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Timeline Email Edition
January/February 2000 - No. 49
A Publication of the Foundation for Global Community
http://www.globalcommunity.org
timeline@globalcommunity.org
Phone: (650) 328 7756 Fax: (650) 328 7785
In this Issue:
To Our Readers
Emilia Rathbun: Reflections and a Look Ahead
Natural Capitalism, Book Review by Joe Kresse
Donella Meadows: Guinea Pigs for Gene-Modified Food
The Nuclear Threat Is Now Greater Than Ever
Robert Theobald: Toward a Resilient Society
Ways to Handle Conflict, Book Reviews by Mac Lawrence
Gary Snyder: "Prayer for the Great Family"
©2000 Foundation for Global Community
To Our Readers: Reflections
and a Look Ahead
With this issue, Timeline begins its ninth
year of publication. by Emilia Rathbun
For our first issue in 2000, Timeline asked
Emilia Rathbun to share some thoughts as
Our first issue in 1992 carried a front-page
we enter the next millennium. Emilia and
photo of U.S. Secretary of State James Baker
Harry Rathbun were the founders of
receiving from Palestinian leader Faisal
organizations that preceded Foundation for
Husseini a copy of "Framework for a Public
Peace Process," a document drawn up by
Global Community, and their presence and
Israelis and Palestinians at this Foundation's
teachings profoundly impacted a number of
retreat center in California. Also included generations. Emilia, now in her 90s,
were reports on a conference held by the continues to lecture and lead seminars
California Institute of Technology on "Visions throughout the U.S, and has received many
of a Sustainable World," a conversation with honors in recognition of her wisdom and
author and futurist Peter Russell, and an her life-long educational work.
article on Congress' approval of an
astonishing $270 billion military budget. I was born in 1906, the year of the San
Francisco earthquake. I've lived almost a
century, and what a marvelous, fulfilling,
Obviously, some things don't change as fast life it has been!
quickly as we might hope. Establishing peace
in the Middle East is still a work in process, a I grew up in Mexico in the era before
sustainable world is still a vision, and cars, airplanes, radio, telephones,
Congress is still approving bloated military television, or electricity. In my home in
budgets. Mexico, one man's job was to take care
of our lamps. His entire life consisted of
lighting them and distributing them
We stated in that first issue: "Our mission is through the house in the evening. Later,
to discover, live, and communicate what is he would extinguish them, collect them,
needed to build a world that functions for the
replenish the oil, and do it all over again
benefit of all life." As we begin a new century,
the next night. There was a lamp lighter
we renew our commitment to keep on doing
just that. We deeply appreciate all of you
who did the same for the lights of the
who--by your subscriptions, readership, and streets in the town. I rode on horseback
support--make that possible. and in carriages, and sailed on ships
whenever we came to America.
At the age of 16, I came to San José,
California. My birth certificate is
elaborate. My father, an American citizen
born in North Carolina, was a civil
engineer who built railroads and harbors
in Mexico and married the daughter of a
wealthy Mexican family. He made sure I
©2000 Foundation for Global Community
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would be recognized as an American and lived and worked with him for 60
citizen who was born in Mexico. I had years. We had two wonderful children,
tutors in Mexico, so my first experience Juana and Richard, and three
of school was San José High School. I grandchildren whom we love and adore.
was chauffeured to school daily from
Edenvale, six miles out of town, where I What I Know
lived with my father's people. I was not
familiar with the concepts the students A human is endowed with curiosity and a
were taught, and I did not adjust well, so desire to know. To know is important in
I was transferred to Notre Dame High our complex world if one is to live and to
School. It was an all-girls school with survive. Nevertheless, I have concluded
"Sisters" for teachers and I loved it. for myself that the ultimate peace is
After I graduated, I went on to San José attained by the willingness to accept that
State to become a teacher. the most central reality of life can only be
accepted and complied with, not
During my college years, I experienced intellectualized or conceptualized.
what were to become the greatest At my stage of life, I do not use the word
influences of my life, to this day. I joined God. There are as many definitions and
the Y.W.C.A. It was at its peak and had understandings of that word as there are
significant Christmas retreats at people and their different education,
Asilomar, a retreat center on the cultures, and experience. I call it the
California coast. There, I first learned "Mysterium Tremendum."
about the problem of race relations,
which would later become the civil rights Even though I cannot fathom the reality
movement. I worked with the Mexican of the "Thou," I can meditate on various
migrant workers in California's Central manifestations that seem to reside in, or
Valley, a work which was very be manifested out of, or emanate from
compatible with my upbringing in the Mysterium Tremendum. After a life-
Mexico. I had been taught that privilege time of study, practice, meditation, and
is a responsibility and your purpose is to primary thinking, there are certain
help and serve--a wonderful heritage aspects of life and reality that I am
which was practiced by my family who certain of.
were large land owners.
