Of all the news and analysis I have read concerning COP15; from American deniers of climate change, to conspiracy theorists who see any agreement being one step closer to giving away our sovereignty, to fear mongers on the other side decrying planetary ruination; few pieces get at what I consider the heart of the matter. Other than a few brave individuals I don’t see the people of the world standing up for themselves. Yes, the issues most people face will be intensified by climate change but we, humanity, should be dealing with these issues regardless. Yes, making international agreements to limit industries and contribute tax dollars to help green the world do limit our governments sovereignty, but the results of unbridled corporate greed will limit all of humanity. The heart of the matter lies in the very personal decisions we each make that either satisfy our personal desires at the expense of others or forward collaboration with others for our common good. Are we the people of the world committed to collaboration for the common good? And what can I as an individual do to forward this action? We the people of the world need to evolve a communication and power system that can eventually make it clear to the powers that be that it is in their best interests to protect the common good.

Wage slaves that is. The administrations dismissal of single payer universal healthcare moves me to take a couple actions.
1) Cross out “DONOR” on my drivers license. Without healthcare that provides for the working class the only people able to take advantage of any organs or tissues that may survive my death will be the rich who will then use those same tissues to further oppress the poor.
2) Refuse to purchase health insurance even when I begin making enough money to do so. The administrations action demonstrates the inordinate power of the health insurance industry. An industry that currently siphons off finances that should be providing healthcare. An industry that actively interferes with individuals getting the care they need. Insurance does not equal healthcare. How many people do you know who are hanging onto (chained to) a job they hate so as to keep their health insurance (which may or may not pay for needed care)? To stay politically viable Obama must cater to the capitalists. But we don’t need to. We can help free the slaves by following our consciences.

Signs of the times.
Ervin Laszlo refers to the chaos point we are at in terms of a full term pregnancy. Humanity needs to birth a new way of being. We are filling the womb, earth, to the bursting. We are using up all her resources and beginning to toxify our environment. Our existing systems can no longer meet our needs. Peak oil, global climate change, poverty, disease, marginalization of billions of people while plying them with advertisements showing them what they should have all add to the toxicity. In other terms we could say that the industrial age has run its course and the information age can’t get a breath yet. We are like two year olds fighting over real dump trucks. Our social, psychological, emotional maturity has fallen way behind our technological capacity. We need to move to a post-consumer economy but don’t know what that looks like yet.

Economies.
None of the economic systems of the past are going to serve us in this future. But just as Clare Graves concluded that each of the psychological systems he studied had part of the truth and formed these into what is now called Spiral Dynamics we must find the various parts of this puzzle that we can use. It will not serve us to revert to an old system. We must find the new pattern, in harmony with nature, in harmony with our inner natures and our planetary possibility, study it and support it.

Scale.
Back in 1809 Charles Fourier proposed Associations of 10,000 acres and 1800 people as the scale needed to create the human dynamics for successful living. Our present world scale economy seems a bit shakey, but that could be the influence of capitalism. Co-housing developments need about so many people to work well. Peak oil could help us discover appropriate economic scales. By postponing the real cost of transportation (global climate change) cheap oil has distorted economic boundaries. We need to find out how much of what we need to live fully we should be producing locally. This will establish the local economic unit. Then we need to discover what this local unit can produce for sale so it can buy those things it needs but cannot produce.

Community.
As I looked over intentional communities in SW WI and SE MN I noticed that most did not propose an economy. How will the community make money? Most leave that to the individual. I would suggest that a community enterprise may be essential. The resulting synergistics, creativity, purpose, mission, teamwork, and interactions will enliven both the individuals and the community while providing a cash flow.
Begin with an asset inventory, natural resources, human resources, spiritual resources, shared values and vision. How can we serve the world and get paid to do so? How can we grow this? How will it grow us?
An example: In a Permaculture oriented community trees are very important. Grow and sell Christmas trees and firewood. Nut and fruit trees and the honey from the bees needed to pollinate them could make a great line of original, healthy, candies and cookies for the holiday season. These would provide a variety of year round jobs and could be expanded in many ways.
The community economy satisfies human needs first and economic needs secondarily. The necessities of daily life are produced and consumed locally. Several communities could work together to man an industrial plant to produce a product for the world market. It is essential that the communities own the business so that its purpose continues to be to satisfy the human needs of the communities.

Why Community?
Learning to live and work together is essential to the evolution of the next phase of our global economy. Unless we devote energy and resources to this learning process we will push ourselves past the chaos point and into decline.

5/25/09
Forward from Tom Atlee of the Co-Intelligence Institute:
U.S. President Obama issued a Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government, calling for an unprecedented level of openness in government. In the memorandum, the President outlined three principles for promoting a more open government: transparency, participation, and collaboration. Now, Obama is calling on U.S. citizens to help shape how that commitment is fulfilled.
The Administration has set up a website at http://opengov.ideascale.com to gather ideas from the field, get them commented on and voted up or down, and then to discuss the leading proposals and weave them into a program.
The brainstorming, commenting, and voting stage of this process is open to the public until Thursday, May 28, 2009. So if you want to join this effort, please do so now.

