IntegralJournal

The Last Human?

From the Afterword (by Meave Leakey) to the highly recommended The Last Human: A Guide to Twenty-Two Species of Extinct Humans:

...We can see the world from outer space, and appreciate that we are all confined to one small planet, dependent on its resources for our survival.  We can measure our population numbers and calculate that we now number over 6.5 billion individuals and that this number is increasing every minute.  In a single generation, we have watched the volume of water, a vital resource, in many wells, boreholes, reservoirs, and rivers decrease dramatically; some of the largest rivers in the world now no longer flow to the sea.  We can measure the acreage of forests that are destroyed daily, and we know that forest cover is disappearing at an unprecedented rate.  We can see that we are irreversibly changing our planet and destroying the very systems that support us.  And we can predict the course of these adverse trends and understand the urgency of taking actions to secure our future.  Because of our increased numbers and wasteful utilization of resources, our activities are threatening the survival of our species and that of many others as never before.

Because we are intelligent, we know these things, and because we are intelligent, we have the ability to do something about it. We are unique in that we can plan for the future.  We can educate our children, and they their children, to appreciate the urgency and necessity of taking serious action to stop the destruction of our planet.  Through education and population control, these trends can be reversed.  Inevitably, many millions of years from now, the Sun will become too hot for any life to survive on Earth, but for now we certainly have the ability to extend our brief tenure on this planet from one of the shortest to one of the longest.

This book puts humanity into perspective in time, in space, and as just one of millions of species that have inhabited Earth over the last 3.5 billion years.  It has taken 6 to 7 million years for Homo sapiens to evolve from a common ancestor of modern apes to ourselves, and we have existed as a species for just 200,000 years.  The success of a species can be measured from several different angles.  In terms of population numbers, we are undoubtedly successful, and increasingly so.  In the last fifty years, our population numbers have increased exponentially from 2.5 billion to 6.5 billion.  In terms of technological development, no other species has ever reached out level.  We can probe outer space, penetrate the depths of the oceans, and accomplish undreamt of calculations through increasingly sophisticated computers.  But in terms of longevity of our species, only time will tell.  We are newcomers to this planet.  From an evolutionary perspective, 200,000 years is just a blip, which raises the key question: Is our unique combination of adaptations, and most particularly our enlarged brain, a successful adaptive strategy in terms of the long-term survival of our species?  Or will Homo sapiens, the only surviving species of a diverse evolutionary past, be a short-lived phenomenon that appeared and disappeared in a few hundred thousand years, inhabiting the planet for less time than the majority of our ancestors portrayed in this book?

On a related tangent, I just came across this:

Education is not a preparation for life. Education is life itself. (John Dewey)

at one of Guy McPherson's web pages.  A recent McPherson post can be found here.  I found his description of the heartland to be acerbically refreshing. 

IntegralJournal Summary

Periodically I attempt to summarize the contents of this blog.  Since there has been some recent interest in the concept developed at the blog, perhaps it is a good time to explain how I got to this point.  This may help readers to better understand the concept.

In the early 90's I became concerned with the sprawling development that was occurring in Boise, Idaho.  I formed a non-profit group that attempted to educate the public on alternatives to sprawl -- namely New Urbanism aka Traditional Neighborhood Development.  I continued to be an advocate for New Urbanism through 1998 and used my position as an institutional real estate investment manager to promote the same.  However, I came to realize that the issue of sustainability involved much more than shifting from suburbia to urbia.  Exposure to books like Limits to Growth and follow-up books caused me to realize that substantial changes had to be made in order to pull out of Overshoot.  Indeed, we have to come up with a system that cuts our energy and resource use by as much as 90%.

It soon became clear that we had to have a massive shift upward in personal development in order to correct our course.  The best guide to understanding personal development that I found was Spiral Dynamics.  Over time I came to realize that it is essential to drop the ego and understand non-duality -- a position that is consistent with science.   While saints and sages associated with all of the major religions throughout the last 2500 years have recognized that this is the way to enlightenment, it has not been introduced in a comprehensive way to a majority of the population.

I also came to realize that our education systems encourage us to be specialists who consequently do not understand the entire system.  This has caused us to be complacent about our predicament.  My conclusion with respect to religion and education is that we have to begin to educate young people as early as the age of eight in how to think rationally and how to think in terms of systems.

Lastly, I have come to the conclusion that credit is the source of most of our problems.  It has literally encouraged us to borrow against the future.  While groups like the Peterson Institute have done a good job of attempting to educate the public with respect to the federal deficit, they have not put forth a comprehensive vision of how we need to transition to a credit-free society.

