Authentic Business - Articles - A planet is for life

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A planet is for life - not just for Christmas 11/01/2006 Categories: authenticity, sustainability In recent years, humankind’s tolerance to faiths other than our own, generally, is on the up (in spite of what the media are telling us). Our sense of connection with the Universe, the Cosmos, is generally up too. Theories like ‘Gaia’ – once perceived as spiritual – are now widely seen as science. The world is ‘moving on up’! We know about the fundamental interconnectedness of all things, about Karma, about reaping what we sow. We are getting to grips with the nature of the human condition. We are starting to re-discover that what went on before history (pre-history as the censors once renamed it!) may not have been quite as savage, as primitive, as irrelevant, as some would have had us believe. Ancient tribes who worshipped the Earth as their God, and who held all forms of life as sacred, including rock and soil, may have been onto something good! The evolution of human thinking and consciousness – of who we are - and why we are here – is taking a hike. A rather rapid hike upwards. Not quite the age of Aquarius, but generally speaking we are a more ‘grown up’ bunch than we have been for a very long time. Is this down to inspirational leaders like Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela. The Dalai Lama? Yes, I think so. Is it down to stronger, better organised and, crucially, more joined up religions? Yes, I think so. Is it the music we listen to, or the arts? Is it that we are reading better books, or that the Internet has set us free. I don’t know, but I reckon it’s happening! Another possible cause of our evolution accelerating - could just be necessity. The mother of invention. As we free fall through the sky, without parachutes, hurtling towards the cold slab of solid earth that we will hit when the party ends, there is a focussing of minds. There can be very few people alive today who do not, at some level, feel terror at the pace we are gathering towards self-destruction. Population, poverty, water, climate catastrophe. Mass extinctions, including, (predicted by some now in just a handful of lifetimes) our own! Does this near universal unspoken unease and well-concealed anxiety privately focus minds towards co-creating a Turning? Is it a driver of dire evolutionary urgency, to direct us towards understanding how we got in this mess, what we are doing wrong, and what the hell we might be able to do to pull off an amazing ‘loop the loop’ just before we hit ground? And find some form of parachute, so we can make a softer landing. In a global mono-culture of lemmings, sleep-walking towards the abyss, opting to be different is no easy option. Apart from the struggle of going against the tide, there is hostility from those threatened by the odd one’s madness. But excitingly, there is also a small nascent local herd instinct that comes into play. Those immediately around the one mad contra-flow lemming start to perceive a choice. Who to stick with! Then those who stick around them get the same choice. Clusters of awkward loony lemming flocks start to form, in the sea of angry depressed despair. And even more exciting, the remnant of a tiny inner voice that quietly says ‘yes we know we have gone wrong’ becomes more common. (‘Laughs –Dave’s hearing voices!) Thus the world wakes up in the opening weeks of 2006. The changes that need to occur across the world seem almost infinitely unlikely to. And yet simultaneously… It dawns that the human race is almost infinitely unlikely to survive if they don’t. Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy In the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams left us lots of clues behind when he departed us. How we might make it. From the basic but essential ‘Don’t Panic’ to the ‘Infinite Improbability Drive’ (this new energy drive powered all spaceships!) Douglas had a pretty good grip on what would need to be done, during the closing hours of the longest ever (and most destructive) party in the history of the universe as he referred to. In the H2G2 books and others of his, one of the qualities that many of his characters possess, was the ability to look at problems with the certain knowledge that the solution exists – (how could it not!) – its just the case that we haven’t spotted it yet. The perfect solution is there, hiding from us, and we cannot quite see it yet. It was this thinking, I believe, that led two very extraordinary men to create for us a Blueprint for not just survival - but for survival with purpose, dignity, and the prospect of a world that is (not just getting less bad, but) actively restoring itself. By their pursuit of survival, they hit on the clue. The thing that our survival depends on. What we need to ‘get’ and quickly: namely, grasping that equality - not riches - is not some abstract good idea – but that equality is the solution itself. And the only one! Not an end to rich and poor, but the start of an end to the widening of the rich poor divide that is slowly choking us all. Sharing everything, not least the air we breathe. It will soon seem very obvious, that if every individual aspires to be richer than everyone else, the system inevitably crashes! How could it not. If we are only happy with what we have got, until we find someone who has more, we are (all but one person!) patently destined to be unhappy. The blindingly obvious solution. Treating others as we’d like to be treated – as equals! Valuing equality – pursuing equality – honouring equality. Seeing equal shares as a necessary desirable and inevitable aim. Unlearning competition, greed and envy. Learning the Musketeers mantra “all for one, and one for all” Teamwork! I digress, the Blueprint I referred is named ‘Contraction and Convergence’ * It is beautiful, flawless and unique. There is nothing else. The Archbishop of Canterbury has given it his seal of approval in no uncertain terms. I am quite sure that the spiritual leaders of every religion, faith and charity in the world will back it to the hilt - as it unfolds before them as the physical manifestation of compassion and survival for all. * Aubrey Meyer and Mayer Hillman, Contraction and Convergence www.gci.org.uk Hey presto, the planet that we all thought was spiralling downwards, is suddenly a cool place to be. A healing, restorative, purposeful giant HUMAN ENDEAVOUR, like the war years, but with only one enemy – our past selves. And one simple goal: survival: of everyone - and everything – all life. Both we and they depend on everyone and everything believing that. ‘We’, (whoever we may be – plants, Christians, polar bears) are guaranteed to survive. Everyone can buy into that vision, and infinitely improbable or not – it’s the only form of energy drive that’s left. It’s also the most powerful. Let warp speed commence. Dave Hampton The Carbon Coach January 2006 Highly Recommended Reading http://www.pcdf.org/meadows/aol_timewarner.html AOL, Time Warner and the Dalai Lama's Millennium Greeting Ten days into the year 2000, as the media were abuzz with the merger of America Online and Time Warner, the Internet wafted to me the Dalai Lama's millennium address. It's a strange global info-world that brings those two pieces of information to one's attention on the same day. The Dalai Lama remarked that there is nothing special about a new millennium. The ticking over of zeroes doesn't change anything. "If we really want the next millennium to be