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

Mon Dec 20 20:44:41 CST 2010

Well the work is informative. I have to say though the exercises we went
through where we characterized the entire world in a few words and then
claimed that the Order or EI or ICA was the authentic response to everything
by for example doing something completely contentless like "build models"
drove me batty and still do. That being said, both John and Jack have given
insight into the next decade - more technology some of it quite frightening
and some rather handy, and hitting the wall and all Jack has said below.

Ut oh, now I'm doing it . . . the next decade will be one of connection
(John's technology and Jack's compassion/emphathy), fragmentation
(realization of widely different results from the global economic enterprise
and extreme cultural differences, a multipolar world, end of American
dominance, state and non-state actors), sober realization (that no matter
how good it gets its not going to last and we don't know how to get off the
treadmill), dangerous ideologies (extreme groups within and outside
establishments), oppression (by those who have the most to lose financially
or culturally or ideologically) disillusionment (by those who seek quick
resolution), adaptation to a new E-A-A-R-T-H, digging deeper, courage, a
thousand points of light, hope.

Herman

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From: oe-bounces at wedgeblade.net [mailto:oe-bounces at wedgeblade.net] On Behalf
Of Jack Gilles
Sent: Monday, December 20, 2010 7:20 PM
To: Order Ecumenical Community
Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] The Spirit of the 10s

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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