The first is that there is a source for all.
Determinative for me in college was a They call it the "big bang." I don't know
study of Jesus of Nazareth and his that I completely go with it, but I do
teachings. I met wonderful mentors who because I don't have a better answer.
recommended looking at the laws that From it came everything that is--energy,
govern nature, psychology, the spirit. I light, matter, laws, principles, life,
knew every professor personally, had consciousness, all that exists. We
them in my home for dinners, and discover, combine, and work with
eventually through one of them met source, but we ourselves are not the
Harry Rathbun, a professor of law at source. If you want to ask a question
Stanford. After a glorious, romantic about anything, the answer already
courtship of three months, I married him exists, and is there to be discovered. You
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will never decide the answer by getting have made do in time and space for
together with five others and having a life?" That is the predicament we are in
vote. In the religious traditions, the now, and it is making us think.
simple instruction is do the will of a
As we go into the third millennium there
higher power.
is a question whether the human species
I am convinced there is a direction of can make the leap in evolution that is
evolution, and that the direction has been required. To make the leap, we need to
toward diversity, complexity, life, and pay attention only to two things: the
consciousness. Are we in charge of spirit that emanates from people, and the
direction? No. Something other than discovery of actual truth and its
ourselves is. outcomes. People have to face the fact
that the only way they can express spirit
I am convinced there is an intelligence to and the only way they can discover truth
all we discern and discover. We don't is to eliminate the vestiges of their sense
know what intelligence is but we don't of self importance. We discover and
need to because we're human and we combine and can actualize things that are
know we have it. When we look out with not in nature. We are in a man-made
our intelligence, we see that there is world. We use nature, but the
intelligence that permeates everything. combinations are not in nature. We have
Our own intelligence mirrors, or is in the come into a self-importance which we
image of, reality that is intelligent. now have to transcend. The self-
importance says, "I am in charge of
I know there is love. There is something history, and I am in charge of ages, and I
incredible about the universe and the am in charge of reality." We cannot see
planet we live on. There is not only our rightful place if we don't see
beauty, there is also truth and goodness. ourselves as mirrors of reality, not the
We don't need to analyze them; we creators of reality.
know they are here. So there is love,
because we have been given a paradise. Another requirement is a change in
identity. Our identity can no longer be as
A Look Ahead a nation, or as a member of a particular
race, or as belonging to a religion, or
even being part of a culture. We need to
As we leave the second millennium, it is see those as secondary identities. But our
clear that we have been concentrating primary identity is Homo sapiens
almost completely on the physical. The sapiens. We are one species made up of
physical yields immediate outcomes. We a variety of races, nations, and religions.
can experiment in the physical domain
and get a result, so that is an easy way After identity, we need to know
for us to use our capacity. The resultant relationships and proportion. If I know
technology has taken us into the abstract my identity is an acorn, then in order to
domains, the domains of ideas, the grow into an oak tree I have to relate to
domains of potential relationships and earth, to water, to certain nutrients in the
what they can produce. What we haven't soil, to the sun, and I have to have space.
asked is, "What will this discovery we Also there has to be proportion. An oak
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tree can get too much water or too little
sun. This dominant relationship to
authority is one humans have a difficult
time with. We are not the authority.
Authority comes from author. We can
author a book or build a bridge by using
what is available to us. But the whole of Natural Capitalism
creation has emerged, and we haven't
had anything to do with it. Yet we act
A Book Review
like gods.
by Joe Kresse
Religions can play a vital role. Each
religion can keep its own way; there is
"Natural Capitalism is not about
nothing incorrect in that. But all religions
fomenting social upheaval. On the
must realize that there are only two
contrary, that is the consequence that
things that are important now to the
will surely arise if fundamental social
planet and to the spiritual people of the
and environmental problems are not
planet if we are going to survive. One is
responsibly addressed."