happier, more peaceful and more harmonious ... , we will have to make the effort to make it so." A planet is for life - not just for Christmas In recent years, humankind’s tolerance to faiths other than our own, generally, is on the up. Our sense of connection with the Universe, the Cosmos, is generally up too. Theories like ‘Gaia’ – once perceived as spiritual – are now widely seen as science. The world is ‘moving on up’! We know about the fundamental interconnectedness of all things, about Karma, about reaping what we sow. We are getting to grips with the nature of the human condition. We are starting to re-discover that what went on before history (pre-history as the censors once renamed it!) may not have been quite as savage, as primitive, as irrelevant, as some would have had us believe. Ancient tribes who worshipped the Earth as their God, and who held all forms of life as sacred, including rock and soil, may have been onto something good! The evolution of human thinking and consciousness – of who we are - and why we are here – is taking a hike. A rather rapid hike upwards. Not quite the age of Aquarius, but generally speaking we are a more ‘grown up’ bunch than we have been for a very long time. Is this down to inspirational leaders like Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela. The Dalai Lama? Yes, I think so. Is it down to stronger, better organised and, crucially, more joined up religions? Yes, I think so. Is it the music we listen to, or the arts? Is it that we are reading better books, or that the Internet has set us free. I don’t know, but I reckon it’s happening! Another possible cause of our evolution accelerating - could just be necessity. The mother of invention. As we free fall through the sky, without parachutes, hurtling towards the cold slab of solid earth that we will hit when the party ends, there is a focussing of minds. There can be very few people alive today who do not, at some level, feel terror at the pace we are gathering towards self-destruction. Population, poverty, water, climate catastrophe. Mass extinctions, including, (predicted by some now in just a handful of lifetimes) our own! Does this near universal unspoken unease and well-concealed anxiety privately focus minds towards co-creating a Turning? Is it a driver of dire evolutionary urgency, to direct us towards understanding how we got in this mess, what we are doing wrong, and what the hell we might be able to do to pull off an amazing ‘loop the loop’ just before we hit ground? And find some form of parachute, so we can make a softer landing. In a global mono-culture of lemmings, sleep-walking towards the abyss, opting to be different is no easy option. Apart from the struggle of going against the tide, there is hostility from those threatened by the odd one’s madness. But excitingly, there is also a small nascent local herd instinct that comes into play. Those immediately around the one mad contra-flow lemming start to perceive a choice. Who to stick with! Then those who stick around them get the same choice. Clusters of awkward loony lemming flocks start to form, in the sea of angry depressed despair. And even more exciting, the remnant of a tiny inner voice that quietly says ‘yes we know we have gone wrong’ becomes more common. (‘Laughs –Dave’s hearing voices!) Thus the world wakes up in the opening weeks of 2006. The changes that need to occur across the world seem almost infinitely unlikely to. And yet simultaneously… It dawns that the human race is almost infinitely unlikely to survive if they don’t. Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy In the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams left us lots of clues behind when he departed us. How we might make it. From the basic but essential ‘Don’t Panic’ to the ‘Infinite Improbability Drive’ (this new energy drive powered all spaceships!) Douglas had a pretty good grip on what would need to be done, during the closing hours of the longest ever (and most destructive) party in the history of the universe as he referred to. In the H2G2 books and others of his, one of the qualities that many of his characters possess, was the ability to look at problems with the certain knowledge that the solution exists – (how could it not!) – its just the case that we haven’t spotted it yet. The perfect solution is there, hiding from us, and we cannot quite see it yet. It was this thinking, I believe, that led two very extraordinary men to create for us a Blueprint for not just survival - but for survival with purpose, dignity, and the prospect of a world that is (not just getting less bad, but) actively restoring itself. By their pursuit of survival, they hit on the clue. The thing that our survival depends on. What we need to ‘get’ and quickly: namely, grasping that equality - not riches - is not some abstract good idea – but that equality is the solution itself. And the only one! Not an end to rich and poor, but the start of an end to the widening of the rich poor divide that is slowly choking us all. Sharing everything, not least the air we breathe. It will soon seem very obvious, that if every individual aspires to be richer than everyone else, the system inevitably crashes! How could it not. If we are only happy with what we have got, until we find someone who has more, we are (all but one person!) patently destined to be unhappy. The blindingly obvious solution. Treating others as we’d like to be treated – as equals! Valuing equality – pursuing equality – honouring equality. Seeing equal shares as a necessary desirable and inevitable aim. Unlearning competition, greed and envy. Learning the Musketeers mantra “all for one, and one for all” Teamwork! I digress, the Blueprint I referred is named ‘Contraction and Convergence’ * It is beautiful, flawless and unique. There is nothing else. The Archbishop of Canterbury has given it his seal of approval in no uncertain terms. I am quite sure that the spiritual leaders of every religion, faith and charity in the world will back it to the hilt - as it unfolds before them as the physical manifestation of compassion and survival for all. * Aubrey Meyer and Mayer Hillman, Contraction and Convergence www.gci.org.uk Hey presto, the planet that we all thought was spiralling downwards, is suddenly a cool place to be. A healing, restorative, purposeful giant HUMAN ENDEAVOUR, like the war years, but with only one enemy – our past selves. And one simple goal: survival: of everyone - and everything – all life. Both we and they depend on everyone and everything believing that. ‘We’, (whoever we may be – plants, Christians, polar bears) are guaranteed to survive. Everyone can buy into that vision, and infinitely improbable or not – it’s the only form of energy drive that’s left. It’s also the most powerful. Let warp speed commence. Dave Hampton The Carbon Coach January 2006 Highly Recommended Reading http://www.pcdf.org/meadows/aol_timewarner.htm AOL, Time Warner and the Dalai Lama's Millennium Greeting Ten days into the year 2000, as the media were abuzz with the merger of America Online and Time Warner, the Internet wafted to me the Dalai Lama's millennium address. It's a strange global info-world that brings those two pieces of information to one's attention on the same day. The Dalai Lama remarked that there is nothing special about a new millennium. The ticking over of zeroes doesn't change anything. "If we really want the next millennium to be happier, more peaceful and more harmonious ... , we will have to make the effort to make it so." Source: Carbon Coach

