Privilege
Privilege is often invisible to those who posses it because it represents the absence of obstacle. A collective of unearned advantages, social buffers and systemic benefits that pave an easier path through life.
Philosophy
Living Systems Design is a philosophy modeled after nature. How do we design human cultural systems that are modeled after nature?
It describes a set of core values, what we measure and principles, the guardrails for human culture.
“We are moving from unconscious evolution through natural selection, to conscious evolution by choice.”
– Barbara Marx Hubbard
It is time we recognize that we humans are the cause of the imbalance in our natural systems, and when separated from human intervention, nature builds stable, thriving eco-systems self-organizing blueprints.
What if we took off our shoes and planted our feet in the fertility of this moment. Applying our human ingenuity to expound upon this miraculous system. Holding the intent of making this earth the heaven it can be!
What Do You Stand For
Congress shall make no law respecting ...or the right of the people peaceably to assemble...while powerful, we must move from being against to standing for!
What We Sacrifice
There are times in life we have to make sacrifices, choices to support our kids, parents or a dear friend. Maybe there are 2 events happening at the same time and there is only 1 of me! What we don't often see is the sacrifices we make automatically because we don't know we have other options.
The Nature Of Work
The current narrative around how AI is going to change the nature of work is really just exposing an illusion we have yet to name. Those who are being paid the most are doing the least valuable work and those being paid the least are not valuable because they are easily replaceable. The system is inside-out!
* * * – – – * * * S. O. S.
Ironically, we sit in the silence of our aloneness, not realizing that the answer is obvious... we need others to achieve anything great in the world. It's time we notice what's needed, ask what we can do, and most importantly, find those who can help us.
The Real Cost
Supply and demand, marketplaces or advertising specials...how do prices get set? More important what does something really cost? In our current system there are many hidden and deferred costs. Yet amongst them all, there is a cost that we except as natural without ever questioning it...that cost DEBT.
How Would You Like To Pay For That?
In our current world our economic system siphons money out of local communities and into a financial system that's primary purpose is to generate more money. It doesn't create any value! What if it's possible to build a system that works feeds the local community first.
One Money To Rule Them All…
Our current monetary system is organized around debt-based fiat currencies. What if the failures we see in society are based on this design.
The Last Pod Caste
We seek content and information from a variety of on-line social media influencers and podcasters. What if this is just a way of avoiding the hard work of claiming our agency and actually having an impact in the world?
GURU – Gee, You Are You
We are living through a quiet collapse of trust. The old authorities still speak with confidence; governments, experts, institutions, systems; but more and more people can feel the fracture between what is said and what is lived. Where do you look for trust?
Becoming Hopetopian
We are living in a time that could be a pivotal moment in human evolution. Will our technology, in particular Artificial Intelligence, lead to a utopian or dystopian future? There is a different choice.
The Conversations We Need To STOP Having
Our current world is self-organized into opposing groups who engage in a dialog where no agreement is possible...the result, nothing changes.
Rules Always Fail
We live in a world that wants certainty, where there is a fear of uncertainty. Unfortunately one of he core tenants of physics is the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. Our human response to this, is putting in rules, and in that bureaucracies are born!
The Art of Failure
We live in a world that separates arts and science, the creative and the reductive. Its time to shift from an either/or to a both/and perspective.
Leaders Eat Last
In our current hierarchical world our power dynamic is top down, command and control...more simple power over and power without. In a new world we shift to a network model of power within and power with.
WWW – World Wide Why
Our hyper-masculine world is characterized by jumping straight into solving a problem, the what and how...never asking the why! And underneath this what and how, seeing individual needs, without identifying the greater need, the needs of the system.
Mirror, Mirror On The Bridge
In our current paradigm, money is power, the ability to channel capital is the ultimate power. Even when channeled to social impact it is often akin to putting lipstick on a pig...the underlying system doesn't change.
Walking Across The Bardo
We are staring out across a chasm, seeing the storms of multiple disasters approaching in the rear-view mirror...we need to build a bridge!
The Things We Don’t See Coming
We think we know, so therefore we do. And in that knowing we limit possibilities, miss what is right in front of us. This is where we miss the need. By taking a step into the not knowing, magic happens!
Good Problems To Have
We are living in what Buddhist philosophy calls the Bardo, the place between death and birth. During this time it's important how we navigate it, solving problems, the right problems at the right time. We must build a bridge from where we are to a future we must believe is possible.
The Girl Who Couldn’t Say NO
Sofia learned to survive by disappearing…until her boss tries to pull her back into a familiar trap. This time, she doesn’t freeze. She burns.
What You Heal, We Inherit
We’ve mistaken policy for medicine and spreadsheets for soul, but systems don’t heal unless people do. The violence of our economy, the brittleness of our institutions, the loneliness in our neighborhoods — these aren’t glitches; they’re the outer shape of inner wounds we’ve left unnamed. This piece makes a simple, demanding claim: what you heal, we all inherit. If we want a livable future, the work begins in our nervous systems and ripples into how we design, decide, and care for our shared home.
The Week The Lights Didn’t Go Out
Imagine a neighborhood anywhere in the world...winter has set in and all that comes with it. Something happens and in that moment contributionism comes to life...
The Flawed Economy
We’ve mistaken money for the economy and built our lives around a profit-centric world...like insisting the Earth sits at the center of the cosmos while the stars and planets refuse to align. What happens if we challenge that assumption, separate needs from desires, and redesign “the management of our home” around people and planet first?
Winter is Here
We have to face the reality of our current situation. Framed from the cycles of The Fourth Turning and redesigned through Living System Design and Contributionism.
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