are the ones on whose shoulders our future depends? Are we avoiding the responsibility of invoking sanity and maturity in our world so our children and their children have a decent chance of lives worth living?

No wonder people choose to believe that God will rescue their butts, given the insanity that prevails in our world. No wonder others choose to believe that if they kill infidels they will be rewarded in the afterlife. Both of these extreme views rely on a next life to make the insanity in this life more tolerable, to justify an existence that is otherwise intolerable.

If the world is nuts, we might accept any beliefs that promise respite, consolations or temporary vacations from the insanity.

My choice is different. My choice is to ask us all to tap that mature adult that lives within each one of us and ask him or her to stand tall for a sane approach to affirming life here on Earth, now, transcending the dysfunctionality of the systems we have created, shaping a future that honors and respects all life, is spiritually fulfilling and environmentally sustainable.

Let’s all try sanity for a change and start acting more like the mature and wise adults we know we can be. Then our world will start looking better and the future will be much more promising.

Are We Willing to Change or Have We Lost the Will to Live?

While I know we human beings have everything we need to transform ourselves as a global society and am on the record for saying this, I do not know with anywhere near the same certainty whether or not we have the collective will. So when I watched this video the speaker caught my ear immediately.

Former editor-in-chief of Discover magazine Stephen Petranek spoke at the annual TED conference in 2002 on “Ten Ways the World Could End.” The video of his talk was just recented posted on the TED website (September 2007). In a segment of his talk titled “We Lose the Will to Survive” Petranek says that according to the World Health Organization “depression is the biggest epidemic facing humanity today.” Watch the entire talk here:

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/167

The evidence would suggest that as a species we aren’t willing to change even though we know we need to transform ourselves if we are to survive. Many of us have been serving as evangelists for social transformation for twenty or more years and my own experience would suggest mass unwillingness. What do you think?

Don't Get Even....Get Mad!

You’ve heard it before as a tongue-in-check cliché: “Don’t get mad, get even.” I received an email recently promoting a new book, published in the UK, entitled Getting Even, a collection of revenge stories! Personally, I wish far more people would really get angry instead of resorting to vengeance whenever they feel wronged. Perhaps for us Americans it is a carryover from our “wild West” roots and gunfighter lore, the John Wayne “real men don’t cry” stoicism. Our legal system is more steeped in vengeance than rehab. It infects our foreign policy and influences our readiness to go to war. Getting revenge instead of seeking reconciliation is at the heart of so many of our world’s problems. And we perpetuate this aspect of our culture in our movies, TV shows, books and magazine articles.  It even seems to have penetrated children’s cartoon shows on TV!

If we are ever going to grow up as mature human beings, we have to learn to responsibly express all our emotions, anger included, and not “act it out” by getting even. Vengeance is adolescent and immature. It may sell movies but it is pandering to the teenager mindset that seems to enjoy heroes bent on getting revenge. Sorry Arnold, Bruce, Charles and Mel. I know those vengeance-riddled roles helped make you all movie stars but you only served to glamorize a trait the human species must shed if we are ever going to transcend our “naked ape-ness” into wiser, more mature beings.

It isn't like we don't have examples of alternative approaches. The restorative justice movement is more concerned with healing victims' wounds and restoring offenders to law-abiding lives than seeking retribution.  As a nation, South Africa was the first country to transcend the vengeance model when it opted to reconcile its citizens’ differences and forgive rather than seek revenge for atrocities during the apartheid era.

Getting angry does not mean going on a rampage or a tirade. It simply means allowing the emotion of anger to rise within oneself, to feel it with all its intensity and stay with it until it resides. This is natural human process. You feel it in your body and stick with it. This is the mature approach to processing emotions of all kinds.

This “staying with it” is where most people bail out. I certainly did before I learned that suppressing my feelings didn’t make them go away so they festered inside me. Then the tendency is to find something for distraction (alcohol, yelling, driving fast, drugs, overworking, TV or something else) or get into our heads about it and wrap all kinds of justification or rationalization around it which makes righteous anger more thinking than feeling. Resentments and righteousness are intellectual positions and cannot be processed. Holding onto those thoughts is why most people can’t seem to let go of their desire for revenge. Obsessive thinking keeps the seeds of the emotion stored in the body where it stagnates or putrefies. Many holistic health practitioners, including some MDs, believe this is where most of our systemic diseases come from. Holding on to all that unexpressed emotion, they contend, contributes to cancer, chronic back pain and heart disease.

So, the next time someone advises you “don’t get mad, get even” tell them you choose a healthier way and find a place to be just as angry as you need to be. I promise it will pass quickly from your body unless you insist it take up permanent residence.

Choices, Choices, Choices

On those days when life seems incredibly simple and the complications we humans like to create have all gone into temporary hiding, it occurs to me all we need to do is be fully aware of our choices. It is that simple. We make hundreds of choices every day, mostly unconsciously. To make them more consciously may not be easy… but it is simple.

Dozens of times an hour we choose A over B, many out of habit, few with conscious intention, begrudgingly and, hopefully, a few that bring us joy and do not harm anyone or any thing. Smiling or not smiling is a choice. Saying “hello” or remaining silent is a choice. Picking up a piece of trash in the public commons or walking past it is a choice. Making eye contact with someone you are passing on the sidewalk or averting your eyes is a choice of A over B. Simple but maybe not easy.

