Globa1 Priors Council
Ecumenical Institute, Chicago
August 26, 1974
The historians tell us that the Marshallese were
able to travel over a million square miles of ocean from island
to island with no other navigational devise than a "stick
chart" and no other clues than listening to the sound of
the waves as they hit the bottom of their outrigger canoes. The
stick chart used tiny shells to represent islands and straight
and curved sticks which denoted the perennial currents and the
wave motion from island to island.
One of our resident oceanographers described to me
the physics of wave motion. There are swells in the ocean that
perennially traverse long distances in straight lines; whenever
they hit an island, they are diverted into secondary waves and
go off at angles. If you know that general flow, you can travel
and tell where you are. Before the Marshallese began making charts
of sticks and shells, a Master Navigator would simply draw the
grid on the sand. The person who was about to take the trip would
duplicate it, and then the Master would erase them both and draw
it once more. The apprentice was to duplicate the grid one more
time without looking at the original. If he succeeded, he could
go ahead and take the trip. If not, he went home.
Listening for the waves of history is what we have
been about as a revolutionary body during the past few months.
This task is important for several reasons. It allows us to distinguish
between the ripples, the currents and the waves. The ripples are
surface disturbances. Currents have to do with what we normally
call trends, where water moves over long distance in a particular
direction. But waves are something else again. They are swells.
They don't have anything directly to do with the movement of the
water or the surface disturbances. They are where the power is.
There are several characteristics of an historical
wave. First, it is objective, not interpretative. It is what the
interpretations interpret. It is the going-onness that the
Lord has put into history. Our resident oceanographer tells me
that nobody really knows where waves come from or what causes
them. Likewise, these waves of history are just there and nobody
knows their origin or cause. Secondly, a wave is sociological,
not psychological. It is what our psyches are responding to: the
objective givenness that is in society. When you name one, very
often it sounds obvious. One of my colleagues said a clue to recognizing
a wave is that when it is named, your heart "soars like a
hawk."
Riding a wave is different from flying a kite. When
you fly a kite, you just determine which way the wind is blowing,
and that tells you what you have todo. Such a procedure
is a liberal approach to social change or social analysis: determine
which way the wind is blowing, and be directed by that alone.
The problem is that this approach is ineffective. It simply doesn't
work. What we are after is not based on the assumption that a
trend must be followed rigidly. Trends have to be taken into account,
but, are made to be bent, particularly by revolutionary bodies.
Perceiving the wave, and standing in relation to it, allows you
to be effective in bending the trend.
Discerning the waves is the route to effectiveness.
For example, the early Church discerned that the wave of the future
had to do with the collapse; had to do with the Roman Empire.
That fact was perceived quite early. The Apocalypse of John paints
that wave in very graphic detail: Rome is presented as the Whore
of Babylon, riding on a sevenheaded beast and its fall is
presented with great rejoicing. Perception of this wave allowed
people not to be sucked into the particular currents of each emperor's
program or persecution. It released them to respond to that wave.
When that wave hit the beach, some two or three hundred
years later, and anarchy prevailed in Rome, there was one group
of people that had a common ideology, discipline, and organization,
which were to mitigate the anarchy and keep civilization going,
to keep the roads open and the aqueducts flowing. This group was
the Church. They called the head man of the Church "Pontifex
Maximus," which means, literally translated, Chief Bridgebuilder.
This was not a theological epithet, but a sociological description
of a people who decided to serve civilization by being clear about
where the waves are. Discerning a wave is the way to be effective
in service to the world.
Discerning a wave is hard. In the opening rituals
of the guilds this summer; we used a quotation, the gist of which
was, "I don't know who discovered water, but it certainly
wasn't a fish." Discerning a wave takes distance. Yet we
are all in it so much it's difficult to see a wave. Our research
on the social process triangles and the Other World screens gives
a perspective on which to stand as we begin to look at events
and currents to see the waves.
