[Oe List ...] Some thoughts about the future

[Herman Greene]

Yes, I would be willing to write something. What should I do?


On Sun, Jun 23, 2013 at 2:33 PM, Jeanette Stanfield <
jstanfield at ica-associates.ca> wrote:

> Hi Herman,
> Thank you for your reflections on culture and sustainability and OE/ICA/EI
> role.
>
> When I received your May newsletter there was a declaration from your UN
> China meeting relative to placing culture at the heart of sustainable
> policies.  I shared that article with Martin Gilbraith, ICAI president, and
> with Robyn Hutchinson in Australia.   Robyn and John Miesen  along with
> others are the editors  of ICAI newsletter: Wind and Waves.  Would you
> being willing to write something for  Wind and Waves on this declaration ?
>
> Go well,
>
> Jeanette Stanfield
>
>
>
>
>
> On Sun, Jun 23, 2013 at 12:59 PM, Herman Greene <hfgreenenc at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> Dear All,
>>
>>
>>
>> This is an important email for me, though it will not be for each of you.
>> It is one I have thought about for months, especially since returning from
>> a visit in ICA headquarters in Chicago in September 2012. I made that trip
>> because I was going to be able to meet with Jack Gilles, who was at ICA
>> working on the archives project. I was also looking forward to meeting with
>> Pam and Terry Bergdall again. The event turned out to be overwhelming for
>> me, in part because of the profound memories that welled up within me, in
>> part because of the conversations Jack and I had and the picture he
>> presented of the EI/ICA archive (which brought down the full breadth of our
>> legacy on me), and in part because I really realized that the big corporate
>> body that constituted EI/ICA was gone.
>>
>>
>>
>> I left the Order in 1975 and didn’t come back into contact with Order
>> folk until the Millennium Conference in 2000. I have had four or five
>> occasions since then to be in Chicago or at a Springboard gathering. I have
>> been on the OE listserve for some time and on the ICA Dialogue listserve
>> for a year. Nelson and Elaine Stover and John Cock live nearby and I have
>> been in contact with them and colleagues who live in Asheville.
>>
>>
>>
>> The eight years I was in the Order from 1967-75 shaped my life
>> dramatically, but for the most part my development since 1975 has taken
>> place apart from EC/ICA. There have been several key influences on me and I
>> will name three: Thomas Berry, Alfred North Whitehead (and the
>> International Process Network), and the practice of business law.
>>
>>
>>
>> EI didn’t help me at all with the overwhelming task I was given growing
>> up as a Southern Baptist, which was to save the world. I have learned
>> though to balance this calling to make my life count with humility and
>> self-care. The basic impulse and teaching of EI is however still strong
>> within me and indeed is what leads to this email.
>>
>>
>>
>> There is much to be written, but to write much at this point I feel is a
>> mistake because what is involved is not for me alone to articulate or
>> determine. It is a part of a conversation that has been going on some time
>> and it has to do with what we who have been a part of EI/ICA can contribute
>> to our time. The subject does not directly concern ICA US or any ICA
>> organization as an institution, though it is not irrelevant to any of them
>> either.
>>
>>
>>
>> Let me start with the easiest issue, our listserves, then go to a
>> particular project, then to the legacy of EI/ICA.
>>
>>
>>
>> *1.      **The Listserves. *This will border on a gripe. I initially
>> joined the OE listserv to reconnect with my family/friends. Folks, you are
>> still the closest friends I have. I use friends with the knowledgeable
>> awareness that we were and are colleagues first and friends second, but
>> that latter part seems increasingly important. After going to Oklahoma City
>> a couple of years ago and meeting with David Dunn, I eventually asked to be
>> added to the ICA listserve. I thought I would be in a network of a whole
>> different group of people. To my surprise I found out that it was by and
>> large the same group of people. I don’t have any recommendation about the
>> two existing listserves except they are puzzling to me because I honestly
>> don’t see the difference. The time has passed, however, when I will do
>> anything other than read emails that stick out for me. I just can’t keep up
>> and it raises the question for me, as I’m sure it does for many of you,
>> about what are these listserves for. Nonetheless I keep receiving the
>> emails because I like to at least read the titles of the various emails.
>> I’ll basically leave this issue open, though I am considering going back to
>> only being on the OE listserve. There may be a need for a listserve around
>> the next topic in this email.
>>
>>
>>
>> *2.      **The Project. *The way I see the world, humanity as a whole is
>> moving from economic-industrial civilization to ecological-cultural
>> civilization. The transition we are going through is equivalent to that
>> which occurred with the Neolithic villages, the establishment of the
>> classical civilizations, the Medieval/feudal period, modernity beginning in
>> the 16th century and industrial civilization beginning in the 18thcentury. Agricultural civilization, which began 10,000 years ago, and
>> industrial civilization which began 200 years ago were most fundamental.
