We find ourselves, now, at a pivotal moment.
The stakes are high. Indeed, be they climate, the bond market, CRISPR, water quality, technological unemployment, police violence, our food supply or, as Umair Haque points out, “The beginning of the end of the world,” the stakes may be as high as they can get.
Yet our governance systems are broken. Deeply, deeply broken such that the checks do not check and the balances do not balance and w find ourselves unable to make collective sense of or take social action in the world
Worse, not only are our governance systems broken, the very tools that we might use to fix them are broken as well.
Thus, we find ourselves, now, at an unusually pivotal moment. Not because these things are true. But because they are true and because almost enough of us are almost conscious enough about these realities to do something about them.
But how? If our collective decision-making systems are broken and if all of our tools for fixing those systems have lost their grip, what, then, can we do?
I believe that the best frame for understanding our current circumstances is that of a Great Transition from one comprehensive way of being in the world to another; and that the gap between these quite different “civilization models” is so substantial that we must accept the responsibility of reinventing everything.
From this point of view, the failure of our current institutional frameworks is neither surprising nor demoralizing. It is simply to be expected. Moreover, the path forward, while challenging is clear: we must learn the fine art of discerning between those ideas and tools for the past that must be left behind; and those from the future and must be carefully gathered, nurtured and built upon.
This is a question that I have been reflecting on (and writing about) quite a bit over the last few years and the organizers of Voice and Exit have kindly invited me to speak to it specifically in Austin, Texas this November.
Voice & Exit is a highly collaborative and interactive gathering. The broad topic this year is to build a new model for maximizing human flourishing. If you are inclined as to join us in this endeavor, consider yourself invited. You can register here. Tell them GREENHALL sent you and they’ll give you a 25% discount.