The Times, They Are A-Changing ?

The Times, They Are A-Changing ?.

About Fracking, Uncomfortable Knowledge, Closed Hegemony, Ethics, the Common Good, Heatlh, Changing Rules and Democracy

“None of us know all the potentialities that slumber in the spirit of the population, or all the ways in which that population can surprise us when there is the right interplay of events“

These words of Vaclav Havel came to my mind when listening to Bill Moyers’ interview of SANDRA STEINGRABER.

I am fighting to get positive potentialities slumber from the spirit of the population. I must admit that hearing a story like the one Sandra explains in this interview  raises my fear that other, very nasty “potentialities” can lead to unimaginably dramatic consequences.

When will Humanity raise to a new level of consciousness from where it can oversee the consequences and correct the path away from the ever increasing Kafkaian “Institutional/Technological Lock-in” we have imprisoned ourselves into.

Wealth Inequality in Motion.

What a flabbergasting presentation.
Wake-up to reality, yes, sure, and what will happen then?

Has somebody such a chart for other western countries and for other “outlier” countries. Which country ressembeles what Dan shows the Americans to consider “ideal?

 

Wealth Inequality in Motion..

Vandana Shiva : We Live in a Very Violen

Vandana Shiva : We Live in a Very Violent Economic Order To Which War Has Become Essential http://ow.ly/iC35L http://ow.ly/iC3fB

Vandana Shiva in Los Angeles Yesterday: We Live in a Very Violent Economic Order To Which War Has Become Essential

Let’s listen to Vardana Shiva here
Why is it that we don’t listen to these voices?
What happens if we only listen to what comes to us? To the  “Merchants of Doubt” (Naomi Oreskes & Erik Conway)
We should not, is the forceful answer of Marco Verweij and Michael Thompson: in a proper democracy all voices should be enabled to express themselves, to be listened and responded to (see Clumsy Solutions for a Complex World)
Are all  voices enabled free expression, are they listened and responded to in public decision-making?

I believe not, Does this mean thet “Democracy is Lost”: Yes seems to say Laurence Lessig in “Republic Lost”. I tend to follow him on that.

Let’s start with ourselveses: if only each of us would go out of our way to find out and listen to all the voices, trying to discover those that are repressed, silenced, ridiculed, sidelined… If they are, is it not an almost sure sign thet “Closed Hegemony” or “Colluding Dyads” are at work?

Fooling democracy, fooling us, and in so doing putting at risk the future of our Grandchildren.

Let’s listen and let’s respond to all the voices! Let’s start with Vendana’s

Vandana Shiva on Int’l Women’s Day: “Capitalist Patriarchy Has Aggravated Violence Against Women” »

... we end our International Women’s Day broadcast with the Indian feminist, activist and thinker Dr. Vandana Shiva. The author of many books, most recently “Making Peace with the Earth,” Dr. Shiva discus…”

 Among Vendana’s first words:

…we are living in a very violent economic order to which war has become essential—war against the earth, war against women’s bodies, war against local economies and war against democracy. And I think we need to see the connections between all these forms of violence, which impact women most. Whether it’s climate change or biodiversity erosion or seed monopolies, all of it is connected. It’s one piece.

http://www.democracynow.org/2013/3/8/vandana_shiva_on_intl_womens_day

Open Data Activist Aaron Swartz Dies 26

Open Data Activist Aaron Swartz Dies 26 “One need not hope in order to undertake, nor succeed in order to persevere” http://ow.ly/gLf4F

In Times of Resource Scarcity for Billions, What’s our Responsability as Humans?

In times of resource scarcity for billions, can you knowfully WASTE/DUMP/DESTROY scarce resources knowing they are needed, and can be Used to do GOOD to many -  including yourself?

Under which conditions should you be held LIABLE REFUSING doing it?

What would you think?

Read Gunter Pauli adressing this question here : http://ow.ly/gsCh1 @Myblueeconomy

What other views/resources can help in thinking through and tackling these issues?

Is Whistleblowing a Right, or an Obligation, or is it INSANE to Whistleblow? Is Refusing to do Good to be “Whistleblown”? Can Anyone Prevent Someone do Denounce Crime?

René Char said:  “If you come to this world to cause no trouble, then you dont deserve any patience nor appreciation”.  René Char

I’ve digged into the litterature of Whistleblowing since some time. I’ve read stories of people who have had their life crushed because they considered it their responsibility to warn of insane practices.

Alford, C. Fred  wrote a very interesting book on Whistleblowers, see Whistleblowers: Broken Lives and Organizational Power. Cornell University Press

On tying Whistleblower on On Wikipedia you’ll find a 10 pages of interesting information, and following up on the references, history and talk section of the article is even more interesting.

My real question is an ethical one:

What is our responsability as Human beings when we don’t whistleblow unacceptable situations?

Can any law, ruling, agreement prevent is to exercise our responsability to denounce such inacceptable situations?

In what situations would it be ethically justified NOT to whistleblow?

