[Dialogue] [Oe List ...] The Spirit of the 10s

[George Holcombe]

This is great stuff.  I can't find anything I would disagree with.  Too bad we can't go down to Room A, but maybe this is our Room A.

I would add a tag, or sub-title, to name our present age as the Age of Bewilderment.  We have come so far, so fast that we have had little time to digest our present situation in order to make a clear choice or decide the next step that would take us in a direction of our choosing. And that time doesn't appear to exist.   It's like the time you got caught in a wave, the water is all around you; up down and sideways, and you think you have a general idea where the beach is, but the undertow is pulling one way and the wave is pushing you another, and you're not clear which is which, so you just swim for all you're worth.  One of our colleagues told me the other day he wanted to pay off his house loan, but because his loan was part of a derivative or credit-default swap, the bank couldn't find it.  Or the folks who found radiation behind the Big Bang, which could mean it was just one of the Bangs.  Or the doctor in Boston a couple of weeks ago who had inserted genetic material into a man paralyzed from his shoulders down and declared we had entered into a new era of medicine, which would eclipse the chemical treatments up 'til now.  Then last week they cured a man of AIDs by using material from another person's immune system.  Even the spiritual and religious types are shaking like they're standing in front of a Tsunami of some sort.  Hardly a day goes by without some earth shattering announcement, and it's not confined to any one field.  In a visit with Slicker a couple of weeks ago, after he had returned from India, he said “presently we are headed in a hell of a direction, not an Armageddon, but an explosion to newness."  We know or can know that wealth is getting more concentrated than ever and the elements used to produce wealth are limited and the processes that the developed world is addicted to are problematic, and we're hemorrhaging poverty and the climate is warming just like the climatologist said it would.  We just had an announcement today that a company is splitting off one of it's land development units to be it's own company in town, which for whatever reasons has changed the landscape for realtors, banks and government taxes.  I have no idea how to make much sense of all this, but would like to hear more.

George Holcombe
14900 Yellowleaf Tr.
Austin, TX 78728
Mobile 512/252-2756
geowanda at earthlink.net

‎“...we have the choice: we can gratefully cultivate the relationships that make us part of a vast network, or we can take them for granted and allow them to wither and die.”  Brother David Steindl-Rast, Deeper than Words



On Dec 20, 2010, at 6:19 PM, Jack Gilles wrote:

