Timeline Email Edition
March/April 1999 - No. 44
A Publication of the Foundation for Global Community
http://www.globalcommunity.org
Phone: (650) 328 7756 Fax: (650) 328 7785
In this Issue:
Peter Russell: Science and Spirituality An Invitation to the "Edge Course" Eileen Rinde: The Milky Way Galaxy in a Box of Salt A World Without Nukes: Ten Reasons to Abolish Nuclear Weapons Donella Meadows: When the Economic Machine Sputters, Consider Replacing it Hafsat Abiola: Profile of an Emerging Leader What the Tule House Has to Teach Us Blips on the Timeline
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of space, time, and matter—things that SCIENCE AND can be pinned down and measured. But the inner world of mind and SPIRITUALITY consciousness, which can’t be touched Peter Russell and can’t be measured, is the world that spirituality has explored in depth, Peter Russell is an author, physicist, and whereas science has almost totally futurist. One of the first to introduce human ignored it until very recently. potential seminars into the corporate field, he has been lecturing and consulting on There are good reasons for this: Science creativity, learning, stress management, and tries to be objective; it doesn’t want personal development for twenty years for clients such as IBM, Apple, American the subjective to come in. It wants to Express, Shell Oil, and British Petroleum. determine what is true, independent Books include The Global Brain and Waking of the mind or the mental state of the Up In Time, a revised edition of his earlier observer. According to science, the book The White Hole in Time. He is whole world seems to function very currently working on a new book with the nicely without any need for working title From Science to God: The consciousness. In fact, the empirical Journey of a Devout Skeptic. Some of the world would make much more sense if ideas in this book were the basis of a recent consciousness didn’t exist. talk at the Foundation for Global Community excerpted on the following Scientists find themselves in the strange pages. position of knowing they are conscious beings, and yet there is nothing in science "I've called my talk this evening to predict the existence of consciousness. “Science and Spirituality.” I want to That’s what I have become fascinated by, explore how these things are coming and that’s where my new book takes together at this stage in history in a way off—the fact that consciousness doesn’t that was not possible until now. fit into the modern scientific paradigm in Generally, we have thought that science which the world of space, time, matter, has one aspect of truth, and religion and and energy is real. It is believed that spirituality are talking about something when we fully understand the world of different, and people think one must be space, time, matter, and energy, then we right and the other must be wrong. My will understand the whole universe and view is that they are just two different be able to explain everything. That’s the approaches to truth. standard view. But there is absolutely nothing in that worldview that predicts It’s interesting to look at the origin of the that any living creature, animal, or human word “spirit.” It comes from the Latin being will be conscious. Nothing. Yet, spiritus, which means wind, or air, or given that we are conscious, it’s the one breath; vapor. What these words have in thing we cannot doubt. common is something that is immaterial; it can’t be seen; it can’t be touched; it That was Descartes’ idea: Cogito, ergo can’t be measured. This is what mind is. sum (I think, therefore, I am). It is often Science has looked at the material world
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Ó1999 Foundation for Global Community TIMELINE thought he meant “My thinking gives me appreciate what they are really getting existence,” but that isn’t quite accurate. into. When science begins to understand He was saying, “My thinking proves my consciousness, it will begin to understand existence.” Descartes was looking for spiritus, the nonmaterial aspect of life. absolute truth, and he invented what he When we fully understand the nature of called “the method of doubt.” He said, consciousness, we will begin to “Whatever is absolutely true must be understand what the spiritual traditions absolutely beyond a doubt,” and set to have been teaching all along. I believe work to determine what there was that that consciousness is the bridge from the he could not doubt. He found that he world of matter to the world of spirit. could doubt any philosophy; he could doubt any idea; he could doubt anything Science doesn’t realize this yet, but as it anybody said; he could doubt his own begins to look at consciousness, I think thinking; he could doubt his feelings; he it’s going to find itself being forced to could doubt what he was seeing. About look at the question What is God? the only thing he couldn’t doubt was that Most scientists think that they’ve gotten he was doubting—and that he was rid of any need for God whatsoever. Paul actually having experiences. Therefore, Davies talks about deep time, looking the one thing he could not doubt was: I back through time to the origins of the am. Consciousness is; there is inner universe; deep space, looking out to the experience. edges of the universe; and deep structure, looking down in matter, It’s true for all of us. The one thing we through molecules, through atoms, down know for certain is that each of us is an to the quarks and the photons, to the experiencing, conscious being. And yet, deepest level of structure that you can go science has absolutely no way of dealing to. Science has looked into deep space, with that, the most obvious thing in life. deep time, deep structure and found Science can explain what’s happening absolutely no place for God and no need down inside atoms and what’s happening for God. The whole thing works at the edge of the universe, but it cannot perfectly well, so, QED, science has explain consciousness. It’s a paradox— disproved any need for God. without consciousness there would be no science, but science doesn’t know what Well, what spiritual teaching of any to do, at all, with consciousness. worth ever said God was out there in space and time, or embedded in matter? Today things are just beginning to If you look at most teachings, God is change. In the past few years, some something to do with consciousness, scientists have begun to look at with inner experience, things that science consciousness to try to explain it. There has deliberately avoided looking at. is a new scientific journal called The I think when science begins to seriously Journal of Consciousness Studies. expore consciousness, it will find itself There’s been a whole series of opening up to a whole new under- conferences on the science of standing of what we mean by God. consciousness, and more are scheduled. However, I don’t think they fully
