Spaceship Earth
Paul Hawkins is a writer and an activist who agitates and campaigns for social and economic justice, the ecology of our only planet, and a better planet for us all.
In one of his books, “Blessed Unrest,” he described an interesting exercise that he had given to a group of corporate executives during a workshop.
These were high powered executives, focused on profit and production over all other concerns.
In the exercise, he split the executives up into teams…you know, typical workshop strategy to get people to work together!
The assignment was this:
Imagine that your team is going on a spaceship deep into outer space. You are on a colonizing expedition, and the journey may take years. Your families will be on board, and successive generations may well be born before you reach your destination.
The spaceship will have advanced technology and can make food, but it is a finite world. Who and what will you take with you to ensure your health, welfare and sanity on this extended voyage?
The teams all thought this was a very interesting assignment, and ideas were flying around the room.
Most of the teams were very practical. They’d want scientists, doctors, and researchers on board. They wanted stuff like you’d take on an extended trip to the outback somewhere: Games, books, movies and so on.
One team, however, envisioned their spaceship as a thriving and evolving culture. They did not want high tech gadgets. Their colonizing ship would take musicians, artists and artisans to create their culture as they rode through the dark reaches of space.
Rather than isolating themselves in a sterile and impersonal world of movies and video games, they would interact with each other. They would perform in plays, and make music. They would grow gardens and recycle wastes.
In short, their spaceship crew would be a thriving and involved community that focused on creating and living together as an interdependent whole.
This vision completely captured the imaginations of some of the executives, and inspired them see the world through new eyes, so that they actually quit their corporate careers!
This exercise illustrated for them that it was people and community that really matter, not money, growth and profit.
It caught my imagination as well, because that little workshop exercise was a beautiful example of just what communities today need in order to thrive. The most successful and healthy communities are those whose members need and support each other.
Successful and thriving communities are interactive, with arts and gardens. The citizens love and support their own community, and find ways to get what they need locally.
Our addiction to instant gratification has made us forget our local roots.
There is a worldwide movement afoot right now that could be called “Gif-Tiv-Ism”
Gift Economy Shift
1. Consumption to Contribution: Instead of asking “What can I get?” open each door and ask “What can I give?”
2. Transaction to Trust: Build synergy. You can’t shake hands with a clenched fist.
3. Isolation to Community: It is not enough that we connect, but rather how we connect. That is the difference between coal and diamonds.
4. Scarcity to Abundance: Cultivate inner transformation to arrive at enough.
“There is enough for everyone’s need, but not everyone’s greed.”
Gandhi
The world is undergoing massive social and economic shifts right now. Mainstream media does not like to tell these stories, but a little digging around will reveal some startling facts. Here are just a few:
It is becoming obvious that we are in the middle of a global financial meltdown. Investment firms are being busted right and left for outright larceny. JP Morgan has announced a 2 Billion dollar loss. When a company like that makes a claim like that, you can bet their true losses are far, far higher.
Back in the middle of March, top Goldman Sachs executive Greg Smith quit. And, performing an act perhaps many of us have dreamed of, he resigned by writing a truly incendiary open letter to the NY Times revealing exactly why he was quitting, and it wasn’t pretty. It is worth looking up online, but what really caught on was that he revealed that Goldman Sachs executives called their own clients “muppets” and that they existed only to make a profit for the company…clients no longer mattered.
Goldman Sachs is in an even deeper mess right now as a company lawyer inadvertently released top secret documents detailing many of their illegal activities.
Over 600 top banking CEOs have resigned their positions this year. Why? What do they know that they aren’t telling?
All this leads me to believe that our world’s debt based financial structure is about to collapse under its own bloated weight.
Remember, it is 2012…
The Year of the Great Shift!