the manifestation of your being. Under
no circumstances can you be against
anything or be unwilling to understand This is the third in a series of Timeline
what seems alien to you. The second reviews of books about our economic
thing is that truth is the same for all. system. In the first book we reviewed,
Spirit and truth are all that are left, and The Post-Corporate World, David
they have nothing to do with belief Korten painted a picture of a new system
systems. Truth is the same for all. No consisting of democratic markets based
matter what religion you are, you need on how biological systems work. The
trees and pure water for life, and cyanide second book, The New Pioneers, by Tom
will kill you. Those are truths. So now all Petzinger, demonstrated new ways for
the religions must raise their voice and business employees to function more in
say, "Humanity must manifest the right line with biological models. This third
spirit and investigate the truth." We must book, Natural Capitalism, shows how we
tend to the life-support system and to the can vastly increase our efficiency in
greed and mistakes we are making. There using natural resources by mimicking
is no God that is coming out of any biology. Timeline will continue to look
heaven to do anything for anybody. We for articles describing how our economic
now must be aware of who we are and system could become more life
that we are the ones to do it. enhancing. As theologian John Cobb has
said, we are in the age of "economism,"
Am I hopeful for the future? Yes, when in which the value of anything has
we assume responsibility for who we are become its value only in terms of money.
and--subject to the Mysterium More and more, it is becoming obvious
Tremendum--fulfill our purpose on this must change if we are to survive and
planet Earth. We can then be heirs of flourish as a species.
beauty, truth, and goodness for all.
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The three authors of Natural Capitalism particular those parts of the ecosystem
are well-known in the field of sustainable that support life, that have no substitutes,
economics. Amory and Hunter Lovins' and currently have no market
Rocky Mountain Institute has worked for value--they are worth more than all the
years to encourage market incentives that financial and mechanical capital that is
foster resource efficiency and lessen counted.
pollution. Paul Hawken is perhaps best
known for his seminal work of 1993, The · The primary causes of the loss of
Ecology of Commerce, which linked the natural capital are the traditional way
long-term success of business with the businesses are run, population growth,
use of ecological principles. This current and wasteful patterns of consumption.
collaborative volume is an exposition of All three must be addressed to achieve a
one part of a new "overall biological and sustainable economy.
social framework within which the
transformation of commerce could be · Future economic progress can best take
accomplished and practiced...the idea place in democratic, market-based
that the world economy is shifting from systems of production and distribution in
an emphasis on human productivity to a which all forms of capital are fully
radical increase in resource productivity valued, including human, manufactured,
[using resources much more efficiently]. financial, and natural capital.
This shift would provide more
meaningful family-wage jobs, a better · One of the keys to the most beneficial
worldwide standard of living to those in employment of people, money, and the
need, and a dramatic reduction of environment is using natural resources
humankind's impact upon the much more efficiently--what the authors
environment." call a "radical increase in resource
productivity."
The authors' thesis is that natural
capitalism, which they define as including · Human welfare is best served by
all the things we borrow from the improving the quality and flow of desired
Earth--the energy, the materials, water, services delivered, rather than by merely
the air--forms a basis for this shift. The increasing the total dollar flow.
fundamental assumptions of natural
capitalism--"capitalism as if living · Economic and environmental
systems mattered"--are listed in the sustainability depends on redressing
book as follows: global inequities in income and material
well-being.
· The environment should be thought of
as an envelope which contains · The best long-term environment for
provisions, and sustains the entire commerce is provided by true democratic
economy. systems of governance that are based on
the needs of people rather than the needs
· The limiting factor to future economic of business.
development is the availability and
functionality of natural capital, in
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The authors then lay out the four The bulk of the book is a series of
strategies of natural capitalism which chapters which describe "an array of
would "enable countries, companies, and opportunities and possibilities that are
communities to operate by behaving as if real, practical, measured, and
all forms of capital were valued." They documented. Engineers have already
are the same strategies described in a talk designed hydrogen-fuel-cell powered
by Hunter and Amory Lovins at the cars to be plug-in electric generators that
1998 State of the World Forum, a talk may become the power plants of the
which we included in the January- future. Buildings already exist that make
February 1999 issue of Timeline. In brief, oxygen, solar power, even drinking
the strategies are: water, and can help pay the mortgage
while their tenants work inside them.
1. Radical resource productivity. Deprintable and reprintable papers and
Using resources more efficiently "slows inks, together with other innovative ways
resource depletion, lowers pollution, and to use fiber, could enable the world's
provides a basis to increase worldwide supply of lumber and pulp to be grown in
employment with meaningful jobs." an area about the size of Iowa. Weeds
Technologies already exist, the authors can yield potent pharmaceuticals;
say, to achieve ten-fold or greater cellulose-based (versus petroleum-based)
increases in productivity with no increase plastics have been shown to be strong,
in resource use. reusable, and compostable; and luxurious
carpets can be made from landfilled
2. Biomimickry. Eliminate the very idea scrap. Roofs and windows, even roads,
of waste. Redesign industrial systems can do double duty as solar-electric
along biological lines by reusing materials collectors, and efficient car-free cities are
in continuous closed cycles and, in the being designed so that men and women
process, often eliminating the production no longer spend their days driving to
of toxics. In nature, there are no toxics: obtain the goods and services of daily
everything is food for something else. life."
