[Oe List ...] [Dialogue] WHAT IS THE RIGHT QUESTION THESE DAYS?

Fri Jul 6 13:56:35 PDT 2012

I was just reminded of an old, old, friend, Kenneth Boulding, and a chapter from his book, The Meaning of the Twentieth Century -- The Great Transition, published in 1964.  He described this "great transition" thusly:  
The Great Transition (1964)

The twentieth century might be described as the crucial central period in
the third great transition in the state of mankind. The first great transition
was from the paleolithic to the neolithic about ten thousand years ago, which
was characterized by the invention of agriculture, the domestication of
animals, and the development of a settled life in villages. The second great
transition, sometimes called the urban revolution, about five thousand years
ago, was characterized by the development of political power and the
centralization of the food surplus from agriculture in cities. This is the
transition from neolithic agriculture to civilizations. What is underway now is
a third great transition, in which civilization is passing away and a new order
of society altogether, which I have sometimes called post-civilized but which
perhaps deserves the name of the Developed Society, is coming into being. The
twentieth century is the crucial midstage of this transition which will
determine very largely whether it will be made successful or not. 

HERE ARE SOME PARAGRAPHS FROM THE FINAL CHAPTER.  I FOUND THEM ON THE GOLDEN PATHWAYS:  

The fact of the great transition is not in
dispute. Almost anyone in middle life today has simply to look back to his own
childhood, or still more to the days of his grandparents, to realize that we
are living in a world in which there is an enormous rate of change. If anyone
in an advanced society today were to suddenly thrust back into the world of
only a hundred years ago, he would feel utterly alien and strange. A
considerable part of his vocabulary would be meaningless to the people around
him. He would find it hard to adapt to the inconveniences and to the restricted
life which would have to lead. He would feel indeed in an alien society.
....................................................

I, therefore, have no hesitation in
recommending the attitude toward the great transition which I have described as
critical acceptance. There may be times when we wish nostalgically that it had
never started, for then at least the danger that the evolutionary experiment in
this part of the universe would be terminated would be more remote. Now that
the transition is under way, however, there is no going back on it. We must
learn to use its enormous potential for good rather than for evil, and we must
learn to diminish and eventually eliminate the dangers which are inherent in
it. If I had to sum up the situation in a sentence I would say that the
situation has arisen because of the development of certain methods of reality
testing applied to our images of nature. If we are to ride out the transition
successfully we must apply these or similar methods for reality testing to our
images of man and his society.

There is in the world today an
"invisible college" of people in many different countries and many
different cultures, who have this vision of the nature of the transition through
which we are passing and who are determined to devote their lives to
contributing toward its successful fulfillment. Membership in this college is
consistent with many different philosophical, religious, and political
positions. It is a college without a founder and without a president, without
buildings and without organization. Its founding members might have included a
Jesuit like Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, a humanist like Aldous Huxley, a writer
of science fiction like H. G. Wells, and it might even have given honorary
degrees to Adam Smith, Karl Marx, Pope John XXIII, and even Khrushchev and John
F. Kennedy. Its living representatives are still a pretty small group of
people. I think, however, that it is they who hold the future of the world in their
hands or at least in their minds.

For this invisible college I am an unashamed
propagandist and I confess without a blush that this book is a tract. Our
precious little planet, this blue green cradle of life with its rosy mantle, is
in one of the most critical stages of its whole existence. It is in a position
of immense danger and immense potentiality. There are no doubt many experiments
in evolution going on in different parts of this big universe. But this happens
to be my planet and I am very much attached to it, and I am desperately anxious
that this particular experiment should be a success. If this be ethnocentrism,
then let me be ethnocentric! I am pretty sure, however, that it will not be a
success unless something is done. There is danger both of the bang of nuclear
detonation and of the whimper of exhausted overpopulation, and either would
mean an end of the evolutionary process in these parts. If man were merely
capable of destroying himself, one could perhaps bear the thought. One could at
least console oneself with the thought of elementary justice, that if man does
destroy himself it is his own silly fault. He is captain, however, of a frai1
and delicate vessel, and in the course of destroying himself he might easily
destroy the vessel that is, the planet which carries him, with its immense
wealth and variety of evolutionary freight and evolutionary potential. This
makes the dangers of the transition doubly intolerable, and demands a desperate
effort to remove them.

