It’s showing up below the radar screen of the usual news and cultural stories
It’s obvious that our current world is crumbling in so many ways. What’s important to know is that while our old world is crumbling, our new world is developing and emerging.
This is not to dismiss the tremendous tragedies and trauma that are occurring in the world, with wars, climate changes, economic changes, and socio-cultural changes. In the face of all of that, it’s critical to activate a larger, life-aligned vision and energize a new cultural story in order to co-create the world we want as the old one unravels.
My vision is that we are flourishing by embracing Life as an infinite game. This means the primary goal is to keep playing the game and perpetuating it, instead of mistakenly believing and acting as if Life is a competitive finite game which we’re trying to end in order to “win”. Simon Sinek clearly describes the results of these two different mindsets in The Infinite Game.
I see strong, increasing evidence that we’re making the shift to an infinite game. Many diverse examples are showing up through the cracks in the “concrete” of our current structures and mindsets. Below are some of these “breadcrumbs on the trail” that demonstrate the paradigm of treating the planet as a living whole system and cooperating and collaborating with nature vs. a scientific, reductionist, mechanistic model.
I initially tried to organize these examples into these loose categories:
new ways of relating to the Earth and climate
new ways of relating to food/agriculture
new ways of doing/being in business
new ways of relating to ourselves, other people and other beings
new ways of relating to our ”stuff”(clothing, houses, buildings, etc.)
It turns out that there is so much overlapping, connecting, intersecting, cross-pollinating, co-creating, and synergizing that these nice, neat, tidy, exclusive categories are not all that useful. Instead, I’m seeing large-scale movements--e.g. regenerative agriculture, regenerative economics and business, environmental/ecological/rewilding--that various initiatives and programs are co-creating by their organic way of developing. It’s another example of how Life Itself is whole, interconnected, unbroken, “messy”, synergistic, and always-creating.
Note: this is by no means an exhaustive list, and it’s not meant to be.
Given that, here is the very loosely-grouped list:
Patagonia’s announcement that “Earth is now our only shareholder”, Sept. 14, 2022
Paul Hawken, Project Regeneration. This is a living project and website with new entries, categories (80+ at my last count!) and information being added ongoingly. As they say, “These are more than just descriptions. Each Nexus entry explores what can be done on all levels of agency, including individual, community, classroom, city, company, and government.” Scroll to the bottom to see the list of categories.
Regenerative Agriculture movement, e.g.:
Common Ground documentary film
Kiss The Ground documentary movie
Dirt To Soil book
Permaculture movement, e.g. Andrew Millison at Oregon State University
“We are on a mission to help solve humanity’s biggest challenges through the adoption of biomimicry (nature-inspired innovation) in education, culture, and industry. We are the bridge between biology and design, advancing the adoption of nature-inspired strategies to help solve the most pressing problems of our time.”
Throwaway Nation article
"Planned Obsolescence"—the made-in-America practice of producing goods that are not meant to last, or be repaired—has left the U.S. with the world's largest waste stream.
“Right To Repair” movement:
The Culture of Repair article
The Art of Repair article
“Design Observer’s mission has always been simple: to expand the definition of design in the service of a better world. Design comes to life in exactly this way: embracing disciplines other than our own. Life comes to design in exactly this way: meeting the moment with openness, urgency, and hope.”
Fashion designer Amy Powney’s TED Talk “How To Fix Fashion and Protect the Planet”
3-D printing of houses and buildings
“Unhustle” culture movement, e.g.
Unhustle.com: “Unhustle is a revolution in how we live and work.”
Seth Godin has a number of blogs that address hustle culture.
Koolulam: One Day by Matisyahu: Koolulam is a social musical initiative aimed at empowering communities and strengthening the fabric of society.
Choosing to live a minimalist life isn’t just about decluttering your space—it’s about reclaiming your time, money, and energy for the things that truly matter. But the path to simplicity is often against the current of our culture that values more and encourages consumerism
This blog post is a follow-up to my previous posts in Aug. 2022:
A common thread I see in all of these is that our cultural paradigm and story is shifting from a finite game to an infinite game and from being hyper-focused on individual growth, development, and achievements to the development, resilience, and flourishing of the larger community—not just the human community, but the community of the Earth, all the beings, and Life Itself.
From my perspective, all of these are threads we’re weaving into our new tapestry of an infinite game that integrates the holistic intuitive feminine principle and deep community with the conceptual masculine principle for good, for real, for Life!
A final note:
The path that brought us here goes no further.
These challenging times are not just a speed bump. It’s becoming a whole new road, and we build the road as we travel.
As Marcel Proust said, “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” May these examples help us have “new eyes.”