ICA Global Research Assembly
Task Force V Future Engagement
Chicago
July, 1977
1. INTRODUCTION
Out of the struggle with the moral issue of our time, there are groups of people emerging, spanning the entire globe. This is like a movement taking shape before our eyes, a movement we did not create, yet we are conscious of participating in it. The "Doing" of the past year in Awakenment and Demonstration has birthed an awareness of Those Who Care standing precisely in the gap between the 85% and the 15%. The face of this movement is not yet clear, but it is like an invisible college becoming visible through awakenment events like Global Community Forum, and demonstrations of effective community care in Human Development Projects. It is invisible because it is taking shape out of those reaching to span the gap. It is visible because of what can be seen in local people engaging a global task. Whether it is the local politician seeking ways to respond to his electorate or a village leader who stands in the knowledge of his people's deep need, or a farmer who sees the necessity for improving farming techniques in other communities. There is a visible network of Those Who Care that is only now becoming apparent. Finding ways to nurture this visible college is a critical and difficult task. This document represents the decision to care for Those Who Care as they struggle to bridge the gap.
2. PROFOUND MYTHOLOGY
In our times, local man has turned from a theoretical or intellectual focus to a practical focus in doing or in engagement. Arising out of this comes a mythology which is profound. This mythology serves as a tool for local man, enabling him to engage in the building process. This mythology has been called the mythology of profound humanness which is a tool for local man to take every experience and reflect upon these, and push to their uniqueness and commonness. The mundane is taken and incorporated into local man's screen by use of the calendar. And finally, the materials or base elements for the mythology are the legends which came out of the environment local man shows up in.
3. OPERATING PRINCIPLES
Operating Principles for Those Who Care are more than simple rules for effective campaigning, They are principles that illuminate the importance of using the human factor, rather than the technical finesse of an action. Operating principles combine the basic experiential wisdom of previous campaigns with insights about the requirements of the future and the sensitivity of the response that Those Who Care are called on to make in every situation, These principles provide the grounding that allows the campaign to proceed effectively, while also allowing the flexibility to adjust to unanticipated demands.
4. PUBLIC STORY
The replications and maneuvers of 1976/766 brought the ICA into contact with many new people, demanding that a public story be readily available. The content of a new ICA brochure places heavier emphasis on the unique sociological approach of the ICA. The new GCF and ICA brochures (along with the new GSD brochure) are intended to be helpful tools in enlisting the help of new people who are looking for practical ways to use their resources and skills, at the same time identifying to the Press and potential supporters who we are and what we do.
5. CONCLUSION
The following essays and reflective tools are not meant to be definitive in their intellectual content nor strategic approach. They are to be used where and how they are found to be most enabling to the care of Those Who Care. One of the tasks before us is to create processes of future engagement; how to enlist and care for those who grasp themselves caring for all of mankind in this hour of profound urgency.
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What constitutes the stuff of humanness has always been a riddle for human beings. Ethical systems come and go and are as contingent as 1ife itself. These vignettes are not an attempt to redo ethics. They are intended as sketches of how human beings experience life and depictions of the common denominators of consciousness in action.
These are as true for whole groups and local communities as they are true for individuals. Although expressible in thousands of different words and images, the 12 categories of humanness here are universal: true for all ages and cultures.
These are not isolated characteristics but are part of' a connected fabric of human experience. For example, "event" births "integrity" which when styled in "action" becomes a "declaration'' of what authentic living is.
This series of 12 qualities is intended to be one more helpful grid, among several, of what authentic living is like in our times.
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 | HISTORY IS SHAPED BY UNEXPECTED INTUSIONS INTO ROUTINE PATTERNS OF THOUGHTS AND ACTION. THE SE EVENTS REFOCUS BOTH THE PAST AND THE FUTURE, GIVING HUMANITY NEW POSSIBILTIES FOR A CREATIVE PRESENT.
The beaming of the earthrise from space have mankind a new picture of itself and its interrelated destiny and became an event which deeply changed people 's view of the world .