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A New Paradigm is the basis of the Universe; space, time, and matter are secondary. And that’s The idea of paradigm shifts, of how a completely revolutionary. Most scientists scientific belief system changes, is won’t hear about it at all. But then, you familiar to most of us today. Probably the know, 500 years ago the Vatican most famous example is the Copernican wouldn’t hear about the Earth moving. revolution, the shift from seeing the Earth at the center of the universe to When you take the worldview that realizing it is revolving around the sun. consciousness is primary, normal physical It’s easy for us to laugh now at how science comes out exactly the same. stubbornly people then held on to their Nothing changes, apart from a few little old views, but if you had been brought twists in quantum theory and relativity. up with that worldview and the church But suddenly, spirituality comes totally told you it was so, you would not alive in ways that fit right in with science. question it. Plus, you had only to look—the Earth is clearly still, and the Let me give you an example of one way sun and the stars clearly move through in which I see consciousness is primary. the sky. Each of us is sitting here, perceiving this room. We’re seeing, hearing, touching, The Copernican revolution was a shift smelling, and so forth. From elementary that took about 150 years and involved biology, we all know what happens when quite a few different people, including we “see” the room: light comes into the Galileo, Kepler, and Isaac Newton. I eye; hits the retina at the back of the eye; think we are on the edge of another triggers electrical impulses which get equally profound shift with regard to transferred back to the brain where they consciousness. The current scientific are processed and analyzed; and model says that space-time-matter- somehow, a picture appears in our mind. energy is the primary reality, and the It happens in a way that is completely scientists who are looking at mysterious. Science cannot explain it at consciousness are trying to explain it in all. The truth is, we’re not actually seeing terms of the physical world. Some are the world directly. We create this looking at quantum physics, others are experience. Every second of our lives, looking at complexity theory, others are we are actually creating our experience looking at brain chemistry. Everybody of the world. It seems so real, we fall has his or her own idea of how into the trap of thinking we are seeing consciousness arises. But maybe they are the reality directly. But we aren’t. We all on the wrong track. No one is are, each of us, creating our own questioning the fundamental assumption personal experience of the world. of the modern scientific worldview that matter is insentient, matter is not And this is the key, I think, to beginning conscious. to make the shift—to recognize there are actually two realities: There is the reality What I’m exploring in my new book is out there; and then there is the reality we turning the current paradigm around: experience. The great German philo- Consciousness is primary. Consciousness sopher, Immanuel Kant, saw this about
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200 years ago. He said that what we completely. This is interesting, because experience is a phenomenon that arises in if light travels at the speed of light, then, consciousness, and this is quite different as far as light is concerned, there is no from the thing itself. In the physical time and there is no space. We think world there’s no color, for example. space and time are real, but as far as light There is light of a certain frequency is concerned, space and time don’t exist. which the brain interprets as color. We What Einstein showed is that light is the all see it, but it’s not actually out absolute, not space and time. The speed there—it is something we have created. of light never varies. However far or fast you go, light will always pass you at the Scientists today look at the brain as an speed of light. information processor. I think the brain is actually a reality generator. Every Light is the absolute also in quantum second, every micro-second of our life, physics. Quantum physics says the brain is creating our experience of that if you increase the energy of a reality. Moreover, we base this reality system, it doesn’t go up smoothly, but in on just a tiny part of what is out there. A jumps. A quantum is an amount, the dog hears much higher frequencies than jump. Each jump is exactly the same. we do, and also perceives smells that we Every single jump of energy is an exact never smell. So a dog’s reality is, in a number of quanta. Moreover, every sense, far richer than ours, at least in photon of light is an identical quantum of terms of sound and smell. A dog lives in action. Every interaction in the Universe a different reality. Different species live above the atomic level is mediated by the in different realities, each of them exchange of quanta, by photons. So you creating their own experience. can say the whole Universe is inter- connected by light. Light and God Did I hear, somewhere,“God is light; in The two great paradigm shifts in science the beginning there was light; let there be this century have been Einstein’s Theory light?” I also find it interesting how we of Relativity and Quantum Theory. The use the word “light” for the life within conclusion of Special Relativity Theory is us. We talk about the light of that any observation, any measurement consciousness, the inner light, seeing the of space and time, is not absolute. We light, being illumined. It isn’t dark inside. think that space and time are fixed—the Just as everything in the physical world distance from here to that wall is 40 feet, really comes back to light, everything in and that’s fixed. What Einstein showed is our experience is, in a sense, a that somebody zipping through this room manifestation of the light of conscious- at half the speed of light would measure ness. So, “God is light” starts having that distance at 35 feet. And that isn’t an truth not just in terms of the physical illusion—distance really is different at world, but also in terms of our different speeds. Time is also different at experience of reality. They become more different speeds. If someone could travel and more fascinating, these parallels. at the speed of light, space would contract to zero and time would stop