My thoughts upon reading the article: “Why Capitalism Shouldn’t Be Saved” by John Sanbonmatsu in the May/June Tikkun magazine at http://www.tikkun.org/article.php/may_jun_09_sanbonmatsu

Three Quotes that stick with me: “Steinbrück, a leading light of the conservative Christian Democratic Union party, stunned his interviewer by invoking the spirit of Marxism to explain what was occurring in the international markets. “Overall,” he said, “we have to conclude that certain elements of Marxist theory are not all that incorrect.”

“If capitalism is indeed beginning to consume itself, the same way it devoured the minds, bodies, and labor of countless human and nonhuman beings over the course of centuries, then for the first time in generations, perhaps ever, we may have a brief opening, a caesura in the long, breathless tale of capitalism and its violence, in which to imagine and to set the terms for a new way of organizing human society and economy.”

“But where are the demonstrations today against the bailout of the banks and brokerage firms, let alone against the capitalist system that is ruining our planet? Who is out there trying to build a vibrant, broad-based socialist movement? Ironically, the unfolding crisis directly or indirectly encompasses every conceivable social movement issue the Left could ever care about-war and peace, individual liberties, feminism, ecology, labor, and animal rights. Yet the Left as such is dead-or might as well be.”

We are still not talking about a post-consumer, post-industrial, economy. What will the post capitalist, post socialist economy look like? With the advent of consumer goods we rejected the ancient communitarian economies. We have been crying about the shortcomings of everything since. We need to have a human, a planetary conversation about how we want to function economically. What are our priorities? Are we ready to really commit to the millennium development goals? I do think that when we take peak oil and global climate change into account we will be talking about both local and global economies that place human development at the top of the list of priorities.

Utopian Vision
There is a historical marker at one of the rest stops on Interstate 35 in Iowa dedicated to the settlers who came to the area to establish their utopian vision. I went to Paraguay SA to establish a community in 1972. Upon arriving I found that I was only the latest in a long line of immigrants seeking a similar vision. That marker in Iowa found me as I was then, and still am, struggling to define my position for my Masters thesis. Shortly thereafter I came upon an article in the March – April 2009 Futurist by Edward Cornish, who was president of the World Future Society 1996 – 2004, titled “What I Have Learned”. He states:
“But during the years ahead, I believe that social technologies will be even more important that physical, chemical, or biological technologies. I certainly don’t mean to discount the importance of technological inventions – they are obviously important – but I do assert that investing in social inventions may do even more than physical or biological inventions to improve the human condition. A social invention is a new law, custom, organization, or procedure that changes the ways in which people relate to themselves or to each other, either individually or collectively.” (56)

My studies have centered around the social technologies of community building. I have recognized that the challenges of living in community are probably as old as humanity, at least dating from Cain and Abel. In an effort to utilize historical experience and incorporate future thinking I decided to read some case studies of past utopian efforts as well as “Imagining America in 2003: How the Country Put Itself Together after Bush” which is a utopian scenario of the future written by Utopian studies scholar Herbert J Gans.

As I have begun reading the utopian case studies it is apparent the Owenites and Fourierists of the 1830’s and 1840’s were striving for many of the same ideals that the communal movement of the 1960’s and the current cohousing, community development corporations, and a multitude of other urban renewal efforts are. It’s an interesting journey.

I received the following message today. 1) The original date on it is Feb 7, why so slow to get out? 2) The petition site does not contain this wording. 3) I would like to see a direct reference to our need to care for each other. I signed the petition anyway.

The Evolutionary Leaders Counsel is a group of spiritual and thought
leaders called together by Deepak Chopra. They have been meeting in
person and by phone to address the needs of the planet and how best to
facilitate change of consciousness on the planet. Below is their
response to a request by the Obama administration. Their petition
addresses many of the concerns in the NSP Spiritual Covenant with
America. It is thrilling to see our current administration reaching
out to spiritual leaders and showing an interest in consciousness.

