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4. Cooperation – as in marriage?
The fouth level of the column of values is cooperation. This is the first level of true connectivity between people or organizations. Cooperation is only optimally possible between people who have taken good care of a solid foundation of their personal column of values.
For cooperation two or more identities require the sharing of a higher purpose. This can be as common as a man and a woman (or man/man, woman/woman combinations also in the modern world of emancipation) who love eachother with the primary higher goal to share all moments of life together and enjoy eachother’s presence. Maybe at one stage they decide to marry and intensify the higher purpose with the desire to have children and create a family. In fact this is the most ancient and common form of cooperation. In our modern lifes we have largely abolished this cooperation as we have placed indvidual question marks around the higher purpose. We come to that in a minute.
In business, politics or on the street the true quest for a servant higher purpose is found in any key area of value creation around human existance and progress, like education, housing, safety, quality of living, water, energy, food, health, vitality, spirituality, etc. Also this original and ancient quest for continuous improvement has largely disappeared as we economized our surrounding placing a label of money on everything.
The problems that we find in marriage and society is that on paper the idealism of the common higher purpose works very well as we have seen in history many times. But in present day reality we see that the identities do not operate from the communality of this purpose but from an individualist persuit of self interest. In a modern marriage the emancipation has developed a family situation of two partners with an individual view on mutual financial independence and personal realization. This independence has become very important for both partners but often at the expense of the matrimonial stability. It all works fine if there are no children or both live and work in the same place. But when questions arise that gets one of the partners into a crisis or to make important choices that affect the other we see that the higher purpose is questioned easily and individual purpose tends to become dominant. Even if the partner choses in favor of the cooperation the choice affects the relationship as both develop a sense of debt to eachother.
Of course there are many people who manage to go through this process perfectly and they can be admired for it. But most people see equality as an individual right and the community as something that serves the individual, not the other way around. When children are born they are placed in day and evening care to allow both parents to go out to work. This results in a deterioration of parental affection with the off spring. There is a lot of scientific proof being developed now that shows that this causes long term psycological instability and a cost for society in the long term.
No one disputes the female right for economic self sufficiency or development of a significant life. What we do discuss is the way we should organize our families around the higher purpose of the safe, healthy and vital develop of our children too? When we take responsibility for own life we should not forget to take responsibility for our surroundings and in particular for our off spring.
Also large organizations and central governments confuse the higher purpose with their financial greed, often motivated by shareholder short term pressure. They often find sole their purpose to cooperate in their hunger for more. When money is the sole objective what is one willing to sacrifice along the way? We see that organizations have been built around legal destruction as money prevails in everything we do. Such cooperation ends invariably into crisis and chaos as we have seen with the credit crisis, the food crisis, energy crisis, and many other crises to come.
Sustainable cooperation from a true identity can only be done if one is willing to serve humanity and our planet oneself and work together within the context of a higher purpose that exceeds the sum of the individuals. Then the next level of the column becomes key: trust.
Eat crap or die
Or transform…
The food crisis is soaring through the world and western societies hardly know about it. Why? Because we eat processed food! That means that our menu consists of a few percent of true food and the rest is additives, i.e. crap. This makes economies more stable because the inflation in the supermarkets is connected to the amount of inexpensive crap it contains.
Meanwhile the inflation in regions around the world that depend entirely on the basic commodoties, s.a. rice, wheat, oil, sugar….see an inflation of 100% to 400% in just 10 years. Their income has not grown at all due to the financial crisis around the world that got speculants work harder at the expense of the poor. Those who eat real food die of hunger because they cannot afford it.
Economic unrest is already enormous as the costs for society of the unreal lifestyle of the West is becoming a huge burden driving up speculation even more to finance it. Certain additives to our food have now proven to produce sensitivity to mental, psychological, physical and behavioral disorder. Overall it results in the negative evolution of human kind. We grow older, sicker, fatter, unhappier, more aggressive and intolerant due to our lifestyle. In fact we grow more stupid and insensitive.
In a world full of discussion about sustainable progress these are not exactly the best conditions for action. Half of the human world is growing more idiot while the other half is so poor they either die or can’t have a voice. Where does human intellect come in? Or the Darwinist survival of the fittest? Or my own phylosophy of the survival of the most adaptive? Can we still turn this disaster around or are we eliminating ourselves from this planet in a significant way?
