UPLIFT BEYOND ECONOMY AND CLIMATE
I had this insight in bed a few nights ago. To present UPLIFT as an abstract scenario for the best route beyond societal collapse and climate disaster; to mobilize matching real human activity and needs, free from all societal assumptions and paradigms.
CONTEMPORARY SCENARIOS
There are no positive scenarios for our future that are not grossly naive or pure fantasy. The best positive scenarios involve networks of small communities surviving collapse and a long dark age with a possibility of a new humanity emerging. Survivors will experience severe Earth changes that will persist for many centuries, only the degree of severity is uncertain.
The naive positive scenarios either deny both collapse and climate change, describing simple magical myths of the an illusionary status quo going on forever; or they believe technological fixes will avoid collapse and climate change. Then there are the many who don't really care what the end game will be, as they expect Rapture or some variant; their focus is on salvation and an afterlife.
Probably the majority of people are only aware the things are getting more unstable and that something "big" may be coming.
Scientists and technologists speculate on ways to slow global heating or means to mitigate the impact on humankind. Yet, all these suggested solutions call for massive collaborative effort of both governments and corporations, involving resources beyond imagination. The forecasted economic collapse and other societal disintegrations renders any coordinated action highly unlikely.
No matter which perspective one personally has about the future, they are usually unable to imagine a scenario where both severe climate change & societal collapse is the condition; but where humans learn and organize for collaboration and coordination to optimize how all humans will survive/thrive both climate change and economic collapse and work together to create a new global humanity in harmony with a healing Gaia.
ALTERNATIVE SCENARIOS
Let us try to look at our contemporary reality from perspectives free from all ideologies and paradigms. This is really not possible, but maybe trying to get as close as possible may give us some valuable insights.
Let us start by thinking of each human being with their immediate needs (real and imagined) and their competencies, visions and potentials. Imagine a massive data base with all this information. This could actually be done, in our alternative scenario. But not immediately.
Let us also start by thinking of the state of the physical world, without spin. This data is also available, and could be accessed and used in our alternative scenario. But not immediately.
We could also create computer models and simulations how the complex processes would unfold, on the basis of meeting needs and future goals independent of what economic or political processes may be involved.
What projects and tasks need to be performed to move the state of the physical world and the needs of each person towards a family of positive visions?
This will require almost everyone to participate full time in worthwhile endeavors which they enjoy and learn. There would be no unemployment, but also no one will be employed. Employment is a category of human behavior invented with the industrial revolution. Some of this work will be done to insure that everyone has their positive basic needs met.
Societal practices that are destructive will be phased out and replaced by constructive practices. Natural resources will be conserved and utilized in ways that are sustainable. Excess profit, that exploits labor and fails to pay real costs will no longer exist.
An experimental process of uplift education will raise the cognitive and performance competencies of everyone, taking into full account their diversity and individual differences. The skills and knowledge needed by the population as they undertake the transformation/emergence change will radically change how humans organize, work, love, and learn.
What changes in lifestyles will be required?
These changes will not magically appear and will need care and intelligent assistance.
As the poor are provided with basics and learning they will need to learn how to live outside poverty and not immediately demand material luxuries whose production for the wealthy have contributed to our crisis-of-crises.
Those who now consume resources well beyond their real needs will need to change their lifestyles to be more in balance with the realities of our crises. No one needs to slip into poverty, nor to immediately give up many of the comforts. But, we must realize that excess consumption must be sharply curtailed for a few generations (and hopefully not to return). However, the quality of relationships and personal well-being should increase for everyone.
We might view the 21st century as the century of expedition, or migration-in-time to a better, humane and sustainable world. What some might view as sacrifice, others will welcome as freedom from burdens.
WHAT TO DO?
We must free ourselves from the boxes we are trapped within. Money and The Economy are NOT the issue. Nor is Government the issue, or corruption, or militarism or corporatism. These are but mindsets obsessed with symptoms, blocking imaginative action. The way to a better future is impossible so long as our thoughts and actions are constrained within these delusional systems. The financial and economic systems cannot be transformed to do what is needed. The same applies to all the means by which individuals and groups communicate - how they dialog, deliberate, decide and actually collaborate in action. Most of the people must view their future as not being employed (working for the profit of others), but instead having a life of learning and doing in ways that improve life for everyone and insure the best possible world for our children and grandchildren. They will be free of worry about basic survival, although there may be times when they must take "shelter from storms".
