RIchard - I have been following and reading your releases since they began and there is no doubt your your ideas which I acknowledge are based on the successes you have had in the areas where you have been actively promoting community engagement. I have from the beginning and still have doubts about how the process you are defining can be scaled up to be successful across the nation. I'm reading a book right now from which I have extracted the quote below. This statement about our society which is headed in the wrong direction when considering any method intended to build community presents a tension counter to the progress of your ideas. Your thoughts would be appreciated!!
"On average, a suburban American lives in a bigger home, sharing it with fewer people. And on average they spend more of their time looking at a screen—most likely the smallish rectangle in their palm. The average American has gone from having three close friends in 1970 to two now. Only a quarter of Americans have managed to become friends with any of their neighbors. The average American adult hasn’t made a new friend in the last five years. We consume more, and we do it more privately: that is what the suburban experience amounts to, in purely physical terms.”
— The Flag, the Cross, and the Station Wagon: A Graying American Looks Back at His Suburban Boyhood and Wonders What the Hell Happened by Bill McKibben
Richard, it means a lot to me that you have been reading my book -- and care enough to share your comment on the seemingly intractable and wicked problems facing the world today.
I guess I hear a few questions -- is it really possible, given the culture of materialism, for people to actually have a desire to live a different way of life and can that spread to a national, or even global movement?
You are right, that what I am suggesting is counter to the trend of increasing screen use, materialism, isolation, decline of personal contacts and friends, and neighbors. That’s why I use the term, in a positive sense, Counter-Culture! And, it is even harder to imagine how this could spread to other communities.
I suppose, since you have been following my story, we realized that back in 2005, as I shared that study from Merck called Yearning for Balance and how we were reading Robert Putman’s book Bowling Alone.
In principle, the challenges we faced back then are the exact same ones that Bill Mckibben writes about above – albeit, today they have accelerated. I would argue that what is happening is part of a boom and bust cycle empires have been doing for thousands of years, but today the empire is global, and many of the problems and technologies provide existential risk of destruction. No doubt there.
You’re right, the trends seem to be going in the opposite direction, with the world headed for either an authoritarian global system (where they force people to make changes) or some form of collapse scenario (not sure time frame here), because of climate (food systems being a vulnerable one) as well as economic factors (36 trillion in debt just in US)
All that acknowledged – however, there is an invisible part of humanity, our interior life, that also seeks to be manifested. Humans are a mixed bag, that’s for sure, but also seek the opposite of materialism, with the religious impulse, to re-bind ourselves to a Transcendent, to each other, and nature.
The reason I am still hopeful, and why I am sharing my book is because of what I have seen of how this Spirit gets released in community work. Also, I continue to be inspired by the work of Sarvodaya in Sri Lanka. And, inspired by the millions of organizations already working on the ground right now doing amazing work in communities around the planet.
It seems that the Spirit within us has the pattern of getting trapped in systems, but this Spirit can break through in an awakening, even an awakening movement, that could be broader than one person – into a community. I remember when I simply wrote a short opinion piece in our Reno, NV daily newspaper about this very topic of isolation and a breakdown of community and neighborhoods. I was so happy to see the spontaneous outpouring that led to simultaneous gatherings on more than fifty streets that lead to a neighbor movement.
I have seen this phenomenon time and time again. My book is a chronological effort to share a series of stories about practical ways this has manifested in my own experience.
Can this be reproduced? It is possible, but, only if people are feeling isolated enough, fed up enough, anxious and fearful enough about how society is going, and if so, willing to CHOOSE another way of life.
As I release my book, I have no idea whether people are ready for this kind of radical change. I hold out the possibility that they are not, still practicing a deep spiritual awareness, and praying for strength, but releasing all outcome.
That said, I will be sharing in the subsequent three parts of Chapter 10 (5 parts) how it doesn’t take a majority for this to happen in a community. I guess I could have made my reply shorter, just getting to this point sooner 😊
The method I am offering is not really a method! It is a way of living, rooted deeply in a person’s spiritual life and Power, and how to simply create network nodes of intersection for this living Power to spread throughout a community.
I am heartened because this approach already assumes that the ingredients of a counter-culture already exist in 50,000 villages, towns, and cities around the world. So, it is not about creating a new project, as a separate silo, in competition with other beautiful silos.
It's about becoming a space holder for all of these threads of community and weaving a whole cloth movement. I do know that this is possible, and it does not take much time, money, or staff, or formal organizational structures.
It does require a new type of consciousness and of a new network-centric organism to connect the dots and connect the good in any given community.
It can start with one person, motivated by Love, connecting one to one with another person. And then another, and another starting to encourage a network of care. Soon, you have a small group that resonates with is, building a coherent small group. When that group is healthy, it will start to attract more people and organizations to it, like magnetism.
What makes this seemingly intangible idea real is to embody this Spiritual Power into practical networks around local economy, food, water, housing, neighbors, religion and spirituality, environment, and more.
So, it starts small, but it is so powerful that it can accelerate change beyond anything that our intellectual mind can imagine. That’s why, when people came up to me, and asked me how it was possible that say, the Local Food System Network grew so rapidly, I said, “We all did it.”
I believe this community building process is only a reflection of a universal pattern, an Ancient Blueprint that is an intrinsic part of human life in the same way as our desire for material things.
