Global Civil Society is LIVING in Open Space

[Susan Partnow]

When I heard David Korten's address at our Earth Charter Community Summit,
I was deeply moved and inspired by his words... His description of "the
emergence of a new planetary social organism we call global civil society"
sounded like learning to LIVE in OPEN SPACE ... so I want to share this
excerpt with you –note especially the second paragraph below--  ... I
encourage you to read the rest of his address {at
http://www.pcdf.org/2002/earthcommunity.htm } -- as well as encourage you
to study the magnificent Earth Charter itself (www.earthcharter.org) – it
is an inspiring and important articulation of values and principles for a
sustainable future that was written in an amazing grassroots, global wide
process and is truly the voice of the people – the wise people of the
earth
.

(NOTE:  David is the author of When Corporations Rule the World and The
Post-Corporate World: Life After Capitalism, founder of Positive Futures
Network, which  is a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting
people's active engagement in creating a more just, sustainable, and
compassionate world, and publisher of YES! A Journal of Positive Futures.
These are all fabulous resources I highly recommend!)
“Another extraordinary evolutionary development new to the human experience
is the emergence of a new planetary social organism we call global civil
society. It is the largest, most international, and potentially powerful
social movement in human history, yet it is not identified with an
individual leader. It is a mutually empowering movement in which every one
of the millions of participants is a leader in his or her own right. Rather
than mobilizing around an ideology, it is converging around the emergent
values consensus articulated in the Earth Charter. It gains its power from
the fact that it is an expression of deeply authentic values that flow from
the awakening of a new cultural and spiritual consciousness deep within our
being. It points the way to the human possibilities that lie ahead.
Global civil society also manifests a previously unknown human capacity to
self-organize on a planetary-scale with an unprecedented inclusiveness,
respect for diversity, shared leadership, individual initiative, and a deep
sense of responsibility for the whole of life. It’s rapidly expanding
capacity for mutual learning, consensus convergence, and global coherence
suggests the qualities of an emergent planetary consciousness or brain. It
manifests a human capacity for democratic self-governance beyond anything
previously known. We are only at the beginning of understanding its nature,
let alone its full implications and potential.
This social organism is living into being a spiritually grounded, values
based planetary culture. Millions of carriers of the new culture are
forming local alliances to create thousands of cultural zones of freedom
within which people are growing into being the new living economies and
living democracies of Earth Community.

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