Thank you Richard Flyer. Your articulation of "Symbiotic Culture DNA" aligns beautifully with what underlies much of what is converging between and across various efforts.
Described in many ways - rooted in natural local Indigenous, "regenerative" place - people can (re)connect personally (intuitively), spiritually and in community...and across communities - "living into" what matters.
So...yes great to draw from this reservoir of "wisdom" and resources along with the many others travelling resonant pathways…
As we uncover, discover and recover these kinds of "truths," in whatever ways that work best for us individually and collectively - embodying life-affirming "ways of being" - as we navigate in real contexts - this will increasingly feel natural. It can become "normative" because it's all rooted in more natural "ways of being."
Multiple divergent pathways seem to lead to a reframed sense of interbeing, (re)learning how to "be" at "home" with self, relationships, community - all living beings and adaptive living flows, processes and systems.
Walking-the-talk - with a little less "talk" and a lot more "walk" - is perhaps the tangible outcome of 'living into" the beautiful world we hold in our hearts. Hiding in plain sight...it's been here all along. 🙏🏾
Wow, that was very beautiful Donna and so clearly articulated. So happy to see like hearted efforts working consciously and intentionally for the mutual benefit of all.
Everyone, please check out Donna's sites to check out what she and her network is up to:
"Unstitution’s mission is audacious and big-hearted: to Reboot Society’s Operating System. We began by rebooting ourselves in synergistic and novel ways.
It’s obvious that many systems at local and global levels are broken. No one has definitive answers. Neither do we. However - it’s time to get unstuck and make real progress, collectively."
At https://murmurations.network/ we've built some of the Distributed Network Infrastructure to help make and map all kinds of connections. It would be great to chat...
Ward, great hearing from you. Thank you for your shout out and support. Yes, let's schedule a time. My contact info is on the contact button on my page.
There are many threads in support of a decentralized approach. Maybe you have already have done it, as you are reaching out to me - let's identify all who are working within substack and connect them.
I believe I would be in that category, and the group I convene on Tuesdays 6-8pm PT. If this works for you, I hope to hear from you. Carol/Sarah Sue from Belize is a friend of mine.
Richard, I hope to see you on Humanity Rising. Sarah Sue is reaching out to you for your email; I'll be happy to connect you with the host, Jim Garrison.
That would be great to connect with Jim. He may not remember, but he visited Reno, NV in the mid 2000's when we were building Conscious Community Network. rflyer2@yahoo.com
Great to see these factors broken down so clearly. I think of communities I am familiar with and how they would struggle, I list some of the issues that they face in carrying out such a process.
1. No political control - it is taken by a municipal system that means no local involvement is possible, as councillors are voted in by the majority, who live in different places (other settlements or richer parts of the municipality). The councillors themselves come from other communities (again they get voted in by those who know them in largest numbers, i.e. not the ones in the community, but rather the other community folks). This means that local people do not control the factors for linking, do not know their councillors and do not interact with them.
2. Absence of production - all the production / trade is done by national retail chains who own all the shops. All the benefits are provided from outside the area as part of a welfare system, with no chance to do any work in the community for any benefits. High unemployment results. There are no small places to have workshops or start up projects for cottage industries. The housing which is rented forbids the creation of any industry or businesses running from their premises on pain of eviction. The only way to start anything is to do it outside the locale and also to move away once it is successful (low income people can live in the location, but those with above average income must leave).
3. Domination by a religious organisation that "provides help" in a charitable dependency creating culture, but not an empowering one which is self-actualised / self-controlled.
4. All repairs on housing are done by the landlord using its own contractors, so the residents are not able to do small jobs doing any of this work. In theory they can do voluntary work, without pay, but in practice this is severely limited and does not allow anything meaningful to be done - e.g. sweeping the yard is OK, but not putting art on the buildings.
5. The population dynamics make it hard to do things. A large number are mentally not capable of work, have developmental disorders or disabilities. Many are old. Younger people are either children, or immigrants that are not integrated into the society. There are very few younger people who are able to do things. They lack the capacity to run things properly, keep commitments or an interest in working with others.