Whether the label was club, university, or bank, the general theme of the blog has been that we have to learn and live in a completely different way from that which got us to this point.  The theme has also been that the for-profit/non-profit system that currently dominates all that we do is not working.

And now to the concept of MindfulWorldBank.org.  Essentially, we need to expand capitalism to everyone -- not just the top 5% or so.  MindfulWorldBank would own high-quality assets and depositors would own the bank.  Rather than paying a landlord, residents would deposit funds in an account at MindfulWorldBank; thereby building equity rather than throwing money away.  Administration would be handled by volunteers, rather than by executives/bureaucrats.  Eventually, the entire MWB infrastructure would look something similar to a health spa with paths rather than streets.  Cars might still be in our future but would not dominate the landscape and our lives as they do today.  Rather than sit behind desks and in front of computers, we could all be gardeners, gourmet chefs, bicycle mechanics, yoga instructors, or be occupied by some other meaningful work.

It should be noted that this concept is related to the work of recent Nobel recipients Elinor Ostrom and Oliver Williamson.  It addresses the commons in a comprehensive way as well as providing a new organizational structure that is designed to bring out the best in all those who live, work, and invest in the system.  While it is exciting to see their work recognized, it would be more exciting to see it put into practice.

A new organization such as this can be developed from the ground up or with assistance of a wealthy patron.  Please help market the concept.  Questions are encouraged.

MindfulWorldBank.org and "Shoes Outside the Door"

The story told in Shoes Outside The Door may help readers understand the institutional concept that has evolved on this blog.  The concept of an interest-free bank and a more integrated way of living has many parallels with Zen. 

Selected excerpts and how they relate to the concept currently being described as MindfulWorldBank.org:

...'At my age, coming to this country, I [Suzuki-Roshi] need a disciple who is already well prepared.  I think an understanding of Western Transcendentalism would be good preparation,'... [p.62]

I believe that a basic understanding of all "isms" is necessary before anyone starts devoting a great deal of time to any practice or devotion.  As I've said before in many different forms, a universal education has to be the foundation of right living.

"To this day," says Gary [Snyder], "I'm sure the Japanese are mind-boggled by the historical accident that American bohemians became the caretakers of Zen in the West." [p.64]

It should be noted that the bohemian phase was short-lived.  If one had to describe those individuals featured most prominently in the book, entrepreneurial comes to mind.  They have had remarkable success in writing -- and selling -- books and ideas or establishing their own Zen Centers.

"But I [David Padwa] am skeptical about the overall value or enduring effect of Buddhism on American life," he says.  "America does not seem to me a more compassionate, kinder, safer place because of it." [p.118]

"At Zen Center, people spend ninety percent of their time dealing with community issues and not Zen practice.  I think it is not a healthy environment.  Maybe a few generations down the line, if we have worked out how to live together in a communal way, the teaching will be able to come through that."  Steve [Allen] is basically describing a cart-before-the-horse problem.  By 1972, there were three crowded residential carts that composed the Zen Center community -- but there was no sangha, no horsepower.  "And today?  Even at this point," says Steve, "I really do believe most of the energy is going into issues of how to live together and not issues of how to transcend the dualistic framework in which we find ourselves in ordinary society.  And that is what I understand practice is about -- nondualistic experience and liberation from the normal limitations of social programming." [p.144]

I'm always thinking about how to jump-start the institution that has evolved on this blog.  Perhaps a Zen relationship is one way.  The goals are very similar and I address the "issues of how to live together" through a set of rules -- including abandoning the extremely destructive practice of usury.

"There are two sides, and they are often at odds," says Norman Fisher, the sixth Abbot of Zen Center from 1995 to 2000.  "On the one hand, Zen Center's mission is a long-term training center for Zen Buddhist priests; on the other hand, we are this very wide and expansive community, where all sorts of people come and go with all points of view, and the community's agenda is just to benefit the world widely -- forget about Zen Buddhism.  This makes it complicated, and it creates conflicts, and this makes it wonderful." [p.145]

I think that with the right set of rules we can reduce the complications and the conflicts.  However, we have to help people understand the complexity that is inherent in our living system.  We live in an age when -- maybe more so than at any other time -- people have a tendency to be attracted to simple ideologies such as fundamentalist religions (my book is the right book), technology (will save us from our profligate ways), and economic systems (free markets, Keynesian economics, or an oligarchy-directed combination of the two).

"Richard [Baker] told me [Peter Rudnick] flat out that I would never get ahead at Zen Center, that I would never hold a position of responsibility if I didn't show up in zendo every day.  I've always believed the farm work is practice." [p.154]

In the upcoming energy descent, it will be important to make hands-on gardening/farming practice.

