[OSList] Thoughts for Tomorrow...

Harrison Owen hhowensr at gmail.com
Mon Jan 6 14:21:55 PST 2020


I tried this as a response. the cybergremlins intervened, so here goes
another!

 

ho

 

Sagit . I confess that my response to your note was equally, or perhaps
mostly. a response to the present moment. This is not the first time that
Planet Earth in general and/or your particular part of the world has hovered
on the edge of serious chaos. Each of us may hold whatever opinion(s) we
wish, and I certainly have mine - but several facts are indisputable: Nobody
really understands what's going on, even less do we understand where it
might be headed, and most of all -- nobody has the exit plan. Under these
circumstances, and while we hold our breath, a little conversation with our
fellows might be in order. But how?

 

There are some 8 billion of us on the planet, divided at least 8 billion
ways . not all of them happy. Having a useful conversation under the
circumstances seems rather impossible. Doubtless there have been processes,
procedures and structures developed for human beings to pursue their issues
by less than violent means. But all of them seem rather inadequate right
now. We do not have sufficient facilitators, interveners, therapists,
parliamentarians, process re-engineers, conflict resolvers, etc. for the
job, and even if we did have the number, the necessary time for positioning
and preparation doesn't exist.  

 

Are we out of options? Maybe --- or then again there may be an option we've
had all along and never quite took seriously.

 

Some people call it Open Space, which could make it sound like a novel
procedure or process to be applied immediately and globally. In my
experience those words sound nice, maybe even comforting, but do not
describe reality. Open Space is nothing new, strange or different - it is
precisely what we have been doing for the past million years, or however
long it is that Homo sapiens has been doing whatever it does. From the very
beginning we sat in a circle, posted our wishes and dreams (sometime on the
wall of a cave), opened a market place to trade and share our ideas.  and
then we went to work. Sometimes these circles formed on a more or less
regular basis (weekly market sort of thing) but the really critical and
important ones happened when they happened . but always when there was an
issue that grabbed peoples' attention, that was so complex that nobody could
figure it, involved so many different sorts of folks that nobody could count
their kind, stirred great passion and usually conflict, and had to be dealt
with NOW. 

 

Over time there was a move to institutionalize this primal circle and give
it a name like Senate or Parliament. And it didn't take long for some to
think they were in charge. Often this worked rather well and it seemed like
the established order was maintained. Every so often, however, A BIG one
would come along and suddenly we were back to basics. Even in the 21st
century that can happen. 

 

So how do you have a meaningful conversation with 8 billion people? We have
the means, and it comes with our genes. I suppose the issue of the moment is
to get out of the way, and let it happen. Doing that may well open the door
to a whole new understanding of who and what we are, where we are going and
how to get there. We even have an electronic assist that our precursors
could never have dreamed of. To all of this I can add my own personal
experience - that never in 30+ years, often in extreme conflict situations
have I seen any sort of physical violence and ALWAYS witnessed the previous
combatants in respectful relations with each other. sometimes surprisingly
so. They shed common tears, danced together, laughed and even hugged each
other. They did it all by themselves with no prompting and no assists.
Wonderful!

 

But what about now? How to get the ball rolling, so to speak? Truthfully, I
really don't know. I can also imagine that it will happen, if only because
it has happened before. If anybody out there is searching for a mission,
something useful to do with their life and talent . opening this door might
well be a good place to start. Or there are other possibilities I would
really rather not think about.

 

Harrison

 

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