Individuals will be respected, so long as their actions are not destructive. People will be insured leisure and assistance in pursuing personal goals. Yet, all should realize that we are all in collective danger and must work together to both survive and to create a truly better and sustainable global humanity that respects diversity.
Arguments can be made demonstrating that existing systems cannot be reformed to bring about the alternative scenario. I will not go into them at this time.
I have created a draft scenario whereby populations can uplift their cognitive and performance competencies while organizing and learning person-to-person, free of the usual societal constraints. Instead of organizing to influence existing societal systems, the uplift movement organizes to create an alternative societal system to replace the system now collapsing. This is the biggest enterprise ever imagined and the details cannot be briefly presented.
What is needed, now, is the emergence of a new educational system where educator/learners learn what I know about the Bootstrap Uplift Scaffolding (BUS) and contribute to the improvement and refinement of BUS so that an uplift movement emerges from these initial participants, and with the BUS product can begin to spread the uplift movement through the whole population. One of the tasks of the uplift movement would be to make the alternative scenario manifest. For most people, the feasibility of the alternative scenario and uplift cannot be comprehended by passive reading or listening.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Thursday, March 24, 2011
PRIORITY ONE: NU, EaseMen, UPLIFT
What happens in the 21st century is happening to nuet, and in different ways to all others, to Earth, and to the Universe.
nuet includes many alternative scenarios for Humankind and Gaia. Many scenarios are very scary. But, there are also some very positive scenarios that are also quite possible, within nuet.
I learned today that a two hour TV program will be aired June 2 on ABC titled earth2100, which will attempt to tell one of the worst scary scenarios in 2 hours. Some new people are now taking our Crisis-of-Crises serious and are acting. Many have been acting to prevent the scary scenarios for decades, but with little success.
Larry believes nuet to be one of the most comprehensive system of future scenarios, and the positive scenarios within nuet requires many actions that are not being done, not being planned, and not even imagined as needed. Without these actions the scary scenarios appear inevitable, in nuet. These missing actions are in domains or dimensions not attended to by those working hardest to prevent scary scenarios. Indeed, most are not even aware of these domains or dimensions.
nuet's system of scenarios (and the science behind them) have grown and improved over many decades. Unfortunately, Larry has been unable to attract collaboration needed to share some of nuet's positive scenarios with others. This difficulty has contributed to the improvement and strengthening of the viability of his UPLIFT scenario.
Larry cannot save the planet. Larry lacks the conative competencies to lead and organize an uplift movement. But, Larry must do something for his remaining days on this planet. I am deeply ashamed that I have not done more; and I have many rationalizations and excuses, many which may be valid.
I must (cannot not) do my very best to share nuet's positive scenarios with others until a viable community/expedition of others have made the UPLIFT scenario as their mission. My last days will be happy have nuet being probed by the UPLIFT movement (Larry participating in Learning Expeditions).
Decades ago I stated my life's vision:
The multi-millennial survival/thrival of Humanity/Gaia.
Decades ago I created a acronym for my life's mission: To be part of EaseMen.
Expedition to Augment the Synergistic Ecoholarchical Metamorphic Emergence of NU.
NU is the family of the most positive and possible scenarios for nuet, during the life of Larry and beyond..
If others, including Eloise, could comprehend at a minimal level, three conceptual schemes: NU, EaseMen, and UPLIFT as they are emergent in nuet, they would likely discover/create a fulfilling future life in the context of these three conceptual schemes.
One of nuet's positive scenarios has Eloise and family work with Larry in creating an EXPEDITION IN TIME, where they will time-migrate from their current situation to behaviors and lifestyles consistent with (1) the survival/thrival needs in times of collapse, and (2) an UPLIFT movement.
ANALOGY: GLOBAL WARMING & SOCIETAL COLLAPSE
The deep and longer-term process of climate change (of which global warming is but one feature, and where climate change is but one part of a more extensive Earth Change) is often difficult for some to understand through the turbulence of weather and the increasing frequency of natural disasters. The attention attracting and calls for immediate action from the many shorter-term disasters masks needed attention to the underlying issues in climate change.
