What you and I are engaged in at this very moment is determining whether or not you will be a spectator in your life for the next few minutes or will you be an active creator as you read this piece?
That is, assuming that you devote these next few minutes to finding and discovering here what you came to find: something that engages you, moves you, grabs you in some way, such that you walk away bigger, better, ‘badder’….. and in action.
Let’s start with the world of being a spectator………..one who looks on, watches, by stands, stands aside, what others are doing, leading, sharing, causing.
Consider that: you and I are raised in life into the more-often-than-not default mode to being spectators, to spectate and watch and react to the daily parade of events. These predictable events become our history, happening, while we look from afar, stand aside, opine, comment and get better informed. All too often, we are mere spectators; we are not left in action. We are separate, apart, disengaged in the action and ideas that c r e a t e history.
We are educated in and oriented to adopting the view of spectators, as our ‘experts’, teachers, particularly our well-meaning teachers are accustomed to giving us an account of life a f t e r the fact……after something has already happened,……………………mostly from textbooks. .What we study in school is the various pasts of the various disciplines we are/were exposed to…..the past of chemistry, of woodworking, of English and writing, of algebra, of biology, of medicine, of law, of architecture, of history itself……Note that in virtually all instances we are studying the known past, glorious and not so glorious, of some field of endeavor……….teaching, as we currently know it, transfers to us the various pasts of these various fields of knowledge. Teaching and education and our upbringing are past-based, all constructed from the view of a spectator giving an account a f t e r reality has already happened.
However, even the best knowledge and know-how of the past, and from the past, is insufficient to being powerful in life, let alone being a powerful leader in life. One must also begin inventing and discovering new knowledge, new pathways, new insights, and new, sometimes unimaginable realizations that may never have existed anywhere before. And contrary to popular belief,, we all are capable of inventing and discovering new things, new knowledge, new realizations, and new behaviors, etc. All of us are capable of not only learning from the past but also learning from the future before reality happens (the future as itself is a domain that is always b e f o r e something is actually happening).
What does learning/inventing/discovering f r o m the future look like ? It looks like discovering, inventing and declaring new possibilities (the future is only and always a possibility) and constructing pathways for action for and from the future. There is in ALLLL of us a cut of, a piece of, the cutting edge pioneer, the innovator, the artist, the visionary leader, and these abilities and experiences are mostly dormant, hidden from our view. Our action orientations/abilities and our creative orientations/abilities are hidden from our view; they are fundamentally not said, not seen and not expected …………we have neither the coaching nor the practice to develop our creative actions and interactions (most creativity is INTER – active)…..so our creative action abilities are not well developed because they are not taught, coached, shared or practiced.
Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.
Ludwig Wittegenstein, Culture and Value
Sooooo………..We are accustomed to being spectators giving an account of what has already happened and we are thereby expecting to and expected to build our future from, and based on, almost entirely these various pasts. That leaves us more-or-less repeating and incrementally modifying what already exists or is known and accepted rather than being on the field of creative play………discovering and causing new actions and new ideas. We have become very good at knowing and we are often undeveloped with our abilities for creating and inventing newly ……………dealing with what is not known, not seen or not said.
So now we face climate change, most honestly said, climate crisis……which demands action, discovery, and invention…..beyond what we already know. If we remain beholden to this orientation we call spectator, we will not generate the actions and ideas and relationships and the resources that are required to handle climate change, to wit, to reduce global carbon emissions from what is the predicted carbon emissions in 2030 which is 60gigatons (a gigaton is 1 billion tons) to reduce the predictable 60 gigatons to41 gigatons by 2030…….a 32% reduction. While this is ambitious, and takes our stand, creativity, and action, IT is NOT a pipedream. And to turn a pipedream into an accessible possibility, we must get out of the stands and on the field of action and invention.
Which brings me to the climate change/crisis and 2303orbust. I am on the Board of 203orbust.org. We are committed to empower I n d i v i d u a l s to interrupt/cease waiting, wishing, wanting, ignoring, resigning to or hoping that some big entity….corporations, governments, technologies, miracles……will “save the day” when in fact it is only small groups becoming big groups of individuals that moves the events we call history…….It is individuals that have always been at the source of what wants to happen just as it was individuals that created the right to vote for all people, the end of land mines in 95% of the worlds countries, curbing drunk driving, smartphones, including programs that always started with individuals and ended up delivering a breakthrough through larger entities like the government…. such as the Apollo program producing multiple landings on the Moon, and the Internet….all were begun by a few individuals.
Never doubt the power of a small group of committed citizens to change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
Margaret Mead, cultural anthropologist
Soooooo……………. People love to play games in almost every aspect of life. People get pulled in when a particular challenge gets constituted as a game. Games are designed to be winn-able/lose-able, against some outcome in some designated amount of time, where there are ground rules and where the means to win the game cannot be predicted ahead of time and the actions/inter-actions are invented, created, on the field as the game unfolds.