6. Lack of finance - so things are just not available e.g. mobile phones for projects or other equipment.
7. The location is undergoing an "urban renewal" / "gentrification". This means many of the buildings will be demolished in the next few years. Residents will be forced to relocate. So no-one wants to commit to doing things in case they have to move. Those that are moving already are not motivated to do anything.
8. Welfare dependency. Due to welfare money being the main source of income there is a risk adverse culture. People are not prepared to do anything that looks like work (as benefits can be stopped) e.g. voluntary work can be regarded as work. It is expected by law that certain trades must be done for the full market rate and tax paid on that basis. As a result professionals do not have a place they can use their skills. Those without skills find there is no place for them to use them without risking loss of benefits.
I just discovered and subscribed to your substack. Beautiful. Networks, fractals, symbiosis, systems change. I just wrote Seeing: A Field Guide to the Patterns and Processes of Nature, Culture, and Consciousness. Its pub date is Sept 4 and is available now as an advanced review copy. Check it out seeingfieldguide.com I wish I had seen your work before. I would have included it in my book!
Love this!! We are doing much the same work with a lot fewer words at VillageCo.org. I've shared your essays with our teams because they capture the systemic thought behind the approach so well.
Recommended, Four Arrows, Darcia Narvaez, Restoring the Kinship Worldview... Indigenous Worldview Precept Dialogue (1)
Four Arrows: “Based on Indigenous worldview approaches to raising and educating children as sacred beings, Martin’s work with his Circle of Courage, [Fig. 15.1] balances independence with belonging, and generosity with mastery. In this medicine wheel, health depends upon finding the center among the four directions. As Martin says in his quote, the highest expression of courage from his Lakota perspective relates to authentic unhesitating generosity. I have found this same condition in all of the Indigenous cultures I have studied, as did Christopher Columbus with the Indigenous people of the Americas he first met. He wrote a letter to King Ferdinand of Spain about them, saying, “They are so naïve and so free with their possessions that no one who has not witnessed them would believe it. When you ask for something they have, they never say no.”
This trait among traditional Indigenous cultures is evidence for asserting that generosity is an expression of deep biological instinct for giving and receiving and represents natural reciprocity. Greg Cajete agrees: “Giving and Receiving emulates the central animating dynamic of life itself. Indigenous mind mirrors Natural mind. And so, it is the Indigenous way to emulate the ways of Nature in the social ways of community.” (pp. 148-49, Note, 1)
However, that happy condition is contingent upon economic mutualism. Former cultures cannot be duplicated, but economic mutualism generates the conviviality reflected upon by Four Arrows, and the cultural integration with Nature. Reconstructing the Indigenous is an economic, social, ontological proposition.
R. Flyer said, “Others try to work their way around it by building their networks to change the world without realizing that they have built their networked silos of people who think alike – and as I’ve discovered in my work, this won’t transform the mainstream.” (Richard Flyer)
Your assessment does not include the model for decentralized economic social organization. The means and the ends are the same.
When the first round table (s) convenes, the structure and the conviviality are simultaneous, all sharing equal parts of their civic-economy.
When Love is the motive, you have the courage of your conviction and fearlessness; fear mixed with Love. That is a contextual proposition, contingent upon real, egalitarian community with its autonomous, municipal services; maximum individuation with maximum community; life in the immediate, for the sake of Life.
It’s a hard sphere to break into, and nothing can prepare you for life in that immediate, that collective, self-managed praxis. Meaningfulness is contextually embedded in empathetic culture. Worldview is fermented from an economic premise which can be either mutualistic or exploitative.
Democratizing the exchange element is insufficient alone, and is ineffective to spark conviviality in the absence of self-managed community municipal services, maintained by a mutualistic, production based economy.
