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Tom Atlee, Reflections on Evolutionary Activism (Galley, 17 November 2009)
Admin / 7 parts, 25 segments, 3 appendices, poems at each segmentAntecedents / Evolutionary Activism is the call to arms that follows logically from Barbara Marx Hubbard’s Conscious Evolution
Antecedents / Gandhi focused on truth; Martin Luther King on love; Atlee on Evolution
Big Picture / “Big Bang” was actually the “Great Radiance”
Big Picture / “This book is coming into being right now because huanity’s situation requires a miracle so vast and evolving that it begins to look like the miracle that began the universe in the first place.”
Big Picture / Conscious evolution of social systems
Big Picture / Evolutionary Compassion stretches us from caring for parts to caring for the whole
Big Picture / God is We, community, universe as one—author calls this the “creative power of the universe” or CPU, CPU excludes no one and nothing
Big Picture / Today’s paradox is that caring for one part “of the whole can be detrimental to other parts of the whole in ways we may not even realize.”
Consciousness / Capacity to imagine, anticipate, and choose
Consciousness / Core convergence is to recognize and accept need for constant change
Consciousness / Demands and offers a deep reverence for life (implicit: an end to hostility)
Consciousness / Human Consciousness is our particular gift, to invite, catalyze and en-courage
Consciousness / Humans are frist species to understand the possibilities of the future
Consciousness / Social change activism is a form of human hormone of the whole
Consciousness / We are the universe becoming conscious in detail
Consciousness / Whole of Life concept, beyond Whole of Government and Open Everything
Conversation / Is interaction within context [instead of top-down didactic]
Cosmos Chemistry / Hydrogen is the primary source, combines with carbon, oxygen, nitrogen
Cosmos Chemistry / We are stardust, aboriginies had it right, stars are our ancestors
Credit / Big credit up front to Dowds and “The Great Story”
Culture / Culture rather than technology is the next major breakthrough
Culture / Only recently has evolutionary thinking been able to bring bring together all past into time and all future into culture (the next level of human intelligence)
Duty / We are “called” to take responsibility for the Whole Earth
Evolution / Disturbance INVITES creativity
Evolution / Diversity is the essence of evolution as co-evolution
Evolution / Evoluiton is the tsunami of the universe in constant motion
Evolution / Evolution is about ALL systems, not just the human system
Evolution / Evolutionary dynamics includes “the idea that evoluation is about diverse entities interacting in nurturing and challenging contexts to create and sustain new forms of elegantly simple complexity.” (with credit to Peggy Holman)
Evolution / Evolutionary Fitness is about adaptability to context of “fit” as in fitness
Evolution / Evolutionary Initiatives include
01 Systemic Awareness
02 Systemic Health
03 Systemic Learning
Evolution / Evolutionary INTEGRITY is our ongoing alignment with REALITY
Evolution / Globalization is evolution demanding win-win for all instead of win-lose
Evolution / Hallmark of evolution is novelty, novelty often rises from crisis
Evolution / Increases non-zero options [exponentially]
Evolution / Is the strategic synergy of the fulfilled individual with the collective
Evolution / Non-zero is core change—nothing is a zero-sum game is you are CHANGING
Evolution / Three Dynamics:
01 Integrating Diversity
02 Alignment with Reality
03 Harmonization of self-interest of all the part with the well being of the whole
Evolution / We are Evolution’s “constant weavers”
Innovation / Innovations comes from choices
01 Creative use of disturbance
02 New dance of cooperation and competition together (DNA spiral?)
03 Synergy of the self within and with the whole
04 Higher learning is higher and constant [Harlan Cleveland]
05 Self-organization and “emergence” are constant
06 Evolving consciousness within co-evolution is the “group magic”
07 It’s all about process—the decisions and solutions unfold from within all
08 Love is at the core [Santayana, Phi Beta Iota]
09 Gravitas [Integrity] moves wholeness [Buckminster Fuller]
Integrity A / “Crises are a sign that evolution is trying to break through a business-as-usual [process] that isn’t working.”
Integrity B / Need to change nature of democracy, which has lost its integrity and potency, need “integral deliberative democracy.”
Intelligence / “Intelligence refers to our ability to sort out our experience in ways that help us to respond appropriately to circumstances—especially when we’re faced with new situations. Societal intelligence, then, refers to the ability of a whole society to learn and cope creatively with its environment.”
