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1d The New Story – Overview
and Layout
For some
readers Paradigm Junction an the
possibility of Blue Planet Governance
(BPG) is presented simply as an interesting view of our potential
future – if appropriate changes to the way we govern are implemented very
soon. For some, the envisioned
society might read like science fiction.
However, it is also a call to action for the growing numbers of
individuals who accept that the BAU (Business As Usual) model of
growth-driven geopolitical leads us deeper into ecological disaster. To many cognizant observers The New Story is about the
possibility of developing a viable alternative. How or whether it will ever be
implemented is less important than building the model – now, while we still have a
functioning technological world to support vital energy flows and high
speed communications systems.
Key points
raised in the Synopsis are these:
1: The
Human-Predicament, sometimes referred to as, The Problematique, is the result of excess growth in human
population numbers, and in resource throughput per capita – we note that resource
throughput per capita is distributed very unequally, largely as a result of
monetary inequity. Throughout this
text this twin issue will be referred to as human-activity.
2: Unless
growth in human-activity is reversed very soon we will enter tipping
points, and into irreversible collapse of the world’s life-supporting
ecology: To simply stabilize growth is not enough because gross
human-activity is now far in excess of Earth’s ability to replenish vital
Gaian resources. Some say it is now
too late for recovery: But we must not be dissuaded from preparing to
implement planned solutions as opportunities arise.
3: Because
of an interlocking, self-reinforcing circle of issues, the
human-predicament cannot be changed from within existing corporate
governance. A few basic elements of
the existing corporate/economic/political system, especially the debt-based
money system, must be significantly changed in order to develop a viable
system of dynamic governance capable of regulating and reducing
human-activity in an acceptable fashion. However, only minor changes are
needed for the majority of legal and social structures of today, especially
at the local government level and for most people: However, where the
proposed BDG is implemented, overall human happiness and well-being should
significant improve.
4: All
proposed governance changes in procedures and processes used in the
envisioned world of 050APC (50 years After Paradigm Change) are based on
processes and procedures that have been in use for many decades in other
areas of management: In the BPG Proposal we intend to simply use them
differently – no new inventions needed.
5: The
next stage is to build it. To gather specialist to participate in final
design, and then to document the responsibilities and procedures need for
each department of the envisioned United
Regions (UR). And then to begin
a public relations blitz in a worldwide outreach.
No problem can be
solved by the same consciousness that created it. We need to see the world
anew.
--
Albert Einstein --
You never change
things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new
model that makes the existing model obsolete.
--
Buckminster Fuller --
If the world is
saved, it will be saved by people with changed minds, people with a new
vision. It will not be saved by people with the old vision but new
programs.
--
Daniel Quinn, The Story of B--
..... but also this
....
To every complex
question there is a simple answer: and it is wrong…
--
H.L. Mencken --
The
header of each chapter will open with the Blue Planet Governance (BPG).
As with any human engineering
or social project, there needs to be identifiable steps leading toward the
long term a goal. However, the
process must remain open for changes as dictated by opportunity and the
volatility of world affairs.
The
first stage of development is for the BPIT (Blue Planet Integration Team) To
design the framework of an organization called the United Regions (UR). The
envisioned UR would be created by the many Regional governments of the
world collectively establish the United
Regions organization. This
organization will be designed to assess:
-
The well-being of the whole world’s ecological systems;
-
The well-being of the ecological systems of each region individually;
-
The status of both renewable and non-renewable resources such as minerals
and energy;
-
The well-being of humans such as a measure of general health and happiness;
-
The well-being of
The
chapters of Paradigm Junction
second four of can act as initial design template for discussions.
The
difficulty of conveying full meaning across the diverse specialty areas of
knowledge was stated by the renowned cosmologist Carl Sagan who wrote:
We live in a society absolutely dependent on
science and technology and yet have cleverly arranged things so that almost
no one understands science and technology.
That’s clearly a prescription for disaster!
While
Sagan’s quote refers only to science and technology, the same applies to
most specialty areas including: the creation of money; the inner world of
economics; dynamic systems, or the inner elements of human-nature such as
denial, apathy self-interest, short-term thinking, altruism, etc., energy
issues or global warming. Perhaps
the best approach for this issue is to use a form of Dialogic Design Science (DDS) developed by The
Institute for 21st Century
Agoras.
