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.
Egypt & Libya – Cradle for new humanity?
When we refer to the column of values and the model for moral & material complexities we can have a look at two of the Middle East countries that go through specific crises: Egypt & Libya. They are both in chaos but in different phases.
Egypt: This is where it all started in the Middle East. The population had been suppressed for many decades and came to an uprise when the food prices rocketed sky high bringing poverty everywhere. The greed of the dictatorial leaders became a burden opening people’s minds to the immorality of their situation. Through internet and tourism the population had been able to see that their situation could improve by demanding a new society. Especially the youth has developed a global attitude that questions the situation they live in. They just needed a crisis to come to enlightenment and public action.
The Egyptian situation in March 2011
The huge difference between the exploitation of the countries wealth for the dictator and his clan and the increasing poverty of the community was enough to trigger the uprise and demand the departure of Mubarak.
The population is still in chaos with an important line of development along the line of morality towards the field of enlightenment. But enlightenment does not mean welfare yet. The new leaders need to shape up and organize the country along the line of material complexities after the fall of Mubarak but within the context of high moral awareness. Many in command now however were also in command back then. Organizing a population along the lines of freedom, identity, democracy and sustainable progress after enlightenment is a very tough assignment which takes many years to achieve. It is much easier for the leaders to create a new dictatorship based on the example that they were part of before and the support they will encounter in certain areas of the current left overs of the old regime. With the promise of elections the leaders have time to build up the strength to make a fist against a new uprise. Even if elections are helt and a new leader is chozen to create a new Egypt of true sustainable and moral wealth this person will have a tremendous task to keep confidence and trust of the population and support of military structures while the country is being organized from scratch. Any logical minor mistake or political crisis in the process may set off a new series of power struggles anywhere in the country.
Which ever way, Egypt will remain unstable for some time to come but with a degree of general optimism and trust that they can all figure it out by them selves. The advantage of Egypt is that the population is relatively unified. Libya is a different ball game all together.
Libya: This country consists of a number of large ancient family tribes, one of which has been leading and suppressing the country for decades. This Khadaffi tribe is now being challenged for its dictatorship and greed as they control all mayor assets of the country. With the example of Egypt in mind the population started their own revolution but with a huge difference. The Khadaffi clan fights back with unjust power and financial backing from their assets.
Libya ready to break up?
Just like Egypt the population is now in chaos. The initial material power of Khadaffi has been overrun by the NATO troops to allow the population a fair chance to combat each other with a level of material equality. The Khadaffi people want to get their control back over the country, not just out of greed but also out of tribal self preservation. If they loose they will probably be accused for the mishaps of decades by the other tribes and so is Khadaffi him self by international law.
The so called rebels want Khadaffi to give up and disappear. Their higher purpose units their tribal differences while Khadaffi remains seated. Now what will happen if Khadaffi is killed or disappears? Their current higher purpose has then been reached and a new one needs to be found. Suddenly the 6 mayor tribes in the country rediscover their original differences as they return to their ethnic identities. The Khadaffi clan has shown what it is like to boss over the rest. Surely one or more out of six would want to become the next ultimate leader. A severe risk of a civil tribal war looms. Splitting up the country into bits of pieces like Yugoslavia is not an option in this case. The Khadaffi clan can expect a lot of accumulated hatred from the others through decennia of inequality and distrust. But the other clans will also look at each other with distrust. A massacre is at risk.
The only chance that the Middle East has is to be found in the youngest generations. This population has created a meaningful enlightenment around the ancient tribal dogmas of their countries and the wealth, as well as mishaps of the Western so called democracies. These youngsters have had the courage for an uprise that their parents never had. They have the insight of global awareness to shape up a new society after learning from their own ancestors and those around the world. Will they be able to break through the hardline religious dogmatic leaders, their (often uneducated) parents and tribal differences to create a new, unprecedented basis for a sustainable, peaceful future?
Will human society yet again find its modern cradle in the Middle East?
The situation in Libya hence is extemely unstable no matter what the outcome will be of the internal struggles. To gain a basis for sustainable progress all the tribes will have to become enlightened with the desire to organize themselves around the higher purpose of a stable and wealthy Libya. They would have to get to a situation to accept each other as equals and form a coalition around this common goal. This is extremely difficult to do. Will the upcoming generations be powerful enough to make it happen and show the world an unprecedented example of human evolution around deep values?
My guess is that the entire region is going to be under new moral and material development over the coming decades with important periods of dramatic ups and downs due to struggles between greed and morality, young and old generations. The effects of the long lasting unrest that infect also the surrounding regions will cause a faster evolution in other countries that depend on the fossil fuels that originate from the Middle East. This instability will affect countries with a strong oil dependence pushing them into fast investments for alternatives. Those will not be available over night causing those economies to enter into a transformative crisis too.