Discerning a wave smacks of prophecy and prophecy
is risky business. Suppose you are wrong. You stand there responding
to a wave that doesn't come along. At the very least, you will
look silly. The Bible is caustic in its critiques of false prophets:
"They did not have an eye to discern what in fact was going
on."
With these genera1 observations and disclaimers,
I would like to lay out what seems to me to be the waves of our
time, as they were discerned this summer. The waves of our time
have to do with a radical upheaval in our society, a collapsing
of the old an a bringing into being of the new in virtually every
social arena. I want to name the eight great waves of our time
in four groups of two. If this comes out rational, that is probably
the first clue that we have not got it yet. There is something
extra-rational about this sort of work.
1) The maturation of the economic dynamic.
The economic sector has grown to mammoth size and complexity.
In the process it has grasped its social responsibility. By maturation,
I mean not simply growth in size , but an assumption of responsibility
for the social process
2) The emergence of an effective global cadre
dynamic. The creation of the global cadre, the invisible college
dynamic, or " the League" has shifted in such a way
as to include the business community. It is no longer restricted,
as we used to think about it, to the intellectual or ecclesiastical
community, but involves business.
3) Political upheaval. The political sector
is a boiling cauldron as we are discovering the inadequacy of
virtually every known form of polity now accessible to us.
4) The emergence of local man. Local man is
now insisting on engaging himself in the decisionmaking
process.
5) Concern with ecology. Man has radically
altered the balance of nature is such a way that human life on
this planet is threatened.
6) Technological revolution. The world now
possesses skills and methods for resolving problems that heretofore
have been considered an unalterable part of the human predicament.
7) The transparentization of time. Mundane
and secular events have become the locus ~ Mystery.
8) Emergence of a global culture. The global
village has become an operating reality, no longer simply the
image of the idealist, as transportation and communication bridge
the gulf that formerly separated nations and Urgroups.
Regarding the maturation of the economic dynamic,
it seems to me that our category of "Economic tyrant"
as a description of the imbalances of the social processes is
no longer either appropriate or accurate. It is not strategically
appropriate for obvious reasons of authorization, but it is not
even accurate these days. The economic dynamic has to be sure,
grown to mammoth size and complexity. The inflation which is touching
everyone on the globe is largely a result of that growth. Business
Week notes that we do not have an economic theory that takes into
account the complexity of our situation. All our formulas for
predicting and manipulating the economic process simply do not
work.
In the midst of that global struggle, the economic
dynamic is becoming socially responsible. When you look through
magazine advertisements, various art forms or significant quotes,
that we could use on the walls around here, stand out. And your
heart soars like a hawk. Then you see down in the bottom right
hand corner, "AtlanticRichfield," or "IBM,"
or "Conoco" or "Exxon." Companies are taking
pains to present themselves as socially responsible groups. I
think we have to acknowledge that they are becoming just that.
This social responsibility does not have to do. in
the first instance. With philanthropy. We learned in the '60's
how much you can count on philanthropy. But the factof the
matter is that in this complex world, the economic dynamic must,
for its own selfprotection, take account of the political
situation. The political and the cultural have become the concern
of the business and industry. In one sense, it's encouraging that
the most powerful and influential dynamic in the world has decided
to take responsibility for society at large. The methods of such
responsibility have become the question.
The wave of the emerging global cadre has to do,
again, with those people within the business sector who are the
sensitive and responsive ones. Anybody who has done LENS marketing
could name people who are genuinely responsible and collegial.
The other day somebody was passing around a book written by a
former Chairman of the Board of the Bank of America, called, The
Future Without Shock. You might not want to suggest that it contained
the most thorough or profound analysis, but one chapter in it
sounds like a lecture from the Movement on the economic imbalance
in our society today and some of its social consequences. People
like that exist today in the business structures. Our LENS marketers
have found there is a global network of sensitive and responsive
businessmen ready to move. One might say the global cadre is teetering
on the brink of effectivity.