Our choices are where consciousness shows up in the world. Choices we make each and every minute create the reality in which we live. The reality in which we live is a result of our consciousness. If we seek a new reality, and seek greater consciousness, how can we ignore the choices we make over and over again, every day throughout our lives?

The politician who chooses how to vote has intention, motive and thought invested in that choice. It is somewhat conscious. Even if it is a bad choice it is being made with awareness and deliberation. The choices that same person makes in traffic when another motorist cuts them off is often unconscious and reactive. Raising their voice with their child is another choice, usually unconscious.

Police officers who put their lives on the line each day in our large cities made a conscious choice to serve in this way but are their choices to be mean and brutal in an instant of anger, stress or fear being made consciously? Are they fully conscious of what they are eating “on the run” or that donut they grabbed in the morning?

Is the manager meeting with his/her team as present to each of them, as fully aware of their words, tone and eye contact as they were when they wrote the CEO about a sensitive matter?  Are members of the team as aware of their going along with decisions with whicj they do not agree as they might be in asking the person in the accounting department out for a date? Is their head nodding in agreement or silent tongue simply a habit now?

As far as I can see, this awareness is where “the rubber meets the road” when it comes to more conscious living. Our consciousness shows up in our buying decisions, each call we make, every conversation we have, what foods we eat, how we treat one another, any addictions in which we indulge, the expression on our faces and much, much more. And each choice is simple, like chocolate or vanilla.

For me, I seek to make more and more everyday choices with awareness, deliberation and intent. This is how I can create the reality I wish to see in the world. This is how I practice becoming a more conscious human being.

Leadership Development Programs: Worthy or Bunk?

[In my August 2007 newsletter editorial I challenged whether the billions spent on leadership development was being wasted. Colorado consultant Michael Cushman responded the same day (see his email below) and it looked like this exchange could be of interest to more people. Hence, he agreed to engage with me on the subject publicly, here in the blogesphere. I suggest you read my editorial (see link above) then our first exchange (below). - JR]

RELATED PODCAST:
Becoming a Conscious Leader...a few thoughts and ideas for your action. Click here to listen

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Hi John

Thoughtful message and thought provoking.  Thank you for sharing.

I agree with the overall view and comment, and a few nuances came to mind.

1. I agree that currently, much of the money is wasted, but I'm not so sure I'll go all the way and say training itself is useless. Much of the training on leadership is within companies and it focuses on technique because they don't want disruptive leaders, they really want manager--followers who work within the system and maintain the status quo leadership team.  The goal isn't really leadership, or leadership training what do you think?

2. What's the role of context?  Mother Teresa as President of Russia?  Most likely she would flop.  Churchill was great in war leadership and horrible in peace. 

3.  That raises the issue of personality.  Different personalities work or fail in different circumstances, isn't that so?

3. Values...the term "values" is much used, but seldom defined.  I use to be a proponent of values in leadership, but I've come full circle.  The leaders you mention have a passionate purpose and stay authentic to their purpose.  And by the way, their purposes are noble.  Hitler, Stalin, Mao...had many followers (# of followers being an objective standard of leadership ability), but didn't, in the end, obtain noble results.  Our judgment of Leadership ability seems to be influenced by cultural morality; it's not really objective, and without objectivity, can we really come to know what leadership and followership really are?

4. My own area of expertise is the biological basis for group dynamics, and naturally leadership is a part of that.  All leaders, in my opinion, raise the status of the group, whether that's the poor, blacks in SA, the Britons, Woman, Communists, Germans, etc.  It is obvious when you think about it.  However, without seeing leadership and followership  as a system, with roots in evolution, the obvious escapes observation. 

Anyway, your newsletter is well written and stimulating.  I always take the time to read it fully.

Regards,
Michael

_________________

Michael, allow me to respond in the same sequence.

1. Knowing how systems tend to behave, it shouldn't surprise us that the system gets what it wants unless someone is conscious of its quirckiness and savvy to its insidious nature. So of course an unobserved or unexamined system is likely to make sure it doesn't breed any leaders who might upset the status quo. The respondents in Heil-Kyle's survey admitted they were folliwng the whims of the culture, not their own aspirations. This should be pretty clear...the system wants people who conform, like you say. I would also add that i did not mean to suggest ALL monies are a waste, only MOST.

2. Context is very important, of course.

3(A). So is personality, as is circumstance.  It is the qualities demonstrated that serve as aspirations for most would-be leaders.

3(B). Values is so abused these days. Each side of the many chasms between people claims they have values, implying or even accusing the other side of having none. That's bunk too. Osama bin Laden has strongly held values. So did Hitler. But they are DIFFERENT values that we might hold dear. Values, like taste and preference is individual not absolute. I suspect nobility is the same so one person's noble cause is another's sin against the world. Leadership is a skill or an art but it doesn't come with a conscience as far as I can see. That's why most of my writing about it is "conscious leadership" defining a set of values and priorities that accompany the skill.

4. I would contend your definition could be better stated as "All leaders, who share my values, raise the status of the group..."

I look forward to your comments,

John

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!”