3. Service and flow economy. Instead These chapters include: reinventing the
of buying items like washing machines, automobile, reducing industrial waste
carpets, VCRs, and refrigerators, we and inputs, redesigning housing,
would lease them. The manufacturer optimizing entire systems rather than
would be responsible to repair, replace, their parts, using fibers more efficiently,
and recycle the product. The product improving food-growing techniques, and
itself then becomes only a means to the using water more wisely. There are
end of providing a service. hundreds of examples, documented by
footnotes, as to how these results are
4. Investing in natural capital. being achieved.
Business can no longer ignore growing
shortages of key components of One particular idea that struck me is
production such as water and other raw changing the tax system from taxing
materials, and will have to invest in ways people (through income and payroll
to conserve and replenish them. taxes) to taxing resource use and
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pollution. Since natural capital is what positive directions. And it is already
we're short of, using and polluting it occurring--because it is necessary,
should be discouraged through taxes on possible, and practical."
such things as carbon emissions, use of
virgin materials, and trash produced.
Governments could do so in a way that Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next
does not increase their overall revenues, Industrial Revolution
but simply changes the source. If people by Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins, and
L. Hunter Lovins
aren't taxed, labor becomes a less costly
Little, Brown and Company, Boston, New
factor of production and will be
York, London, 1999. $26.95
substituted for the now more expensive
natural resources factor. Since there is
vast underemployment and
unemployment in the world, this shift will
help alleviate those problems while also
reducing pollution and the use of
nonrenewable natural resources. In fact,
several European countries are already
moving in this direction.
Americans Serve
This book is a well-documented call to as Guinea Pigs
action for individuals and businesses. As for Gene-Modified Food
the authors conclude: "Away from the
shrill divisiveness of media and politics, By Donella Meadows
people are remarkably consistent in what
kind of future they envision for their News about genetically engineered crops
children and grandchildren. The potential breaks so fast that it's hard to keep up.
outcome of natural capitalism and For those who look upon biotech foods
sustainability also aligns almost perfectly with suspicion, much of the latest news is
with what American voters are saying: surprisingly good. The companies who
they want better schools, a better splice strange genes into our corn and
environment, safer communities, family- potatoes and soybeans are pushing their
wage jobs, more economic security, products so recklessly that they are
stronger family support, lower taxes, alarming not only environmentalists and
more effective governments, and more consumers, but also farmers,
local control. supermarket chains, baby-food makers,
and investors. They are going to have to
"Natural capitalism is not about slow down.
fomenting social upheaval. On the
contrary, that is the consequence that But one bit of news is disturbing. Since
will surely arise if fundamental social and the Europeans and Japanese are refusing
environmental problems are not to eat gene-modified foods, these crops
responsibly addressed. Natural capitalism are now being dumped on the American
is about choices we can make that start market. We can't avoid them. They are
to tip economic and social outcomes in unlabeled. They are in everything from
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potato chips to salad dressings. If gene- Europeans, having heard from their
modified foods cause problems, we will governments that mad cow disease is no
be the first to find out--unless we refuse health threat whatsoever, are not in a
to be guinea pigs. trustful mood. They insist that gene-
modified foods at least be labeled so
First, a quick review of the news. consumers have the option of avoiding
them. Suppliers--such as our own
You've probably heard about the Archer Daniels Midland (ADM),
butterflies. One kind of genetically "supermarket to the world"--said it
engineered corn now makes its own would be impossible to separate out
insecticide, using a gene pasted in it from gene-modified soybeans or corn. So
a bacterium, in order to kill corn ear- Europeans stopped buying any soybeans
worms. It turns out that this corn may and corn, especially if imported from the
also kill butterflies. Pollen from the United States.
biotech corn was scattered onto
milkweed leaves (simulating the corn That snapped European supermarkets to
pollen that blows all over the Midwest attention. Within weeks, they informed
every summer). When monarch ADM and other processors that they
caterpillars ate those leaves, they died. would accept no products containing
gene-modified corn syrup, corn starch,
That happened in a lab, not in nature. No corn meal, soy oil, soy protein, etc.
one knows yet whether it happens in ADM then found it possible, after all, to
nature or happens to other kinds of maintain separate supply lines. The
butterflies or happens to other innocent regular foods now go to Europe. The
creatures that run into the pesticide- gene-modified stuff goes to us.
producing corn. The point is not that
biotech kills butterflies, though it might. Meanwhile, Greenpeace activists began
The point, made by ecologists for years to question Gerber about the gene-
now, is that gene-spliced inventions are modified content of its baby food.
