Egyptian or world chaos?
For days in a row we have been able to see the masses in Egypt step up onto the barricades to challenge the leadership of the dictator that has reigned the country for decades. The Egyptian people are fed up to live in poverty, without work while being exploited by an imposed system. They want self determination, freedom of choice and the liberty to develop the values of their own lives.
The country has been in chaos ever since the population started demanding the departure of the dictator and the initiation of in depth change. It is an extreemly risky situation as the dominant leadership system in Egypt is very much woven into the countries culture and structure. I myself still remember the street fights in Barcelona and the struggles of a young democracy in Spain after the death of dictator Franco in 1975. The coronation of King Juan Carlos I had been prepared thoroughly by Franco himself and still the dominant military force tried a coup just a few years later by Coronel Tejero.
In Egypt it is the voice of the people that speaks and nothing has been prepared. What happens if the dictator remains in place? Chaos! What if he goes? Chaos! And within chaos anything can happen. A new dictator can step up, the military forces can assume temporary control until democratic elections can be organized (by whom? No one knows how this works …), a temporary shadow government can be installed to rewrite the constitution according whatever standard… And meanwhile, what do the people do? It will not be easy and large groups have tasted now the power of the public voice. Screaming for the end of dictatorship is a common, unifying goal but finding a solution for the route of the nation can have many faces. And those different voices will group and let themselves be heard loud.
Many see Egypt as an isolated drama with the extremely difficult potential of a positive outcome and the tremendous risk of affecting the entire middle east. I see Egypt as one of the first steps towards the global abolishing of dominant leadership. Egypt may have been reigned by a dictator but the entire world is being lead dominantly by dictatorship, the dominance of speculant financial systems, in the hands of a few. The cry for self sufficiency, self determination and freedom of choice is being heard all over the world since the bank crisis opened up the eyes of many to what world we had created for ourselves. The greed of the financial systems at the expense of humanity and our planet are dictating the behaviour of our governments, multinational business structures and banking, and yes….even our own mentality.
Consider that 80% of the large currencies around the world now consist of speculative values (i.e. hot air) based on no true collatoral at all. We are all sitting on a time bomb of a global magnitud that multiplies the Egyptian chaos into a global one. Already three years ago I predicted that China will enter in a chaotic crisis well before 2020 due to the unsustainable growth of its economy acting as a black hole on the finite global resources. Financial analysts now start to second my prediction and also begin to realize that our money and monetary systems do not represent any value anymore. The true values of human society have be abolished by many years of speculation and need to be gained back. Those true values are represented by entrepreneurial creativity serving (not using) humanity and our planet, and the genuin caring way we interact among eachother. If we abolish family life for equality in economic independence we create a feelingless, individualistic and competitive society, the one we have now. If we do not care for eachother anymore then humankind disappears.
How can we change this? Just like in Egypt we have grown dependent on our own dictatorship in the shape of money. Our entire society has been built up around the same and hence extremely difficult to change. If we abolish the system we enter into chaos, if we maintain it we will enter in chaos and self destruction also. The movement across the world has started even though we do not yet walk the barricades but the fighting of the system is in full progress. This we call the Global Shift, or the process of Transformation to Sustainable progress. It starts with the individual like you and me, letting go of our own dictatorship around money, searching for the true values of and within our own lives (becoming self aware and responsible for our lives and that of our loved ones close to us). We need to re-invent the value of human interaction, love and care for eachother, without translating everything into hard currencies but finding the soft currents of giving rather than taking. This can be done with our neighbors, our friends, our own next of kin, creating warm and social communities which become rich by cohesion.
We use innovative technologies to become self sufficient in water, food and energy production on individual and community level (neighborhoods) and cut our ties with monopolists and dominant leaders who control those basic life lines. We learn to value our true creative and caring values in different value systems than money and we can use those valuesystems to exchange caring and goods among eachother without leaving our values in the hands of unworthy power structures that misuse the trust we placed in them.