However, as a municipal service, the monetized organization is useful, and by its use generates “dividend” for the mutual community bank. At that juncture the exchange element ceases to be exchange value. The exchange element becomes inherent in its culture for the self-realization of each person which objective is met by the economic social organization designed to that end. The power of individuation, empowerment from within, is a culturally embedded proposition. The fullest growth requires men in contention over the best means to safe guard the happiness of their collective descendents with ample Life. The cultural condition includes divination for perception and communion with the cognizance, or various, within Nature that provides directives for mutualism.
Culturally, the closest we can get to the Dao the more assurance we have of a kind future, for our kind. (2) But the contrast of a sane way of life to this mass alienated perverted civilization is immense, and seems a daunting proposition to many; and, yes, it is an undertaking of colossal dimensions that can take your whole life into that subsequent civilization. The meaning of working in a greater good for the sake of Life, with measurable effect, is colossal. Perpetual growth from birth is our birthright.
You all be well and be in Good Spirits!
Yours always, Reed
Notes:
Note, 1: Wahinkpe Topa (Four Arrows), aka Don Trent Jacobs, Ph.D., Ed. D.
Reed, I always do love your downloads. While I am writing as a westerner, with the desire to transform our culture from the outside and from within, I am certainly resonant with many aspects of an Indigenous worldview. I had a wonderful experience here in Hawaii at an annual Breadfruit conference in 2022 learning more deeply about the Polynesian way of collaboration that is resonant with Symbiotic Culture. Thank you you for sharing your resources.
To the point of "solving global problems locally;" the caveat I would offer, just in terms of clarity of statement, is that those local solutions must be globally informed or we risk falling back into the trap of "away."
I appreciate that your offerings are in synergy with our friends in Sri Lanka, and I'm hopeful that this process which you are stewarding into being in more diverse localities, might find itself overtly in dialogue with those often "underrepresented" indigenous voices in those regions as well. :-)
OK, yes ... and find something to be grateful for (as a shift of attention away from what might be a threat). And while within the bubble of appreciation, find a way to demonstrate (and inspire) trust ....
Thank you for this clear breakdown of the elements of a sustainable community. In my local community in Bergen, Norway we have experimented with thoughts and practices alligned with this for many years. We need models to take us to the next stage and I find a lot of «food» in your sharings. Thank you. I will be in touch.
Agnes, great to hear from you. Glad you enjoyed it. I will check out your Ted talk. I will be launching the first two thirds of my book, Birthing the Symbiotic Age: and Ancient Blueprint for a New Creation, here on Substack as a weekly serial in a little more than a month.
Great stuff Richard. I think that people need a felt sense of community and connection for this. I'm guessing you know that well b/c of the great stuff you've done. People will need to practice and be heard in community. Those bonds keep'em tied to the work.
As an old friend said, "that's my story and i'm stickin' to it."
You probably had that in there and I didn't catch it.
Thank you Richard Flyer. Your articulation of "Symbiotic Culture DNA" aligns beautifully with what underlies much of what is converging between and across various efforts.
Described in many ways - rooted in natural local Indigenous, "regenerative" place - people can (re)connect personally (intuitively), spiritually and in community...and across communities - "living into" what matters.
So...yes great to draw from this reservoir of "wisdom" and resources along with the many others travelling resonant pathways…
As we uncover, discover and recover these kinds of "truths," in whatever ways that work best for us individually and collectively - embodying life-affirming "ways of being" - as we navigate in real contexts - this will increasingly feel natural. It can become "normative" because it's all rooted in more natural "ways of being."
Multiple divergent pathways seem to lead to a reframed sense of interbeing, (re)learning how to "be" at "home" with self, relationships, community - all living beings and adaptive living flows, processes and systems.
Walking-the-talk - with a little less "talk" and a lot more "walk" - is perhaps the tangible outcome of 'living into" the beautiful world we hold in our hearts. Hiding in plain sight...it's been here all along. 🙏🏾
Wow, that was very beautiful Donna and so clearly articulated. So happy to see like hearted efforts working consciously and intentionally for the mutual benefit of all.