being spread over millions of acres at a Gerber, though it is owned by Novartis,
hectic pace without any idea what their one of the big gene-splicing companies,
effects might be. Unwelcome surprises didn't waste time. It announced not only
are almost inevitable that it would drop suppliers that couldn't
. guarantee unspliced foods, but more than
Among the creatures that eat that that, it would use only organic
pesticide-containing corn (and pesticide- ingredients. Heinz joined in. Another
containing soy products and potatoes) baby-food maker, Healthy Times Natural
are people. The pesticide in question is a Food, switched away from canola oil,
toxin specific to insect larvae; it probably canola being another crop that is
doesn't hurt us, or so our government commonly gene-modified and not
and several European governments have separated or labeled.
declared. Whether you believe them
depends on how much you're inclined to Now analysts from Wall Street to
trust your government. Deutsche Bank are declaring genetic
engineering to be a risky investment.
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Farmers who planted expensive gene- other bystanders as well as people),
modified seed last spring are watching with what labels, and with what
the prices of their crops go down. A new regulations about people being
report of the British Economic and treated--without their knowledge, much
Social Research Council chastises its less their consent--as test animals.
government for mindlessly promoting
gene-modified foods and says, "If Donella H. Meadows, a systems analyst,
anything, the public are ahead of many author, director of the Sustainability
scientists and policy advisers in their Institute, and adjunct professor of
instinctive feeling for a need to act in a environmental studies at Dartmouth
precautionary way." College, writes a syndicated article each
week to "present a global view, a connected
view, a long-term view, an environmental
So, with no warning or labeling, much
and compassionate view." Meadows can be
less fanfare, gene-modified foods are reached at Sustainablilty Institute, Box 174,
being channeled to Americans. (Except Hartland Four Corners, VT 05049.
babies.) Common wisdom in the business
is that Americans don't care whether
their food is genetically manipulated.
I suspect the next surprise will be the dis-
proof of that common wisdom. The anti-
gene-modified activists, fresh from
victories in Europe, know how to strike The Nuclear Threat Is Now
nerves. They've already cleansed the Greater Than Ever
baby food. Next, if they're smart, they'll
organize school kids to boycott The following is reprinted from a letter
McDonald's and Frito-Lay until the written by former senator Dale Bumpers,
pesticide-producing genes are removed now director of the Center for Defense
from the fries and chips. Information (CDI), a group of retired
generals, admirals, and other high-level
Meanwhile, if you want to be a creative military officers in Washington, D.C.
irritant, just ask every time you buy a
product or order a meal containing We have just witnessed what may be the
potatoes, corn, canola, or soy, "Is there biggest U.S. foreign and military policy
anything genetically modified in here?" If disaster in modern times: Congress'
you want to play it absolutely safe, buy resounding rejection of the
certified organics. Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty
(CTBT). Today, the world is much less
Only consumer caution or consumer safe than it was.
outrage will slow down the gene splicers
to the point where we can all have a Congress has surrendered America's
careful, rational, democratic discussion moral authority and our leadership on
about who puts what in our foods, for nuclear arms issues, effectively saying to
what purposes, with what tests and every nation on Earth, "Nukes are
proofs of safety (safety for butterflies and important to us and they should be to
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you, too." India, Pakistan, China, and Ask yourself this question: How would
Russia have all, in the past, said they the U.S. respond if the Russians
would ratify the CTBT when the U.S. announced they were building a missile
did. Now, they are free to modernize; defense system, had just succeeded in
proliferation will surely follow. their first intercept, and then two weeks
later rejected the CTBT?
The arguments against the Treaty were
partisan and pitiful. Opponents said the The U.S. has about 6,500 strategic
Treaty was not verifiable, which is warheads, and the Russians 7,000. About
untrue. The Treaty itself provides for 337 3,000 of theirs and 2,500 of ours are on
worldwide monitoring stations. They said "hair trigger" alert, ready to fire at a
it wasn't perfect, and that's true, as with moment's notice. It is sheer madness. It
every treaty we ever ratified. The CTBT would take only 24 hours to de-alert
is the first major treaty to be defeated every one of these weapons, and CDI has
since the Versailles Treaty in 1920, and joined others in pleading with the
we will pay a heavy price. President to engage the Russians on this
urgent matter.
One of the most dangerous assumptions
in America today is that the end of the New Massive Increases
Cold War greatly diminished the threat of for the Pentagon
nuclear war. That's not only dangerous,
it's dead wrong. As Russia's Military spending for FY2000 jumped
conventional forces have declined in $20 billion over last year and will soar by
quantity and quality, she has become $133 billion over the next six years--
more reliant on her nuclear forces. Yet without a credible threat in sight.
