Conversations for a better world

Abstract

The vast majority of people living today understand that human life on the Earth is in grave danger of undergoing major redefinitions during the coming decades if not sooner. Issues of unsustainable growth, ecological depletion, consumerism and market instability, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, diseases, water shortages, etc., all make this clear. It is optimistic but unlikely that the major world powers will take this situation seriously enough to forcefully deal with it until it has become overwhelming. Nevertheless, informed and thoughtful voices may be able to bring about an effective widening of awareness sooner, and offer creative suggestions for engaging the coming crises. Indeed, many people and groups throughout the world are now exploring creative solutions to the problems that plague our times. For the most part, however, they are not heard and often do not know of each other's existence because the dominant lines of communication, and the institutions that support them, are dedicated to stability rather than seeking creative resilience in a very rapidly changing world. Such people and groups are also isolated by their own separate issues and “languages”, so that they often do not recognize the fact that they are partners in seeking solutions for a world that has moved beyond 20th century values, agendas, and goals. Even so, a broad new set of values is coming into wide acceptance among many people in many countries of the world, regardless of differences in social class, political influence, and economic privilege. These values aspire to cooperation and synergy between individuals, ethnic groups, social classes, political institutions, businesses and economic organizations, between species, and between nature and human civilization. The growing presence of these creative persons and groups is a source of considerable optimism. Their greatest potential, however, can come through the sharing of ideas and plans in conversations that connect individuals into groups, groups into larger meta‐groups, and ultimately create spreading networks of shared values and efforts which themselves connect together. This emergent coming together of shared dialogue and planning has the potential of breaking through the surface of conventional institutions and media, while at the same time taking on a powerful self‐organizing dynamic of its own. This dynamic could bring vast numbers of people together in what is our best hope for preserving that which is most valuable from the past, while at the same time midwifing the emergence of a life affirming third millennia civilization.