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It is part of nearly all cultures that in the deepest states of consciousness, one realizes a sense of union. In Eastern philosophy, it’s often said “Atman is Brahman.” Brahman is the universal An Invitation essence of everything. Atman is the essence of your own consciousness. So The “Edge” training seminar held last the essence of consciousness is the August at Sequoia Seminar in Ben essence of all creation; is “God.” Some Lomond, California (Timeline, Sept/Oct yogis and very high saints talk about the 1998), was so successful that two more whole universe being me, or the being seminars are scheduled for this summer. within me. Perhaps they are people who, These seminars are open to people who through deep meditation, through lots of would like to experience the “Living on inner work, exploration, clarifying their the Edge of Evolution” program or learn minds, have come to realize that it is all a how to facilitate it for their own groups. creation of consciousness, that everything knowable is, in a sense, within The program is based on addressing them. basic life questions: Who are we? Where have we come from? Where are we It’s interesting that you can say the “F” going? And what must we do to have word on television today, and you can meaningful survival? These questions are use the “L” word, love, in business, but addressed in a new context, because for the word “God” is very taboo still. What the first time, we can trace our ancestry science has done is to say we can take an back 15 billion years to the beginning— idea and we can experiment with it and and see existence as a sacred, see what happens. The experiment which continuous, and unified whole. I would like to suggest—and it’s one to play with—is to take the hypothesis that With this knowledge, we have a new God is the essence of consciousness, and basis for answering these basic life that consciousness is primary, and that questions. We have a new story. And the mystical statement “I am God” means from this new story, we have the that I am-ness is God-ness. Then say, foundation for the emergence of a new “Supposing that is true, how do I live my culture, an “integral” culture, which is life?” based on an understanding of our role in the evolutionary process. I believe that when we really understand consciousness, and consciousness as the Living on the Edge of Evolution is a source of everything we know, we will participative exploration of how, begin to start forging that bridge across together, we can do this. to God. Living on the Edge of Evolution: June 23 - 27, and August 4 - 8, 1999 Waking Up in Time is published by Origin Press, Inc. Novato, CA. 1998. The seminar starts with dinner on the first day (Wednesday) and ends before lunch on the last day (Sunday). Cost is $375 if
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Ó1999 Foundation for Global Community TIMELINE registration is received by May 1, $400 Eileen: Galaxies have three general thereafter. This includes room, board, and shapes: spiral, spherical, and irregular. materials. Please call or write Joe Kresse at Spherical galaxies are large and very old, the Foundation for further information or a and many of them no longer produce registration form. new stars. Spiral galaxies are middle- aged and middle-sized. They still give birth to new stars. The youngest galaxies haven’t spun themselves into spirals yet and have irregular shapes. Our galaxy, the Milky Way, is a middle-aged spiral The Milky Way Galaxy and is still birthing stars. in a Box of Salt There are 50 to 100 billion galaxies in the “There is a Native American saying that the Universe. We thought that ours was the first miracle is that anything exists, the only one until, in the 1920s, modern second miracle is that life exists, and the telescopes began to reveal that the third miracle is that we know that we know. Universe we inhabit is vastly larger and The primary reason for doing this exercise more complex than we had known. Even is to consider what we now know about the the smallest galaxies contain 100 billion Universe and to experience wonder, not only stars. Our Milky Way galaxy has 300 at the magnitude, but at the complexity, billion stars. intelligence, and beauty of the mystery from which it arose. Gravitational forces cause galaxies to Eileen Rinde cluster in “local groups.” There are about 30 galaxies in our local group, and ours is the second largest galaxy in the group. One of the most popular experiences in The only one larger than our Milky Way the Foundation’s program “Living on the is Andromeda, a spiral-shaped galaxy. Edge of Evolution” is a presentation by Our next-door neighbor, the Magellanic Eileen Rinde demonstrating the vastness Cloud, an irregular-shaped galaxy, is the of our Milky Way Galaxy. Using the smallest. contents of a box of salt to simulate stars on a background of black velvet cloth, The “local groups” of galaxies tend to she tells the story of the birth and join with other groups to form chains and formation of the galaxy, pouring salt ribbons called galaxy superclusters, crystals to illustrate the narrative as she separated by enormous voids in space. goes. In closing, she reveals that it would take 30,000 boxes of salt to portray How did the galaxies come to be? Their accurately the number of stars in the stories began 15 billion years ago. An Milky Way. We thought some of our infinitesimal, empty point in primordial readers might want to experiment with space-time contained the potential for this way of conveying the awe-inspiring the entire Universe. There was nothing, size and majesty of our galaxy home. yet there was something that gave rise to an event called the “singularity,”the first moment of our Universe.
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waves of energy outward. Stars were It was smaller than one of these grains of born in that turmoil and intensity. Gravity salt, yet everything that now exists arose acted to hold them in clusters, and from that singularity. In one singular, galaxies were created. primal instant, it exploded outward, creating matter, space, and time. At the center of the Milky Way Galaxy is a black hole—every galaxy has a black Until the 1920s, we did not know about hole at its center, as far as we know. A this. Scientists thought that our galaxy black hole looks like nothingness, but in (the only one they knew) had always fact it is really matter so dense that it hung, floating in existing space and that absorbs all light. The matter comes from time had always existed and space had ancient, primal stars that have collapsed always existed. But the observation by and died. Edwin Hubble that the Universe is expanding was to change all that. The primal stars, called supernovas, formed additional elements in the heat As Hubble showed, each cluster of of their interiors as they collapsed. We, galaxies is moving away from its ourselves, are made of the elements from neighbors. For example, the Centaurus the dust of stars: the calcium in our Galaxy cluster is 200 million light years bones, the iron in our blood—100 from ours and is hurtling away so fast elements were made in the stars. As that every two seconds it increases its physicist Timothy Ferris says, “When we distance from us by the width of North look at subatomic particles, when we America. look at the stars and galaxies, we see evidence from every direction that the Because of the expansion, astronomers Universe is all of a piece and that it realized that the Universe can not have began as a single seed, smaller than an existed forever. A billion years ago,the atom. And, in a very real sense, you and I galaxy clusters were closer together. A were there. Every scrap of matter and billion years before that they were closer energy in our blood and bones and in the still, and so on. By working backwards in synapses of our thoughts can trace its this way, astronomers have been able to lineage back to the origin of the calculate that the Universe began about Universe.” 