Russia's Early Warning System is Now everyone, including the Department
woefully inadequate and subject to fake of Defense, may get a 1 percent funding
warnings. It stretches credulity to believe cut. Incredibly, the Pentagon says this 1
we can have over 15,000 strategic percent cut would jeopardize national
warheads in the hands of seven nations defense. Incidentally, the military got
and not ultimately see them used. their $20 billion increase first, leaving
everyone else to fend for themselves.
The nuclear danger from the CTBT
debacle is heightened by the U.S. drive to The massive spending on the military has
deploy a National Missile Defense. no rationale whatever. No new threat, no
Moscow has announced in clear and foreseen threat. We believe the
unmistakable terms that if the U.S. expenditures planned for attack
deploys such a system, Russia will have submarines ($63 billion), for 3,800 new
no choice but to modernize and change fighter planes ($350-450 billion), for 600
its nuclear targets to include our missile Osprey tilt rotor aircraft and other
defense sites. They correctly say that weapons are excessively costly and
overwhelming our missile defense system totally unnecessary.
will be much simpler and cheaper than
trying to build their own. Here are the results of years of making
everyone else fend for themselves:
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Toward a Resilient Society:
1. We rank 19th in education among the
top 29 industrialized nations;
Thoughts of Robert Theobald
2. 28,000,000 Americans can't identify
the U.S. on a world map;
Robert Theobald's passion was working
with groups and organizations which
3. 140,000 youngsters eligible for Head recognize that directions, priorities, and
Start won't get a head start for lack of goals have to change as society moves into
money; the next millennium. He wrote and edited
some 25 books on futurism, economics,
4. Over 100,000 aliens are being invited fundamental change, and other related
to accept U.S. citizenship if they possess issues. Last September, Theobald addressed
high-tech skills, because we're not an audience at the Foundation for Global
educating enough people to fill these Community's center in Palo Alto, as part of
jobs; our continuing speaker series. He spoke
about some of the problems the world faces
5. U.S. teachers' salaries are the lowest today, and posed some solutions.
as a percentage of national income of any
nation on Earth. Following his talk to the Foundation, he
traveled to Australia for a series of lectures.
But the cancer that had been in remission
You and I have a solemn duty to do flared anew and he returned to his home in
everything in our power to change our Spokane, Washington, where he died on
priorities. There are some 30 ethnic and November 27, 1999. He was 70 years old.
religious wars going on in the world, We feel fortunate to have shared his energy
each a result of ignorance and poverty. and inspiration during the last months of his
As we become a more diverse society, life.
we must do everything possible to
dramatically improve the education, Theobald began by noting that we live in
health, and economic well-being of our a world which is overcrowded, complex,
people. When only 36 percent of our and interconnected, and the globalization
people care enough to vote, our we experience today will not go away.
democracy is threatened. What kind of Further, because much of what happens
nation neglects everything but weaponry? will not reflect a Newtonian universe but
will be governed by the laws of chaos
and complexity, "We can no longer deal,
as we did in the 20th century, with laws
of cause and effect. We have to look at
how things evolve in a chaos and
complexity world, which means you
really don't know what will be the impact
of what you do. One of the most
extraordinary things in my life is to find
out that the things I thought were
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important were not, and things I thought What strategies should we use in these
weren't important were." new times? Theobald first commented on
oppositional strategies. "They're useful,"
Also new, he said, is that humanity is he said, "if they lead us to look at what
part of the evolutionary process and, he has to change. However, if they simply
warned, "If we continue to assume that keep alive the old categories, if they
we can over-rule ecology, ecology will simply keep alive the old patterns, if they
come back and kick us in the teeth. We simply say I am against the multinational
need to re-learn the lesson that hunters corporation, I am against whatever, all
and gatherers knew about living within they do is lock us into the models in
the ecological web." which we currently think. As Einstein
observed, you can't solve problems with
Theobald noted that we are at the end of the same consciousness that created
the dominator model. "We cannot live by them. The real issue is can you come up
coercive power. We cannot live by with a new consciousness.
saying you will do what I tell you. That's
how we've been living since we moved "For example, the abortion debate is
out of hunting and gathering into ridiculous. The issue is not what do you
agriculture and we developed priests and do with a fetus. The issue is why do you
kings who had the right to say, `You will have a fetus there in the first place? We
do it my way or you are in trouble.' We ought to be talking about how you limit
have moved into a world where we have the number of unwanted pregnancies.
