If you take a step back and look at the culture we live in today many of us have it relatively pretty well off (I at least, feel quite blessed and privileged). And many forms of technology have enabled this. But if someone like Obama can be in power and society’s many problems will still be far from solved (as we know, on some level, will be the case) then we realize, to paraphrase a friend, that it is not putting the right people in power that must be our focus, but putting the right power in people.
The social commentary film, Zeitgeist rightly points out that politicians are basically limited to creating laws, and allotting money. It further claims that societies problems have historically been solved by “technicians”, not politicians. I agree that many of our problems today can be classified as “design” problems — but these are primarily social design problems, as well as material design problems!
The narrator in Zeitgeist claims we currently have the existing resources and the technology to distribute those resources so that every single human being on the planet can have their basic needs met (not to mention other forms of life). If so, then why hasn’t this been done? The reason, according to them, is because we operate within a monetary system (capitalism), based on scarcity and competition, as opposed to what they call a resource system, or some system based on abundance — with understandings of symbiosis (unity/interconnectedness) and emergence, where change is the only constant (impermanence).
Perhaps this is a big part of it. But how do we move from what we have today to a system of abundance and trust? To cop a phrase from another friend: I don’t know, but I trust “We” (collectively) do.
Lets not limit our focus to external, material solutions such as high-tech transportation systems and sustainable energy harvesting — important as these are! — and not even to external social structures at the meso (group), macro (nation) and mega levels (region) — important as all of these are! What if we look at the power that operates within each one of us? Ask yourself: what kind of power am I employing right now, and on a daily basis? Threat power? Do I demand that something be done, implicitly threatening to withhold my benevolence or praise if it is not? Exchange power? Am I taken care of solely because of the greenish paper that I give in return? Or do I employ integrative power? Do I speak and act on the deepest truth I know, trusting that it will bring us closer together, align us with what know to be the unity of all life?
And when we are brought closer, then perhaps we can listen to each other — truly listen — and collaborate in creating the world we would all like to see — all of us. Because no one person, or group, or institution has the answer. Surely we must realize this by now. But that is a beautiful aspect of human life, and of life on this planet: we inter-are.
So when we hear that technology is the answer, let’s think of things like nonviolence, lets think of gift-economy (both employ integrative power) — and then lets think of whether or not each of our internal operating systems are upgraded to the most evolved social-spiritual technology.
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By: Metta Center
We provide educational resources on the safe and effective use of nonviolence, with the recognition that it’s not about putting the right person in power but awakening the right kind of power in people. We advance a higher image of humankind while empowering people to explore the question: How does nonviolence work, and how can I actively contribute to a happier, more peaceful society?
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Yes and No. I agree.
But what’s The Problem? What’s The Question that engages people’s minds? And Who AM I – in relationship to this Problem or Question? Once we feel that there is a question to address and are sufficiently irritated by what we see and feel, then we start looking around for tools and technology to solve that question.
Some of those tools are abstract symbols, like money, and some are structures of organizations, like the circle of people, or on a larger scale, an organization.
A fundamental problem is that we all see the world from our individual perspective, but institutions and nations span a much larger group. Even on a university campus often one individual is working against the efforts of another individual, even without realizing it.
This means that feedback and communication are key elements to the whole system working smoothly. But what if leaders, decision makers, and their circle of advisors don’t want to hear that feedback? Well, I think the power to be heard comes back to the circle of people, who is in that circle, and how they can effect their environment as a group and maybe enlarge that group.
Internet technology is doing interesting things and inch by inch helping us to find solutions, but in many cases I see this as coming back to a face-to-face dialogue. Not a get-to-know-you dialogue, but a dialogue with a purpose or some Problem to solve and gives purpose to the group.
It seems like language is inadequate for what we are really talking about. Surely technology is an important part of the solution. But the Solution transcends technology. “Social-spiritual technology” is a kind of oxymoron. But then, God/Reality as always been a little crazy from our unevolved perspective. I love to contemplate the spirit of abundance and trust made fully operative in this real world – the kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. I do believe that this is our task.
Thanks for your comment, Margaret. Are you edging towards retirement?
Love, Michael