"It's gotten all tangled up with role, position, and hierarchy here.  Who does that serve?" [Wendy Johnson speaking, p.156]

The answer is no one.  Any healthy institution, in my opinion, has to be comprised of independent agents operating under a set of rules that are explicitly understood.

Life on the farm is not a dream; the farm is the repository for a dream.  It preserves a view of an integrated life -- a safer, slower, simpler way than most Americans can afford, a way most people do not choose when it is available.  It [Green Gulch Farm] is to Zen Center what Zen Center is to the wider society -- it doesn't pay its share of taxes, and it requires a lot of generosity from people who do not seem to receive the most generous share of the benefits.  But for many people, giving up on Green Gulch, like giving up on Zen Center, would mean giving up. [p.270]

By integrating the farm with the university, a much more vibrant institution is created.  The structure of MindfulWorldBank.org would allow patrons to store their wealth rather than donating it.  However, this is an institution that has the capability to be far more productive than the non-profits that currently compete for excess wealth.

Those who want to preserve their wealth should understand that current investments -- almost all that exist -- based on the premise (or promise) of unlimited growth are destined to fail.

The Evolution of On The Origin of Species

Fascinating look at Darwin's changes over time to On The Origin of Species.  (Tip: Make certain you position your cursor over the presentation.)

A Little Western Mindfulness

Thanks to David Brooks, I came across this mindful article by Leon Kass.

A brief excerpt:

Grappling with real-life concerns — from cloning to courtship, from living authentically to dying with dignity — has made me a better reader. Reciprocally, reading in a wisdom-seeking spirit has helped me greatly in my worldly grapplings. Not being held to the usual dues expected of a licensed humanist — professing specialized knowledge or publishing learned papers — I have been able to wander freely and most profitably in all the humanistic fields. I have come to believe that looking honestly for the human being, following the path wherever it leads, may itself be an integral part of finding it. A real question, graced by a long life to pursue it among the great books, has been an unadulterated blessing.

May we all wander freely.

What is MindfulWorldBank.org?

A) A new form of real estate

B) A new form of capitalism

C) A new form of sanity

D) A new form of philanthropy

E) A more secure way of saving for retirement

F) All of the Above

And the answer is F.

Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind

I appreciate Zen Buddhism from an intellectual perspective.  Here is an excerpt from Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind that struck a chord with me:

But perfect freedom is not found without some rules.  People, especially young people, think that freedom is to do just what they want, that in Zen there is no need for rules.  But it is absolutely necessary for us to have some rules.  But this does not mean always to be under control.  As long as you have rules, you have a chance for freedom.  To try to obtain freedom without being aware of the rules means nothing.... [p.34]

The Two Progressive Camps

It is my observation that those who are concerned about the health of the planet fall into two camps: the tribalists and the non-profiteers.  Neither is the answer to the planetary predicament.  (If you were not aware that there was a predicament, please do a Google search of "Limits to Growth" at this site.)

The Tribalists

There is much talk online about how we ought to revert to living tribally.  Those who are attracted to the concept should read The Parable of the Tribes: The Problem of Power in Social Evolution.  Tribalism is regressive.  We've been there and done it -- still doing it -- and it doesn't lead to quality of life.

The Non-Profiteers

The other camp believes that having more non-profits will save the planet.  One example is the proliferation of Microfinance.  Those who get a warm and fuzzy feeling about micro lending need to be aware that the average loan rate for a group like Kiva.org is approximately 24%.  The original definition of usury was charging interest period.  Credit is the root cause of our predicament -- not the solution.

What to Do?

First of all, we have to acknowledge that the following is true:

There is as yet no civilized society,
But only a society in the process of becoming civilized.
There is as yet no civilized nation,
But only nations in the process of becoming civilized.
From this standpoint,
We can now speak of a collective task of humankind.
The task of humanity is to build a genuine civilization.

— Felix Adler (1851-1933)

We have to come up with something that has not been tried.  Tribalism has been tried and it failed miserably.  Non-profiteering is being tried on a massive scale and has not shifted our destructive course in any macro measurable way.

I've probably bogged readers down in the detail that I've provided at this site in the past.  The details are not important.  The important thing is to establish an institution that provides capital for quality environments -- whether single family homes or larger, comprehensive campuses -- around the world.  Those who provide the capital will not earn interest.  The concept of money earning interest discounts the future.  Instead, our new breed of capitalists will have access to the assets at the lesser of cost or market.

We have made things far too complicated.  It's time for a change.

The mind, once expanded to the dimensions of larger ideas, never returns to its original size.

