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STIR Lustrum 2 – learning to live life
This second blog about STIR’s first lustrum deals with awareness and education as it developed in STIR. On the day of our announcement in 2009 Nicolette Meeder participated and found her own life’s mission to commit to STIR. Now she is founding partner of the STIR Academy.
Enlightening
In the early phases of the STIR Foundation “City of Tomorrow” we already developed very strong impulses to try to get an understanding on the complexity of the “human being” itself. My own very deep moments of inner illumination had made me aware of new dimensions of spirituality beyond the dogmatic mechanisms of churches and within the true meaning and significance of life. It also made me aware of awareness and life before and after enlightenment. This all had come together in a clear understanding of the “I am” breakthrough and the revelation of the abundance of the universe, the force of life through energetic cycles and the disturbance of self awareness until the moment of spiritual awakening.
All this also revealed a critical view on our evolutionary path and the way we reached a point of singularity that would either produce a gigantic collapse or a mayor breakthrough of humankind. In my own research I came to the conclusion that one cannot happen without the other. The only difference with the past is that I envisaged the possibility of a mayor breakthrough and collapse occurring peacefully through a burst of awareness rather than a traditional confrontation through arms.
In the first blog “re-positioning society” I described the practical possibilities to address the global issues through local solutions using sustainocratic ventures and the transformation economy. Its precedents in Eindhoven have made the working and values visible. Expanding it across the world will take tensions away through applied knowledge and integral system and social innovations.
To consolidate this the practical approach should repeat itself as much as possible but also should become part of our learning processes.
Breakthrough of the collective consciousness
The transformation of education
My own learning and awareness processes had shown me that life itself is a teacher and our education at school would need to change too if we want to prepare our next generations within the context of sustainable human progress. Many people already showed a critical standpoint on the current way we educated our children and displayed the wish to change the system. Within STIR it became an ongoing process too.
STIR Academy
STIR Logo
When I developed the societal redefinition by positioning our interests in awareness and co-creation using human values rather than economic growth and greed, it became clear that our educational system was not adequate anymore either. Our constitution states that “education serves government and business interests” which is a relic from our industrialization and history. No wonder we feel that our children are being educated to populate a puppeteer theater rather that develop insight on life’s essentials and personal development.
Every interaction with our school system got us into trouble between management, teachers and pupils. The students loved our humanitarian approach, many teachers did too but the management and system were totally against. “Entrepreneur of your own life” is of course not done when the hierarchies in society demand docile youngsters who look for a lasting job to pay for their mortgage and loans in a consumer driven money dependent system’s reality.
In STIR Academy we created all kinds of instruments based on the development of awareness through physical, intellectual, emotional and spiritual impulses. Examples of our invitation to a new world have been filmed (in Dutch)
And in English
We designed minors and mayors, university lectures, games (“The secrete” and “The hero”), challenges, etc. but the old system would not connect massively to our initiatives. The financial dependence on state financial means and inspections blocked openess to educational innivation and modern insight of system’s and human complexities. Government was still very much focus on trying to solve its problems through the money driven mentality of the last decades as described in a recent blog.
If we wanted to proceed with our intentions we were forced to build our own school and education platforms. We started to work with the “drop outs” from the old system that either had become a financial burden and bureaucratic challenge, or became new age entrepreneurs through their own chaos and awareness development. They are all talented human beings that have a lot to offer but fall out of the old system for many reasons. We learned to see all these people as potential pioneers of the new world that was arising and slowly started to challenge the old one by making the power of this type of learning visible to the world. We could further facilitate that by:
- Offering precedents of change and insights from all over the world
- Getting local speakers to address those interested with new insights and their personal experiences
- Challenge people to not just listen but also stand up and do something with the inspiration
- Help those who do step forward with guidance and support
- Connect those who are ready to increasingly complex co-creative ventures or challenge them to start one of their own
The STIR Academy started to develop leadership HUBs (STIR Portals) through those who were interested in displaying a changing world to their own community and see what happens. STIR Academy developed relationships with intellectuals and new age pioneers across the world, inspiring itself through the wisdom of nature and the universe.
