Bonus: The System is Dead. Long Live the (new) System! Thoughts on the US election and the self-terminating algorithm

Accidental Gods

It occurs to me that we are now at an inflection point in the WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrial, Rich and - notionally - Democratic) culture that has been so successful in destroying the ecosphere.

A significant number of us now see what has been obvious to a minority for some time: that the system is not broken - it is doing what it was always designed to do: which is to maintain power in the hands of a few white men.

What we know now, is that the system is not fit for purpose - IF that purpose is the survival of complex life on this planet, if it is the flourishing of the human and More-than-Human worlds in an indivisible web of life.

We need a new system - and this realisation has landed not with the people who solve their problems with violent insurrection (see Jan 6th 2021) but with people whose primary driving aim is to find ways to connect and consiliate, to create coherence with compassion, to find courage and confidence and creative curiosity.

And so this is our goal now - there is no point waiting for the side we favour to win in a broken system.

- We need a whole new system predicated on new and better values.

- We need to find our connectedness.

- At a bone-deep level, in the core of our tissues and the vast expanses of our individual and collective awareness, we need to remember our place in the Web of Life and work only from this.

- We need to start building something entirely different that does not rely on the structures of the broken system, even as it crumbles (or is dismantled) around us.

This is our challenge. Facing it will require everything we've got, but the old system is a self-terminating algorithm and we can all see the route to chaos and extinction now.

If we're going to pull through and find that flourishing world we can bequeath with pride to future generations, nothing else matters now.

Nothing.

Find what's yours to do and do with all your heart. Build imaginal islands with friends, colleagues and co-evolutionaries of the human and More than Human world. Build narratives based on the heart-focused values that are our birth-right.

Above all else, do whatever you can to connect to the More than Human world - to the Web of Life in all its awe-inspiring wonder, its majesty and beauty - and ask 'What do you want of me?'

Listen to the answer, however it comes.

And then do it.