Keywords / Affirmation
Appreciation
Appreciative Inquiry
Asset-Based Community Development
Backcasting
Big Bank
Big History
Bohm Dialog
Callings
Choice
Co-Intelligence
Community Visioning
Conscious Evolution
Consciousness
Convergent Evolution
Creative Power of the Universe
Cultural Ecosystem
Culture
Dynamic Facilitation
Dynamic Facilitiation
Era of Consequences
Evolution
Focusing
Full Cost Accounting
Future Search
Goodness of Life
Great Radiance
Great Story
HSLing (Heard, Seen, Loved)
Imagineering
Intelligence of Nature
Journey
Love
Nonviolent Communication
Open Space
Pattering Languages
Positive Deviance
Positive Psychology
Pygmalion Effect
Quality Circles
Redefining Progress
Social Change Activism
Social Darwinism
Strategic Questions
Symphony of Science
Taoism
T-Groups
The Big Picture
The People (Informed and Engaged)
Think Globally, Act Locally
Truth
Whole Earth
Whole of Life
Wholeness
Wisdom
Wise Democracy
World Café
Poems / Follow each segment, coherent, best for reflection
Precipitant / 2008-2009 breakdown of all status quo systems is an opportunity for innovation
Process / Active Appreciation has a constructive influence
Process / Evolutionary Activism:
01 Promotes healthy self-organization
02 Uses questions and conversations to transform relationships & minds
03 Engages diversity and appreciates dissonance
04 Focuses on the energy of possibilities
05 is the mother of all change processes
06 is Co-Creation as the sacred heart of the process—WE are one, WE create
Process / Evolutionary Activists are agents of transformation whose role is to facilitate engagement of others in wise democracy, NOT to be problem solvers themselves
Process / Evolutionary Activists are guided by Evolutionary Dynamics instead of ideology or agenda—the focus is on changing the Social DNA
Process / Move BEYOND issues and solutions, BECOME Conscious Evolution
Process / Non-violence is an essential foundation for Evolutionary Activism
Process / Sharing “The Great Story” is a step in the right direction
Process / Transformational Leverage is achieved in four high-leverage areas:
01 Altering the processes for societal decision making
02 Altering the economic structure and priorities
03 Altering (or creating) the cultural story [within The Great Story]
04 Altering philanthropy’s focus on the whole system vice parts is isolation
Process / We need:
01 Holistic Awareness
02 Shared Knowledge & Care
03 Systemic Self-Leadership
04 Evolvability
Science / Evolutionary Science & Evolutionary Spirituality are converging
Web Sites Cited / Business Alliance for Living Economies (BALLE)
California Institute for Integral Studies
Call for Conscious Evolution
Chris Jordan
Citizen Deliberative Councils (CDC)
Co-Intelligence Institute
Constitution of Ecuador Rights of Nature
Democracy: A social power analysis (John Atlee)
Donella Meadows
Earth Charter Movement
Ending Corporate Governance (ratical.org)
Evolution Institute
Evolutionary Life
Evolutionary Salons
Evolutionary Spirituality (wikia.com)
For-Benefit “B” Business Structures (gaebler.com)
For-Benefit “B” Corporations
Full Cost Accounting (Wikipedia)
Genuine Progress Indicator (rprogress.org)
Global Mindshift
Institute for Noetic Sciences
Joanna Macy
Journal: Journal of Conscious Evolution
Journal: Kosmos
Journalism That Matters (News Ecology)
Natural Capitalism
News Why the Future Doesn’t Need Us (Bill Joy, WIRED, Apr 2000)
News: Anna Deavere Smith on Art and Politics (8.11.06)
News: Climate-Change Calculus (24 Jul 09)
News: Is Ocean Zoning the Solution to Dying Marine Ecosystems? (Jun 09)
News: Warning: Oil supplies are running out fast (3 Aug 09)
Open Content (Wikipedia)
Open Design (Wikipedia)
Open Source (Wikipedia)
Participation Methods
Pattern Language for Sustainability
Permaculture (Wikipedia)
Precautionary Principle (Wikipedia)
Story Field Conference
Thank God for Evolution
Total Corporate Responsibility (Frank Dixon 2003 Speech)
Transition Towns
W. K. Kellogg Foundation
Wisdom University
World Index of Social and Environmental Responsibility (WISER)
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