Everyone, please check out Donna's sites to check out what she and her network is up to:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/unstitution/
"Unstitution’s mission is audacious and big-hearted: to Reboot Society’s Operating System. We began by rebooting ourselves in synergistic and novel ways.
It’s obvious that many systems at local and global levels are broken. No one has definitive answers. Neither do we. However - it’s time to get unstuck and make real progress, collectively."
linkedin.com/in/donna-nelham-65091145
Thanks for spelling this all out so eloquently.
At https://murmurations.network/ we've built some of the Distributed Network Infrastructure to help make and map all kinds of connections. It would be great to chat...
Great to hear from you and check out your project. I would love to learn more. I am at rflyer2@yahoo.com
Great piece Richard, we are working in parallel approach. I would love to share notes with you. Let's have a call. Ward
Ward, great hearing from you. Thank you for your shout out and support. Yes, let's schedule a time. My contact info is on the contact button on my page.
There are many threads in support of a decentralized approach. Maybe you have already have done it, as you are reaching out to me - let's identify all who are working within substack and connect them.
I believe I would be in that category, and the group I convene on Tuesdays 6-8pm PT. If this works for you, I hope to hear from you. Carol/Sarah Sue from Belize is a friend of mine.
And then I saw this: https://www.facebook.com/reel/3686193534935332. "Here's to the Bridge Builders".
Thank you for sharing
Richard, I hope to see you on Humanity Rising. Sarah Sue is reaching out to you for your email; I'll be happy to connect you with the host, Jim Garrison.
That would be great to connect with Jim. He may not remember, but he visited Reno, NV in the mid 2000's when we were building Conscious Community Network. rflyer2@yahoo.com
Great to see these factors broken down so clearly. I think of communities I am familiar with and how they would struggle, I list some of the issues that they face in carrying out such a process.
1. No political control - it is taken by a municipal system that means no local involvement is possible, as councillors are voted in by the majority, who live in different places (other settlements or richer parts of the municipality). The councillors themselves come from other communities (again they get voted in by those who know them in largest numbers, i.e. not the ones in the community, but rather the other community folks). This means that local people do not control the factors for linking, do not know their councillors and do not interact with them.
2. Absence of production - all the production / trade is done by national retail chains who own all the shops. All the benefits are provided from outside the area as part of a welfare system, with no chance to do any work in the community for any benefits. High unemployment results. There are no small places to have workshops or start up projects for cottage industries. The housing which is rented forbids the creation of any industry or businesses running from their premises on pain of eviction. The only way to start anything is to do it outside the locale and also to move away once it is successful (low income people can live in the location, but those with above average income must leave).
3. Domination by a religious organisation that "provides help" in a charitable dependency creating culture, but not an empowering one which is self-actualised / self-controlled.
4. All repairs on housing are done by the landlord using its own contractors, so the residents are not able to do small jobs doing any of this work. In theory they can do voluntary work, without pay, but in practice this is severely limited and does not allow anything meaningful to be done - e.g. sweeping the yard is OK, but not putting art on the buildings.
5. The population dynamics make it hard to do things. A large number are mentally not capable of work, have developmental disorders or disabilities. Many are old. Younger people are either children, or immigrants that are not integrated into the society. There are very few younger people who are able to do things. They lack the capacity to run things properly, keep commitments or an interest in working with others.
6. Lack of finance - so things are just not available e.g. mobile phones for projects or other equipment.
7. The location is undergoing an "urban renewal" / "gentrification". This means many of the buildings will be demolished in the next few years. Residents will be forced to relocate. So no-one wants to commit to doing things in case they have to move. Those that are moving already are not motivated to do anything.
8. Welfare dependency. Due to welfare money being the main source of income there is a risk adverse culture. People are not prepared to do anything that looks like work (as benefits can be stopped) e.g. voluntary work can be regarded as work. It is expected by law that certain trades must be done for the full market rate and tax paid on that basis. As a result professionals do not have a place they can use their skills. Those without skills find there is no place for them to use them without risking loss of benefits.