> John,
> 
> I love the work you've done.  I think your examination of the last several decades is on target.  I see the external situation for the 10s a bit differently.  Although technology certainly has come on strong and is affecting everything we are engaged in, I think this decade is going to be addressing people's lives in a different way.  I would call it Hitting the Wall of Sustainability.  This will be the decade when we are forced to face our limitations in so many areas.  I love Jeremy Rifkin's articles on the role of energy and the impact of having hit peak oil and the Empathic Society.  I think this will come crashing home in this decade.  We have, of course, climate change and I think that although there is debate right now and lots of "inaction", this decade will force us to face that reality and its consequences unlike we've ever seen before.  Add to this the questions of sustaining a growing gap between the wealthy 1-2% and the rest of society.  It cannot continue and I think that this decade we will be forced to deal with it.  Add collective and individual debt (credit card), trade imbalance, spending on armaments, and several other areas and in all of them I see us hitting the wall, where consequences will have to be faced and hard choices having to be made.
> 
> Now I'm not sure of the escapes, but I did live through the period of "this is my bomb shelter" and I think we could see the same response.   My survival is at stake and I'll do what it takes for me and my family to make it.  Collectively we could experience paralysis of complexity and the unknown.    There will be choices that require major sacrifices and moves into the unknown, and the question, as David Whyte talks about in his DVD, we are not sure we have the interior capacity to deal with the world that is coming. 
> 
> There are signs of creative response every where and I think replicating and sharing approaches that work will really come into its own this decade.  Here technology will be a critical tool and we are on the cusp of fantastic creative sharing methods and technologies.  I just upgraded my Skype so that several can share video capacity and there are now numerous ways for inexpensive on-line conferencing and collegium type events.  And data storage, retrieval and "mining" are also coming of age.  But for me, the underlying critical response will be providing the spirit capacity, the collective and individual dimensions of that.  That is why I feel so strongly that now is the time for us to get our wisdom in these domains into forms and forums for the sensitive and responsive part of society that will have to lead the way.  
> 
> That's my 3 cents worth (inflation you know).
> 
> Thanks again for getting this on to our "table"
> 
> Grace & Peace,
> 
> Jack
> On Dec 20, 2010, at 5:23 PM, jlepps at pc.jaring.my wrote:
> 
>> Colleagues:
>> 
>> One contemporary task of this group of people is to keep track of the "signs of the times." I've tried it for the past 5 decades, and below are my current thoughts about the teens. Please comment with your perceptions. This task takes us all. Anyway, have a very Merry Christmas, and here are some thoughts:
>> 
>> The Spirit of the 10s
>> John Epps, December 2010               (draft)
>>  
>>      We have made a practice of looking at the various decades and seeking their underlying spirit quest. We have used the categories of External Situation which creates an Internal Crisis that leads to an Existential Question from which we tend to Escape. Those categories have provided a way to look beneath the surface and discern some underlying issues and struggles that provide a way of making sense of what’s happening and addressing it creatively. With a new decade well under way, it seems time to have another go at that task. But first a quick review.
>>      In the 70s we experienced expanded horizons.  The oil crisis and the Vietnam War brought globality home to us personally. Our internal experience was unity: we sensed a common humanity with people everywhere. Our existential question was “How can I participate?” and we often escaped the demand of that question through withdrawal, either into ourselves with a self-sufficient style or into the cheap euphoria of drugs. One authentic response to this existential question was the development and promulgation of the Technology of Participation (ToP).
>>      The 80s were a time when we experienced the collapse of separating boundaries and encountered the inescapable diversity of planet Earth. The existential question it raised was one of integrity: “Where do I stand?” With all the options so visible (and none of them universal) what standpoint can be the basis of my integrity? We tended to escape through mindless relativism (“When in Rome, do as the Romans do”). The authentic response in this decade came in the formation of collaborative efforts and alliances among dramatically different groups.
>>      In the 90s we encountered a time of the intangibles: in science, nano-physics disclosed that nothing is substantial in the materialistic sense. Everything is energy in motion. Technology focused on information management, business on vision and values, medicine on preventive practices, cultures on foundational traditions. Our internal crisis was meaning. The question raised was: “What’s worthwhile?” Where is it possible to find the significance that will add fizz and mischief into life? Spiritualism was our escape in which we pursued mysticism and various Eastern religions as a New Age search for human authenticity. Authentic responses came in the disclosure of depth in the midst of ordinary experiences, a transparency sometimes disclosed in photography and art. 
>>      In the 00s, the turn of the century was a decade in which we experienced the collapse of sustaining structures. It was not simply 9-11 that occasioned our perception of collapse. Economic, political and cultural institutions which had provided a sense of stability and predictability seemed no longer to work effectively. Even the environment showed its fragility. In this situation we encountered a terrifying crisis of security. Our underlying question was “What can I trust?” We attempted to escape the turmoil of that question through a belligerence that seemed prepared to do battle with anyone and anything that called into question dependence on our favorite institutions. Another attempt to escape the question was through establishing security systems, notably at airports in an attempt to thwart the aims of “terrorists.” We also developed regulatory systems for economic institutions. Authentic responses to this situation came in the formulation of new myths. This was the time of Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings in which authors were developing stories that showed heroism in the face of unavoidable insecurity and terrifying danger. 
>>      We've just turned into a new decade, and hopefully one that can diminish some of the hostility of the past ten years. Certainly Obama’s election seemed to herald a new time, though subsequent events have shown belligerence to have a residual persistence that remains disruptive. Still, there is a new scent in the air that may herald a distinctive decade ahead. I’d like to explore that a bit now.