While the USA and Europe try to regain their old stability by pumping billions into banks and governments, without any desire to challenge that material dependence on speculation around money, and China develops its own forthcoming crisis due to its uncontrolled growth, the Middle East will be able to challenge everything and built a new culture that will eventually spread across the world when all the old material and capitalist structures collaps.
After the credit crisis this Middle East crisis may well become the second true world wide issue that drives economies down the drain triggered by the food and energy crises. Maybe this will become the ultimate challenge that gets the world to truly invest in the Global Shift or accept chaos to extend all over. The situation in Japan has also opened up the eyes of many and will help to get global leaders to accept that all human made structures around greed and material wealth are vulnerable and potentially a hazard for sustainable survival. A new world order around true values is needed. Will this be the moment? The war between human greed and moral enlightenment? What will win?
3b. More on Equality
In my previous post I introduced the general concept of equality as the next key level in the column of values after “identity” and “safety”. This subject is too important to just leave at a general statement. We have to dig deeper and make it personal. We perceive the world as one big mass of different people. People who look different, people who behave different and people who have different power positions. We have men, women, children, disabled, elderly people, etc. How can everyone be equal? Or more importantly: How can I be equal to everyone else?
To answer that we have go back to the “identity” and purpose in life. When you look in the mirror what do you see? You see an individual who has been blessed with the miracle of life by birth and the challenge to make the best of it. Do you see anyone else in that mirror? Do you see a boss? A wife or husband? A prime minister? Or doctor or priest? A parent?
You may see such qualification only if it can be connected to your identity, i.e. if you ARE a doctor or prime minister or wife, or whatever. You certainly see no other person standing next to you to tell you what you have to do, how you should behave or who gives you what you need. You see just you, your living self, with all the goodies and the badies you may attach to it, but in essence that what you see is all you have to live the adventure of life.
Do you really think that anyone else who looks at him or herself in the mirror sees something else? No, of course not. When one looks and sees a profession does that have anything to do with the living creature that stares back at you from that mirror? No, not at all. The individual is the same as anyone else. Equality!
When do differences occur that may challenge that equality? They occur when the individual starts addressing the ability to live a life from the perception of doing it with a PURPOSE. Purpose is a drive that takes you away from that mirror and start interacting with your surroundings. People may all have a different personal purpose in life which in itself is again a huge challenge for the individual as well as for those with whom one interacts.
Here I refer again to the basic 3 x 8, the three basic responsibilities in life of every individual on earth as explained in one of my previous blogs. In this we see that personal survival is of course the key condition for a sustainable individual life. Survival does not only mean that one cares for one’s safety but also health and vitality. In animal life the unhealthy and unvital are easy prey for preditors. In the human world this is not much different despite the social care system in rich regions around the weaker people of a community. This can be a topic for another post.
In certain moments of a life survival could be the sole purpose of an individual. In such situation one depends on oneself and the assistance of others who share the same objective. No differences are perceived as the higher purpose is clear to everyone. Only that counts and the competences of each to make it happen. When a group makes better survival chances than the individual the choice for all involved will be clear.
When physical security and survival is not an issue we see that other purpose drives appear. And that is where the complexity starts as we are asked to distinguish between the morality of the purpose that we persue or our personal greed. How greedy or selfish is survival? And how greedy or selfish is the accumulation of wealth at the expense of someone else? How can you justify immorality? And why would anyone be better or more important than anyone else simply by having more or showing more greed?
The constant reflexion between the moral (to be) and material (to do) complexity is a given for a prosporous welfare society based on sustainable progress (see diagram).
The column of values starts with self awareness in the center of the picture of the complexities. Self awareness is the very first step to the acceptance of one’s own unique identity among all the possible other human identities that surround us. Our identity is equal by birth. And equal by spiritual and carnal significance. If we create inequality it is imposed by others and accepted by us. On the other hand, if we feel unique, at the center of our own universe equality is beyond dispute. Inequality may be achieved by our particular behaviour challenging our spiritual, intellectual and relational morality.
It must be clear that equality in this deepest sense of human identity and meaningful existance does not distinguish in sexe, culture or religion. Everyone is equal in uniqueness. Any posible perceived inequality is a human invention and hence disputable by humanity.
So whatever the complexity of our surroundings the sense of equality is one that is derived from our own sense of identity, self awareness and purpose in life. The one who feels equal never will have to fear anyone or anything. This sense of personal security is key to feel equal from within and never look up or down at anyone else. The sense of purpose will allow the individual to conduct a voyage in life guided by self awareness and the equivalent evolution of morality to connect with others in pursuit of a meaningful life.
People who reach this point will define meaning into a servant attitude feeling truly liberated from a sense of competition. The modern meaningful higher purpose will always be the drive to leave behind a better world than one found upon birth. Anything else would challenge the column of values and hence our genuin identity as unique, meaningful, purpose driven member of the human species in sustainable evolution within our universe.
That then become the basis of the next layer of the column of values: Trust.