We know about the fundamental interconnectedness of all things, about Karma, about reaping what we sow. We are getting to grips with the nature of the human condition. We are starting to re-discover that what went on before history (pre-history as the censors once renamed it!) may not have been quite as savage, as primitive, as irrelevant, as some would have had us believe. Ancient tribes who worshipped the Earth as their God, and who held all forms of life as sacred, including rock and soil, may have been onto something good!

The evolution of human thinking and consciousness – of who we are - and why we are here – is taking a hike. A rather rapid hike upwards. Not quite the age of Aquarius, but generally speaking we are a more ‘grown up’ bunch than we have been for a very long time. Is this down to inspirational leaders like Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela. The Dalai Lama? Yes, I think so. Is it down to stronger, better organised and, crucially, more joined up religions? Yes, I think so. Is it the music we listen to, or the arts? Is it that we are reading better books, or that the Internet has set us free. I don’t know, but I reckon it’s happening!

Another possible cause of our evolution accelerating - could just be necessity. The mother of invention. As we free fall through the sky, without parachutes, hurtling towards the cold slab of solid earth that we will hit when the party ends, there is a focussing of minds. There can be very few people alive today who do not, at some level, feel terror at the pace we are gathering towards self-destruction. Population, poverty, water, climate catastrophe. Mass extinctions, including, (predicted by some now in just a handful of lifetimes) our own!

Does this near universal unspoken unease and well-concealed anxiety privately focus minds towards co-creating a Turning? Is it a driver of dire evolutionary urgency, to direct us towards understanding how we got in this mess, what we are doing wrong, and what the hell we might be able to do to pull off an amazing ‘loop the loop’ just before we hit ground? And find some form of parachute, so we can make a softer landing.