In analogy, the increasing turbulence in societal (economic, political, military, media, etc.) domains masks the underlying longer-term process of global societal collapse. Indeed, it may well be that most attempts to comprehend global societal collapse in terms of dynamics in the surface domains (economic, political, etc.) divert study away from deeper processes.
Typical causes of collapse, such as the money system, corporations, empire building, greed, corruption,etc. may be like the turbulent weather masking the underlying processes of climate change. It is not that the way money is created isn't a real driver, or that the power of corporations to control other societal process isn't a real driver. But, these are not primary causes, they are surface manifestations of deeper processes. Why do these drivers exist and propagate?
What these deeper processes are is an open investigation. I have some suggestions, but am in need of constructive dialog. Briefly, we must seriously question our fundamental assumptions on the nature of reality, human consciousness and being, organizing and learning, language, communication and sharing, and the nature of "change" itself. But, I am not pointing to contemporary discourse on these topics. This discourse is itself a surface turbulence which masks efforts of probing deeper.
An example of this. I was immediately attracted to a webinar series titled Beyond Awakening, a term I had been using for one aspect of the effort I see needed but missing. Unfortunately, many stars of the "alternative movement" presented, but each seemed to use the webinar as a forum to further promote their personal agendas. All these good people deeply believe they already know what is wrong and how to fix it. In a way I am doing the same; but I have only one "cause" - that we must accept that we really don't yet know what is wrong or the if "fixing" is really the best action. We must begin searching for "what is missing" in our ideas about reality and change.
On the surface we can see a direct relationship between weather turbulence and societal collapse; but this is not the analogy I am trying to point out. Rather, contemporary societal turbulence captures our attention and keeps us from examining the roots of societal collapse; much in the same way weather turbulence and consequential natural disasters masks serious attention to the roots of climate change and Earth Changes.
While there are many quality persons working on comprehending the scientific basics of climate change, they appear to be losing to the turbulence in the societal domain (the dedicated anti-science movement). This growing resistance to doing something about climate change is rooted in the independent turbulence in the societal domain. Unfortunately there is not yet a quality scientific effort to comprehend the deeper processes underlying societal collapse as there is quality scientific effort to comprehend climate change. Indeed, the confusion between these two domains conflates action to the more physical climate domain and away from the more social/psychological domains.
The climate/Earth change threats are very real and very scary. There are many scenarios that humans could do to minimize the consequences of these threats. While we continue to research these options we need to accept that few of them will be implemented by our current societal systems. Ideas about how humankind as currently configured can reorganize to properly attend to the climate/Earth change threat are grossly naive.
Although the climate/Earth change threat (earth2100 ABC 2-hour video on June 2) is very real, it is not the threat we should be attending to. Our real threat is not just societal collapse that makes it more and more difficult to attend to the former threat. Our real threat is that there is no attention given to seriously explore why humankind is blocked in its ability to transform or emerge, to quickly reorganize in a viable process so we can attend to the climate/Earth change. In short, we must cease simply trying to prevent collapse or even to materially/spiritually survive collapse, but explore what might be done to emerge a viable global humanity capable of not only surviving the Earth changes that are destined to come, but to begin, now, creating what will insure Humanity/Gaia survival/thrival many millions of years into the future.
My Bootstrap UPLIFT Scaffolding/Scenario is a very rough draft of a process that might meet the above requirements.
In analogy, the increasing turbulence in societal (economic, political, military, media, etc.) domains masks the underlying longer-term process of global societal collapse. Indeed, it may well be that most attempts to comprehend global societal collapse in terms of dynamics in the surface domains (economic, political, etc.) divert study away from deeper processes.
Typical causes of collapse, such as the money system, corporations, empire building, greed, corruption,etc. may be like the turbulent weather masking the underlying processes of climate change. It is not that the way money is created isn't a real driver, or that the power of corporations to control other societal process isn't a real driver. But, these are not primary causes, they are surface manifestations of deeper processes. Why do these drivers exist and propagate?
What these deeper processes are is an open investigation. I have some suggestions, but am in need of constructive dialog. Briefly, we must seriously question our fundamental assumptions on the nature of reality, human consciousness and being, organizing and learning, language, communication and sharing, and the nature of "change" itself. But, I am not pointing to contemporary discourse on these topics. This discourse is itself a surface turbulence which masks efforts of probing deeper.