The Egyptian chaos is also the world chaos by recognizing dictatorship and becoming aware that we want to be freed from it. The chaos leads to insight and insight leads to awareness, which in turn leads to a purposeful enlightenment for a new society. This new society is based on true human values of equality, safety, trust and cooperation. Just like the Egyptian dictator can be isolated in his palace we can isolate our own global dictators by turning around and learn to be independent and human again, not a robot in a system, joining forces to peacefully extend our hands and create a society based on true values, not money.
We have entered the era of the disappearance of dominant leadership.
Hé? Take that foot off MY footprint!
When the footprint was first introduced early ’90’s of the 20th century it also suggested the principle of equality of all human beings on the usage of the Earth resources. In the 2001 calculations the estimates are that every human being on Earth would have the right to use 1,8 hectacres for personal use and self sufficiency.
Before that no one actually had a clue that many were keeping up their wealth against the poverty of others. The footprint made us all think! But tough to do something about it.
Prior to the extensive explosion of human population on Earth our planet gave a sense of unlimited abundance. This sense has been engraved into our genes, mentality and behavior. When we learned about the finite resources for the first time we had already irrevocable systems in place that were based on infinity rather than shortage. Looking back we now see how we even used these systems to ensure our own individual interests by monopolizing our access to all kinds of resources.
So many people started to think when acquianted with the footprint rights and its distribution across the globe:
- What right do I have to step on the footprint of someone else?
- What can I do to be self sufficient in abundance on my own share?
Other people elsewhere may have started to think?
- What right does anyone else have to use MY footprint?
- What can I do to get to use my own share for my own abundance?
This thinking is slowly meeting. Some people call for sustainable transformation, other fight for their legitimate rights. In any case the human world is about to change. We become aware, we abolish (some try to maintain) the old selfish systems and introduce new ones (which some try to block).
Science has evolved so much that we never need to feel scarcity and can have abundance for everyone on Earth. There is no need at all to step on any one’s else’s footprint, or occupying it unrightfully. We just need to let go of what we were used to and embrace with confidence and moral joy the new world of true abundance, not only in terms of material wealth but also in spiritual significance proper to the purpose of our species.
Education?
1958 was my year of birth. Looking back 52 years now I can see an evolution of the world. And I was in the middle of it when I grew up. It has been an incredible time, in hind sight as a realize now. It has made me what I am today. It has motivated me to do what I do today……..the desire to change everything! Not the past of course, but the way we conduct our lifes, organize ourselves and especially how we prepare our children for the future through education.
Looking back at my own education I realize now that the scholing that I was provided tought me how to count, read and memorize geographical locations and historic dates. It never tought me about life itself, its purpose, its complexity, its morality or beauty in relation to our universe. Spirituality was educated in a dogmatic way in church but not given attention in our education. I gradually had to find out through life itself. It took at least 43 years and many events in my life to open up my eyes to those wonderful complexities too and for the first time feel in control of my own decisions.
My eldest daughter was born in 1994. Looking back at her 16 years she sees a mismatch. She sees two divorces of her parents, her struggles to move between two cultures and systems (Spain and Holland), the aggression she suffered on the street and at school, the lack of understanding of teachers and tutors, growing up in a broken up family and a broken up society. It has motivated her to do what she does today……the desire to change everything!
I realize that for the last 9 years I became much more capacitated to support her in the complexity of her life and decisions that she had to make. Looking at her I see a person who at age of 16 is much further than I was at the age of 35. I also see that her progress has been personal, with my assistance thanks to my own deepend understanding of life, and not at all by the educational system that we offer her. On the contrary, we clash often with the system that wants her to perform in the spiritless manner that characterizes our current times. As she experiments with her life, with the development of her feelings, her own morality, her spirituality and energetic relationship with her surroundings, she is learning exponentially more than at school. She is ambitious in doing things differently, with a feel good attitude right from the beginning.
What characterizes my own situation and that of my eldest daughter, not to mention that of my youngest daughter, whose personal story is even more dramatic to tell and her attitude towards life even more motivated and strong, is the fact that LIFE educates us, the hard way. This has opened up my eyes to the need to transform also the entire educational system, bottom up.