Activation, even in a community like Reno, with almost 400,000 takes one person to hold space for this spiritual Power and to unite their own community. And, I honestly believe that this can erupt in thousands of communities at the same time. That's my hope, trust, and faith in this spiritual power and what seems to be unfolding right now, invisibly, but is coming together organically and naturally,
RIchard - I have been following and reading your releases since they began and there is no doubt your your ideas which I acknowledge are based on the successes you have had in the areas where you have been actively promoting community engagement. I have from the beginning and still have doubts about how the process you are defining can be scaled up to be successful across the nation. I'm reading a book right now from which I have extracted the quote below. This statement about our society which is headed in the wrong direction when considering any method intended to build community presents a tension counter to the progress of your ideas. Your thoughts would be appreciated!!
"On average, a suburban American lives in a bigger home, sharing it with fewer people. And on average they spend more of their time looking at a screen—most likely the smallish rectangle in their palm. The average American has gone from having three close friends in 1970 to two now. Only a quarter of Americans have managed to become friends with any of their neighbors. The average American adult hasn’t made a new friend in the last five years. We consume more, and we do it more privately: that is what the suburban experience amounts to, in purely physical terms.”
— The Flag, the Cross, and the Station Wagon: A Graying American Looks Back at His Suburban Boyhood and Wonders What the Hell Happened by Bill McKibben
Richard, it means a lot to me that you have been reading my book -- and care enough to share your comment on the seemingly intractable and wicked problems facing the world today.
I guess I hear a few questions -- is it really possible, given the culture of materialism, for people to actually have a desire to live a different way of life and can that spread to a national, or even global movement?
You are right, that what I am suggesting is counter to the trend of increasing screen use, materialism, isolation, decline of personal contacts and friends, and neighbors. That’s why I use the term, in a positive sense, Counter-Culture! And, it is even harder to imagine how this could spread to other communities.
I suppose, since you have been following my story, we realized that back in 2005, as I shared that study from Merck called Yearning for Balance and how we were reading Robert Putman’s book Bowling Alone.
In principle, the challenges we faced back then are the exact same ones that Bill Mckibben writes about above – albeit, today they have accelerated. I would argue that what is happening is part of a boom and bust cycle empires have been doing for thousands of years, but today the empire is global, and many of the problems and technologies provide existential risk of destruction. No doubt there.
You’re right, the trends seem to be going in the opposite direction, with the world headed for either an authoritarian global system (where they force people to make changes) or some form of collapse scenario (not sure time frame here), because of climate (food systems being a vulnerable one) as well as economic factors (36 trillion in debt just in US)
All that acknowledged – however, there is an invisible part of humanity, our interior life, that also seeks to be manifested. Humans are a mixed bag, that’s for sure, but also seek the opposite of materialism, with the religious impulse, to re-bind ourselves to a Transcendent, to each other, and nature.
The reason I am still hopeful, and why I am sharing my book is because of what I have seen of how this Spirit gets released in community work. Also, I continue to be inspired by the work of Sarvodaya in Sri Lanka. And, inspired by the millions of organizations already working on the ground right now doing amazing work in communities around the planet.
It seems that the Spirit within us has the pattern of getting trapped in systems, but this Spirit can break through in an awakening, even an awakening movement, that could be broader than one person – into a community. I remember when I simply wrote a short opinion piece in our Reno, NV daily newspaper about this very topic of isolation and a breakdown of community and neighborhoods. I was so happy to see the spontaneous outpouring that led to simultaneous gatherings on more than fifty streets that lead to a neighbor movement.
I have seen this phenomenon time and time again. My book is a chronological effort to share a series of stories about practical ways this has manifested in my own experience.
Can this be reproduced? It is possible, but, only if people are feeling isolated enough, fed up enough, anxious and fearful enough about how society is going, and if so, willing to CHOOSE another way of life.
As I release my book, I have no idea whether people are ready for this kind of radical change. I hold out the possibility that they are not, still practicing a deep spiritual awareness, and praying for strength, but releasing all outcome.
That said, I will be sharing in the subsequent three parts of Chapter 10 (5 parts) how it doesn’t take a majority for this to happen in a community. I guess I could have made my reply shorter, just getting to this point sooner 😊
The method I am offering is not really a method! It is a way of living, rooted deeply in a person’s spiritual life and Power, and how to simply create network nodes of intersection for this living Power to spread throughout a community.
I am heartened because this approach already assumes that the ingredients of a counter-culture already exist in 50,000 villages, towns, and cities around the world. So, it is not about creating a new project, as a separate silo, in competition with other beautiful silos.
It's about becoming a space holder for all of these threads of community and weaving a whole cloth movement. I do know that this is possible, and it does not take much time, money, or staff, or formal organizational structures.
It does require a new type of consciousness and of a new network-centric organism to connect the dots and connect the good in any given community.
It can start with one person, motivated by Love, connecting one to one with another person. And then another, and another starting to encourage a network of care. Soon, you have a small group that resonates with is, building a coherent small group. When that group is healthy, it will start to attract more people and organizations to it, like magnetism.
What makes this seemingly intangible idea real is to embody this Spiritual Power into practical networks around local economy, food, water, housing, neighbors, religion and spirituality, environment, and more.
So, it starts small, but it is so powerful that it can accelerate change beyond anything that our intellectual mind can imagine. That’s why, when people came up to me, and asked me how it was possible that say, the Local Food System Network grew so rapidly, I said, “We all did it.”
I believe this community building process is only a reflection of a universal pattern, an Ancient Blueprint that is an intrinsic part of human life in the same way as our desire for material things.
Activation, even in a community like Reno, with almost 400,000 takes one person to hold space for this spiritual Power and to unite their own community. And, I honestly believe that this can erupt in thousands of communities at the same time. That's my hope, trust, and faith in this spiritual power and what seems to be unfolding right now, invisibly, but is coming together organically and naturally,