EACH COMMUNITY EXPERIENCES LIFE AS AN INTERMINABLE SERIES OF EVENTS. EACH ONE, HOWEVER MINUTELY,EFFECTS THE COURSE OF THE COMMUNITY'S FUTURE. Lorne had never owned a fire truck; fire was a frequent problem and many houses were lost. One day, the people somehow summoned their collective resolve and raised $7,000 out of thin air to purchase a fire truck. As it rolled into town, siren screaming, it was the event that allowed the entire community to rise up in new pride and confidence in their ability to solve difficult. Problems. |
Sometimes there comes a crack in Time itself. Sometimes the earth is torn by something blind. Sometimes an image that has stood so long. It seems implanted as the polar star Is moved against an unfathomed force That suddenly will not have it any more. Call it the mores, call it God or fate, Call it Mansoul or economic law. That force exists and moves. And when it moves It will employ a hard and actual stone To batter into bits an actual wall And change the actual scheme of things.. Steven Vincent Benet "John Brown's Body"
INDIVIDUAL AND SOCIAL LIFE IS MARKED BY EVENTFULNESS. These events are not accidents or mistakes: they are part of life's fullness ….. | |
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 | MANKIND GRAPPLES WITH THE UNKNOWABLE FORCES WHICH THROUGH LIFE INTO CHAOS OR FILL IT WITH BEAUTY AHD POWER. Whether grotesque or lovely, inspiring or terrifying, the objects of wonder add to life's fullness.
The crash of two jumbo jets on the tarmac of the Canary Islands airport results in 500 deaths. In the tight system of elaborate take-off checking procedures, a gap of uncertainty appeared that no one can yet explain. This gap allowed a head on collision of two planes laden with tourists.
COMMUNITIES OF PEOPLE DISCOVER WONDER IN DAY TO DAY LIVING AS THEY TRY TO MAKE SENSE OF SOCIAL EXISTENCE WHILE CONFRONTING POWERS BEYOND THEMSELVES. The Marshallese people, faced with the task. of traveling among the islands against wind and ocean currents in the vast uncharted waters, created a complex chart made of sticks to guide the way. A tribute to human inventiveness, the chart is also a work of art which occasions wonder at the strange bond between man and the awesome world he lives in. |
Out under the moon and stars, alone with his son, that eighth night Omoro completed the naming ritual. Carrying little Kunta in his strong arms, he walked to the edge of the village, lifted his baby up with his face to the heavens, and said soflly, "Fend killing dorong leh warrata ka lteh tee". ("Behold, the only thing greater than yourself.") Alex Haley "ROOTS"
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AWARENESS OFTEN COMES NOT IN A SOFT GLOWI LIKE DAWN, BUT A BLINDING LIGHT OF PAINFUL REALIZATION. Like being splashed with ice cold water, tingling with clarity, an individual or even a nation confronts the issue which had not been seen or felt before.
In Watergate, the people of the U.S. were shocked by the issues of power, conscience, morality and integrity which altered in deep ways their whole approach to designated leadership and personal responsibility.
IN COMMUNITY LIFE, SOMETIMES A SIMPLE INSIGHT, A NEW APPROACH, EVEN ANEW PHYSICAL STRUCTUE BRINGS ABOUT A DEEP CHANGE IN THE WAY PEOPLE THINK ABOUT THEMSELVES, THEIR WORLD, AND THEIR FUTURE. In Delta Pace, an old bus barn was converted into a community center. As the sign on the building was hung, an old gentleman stood shaking his head and saying, "I have lived here all my life and watched the buildings grow old and tacky. I never thought I would see the day when nothing became something." |
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blooddimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned. Surely some revelation is at hand; Surely the Second Coming is at hand.... The darkness drops again; but now I know That twenty centuries of stony sleep Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle, And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born? William Butler Yeats
"The Second Corning"
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HUMAN EXISTENCE IS NOT PASSIVE ACQUIESCENCE TO NAMELESS FORCES BUT IS ACTIVE IMPACT ON THE SHAPE OF TIINGS.
The decision of president Carter and his wife to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue after his inaugural, vulnerable to assassination, was a signal act of boldness signaling a new mood of openness and accessibility to the people.
COMMUNITY IS MANIFEST WHEN CITIZENS WITHIN IT ACTUALLY WORK TOGETHER ON A CONSTRUCTIVE PROJECT. The Kawangware Human Development Project began with 200 people stating their visions of a new and ideal Kawangware, and working out proposals to make the vision into reality Practical implementation began with a community work day. Over 350 people turned out with jembes, pangas and shovels, and the shopping center was transformed from an eyesore to a place of which the people could be proud. Two trees were planted, and the entire shopping center area was leveled and surfaced with murram. A beginning had been made. |
There had to be one man who said yes. Somebody had to agree to captain the ship. She had sprung a hundred leaks; she is loaded to the water line with crime, ignorance, poverty. The wheel was swinging with the wind. The crew refused to work and were looting the cargo. The officers were building a raft, ready to slip overboard and desert the ship. Was that a time, do you think, for a man to be weighing the pros and cons, wondering if he wasn't going to pay too dearly later on; if he wasn't going to lose his life, or his family, or his touch with other men? You grab the wheel, you right the ship in the face of a mountain of water.
