First sent to the UN [Civil Society FfD List]

Yvonne & All,

Diagnosing our ongoing world civilization change is becoming more possible as what’s happening is more graphically displayed, but still very counter-intuitive. Our whole human and natural worlds are changing systems.

The main driver, obvious to many, is our old civilization’s world committment to push its economic growth as if to infinity, which is of course self-destabilizing at the limit. So… while the principles of the NGOs are still valid, such as trying to support the disadvantaged countries and seeking more equitable global governance, the general upset of the world systems we once knew is now an added challenge. 

The nearly universal mental block we’re struggleing with is that of trying to stabilize economic growth, despite growth being inherently an ever more destabilizing process at the limit. Growth is a whole system process of working parts using profits to multiply their workings… Perhaps you can instantly sense the various strange places that might go?

Growth is a kind of pregnancy for any system, a natural part of both its desirability and great danger, that humans have been very confused by for millennia, 10 milennia, actually, since people in the Middle East it seems discovered that the planting of seeds can be organized to multiply both plants and more seeds, the secret of economic growth. Boy! has that ever caused trouble along with surprising riches.

So, having misunderstood what growth is for such a long time, we now need to understand that our many current fast growing global perils are coming from the false hope of making growth last, rather than choosing to guide its transformation. Growth naturally can never last, but as we experience in our personal lives, growth at any scale may transform to wonderfully advance the wealth of new life.

However, the opposite is true too, as we well know, growth can end in quite unexpected great tragedy. For growth climaxing in the birth of individual new lives there are many hazards we all know, and the one great hazzard our world is facing would just never occur, modern civilizations so vigorous effort to keep growing in nature’s very finite womb, as if to attempt to never be born.

What’s happening, instead of economic growth producing a healthy live birth, we’re seeing the opposite, civilization climaxing in dysfuncion, as history shows has happened at a grand scale least three times before, leading to long “Dark Ages,” that all but completely erase the cultures that were at first seeking fulfillment. We could take it “as a sign,” to do the right things, change course to maturing the new world we’ve been making rather than driving it to collapse, yet again.

All living systems appear especially prone to produces one or another kind of “panic attack” when pushed too far, directly associated with the cohesion of the organisms from which they get their ability to behave as a whole. So, being able to feel threats to that cohesion coming is essential to survival, a matter for most living systems of “reading the field” for signs of danger.

When that fails, the most dangerous of familiar panics we’re not seeing emerge, is how people turn to just smashing things. We now see that in the general societal panic occurring in the US, with energized mass movements literally seeking to destroying democracy to save it. That is one of the preciously important clues to the derangement of the originally good intent. Anoter side of that is how it’s such a very uncristial thing to do and centered in devoutly Christian communities. They’re not evil so much as just gravely mistaken.

That’s because panics are, of course, both quite intentional and uncontrollably inadvertent, one of the great hazards of trying to protect systems working as a whole under strains that cause them to panic, a universal frailty of all human minds at least. So… to escape it one needs to learn how to read it, noticing emerging disjointed responses to the strains of as yet boundless growth as clues to what is causing them. It’s a common art of perception we need to reinforce rapidly now that global dysfunction and panic appear on a long term rise.

Passover is another of those disjointed indelible tales of people pushed to their very limits becoming inexplicably destructive. As clear as it is, we didn’t get the clue, though. Historically that story seems to come from the similar, extraordinarily self-destructive Bronze Age collapse, that erased our first exuberant multicultural world economy. So, that may be why we didn’t get the message, seeking infinity is a real threat.

1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bronze_Age# 2) https://bit.ly/SpitefulGrievance-LikeTrumps-CausedBronzeAgeCollapse

The parallels to today’s smash everything cultures are everywhere, some claiming to be saving societal structures. These are what one should study as “canaries in the coal mine” or “leaks in the dike” as read in the many classic stories of grave hidden danger to be quickly averted.

The irony is that almost everyone develops skill in using the magic of natural growth, taking the little explosions of creative genius we collect as jewels of personal achievement to add to our chains. It’s that same creative thrill that gets us in the worst of trouble, too, distracting us enough from the small voices, to not see them becoming a “disturbance in the force” rather than a blessing, almost guaranteed if pushed too far. 

The force of finance, using profit to multiply profit starts as wonderful creativity, too, but then quickly becomes societally suicidal, crossing the limits of its surroundings, their worlds of sustaining contextual systems and essential capacities of nature. All may then get pushed to their natural limits of torment and disfunction.    Oops… that’s too far!

So, the point is to use all those observations of the life within and around us for steering along our pathways to fulfillment, discovering what we can make of our own magical places and times, making lives to enjoy… preferably not to be tormented by. It’s often quite a challenge, especially now, as we all face the result of the leading Western cultures’ nominally 10,000 year quest for infinite power over each other and nature, fooled again and again, blinded by the abstractions seeming to be the realities.

So, today there seems very little time for us to globally change direction to avoid adding our greatest ever planetary living system collapse to our list of accomplishments! That would be too bad, indeed. 

The way not to is to learn how to steer, rather than just run into ever bigger trouble and hope something survives.. One way can start with just briefly stopping in one’s track, as you read this, to consider where to better to go, and make a turn in that direction!

Jessie Lydia