Many years ago, I attended a weekly, evening, continuing education course about Creative Writing. The instructor as you might guess focused on creativity and its expression. During one class discussion we had to think of a subject on which to write about things to do at a Caribbean resort. There were 20 people in the class and I happened to be last to speak. As you might surmise, all the easy topics were used by the time it came to me. I thought about my trips to Jamaica and said, “Sea-life to be seen near the beaches at dawn.” The instructor and several of the class burst in laughter about anyone being up at dawn in a resort unless they happened to be heading back from the clubs at that time. I was somewhat amused by this response to my suggested topic. I am often up at dawn wherever I am, and although it is a niche audience for this topic, I have always been amazed by the kinds of sea-life that comes close to the beach when all the humans are not about. I have even snorkeled around dawn just of the beach to see the wealth of teeming life that exists in the quiet shallows. What struck me most about the response was that it ridiculed my simple effort at creativity. The teacher might have spoken creativity, but she obviously had her own ideas as to what that meant! We all know art, music and literature are highly subjective, but that doesn’t stop critics passing judgment on what constitutes good and bad!
In 1960, Tony Hancock, a cynical British Comedian, did a film called The Rebel, where he played an artist. At the start of the film, he sculps a large cubic impression of the Goddess Aphrodite. Of course, the critics in the film pan the sculpture. Later, he becomes a celebrated artist, and brings the forgotten Aphrodite out of storage where it is now acclaimed by the critics. What passes for art is always subjective, but the creative process is individual whatever the outcome may be. Everyone has an imagination, and we all use our imagination to be creative. Now when it comes to Sustainable Living, imagine a world where the people are considered of prime importance. Imagine a world where happiness and well-being are the primary indicators of success. Imagine… A New World we want and all can agree upon. If we can agree upon the framework for what a sustainable world can be, then we can imagine it and manifest it into reality. What we imagine becomes our thoughts. Our thoughts become our beliefs, and our beliefs focus our actions. I know from talking with hundreds of people that a majority know the world is screwed up and that they want something better.
In 1999, research showed that an emerging human group was evident. They were called Cultural Creatives and the researchers had this to say about them: “[They] are not alone. [They] have lots of company on ways to making a better future. That’s important because most of them believe they are pretty much alone.”
“The very real prospect of an Emerging Planetary Wisdom Culture is an antidote to the rampant fear, cynicism, and despair of our age. If we only seek to run away from the collapse of civilization that we fear, we will scatter our efforts, running in all directions, like an anthill that has been stamped upon. If humanity is to survive this period of planetary crises, we need a collective positive image of a future that works for all, allowing us to work as a whole to form goals and strategies that build a positive future—not stupidly fallling into resource wars, ecological collapse, plagues, famines, and population collapse. So, we need to work with the positive trends of our era to create a future that is not only sustainable but wise and beautiful.” http://culturalcreatives.org
“The Cultural Creatives are the carrier population for the emerging wisdom culture. Paul Ray has been researching their values, lifestyles and beliefs for 25 years. Across the planet, they are innovators for the culture, not so much in technologies as in beliefs, worldviews, values and ways of life. They are the opinion leaders, and the participants in all the new social movements of the past 60 years who have time and again shaped others’ views, practices and adoptions of these new ways. Their Green values and lifestyles and their values of inner development both psychological and spiritual are the key to the emerging new culture. New Cultural Creatives surveys in Europe, Japan and the US all show the same trends.”
In his book David and Goliath, Malcolm Gladwell assert that the underdogs actually win 85% of the time. That’s because they change the rules by which the system is played. The hierarchy have set the rules, but they do not have a real game plan for what to do with the underdogs who decide to leave them behind and simply ignore them! While Goliath was a mountain of a man who probably could not be defeated by any other warrior, he was not able to defeat David, simply because David was not a standard warrior, he was a slinger. It has been estimated that the impact of a stone from a top slinger was similar to a 45-caliber bullet. Goliath was essentially bringing a sword to a gunfight! The essence of this story is that the small guy facing off against the big gut is not always a given conclusion. Indeed, as I said earlier, the small guy can change the rules and expectations of what is the accepted norm, thereby gaining the upper hand. What we are seeing now is the intention of large numbers of people worldwide that desire a more caring and egalitarian society. As such, they are changing the rules of how we ought to live that is different from the current materialistic-consumer worldview. So what might we be expecting? To be continued………………………
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