Science and Spirituality: What is Reality?

In a recent online conversation I participated in, a debate arose concerning what was science and what was metaphysical or spiritual and therefore outside the realm of science and rational discussion. Here are some points I made in the course of that conversation:

From Separation to Interbeing: A Cultural Transmutation

The shift of humanity’s mindset or worldview from one of separation to one of interbeing will of necessity involve, accordingly, a transmutation of our whole cultural ethos, that is, our understanding of what’s the morally right way to behave and do things and what’s the morally wrong way to behave and do things.

The paradigm of separation is what has resulted in fear, scarcity, and zero-sum calculus being at the very foundation of the structures and rules of the game of our economic and financial institutions and transactions, of politics and government (as the way we make collective decisions), and of social organizations and relationships. A paradigm of interbeing, on the other hand, implies that love, abundance, and positive-sum calculus must perforce be foundational to a transmutational redesign of our political, economic, and social institutions as the old structures and rules of the game will no longer make any sense.

A Call for National Healing

The United States of America is bereft. Bereft of our humanity. Bereft of a sense of community. Bereft of a motivating meaning and purpose. Bereft of our very soul.

In a post to The Green Pen in February 2018 following a mass school shooting, I noted that such incidents of violence are but symptoms, along with drug and other addictions, teen suicides, domestic violence, and such, of a deeper malady, an unhappiness in a society that was founded on the “pursuit of happiness.” I concluded with:

The root cause lies…somewhere deep within our cultural norms and values, and we will only get at it through some deep national soul-searching and self-reflection. Cultures are supposed to be the mediums for growing things, for nurturing life. Ours clearly is falling short.

The Green New Deal: A Youth Movement for Holistic Advance in Human Evolution

The Green New Deal. Yes, it is a resolution formally submitted to the U.S. Congress by Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Edward Markey. Yet it is so much more than that.

It is part of a global youth-led movement that presents a vision for a sustainable and resilient future based on social, economic, and Earth justice. And it outlines a path for realizing that vision within one generation. Ocasio-Cortez describes it eloquently in her short video, A Message from the Future.

"It Can't Happen Here" - Or can it?

From Wikipedia:

It Can't Happen Here is a semi-satirical 1935 political novel by American author Sinclair Lewis, and a 1936 play adapted from the novel by Lewis and John C. Moffitt. Published during the rise of fascism in Europe, the novel describes the rise of Berzelius "Buzz" Windrip, a demagogue who is elected President of the United States, after fomenting fear and promising drastic economic and social reforms while promoting a return to patriotism and "traditional" values. After his election, Windrip takes complete control of the government and imposes a plutocratic/totalitarian rule with the help of a ruthless paramilitary force, in the manner of Adolf Hitler and the SS. 

But it can’t really happen here. Can it?

All-Systems Change for Life

Buckminster Fuller famously said: “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”

Well, maybe not “never.” Sometimes it does help to give the existing reality a nudge or two. But that alone, while possibly causing change, will not necessarily bring about life-enhancing change. In this time of all-systems breakdown and breakthrough, The Next System Project is doing just that, coming up with holistic, systemic, ideas for how we might evolve our human-created systems to be more in alignment with Earth, with Life.