In a global mono-culture of lemmings, sleep-walking towards the abyss, opting to be different is no easy option. Apart from the struggle of going against the tide, there is hostility from those threatened by the odd one’s madness. But excitingly, there is also a small nascent local herd instinct that comes into play. Those immediately around the one mad contra-flow lemming start to perceive a choice. Who to stick with! Then those who stick around them get the same choice. Clusters of awkward loony lemming flocks start to form, in the sea of angry depressed despair. And even more exciting, the remnant of a tiny inner voice that quietly says ‘yes we know we have gone wrong’ becomes more common. (‘Laughs –Dave’s hearing voices!)

Thus the world wakes up in the opening weeks of 2006.

The changes that need to occur across the world seem almost infinitely unlikely to.

And yet simultaneously…

It dawns that the human race is almost infinitely unlikely to survive if they don’t.

Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

In the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams left us lots of clues behind when he departed us. How we might make it.

From the basic but essential ‘Don’t Panic’ to the ‘Infinite Improbability Drive’ (this new energy drive powered all spaceships!) Douglas had a pretty good grip on what would need to be done, during the closing hours of the longest ever (and most destructive) party in the history of the universe as he referred to.

In the H2G2 books and others of his, one of the qualities that many of his characters possess, was the ability to look at problems with the certain knowledge that the solution exists – (how could it not!) – its just the case that we haven’t spotted it yet.

The perfect solution is there, hiding from us, and we cannot quite see it yet.

It was this thinking, I believe, that led two very extraordinary men to create for us a Blueprint for not just survival - but for survival with purpose, dignity, and the prospect of a world that is (not just getting less bad, but) actively restoring itself.

By their pursuit of survival, they hit on the clue. The thing that our survival depends on. What we need to ‘get’ and quickly: namely, grasping that equality - not riches - is not some abstract good idea – but that equality is the solution itself. And the only one! Not an end to rich and poor, but the start of an end to the widening of the rich poor divide that is slowly choking us all. Sharing everything, not least the air we breathe.

It will soon seem very obvious, that if every individual aspires to be richer than everyone else, the system inevitably crashes! How could it not. If we are only happy with what we have got, until we find someone who has more, we are (all but one person!) patently destined to be unhappy. The blindingly obvious solution. Treating others as we’d like to be treated – as equals! Valuing equality – pursuing equality – honouring equality. Seeing equal shares as a necessary desirable and inevitable aim. Unlearning competition, greed and envy. Learning the Musketeers mantra “all for one, and one for all” Teamwork!

I digress, the Blueprint I referred is named ‘Contraction and Convergence’ *

It is beautiful, flawless and unique. There is nothing else. The Archbishop of Canterbury has given it his seal of approval in no uncertain terms. I am quite sure that the spiritual leaders of every religion, faith and charity in the world will back it to the hilt - as it unfolds before them as the physical manifestation of compassion and survival for all.

* Aubrey Meyer and Mayer Hillman, Contraction and Convergence www.gci.org.uk

Hey presto, the planet that we all thought was spiralling downwards, is suddenly a cool place to be. A healing, restorative, purposeful giant HUMAN ENDEAVOUR, like the war years, but with only one enemy – our past selves. And one simple goal: survival: of everyone - and everything – all life.

Both we and they depend on everyone and everything believing that.

‘We’, (whoever we may be – plants, Christians, polar bears) are guaranteed to survive. Everyone can buy into that vision, and infinitely improbable or not – it’s the only form of energy drive that’s left.

It’s also the most powerful.

Let warp speed commence.

Dave Hampton

The Carbon Coach

January 2006

Highly Recommended Reading

http://www.pcdf.org/meadows/aol_timewarner.html

AOL, Time Warner and the Dalai Lama's Millennium Greeting

Ten days into the year 2000, as the media were abuzz with the merger of America Online and Time Warner, the Internet wafted to me the Dalai Lama's millennium address. It's a strange global info-world that brings those two pieces of information to one's attention on the same day.

The Dalai Lama remarked that there is nothing special about a new millennium. The ticking over of zeroes doesn't change anything. "If we really want the next millennium to be happier, more peaceful and more harmonious ... , we will have to make the effort to make it so."

A planet is for life - not just for Christmas

In recent years, humankind’s tolerance to faiths other than our own, generally, is on the up. Our sense of connection with the Universe, the Cosmos, is generally up too. Theories like ‘Gaia’ – once perceived as spiritual – are now widely seen as science. The world is ‘moving on up’!