Creative action e m e r g e s from the commitment to act.
2030orbust.org is designed as a game app that you can download in a click. Go to 2030orbust.org in your App store and go ahead and download it. The app enables you to say what you will do to impact climate crisis and allows you to experiment with actions you may have never considered. For instance, if you are a passionate meat eater and you decide to give up 1 burger per week (and save, all in, 600 gallons of water, not to mention the methane gas, the massive deforestation, carbon-intensive fertilizers/feeds with water runoff and carcinogenic impacts). You realize that you are unconscious regarding plastic and you promise that you and your household will use 50% less plastic and to recycle 100% of it including plastic wrappings or where possible or workable, not to buy goods in plastics packaging .You decide to finally insulate your home or living space, reducing your carbon impact 15 to 30%. If you can do it, you install solar. You take public transportation.. You use zoom and cut out 2/3 of your annual transportation costs. You research and experiment with all kinds of things…………..what to do with Styrofoam; what are hybrids; what are electric cars; what is it to buy local; maybe less Amazon and maybe buy less things; give away things; turn lights out, really; experiment with your thermostat, especially in summer and winter. You explore authentically what is something I want, and what is something I actually need. What is a nice -o-have and what is genuinely a must-have.
These are the personal actions you can discover and take directly in your own personal life. Without your direct personal engagement in what takes the crisis out of climate crisis, your impact lacks the punch and power of your personal stand. Thoughtful, arms length-at-a-distance financial contribution may very well be essential and it is a bit too nice and reasonable, and that arms length relationship to the crisis lacks the power of expressing and developing your personal stand in the matter. From your stand, you can generate what you will bring to the larger community and have it reflect who and what represents your stand. This will guide with whom and how you will support organizational action…. ….organizations, candidacies, exemplary corporations (REI: Patagonia; Whole Foods; are only a few of the many that you can research on google ), writings and research, public speaking, media interviews……all forward the a c t I o n.
Only action gives traction.
So where might 2030orbust.org fit regarding your stand? 2030orbust.org is committed to provide a platform for individuals to declare what they are up to, to measure their progress, and to do so in a community context of friends and allies. What you can take on and do is have your actions recorded in the app and this also registers you in concert with the larger 2030orbust.org community who is now 3,000 strong, headed to 500,000,000 strong. If we get 500,000,000 people participating, we can hit the 41 gigatons target for 2030. That puts humanity on a sustainable track after 2030. If we miss the 32% reduction in emissions by 2030, the planet will get nasty.
So how does one go from being a spectator to a participant to a key mover, in what wants to happen? One simply says YES. I AM IN. I OWN THE CLIMATE CRISIS AS MINE. IT IS RIGHT UP THERE AT THE TOP OF MY AGENDA. EACH DAY I WILL DISCOVER WHAT WORKS.
This is called a declaration, the taking of a stand for what is possible. This country was born out a stand taken by 56 people, a declaration….the Declaration of Independence.
Personal note: In 1984 I took the stand that HIV is not always fatal and that AIDS will be and is a manageable condition. In 2 and ½ years we were demonstrating long-term survivorship even before the drug cocktail of 1996 and indeed AIDS is now a manageable condition allowing a full life. I gained access to committees of top-level world-class scientists ( including Kary Mullis, 1992 Nobel Prize winner, who invented the PCR machine we use now to test for covid ) and our All’s Well Project got much media attention. All of this came from committing myself to take a stand to support and empower a breakthrough with HIV, then sharing this possibility with others, including PWAs (People with AIDS), and empowering people to act outside the predictable that they had been resigned to. The needle moved.
Here is the good news: all of us have our attention on the possible and real destruction of the planet Earth at least as far as human life goes. A surprising thing happens to this shared background of upset, annoyance, anger, sadness, resignation when one takes a stand for what is possible.
That the moment one definitely commits oneself, the worry, upset and resignation transforms itself into action, presence of mind, profound acceptance of whatever wants to happen, and one gets a freedom to be oneself, to get straight and appropriate to what is at stake, and you become highly focused on what needs to be done. The transformation in your state of being is almost instantaneous. From worry and upset to being committed, focused, and at home in the actions you take.
So how one shifts from being a spectator into being a powerful participants one quite simply and directly declares oneself: one takes a stand for what is possible (even if at first unlikely). Thereby, one connects with one’s support network such as provided by 2030orbust.org, and one gets in a mode of discovering what works and what actions one can take that develop and deliver real impact.
My request: if you have read this far, come on down………..you are past being a spectator….you are a creator of what is now wanted and needed.
Sign up for 2030orbust.org by downloading the app onto your cell phone, and going on the website, 2030orbust.org. Come to our Community Call meetings every third Thursday of each month from 6 pm to 7:30 pm Eastern and for that see 2030OrBust.org.
THANK YOU FOR SHOWING UP FOR WHAT MATTERS ❤ .