Jean Anouilh.
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 | HUMAN HISTORY ABOUNDS WITH ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE AMAZING DEEDS PERFORMED BY PEOPLE JOINED TOGETHER IN A COMMON CAUSE
The Human Rights marches of the 60's which occurred across the globe bore testimony to the fact that very different people who share a common passionate concern can shape the conscience of nations, and in fact, the entire world.
COMMUNITY IS BORN OF A SENSE OF NEIGHBORLINESS THAT GOES BEYOND INDIVIDUAL CONCERN. It is rooted in the deep bond of people destined to carve out their future together, depending on each other and serving the good of the whole. The store in Oombulgurri, $30,000 in debt, was a symbol of the deep collapse of a community dependent on welfare and spending 2/3 of its income outside. In two years time, with no subsidy and no experts, the store more than doubled its turnover, made a profit and nearly tripled the amount of money spent inside the community. This astounding achievement depended on the corporate decision and action of all of the citizens of Oombulgurri. |
In this lightning moment your first duty is to live through the endless march, both visible and invisible of your own being. You are not one, you are a body of troops. The race of men from which you come is the huge body of the past, the present, and the future. It is the face itself; you are a passing expression. You are the shadow; it is the meat. You have a great responsibility. You do not govern now only your own small, insignificant existence. You are a throw of the dice on which, fo r a moment, the entire fate of your race is gambled. Fight on behalf of your larger body just as you fight on behalf of your smaller body.
Nikos Kazantzakis, Saviors of God.
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"THE FALLING OF THE TINIEST LEAF EFFECTS THE FARTHEST STAR"... Albert Einstein The majesty of the past, the complexity of the present and the awesomeness of the future Join together to make life totally demanding for mankind .
In the fuel crisis of the 70's as people sat in long lines at gas stations, struggled with lower temperatures and oil shortages, mankind became aware of the far reaching implications of global interdependence.
COMMUNITY IS LIKE A PIECE OF CLOTH WITH THOUSANDS OF STRANDS J0INED TOGETHER. In Vogar the run down houses are strung out separated and concealed from one another by poplar trees. The people knew they were bound together, yet they had no way to express this or act it out. Finally, they hit upon an ordinary sight, of the geese flying together. This simple, but deeply rooted image, became the vehicle to express their resolve to work together for Vogar's future. |
No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as weI1 as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were; any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, And therefore never send to know; for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee.
John Donne, Devotions
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 | THE LIFE OF EVERYMAN BEARS TANGIBLE WITNESS TO THAT WHICH HE STANDS FOR. ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS. When the truth is emblazoned in deeds, a signal power is manifested that people readily grasp.
Gandhi decided on justice for the Untouchables of India. In 1922, he told the Indian Congress that he would not cease from fasting until an Untouchable was led by the hand into that august body. His fasting almost killed him, but the sign of his decision won the day.
IN LOCAL COMMUNITIES SIMPLE SIGNS HAVE SHOWN THAT LIFE CAN BE LIVED THROUGH ALL WEATHERS AND THAT THERE ARE NO PROBLEMS. The Kreuzberg 0st Guild prepared a celebration for the community. On the appointed day, it rained and was very cold. To overcome the obvious contradiction, a guild member put on a green wig, grease paint, a red nose, old clothes and long underwear and spent the morning on the street as a clown sideshow barker. People stopped and asked what was happening and were drawn into the celebration by this new form, of the Pied Piper. They saw celebration was for all seasons, not just for fair weather. |
Sun Pin cut the bark off a great tree, and on the trunk wrote, "P'ang Chuan dies under this tree". He then placed the most skillful archers of the army with 10,000 crossbows in ambush on both sides of the road, and ordered that when in the evening they saw fire, all were to shoot at it." 'P'ang actually arrived that night and when he saw writing on a tree, ignited a torch to read what was written there. Before he had finished, the 10,000 cross bowmen of Ch'i discharged their arrows simultaneously and the army of Wei was thrown into the utmost confusion. P'ang Chuan, at his wits end, realized that his troops would be defeated. thereupon he cut his throat and as he expired, said, "So I have contributed to the fame of that wretch "' Sun Pin, taking advantage of this victory, completely destroyed the Wei Army and captured the heir apparent. Because of this, Sun Pin's reputation was world wide and generations have transmitted his strategy. Sun Tzu "The Art of War".