Professor
Lester Malbrath provided early inspiration for this project in his 1989
book titled: Envisioning a
Sustainable Society. His closing
paragraph
Our common
journey promises to be challenging and exciting even though
difficult. It will be much easier and more likely successful if we
face it optimistically with a deep understanding of the pace and character
of social transformation. Those given the gift of understanding will
become the conscious mind of the biocommunity, a global mind, that will
guide and hasten the transformation. Those who understand what is
happening to our world are not free to shrink from this responsibility.
Below is a list of sections of PJ
in the order they are posted (or printed) along with a brief comment on
their content and purpose. Since many
readers will likely be quite familiar with some of the areas discussed, but
not so much with others, readers are encouraged to pick and choose which
section to read first, or perhaps browse for overview and move on.
The
internet version of this manual is posted in pdf format which works
somewhat like the html format of normal web pages. Pdf is more suitable for this document
for a variety of reasons including being print-ready.
Note 1: Web addresses are case
sensitive.
Section One:
1a: Index http://gaiapc.ca/PJ/BPG/1a-Index.htm
Index: The
index lists the chapter titles with a link to that chapter’s web address in
the gaia.cs/PJ/folder name.
Revision Control: This page maintains the chapter revision record,
as needed in a living document to keep track of revision change and date.
This is a Quality Assurance system requirement.
1b: Glossary
of Terms:
Since this manual delves into a
wide variety of subject areas there may be a few expressions that are
unfamiliar to some readers. When these are used within the chapter text,
further definition can be found in the Glossary as noted by the
bracketed. The listing is in
alphabetical order. Readers are encouraged
to brows the glossary before getting into the main text.
1c: Synopsis:
There is a summary of Synopsis at the top of this chapter.
1d: The New Story You are here.
1e: Bio Of The Writer Some readers may be interested in the
career experiences that contributed to the development of the Paradigm Junction Project
concept.
2a: Triad of Human Interests: The
opening graphic illustrated the big picture, the energy flows that bring
Gaia to life along with a thumbnail description of James Lovelock’s Gaia
hypothesis. The bottom left corner of the triangle deals with human nature
and characteristics that sometimes cause us to act against our best
interest. Bottom right deals with
the tools, the abstract-realities (GL), that
are human mental creations such as governments, or their founding
constitutions, religions, banks, hospitals or sports teams etc. There is an explanation that we sometimes
fall into the trap of being guided by these tools long after they have
become obsolete – but they have become a belief system that has addictive
characteristics. We collectively seem to forget these abstract-realities
are just tools that we have created to perform a task. Throughout the text of PJ, these Abstract Realities.
2b: Dynamic
Systems: http://gaiapc.ca/PJ/BPG/2b-DynamicSystems.htm
A
basic understanding of dynamic systems, sometimes called cybernetics, is
essential to understand details of the processes involved in the envisioned
sustainable society in Section Four. This section hopes to take any mystery
out of dynamics because the concepts are simple and we all use one or
another form of dynamic system every day.
As explained above, Blue Planet
Governance – BPG, is a form of dynamic system.
3a: Paradigm Flaws - Money Corporations Politics (MCP):
Each
of these: Money, Corporations, Politics, are human
created Abstract Realities that define today’s paradigm. In today’s world
they are in such dire need of a major change in guiding principles that
they have become toxic as today’s primary tools driving toward infinite
growth in human-activity. Money needs
to be understood as a key regulator human-activity because it influences many
personal decisions. Control of the
money system is a significant component of the human-predicament. This brief chapter gives a few insights
into why this has happened and the reasons many wise people have tried to
change the monetary system and failed.
For those who find the data hard to believe, the MCP
Appendix
provides greater depth.
3b: Paradigm
Flaws - Other:
While
MCP had its own short section, here we list here a few other categories of
destabilizing issues that we have grown so familiar with that they go
unnoticed, they have become normalized.
Some of these are common phenomena that historically have developed
as a prelude to economic bubble & burst. A huge and growing rich/poor gap is one
example.
