Sketches of a Future Society – 12 April 2017 @ La Cheraille

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Why? Why What?

Why Art / Earth / Tech?

This will take us on a much deeper journey

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Asking Good Questions

SCQA = Situation, Complication, Question, Answer

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Situation

We’ve never had it so good!

Things have got a lot better materially and science and technology mean we know a lot more about the material world

• A good portion of humanity no longer want for food or shelter.
• Consequence of dramatic material and technological growth of the last few centuries

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Complication

But we’re still not that well/happy. Plus, progress is very unevenly distributed and we may even be going backwards (global warming, inequality etc)

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• Many remain poor and without basic security of sustenance or thought
• Benefits of material abundance for the well-off seem relatively meagre — the Buddhist monk is happier than the billionaire
• Greater wealth and power has not come with greater wisdom. Our errors now play out on a larger scale — from aggression exaggerated by biological and nuclear weapons to the tragedy of commons threatening the entire biosphere.
• Things may even be going backwards: ecological damage, inequality, decline of community etc
  • though one must always be sceptical — "everything has been going to the dogs" is an old complaint

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Complication II

Additionally: "end of vision / end of hope / end of utopia" — many traditional sources of hope for progress seem to have faded whether in religion and politics:

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• Decline of hopeful religion ~150y – death of god
• Decline of hopeful politics ~30-40y – death of socialism
  • Politics reduced to managerialism for growth (but growth of what)
  • Postmodern disdain for vision and values (just leave me alone to choose, triumph of the "dispassionate" market)
  • Resurgence of a "selfish", resentful rightwing

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Question

• Why is this? Specifically:
  • If you’re so rich, why aren’t you so happy …?
  • Why can’t we cooperate better
• And: What is to be done?
  • Is there a powerful, unifying vision for humanity — both personally "the good life", and societally "the good society"?
  • How would we achieve that?
    • What is our theory of change?
    • How do we get started?

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Summary

• Situation: You’ve never had it so good!
• Complication: But we’re still not that well/happy. Plus, progress is unevenly distributed and we may even be going backwards
• Complication II: death of god, death of socialism aka "end of utopia" — many traditional sources of hope for progress have faded whether in religion or politics
• Question: Why is this? What and How: What is to be done?

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Why?

Spiritual version: We are all Buddha, but our minds are encrusted with delusion, hatred and anger.

Scientific version: evolution did not select for wellness or wisdom, but for survival fitness. Extraordinarily, and accidentally, we ended up with consciousness, self-reflection and enough cognitive capacity to develop language, culture and complex abstract thought — and meditation.

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Why II

• lot of stuff encrusts our mind that is tough to remove
  • impulsivity (thinking fast), heuristics, envy etc
  • illusion of self distinct from others, that "I" am my thoughts etc => attachment to views (I’m right, you’re wrong e.g. I’m a man, you’re a woman so I’m better than you; I’m white, you’re black etc)

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Why IIB

• Plus: all the errors of language and culture (erroneous but self-reinforcing (bad equilibrium)
  • e.g. institutionalized patriarchy
  • ritualized warfare
  • guilds
  • wearing suits

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Why III

4 kinds of problems

• Problems of science
• Problems of self knowledge
• Problems of self control
• Problems of the collective

All our techno-scientific advance in recent centuries has only helped with first one.

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What

Transformation of being

• Wellness ourselves
• Solve: collective action problems etc

But society/culture helps create being. + Material sustenance matters.

So transformation of being requires transformation of society.

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What II – The Good Life

Yes, I believe there is a powerful unifying vision for humanity.

A. High level ends: Joy, freedom, love, wisdom, creativity, balance, peace, contribution … B. Conditions for that — as well!

Buddhism — 4NT. Basically correct.

However, for reasons just discussed this is hard individually.

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What IIB

Second, hard culturally since a variety of successful, maladaptive cultures e.g. competitive, individualistic, capitalism.

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How

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Two Arms of Transformation

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Culture and Ecosystem

A sustainable cultural ecosystem depends on a well-functioning (and interdependent) material and spiritual economies (spiritual = being, emotion, consciousness — nothing specifically religious)

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Culture

To realise a wiser, weller world requires:

A Culture

• Personally: a self-sustaining community that support self-development and material sustenance => a culture
• Societally: a self-sustaining group dedicated to bringing about change on a long-term basis with a clear vision and strong values (resistance to corruption) => a culture

Culture

• Values (and Vision)
• Norms
• Behaviours

Sketches of a Future Society => detailed picture of what this looks like.

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Life Itself (Art / Earth / Tech)

We are such a community.

• Being: living well and wise lives ourselves, developing our being
• Research: work out where we need to go (in detail) and how to get there
• Business: making a living, generating resources for investment
• Politics: (not necessarily electoral) structured effort to effect change in the collective

Part of wisdom is to avoid sacrificing means to ends. Thus all activities are themselves part of the practice.

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Conclusion

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Summary

• Need for change
• Deep transformation needed
• Opportunity
• Culture
• Art Earth Tech

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Opportunity / Context

Metaphor of scientific revolution

… and possibility of psychic revolution

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FAQ

• What’s new about us? (aka hasn’t this been done before?)