15 billion years ago. They call the beginning the “Big Bang.” As the supernovas spewed out new elements, they created new stars. One of Out of the singularity, the Big Bang, these stars is our Sun. Our Milky Way energy particles exploded at a fantastic Galaxy was approximately 7 billion rate. But as they began to slow down, years old when the Sun was born. It is they were able to coalesce into the two about two-thirds of the way out toward most elementary atoms, helium and the edge of the galaxy, 30,000 light years hydrogen. As time went on, these atoms from the center. It is a medium-size star, began to condense into clouds and they which we should be grateful about collided with each other. The heat at the because if it were larger or smaller, it center of the clouds built up until it sent could not have spawned life. Out of the
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Ó1999 Foundation for Global Community TIMELINE debris of the super nova death that We Are Lucky That Our Sun is formed the Sun, nine planets were the Right Size. formed. Only one of those planets had the right conditions to evolve life—the The Earth orbits a small, single star in right size and the right distance from the the boondocks of our galaxy. More than Sun. half of the stars in our galaxy are double or even triple suns. What if our home We are well aware that our Earth is world circled suns like these? As it rotating. We experience it in the changes moved near one sun and then another, between day and night. We also temperatures would change catastro- experience the revolving of the Earth phically, probably rendering life around the Sun via the yearly calendar impossible. What if we were a planet and seasons. But we have no way to near the seething radiation at the center experience in our daily life that the Sun, of the galaxy? Or what if our Sun varied with its contingent planets, is also in size and brightness, the way many revolving around the center of the galaxy stars do? Then life as we know it would at the rate of 220 miles per second. It probably never have started. If our Sun travels once around the galaxy every 250 were much more massive than it is, it million years and has already completed would burn its fuel more quickly. Instead the circuit 20 times. And the galaxy itself of being stable for so many billions of is revolving around the center of our years, allowing life to develop slowly, it local group of 30 galaxies; our local would have burnt itself out in a cosmic group is also revolving around its cluster flash in the pan. of local groups. —David Levy
These are just a few of the things that we Why is the Night Sky Dark? have only recently learned from science. The knowledge that we do not live in a With so many stars and other bright static, limited Universe, but a dynamic, things in the Universe, why doesn’t their expanding, and creative one is so new light come charging in on us? Their that we have scarcely taken it in. The fact combined radiation should make the sky that we can consider and ponder the as bright as the Sun. The conditions for meaning of what we know is perhaps the darkness were set in the instant the greatest miracle of the myriad of miracles Universe began with a titanic explosion. that the Universe reveals to us. All the superclusters of galaxies are still expanding from that explosion. The Note: The Milky Way Galaxy is a spiral darkness, it seems, is the result of the 100,000 light years across. It is 10 to 14 young age of our expanding billion years old and contains 300 billion Universe—still so young that light from stars. There are approximately 10 million its most distant objects hasn’t even grains to represent stars in one box of reached us yet. salt. In order to accurately represent all —David Levy the stars in the Milky Way, 30,000 boxes of salt would be needed. David Levy quotes are from Parade magazine. Levy, author of 20 books, has discovered 21 comets.
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governed the world for decades. They’re questioning whether the doctrine of deterrence is really all it’s cracked up to be. They’re elucidating the absurdity of a philosophy that regards a threat of Abolition: Daring to Hope nuclear annihilation as the key to the for a World Without Nukes world’s safety.
An Editorial from the It’s an uphill battle to make such a case. Minneapolis Star Tribune The planet has been living with the bomb for a half-century now, and its people Some of America’s free-thinkers have have come to believe they have no been gathering lately, whipping choice. But the leaders of this new themselves into an idealistic froth. These movement insist that abolition has never antiestablishment types consider been in closer reach. themselves crusaders for world peace, and they’re pushing an outlandish This argument is enjoying much-needed proposal. The Cold War is over, they amplification and analysis right now in say, and it was a foolish business in the Jonathan Schell’s new book, The Gift of first place. Now that the Berlin Wall is in Time. Schell explores the thinking of the bits and Russians are eating Big Macs, generals and politicians who conceived they insist it makes less sense than ever and waged the Cold War, and emerges to keep a huge store of missiles. What with the conviction that shaking off the they propose is close to unthinkable: It’s nuclear shroud has at last become a time, they say, to abolish nuclear realistic goal. “History has handed us a weapons. political windfall,” observes Schell. “Why do we refuse to spend it?” And who are these dreamers? Jimmy Carter. Mikhail Gorbachev. Gen. George Spending the windfall—getting rid of the Lee Butler, former head of the U.S. weapons—will take great resolve and Strategic Command. Robert McNamara, courage. It will require patience, former defense secretary. Gen. Charles ingenuity, surveillance, and international Horner, commander of the Allied Air teamwork. But above all, it will require Forces in the Gulf War. Paul Nitze, rethinking the conventional nuclear Ronald Reagan’s top arms’control wisdom—including the deeply negotiator. Helmut Schmidt, former entrenched notion that disarmament is chancellor of Germany. Admiral Andrew impossible. As Gen. Butler argues in Goodpaster, former supreme Allied Schell’s book, “We need to reflect on commander of Europe. how revolutionary ideas get implemented and become evolutionary ideas. The first It doesn’t often happen that a boat is and foremost test is whether, at its very rocked by the crew that built it in the first core, the idea makes sense. And I believe place. And this illustrious group of that the idea of abolishing nuclear traditionalists is rocking hard—daring to weapons passes that test with flying challenge assumptions that have colors.”