Jim Wiegel

"The problem with quotes on the internet is that it is hard to verify their authenticity."  Abraham Lincoln

401 North Beverly Way, Tolleson, Arizona 85353-2401

+1  623-363-3277  skype:  jfredwiegel

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--- On Fri, 7/6/12, R Williams <rcwmbw at yahoo.com> wrote:

From: R Williams <rcwmbw at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [Dialogue] [Oe List ...] WHAT IS THE RIGHT QUESTION THESE DAYS?
To: "Order Ecumenical Community" <oe at lists.wedgeblade.net>, "Colleague Dialogue" <dialogue at lists.wedgeblade.net>
Date: Friday, July 6, 2012, 11:30 AM

Jim, By "peace" I meant something more than the absence of war.  I suppose I meant something like "with civility," " with mutual respect," "acknowledging the dignity and worth of all."  This may be idealistic but without it I am skeptical that we can continue.  The by-product of this kind of peace is sustainability, so my statement may have been a bit redundant. I agree with Wayne up to a point.  I believe there is really one moral issue at a time, but there must be many ways to describe it and  thus to articulate the question.  With the way issues are so inter-related, it's difficult to talk about one without eventually getting into  most of the others, and
 probably even more difficult to finally boil it down to "the" underlying root/moral issue of the time.  I would have to say that the way we articulated it in the 70's as the disparity between the 85/15, or today maybe the 99/1, isn't that far off base for today as well. One thing I do feel fairly certain about.  Whereas in RS-1 days we asked, "Who am I?" "What do I?" and "How be I?"--today I would insist that the question, whatever it is, is not an "I" question, but rather a "we" question. Randy "Listen to what is emerging from yourself to the course of being in the world; not to be supported by it, but to bring it to reality as it desires."
-Martin Buber (adapted)
        From: James Wiegel <jfwiegel at yahoo.com>
 To: Colleague Dialogue <dialogue at lists.wedgeblade.net>; Order Ecumenical Community <oe at lists.wedgeblade.net> 
 Sent: Friday, July 6, 2012 12:33 PM
 Subject: [Oe List ...] WHAT IS THE RIGHT QUESTION THESE DAYS?

WHAT IS THE RIGHT QUESTION THESE DAYS?

Over coffee, this morning, i recopied the emails from this thread and tried to narrow down to just the questions that were posed.

I think i missed an email that Lee Early was responding to in his message.

A couple of reflections:  

Randy, in yours, i was struggling with the phrase "in peace", wondering, a bit like the word "church" or "religious" what that might point to that would seem true to life vs. sort of an ideal future.

Wayne, your response that there may not be "a" question, but many and we each have to figure out our own for ourselves got me to reflecting on the evident complicatedness of things in a systemic or interconnected world.  My auto mechanic was explaining to me how to simply fix the health care system in the US, and your comment came up for me, and i said that is a good idea, but i think we are looking too often for simple silver bullet solutions
 when thngs are actually much more complicated.  And that made sense to both of us and moved the conversation on.

Jim Baumbach's question put me back on my heels . "How do I get you to change your mind and do what I think is right?"  then, when in linking it with Bill Parker's notion that none of this is new, and why haven't we all woken up? Got me thinking, at least on the liberal or progressive side, whether the new religion arising is the religion of human rights . . . Progressives, at least, seem to hold these as sacred and as a moral obligation to be enforced.

I could go on, but my eggs are getting cold, and the slice of cantelope from Judy's garden is calling.

THE GIST AS I SEE IT
Mary Hampton:  Enough, all ready, its too good to miss and I am not ready to edit.  Good stuff, folks!