>> Now we are faced with converging crises (rapid in historical terms, but not
>> as fast as many of us expect) and for the next century or so the changes
>> will occur. The goal is not Heaven on Earth, but the more Heaven the
>> better. Thomas Berry spoke of a “viable” human future and I like that more
>> modest language, but he also spoke of an “ecozoic” future and the need to
>> care for the comprehensive community of life even for the sake of the human.
>>
>>
>>
>> A set of circumstances two years ago brought me into work related to
>> preparing for Rio+20, the third Earth Summit of the UN, which occurred last
>> June in Rio. Before engaging I took some time to study the “sustainable
>> development” history in relation to the UN. I came to the conclusion that
>> this was the language on the basis of which change will occur in the next
>> few decades if it is to occur. It is a language understood and used by all
>> 192 member states of the UN (and no doubt those who are not members as
>> well) is readily understood by the business community, and is well
>> understood in civil society (there are 5,000 civil society groups with
>> consultative status with the UN). Of course, the language itself, which I
>> found in the UN documents produced over the last 20 years to be quite
>> remarkable, will not bring about change in the same way that say a local
>> village project will. What we are faced with, however, is the problem that
>> we are in the planetary phase of human development and there are no
>> solutions to local problems without a global shift, that is a change in the
>> dominant mode of human civilization globally. This statement doesn’t negate
>> the idea of “think globally and act locally,” of course that is where the
>> dominant effort must occur.
>>
>>
>>
>> I got involved in preparation for Rio+20 with a group that was advocating
>> for the inclusion of ethics and spirituality in the Outcome Document for
>> the conference. The group is known as the “Ethics and Spirituality
>> Initiative for Sustainable Development” or “ESI” for short. The simple
>> ideas behind ESI are two: (a) if the lack of sustainable development is an
>> ethical and spiritual problem then ethics and spirituality must have
>> something to do with the solution, and (b) if we look only to economics and
>> science to address the issues related to sustainable development, we will
>> not make the needed changes.
>>
>>
>>
>> Let me illustrate what I mean on that second point by a quote from a book
>> by Jorgen Randers, called *2052*:
>>
>>
>>
>> As a consequence of the increase in the average global temperature of
>> plus 2 degrees Centigrade by 2052, humanity will experience an increasing
>> number of bothersome climate effects over the decades to come. . . . Each
>> event will lead to public outrage and create fear for the future. But in
>> most cases the short-term costs of action will be seen as unacceptably high
>> and lead to a “well-considered” decision to postpone significant action.
>>
>>
>>
>> Jorgen also writes of “last to lose” strategies where people will feel
>> there is no way to control globally either resource use or demand, so their
>> strategies will promote more economic growth to strengthen their own
>> strategic positions and ability to strengthen their own resource bases and
>> defenses. These strategies will only make matters worse.
>>
>>
>>
>> Do you see the ethical and spiritual problems? People will need to do the
>> “un-well-considered,” that which in the short-term is not in conventional
>> terms in their own best interest.
>>
>>
>>
>> Thomas Berry wrote that humans must become self-limiting. While this has
>> been honored in spiritual traditions, it is the opposite of the march of
>> civilization which has always been for more. He said we needed to “reinvent
>> the human at the species level with critical reflection within the
>> community of life systems, in a time-developmental context through story
>> and shared dream experience.”
>>
>>
>>
>> Now I happen to feel that OE/ICA, or let me speak from my own experience,
>> the Ecumenical Institute, as I knew it, had a lot of knowledge about how to
>> call for, teach and prepare people for the task of large-scale change EI
>> also knew about spiritual formation, the kind that is needed to go through
>> challenging times and take risks.
>>
>>
>>
>> Therefore I can see the role of a pedagogical effort coming out of the
>> historic OE/ICA community in relation to the transition from
>> economic-industrial civilization to ecological-cultural.  I can also see
>> the remaining EI/ICA network as being helpful in this effort, and without
>> focusing on the institutional issue, I can see how this could provide an
>> important role for ICA.
>>
>>
>>
>> I think there is no doubt a continuing important role for village
>> projects and local efforts such as the ones ICA US has undertaken in
>> Chicago, but that is not the subject of this particular email.
>>
>>
>>
>> My own primary institution now is the Center for Ecozoic Societies. It is
>> pip-squeak big. My institution, CES, and others will engage in
>> collaborative efforts related to ESI, ESI will not be an organization in
>> itself. We will propose various projects and then people can take them up
>> if they wish.
>>
>>
>>
>> We had a meeting of all of 20 people in NYC on May 14 and came up with
>> this initial list:
>>
>>
>>
>> There was a discussion of authoring a book on ESI (not what this ESI
>> group is about, but rather a call to leaders of values-based organizations)
>> with chapters from the people present. The book would also serve as an
>> anchor to this movement.
>>
>>
>>
>> One common project all agreed upon was commenting collectively on the
>> post-2015 UN development agenda.