Thank you for taking the time to share such a detailed analysis. Where are you based?
I am living in Tesoma in Tampere in Finland.
I just discovered and subscribed to your substack. Beautiful. Networks, fractals, symbiosis, systems change. I just wrote Seeing: A Field Guide to the Patterns and Processes of Nature, Culture, and Consciousness. Its pub date is Sept 4 and is available now as an advanced review copy. Check it out seeingfieldguide.com I wish I had seen your work before. I would have included it in my book!
Lyn I’m not sure why but just saw your comment. We’re on a neighbor island of Oahu. Let’s chat sometime. Congrats on your book.
Love this!! We are doing much the same work with a lot fewer words at VillageCo.org. I've shared your essays with our teams because they capture the systemic thought behind the approach so well.
Thank you. Could I get your calendar link. If you would like, let's meet to discuss how I can support your work.
In case you missed the recent post on Sarvodaya.
https://richardflyer.substack.com/p/jesus-sends-me-a-buddhist-chapter
Would love to connect Richard, if/when there's space. You can find me here: https://calendar.app.google/6ze9XYbE1PNgVdYy6
Jason, just booked. Looking forward to our call.
I'd love that! Would be great to meet with you. https://calendar.app.google/6ze9XYbE1PNgVdYy6
Reed C. Kinney, P. S.
You can see and download the PDF of my book... DTN member, Barbara Williams was kind enough to make this link: https://poemsforparliament.uk/book-kinney/
Thank you Reed for sharing
Dear Richard,
Recommended, Four Arrows, Darcia Narvaez, Restoring the Kinship Worldview... Indigenous Worldview Precept Dialogue (1)
Four Arrows: “Based on Indigenous worldview approaches to raising and educating children as sacred beings, Martin’s work with his Circle of Courage, [Fig. 15.1] balances independence with belonging, and generosity with mastery. In this medicine wheel, health depends upon finding the center among the four directions. As Martin says in his quote, the highest expression of courage from his Lakota perspective relates to authentic unhesitating generosity. I have found this same condition in all of the Indigenous cultures I have studied, as did Christopher Columbus with the Indigenous people of the Americas he first met. He wrote a letter to King Ferdinand of Spain about them, saying, “They are so naïve and so free with their possessions that no one who has not witnessed them would believe it. When you ask for something they have, they never say no.”
This trait among traditional Indigenous cultures is evidence for asserting that generosity is an expression of deep biological instinct for giving and receiving and represents natural reciprocity. Greg Cajete agrees: “Giving and Receiving emulates the central animating dynamic of life itself. Indigenous mind mirrors Natural mind. And so, it is the Indigenous way to emulate the ways of Nature in the social ways of community.” (pp. 148-49, Note, 1)
However, that happy condition is contingent upon economic mutualism. Former cultures cannot be duplicated, but economic mutualism generates the conviviality reflected upon by Four Arrows, and the cultural integration with Nature. Reconstructing the Indigenous is an economic, social, ontological proposition.
R. Flyer said, “Others try to work their way around it by building their networks to change the world without realizing that they have built their networked silos of people who think alike – and as I’ve discovered in my work, this won’t transform the mainstream.” (Richard Flyer)
Your assessment does not include the model for decentralized economic social organization. The means and the ends are the same.
When the first round table (s) convenes, the structure and the conviviality are simultaneous, all sharing equal parts of their civic-economy.
When Love is the motive, you have the courage of your conviction and fearlessness; fear mixed with Love. That is a contextual proposition, contingent upon real, egalitarian community with its autonomous, municipal services; maximum individuation with maximum community; life in the immediate, for the sake of Life.
It’s a hard sphere to break into, and nothing can prepare you for life in that immediate, that collective, self-managed praxis. Meaningfulness is contextually embedded in empathetic culture. Worldview is fermented from an economic premise which can be either mutualistic or exploitative.
Democratizing the exchange element is insufficient alone, and is ineffective to spark conviviality in the absence of self-managed community municipal services, maintained by a mutualistic, production based economy.