The wave of the political upheaval hardly needs any
grounding at all. It runs the gamut of society, not just among
nations. The other night, in a private threeminute brainstorm,
I was able to list eighteen major governments that have undergone
traumatic crisis in the last two years. Each one of these is attended
by unique ripples or currents, but the scope of it suggests that
there is a wave there. Carrying this turmoil to the absurd extreme,
there is a struggle in the state of Alaska over the location of
the state capital. It is now in Juneau, which is a very small
town in the panhandle. There is a movement on to get the capital
moved to Anchorage. But there is also a movement among the populace
of Juneau to keep it there. They launched a statewide campaign
to keep the capital in Juneau and locate the headquarters of the
state campaign in Anchorage.
That is an absurd extreme, but this struggle of the
political sector dynamic to bring order to our present society
is going on wherever you turn. It takes a number of forms. There
are places in the world that are moving towards nationalism and
places moving toward internationalism. Yet you sense in both of
those movements, an attempt to create a form which will allow
for participation in a global community with diversity. Our current
forms were not made for such a social reality. This wave of political
upheaval is likely to continue.
In some relationship to this wave is the wave of
the emergence of local man as an effective political force. In
this country, it has been manifested through the effectiveness
of the opinion poll. The struggle in this country over the presidency
of Mr. Nixon had to do with conflict among the three pressure
points of the political dynamic: Legislative Consensus, Bureaucratic
Systems, and Knowledge Access. That is, it had to do with Congress,
the Administration, and the press. Knowledge access, or that process
which shapes and molds and expresses indeed, the public opinion,
has been extremely effective here.
In the emergence of local man, "dissatisfaction"
is not a strong enough word for the cries from minority groups
they are demands for an effective voice. You could
to around the world listing the various minority revolutions in
process. The point is there is a determination on the part of
local man to have a say in the decisions that affect his life.
On the other hand, you have to say that mass rule
is the synonym for anarchy. The form coming into being is not
going to be some kind of "doyourownthingism."
It must be a channel that effectively allows local man to participate.
I am not talking only about nations, for this goes on also within
the economic community. We were talking to an industrialist in
Australia who was describing some of his labormanagement
problems. The demand from labor was for a voice in the policies
of the company. So they devised a system whereby management would
consult with labor in workshop groups. They even crossed department
heads so that you would not be talking to your superior, but across
department lines. This industrialist had just come from a session
and was radically shaken. He said there had been a sixhour
session of griping and no constructive presentation. The question
is how? What is the new form of democracy that will effectively
take the voice of local men and weave them together into an operating
consensus that works. Local man is no longer content to acquiesce
in the decisions of some representative bureaucracy. He is determined
to have a direct voice in the formation of the policy.
Regarding the concern with ecology, all you have
to do is walk outside and take a deep breath, or go upstairs and
try to see the lake today, to realize that we have a problem with
the balances of nature. It was announced on the news this morning
that the world now has twentyseven days' supply of food.
That is the extent of the reserve. We are tremendously dependent
on this year's crop coming in well. What new relationship to nature
has to be devised in our time? If we are in danger of famine,
there has to be more than highmileage auto engines and public
transportation and smokestackfiltering devices. Something
more radical is required.
Wherever we have been on LENS teaching trips, we
find people listing pollution and population as major concerns.
The issue has to do with the balance of nature. We have conquered
nature in our time but the victim has come back and is threatening
to overtake the conqueror.
A parallel to this wave is the technological revolution
of the Twentieth Century. The midpoint of the inventions
humanity has made throughout history is the year 1957. As much
has been invented since then as was invented throughout history
before. Another dimension of this wave is illustrated by an article
in Saturday Review :World, talking about the technological revolution.
"I shall tell you not of Einstein or penicillin,
the miraculous laser or even the computers that outmagic
Aladdin's lamp. I ask you merely to glance around the room you
are now in, or stroll around your home, and note the marvels with
which human ingenuity has, in half a century, enriched our lives.
"I put it to you that neither the Pharaohs nor
Montezuma, neither Croesus nor J.P. Morgan nor the mighty Manchus
dreamed of such wonders as even the unrich among us take for granted.
