What’s Next?

“In every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our actions on the seven generations that come after us.” – Great Law of the Iroquois.

That’s a tall order, this Law.

Of course it was a bit easier to consider that in a time and place that was mostly shaped by nature, when the lifestyle was tribal and small was beautiful.

And your place in nature and in the tribe was pretty much clear and defined.

Nowadays we find ourselves stuck with a society that is out of touch with nature, incredible complex and fragmented and driven by forces and political agendas far beyond our individual power to change.

And obviously we are also a pretty individualistic bunch of folks who value our personal freedom above all. ;  )

But slowly it is dawning on us what we have done. More and more people waking up to the realization that this can not go on this way, that humanity is heading for a wall.

Or maybe its a cliff …

How do we deal with that?

Now that the Contra virus has provided to many of us a profound period of PAUSE, of reflection and re-consideration of what we actually want from life, now will come the time of “What’s next?”.

A time of formulating our needs, our wishes, thoughts and visions.

A time of speaking out what we think, what we dream up.

A time of choices.

A time of action.

It is clear that we can not rely on the people on the top to do that for us.

The politicians (most of them) and the CEOs, the lobbyists and faithful administrators of the system, the billionaires and bankers are not interested in profound social change, in system change.

They want to go back to the status quo, and quick!

If we want change for the better and a new dawn for humanity & the world it will be up to us, “we the people” to do it.

Grassroots activities, individual visionary actions that grow into movements, participatory democracy … thats the way change could come.

The impact of movements like Occupy Wall Street, The Occupy Movement, Extinction Rebellion and Fridays for Future have clearly shown what an impact the actions of a few dedicated individuals can have worldwide.

Especially with the younger generations.

Out of chaos, order.

Out of despair, hope.

Out of anger & rage, focussed action.

I think that many democratic societies have come to see that their democracy is not really working so well, that its mostly two or more political camps fighting each other over ideology and a place on the handles of power.

And the decisions are mostly done by an elite that is arrogant towards “we, the people”.

I think (maybe its my illusion ;  ) that the first order of business would be to do away with the political status quo as we have it – conservatives vs liberals, socialists vs capitalists, industrialists vs tree-huggers and so on.

And apply the ideas of democracy as they were laid out by the old Greek philosophers.

Plato and such forward thinkers.

Mostly participatory democracy.

Shared responsibility.

“From the ground up” government.

Its is very utopian to think like that and at the same time see how the world works nowadays.

But hey! Now is the perfect time for utopian thinking, for visionary dreaming and revolutionary action !!!

Right?

;  )

Come on you skeptics, i can already hear you “ands, ifs and buts” :  )

Sure, i agree, it will not be easy to dismantle and rebuild into a new form our train (society) that is traveling in full speed.

But honestly, tell me whats the alternative?

Now in the beginning of the 21 century our beautiful world is faced with such a multitude of simultaneous risks and challenges that it is blowing my mind when i try to wrap my head around all that.

When i try to get a somewhat clearer picture of it all, of what risks lay ahead for us.

But here I’ll try anyway:

– Human population growth to the point that the Earth can not provide the resources anymore to sustain the population.

– Decline of natural resources like water, earth, fresh air, space, food …

– Collapse of ecosystems that support life and mass extinction of species.

– Pandemics and new diseases that are a result of deteriorating environmental conditions.

– Pollution of all the Earth systems and all life by chemicals, plastic and so on.

– Global warming, sea level rise and irreversible changes in Earth’s climate.

– Rising food insecurity and decreasing food quality

– Incredible stockpiles of nuclear arms – just waiting to be used.

– A growing trend of populist and quasi-authoritarian leaders taking power.

– The appearance of powerful, new  and uncontrolled technologies – like Artificial Intelligence, gene manipulation, infrastructure hacking, smart computer viruses, nano technology.

– National and global failure to understand and act preventively on these risks.

I know, i know, it sounds bad!

Apocalyptic almost and it makes my sweat while writing it.

But i guess we will not have the luxury to look away from those facts any longer.

At least our children and their children will have it all if we don’t act now.

Individually, in our families and communities, in our countries and nations and governments, in out few global organizations we will need to act now in a coordinated and synergetic fashion.

We will have to admit that our house is on fire.

And that now is the time to bring out the fire hoses ;  )

I guess there is very much more to say to that.

But enough for now :  )