However, as a municipal service, the monetized organization is useful, and by its use generates “dividend” for the mutual community bank. At that juncture the exchange element ceases to be exchange value. The exchange element becomes inherent in its culture for the self-realization of each person which objective is met by the economic social organization designed to that end. The power of individuation, empowerment from within, is a culturally embedded proposition. The fullest growth requires men in contention over the best means to safe guard the happiness of their collective descendents with ample Life. The cultural condition includes divination for perception and communion with the cognizance, or various, within Nature that provides directives for mutualism.
Culturally, the closest we can get to the Dao the more assurance we have of a kind future, for our kind. (2) But the contrast of a sane way of life to this mass alienated perverted civilization is immense, and seems a daunting proposition to many; and, yes, it is an undertaking of colossal dimensions that can take your whole life into that subsequent civilization. The meaning of working in a greater good for the sake of Life, with measurable effect, is colossal. Perpetual growth from birth is our birthright.
You all be well and be in Good Spirits!
Yours always, Reed
Notes:
Note, 1: Wahinkpe Topa (Four Arrows), aka Don Trent Jacobs, Ph.D., Ed. D.
Please, open this link:
https://www.amazon.com/Restoring-Kinship-Worldview-Indigenous-Rebalancing-ebook/dp/B09986QHZK
And:
https://www.fourarrowsbooks.com
Note, 2: For perspective, and if you can get it, I recommend, The DAO of Civilization, A letter to China, by Freya Mathews (2023)
https://www.amazon.com/Dao-Civilization-Letter-Anthem-Impact/dp/1839984856
The website of Freya Mathews
http://www.freyamathews.net/
Reed, I always do love your downloads. While I am writing as a westerner, with the desire to transform our culture from the outside and from within, I am certainly resonant with many aspects of an Indigenous worldview. I had a wonderful experience here in Hawaii at an annual Breadfruit conference in 2022 learning more deeply about the Polynesian way of collaboration that is resonant with Symbiotic Culture. Thank you you for sharing your resources.
https://www.hawaii.edu/news/2023/02/15/pacific-economic-development-advocate-avegalio-retires/
To the point of "solving global problems locally;" the caveat I would offer, just in terms of clarity of statement, is that those local solutions must be globally informed or we risk falling back into the trap of "away."
I appreciate that your offerings are in synergy with our friends in Sri Lanka, and I'm hopeful that this process which you are stewarding into being in more diverse localities, might find itself overtly in dialogue with those often "underrepresented" indigenous voices in those regions as well. :-)
Absolutely right. The term that clarifies this distinction of local/global is Cosmo-Localism.
Michel Bauwens is championing this in his Substack --
https://4thgenerationcivilization.substack.com/
Yes, Universal Kinship means everyone, especially in practice.
OK, yes ... and find something to be grateful for (as a shift of attention away from what might be a threat). And while within the bubble of appreciation, find a way to demonstrate (and inspire) trust ....
Thank you for this clear breakdown of the elements of a sustainable community. In my local community in Bergen, Norway we have experimented with thoughts and practices alligned with this for many years. We need models to take us to the next stage and I find a lot of «food» in your sharings. Thank you. I will be in touch.
I share a ted talk I gave some years ago about our project in Norway. Maybe that can ressonate in you also. https://www.ted.com/talks/agnes_tvinnereim_somebody_has_to_do_something_but_who_is_somebody?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare
Agnes, great to hear from you. Glad you enjoyed it. I will check out your Ted talk. I will be launching the first two thirds of my book, Birthing the Symbiotic Age: and Ancient Blueprint for a New Creation, here on Substack as a weekly serial in a little more than a month.
Great stuff Richard. I think that people need a felt sense of community and connection for this. I'm guessing you know that well b/c of the great stuff you've done. People will need to practice and be heard in community. Those bonds keep'em tied to the work.
As an old friend said, "that's my story and i'm stickin' to it."
You probably had that in there and I didn't catch it.
Thanks Andrew. Let's chat soon about it.