[OSList] Thoughts for Tomorrow...

[Tony Budak]

Here is an opportunity to use OST for learning together about the 
Commons Transition to describe a series of ongoing actions that reflect 
the needs and creative input of civil society. What are the components 
of such a transition, and how do they turn into concrete actions?

You are invited to attend or host a Time for a Commons Transition study 
group, message me or Click for details; 
https://primer.commonstransition.org/#home

Thanks again for creating our tomorrows,
Tony Budak, Lead Convener at TimeBank Mahoning Watershed

On 1/6/2020 6:42 PM, Michael M Pannwitz via OSList wrote:
> Dear ho,
>
> the cybergremlins did not interfere.
> I received your message twice via OSLIST.
> Stuff still seems to work.
>
> Have a great day
> mmp
>
>
> Am 06.01.2020 um 23:21 schrieb Harrison Owen via OSList:
>> 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 21^st 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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