Gunter Pauli, in his blog about “Positive Whistleblowing” , offers some answers. He dreams of positive whistleblowers, an army of them, who expose the great opportunities of shifting mindsets from the negative to the unconditional positve, scanning for opportunities to transform bad into good, whilst ending better off in the process.

What’s your intake on that?

Blue Economy and Cities as Forces for Good joining Professor Joseph Orzságh

EAUTARCIE
How to Become Independent of Public Water Supply and Wastewater Networks
Prospects on Keeping Climate Change in Check

Take 15 minutes to view this incredible presentation designed by  Professor Joseph Országh, a bright mind, a humble hero, daring to challenge existing paradigms. What a pity he was not yet listened to, and his ideas not yet accounted for, with dire consequences.  It may not be too late.

He is not alone anymore.

It is remarkable how people with open mindsets, but very different backgrounds, come together when looking at the intractable problems facing our World.

Einstein said that such intractable problems (of our creation), cannot be solved at the same level of consciousness than the level at which they were created.

ZERI‘s The Blue Economy and Cities as Forces for Good , as did Professor Országh, look at the World from a higher level of consciousness, and their proposals converge: in this case, how to solve the Climate Change problems caused by irresponsible energy, consumption, waste and agro-industrial systems

Their conclusion is clear: It is possible to solve the intractable problems of our time, if only we allow ourselves to think and know differently….

Technology is available, if only man knew how to use it.

Escaping the dramatic and apparently irreversible technological and societal lock-ins is also possible: it requires to think and act differently, leading to new leadership models and a higher level of individual and collective consciousness.

More of this in a next Blog Entry.

Where Have I Been, Whereto Am I Heading?

It has been some time since I’ve been posting here.  I explain this in a blogpost to my friends of Howard Rheingold’s Youniversity Alumni Community. Happy to share it also publicly  here

Since almost 14 years I’ve been tracking the weak and not so weak signals that indicate the deep changes happening in society. I’ve  systematically been searching and studying those ideas, people and initiatives at the edge of all domains of life. My emphasis being primarily on what is not listened and responded to,  who is experiencing passive or active resistance, what is being sidelined, who is sometimes aggressively opposed. Indeed my idea is that when new ideas hurt,  there is a reason, and hence, finding out shows the direction where change is happening.
My aim is trying to understand how to re-align Humans with their deep nature and with nature. It  lead me to changing myself . This in turn allows me to help others change and develop a higher order of consciousness.

Today my work concentrates on three, complementary and interwoven areas:
1. Evolving business towards the Future: Combining new insights and experiences with past experiences in business leadership to help companies remain resilient in an unpredictable, uncertain and possibly severe disruptive future. Evolving business models, cooperation and organization forms to contribute positively, without harm, to people, society, nature and the World at large.
2. Harness technology and governance to align Human societies with Nature again:  I partnered with researchers and practitioners working at the edge of the social sciences and technology to take on the challenge of re-engineering our cities so as to make them a Force for Good for their hinterland. The Engineering challenge is pale compared to the governance challenge. And therein precisely lies another topic: Harnessing Technology to extending our deep Human Nature.

3. A few months ago I engaged in the Zero Emissions Research & Initiatives‘s challenge to integrate economy with broader societal and ecological needs, known as the Blue Economy: it happenend when my intimate friend for over 35 year, Gunter Pauli, visited me. He had decided to upscale his ZERI (Zero Emissions Research and Initiatives) initiatives and its offspring “Blue Economy“. He explained me that his goal was now to provide these initiatives with a platform of implementation in order to accelerate the emergence of this new economy. He has asked me to join him and others in this effort. I’ve accepted with pride and determination, and I will concentrate mainly on “Scanning, Screening and Implementing” “Blue Economy Projects” projects in Europe, as explained in Case 100

These three challenges all relate to overcoming Machiavelli’s predicament, as beautifully expressed in this warning to his Prince:
“It ought to be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things. Because the innovator has for enemies all those who have done well under the old conditions, and lukewarm defenders in those who may do well under the new. This coolness arises partly from fear of the opponents, who have the laws on their side, and partly from the incredulity of men, who do not readily believe in new things until they have had a long experience of them.”

My work heavily relies on settting up cooperative practices between people whilst fully acknowledging their distinct and radically opposed world views. This stems from new social theory, briefly  documented here.  This theory clarifies why even the best well-intentioned efforts to resolve the global and other interwoven systemic and complex problems so often fail spectacularly? It offers a way to avoid how these failures can best be avoided. The trick: work with everyone, neglect nobody, show that solutions can be found where everyone can get more of what he wants, and less of what he doesn’t want. Those solutions are called “clumsy”

In social science also, new paradigms and new thinking are showing the way. Again Einstein’s ideas are confirmed:

“Insanity: doing the same thing over and again, expecting different results” and

“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”

Finally, in this other blogpost I  elaborate on how this new thinking is inextricably linked to thinking differently about cooperation, education and “mind amplification”.