Six in One

The idea of change seems to be very popular these days. But, change itself is rather difficult to pinpoint because of that bothersome rhetorical stand that asks for a comparison as in "change compared to what" and the unfortunate reality that what is being presented as change is monotonously just more of the same and often of a lesser quality.

Change, by definition, is to transfer from one set of characteristics to another set of characteristics. That is something we have never done well in Planet Earth 1.0.

Let your keen mind wander through your own sense of history and meet me back at this realization with your own sense of reality about change or the lack of change thereof. Now let's question why that is so and take it from there.

It happens that when you prepare a dish from an old recipe using the same ingredients, albeit in different proportions to suit your taste, you end up with a variation of the same recipe. But, you do not end up with a new one.

A new recipe requires an ingredient or ingredients not used previously, as well as, an arrangement of the ingredients that is as new as the results obtained and the effect they have on the desired improvement on the old recipe.

It stands to reason, then, that change is possible and that the transfer from one to another set of characteristics is the event that reveals the fact that change has taken place. Particularly, this is what must happen as we go from the recipe that produced Planet Earth 1.0 to the recipe and transfer (transition really) that is producing Planet Earth 2.0.

The social recipe or the organizing ingredients of human society in Planet Earth 1.0 from its beginning are government, science, mysticism (or religion), industry and media. As I mentioned in my last post here, it is very likely that the further we have gone away from Nature (over millennia) as we laid out the recipe for "human nature," that these ingredients (social components) became more and more disconnected. Eventually, they became totally separate components. Today, we don't even recognize them as ever having been integral players with Nature in the organization of the survival requirements of our own species. It's not even questioned whether they could be (in principle) an integral part of all life on earth, too.

Allow me to clarify something at this point. The reason I use the term "organizing principles" is because we just gave these names (government, science, mysticism or religion, industry and media) to our interpretation of organizing principles that have been at work since organized biological life took hold on Earth billions of years ago. Granted we gave them a new "twist" to suit our human nature. But, fundamentally, their place as survival natural-receptors and their roles in Nature were already there.

I know that this may feel as uncomfortable as a new pair of shoes to you. But, like new shoes these ideas should wear better with use. One need only consider that it has been mostly human arrogance that has kept us from making these vital connections between the way Nature makes life possible and our conception of it.

The real change comes as we link ourselves back into the natural program bringing to it something that Nature never had before. I'm speaking of "us" as a creative partner, an independent force of nature, if you will, a "changed" being with the capabilities to manage the creation of a new world.

Of course, if you look closer, you will discern that we have already created a new world of sorts. The trouble is that we did not create it to last or to be sustainable, or to include the lives of the other 30 million species that live and contribute to life in it.

That is why this realization is important. We are at a new point in our development and the knowledge that comes out from our partnership with Nature is the key to our success.

Government, science, mysticism, industry, media and Nature are the ingredients of a full recipe for survival. There is plenty more for us to discover and for us to understand as to how and why they all must work as an "integral structure" and most importantly what "new principle" mediates their interactions.

Our failure as a society is due to their dislocation, a malfunction that got progressively worse in innocence because we did not know that was the case. It is only because our survival is in jeopardy that we can (or are beginning to) look beyond our arrogance to embrace Nature's recipes now that we have finally learned of the cause of our troubles.

Just look at ourselves today as we insist that government be the entity to fix all that is broken and forcing that already bankrupted component to also play all of the parts. Why? What is the role for the other components? Just to complain as government fails? How can we be surprised at the results? But, there was never much we could do about it because, until now, we never had a choice.

But now we do. To embrace that choice is to finally come up to the plate for real "change." Planet Earth 2.0 is a showcase of the change that we are capable of undergoing. Fortunately, it is taking shape as we layout these formative realities, tools and the ideas that not only provide the contrast, but that also provide the aesthetic content of our new possibilities.

I can't wait to see the geniuses of those respective fields begin to tackle this problem from its integral perspective so that they can show us the hard numbers that go with it and the vitality of their interaction in the process. I hope they know that we are counting on them, that life on Earth is counting on them.

I'm, as they say, just an artist. But, look how far I had to go to find my role and the material to fulfill it.

The illustration for the blog today is "Six in One" It has taken me a lifetime to complete it, but here it is. What we call government, science, mysticism, industry and media are interpretations of organizing principles that, mixed together with Nature and a measure of sufficiency, make one heck of a new recipe for change.

Albert Einstein said, "the most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible." Well, I say that it is about time to take the ball and run with it while there is still some time left on the clock to play.

For your copy of "Six in One." click here or on the image above.

Tiité