Beginning the “Oh Shit Decade”

Have you noticed how many people are starting to become aware of the many national and global crises seemingly spinning out of control and how impotent governments appear to be to do anything constructive about them? Not that the numbers of people are anywhere near the majority but certainly they are less a minority than they’ve been in some time.

In my circle of acquaintances, which are largely aware people such as authors, futurists and organizational leaders, I am hearing more reports of their friends coming to the realization that the world isn’t as rosy as they thought. More of their colleagues are looking about and seeing some real messes, many of them for the first time, and they are surprised even shocked at what they are seeing. Many have assumed that others were taking care of all these challenges, that they were being corrected or well on their way to being fixed. And then we have glaring high-profile examples of gross impotence such as the U.S. congress supposedly reforming healthcare and the 170 nation climate change conference in Copenhagen where it was clear to any sane observer that the true power was not emanating from the inner circle but with the tens of thousands outside.
 
Suddenly my colleagues are realizing the challenges have gotten more challenging while our leaders have been engaged in petty squabbles and ideological debates, like Nero fiddling while Rome burned. In the past two days alone I’ve had friends tell me their acquaintances are using the “Oh shit!” exclamation upon realizing matters are worse than they imagined. This prompted me to name this the “oh shit decade” – ten years when people will finally come to the realization that we cannot solve our problems with the same thinking or consciousness with which we created them, three generations after Albert Einstein warned us!

Our crises are getting worse while our leaders are focused on their petty differences and agendas instead of the global commons on which the whole world depends for life sustenance. The bureaucracies we have created cannot effectively function anymore! They are dysfunctional to the core. They are obsolete! Trying to transform them has proven impossible to date so why not take them out of the equation and invest that energy elsewhere?

In the coming ten years, perhaps sufficient numbers of people will start to see the wisdom of protecting and restoring the ability of the global commons to sustain life before pursuing individual ideologies and ambitions. Perhaps sufficient numbers of people will begin to honor the needs of the collective whole over those of any one segment or group, to assure the global family is healthy before claiming any unfair share for any minority. Perhaps sufficient numbers will realize the classic “Tragedy of the Commons*” is being played out in real life, here and now, with our oceans, rivers, forests, aquifers, wildlife and air – all essential to sustaining life for all people regardless of class or location in the world – not to mention the disrespect and disdain with which we hold each other as people.

Will this new decade encapsulate the great turning, the tipping point, when the consensus reality concedes that the welfare of the commons needs to be secure first and foremost, that the commons has priority over the individual, be it a person, a group or a country? If enough people have the “oh shit” experience, the rude awakening to undeniable truth, there’s hope things can be turned around. Then the question is how long with the turnaround take and how far will we have allowed conditions to deteriorate in that time. One thing certain: Life will be different.


*see Tragedy of the Commons on Wikipedia