STIR Academy, global awareness building and knowledge sharing (Sustainocracy)
In Eindhoven we had experimented with this type of value driven humanistic education by showing that our entire live is a school. We live through our own cyclic patterns all the time, developing awareness as we go along. We needed not just address the cognitive basic of education but also the emotional, spiritual and physical values of reflection through action. If we wanted the cultural change we needed to facilitate the entire cycle of human complexities by inviting people to simply do it, experiment and challenge themselves to work together in meaningful ventures.
We now envisage STIR Hubs everywhere, simply exchanging knowledge and best practice through internet, skype presentations and online training. We all take from STIR and give back, forming an organic platform that runs itself. The only guidance is the STIR definition of sustainable human progress and the co-creative positioning of progress in the top of our complexity model
STIR Academy positions itself in the field of co-creation between change and symbiosis
Human evolution is a co-creation
AiREAS was the first sustainocratic venture and STIR Academy the very first school to live life by learning to understand it. We also needed to transform the practical reality of our daily life. AiREAS would measure our progress and STIR Academy provides us with the understanding. FRE2SH was born to deal with the practicalities in our daily lives.
But that I will deal with in the third and final blog about our first 5 years.
STIR Lustrum 1 – re-positioning society
First of 3 lustrum blogs….
Re-positioning society
On June 25th 2009 the STIR Foundation, or “City of Tomorrow” (as it was rapidly called by people) was announced and initiated. Now we celebrate already 5 years of activities that re-position the way we build society. In three blogs I will explain what happened, what we have accomplished and what I expect next.
How it started
The foundation was set up by me to do whatever I could to pass onto my children a society that protects real human values and sustainable human progress rather than money and destructive systems of power.
Things had happened in my personal life that had made me powerfully aware of the intense need to transform our civilization or accept our self destruction. But awareness is not enough to change the working of a complex society. On the day of the kick off I had managed to surround myself with a very first group of intellectuals and professionals that were either interested in finding ways to address sustainable progress or solve the financial crisis, especially their own. 55 persons came to the kick off congress.
Together we started experimenting with our idealism by creating groups that addressed issues that we wanted to pay attention to. There were groups to address energy, mobility, coaching, new way of working, city design, housing, value system, food productivity, education, health care, leadership, etc.
My book (in Dutch) “Secretes of true wellness” had introduced my own first basic views of our human evolutionary complexity. This I used to guide the group’s processes together with the 5 keys of entrepreneurial success that I had published in 2005. Both models and insights have been perfected ever since.
In 2009 we position ourselves in the area of chaos in the midst of the effects of the 2008 credit crisis. Willingness was high to address key issues but the culture and mentality within the groups was still very much money driven. People were in a survival mode and saw in STIR a possibility to access new entrepreneurial markets. Whenever a market had been defined the cooperation disappeared and self interest started to prevail again in foresight of profits or subsidies. This did not work.
STIR organized monthly congresses on a variety of topics that helped us further in expanding our views while trying to find support and commitment from others. The regular work group encounters helped us understand better the complexity of the challenges, especially that of our own individual money dependencies and behavior, but we did not get changes initiated.
After 8 months all work groups had been dissolved, over 20.000 volunteer hours had been spend but the spirit of change had disappeared due to lack of results and overdose of struggles. I decided to take responsibility myself to materialize my views and realized that I could not proceed through the traditional entrepreneurial way. My own criticism to the groups was that they had all been money driven, not focused on change or value creation. I had to adjust my views that entrepreneurship was the sole engine for change. It may still be but not the type that placed money first. That kind of entrepreneurship was manipulated by money dependencies and hence would never change society. I wanted transformative change to lead and this cannot be done by considering it first “a market” or “a product”. Re-positioning society is more complex than that.
