Rebuild Stories of Meaning (152 votes)

(Created by : rapetzel )

The Global Opportunity to start creating the world we want to see. 15.03.09 18 people gathered. Karlskrona, Sweden.

(7 countries represented: Brazil, Canada, France, Korea, Mexico, Sweden, Pakistan, United States)

Who we are, what we do, and why we are different: We are Systems thinkers training in sustainability. We are diverse and inspired by the positive capacity of human creativity. We’re idealistic, pragmatic, strategic sustainablists.

Our action plan is global. We will be utilizing the tools available to us (social media, networks, the telephone, our two feet) to start telling stories about what really matters. We don't need more economic and governmental institutions that exist just to exist. They must exist to provide a SERVICE. The service we require of them is to support our vision of a sustainable society outlined below. We will start talking about what we expect, what we see, what is meaningful to us, our vision of a sustainable world. We’ll talk about the real value of life and all the ecosystem services that support that life. We invite everyone to join in this conversation.

Underscoring this action plan is a suspicion that the real crisis we're facing is a loss of meaning. We have a better understanding of the complexity and interconnectedness that drive our global world than ever before. But as a global culture, we don't have stories that provide meaning to this new world. Throughout history, stories of meaning have been essential for humanity’s progression, its success and its sustainability. Our plan is to discover and tell new stories of meaning for our global world through talking about what we value, our vision, our hope.

We recognize this is not just an economic crisis. It’s a crisis of how we organize ourselves within the global ecosystem. The symptoms of this crisis include the financial meltdown, as well as the climate crisis, systemic global poverty, millions of refugees, and a loss of trust in humanity and the institutions that govern our society.

However, the coming of the economic meltdown has allowed us a global opportunity to address these systemic challenges and create anew a world that values what really matters (people and their networks, global social and environmental support structures), and recognizes the important place all of life holds within the global ecosystem. This abrupt economic meltdown is an opportunity to address these problems systematically rather than in a fragmented manner.

We believe we all create the world we want to see. As a group, we have created our vision of what a sustainable future could look like and how the economy can support and serve that future.

We recognize there are many problems and much suffering that needs to be addressed. But our action plan involves focusing on a world we want to co-create, instead of those problems. Our work in strategic sustainable development has taught us the importance of understanding the system that we’re working within, and understanding what is critical for success within that system. For any natural system to be sustainable, it must possess diversity, interdependence and self-organization.

We believe these conditions apply to our human systems as we are part of the larger ecosystem. To us, success at a principle level is a system of governance and economy that allows us to thrive in our interdependence and diversity through self-organization. Today, global systems are so complex that most people feel overwhelmed and don't feel EMPOWERED to organize and participate, because they either don't know how to or physically cannot. Millions feel powerless, consequentially we lose the diversity and self-organization necessary for our system to survive.

However with this economic crisis our interdependence has never been more clear. While we cannot recommend what is needed to fix the financial system, which is a subset of our global system, we can take action on spreading the message about what really matters, about what this crisis really represents.

Our vision of a sustainable future

Elements of a global system of economics and governance that is sustainable include…

-Economic institutions and governmental institutions that serve human needs, and are not ends unto themselves. In order for them to do this everyone must be empowered to partake in these systems, self-organize, and decide the vision and outcome of these systems.

-Diversity (more smaller institutions, smaller transactions, serving local communities needs)

-Self-organization

-Interdependence, (strong sense of community)

-systems that are simplified and understandable, trustworthy & transparent

-did we mention transparent?

-greater accountability in order to build trust in systems

-Education and Empowerment

-Laws written for people, not for corporate institutions (systems by all of us, for all of us)

-Greater regulation- but from within. We chose to hold ourselves to higher standards we’ve created and believe in.

-a new value system to support global development (Using the Golden rule)

-Living simply so all can simply live

-Empowerment of decentralized governing structures

-Economic valuation of what matters- not just more ‘stuff’ to fuel economic growth

-recognizing we all succeed or fail together (it is not sustainable for G20 to hold 80% of the worlds wealth.)

-stories of meaning that support these values and can be translated to the reality of our global world

-more chaordic, self-organizing ‘flat’ institutional structures

"Today, many things indicate that we are going thorough a transitional period, when it seems that something is on the way out and something else is painfully being born. It is as if something were crumbling, decaying, and exhausting itself, while something else, still indistinct, were arising from the rubble." -Vaclav Havel

Scope :Global
Timescale :flexible
Who :Community

Comments on This Plan

Kristiyan said:
I find These points in your plan disturbing: 1) Laws written for people, not for corporate institutions (systems by all of us, for all of us) *Do you mean that corporations will no longer be regulated by laws, and only people should obey the big brother? 2) Living simply so all can simply live *Does this imply restrictions on life-style? For a balance to exist in any system if there is simplification in some people's lives a corresponding proportional complexity would be created for others (no necessarily equal in number). I see extending gap between few rich and majority of poor here. 3)Greater regulation- but from within. We chose to hold ourselves to higher standards we’ve created and believe in. *This openly translates into self-regulated regulators, or otherwise in open doors for feedback from without (the people cannot govern the system no more as the system governs itself). Most disturbing of all.
Bruno said:
Concordo que temos de mudar essa ideia de fazer mais e mais instituições isso não vai resolver essa crise. Mas sim temos que mudar o modo que vemos o capital pois esse sistema e cheio de defeitos. Espero que ajude no debate.
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