An example of this. I was immediately attracted to a webinar series titled Beyond Awakening, a term I had been using for one aspect of the effort I see needed but missing. Unfortunately, many stars of the "alternative movement" presented, but each seemed to use the webinar as a forum to further promote their personal agendas. All these good people deeply believe they already know what is wrong and how to fix it. In a way I am doing the same; but I have only one "cause" - that we must accept that we really don't yet know what is wrong or the if "fixing" is really the best action. We must begin searching for "what is missing" in our ideas about reality and change.
On the surface we can see a direct relationship between weather turbulence and societal collapse; but this is not the analogy I am trying to point out. Rather, contemporary societal turbulence captures our attention and keeps us from examining the roots of societal collapse; much in the same way weather turbulence and consequential natural disasters masks serious attention to the roots of climate change and Earth Changes.
While there are many quality persons working on comprehending the scientific basics of climate change, they appear to be losing to the turbulence in the societal domain (the dedicated anti-science movement). This growing resistance to doing something about climate change is rooted in the independent turbulence in the societal domain. Unfortunately there is not yet a quality scientific effort to comprehend the deeper processes underlying societal collapse as there is quality scientific effort to comprehend climate change. Indeed, the confusion between these two domains conflates action to the more physical climate domain and away from the more social/psychological domains.
The climate/Earth change threats are very real and very scary. There are many scenarios that humans could do to minimize the consequences of these threats. While we continue to research these options we need to accept that few of them will be implemented by our current societal systems. Ideas about how humankind as currently configured can reorganize to properly attend to the climate/Earth change threat are grossly naive.
Although the climate/Earth change threat (earth2100 ABC 2-hour video on June 2) is very real, it is not the threat we should be attending to. Our real threat is not just societal collapse that makes it more and more difficult to attend to the former threat. Our real threat is that there is no attention given to seriously explore why humankind is blocked in its ability to transform or emerge, to quickly reorganize in a viable process so we can attend to the climate/Earth change. In short, we must cease simply trying to prevent collapse or even to materially/spiritually survive collapse, but explore what might be done to emerge a viable global humanity capable of not only surviving the Earth changes that are destined to come, but to begin, now, creating what will insure Humanity/Gaia survival/thrival many millions of years into the future.
My Bootstrap UPLIFT Scaffolding/Scenario is a very rough draft of a process that might meet the above requirements.
Monday, March 21, 2011
nuet
What/Who is nuet?
nuet is the name given by Larry to label the reality emergent within him. nuet is the inner world constructed/woven during the life of Larry.
Larry is a biological human born Jan 24, 1935, formally named Laurence Joseph Victor.
Larry's life has left a record of semiotic structures that collectively will be labeled: LJV.
Larry/LJV/nuet is the label for the composite, which fits no ordinary category. How the three interact with each other is a complex topic that opens exploration of alternative conceptions of reality.
nu-et merges two concepts: (1) nu as the complement of new, and (2) et as extra-temporal or explorer-from-time. new is what is novel in the Here&Now from the perspective of what was; while nu is what is novel in the Here&Now from the perspective of potentials, or what might be.
Larry can experience only a very small part of nuet in any Here&Now. The whole of nuet is well beyond experiencing. All Larry's writings about nuet barely scratch the surface in describing nuet for others. Yet, from the information about nuet, gained from Larry's experientials, Larry can know about nuet - as he can know about Earth - without ever experiencing it as a comprehensive whole.
nuet is the name given by Larry to label the reality emergent within him. nuet is the inner world constructed/woven during the life of Larry.
Larry is a biological human born Jan 24, 1935, formally named Laurence Joseph Victor.
Larry's life has left a record of semiotic structures that collectively will be labeled: LJV.
Larry/LJV/nuet is the label for the composite, which fits no ordinary category. How the three interact with each other is a complex topic that opens exploration of alternative conceptions of reality.
nu-et merges two concepts: (1) nu as the complement of new, and (2) et as extra-temporal or explorer-from-time. new is what is novel in the Here&Now from the perspective of what was; while nu is what is novel in the Here&Now from the perspective of potentials, or what might be.
Larry can experience only a very small part of nuet in any Here&Now. The whole of nuet is well beyond experiencing. All Larry's writings about nuet barely scratch the surface in describing nuet for others. Yet, from the information about nuet, gained from Larry's experientials, Larry can know about nuet - as he can know about Earth - without ever experiencing it as a comprehensive whole.
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