The New emerges out of Chaos.
Why clear solutions are broken, and playful togetherness is very healthy.
In this essay I’ll tackle two aspects that keep us from working together on the great work of shifting our collective consciousness to a higher level. The first how we keep thinking in defined solutions, and the second lack of collaboration in diversity.
The big issues of our time become more and more complex
Aah (melancholic sigh), so many people want the new thing to happen..fast. And we all love the easy accessible solution that promises it all. And for non complex issues that’s wonderful. But for the complex whole??
However much mankind advances, economic and ecological collapse, corporate dictatorship, new wars, natural disasters keep threatening us. Our life and well being hinge on how we’ll be able to deal with these dangers. To get there, we find, many people are standing up, all over the world with ‘the best way’, if we’d just follow them or buy their method. What we often forget is, that most human chaos is born in the search to enforce control and order. Oh how we love to have this clear one way to solve it all (read communism, capitalism, socialism, fascism, traditionalists in religions, 20th century democracy, etc).
The need for diversity in solution seeking
Each time a visionary says: “In order to get what we want, follow my way (of dialogue, meditation, art, spiritual practice)” they miss an essential point. I know, they have to say this, because of income or political reasons. Such self interests clutter free sharing of essential insights. It’s not their, ours or even my solution that we should follow. (Me risking shooting myself in the foot here.) It’s through ‘being of service to what works best for all’ we together shape the future. That means, as long as we haven’t found the solution, we need a huge diversity of people pioneering options, taking on very different aspects of the problem and tackling it. Is there a clear fix for complex issues?
The same solution framing we find in politics. The Right knows very well why the solutions of the Left don’t work, and vice versa. The time of isms is over. I see millions dealing in pragmatic ways with local issues, using concepts from both left and right and many new ideas, most politicians seem to be oblivious about and ignore deliberately. Might be because of them listening to corporate lobbies, or fearing their own jobs on the line. Or that the 1% elite thinks what’s true within their bubble is a good idea for everyone. And, not surprisingly, most people in the street feel politics lost their touch with daily reality. The discrepancy and gap between how politicians organize countries from mental constructs and management styles and the daily reality of people struggling is getting bigger all the time. Just check the widening gap between rich and poor, the lack of urgency regarding ecological destruction or Western wars clearly fought over oil interests, not Islam terrorism. So, the change will not come from the top. Nor will it come from populists promising to have, or worse, claiming to be the solution.
The need for everyone to start acting bottom up.
We need to start acting from our own place, time, possibility! We need angry young people marching the streets. We need calm parents caring for their children at home with human presence. We need smart lawyers breaking trough smoke screens of lies on paper. We need people in nature, in schools, some crying and sharing the hurt, others beautifying, others phrasing the issue so we all understand. And for this we each need to find our gift to the whole. The years of the ‘Golden Formula’ (“If we all do this, my way, then it’ll work work out fine.”) are over. Political Ideologies are failing or even turned out to be (self)deceptions. Golden Formula books still crowd the average bookstore. Such books are the result of years of marketing development, easy profit seeking in business and the willingness to score. They bring hope, but not enough real sustenance. Scientists even found most self help book readers need on average every three months a new shot, while they progress very little.
There’s ego, desperation and lack of diversity in the ‘Follow My Method’ method. However much we long for the easy way out, we won’t find it by turning to an easy answer, especially not someone else’s. It’s the chaos of all the help that arises, working together, often without even knowing we do so, that makes the difference. We actually see it in the forest of methods, ways, groups and religions. There are many answers and we all shop our ass off around to find the one trick. And here’s the thing. ‘Your best way involves’ finding your best way. Messy seeking what works (do more of that) and what doesn’t (investigate your mistakes and improve, or, reflect if this is just not your talent, not in a million years and then let go). The good thing to know is, whatever steps you take, you don’t have to be alone anymore.
The Time of the Lone Wolf is Over
The one thing we do know, is that we need to work together to make it happen. We must not see others as adversaries, but as fellow journeyers. We share the planet, we are part of it. Here’s a quote from the Hopi call “The time of the lone wolf is over.”
“See who is in there with you and celebrate.
At this time we are to take nothing personally,
least of all, ourselves.
For the moment that we do,
our spiritual growth comes to a halt.
The time of the lone wolf is over.
Gather yourselves!
Banish the word struggle from your attitude and your vocabulary.
All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration.
We are the ones that we have been waiting for.”
And here’s the funny thing. Lone Wolves are still our current heroes. Google ‘thriller silhouettes book covers’, or just look at the thriller section in a bookshop and the Lone Wolves stand out. Mostly single men fighting it out with a big conspiracy, in the end taking the bad guy down and saving the day. Google thriller movie posters and all these heroes in danger stare at you. Here we do see the faces, but that’s because you buy a ticket to see a favorite actor in action: a loner against a overwhelming force.
The dominant mindset is that we must be strong. ‘Men must solve things on their own.’ ‘We shouldn’t ask for help.’ ‘It’s me taking care of number one.’ ‘It’s a survival of the fittest.’ ‘Competition makes you stronger.’ ‘Men don’t cry.’ ‘Acting up can be dangerous, only real men stand up and fight.’ And many Self Help books, especially the business type ones, train these mindsets to get you to strive for results, that are good for you! All these convictions, however, stop us from seeing that we are together in this. If only we all had experienced the Overview Effect, seeing our fragile planet from space. Almost all ‘strong’ men who went up there, came back changed with hearts full of care for the whole system of life.
Being the ones we’ve been waiting for gives meaning, hope and love!
So stop thinking you need other heroes, or fight it out alone. Gather yourselves! I’ve seen many in the face of increasing poverty becoming much smarter at making it work together. Everyone sharing solutions, surplus and time, where possible. The next step, is just stepping up one step more, turning that collaboration into a bottom up wave, voice, movement. And here we get hope from the Hopi. “Banish the word struggle from your attitude and your vocabulary. All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration.” Celebration! When you act as if the Gentle Revolution we need is a party, is beautifying the world, then it becomes easier. Celebrating people are more attractive and more visible for mainstream media, currently ignoring the positive wave. Use art, play, party. Quit dreary jobs, refuse en group inhuman decisions and stop fighting. Feel you enter a zone, of shared being..of sacred being. For in the end, you are like the bacteria in your body, a huge amount if little lives, essential in keeping the whole healthy.
And turn all the male convictions quoted before around. ‘Solve things together.’ ‘Ask for help.’ ‘Help each other.’ ‘It’s a party of the most collaborative and adaptive.’ ‘Playing together makes you come alive and have way more options.’ ‘Do cry, because it hurts.’ ‘Act up together, and include the ‘others’ in the solution.’
You might seem insane for a bit. But those outside of the party, at some point, will so feel the urge to join the dance.
Further reading: How to live in a Complex World? Principles to live by when understanding it all becomes impossible.
If you’d like to join the dance, there’s many change tribes around the world, or groups on facebook, like this one, that might link to your actions, locality, seek your gifts, fit your culture, etc. Or dance in several of them, to create more links between them.
An article that describes this need or option to make it a dance, in a deeper more systemic way, can be found on the site of the Living Systems Institute.