The idealistic views showed the need to involve also people from government. Experimenting with this multidisciplinary approach I could make valuable steps forward towards defining what we now call “Sustainocracy” and the “transformation economy“. Having clarified this in my own mind it became important to make it work in practical reality.
Breakthrough
In February 2010 I was invited to speak at a world encounter via internet in Amsterdam. My speech was about the difficulties to get government into sustainability projects of change initiated by citizens. University of Madrid was presenting a project on air quality measurements with 3D presentations of the results. Cisco presented a trial done around the effects of working at home on the emission of CO2. Both projects were ending. For me however it was a mental breakthrough. Summing up my own activities with those of Madrid and Cisco got me to a holistic vision and approach. It was not the fragmented approach that makes the difference but addressing “the whole” would do it.
Air quality as a point of reference for regional health development became my goal to which I could attach all kinds of transformative issues too. I presented the idea to a group of people and finally also to the political director of our province. He remarked that if we wanted to address such complex issues we would have to work through the quadruple helix (government, business, citizens and science). It became clear that none of those four pillars could take the initiative “in the old world” because of their fragmented interrelation based on money and systems of control. A true co-creation would have to be initiated by an independent person, and that had to be me. I had be the connecting pioneer. The working format became clear.
I placed myself on the green dot and invited the rest to participate
In 2011 AiREAS was registered as a multidisciplinary cooperative, initiated by me and a well chosen partner (Marco van Lochem) who added an extensive network in high tech business. The quadruple helix model was enhanced in AIREAS to become the first Sustainocratic venture in the world. Rapidly scientific and business partners joined in the free of charge commitment through membership. My formula of co-creation became effective:
Talent x Input x Purpose = Value x Reciprocity
Our mission became to co-create a healthy city using air quality and human health as guiding measurement. We got the commitment and support from local Eindhoven government with a very first co-creative assignment: “making the invisible (air quality) visible”. The practical re-positioning of society had started. The precedent was initiated.
The values created so far (2014) by AiREAS are:
- We have positioned and proven the co-creative working of Sustainocratic ventures
- We co-created and implemented the intelligent real time measurement network technology with scientific guidance.
- We learned how co-creation works in a multidisciplinary context with a higher humanitarian purpose
- We defined the basic fundamentals of the “transformation economy” by creating unique complex values first and subsequently expand those values world wide.
AiREAS has also shown how difficult and contrasting the two worlds are (leadership in value driven co-creation, and management through fragmented self interests that interact through transactions) and how complex it is for them to interact. The recent blog about the small window of co-creation between these two worlds (motivated by chaos) was a direct result.
AiREAS has various path ahead. Future will tell what we can achieve:
- Create Local AiREAS across the world to co-create “healthy cities” using Local AiREAS Eindhoven as example and precedence,
- Expand the AiREAS values (products and services) through its partners in the traditional economy of transactions
- Get the reciprocal circular economy going
- Develop more unique values (knowledge, products, policies, justice, etc) in all the Local AiREAS using the demographic, cultural and historical differences
- Use the experiences in AiREAS to address also other key humanitarian issues within the STIR definition of sustainable human progress
Taking responsibility together for sustainable progress such as AiREAS
The repositioning had finished. We now know how we can peacefully address the complex global issues. Establishing local sustainocratic ventures there were the issues need attention we can deal with all complex problems, not just air quality. With the precedent readily available we can offer Sustainocracy to the world, education people and institutions to take local responsibility together and benefit from the transformation in multiple ways.
Most of the world is active on the financial side avoiding transformation until it is too late.
The battle between fear and dreams
This mini analysis is based on the evolutionary situation in Holland (1945 – 2020) using the drawing of human and societal complexities. The law of opposites cause rhythmic changes in emphasis that have to do with our inner conflicts and awareness too:
- Fears versus Dreams
- Greed versus Moral justice
The changing energies between the To Be and To Do show a sinus wave over time with periods of 7,7 and 54 years in a life time. The way we deal with this is meaningful for progress.