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and a founder of Abolition 2000, a Global The idea makes even more sense when Network to eliminate Nuclear Weapons. you consider the alternative. If the United States and its official nuclear 1. Existing Obligations fellows decide to hold on to their weapons, they’ll have a hard time The nuclear weapons states have made persuading countries like India and solemn promises to the international Pakistan to give up theirs. The nuclear community to negotiate in good faith to club is getting less exclusive all the time. achieve nuclear disarmament. Each of the Each new entrant is buying into the same nuclear weapons states accepted this bankrupt theory that fueled the Cold obligation when it signed the Non- War: that threatening to kill millions of Proliferation Treaty (NPT), and extended people is the best survival strategy this promise at the 1995 NPT Review money can buy. and Extension Conference. India and Pakistan, which are not signatories of the “That’s barbaric,” says Butler to Schell. NPT, have committed themselves to “In fact, it is more barbaric than, perhaps, abolish their nuclear arsenals if the other any measure for survival that you’ll find nuclear weapons states agree to do so. in the animal kingdom. I have arrived at The only nuclear weapons state that has the conclusion that it is simply wrong, not made this promise is Israel, and morally speaking, for any mortal to be surely it could be convinced to do so if invested with the authority to call into the other nuclear weapons states agreed question the survival of the planet. to the elimination of their nuclear arsenals. The International Court of “Nuclear weapons are irrational devices,” Justice, the world’s highest court, says Butler, and “the vast majority of unanimously highlighted the obligation people on the face of this earth will for nuclear disarmament in its 1996 endorse the proposition that such Opinion: “There exists an obligation to weapons have no place among us. There pursue in good faith and bring to a is no security to be found in nuclear conclusion negotiations leading to weapons. It’s a fool’s game.” nuclear disarmament in all its aspects under strict and effective international So says an American general about a control.” This means an obligation to game he helped create. He wants to call reduce the world’s nuclear arsenals to it off, to make a nuclear exchange zero. ultimately impossible. Really, what’s so outlandish about that? 2. Nuclear Weapons Proliferation Ten Reasons to Abolish Nuclear Weapons The failure of the nuclear weapons states to act to eliminate their nuclear arsenals by David Krieger will likely result in the proliferation of nuclear weapons to other nations. If the David Krieger is president of the Nuclear nuclear weapons states continue to Age Peace Foundation in Santa Barbara maintain the position that nuclear
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Ó1999 Foundation for Global Community TIMELINE weapons preserve their security, it is only deterrence, and it is relied upon by all reasonable that other nations with less nuclear weapons states. Nuclear powerful military forces will decide that deterrence is a dangerous theory that in their security should also be maintained implementation places humanity and by nuclear arsenals. Without substantial most of creation in jeopardy of progress toward nuclear disarmament, annihilation. the Non-Proliferation Treaty will be in jeopardy when the parties to the treaty 6. Undermining Democracy meet for the NPT Review Conference in the year 2000. Nuclear weapons undermine democracy by placing the power to destroy the 3. Nuclear Terrorism world as we know it in the hands of a very few individuals. No one should have The breakup of the former Soviet Union this much power. If these individuals has weakened the command and control make a mistake, everyone in the world system relied upon by the Russians. This will pay for it. could lead to nuclear weapons or weapons-grade materials falling into the 7. Secrecy from Public hands of terrorists or criminals. Because terrorists and criminals are not easily Decisions about nuclear weapons have locatable, they are not subject to been made largely in secrecy with little deterrence, which relies upon the threat involvement from the public. In the of retaliation. It isn’t possible to retaliate United States, for example, nuclear against a party that is not locatable. weapons policy is set forth in a Presidential Decision Directive, which is 4. Nuclear Accidents not made available to the public. On this most important of all issues facing The breakup of the former Soviet Union humanity, there is no informed consent to has also weakened Russia’s early presidential policy. warning system, since many parts of this system were located outside of Russia. 8. Drain on Resources This could result in the launching of nuclear weapons by accident or Nuclear weapons have drained resources, miscalculation, given the short time including scientific resources, from other periods available in which to make more productive uses. A recent study by decisions about whether or not a state is the Brookings Institution found that the under attack. United States alone had spent more than $5.5 trillion on nuclear weapons 5. Immorality of Threatening programs since the beginning of the Mass Murder Nuclear Age. The United States continues to spend some $25-$35 billion It is highly immoral to base the security annually on maintaining, testing, and of a nation on the threat to murder developing its nuclear arsenal. All of hundreds of millions of people. This these misspent resources represent lost immoral policy is named nuclear opportunities for improving the health,
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Ó1999 Foundation for Global Community TIMELINE education, and welfare of the people of The too-tight relationship between the world. Japanese banks and the Japanese government. The Russian mafia, the 9. Warnings by Distinguished launch of the Euro, the indisputable Leaders evidence of global climate change. I’ve heard these postulated causes and more from reputable business people. Distinguished leaders throughout the world, including generals, admirals, What’s striking is that the theories all heads of state and government, scientists, point to causes outside the financial and Nobel Peace Laureates, have warned system. They don’t challenge the model, of the dangers inherent in relying upon now dominant everywhere, of capitalism nuclear weapons for security. These as a nearly flawless machine, turning out warnings have not been heeded by the ever-increasing wealth, requiring only leaders of nuclear weapons states. that we act according to our self-interest. The machine is slightly finicky, the 10. It Is Our Responsibility theories imply, subject to breakdown if we stop acting as economic theory We have a responsibility to our children requires us to—desiring ever more, and grandchildren to end the threat that working hard, choosing strong leaders, nuclear weapons pose to humanity. If we taking risks, being inventive, privatizing do not accept responsibility to speak out just about everything, competing and act for a world free of nuclear vigorously but not cheating, and never weapons, who will? losing confidence.
Given that model, when the machine slows down, we have to find some human failure to account for it. Human failure is easy enough to find, so we end up with a rich assortment of causes for any crash. When the Economic Machine Sputters, I suspect we all actually know better. Consider Replacing It The people who most frantically recite the dogma of the free market probably know best of all. The fault is not in some by Donella Meadows outside glitch. The fault is in the machine itself, which has a morbid sensitivity to There’s a small upside to the big glitches. downside of the global financial implosion. We get to be amused by We have only to look at history to see theories about why it is happening. that booms and busts are endemic to market systems. We have only to look at Scandals in Washington. Allen very recent history to see one reason Greenspan. Panic about the turn of the why. Nothing in the real economy has millennium and the Y2K computer bug.