I grew up in a post war epoque when society was being defined. In the 60’s it was a rich, warm and constructive culture, full of passion. In 1974 I moved to Spain to widness the death of the dictator Franco and widness a new epoque for the country. One of modernization, growth and wealth. Only when I came back to Holland in 2001 I felt the deterioration of society in all its magnitude. Now, in 2011, Spain is one of the weakest economies of the European Community and overall deterioration is progressing fast there as well. Italy is in bad shape too and so is the rest of Europe.
When I look back I can now see clearly how I was utilized by multinationals and later government as a marionet in a game. I had been educated to perform a show, to become a puppet in the hands of materialistic dictators. My personal identity was intented to be shaped to the benefit of my masters or instructors. I was general manager but could not manage. I was asked to execute commands and not to produce opposition. I was deprived of my identity in exchange of temporary status. I was ordered just to do, not to be, let alone to think!
Only when my personal life got into severe problems I broke through this situation. I was deprived of every hierarchical position and financial power and found ….. myself. It was quite a discovery and I am so happy that I discovered myself for it changed my life. I learned that my life was worth much more than the emptiness of having to contribute to a systemized economy of scale of a wrong focus and organization of humanity. Blindly contributing to the destruction of our interhuman relationships, family bonds and our environment, simply because it is commanded and legalized by our so called leaders, is against my evolutionary nature as member of a species that is supposed to be intelligent.
The question I ask myself is how my 16 year old daughter experiences this evolution? She has grown up in the cold, individualistic and aggressive materialistic, global society. She has access to global information through internet. She receives public education, compulsory, that concentrates on making her a robot to serve the old system that she and I want to abolish. We want her to discover her personal identity and conduct a significant, purposeful life of her own choice. I do not want her to be a robot in a system, a number in society. She has the evolutionary right to BE.
Together we have had clashes with the present educational system. We have tried to figure out how a youngster, a teenager, conducts her life using her past and perception of the future. What education system fills her with purpose and guidance for a sustainable future? There is none, yet. She is fighting for a future by and for herself, not helped but opposed, even threatend by an obsolete education system.
The system wants the children to learn the tricks and trade of a materialistic society, focussed on working a life time to be able to consume continuously. They are tought to behave inside a system, to accept and not question (capitalist) leadership. What the children are not taught is how to deal with their feelings, their joy and anger, their greed and care, friendship and jealosy, skin colors and different cultural behaviors, environmental balance, interpersonal relationships, spirituality, universal energy, the untouchables of life, the morality of our decision, responsibility and self leadership.
Children grow up indocutrinated that they have to work, pay tax and learn how to count. Creativity, art, sport or spirituality is secondary or not existent at all. The consequences are that aggression florishes when people cannot cope with the high productivity demands of society, or when they develop psychological disorders due to lack of purpose or personal identity. Each life becomes standard through categorization and bureaucratization within the system. The system leads through standards allowing little or no progress. People are robots to sustain the system not intellectual aware identities active to contribute to the positive evolution of our species.
In the City of Tomorrow (STIR Foundation) Nicolette Meeder is studying the phenomena and concluded that the Dutch society invests now up to 4 times more money in social security for socially handicapped people than in the entire system for education. Instead of educating our children to become the entrepreneurs of their own lives, to take responsibility and contribute through freedom, entrepreneurship, authenticity and vision, we condition them for an obsolete system.
This needs to change dramatically, but to do so we need to question society entirely. The hierarchy and power of money based economies are crumbling, even though they struggle and fight to stay. In the base of society a new economy emerges, the economy of values. Our children are demanding from us, their parents and adult guides, to build the base of such new world order in which they can find personal warmth and care, security, health and vitality. A world in which they can freely experiment with feelings and energetic connectivity among eachother and the universal powers that surround us. A world where they can lead a purposeful life of their own.
That is the basis of the new education we wish to introduce at all levels of society, right from the basics of primary education all the way up to university programs, MBA’s, and teaching the teachers. We will work together with all those people and programs that share this vision and are willing to join in a network community to accelerate the progress.
Jean-Paul Close, president of the STIR foundation, the Netherlands.
Sustainocracy, the new democracy 