4a: Envisioning
A – Those Who Envision:
This
is an introduction to the tool of envisioning, giving examples of people
and organizations using this technique to portray a possible future. Envisioning is some referred to as Post Normal Speculation. In the case of an idea for a revolutionary
new type of aircraft, the designer would sketch an image of what it might
look like. In the case of a relatively revolutionary change to our
social/economic/political structure, the backcast is used to present the
envisioned conditions that might exist 50 years After Paradigm Change, when Blue Planet Governance has become
the norm. The acronym, 050APC is
sometimes used. The Blue Planet Integration Team (BPIT)
will work to gathering hundreds of compatible existing social change
initiatives to gain the synergetic boost of cooperative efforts toward a
common viable goal of Blue Planet
Governance.
4ax: 4ax-Envisoning 050APC Envisioning
– 050APC –
50 Years After Paradigm Change
This chapter is developed from a paper presented at the joint Canadian
Ecological Economics group and the US Ecological Economics group. It describes the trouble-shooter’s
technique of focusing on problems, to avoid wasting time on symptom. Here we focus on many of the useful
corporate management tools that could be used in Blue Planet
Governance. This chapter can also be
seen at : http://www.pelicanweb.org/solisustv11n09page5.html
4b: Envisioning B – Society of 050APC: http://gaiapc.ca/PJ/BPG/4b-DynamicSociety050-APC.htm
Here
we give some details of the social and political scene 50 years after
paradigm change. The chapter starts out with a generic list of goals for
all of humanity, for individuals, and the reasons for the essential levels
of government that individuals chose in order to administer their essential
sociopolitical world. The structures
provide equitable and systemically viable regulation to control
human-activity. Fig. 5 gives a visual
view of hierarchy of governance levels needed to operate this viable global
community. The basic community level
suggested in BDG focuses on localization (highly autonomous regional
governments). The suggested
governing infrastructure is designed to make each region of the world
totally responsible for the well-being of its own ecology, industry,
wealth, and to dynamically groom its human population and per capita
resource throughput accordingly.
Each region will be in cooperative competition with all other
regions of the world, in a chaordic relationship. As pointed out by psychologist Jonathan
Haidt, [Wiki] “The most powerful force ever known on
this planet is human cooperation— a force for construction or destruction”. Fig. 5 is followed by rather brief
overview explanatory dialogue with greater detail provided in the following
chapters.
4c: Envisioning C – UN Wheelhouse: http://gaiapc.ca/PJ/BPG/4c-UR-Wheelhouse.htm
This
chapter opens with Fig. 6 showing future regulatory control from the
divisions within the United Regions as a vastly changed United Nation. Delegates from regions of the world
select those who create the regulatory controls of the UR. This chapter illustrates how these various
UR departments exchange data from the Regions for regulatory controls
designed to ensure that human-activity is guided toward the optimum rate of
needed change, under existing circumstances. The chapter continues with details on how
it all works – including the Bank Of
Gaia. This bank issues Gaia$ and
regulates the world’s money, money flows, and its level in
circulation. Flows and quantity of
Gaia$ are the key tools that regulate human activity. This controlled and transparent monetary
system also prevents corruption, inflation, and other such destabilizing
warts as we see today. The level of
commerce and trade are regulated by economics. Economics 050APC is based on real science
as opposed to its current pseudo name, the
dismal science.
4d: Envisioning D – Looking back at the
junction: http://gaiapc.ca/PJ/BPG/4d-TheViewFrom050APC.htm
Here
the backcast discusses events that had happened shortly before and after
paradigm change. The creation of
$Gaia (Gaia dollars) is discussed, also the emergence of integration of the
new system as it begins to supplant the fragmenting chaos of the old. Since these processes will begin while
human activity is far in excess of a sustainable level, an inherited debt (a temporary loan
against the next generation’s well-being) is incurred. It is needed to
ensure the system has enough $Gaia for system commerce to function during
the transition toward human carrying
capacity
(CC) at some point in the future.
Like a mortgage, the system goal is reached when the mortgage is
paid off – when our ecological
footprint requires less that one planet Earth.
After operating the regulatory systems in manual mode at the beginning,
eventually the dynamic engine begins to automatically determine optimum
regulatory control for each region based on feedback information from
reports on The State of Gaia and The State of Human well-being,
including happiness.
