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Early Stages
Markku and I shared, from the moment we met, a drive to change humanity’s current approach to the reality. We saw too much using the world as a source of personal or collective wealth and pleasure and too little of contributing to this complex and fragile planet we live with. We also observed how difficult it was to change that deeply engrained behavior and belief of the world as a provider. Let alone the struggle for survival, that the social unbalance fabricated for lots of people. It is heartbreaking to live in a time where the extinction of a species is far less important than the life of a celebrity or the introduction of a new car.
Don’t think for a moment that we are idealists or that we ourselves do not suffer from the engrained cultural habit of taking the world for granted. We are and have been far too involved with world and people everywhere to strive for the ideal. And we know how much it takes to get from one state of being to another, personal as well as social. But still we saw people struggling, other species suffering and a planet groaning under the yoke of our well-being and we felt the calling to do something about it.
Our work on this project started, without being aware of that it would lead to this, when Markku asked me to write a piece on the difference between static and dynamic information. A topic we came across constantly in our work, but not comprehensive enough, to be able to act upon. I did not produce a very good article because I became entangled in something that was related to the topic but was not very clear to me at the time. I needed to study it longer, to grasp what it was. With the help of Maslow, Argyris, HusserI and Nabudere I began to notice the connection between our basic need skills and drivers and the tendency to control, structure, systemize and intellectualize life itself. Beneath the focus on and use of static information was a clear set of drivers active that could only reach its goal in a world controlled by us with the sole purpose to fulfill our needs.
If you focus on it, you can observe we rather use the information, fitting our believes molded by our basic needs drivers and we do very little with information that does not fit into the basic need mold.
Even presented with the larger consequences of our life-style, almost all actions were taken within the spectrum of basic need activities. Regardless of the fact that, activities of the basic need kind, had caused the larger problems in the first place. I could also see that this was not a deliberate conscious course of action, but all habitual, self-serving and effortless. In that sense unfulfilled or unbalanced BN drivers can be ruthless and destructive for the long term simply because they are so skillfully effective on the short term.
But if our present believe system gave us competences and skills that are creating a situation that is the opposite of their objective because of the incapacity to understand their impact on long term, it is becoming obsolete. We are in need of new beliefs and skills. The metamorphosis already knocks at our door: We have to unlock and learn an entire new worldview and skillset to be able to deal with the current challenge.
I tried to encapsulate those initial observations and thoughts in a first, very incomplete and inconclusive diagram (see bottom page) and I noticed this was way too huge and complex too understand and comprehend for one individual. However, one thing became very clear, the intention of every action in the new skillset is based on the question: What, how or why can I contribute? It is like a Copernican revolution: to change your focus from the fulfillment of your and your loved ones needs, (from food and shelter to enjoyment and self-actualization) to constantly focus on contributing to the development and life of other individuals, species, indeed the world as a whole living system.
Our task used to be, taking care of ourselves in the world, for which we learned to use our basic need skillset. Our next task is: Take care of the planet as a living thing and everything that lives on it.
When I shared this idea, people around me immediately recognized what I said and started to name the difference between old and new, the new skills that already were starting to show everywhere and the problems and etc.…. In other words, it resonated with them. Much to my surprise I could conclude it was not so much ‘my idea’, but an accurate observation of what actually was ocurring and this gave me a feeling of ease and a sense of urgency.
Sharing these observations with Markku his reaction was, this might be a way into the future and we should write about this. When it became clear there was a window of opportunity in 2019 to combine our efforts to study and clarify the nature and dynamic of this metamorphosis, we decided to kick this project of, with writing a book on how to connect to the future. As we said, it is a project that can only have an impact if more than just us are going to contribute, but in order to move things forward we need to put the initial impressions, thoughts and ideas on paper, infographic, blog, dialogue, video and vlog.
Where are we presently? We have a framework and we see the depth.
Basic Needs - Active Skills Diagram - Version 1 - September 2017