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HISTORY IS SHAPED BY CREATIVE HUMAN APPROACHES TO THE PROBLEMS, EITHER GIGANTIC OR MINUTE.
In 1945 at the end of World War II, Europe lay devastated in ruins. Someone obviously had to take responsibility for its future. Seizing the situation, General George Marshall created a plan for the speedy reconstruction of Europe. Its implementation was a key factor in Europe's present day prosperity.
EVERY COMMUNITY EXPERIENCES ITS INVENTIVE GENIUS BEING CATALYZED BY HEARTBREAKING NECESSITY. In Termine, a 500year old mountain village in Italy, people say, "The air is beautiful but the village is ugly." One of the ugliest realities was the nettles, a stinging bushy plant which grows along all the pathways of the village. A pathbuilding project had been promised for many years by the government, but nothing had happened. During a village meeting, an old lady in a burst of irritation said, "Why don't we organize ourselves and cut the nettles down." Within a few days, with the help of half a dozen sickles, a 500 year old irritant was removed. |
Dear Wife of the Engineer:
I am writing to thank you for a thing that you did for the old people of Chang Dong. For many centuries, longer than any man can remember, we have always had old people with bent backs in this village. We always thought this was a part of growing old, and it was one of the reasons that we dreaded old age. But you have changed all that. By the lucky accident of your long handled broom you showed us a new way to sweep. You will be happy to know that today there are few bent backs in the village of Chang Dong. This is a small thing, I know, but for our people it is an important thing. Lederer and Burdick "THE UGLY AMERICAN" .
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 | HUMAN HISTORY IS SHAPED BY INDIVIDUALS AND GROUPS WHO REALIZE THAT THE POWER OF THEIR MERE PRESENCE CAN CATALYZE CHANGE.
Rosa Parkes was a black woman in a segregated city of the Deep South. One day, tired and footweary after shopping in Montgomery, she boarded a segregated bus and sat in the front of the bus. Asked to move to the back section, she replied, "MY feet is tired. I'm staying here." Her rocklike stance was the sign which initiated a new freedom movement in the South.
THE UNEXPIAINABLE GLUE WHICH HOLDS COMMUNITY TOGETHER IS A POWER KNOWN SIMPLY AS PRESENCE WHICH DISTURBS COMPLACENCY AND ELICITS A KEEN SENSITIVITY TO LIFE. In E1 Bayad, a moment of realization occurred when the local residents saw that they had accomplished miracles in their community project. They summed this up in a play poking fun at the outside staff who helped them: Act I: "Who are these people? Perhaps they are Israelies come to take over Let's see." Act II:"These people are wonderful; look what they have done for us." Act III: "But wait, we dug the well, we made the bricks, we did the butcher's boards and newspaper. We are the ones who are wonderful" |
As we live, we are transmitters of life. And when we fail to transmit life, life fails to flow through us. And if, as we work, we can transmit life into our work, Life, still more life rushes into us to compensate, to be ready and we ripple with life through the days. Even if it is a woman making an apple dumpling, or a man a stool, If life goes into the pudding, good is the pudding, good is the stool Content is the woman with fresh life rippling into her, Content is the man. Give and it shall be given unto you is stillthe truth about life. D. H. Lawrence TRANSMITTERS OF LIFE
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 | HISTORY RIDES ON THE BACK OF THOSE WHO FORGE SELFHOOD OUT OF GUTLEVEL DECISIONS, RISKING A DEED FOR THE SAKE OF THE FUTURE.
300 million years ago as the pond he was living in dried up, the Snout a freshwater fish decided to climb out of its doomed pool of foul water and hobble slowly along on the stumps of its heavy fins to penetrate a forbidden element and fight to stay alive in a noisy oxygen starved environment. His decision unto death assured the future existence of homo sapiens.
COMMUNITY IS BUILT ON THE DECISION AND THE EXPENDITURE OF ITS PEOPLE: THIS IS ITS INTEGRITY.