On an individual level I see many people who develop consciousness and willingness to modify their life style, despite the pressure on them by the current social systems. On entrepreneurial level I see many creative people willing to produce true value for humankind and our planet. On political and banking level I see important power positions trying to remain in place with here and there across the globe important signs of uproar but not yet enough to break through the world of greed and selfish idiocy.
Recent social media discussions only show desperate people who just want a decent life and get fed up with crisis after crisis.
14 disturbing facts: http://www.prisonplanet.com/food-crisis-2011-14-disturbing-facts-that-make-you-wonder-if-the-coming-global-food-shortage-has-already-begun.html
Food prices hit all time high: http://www.businessinsider.com/un-food-prices-2011-1
Life as usual the coming years will be challenged time after time again until we truly modify our behavior and world organization. We NEED to transform while we can or soon we will be throwing bricks, stones and bullets at each other.
Now it is up to you. Eat crap, die or transform.
I have made my choice long time ago.
Mobility, Economy & Mentality
Since the 80’s the amount of cars that populate the world’s roads have exponentially grown to well over 1 billion. This has been for decades an important economic drive as a new car contains a number of taxes while its usage requires yet again a large amount of costs (energy, insurance, roadtax, parking, repairs and maintenance) as well as public investments (road infrastructures, energy and parking facilities, etc). It is not a surprise that the car industry and public mentality around the status and luxury of having and using such device are all key for modern financial household of society. The individual and collective dependence on the car is beyond dispute.
The size now of the car population however also has its counter effects. The growth demanded the increase of infrastructure, destroying along the way our landscape. For some this was justified by the formentioned economic dependence on the system but others started to complain. Landscape is important for other key elements of our human organization. The amount of cars polute so much through emision of fine particals (PM 2,5 and PM 10) that it has become a serious health hazard. The air polution affects long and heart problems which have become a mayor social cost. Children that grow up in high polution areas show also psychological disorders which affect the potential of living a decent, productive life.
Another issue that has become dramatically significant is the dependence of the automotive world on fossil energy which is rapidly running out. Fossil fuels are highly polutant and finite, creating a urgent need for transformation of the sector.
When we look at the property and usage of cars studies reveal that many families have two cars, one for the labor related travel requirements and the other for the short distance, i.e. for shopping, taking the kids to school or sproting activities, etc. The ease of having a vehical parked nearby for immediate use is of such importance to people now that the increase of costs of property and usage does not affect this sense of luxury and need. People rather modify their nutrician than that they get rid of the car(s). In some regions we see an increase at the end of the month of usage of public transportation because one cannot afford petrol anymore until the next pay cheque comes in. Then the car is back in usage until cash again runs out.
Many innovative solutions on individualised and collective mobility have been invented to overcome some or even all of the negative issues related to the cars. But these have difficulty breaking through due to the deeply engrained mentality around the usage of a car. We did a study recently asking people in the city what would be needed to get them to get rid of their car?
Interestingly 80% of the respondants would be willing to eliminate the car out of their lives but not just like that. They would do so if:
* all their daily needs were nearby. Even in cities we do not have that luxury because of the centralization processes of last many decades. We created huge malls where one can find any and everything but one needs a car to go there. So even in cities it is difficult to find everything nearby.
* there would be reliable, cheap, trusworthy alternatives available. That is also an issue. Certain cities have invested in a well oiled public transportation system and additional public services. In those cities you see a large population of people who do not have a car anymore. But most cities and countries have deficiant alternative solutions leaving the public without a choice. Taxi’s run on petrol or gas too and polute equally as cars. So if alternatives are introduced and organized they at least have to solve not only the ownership issue but also social and environmental issues.
We can conclude that mobility is key for productivity in any economy but mobility as it is today is also a mayor hazard and cost for society and environment. The challenge is to bring all back into a sustainable balance. This requires technological innovation and rethinking the system but also addressing the mentality of our users. If you want to take away or discourage the commodity of a car one will have to replace it with an even better option. When one achieves this a whole new world market lies ahead.
Sustainocracy, the new democracy 