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Ó1999 Foundation for Global Community TIMELINE been getting more valuable at 30 to 40 century—booms, busts, devastating percent per year. But financial securities wars. have, round the world. The accounts of the small minority of people who own · “Shocked into Higher Gear.” The securities have swollen wonderfully, but crisis shocks people into high-speed those are just numbers on paper. creative destruction. Existing and new Everyone knew that there was leaders act to accelerate innovation and insufficient worth standing behind those restore confidence. Asia resumes rapid numbers and that, when the music growth, increasing demand drives export stopped, there would not be enough and trade. The pattern resembles the chairs for everyone to sit on something extended growth of the 1950s and ‘60s. solid. Everyone knew, but no one dared say it, because saying it would make the I’m rooting for a fourth scenario, music stop. “Shocked into a New Economics,” in which the creative destruction is directed So now it has stopped. Numbers on at the obvious weaknesses of both paper are still coursing around the world, socialism and capitalism. trying to find some real value to settle upon. Folks who do the actual work of The new economics would worship the economy are getting hurt more than something far more satisfying than mere those who were sucked into the growth, especially since growth is ever speculative frenzy of dreams and greed, more costly on this over-full planet. but that’s what always happens in Actual human needs would be a fine capitalistic busts. focus. It would admit the novel idea of “enough.” It would not have to whip up Peter Schwartz, a great strategic planner, demand for stuff that no one needs (and formerly of Royal Dutch Shell, now of the planet cannot afford) just to keep the Global Business Network, wrote a satisfying bets on growth placed by memo last year, putting forth three people who have too much money but scenarios about where things might go. think they should keep getting more. He calls them: Ensuring “enough” for both the poor and the rich would take away the insecurity, · “Sand in the Gears.” Leadership fails desperation, envy, greed, and howling to rise to the crisis. Reform measures are fear that drive the booms and busts of the mainly cosmetic. Continued inter- market. national economic and political friction. The whole world resembles Japan in the A new economics would still have a ‘90s, depressed for years. But the motor market, but it would put the market in its of growth does slowly revive. place, as the servant, not the master of society. It would reward work and · “Breakdown.” A vicious circle of investment, not speculation. It would economic decline, political conflict, keep its books straight, counting up violence. Failure of leadership consumes environmental and family and community most of the economic potential. The costs as well as money costs. It would pattern resembles that of the early 20th find more truthful indicators of success
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Ó1999 Foundation for Global Community TIMELINE than the Gross Domestic Product, which Hafsat Abiola: is a measure of frantic activity, not of Profile of an Emerging Leader actual welfare. It would redefine “jobs” so that people can be supported for real Among the galaxy of leaders from around social contributions—raising children, the world who gathered at the 1998 State of learning, teaching, caring, cleaning up, the World Forum, held October 27 to restoring the environment, making joy November 1 in San Francisco, were 55 for others. young people participating in the Forum’s Emerging Leaders Program. This new economics sounds nutty to those who are still mesmerized by the old Many of these Youth Fellows have grown up economics, but it is alive and well in the midst of war and repression, hatred thought through. (See anything written and fear, in places like Bosnia, Northern by economist Herman Daly, or check out Ireland, South Africa, and Nigeria. And yet, the organization that he and others out of those crucibles of despair, they have started, the Society of Ecological emerged, phoenix-like, with a message of Economics, or the journal Ecological hope. One of them is Hafsat Abiola. Economics.) It’s available any time we Abiola, a 24-year-old Harvard graduate, is want to try it. We just have to let go of the founder and director of the Kudirat our illusions about the clunky old Institute for Nigerian Democracy (KIND). machine that is failing us one more time, Her father, Moshood Abiola, won the 1993 as it has before, and as it always will until presidential election in Nigeria but was we invent a better one. subsequently arrested by the country’s military regime and placed in solitary Donella H. Meadows, a systems analyst, author, confinement. He died in prison in July 1998 director of the Sustainability Institute, and on the eve of his release and two years after adjunct professor of environmental studies at his wife, Kudirat Abiola, was assassinated Dartmouth College, writes a syndicated article on the streets of Lagos while working for each week to “present a global view, a her husband’s freedom and for the cause of connected view, a long-term view, an environmental and compassionate view.” democracy in Nigeria. Timeline readers who feel that these articles deserve the widest possible distribution are At the State of the World Forum, three encouraged to contact their local newspaper months after her father’s death, Hafsat editor and suggest the paper carry them. Abiola participated in a panel with nine of Meadows can be reached at The Global Citizen, her cohorts. The subject was “Young Box 58, Plainfield, NH 03781. Emerging Leaders and Social Transformation.” Some of her remarks:
On What Motivates Her
I’m inspired by all the beauty and expressions of life around me everywhere I go—in the sky, in the leaves, the way the wind blows, the way people’s eyes connect with each other, the way mothers treat their daughters, the way
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Ó1999 Foundation for Global Community TIMELINE people are brought up, the way people well, and you dream your dreams well, laugh. I have been in a space, in my early you know you will never achieve every- childhood and even now, of great love, thing you want. So, what do you do? great nurturing, and great care. I know What do you do when the way it’s that no one will reflect that which he or measured is that you must achieve, and, she has not seen. So those children or especially, you must achieve by society’s adults who have seen a lot of pain, who standards, not even by whatever have not been loved or cared for, who standards you bring? hunger for food, or shelter, or security, or attention, will not show the best of This kind of conflict is always, always, themselves. And that hurts because I always on my mind. You know, I go want all of us to be able to show the best around speaking to people, and my tours of ourselves. So that is my motivation. are measured by whether people sign on to a resolution, or a sanctions bill in On the Support of Adults support of democracy in Nigeria, or whatever. But sometimes I find that I want very much for adults to support people are not in a space where they are me, my voice, my work, and other young going to do such things. So, do I people around the world. Yet I know immediately close up and not work with that people are shaped by the context them? If what I have come to do is to they grow up in. So, if they are not share stories and love with them, then showing me the support I believe I need, that is what I will do, and not measure. then