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The Global Systems Review Issue 2  October 2008

In This Special Election Issue:

Why Obama, Why Now? – Exploring the nexus between the person who is Barack Obama and the extraordinary times we live in.  More...

What Middle America Thinks – A clear and moving mainstream endorsement of Obama by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. More...

Moving Hope to Action – A baker’s dozen suggestions for how we can elect ourselves as agents of change in these times.  More...

Why Obama, Why Now?
by Louise Diamond

Alan Greenspan is my hero. He gave us a perfect demonstration of the fact that worldview matters. It matters a lot.

He acknowledged to Congress recently that his basic view of economic reality – that the free market is self-regulating for the good – was wrong. Meanwhile, the financial infrastructure built on that very belief was crashing down around us, taking with it the life savings, hopes, homes, and jobs of millions of people, in the U.S. and around the world.

What we believe translates into action. What government leaders believe translates into laws and institutions and behaviors that affect our daily lives and the lives of generations to come.

George W. Bush and John McCain believe that we live in a fearful world of ‘us against them,’ where we have the right to get what we want – using force if necessary to do so – and where the resulting suffering is just collateral damage.

Barack Obama believes we live in a hopeful world where we are all in this together, where we are, indeed, each other’s keepers, and where we have a common stake in each other, requiring that we put our energy into securing the well-being of all.

The choice between these two mindsets will determine the quality of life for the American people, the place and standing of the U.S. in the world, the conduct of two wars, the economic health of the world, and so much more.

Yet it is also an evolutionary choice. in which humanity signals its shift from centuries of organizing itself around the notion of separation, fragmentation, and ‘power over’ to a time when we organize ourselves around the truth of our interconnectedness, interdependence, and ‘power with.’

The challenge for leadership in these times will be to manage the tension between these two, guiding us through a period of inevitable turbulence as the structures built on the old view unravel, even as we create the new. This is a shift in human history as profound as when we moved from hunter-gatherers to agriculturalists, and the resulting changes will be as dramatic.

Joanna Macy, the eco-philosopher, describes this period as The Great Turning. Systems scientists agree that the most basic principle of living systems in that everything is connected. As we come to realize this interconnectedness of our world in the 21st century, we are turning from a way of life based on industrial growth and individual accumulation to one based on sustainability of people and planet and a commitment to the well-being of the whole.

Einstein told us that we cannot solve our problems with the same mind that created them. The problems we face today are of a different order than those of the past, for the systems we’ve created from the old worldview can take us now to the very edge of survival.

There is only one man in the presidential race who can conceivably take us through this next chapter with any kind of grace and wisdom. Only one man who even remotely understands how we are, literally and figuratively, wired together, sharing a common fate and the ability to create, together, solutions to our biggest challenges. Only one man who understands – in his very blood, through his own life experiences – that we are called now to build bridges, not bomb cities; to reach out to one another, not threaten each other; to engage in dialogue to find common ground around our shared interests, not continue to divide and polarize ourselves around our differences.

There is only one man who, through his intellect and temperament, can guide us on our journey from a world based on the mechanistic, reductionist views of the past into the quantum, networked world of today and tomorrow. The unique times have called him forth. He has answered the call and agreed to serve. We need him, and he needs us, for together we can lift ourselves out of the messes we have created and into a world that works for all.

We’ve brought ourselves, collectively, to this moment, and it is a glorious one. Now let’s get Barack Obama into the White House, with an unassailable Democratic majority in Congress, so he can do and be what he came for, and what we all hope for – and help us to do the same.

What Middle America Thinks
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has written an endorsement of Barack Obama that moved me to tears with its clarity about who this man is and what this country needs. Click here to read this incredible statement.

Moving Hope to Action
by Louise Diamond

One of Barack Obama’s most important contributions to this election campaign has been his insistence that change happens from the bottom up as well as the top down.

Reminiscent of JFK’s famous ‘…ask what you can do for your country,’ Obama is inviting Americans to step up to the challenges we face in the world today through their own actions in their own lives, workplaces, and communities.

In that spirit, and because in systems thinking we know that the microcosm mirrors the macrocosm, here are some suggestions (a baker’s dozen) for what we can each do to concretize our hope for a better world in the here and now.

I suggest there are three areas where we face particularly daunting challenges: global security, environmental degradation, and the economy.

Global Security
Here we are concerned not just with outer threats of terrorist attacks, nuclear proliferation, and other potential acts of violence, but also with the necessity for all human beings to be able to meet their basic needs for food, water, shelter, and dignity.

Here are four things each individual, or each family, might do to make a difference in this realm at the micro-level:

1. Find and help out at, or create, a local community housing program that seeks to keep families from losing their homes.
   
2. Be a regular donor to your local food shelf, or to the international humanitarian organization of your choice, to insure that those who are hungry might be fed.
   
3. Read the full report of the U.S.-Muslim Engagement Project, and discuss with your friends what actions you might take to support its findings.
   
4. Seek out some situation where there are people who are different from you – in race, ethnicity, religion, politics, etc. – and start a dialogue simply to learn more about each other, with curiosity and a desire to make a human connection.

Environmental Degradation
Here we are concerned with all things having to do with ensuring the sustainability and well-being of our planet, including issues of energy efficiency, climate change, clean air and water, healthy food, etc.

Here are four things each individual, or each family, might do to make a difference in this realm at the micro-level:

1. Drive less; walk and bike and bus more.
   
2. Sit down with your family and decide what you will do differently to reduce your household’s carbon footprint.
   
3. Buy locally-produced, organic food whenever possible.
   
4. Gather people together to watch Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, and discuss what actions you might take to support its findings.

The Economy
Here we are concerned with finding a balance of saving and spending, investing and buying, giving and receiving.

Here are five things each individual, or each family, might do to make a difference in this realm at the micro-level:

1. No matter what your financial circumstances, think of yourself as a philanthropist, and give some amount of your income every month to a charity of your choice.
   
2. No matter what your financial circumstances, think of yourself as investing in the future by putting some amount of your income every month in a savings instrument – whether that be a bank down the street or a piggy bank in your bedroom.
   
3. When out shopping, invite yourself to make the distinction between ‘want’ and ‘need.’ Then take the money you are tempted to spend for a ‘want’ and give it somewhere where it can fulfill someone else’s ‘need.’
   
4. Make a barter arrangement with a friend, colleague, or service provider in your community, exchanging something of yours (including your time and talent) for something of theirs.
5. Notice the infinite ways you receive a bounty of blessings as you go through your day, and express your gratitude.

In the recent presidential debate, the candidates were invited to say what they might ask the American people to sacrifice during these hard times. I looked up the word ‘sacrifice’ in the dictionary, hoping to find some definition other than the implied sense of giving something up. Indeed, I found that to sacrifice also means to offer.

We are electing a new president. Yet we cannot expect one person to change the world by him (or someday, her) self. It will take all of us to offer our own actions, so that the hope we are feeling in these times, our highest dreams and most ideal visions, might indeed launch themselves toward manifestation. Yes, we can!