Cyclic evolution in rhythmic phases
The natural society rhythms are consequence of these opposites that have become the kernel of the diversity of life on Earth but also the learning battle that our human species fights with itself. Every cycle through chaos of our species is exponentially more intense that the ones before. With a global population now of 7 billion, three times the population when world war II ended, the fear for new violent encounters is as high as our dreams for sustainable progress. These two opposites interact in a powerful awareness struggle without precedence. The next few years will be decisive to answer the following:
- Will humankind enter in a destructive, self inflicted (and assisted by nature) chaos that exceeds every war ever before? The eternal battle between greed and moral awareness?
- Or will we overcome chaos permanently by introducing and accepting the law of opposites and learning how to deal with it for progression without chaos? The battle between fear and dreams, the quantum leap when awareness overcomes fear?
Cyclic evolution and awareness
Our understanding today of the cyclic nature of our behavior is enhanced by the mini analysis of the period between 1945 (end of WW II) and 2020 (new collapse) in the Netherlands (equivalent to the rest of the world in similar phases).
1945: When world war II ended in 1945 in the Netherlands, leadership was needed to co-create a stable society (co-create symbiosis). Leading in the argumentation was the destructive force of the war, the reasons behind its development and what could be done to avoid it? The conclusions were that we need to build social securities that moderate the natural potential of aggression of desperate people by giving them a minimum to survive, sufficient to avoid them to follow immoral impulses.
1945 to 1970 reconstruction of a country based on WW I/II awareness
Note: 1945 – 1970 is a 3 x 7,7 year cycle.
1970: The creative social systems (pensions, social security, unemployment funds, etc) are now in place. The “State of social care” had become a fact and should stand model for lasting wellness and peaceful progress. At the same time fear arises in the 1970’s present and at the horizon for the cost of social care. The postwar reconstruction phase is behind us, labor from industrial processes evaporate due to the exodus to low wage regions and first demand on the securities system show inefficiencies. A management culture replaces the leadership culture. The discussion changes from “change for stability” into ” the need for financial growth and controls”.
Growth became the trigger to sustain wellness
Wellness and financial abundance had a positive effect on longevity. Economic growth became the keyword to sustain wellness. The taxable potential of circulating money was important with the foresight of increasing costs to sustain social security. The aging population, statistics on decrease of child birth and expected costs of health care and social securities, showed an unbalance in the future financial stability. Wanting to keep wellness as a norm cannot be seen as greed, the human psychology to sustain it can. We have the tendency of wanting more of the same. This produces the downfall along the axes of moral awareness. Not that we did not learn from the painful episodes in our history, we did. But they grow away from memory as new generation grow up in abundance and peace. Other emotional priorities take the overhand, such as apathy, reluctance, fear, greed, etc. People tend to think now of wellness as a human right and consider the system responsible for maintaining it. The management system develops a structure of hierarchy and power to introduce efficiencies and measures of control. Some important measures were:
- Reduction of the work week from 40 to 38 and 36 hours. This should spread the workload over more (taxable) salaries. Taxed labor was and is one of the mayor sources of income of the government.
- The liberation of money emission from its gold reserve collateral. This should boost the circulation of money, the second largest tax income through VAT development.
- The focus on value added logistics for goods distribution from low wage countries (China, India and Brasil) to the EU, due to our geographical location and trade expertise (a third key source of tax income).
Money became the goal, as a growing means to finance wellness. Tax became the most important instrument for the management of the country. People are slave to the system. “Care” and “Greed” developed into a dual economy of growth: the need for massive consumption of goods and the attention to the consequences of this over consumption, referred to as “wellness deceases”.