Ken Gilgren:  why am I here? What am I doing? How am I being?  What quickens the current action of my
 soul?
what was the question again?

Wayne Nelson:  What are the pivotal moral issues of our moment?  I think there are likely to be several. Of course there are many, many but there are probably some major ones.  To reduce it to a single one makes it too abstract and denies the obvious complexity.  We all have to name 'the moral issue of our time.'  There's not likely to be one for everyone. It's a job we all have to do.

Bill Parker:  What are the warning signs of the destruction and endangerment of the entire human community?   Then ask, what is the underlying question to be addressed and how it can be addressed.  Why are people not being awakened to the clear, obvious truth of our crisis? Secondly, what methods must we develop or employ to radically reveal this all encompassing truth?

John Cock:  My take: If it does not have something like "on behalf of a transformed Earth community"
 in the statement,  it is the WRONG right question, moral issue, or vocation.

Lee Early:   "Who is Tiger Woods?", What is his mission?  Can we re-answer the second question?  Mission, social pioneer, church, college, league, crimson line and movement?  The answer to the question of mission will carry the first of who.  (At least here in the West.)  Sometimes the question of mission changes.  Sometimes by chance and sometimes on purpose.  What is our mission TODAY?

Randy Williams:  In reflecting on the dialogue around what is "the question," I realized we really were assuming two questions.  How may "we"  (all species) live together on this planet in peace, in a way that secures life for future generations?  What is the new face, form and mission of the "movement" (the religious, the invisible college, the church with a little"c," ) and what stories, style and symbols will
 sustain it?

Jan Sanders:  What are the key images of the future of evolution?

Steve Harrington:  You had to say it, eh?  What does it look like to be the Sensitive & Responsive. To what concerns? where?

Karen Bueno: "How do we motivate the sensitive and reponsive ones who understand that the survival of the people of the earth and the earth itself depends on our working together to make that survival possible?"  I like the idea of striving for a T-shirt phrase, like "Be one of those who dare to live the future now.", as someone suggested.

David Walters:  in the midst of a malaise of helplessness and an established / controlling economic and political elite, what can we do to support and help to form the emerging groups and movements (both the Tea Party and the Occupy movement) to be both effective and inclusive?

Jack Gilles:  Given the stance that "History rides on the back of the
 religious" that we embodied and lived..... "Who are the 'religious' today, where would you look to find them, what are the marks that tell you so, and what might we share (and how) with them so that they are empowered and connected?".  The "we" in the question should refer to "those of us who are scattered" and who will take seriously the answers.  

Janice Ulangca:  In this 50th year of EI/ICA, some of the questions to live with:  Considering what we were/are/might be, what is our calling?  What are we called to know/do/be?  What are some of the important partnerships the future needs?

Missed the name:  What was Neibhur's line? (and how do you spell his name?)  Something about the sensitive and something ones.

Nancy Lanphear:   What is " MY GREAT WORK (IS) WHERE MY OWN GREAT JOY INTERSECTS WITH EARTH'S GREAT NEED" ....perhaps EARTH could be stretched to all my relations, the universe,
 life ....

Jan and Steve:  Considering what we were/are/might be, what is our calling?  What are we called to know/do/be?  
Jan:  What are some of the important partnerships the future needs?

Jim Baumbach:  "How do I get you to change your mind and do what I think is right?"

Karen Bueno:  "How are we to live together and preserve this planet for the future?"

Jim Wiegel
Jfwiegel at yahoo.com

“One cannot live in the afternoon of life according to the program of life’s morning; for what was great in the morning will be of little importance in the evening, and what in the morning was true will at evening have become a lie.” – Carl Jung

Partners in Participation Upcoming public course opportunities:
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The AZ
 Community of Practice meets the 1st Friday- Sept 7, 2012
Facilitation Mastery : Our Mastering the Technology of Participation program is available in Phoenix in 2012-3. Program begins on Nov 14-16, 2012 
See short video http://partnersinparticipation.com/?page_id=55 and website for further details.
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