When asked why Kolambi was chosen for a village renewaI project, an elder said: "I say it was fate.... Kolambi is beckoning us. I quote: 'Go to the villages. You may think there is no food there. But that is where you are required to be. The land is pure gold. What she demands is hard labor and sweat. So come back. Who would be alive if the farmer were dead? Our challenge is to enliven the farmer. It is thought that people are not cared for in the villages. But in our village we see Brian and Umakant with shovels. That transforms the attitude of the people. |
| You told yourself you would accept the decision of fate. But you lost your nerve when you discovered what this would require of you. then you realized how attached you still were to the world which has made you what you were, but which you would now have to leave behind. It felt like an amputation, a "little death", and you even listened to those voices which insinuated that you were deceiving yourself out of ambition. You will have to give up everything. Why then weep at this little death? Take it to you quickly with a smile die this death, and become free to go further one with your task, whole in your duty of the moment. Dag Hammarskjold "MARKINGS"
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 | CARE IS AN ACTIVE VENTURE, OFTEN COSTLY AND NEVER CERTAIN. YET OUT OF IT, THE WORLD BENEFITS NOT ONLY FROM THE PRODUCTS OF CARE, BUT FROM THE INSPIRATION OF HUMAN SACRIFICE.
For 30,000 years the Aboriginal people have cared for Australia. Their symbol of caring for the whole is a grid-like map representing the care structure in which food, property, wisdom and stories, as well as goods were shared equitably between one tribe and another throughout all the continent. In their "walkabouts" the tribes covered their section of the grid, caring for sacred sites and water holes. COMMUNITY SUSTAINENCE IS AS DEPENDENT
ON HUMAN CARE AS ON FOOD, SHELTER OR CLOTHING. In Maliwada, India, the village people were in a desperate water shortage which could not be solved that season. Yet they realized that if a proper well would be dug to hold the monsoon rains, the next season would be better. Laboring with wire baskets and bare hands in 100 degree heat with little water for days, they created a 16 foot tall bund. Not only did it hold water, it symbolized the unselfish care of the people of Maliwada. |
Tired and lonely So tired the heart aches. Melt water trickles down the rocks, The fingers are numb, the knees tremble.
It is now, now that you must not give in. On the path of the others are resting places, Places in the sun where they can meet. But this is your path,
And it is now, now that you must not fail. Weep, if you can, Weep, but do not complain The Way chose you And you must be thankful.
Dag Hammarskjold MARKINGS
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 | EFFULGENCE IS THE FULFILLMENT EXPERIENCED IN THE HUMAN JOURNEY. THE ABUNDANCE OF MEANING, POWER AND GLORY IN THE GIVEN SITUATION.
The gods condemned Sisyphus to ceaselessly rolling a rock to the top of a mountain and watching it fall back of its own weight. The myth depicts the effort of his body straining to raise the huge stone, to roll it and push it up a slope a hundred times over. Yet the universe seemed to him neither sterile nor futile. The struggle itself toward the heights filled his heart. Sisyphus was a happy man.
FULFILLMENT IN HUMAN COMMUNITY IS NOT AN IDEAL STATE TO ACHIEVE BUT THE REAL SITUATION OF PEOPLE AWAKENED AND ENGAGED IN THEIR COMMUNITY. Inyan Wakagapi is an Indian reservation on the snowy plains of North Dakota. Though isolated and victimized by many problems, the people launched a project of renewal. One of the elders said, "I dreamed a dream that I started crawling down a long tunnel. Today I emerged from the hole on the other side. The fresh air of the future feels good; it is fresh air for future generations. The gift you have brought is the future. Thank you from the bottom of my heart…" |
Prince Wen Hui's cook was cutting up an ox. Out went a hand, down went a shoulder; He planted a foot, he pressed with a knee, The ox fell apart with a whisper; The bright cleaver murmured like a gentle wind. Rhythm! Timing! "I have used this same cleaver nineteen years. It has cut up a thousand oxen. Its edge is as keen as if newly sharpened. There are spaces in the joints; the blade is thin and keen. When this thinness finds that space, there is all the room you need. It goes like a breeze. Hence I have this cleaver nineteen years As if newly sharpened. Then I withdraw the blade, I stand still And let the joy of the work sink in. I clean the blade and put it away.
-Chuang Tzu "WRITINGS"
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