to live in partnership models." Another example is that we treat illegal
drugs, cigarettes, and alcohol in totally
Our institutions no longer work, he said, different ways. Yet they are all the same
because at the fundamental level, they are basic issue. We're not prepared to have
dominator institutions. "It doesn't matter the debate: What do you do with
whether you are thinking about the substances that are potentially or actually
university or the city council or the damaging? We treat each one on its own
national government. They all say, `We merits rather than opening it up and
know what you should do.' They all saying, `How do we look at this as a
come out of an expertise and large issue?'
professional model. Expert and
professional models don't work "Another question is how do we develop
anymore. Our institutions also come out new images and language. The first story
of a divided model. They come out of a was hunting and gathering, the second
model that says you can split reality. For story was agriculture, the third story was
example, in the government you can talk industry, the fourth story is whatever one
about the economic department, and you we're moving into. It needs new
can talk about the social department, and language, new images, new models.
you can talk about overseas and There are at least a hundred good books
domestic matters without recognizing about transformational change. But we
that they're all tied together." all use our own language and much of
that language is too complex, too
difficult, for the average person to get."
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the world. You've probably all seen the
One approach Theobald emphasized is statistics: three billionaires in the United
listening. "When I talk to somebody I States have more money than 48 nation
haven't met before, I try and listen to states. Ten billionaires could deal with
them until I can say, `I agree with you.' the major primary problems in the
If I do that, I find that I can agree with developing countries and not notice. The
an extraordinarily broad range of people: latest United Nations report talking
business, churches, environmentalists, about the wealth uses the word
educators. But I have to listen first." `grotesque,' and I think it's the only
Instead of listening, Theobald said, we possible word. You can't live like this.
define people as good guys or bad guys, It's not only a moral question, it's a
and "go oppositional. We say we won't practical thing. It won't work, period.
work with business, we won't work with People who think they can live in gated
multinationals. One way to look at a communities away from the poor for an
multinational corporation is that it's a lot unlimited period of time are kidding
of individuals trying to make good themselves."
decisions. You can either believe that
people are evil or you can believe that As for ecological integrity, a term
they are stupid. I am a great believer in Theobald preferred to "sustainability,"
the stupidity model. I believe that very he said simply that "without ecological
few people get up in the morning integrity, we won't be here."
wanting to make the world worse. Think
about it: most people believe they're Theobald also had as a priority what he
doing the best they can. Many people called "effective decision making.
have extra-ordinarily little space to be It's the one we miss all the time because
creative. We can help them find space." our culture is not designed to deal with
complex, long-run decisions. I'd like to
Theobald said our first priority is to put say you can do it with adversarial
quality of life over material goods. government, but I don't think so. I think
People work much longer than they used you're going to have to come up with a
to or they should, he believes; they're totally different form of government. We
stressed out and would eagerly accept have to move beyond democracy in that
shorter work hours even if it meant fewer sense, because democracy is simply
things to own. To work so hard, he said, coercive power at a different level. What
"doesn't make sense at an individual we did is replace the power of kings with
level; it doesn't even make sense at an the power of the state. Sort of mediated
institutional level because the best way to a little bit, occasionally and not very
turn a knowledge worker into an effectively, by elections. But the bigger
information worker is to overload them. the system gets the less effective the
What we need is creative work." mediation is. If we are going to make
decisions about global warming, about
Another item we have to deal with, he new diseases, about what you do with
said, is the growing gap between the rich East Timor and Kosovo and Africa,
and the poor. "It's totally extraordinary about water shortages, we need a
and perhaps the most frightening trend in
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different pattern of decision-making than If you're baffled, frustrated, and angry,
we have now. what do you do with it? You don't
know. So one of my lines these days is
"Finally I don't think anything can be `Dream no small dreams.' You've got to
done about any of this without an have something big enough to inspire
effective value base. You can call it people: `Hey, that might make a
religion, or spirituality, or you can call it difference!'"
system theory--they all come out in the
same place. And they all make it In addressing how to spread the word,
perfectly clear that without honesty, Theobald saw the need for the people
responsibility, humility, love, and respect most involved to talk to each other
for mystery, societies don't work." instead of just doing their own thing,
Theobald then addressed the need for creating places where people can come
new behaviors. "First of all, each one of and learn about what he called "21st
us needs to keep ourselves together in century living," and letting media know
the turbulence of our times. It may be that we want fewer stories about rapes
spiritual. It may be going out into nature. and murders and more about what's
It may be working with a healing group. working in our societies. He emphasized
You've got to take time for yourselves, the importance of writing our politicians,
because you can't do good work unless a practice he felt we have largely
you are together." Next, he said, to abandoned because we think politicians
change the culture, we need to move have become irrelevant. And he
beyond ourselves, figure out how to suggested that instead of writing negative
work with groups, how to educate, how letters, which we're good at, we should
to move from a job model to a right all vow to write a positive letter to
livelihood model, how to move from a somebody once a week: "All of us doing
medical model to a health model, how to this work find it very nerve-racking, very
move from coercive action to mediation, tough. And it's nice to hear somebody
how to move from a world which write you or call you and say, `Hey, I
encourages consumption to a world really like the stand you took,' or `I
which reduces consumption by reducing thought it was important.' It's not easy
hours of work. work. We all need strokes."