--Oliver Wendell Holmes  

The Systemic Existence

The Systemic Existence is the title of Chapter 13 in The Never Ending Quest: Clare W. Graves Explores Human Nature.  The book is edited by Christopher Cowan and Natasha Todorovic and can be ordered at their website (only the paperback edition is currently available -- or so I was told).

For those who think in terms of systems, this book provides some evidence that you may not be alone in the world.  In describing Level Seven/System Seven of his Emergent-Cyclical Levels of Existence Conception (ECLET), Graves describes individuals whose "values come not from selfish interest but from the recognition of the magnificence of existence and from the desire to see that it shall continue to be."  Unfortunately, the number of people at this level appears to be shrinking rather than growing.  Graves estimated that those at this level represented about 7% of the population (college students) represented in his data in 1952-1953.  Recent estimates place only 1% or less at this developmental level.  What happened to cause the regression (the next level is even smaller in size) of this subject population?

The following is a list of some of the characteristics/attributes that Graves used to describe this group:

1. "thinking is in terms of the systemic whole" [p.368]
2. "strives to ascertain which way of thinking or which combination of ways fits the extant set of conditions" [p.368]
3. "thinks in terms of competence, not trappings" [p.368]
4. "they simply are not afraid" [p.373]
5. "My data say that the ones who think in this way have a remarkable capacity for solving complex problems that other people can't get within a million miles of."  [More capacity to solve problems than all prior development levels combined.] [p.374]
6. "That which alone commands his unswerving loyalty, and in whose cause he is ruthless, is the continuance of life on this earth." [p.377]
7. "The data indicated that system seven people, those dominated by the A'N' [System Seven] system of personality, were much less rigid and far less dogmatic than other people.  They solved problems not only more rapidly, they also found many more solutions to multiple answer problems, and they could change their point of reference unbelievably more rapidly than others. [p.377-78]
8. "The A'N' way of life will be so different from any that we have known up to now that its substance is very difficult to transmit [see MindfulWorldBank.com description below for my attempt]; it is the most difficult system of all to comprehend." [p.379]
9. "A tremendous increase of conceptual space markedly changes the thinking of the human when operating at this level." [p.379]
10. "When man finally is able to see himself and the world about him with clear cognition, he finds a picture that is far from pleasant.  Visible in unmistakable clarity and devastating detail is man's failure to be what he might and his misuse of his world.  This revelation causes him to leap out in search of a way of life and system of values which will enable him to be more than a parasite leeching on the world, all its being, other lives and the future." [p.388]
11. "A few things we might expect when man's life is ordered by A'N' thinking are:

1. Quality -- not quantity -- will become the measure of worth.

2. Reduction of use will be valued; growth will be devalued.

...

4. The measure of educational success will not be quantity of learning but whether the education leads to movement up the existential staircase.  Business and other organizations will be judged the same way.

...

6. A leisure ethic will replace the work ethic as the primary means of valuing a person.  A man will be revered more for his ability to contribute in his non-earning time than in his earning time." [p.391]

 "Because of this different way of thinking, human institutions at the A'N' level will become very different from what we have today." [p.392]

My vision:

MindfulWorldBank.com: All Equity -- No Debt

All assets are accessible to depositors at the lesser of cost or market, subject to availability.  The reservation system grants priority based on amounts deposited and the timing of deposits.

Almost all of us are in the business of selling something or processing or marketing the sale of something.  We should transition to a system where markets as we know them will be a thing of the past.

I'll leave you with one last excerpt from this highly recommended book:

Only slightly less frightening [than regressing to a primitive level] is the vision of fixation in the DQ/ER/FS* societal complex. This might resemble George Orwell's 1984 with its tyrannic, manipulative government glossed over by a veneer of humanitarian-sounding doublethink and moralistic rationalizations.  That is a very real possibility in the next decades. [p.390]

Prescient.

* The three levels preceding A'N' or System Seven. Roughly, DQ level at it's worst is represented by Sarah Palin; ER level is represented by Wall Street; and FS is represented by the Cultural Creatives.

Towards Civilization

There is as yet no civilized society,
But only a society in the process of becoming civilized.
There is as yet no civilized nation,
But only nations in the process of becoming civilized.
From this standpoint,
We can now speak of a collective task of humankind.
The task of humanity is to build a genuine civilization.

— Felix Adler (1851-1933)

In order to build a genuine civilization, it is critical that we recognize impediments.  The key impediment for some time now has been that our system is credit-based.  This allows the clever amongst us -- rather than the wise -- to dictate our lives.  All we need to do is to shift to an equity system.