Occupy Cafe
Occupy 2.0: Transforming Systems from the Inside Out
A group led by Jitendra Darling based on the principle that all external systems are fractal iterations of internal human dynamics. The systems we seek to transform are held in place by something vast and powerful below our awareness, our own individual and collective subconscious.
"Take, for example, the current failed economic system which disregards the value of the majority of its members. To what degree does that failed system reflect a society of individuals that bases their internal value on the goods and devices (i.e.-credit) in which it is now entrapped?
Any system, no matter how "perfect", will be reduced to the level of consciousness at which it operates. Don Beck's spiral dynamics model (chart below-click to enlarge) provides an intelligent illustration of this maxim. This is not a Spiral Dynamics or Integral group, however, I value and respect Dr. Beck's contribution to this understanding.
This group is an exploration into the systems in our world we want to transform and how we have kept those systems alive within our own subconscious.
Oh! And of course, we'll all share how we believe we can change that...
I've often said that the last 50 years of spiritual practice and personal growth has been a dress rehearsal. And now?
It's showtime! Let's have some fun!"
Let's Get the Problem Definition Right.
"The systems we seek to transform are held in place by something vast and powerful below our awareness, our own individual and collective subconscious.
Take, for example, the current failed economic system which disregards the value of the majority of its members. To what degree does that failed system reflect a society of individuals that bases their internal value on the goods and devices (i.e.-credit) in which it is now entrapped?"
That's from the group description/orientation. It does not define the problem well enough. Here's more. Will you add?
The situation is worse, and much older, than suggested! Reduction of human beings to things began about four hundred years ago, far ahead of the post WW1 emergence of our failed economic system. Internal value was flushed out and away. Internal became irrelevant, except as a hole to be filled, a center of appetites awaiting satiation.*
The failed economic system, increasingly disinterested in the well-being of humans, is another product of reductionism, brought into being by a sad whole system of people already diminished. Goods and devices are substitutes for being and becoming, which are more satisfying and health-maintaining. They fill the hole; lifeless things replace living things. Corporate logos are better known than birds, plants and watershed divides. Now we (overall) are the living dead and the planet is coming along.
Reductionism must be demoted and its process countered. The reversal recommended in occupy yourself very nicely overlaps Adbusters' pre-OWS inspirational "No more dead time!" All are called to life, to be and become. Our great potential is to recover wholeness, rediscover human scale and finally become nature working.**
* A remarkable assortment of deviants and dreamers who were producers found a sort of recovery in emigration to the New World and managed to institutionalize otherwise fading principles (recall what happened to all men are created equal in less than ten years) in the document that became the Constitution of the United States.
** "We are nature working" has been attributed to Penny Livingston-Stark.
Jitendra Darling
Well, actually...I purposely don't add more in the vein you're describing. The reason being that adding more in the direction you've suggested above, actually brings the conversation closer to the surface of stuff in view. It's all true, what you say, but dost we protest that much?
I prefer to keep the elucidation as simple as possible. There is much to say in so many directions that we would never be done.
What is more interesting and valuable to me is boiling down to essence, the pattern of movement itself. There is a seductive layer of thought form that feels essential yet remains reductive. There are fewer but denser words in this realm.
I'll see how this translates in our purely written forum, though we will have a spoken container in due time as well.
Hmmm...this discussion structure seems a little problematic. We can develop discussions, though the comments are invisible unless we click into them....does everyone intuitively know how this works?
Dec 2, 2011
Pawel Klewin
Are we the power external to all systems around us, or are we/species and we/individuals the element of the planetary subsystem and through it interdependent with the universal system? Do we discuss the source of our power, or systemic mechanism which has created the problem? Can we believe/hope the solution will “emerge” without our conscious and collective effort? Can it “emerge” from somewhere else than the proper definition of the source of the problem? Can the problem be simplified by reduction to the present moment (of universal evolution)?
“Act locally, think globally” – isn’t this appeal correct any more?
Albert Einstein said: "We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them". If “the thought is a liar” [Doreen] – can we change the way we think? Wouldn’t it be more realistic than the change of our systemic identity? What should be the role of our personal beliefs in the discussion?
Dec 6, 2011
NDT
I'd like to suggest the following be incorporated into the problem definition:
"The system which binds people economically looks to the concrete rather than the intangible, and to the physical rather than to the intent."
This binding can be expressed through the misuse of language: words like "person" and "allow" have been twisted in meaning to such an extent that that they now represent entirely different things from those with which they were originally associated. The word "person" originally meant mask; a person was a physical representation and had nothing to do with the intangible nature of the individual who "wore" the person. This meaning is still evident in English when someone refers to their person as being their body and clothing. Likewise, the meaning of the word "allow" has been expanded from meaning "to give permission" to include "to cause" and "to enable".
The binding is an aspect of civil law, which is based on Roman law (as will-to-power), which in turn is based on the law of the hunter.
Jan 6, 2012