"Unless we operate at that level, and Theobald then talked about leadership
unless we can as groups begin to show and authority. There are three models of
people in this culture that the work we authority, he said. "One model is top
are doing is not marginal or crazy, but down. Everybody says we've given up
we are indeed the wave of the future, on that. Did we? Nooo. We're good at
people will continue to say, `Well, I'm disguising top-down authority. But it
not happy with what's going on, but eat, goes on. It's just done in different ways,
drink and be merry, for tomorrow we ways which are more annoying, more
shall die.' Many people say that people in difficult to deal with, more frustrating.
this culture are apathetic. I don't believe We will consult you but, strangely, we
it. People are baffled, frustrated, and will end up where we were meant to at
angry. Now it looks like the same thing. first, right?
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not going to do any of this. I don't have
"The other model we moved into is any skills.' It's much harder to say, `I
equally bad and that is the flat culture. have the responsibility and I will do the
Everybody is equally competent. So we piece of the puzzle that I can manage.' "
have community meetings. We get a
good turnout at the first one. We argue. Theobald also warned against trying to
And the next time 50 percent of the do everything even though we see so
people come back, and we argue. And many areas that cry out for help. Stay
eventually we get down to a small with what you are passionate about, he
enough group and, either fatigued or advised. "Do what matters to you.
frustrated, we agree on something. Guess Decide what your personal mission is
what happens the next week? Either within this transformational framework
somebody comes back and says, `I have and you will be amazed how much you
rethought this and I'd like to start over.' can accomplish because the system is
Or somebody comes in from outside and ready for change. Margaret Mead said, in
says, `I wasn't consulted. Can we start one of the most quoted lines around:
over?' Flat doesn't work any better than `Never doubt that a small group of
top down. committed people can change the world.
Indeed it is the only thing that ever has.'
"There is a middle ground. It's not easy: It's true. If only we'd believe it."
teams, sapiential authority, servant
leadership, all sorts of processes that
allow us to work in different ways and to
acknowledge where the competence is.
And we have to be adult to do it. It
won't work unless people have the
confidence and the willingness to say, `I
can't do that, I don't know, that's not
my piece of the puzzle.' And perhaps, Ways to Handle Conflict
even more in this culture, `I do know
how to do this and I am willing to do it
and I will lead in this area.' Because true Two Book Reviews
leadership is something we dodge. Top by Mac Lawrence
down leadership is easy. You know, `I'll
be in charge and I get all the bonuses.' When spider webs unite, they can halt
But saying I will do it without taking even a lion.
credit for it is not something we have
enough of in this country. A Jesuit told Or even stop a war before it starts, adds
me a definition of humility. He said, author William Ury to that Ethiopian
`Humility is not only knowing your proverb. Ury's book Getting to Peace
weaknesses, it's knowing your strengths and Harold Saunders' new book
as well and being willing to live with A Public Peace Process shine a welcome
them.' It's an enormously powerful light on how ordinary citizens can be
statement when you think about it. It is effective in resolving conflict in every
so easy to simply say, `I am humble. I'm area where humans interact.
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assure the survival of the tribe or clan.
Getting to Peace: Transforming Hunters needed to work together to hunt
Conflict at Home, at Work, and in successfully. No one owned land that
needed to be defended or had crops to
the World by William L. Ury
hoard. Of course there was plenty of
conflict, Ury says: "As every family
Ury, one of the world's best-known member knows, the more people are
negotiators, director of Harvard's Project dependent on each other, the more
on Preventing War, and author of the potential conflict they face." But they
popular books Getting to Yes and solved their conflicts cooperatively and
Getting Beyond No, is also an fairly in ways probably similar to the
anthropologist. He sees the whole human ways the Bushmen still do today,
race as a tribe endangered by "our human including having an "exit strategy,"
habit of falling into destructive, often where one or both of the parties
deadly conflict whenever a serious physically withdrew from a heated
difference arises between two people, exchange to cool down.
two groups, or two nations." In our
increasingly