Overcoming the Addictive Tendencies of Fixating on the Problem Matrix

We cannot effectively talk of global solutions until we are practicing them at the local level in our backyards and communities. I think there is a simple basic common sense logic to this that resonates with most people, particularly those in the mainstream

Right now I still have to ask: where is my community? It is scattered across the globe. This is not necessary bad but we must have global as well as local communities, to complete the whole and manifest that sacred loop that empowers us as change agents for global transformation. Progressives speak so much but complete so little, is because the movemetn still revolves around a leadership that is very much living in the pain of the past. Much of the progressive community seems to define itself primarily by what it stands against and does not seems to want to see how ineffective this strategy is in winning over mainstream America.

Our notion of community will continue to be constrained as long as we exist within a built environment that is defined and dominated by the dominant paradigm. This is not to say that we are not capable of doing great things within constraining environments but I think the suburban sprawl and consumerism that most Americans now live and define themselves by is constraining to the human spirit and to the realization of full human potential. And this is why if you see economic growth not as an ends to itself but as a means to an ends of improving the overall human condition and quality of life then our overall social RIO on economic growth is not only low it is actually in the negative.

For each unit of economic value created, we are degrading the ecological and socially commons not at an incremental but an exponential rate. So things will come to a head very soon. We could talk about this until we were blue in the face and specify and quantify every little nook and crany of the dysfunctional system we live in but it would not get us an inch further to what we want in life.

Instead let us imagine the incredible potential of humanity if there was a shift in how we humans spend our energy and that more resources was spent creating a sustainable economy that was a positive and life affirming force for humanity and that less energy was put into talking about all that is wrong with the world. This is the tipping point that we are striving for when we talk about reaching critical mass in a global movement for social transformation and sustainable development. We need to be well-informed about the problem but not allow ourselves to be defined by it.