>>      The 10s seem to be a time of intensifying technology. Our dependence on gizmos and gimmicks has never been stronger.  While watching young children lined up with their parents to see Santa Clause at a shopping mall, I noticed a couple with two children in the queue both intently fiddling with their smart phones,  probably surfing the Web or social networks. Even their two children were playing with toy cell phones. Later driving home I met numerous cars whose drivers were talking into their cell phones. A colleague spoke recently about college students who were unable to take a 4-hour examination because they couldn’t be away from their smart phones that long – they were addicted. Of course it’s not only the cell phones and their remarkable inclusion of apps for unimaginable activities that capture addicts. Computers, automobiles, TV’s, and other technologies that have defined modern life have developed their own dependents. A recent NY Times article describes a local coffee shop as “laptopistan,” complete with its own economics, polity, culture, and ethics.  Looking at research into energy generation, biotechnology, robotics, and artificial intelligence, technology seems only to be in its infancy (but in a phase of rapid growth).  It’s little surprise that Time magazine selected the founder of Facebook as their “Person of the Year” for 2010.
>>      The function of technology is to expand human potential.  Current research and inventions seem to offer undreamed of possibilities. Virtual meetings, satellite radio, microwave meals, robotic surgery, online shopping with digital assistants, self-driving automobiles, self-diagnosing body parts, space travel – even avatar immortality – are all either currently available or in pilot stages. The interior crisis occasioned by all this possibility is pure potential. Clearly the old structures are past their usefulness as we saw in the past decade. Now we have pure potential for creating a new functioning civilization. Technology is no longer a constraint: we can do even more than we can imagine. Our imaginations, however, seem constrained by established images of systems and structures that are no longer effective. We don’t know how to think in new categories, or even what those categories might be. People often speak of this as a digital generation gap, and to be sure there is one. But I suspect even the brightest young geeks haven’t set themselves to thinking of new ways to operate as a global society. Pure potential is an abyss – a gap with no place to stand, no security, and no certainty. That’s the situation in which we find ourselves.
>>      Our existential question is “How shall we operate?” and even the “we” is not clear. At one time it could refer to the family or our network of friends or colleagues or the community or the state or party or nation or race or even in our more generous moments, humanity as an inclusive whole. Now even that seems inadequate. The environmentalists have expanded our horizons. All animate beings now seem to have a claim on us, and that includes flora and fauna. Even the mineral resources which we’ve extracted and manipulated with abandon seem to be crying for attention. Neither our economic, political nor cultural systems are equipped to address those cries. 
>>      We seem to have developed two means of escape from this question. One is the more political in which we latch onto any person or group that pretends, not so much to have a solution as to point the blame at someone else. In the USA, the Tea Party is rich in its objections to “the system” but sparse in its alternatives. More radical groups and movements seek to destroy existing systems in favor of a greatly reduced grouping that is pure in its ideals but exclusive of diversity. 
>>      The other approach is more cultural and can be found in the media. Programs like “The Biggest Loser,” “Lost,” “The Survivor,” “Amazing Race,” “Apprentice,” “Undercover Boss,” “Slapdown,” and other so-called “reality shows” have captured a huge market in the US and abroad. Their common feature is the depiction of people in terribly difficult circumstances, and their appeal is in presenting the mental, physical, and emotional struggles of protagonists in agonizing detail. We seem to take some comfort in seeing others going through internal uproars similar to our own. The reason these are escapes is that on television there is always a way out, a winner, or a rescue. At that point their analogy to our experience of reality breaks down. 
>> Authentically facing up to the existential question requires us to build new models, models that are inclusive in their scope and in their development. We need models for a global economy, for a polity that is inclusive, for a culture that respects diversity. There are pilots in all these arenas, but none has the recognition that might lead to widespread adoption. And the old systems will not go quietly away. There is opposition to be faced. Much is at stake. The trap here (perhaps another escape) is to become enthralled with the newest technological gimmicks. It is important to be aware of developments, but continually to raise the question of applying them to development of new systems for civilization.
>>      In the 60s and 70s, the EI/ICA set out to develop a “New Social Vehicle” based on a “New Religious Mode.” We succeeded admirably in formulating the rational and spiritual frameworks for those realities. And we put into place numerous pilot projects demonstrating what the future called for. We even experimented with replication in which those pilots could set in motion a rapid expansion. Those are valuable resources for the task at hand. 
>>      After four or five decades, the environment has altered dramatically. Globality is no longer an edge concept; it’s an operating reality, thanks in part to technology. Instead of expanding people’s horizons, we now need to enhance the recognition and appreciation of diversity. Learning from the past, we will need collaboration with dissimilar groups, appreciation of depth in the ordinary, stories and myths that support creativity, and, of course, the technology that is newly at hand
>>      The alterations that have come to “us” as a group have been numerous and substantial going far beyond the inevitable process of aging. But, in the words of Tennyson (thanks to Gordon Harper),
>> Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'
>> We are not now that strength which in old days
>> Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
>> One equal temper of heroic hearts,
>> Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
>> To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield. 
>>      There are far more of “us” ready and willing to work on the project than were available in the 60s and 70s. There is much more potential for communications. “We” now represent a wide diversity of viewpoint and experience. Maybe these are the times and we are the people.
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