how do I restructure the relationship But you see, the people I work with are so that I will get that from them? I listen. waiting for me to come back and say, I really listen. And if there is a way I can “Well, this is what resulted.” To instead be healing for anybody I come in contact come back and say, “Well, you should with, that makes all the difference. I have seen all the connections—it was won’t wait for them to come and help electrifying. And all the eyes I looked me. Let me give to them first and see into.” Why, they would be like, “Oh. what happens. Yeah. Right.” There will be some level of discomfort about where I am, you know, On the Conflicts of Being and what I am doing. a Leader My sense is that we have to revisit the way we come to public space, and to What I find with young people moving preserve time for our private space. I am into leadership is that it’s a problem of often terrified of being destabilized when them not being honored, acknowledged, coming into public space. It troubles me and respected for what they are able to because I want to give everything, but I achieve. Instead, if their achievement want to know that I actually have what I falls short of their intention, the criticisms am giving. Otherwise, I am an empty just inundate. What does a person do shell that can be filled with all sorts of under attack but close up? You just go things, that can be manipulated. So it’s inside and you become insular. You are extremely dangerous. Yet, in a time of no longer open because your spirit has great urgency and challenge, do you have been hurt. If you really know your spirit
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Ó1999 Foundation for Global Community TIMELINE time to create that private space and to kind of leadership that can address all know your being? This is what we all people, including those who have not have to figure out. been heard for a very long time. Perhaps it’s a time that we can start to demand I think that the elders and leaders of our from multinational corporations a global world, when in public space, know that citizenship. Not just say to Shell Oil, all eyes are on them and think they have “You are part of The Netherlands, you to prove something. On one level, are part of England,” but also, “You though, we just have to know that the have operations in Nigeria. You are part only thing we need to prove something of Nigeria. You are responsible to the to is the spirit locked in our bodies. That people of Nigeria.” is all. If anything goes wrong with the spirit, that is what must be healed. We This is a great, great time for all of us, need to redefine our time horizons, be adults and youths, to begin to see how willing to work with the pace that is set we will start on the path to create the from within. It might not be as fast as kind of world where no one is excluded outer society wants, but if that is what and everyone is upheld and honored. our spirit is telling us, then that is what we must do. Reported by Mike Abkin who represented the Foundation at the State of the World On Globalization and Leadership Forum’s initiative, “Our Common Enterprise.” I feel that, at least in Africa, we’ve long Editor's Note: As Timeline went to press, been part of a global community. It was we learned that Hafsat Abiola had just been several hundred years ago when the elected to the House of Representatives in industrial revolution in Europe and the Nigeria. Americas took millions of people out of our continent into the international world. That for me is a global reality.
Then later, when they decided, no, we didn’t understand enough, we didn’t have any political intelligence for putting What the Tule House together political institutions and social institutions, we went through another Has to Teach Us period of colonization, where the Malcolm Margolin is a life-long student of civilized world of Europe wrestled to California Native American traditions and take over parts of our lands again, and culture. He is owner and publisher of denied our people voice. Again a global Heyday Books, which specializes in reality. California history, natural history, culture, and Native American life. His quarterly Now that we all in the world are finally magazine, News from Native California, is coming to the realization that we are in a devoted to the history and cultures of global community, perhaps it’s an California Indians. He co-founded Native opportunity to begin to put together the California Network, a foundation for
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California Indian cultural affairs. A gifted “I like having my own room. I like how story-teller who fascinates adult audiences big my house is. I don’t want to live on a with his tales of Native American lore, he is dirt floor with tule walls and sleep with sometimes called upon to speak to more my whole family!” challenging audiences . . . I was amazed and in truth delighted with the response—I realized that she had As a special favor to an old friend, I indeed been picturing life in a tule house. found myself in front of a group of Her real, deeply felt answer, free of piety fourth-graders one day describing a or politically correct platitudes, was a traditional tule house. I explained how wonderful beginning for a discussion the framework of willows was erected about tule houses. So without trying to and how the tule was cut, aged, bundled, “convert” her, I led the discussion along and tied onto the framework to form a a different track. Here are some of the water-tight covering. I tried to evoke the topics we considered: texture of the tule and its distinctive smell—earthy and musty, a bit like What would it mean if all the materials Lipton tea. I asked them to envision what for building a house were free and it would be like to crawl through the readily available to everyone? doorway into the cool, dark interior of the dwelling, to touch the earthen floor It costs tens of thousands of dollars to packed hard, almost to a polish, and buy the lumber, plumbing, wiring, tiles, strewn with sleeping mats and rabbit-skin and fixtures needed for a modern house. blankets. I tried to get them to picture What if all the material you needed was what it would be like to sleep in one of growing all around you, free to anyone these houses shoulder-to-shoulder with who wanted to gather it? The first thing brothers and sisters, uncles and aunts, that dawned on everyone was that under parents and grandparents; what it would these conditions, there would be no be like to wake up on a cold winter homelessness. (I was surprised at how morning to hear elders, who would have deeply concerned these youngsters were stayed awake all night to keep the fire lit, with the problem of homelessness.) We talking softly among themselves; or to also discussed how, when you are an look through the entrance on a bright adult, you end up spending a quarter to a spring morning to see the welcome third of your waking hours earning sunshine. enough for housing, not to mention the huge amount of time spent dusting, “Now what do you think it would be like mopping, sweeping, painting, mowing to live in a tule house?” I asked in my the lawn, and fixing up. Living in tule most ingratiating manner. A dozen hands houses might have its inconveniences, shot up. I pointed to a little girl with but it would free up a lot of time. “What dreamy eyes and a charming smile. would your parents do with the time?” we wondered. Would they, like Native “Yucky!” she said, with unexpected people in traditional cultures, put more clarity and force. “Why?” I asked, time into the arts, religion, ceremony, shocked and completely taken aback. socializing, or even play?