4e: Envisioning E – Dynamic flows: http://gaiapc.ca/PJ/BPG/4e-DynamicFlows.htm
This is a fairly technical
discussion, going into details about the wealth factors that determine the overall wealth of each Region
of the world (at least those Regions that chose to participate in
BPG). In PJ, wealth is as described
by Riane Eisler in The Real Wealth of Nations:
Real wealth is a measurement of a
robust ecology and the general health and happiness of the people.
A
group of factors that represent real
wealth (Wealth Factors WF) form the basis of the commodity-based
monetary system. With this system,
the well-being of Gaia (the state of the world), of humans, and our needed
infrastructure. including corporations and energy flows. Since goods, services and infrastructure
all require energy; money can simply be described as access to energy.
No longer will money be created
from nothing, and yet be still able to give access to our depleting natural
system: This transparent and limited monetary system will correct many
other warts in today’s fiat money system, such as political corruption.
The
concept of per capita dynamics is
explained in conjunction with wealth
factors, providing incentives to Regions to groom their populations to
match their Regions’ total wealth.
Individual and local self-interest becomes a key incentive as a feedback
ingredient.
5a: Are we ready to enact?: http://gaiapc.ca/PJ/BPG/5a-AreWeReadyToEnact.htm
After
a speech by Winston Churchill, this brief ending makes an appeal for
individuals and organizations to support the concept of BDG and for a few
individuals to begin to collectively improve this overall manual and to
select others to begin the work of documenting the needed details of governance
within the new paradigm. Each
department of the UR will need a basic operations document to start
with. And we will see how the future
unfolds. Jonathan Haidt’s TED talk has some ideas about coming together to
deal with the human predicament. https://www.ted.com/talks/jonathan_haidt_how_common_threats_can_make_common_political_ground
5b: Chapter & Verse: http://gaiapc.ca/PJ/BPG/5b-ChapterAndVerse.htm
Here
are a few quotes and poems gathered over the years. When between sections or while ruminating
on this presentation it might be useful to browse some of these wise words.
6a: Appendix – Long Journey into today: http://gaiapc.ca/PJ/BPG/6a-Appendix-OurJouneyIntoToday.htm
This is a short essay that gathers the central message from writers who
have provided glimpses of the nature of past cultures, long before CE
(Common Era). It then moves into
past millennia and how the dominator
culture emerged, leading to today’s conflict between culture, economics
and against Gaia, the source of life.
6b: Appendix – MCP Long: http://gaiapc.ca/PJ/BPG/6b-Appendix-MCP.htm
This
appendix is a supplement to chapter 3a, on Money Corporations Politics.
6c: Graphic of human/Gaia Interactions: http://gaiapc.ca/PJ/BPG/6c-GraphicBeforeAfter.htm
Two
block diagrams show the primary elements of humans and our interactions
with the Gaian systems. Fig. 3 shows
the lines of dynamic control now that leave us in a runaway mode (e.g. when feedback and or regulation
break-down). Fig. 4 shows the same
blocks but after paradigm change when the lines of regulatory control will
now guide human activity toward a viable goal.
<<<<<ó>>>>>
<<<<<ó>>>>>
R1 The
Anarchist, Irving Louis Herewitz,1964
R2
This is the transcript of George Monbiot's
SPERI Annual Lecture, hosted by the
Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Sheffield.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we are witnessing the
death of both the theory and the practice of neoliberal capitalism. This is
the doctrine which holds that the market can resolve almost all social,
economic and political problems. It holds that people are best served, and
their prosperity is best advanced, by the minimum of intervention and
spending by the state. It contends that we can maximise the general social
interest through the pursuit of self-interest.
Snip to the end:
“So you say to me, “Well what do we do instead? You produce these arguments
against trying to save nature by pricing it, by financialisation, by
monetisation. What do you do instead?”
Well,
ladies and gentlemen, it is no mystery. It is the same answer that it has
always been. The same answer that it always will be. The one thing we just
cannot be bothered to get off our bottoms to do, which is the only thing
that works. Mobilisation.
It is
the only thing that has worked, the only thing that can work. Everything
else is a fudge and a substitute and an excuse for not doing that thing
that works. And that applies to attempts to monetise and financialise
nature as much as it does to all the other issues we are failing to tackle.
Thank you.
…. Full text at http://www.theguardian.com/environment/georgemonbiot/2014/jul/24/price-nature-neoliberal-capital-road-ruin
<<<End of section>>>
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