>>
>>
>>
>> Other collaborations are possible and these were suggested at the
>> meeting. Please add to this list:**
>>
>> * *
>>
>> ·         Advocating for culture/spirituality as the fourth pillar of
>> sustainable development
>>
>>
>>
>> ·         Developing an educational curriculum on sustainable
>> development for VBOs (this is to help enable people to understand how to be
>> global citizens and the relationship of ethics, spirituality and culture to
>> sustainable development).
>>
>>
>>
>> ·         Host ecological civilization conferences
>>
>>
>>
>> ·         Engage teams of interested persons in different regions of the
>> world to prepare a vision and pathway to ecological civilization (the
>> transition from economic-industrial civilization to ecological-cultural
>> civilization)
>>
>>
>>
>> ·         Promote the International Ethics Panel for Ecological
>> Civilization, Ombudsmen for Future generations, Trusteeship of the Global
>> Commons, Office of Ethical Assessment in the UN Secretariat and other
>> ethical structures of governance**
>>
>> * *
>>
>> ·         Work on the Global Interfaith WASH Alliance (contribute to the
>> Global Interfaith WASH Alliance (WASH stands for water sanitation and
>> hygiene), and support a similar initiative focused on energy)
>>
>> * *
>>
>> I can imagine that those who have had the training and experience I have
>> had through OE/ICA could be very helpful in preparing and carrying out
>> these two in particular:
>>
>>
>>
>> ·         Developing an educational curriculum on sustainable
>> development for VBOs (this is to help enable people to understand how to be
>> global citizens and the relationship of ethics, spirituality and culture to
>> sustainable development).
>>
>>
>>
>> ·         Host ecological civilization conferences
>>
>>
>>
>> Another list that I want to put forward, without comment is this one:
>>
>>
>>
>> The following were identified as areas where transformational leadership
>> is needed in books by David Orr and Paul Schafer:
>>
>>
>>
>> (i)     creating a new theoretical, practical, historical and
>> philosophical framework for the world of the future (with an emphasis on
>> the importance of the cultural dimension of life and of strengthening this
>> dimension);
>>
>> (ii)    dealing with the intimate relationship between people and the
>> natural environment,
>>
>> (iii)     providing uncommon clarity about our best economic and energy
>> options,
>>
>> (iv)      helping people understand and face what will be increasingly
>> difficult circumstances, and
>>
>> (v)        fostering a vision of a humane and decent future.
>>
>>
>>
>> I can imagine some of you want to be involved in ESI. I can imagine a new
>> Ecumenical or Ecozoic Institute to carry out the educational programs. I
>> can imagine this is connected with ICA though not that ICA would have to be
>> involved.
>>
>>
>>
>> Well, I’ve gone on longer than I thought I would. I haven’t brought this
>> section to a conclusion, but I believe I have provided enough of a flavor
>> for you to “get it.” I’ll be interested in what you have to say either
>> through this listserve or by emailing me directly.
>>
>>
>>
>> *3.      **The Order (or EI/ICA) Legacy. *The story of who we were needs
>> to be told and the past needs to be preserved. I have wondered from time to
>> time if there needs to be some kind of loose order going forward. Since I
>> haven’t had any brilliant insights into that I am letting that ride. In
>> some ways I would like an affiliation where I can honor my vows (the ones I
>> took long ago in EI to poverty, chastity and obedience), but I can only
>> presently see work in forming such an order as a distraction. It is part of
>> our history to say that what needs to come into being must come into being
>> around the mission and that is enough guidance for me. I am going to do
>> this work and let the forms emerge.
>>
>> * *
>>
>> There are two troubling parts about the legacy about which I would like
>> to speak. One is the sense that “if we only do this ___________, everything
>> will change.” The second is the idea that everything is perfectly expressed
>> in a model. If we are to do this work, it is necessary to let go completely
>> of dogmatic certainty and the idea that we can make things happen.
>>
>>
>>
>> A key event in the life of the Order which I keenly remember but no one
>> else to whom I have spoken seems to have remembered. McClesky gave a
>> lecture on the turn to the world. He drew a football diagram on the board
>> and talked of doing an end run around the church. He said we had a decision
>> to make about whether we would be a force or a leaven. At the time, the
>> notion was that we would be a force. So we mapped out the world and, being
>> obsessed with numbers in grids, went out to change it.
>>
>>
>>
>> In this effort we can only be a leaven.
>>
>>
>>
>> Herman
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> __________________________________________________
>> Herman F. Greene
>> 2516 Winningham Road
>> Chapel Hill, NC 27516
>> 919-942-4358 (ph & fax)
>> hfgreenenc at gmail.com
>>
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>>
>>
>
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-- 
__________________________________________________
Herman F. Greene
2516 Winningham Road
Chapel Hill, NC 27516
919-942-4358 (ph & fax)
hfgreenenc at gmail.com
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