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We also touched upon the self- “wealth” more in terms of their sufficiency of a society that has no need relationships and connections to others? for the far-flung political and economic ties and massive transportation networks Is privacy a good thing? Most of the that ensure our access to housing youngsters either had their own room or materials, no need for our lumber and shared one with only one sibling, and mining industries—tule and willow grow they liked it that way. In traditional locally and in such abundance that they times, it is true, there wasn’t much can be harvested without damaging the privacy. Tule houses were used primarily environment. Under such conditions, we for storing things and for sleeping. The would have a peculiar freedom—the rest of life—cooking, washing, freedom to develop our own languages, entertaining, etc.—was carried on customs, beliefs, and ways of doing outdoors and in a more or less communal things. atmosphere. We considered the possibility that the privacy modern life What would it be like if all the houses in affords us is a mixed blessing—does it your village were made of the same bring an element of isolation, selfishness, material and were more or less the same and mistrust with it? size? We discussed many other things as well, This question was loaded and we edged and in the end I asked the question again: gingerly around it, because what it kept “How many of you would like to give up leading to was a discussion of class—of your houses and live in an old-time tule how our culture creates distinctions house?” Still no takers. But we had between people based on wealth, and it accomplished something that makes a difference whether you live in a afternoon—a recognition of the social mansion in the hills, a rented apartment, and moral expenses of our way of life, or in a trailer park. We discussed, at least and a recognition of the value of other circumspectly, the implications of living peoples’ choices. While no one in the in a society where the differences class wanted to take up residence in a between being poor and being wealthy tule house, it was clear that at least some are not so dramatic as in our own. aspects of what it means to live in a tule house had taken up residence in us. What would it be like to live in a society where houses were not a major form of Reprinted with permission from Winds of wealth? Change, Winter 1998.
Owning a house in this culture gives people a huge piece of wealth, a way of providing for their old age, something to pass along to their children. What if you lived in a society where houses were not a form of wealth? How would your parents store wealth? In regalia? In baskets? Or would people redefine
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Blips on the Timeline must be labeled as such from May 1 this year. The countries’ food producers are The term “blip” is often used to describe a annoyed and argue against labeling even point of light on a radar screen. Gathered when the genetic modification doesn’t with the assistance of Research Director affect food’s taste, size, or nutritional Jackie Mathes, here are some recent blips value. They claim that the ruling will which indicate positive changes toward a reduce their competitiveness in the global community. international market. However, the European Union has already adopted Peace Builders similar rules, putting Europe and Australasia at odds with the U.S. on the When violent crime turned their quiet issue. The U.S. argues that enforced farm town into a frightening place labeling of modified foods creates unfair seemingly overnight, the people of trade barriers. Salinas, California, began to act. One solution was to implement Doing Good Advertising PeaceBuilders,” a program initiated in 1992 in Tucson, Arizona, and now used Underground Advertising is a tiny San in at least 500 schools nationwide. Francisco agency whose clients are Guiding the program are four principles, mainly nonprofit groups and other recited weekly in the classrooms: praise service organizations. Underground’s people; give up put-downs; notice hurts five-person office created its first do- and right wrongs; seek wise people when gooder ad two years ago for a redwoods problems arise. PeaceBuilders creates the conservation group. Since then, Peter expectation of good behavior and Walbridge and Chuck Cardillo, the constantly reinforces it with positive agency’s co-directors, have taken on messages. Children write praise notes to only nonprofit clients and other teachers and to fellow students, and are organizations whose goals they approve encouraged to write them to parents. of. Walbridge and Cardillo’s salaries are Some write peace treaties after they about half as high as a few years ago misbehave. Even Salinas police officers when they mostly free-lanced for other hand out PeaceBuilders citations to agencies on large corporate accounts. children they see acting commendably. In But they say their work day is the first year, disciplinary problems fell incomparably more pleasant. “Now, 49 percent, serious violence fell 59 trying to sell shoes or sell booze seems percent, absences, 31 percent, and really petty,” said Lori Warren, director vandalism, 61 percent. Salinas is not of strategic planning. “I used to have to violence-free, but residents say that a rationalize what I was doing by saying culture of calm has now settled in. ‘it’s moving the economy’ or ‘it’s helping my client.’ Now we don’t have Genetic Labels to rationalize it.”
Health ministers in Australia and New 4charity.com Zealand have decided that all genetically modified food sold in their countries Scott Dunlap, a recent Stanford Business
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School graduate, launched 4charity.com, TIMELINE (ISSN 1061-2734) is published an online shopping site last September. bimonthly by the Foundation for Global With every sale, the retailer donates up Community 222 High Street Palo Alto, CA 94301-1097 to 25 percent of the purchase price to a charity the buyer selects. Membership is Managing Editors: Kay Hays, free, and the buyers pay the same price Mac Lawrence, Sandra Mardigian for the merchandise as they do when Editorial Board: Jim Burch, Adelgund buying from the retailer’s own web site. Heinemann, Joe Kresse, Jackie Mathes True to the spirit of his mission, Dunlap Art Director (print edition): Sue Lyttle isn’t making a cent from the enterprise Desktop Publishing: Diane Gordon Electronic Edition: Gilles d'Aymery and he doesn’t plan to. The enterprise is staffed entirely by volunteers, and has no A print edition of Timeline with adverstising budget. Dunlap takes 2 photographs and artwork is available for percent of donations to cover costs and a subscription price of $10 per year (six the rest goes directly to charities. issues). This is pretty much what it costs 4charity.com started as a student project us to produce and mail Timeline since our writers are all volunteers and we to raise money for the Special Olympics. have no editorial expenses. But we do After graduating last June, Dunlap have overhead costs for our building, enlisted the aid of a lawyer, an engineer, computers, etc. So if you feel Timeline and several others. “This is a win-win and the other work our Foundation does idea,” said volunteer Carl Anderson. are valuable and you want to help keep us going, please consider making a tax- free donation to Foundation for Global Suggestions Invited Community. Be sure to indicate that it is for Timeline E-mail Edition -- otherwise We are always on the lookout for interesting our subscription people will subjects for Blips on the Timeline. Readers automatically send you the printed are invited to send articles or clippings edition, and the whole idea of saving natural resources is down the tubes. indicating positive change to Jackie Mathes Thanks! at the Foundation. Palo Alto, California If we use your suggestion, we’ll March 22, 1999 automatically extend your subscription for a year.
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