The systems starts breaking up
1995: The tension in the system builds up but awareness is at lowest level. Apathy, blindness and reluctance reigns. The economy still grows but by unnatural forces. The consequences of the 1970’s measures lead to a management culture of greed. Bankers took the lead, together with real estate brokers that speculate with shortages of houses. The influx of cheap labor for the supply chain focus increases the demand. The price evolution of a house had become the collateral for money circulation and debt creation. Stones, debt and speculation had become more important than the human being or its capacity to create productive communities. Economy of growth and tax had become dominant with impressive constructions of personal wealth development of heartless speculants. Government had itself tied up in an negative spiral of taxation needs that also captured the greed of state officials who could build personal security, hierarchy and income through the bureaucratic network. The exponential costs of society, that had been expected in 1970, did occur with the unexpected particular emphases on greed rather than need. The credit crisis in 2008 brought the immorality and system’s vulnerability to the daylight. The explosive amount of tensions around the world had not triggered awareness but the bank affairs did, especially that of fear. The instant counter measures were based on massive capital injections out of fear for total system collapse.
The management culture is kept in place by the hierarchical lobbies, legal criminality and fragmented overall money dependence. Everything seems to be done to swim against the stream of progress out of fear for chaos, collapse and loss of authority. This causes multiple tensions to build up further as social securities evaporate, pollution destroys our habitat, greed evolves further, morality is at its deepest point and the system cracks up despite capital injections and increased management through bureaucracy of controls and reluctance to change.
Towards 2020 the choice is ours
2008 is halfway between greed and fear when the credit crisis struck, showing the face of both. Instantly there was a wake up call. The management culture is dominant and seeks measures to sustain itself. Large capital injection, increased control systems and further focus on economic growth are measures of all the fragmented individual self interests that work together.
But 2008 also opened up room for the first initiatives in the field of leadership and change. A new leadership cycle breaks through. STIR Foundation is pioneer and started its co-creative platforms, inviting all those who panicked to join forces. A very first impulse was achieved to connect management of future growth with leadership of change. We achieved temporary progress and showed the way beyond chaos and even avoiding collapse. It was a precedent that collapsed again when management measures thought to have produced positive results. That is natural too. The green line of leadership is still fragile and unsupported. As stated in the previous blog there is only a small time frame when management and leadership can interact together. That is when the expectation of pain and collapse is big enough and a consensus can be reached on the fear eliminating dream (where value creation ends and money making begins).
2020: Even though we live now in 2014 the dot on the horizon does not go much further than 2020. We now stand on the edge of the total collapse that capitalist measures tried to avoid since 2009. From a management perspective, what has changed to date? Nothing! The greedy still benefit in their personal financial growth patterns while social securities evaporate. Leadership is emerging challenging greed, our financial slavery and the system that supports it. STIR is actively developing its precedents. Pope Francis is using very sharp words to condemn the system of growth and calls for responsibility. Leaders occupying management positions open up for co-creation.
Two cyclic battles
From the above we can distinguish two interwoven battles of human development:
- 1945 – 1995: The leadership battle for human wellness through co-creation
- 1970 – 2020: The management battle for sustained material greed through fragmented self interest
Since about 2000 (7 * 7.7 years since 1945) a new leadership battle emerges, this time around “sustainable human progress”. It does not support the management battle. New age 21st century leafership bases itselves on value creation rather than consumption. The law of opposites helps management towards collapse. 2008 was just the beginning. Towards 2020 more of it becomes visible, but can total collapse be avoided?
The 1970 versus 2020 battle
The real battle now is between the 1970 belief and system’s reality that “money solves it all” and the new 2000 leadership belief that “sustainable value is created together”. The latter is based on feeding our awareness with the need to transform the system’s complexity and performance. In history we see that collapse has never been avoided due to the powerful resistance of management forces. The biggest question is now: “Does history repeat itself? Or do we create a new episode and turning point in human history?
My personal choice and daily efforts are for the turning point through persistence, belief in my views of the human complexity and reassured by the precedents achieved so far with Sustainocracy. This can only expand and enhance itself throughout the world. Dream A (money solves it all) can only prosper with Dream B (co-creation through awareness) when they unite in value creation and expansion.
Kind regards,
Jean-Paul Close
Sustainocrat