By the Evolutionary Leaders
The human family is in the midst of the most significant
transformation of consciousness since its emergence in Africa over one
hundred thousand years ago. Consciousness has been evolving for
billions of years from the first cell to us. We are becoming aware
that through our own consciousness the universe can know itself. This
awareness reveals incredible new potential for our individual and
collective humanity.
Simultaneously, we are the first species on this Earth aware that we
can destroy ourselves by our own action. This may be the greatest
wake-up call to the evolution of consciousness since the origin of
Homo sapiens.
We now realize that we are affecting our own evolution by everything
we do. This knowledge awakens in us the aspiration to become more
conscious through subjective practices including meditation,
reflection, prayer, intuition, creativity, and conscious choice making
that accelerate our evolution in the direction of unity consciousness
and inspire us to deeply align our collective vision.
THE CHALLENGE
At this juncture in human history, urgent global crises challenge us
to learn to live sustainably, in harmony and gratitude with one
another and with the living universe. The changes required of humanity
are broad, deep, and far reaching. Only by acting swiftly and
creatively can we birth a planetary culture that will bring well-being
to every form of life in the Earth community.
The good news is that a compelling new story of our potential as a
whole human species is emerging-a story of collaboration, citizen
action, dialogue and new understandings propelled by unprecedented
levels of democratic freedom, multicultural exchange, and access to
communication technologies. It is nothing less than the story of our
collective evolution.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR ACTION
We recognize that the inner and outer aspects of life evolve together.
A dramatic awakening in consciousness will involve an equally dramatic
shift in outward aspects of our lives. In particular, we see the
following as vital opportunities for our conscious evolution, both
personally and collectively:
Cultivating a Paradigm of Aliveness: We regard the universe as deeply
alive and conscious by nature. In a living universe, our sense of
subtle connection and participation with life around us is the basis
for a compassionate and cooperative approach to living.
Educating for an Evolving Consciousness: Awakening consciousness is
the foundation for all the change we seek to see in the world. We can
work to elevate our capacity for conscious reflection and creative
action in our personal lives as well as our collective lives as
communities. We must support research and educational strategies that
optimize human capacities and explore the nature of consciousness.
Restoring Ecological Balance: The balance of planetary ecosystems is
fundamental to our survival. We must reverse the pollution of our
global commons-the water, air and soil that nourish all life. We must
encourage the proliferation of clean, renewable energy sources and
expend all necessary resources toward mitigating the effects of
climate change.
Encouraging Conscious Media: We must find innovative ways to use the
new electronic media as the mirror of our positive evolutionary story,
investing in their capacity to reach across differences of generation,
culture, religion, wealth, and gender to build a working consensus
about our collective future.
Engaging in Social and Political Transformation: More sustainable ways
of living will require the support of a more conscious democracy and
vibrant civil society from which more enlightened leaders will emerge.
All individuals should be encouraged to use their gifts to create
participatory, responsible and compassionate models of governance.
Working for Integrity in Commerce: Conscious businesses that are aware
of the scope, depth, and long-range impacts of their actions are key
to achieving sustainability. Business must become an ethical steward
of the Earth’s ecology and consciously establish an economic basis for
a future of equitably shared abundance.
Promoting Health and Healing: The science of mind-body-spirit health
has demonstrated the profound connection between the health of a whole
person and the health of the system in which he or she lives. Whole
systems healing, respecting both traditional knowledge and modern
sciences, must be supported in physical, social, and spiritual domains.
Building Global Community: The new story is about all of us who share
this planet. Together, we can create a culture of peace that
eliminates the need for armed conflict, respecting and appreciating
the glorious diversity of our human family.
YOUR PARTICIPATION IS VITAL
Our group has done its best to articulate possibilities for the
evolution of consciousness at this crucial moment in time. Please
reflect on this document, feel what resonates in your being and calls
forth a response on your part. We invite you to discuss it with
others, continuing this global conversation by adding to it the wisdom
that is uniquely your own.
Together, let us co-create a new narrative of conscious evolution that
is a call to individual and collective action, birthing the most
significant transformation of consciousness in history. Join in the
Call to Conscious Evolution by signing the pledge now.
FOUNDING SIGNATORIES
Chopra Center , Carlsbad , California , July 26, 2008
Michael Beckwith, Joan Borysenko, Gregg Braden, Rinaldo Brutoco,
Thomas Callanan, Deepak Chopra, Mallika Chopra, Dale Colton, Gordon
Dveirin, Duane Elgin , Leslie Elkus, Barbara Fields, Debbie Ford, Ashok
Gangadean, Kathleen Gardarian, Tom Gegax, Charles Gibbs, Kathy Hearn,
Jean Houston, Barbara Marx Hubbard, Bruce Lipton, Judy Martin, Rod
McGrew, Steve McIntosh, Lynne McTaggart, Deborah Moldow, James O’Dea,
Carter Phipps, Wendy Craig-Purcell, Carolyn Rangel, Rustum Roy, Peter
Russell, Gerard Senehi, Emily Squires, Brian Swimme, Diane Williams,
Marianne Williamson, Tom Zender.
See what others are saying, sign petition and write your comments:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/248704259

Truth in vending: There should be heavy penalties for advertising and publicity that creates a false impression. Like “clean coal” when the technology isn’t developed “organic” that is 90%, “healthy snacks” that are just a little bit less unhealthy than the alternative. To maintain our democracy, read - national security, we need an informed public not a misinformed one. It may be that for our national security we cannot afford to presume that a member of the general public will do the research necessary to uncover the thinly veiled falsehood.