"Do you own a hifi? What shah or sultan
of the past could hear what you hear? Pompey could not be enthralled
by Mozart; Queen Victoria would have adored Richard Rogers; and
the profligate czars were bereft of Heifetz and Casals, My Fair
Lady and Guys and Dolls.
"Zippers. My God, zippers! And aluminum foil.
Dry cleaning. Kleenex. Spray paints. Staplers. Air conditioners
why, we have conquered hell itself.
"You may sniff that all this is sheer surface,
trivia ripped out of the fearful tragedies half a century has
spawned. Sniff away. I am grateful to be alive now, heir to such
splendors and comforts and miracles as the world of man could
not offer men before."
One would not want to be Utopian about it; it is
also technology that has created our problems, particularly in
ecology. A doctor commented to me a few weeks ago that pneumonia
used to take care of the elders, but now pneumonia is easily curable,
we have the problem of how they are to be cared for. The Bulletin
of the Atomic Scientists has printed on its cover a "doomsday
clock" which has had a hand reading twelve minutes to twelve.
Two weeks ago, they moved it up to nine minutes to twelve. Technology
is not an unmixed blessing. But it is not going to go away. It
is an objective, sociological wave.
Concerning the Transparentization of Time, in our
era, the mundane has become the locus of the Mystery. On a dock
in Sydney, there was a Japanese fishing boat tied up to the dock.
An old Australian man stood looking at it, shaking his head and
saying to himself, "It don't make sense. It just don't make
sense. Thirty years ago I was killing them and they was killing
us. Now here he is in my town." Historically it makes perfectly
good sense; but that is not what that man was experiencing. It
was sheer wonder and mystery that breaks through in the midst
of the mundane.
I suspect that religious symbols, these days, have
more power than they have had in the last half century, to dramatize
and express the wonder in the midst of daily experience. One of
the best spirit conversations that I have been part of lately
had to do with working on social methods for the LENS seminar.
We were talking about the process of indicative battleplanning.
In that two hour conversation, all 144 states of being of the
Other World were just blazing. My warning buzzer was going on:
"Watch out, you'll incinerate any moment." There was
fire and transparency there, as we began to sniff the possibility
of effectively engaging society
Not much needs to be said about the emergence of
a global culture. The event that clinched it, was the picture
of the earth sent back from the moon. All of a sudden, we were
able to see the oneness that is earth. When you talk about globality
in a LENS seminar today, nobody blinks Even six months ago, people
blinked twice. Now globality is an operating assumption. Its manifestations
are obvious. English can get you around anywhere in the world.
Most airports look alike. We are coming up with a global culture.
The oil crisis made it apparent that this culture
is a necessity and not simply gift. The interdependence of the
world was dramatized there very vividly. Whatever form that global
culture takes, it will be a unity in the midst of diversity. I
suspect we will have to deal with a counterwave for the recovery
of one's cultural heritage in the midst of a global community.
Let me touch briefly on the implications of these
waves. First, resurgence is not a time for relaxation. Resurgence
is a very critical, urgent and dangerous time. When human passion
is loose, the capacity for destructiveness is at least equal to
the capacity for creativity. Secondly, this is a penultimate time.
It is unlikely that we will live to see the final fruits of our
efforts. One might look at the history of Egypt a century or so
before they built the pyramids, for an analogous period to ours.
What was going on there? How were they discerning the trends?
What was the wave that manifested itself a century later in the
pyramids? What was going on a century or so before the Renaissance?
The book of Revelations holds a clue to such time
periods. The People of God in the early centuries lived off their
eschatological vision of what was coming, but not likely to be
manifest in their lifetime What would it mean for us to recover
the dynamic of living out of our perception of the wave that was
one day going to break. Our task would be enabling that wave to
do its work creatively.
There was an essay in Time recently, about the type
of leadership required for our time. It was in apparent contradiction
of much of what I have just said, but it observed that these are
times in which we do not need great visionaries, for people have
the vision. We need strategists. In our terminology, that would
mean tactical thinkers, those people with not only the vision
but the method and the moxy to implement that vision.
John Epps
August 26, 1974