What actions can be taken to find more alignment between our principles and values and the systems we are part of considering the good of all, Sarvodaya? What are the manifestation of systems that we feel inspiring, coherent, sustainable? What authors, examples, experiments inspire you? What inspiring systems and stories are we already living into?
Some questions coming up for me in this regard:
CLIMATE CHANGE:
1. How can we step it up to protect our Planet? What are the next steps we can take with collective clarity and strength to protect our air, our water, our earth?
Politicians and current business leaders might be too slow. Predictions of all scientific community are clear. But even with all the scientific evidence knocking in our door, current steps are not enough. Will we be able to deal with the Climate Crisis with the same drive we are tapping into during this COVID19 crisis?
If politicians and current business leaders are too slow, what are we willing to give away to protect our planet? How can we bring with us people who might be at the verge of greater compromise with Loving the Earth? How can our social movements be more inclusive and efficient in percolating their message to all society and stopping irresponsible governments and companies?
UNIVERSAL GOODNESS:
2. How can we keep transitioning towards economies/ ecologies for the common good/ universal goodness?
Market economy seems still insufficient; even within financially developed countries, which are in a position of privilege nowadays, the crisis has shown capitalism’s incapacity to offer safety and stability. A crisis like COVID19’s shows us the weakness of market economies more clearly.
We are still driving the economy in dangerous assumptions like: ‘survival of the fittest’ and ‘maximized self-interest, maximizes collective interest.’ Well, these assumptions don’t seem to be true.
The COVID crisis is showing a world where people still starve to death, or struggle to find food every day or suffer from chronic violence in their regions. How is that possible in all the glory of Homo Sapiens in XXI century? Are we really Homo Sapiens? Antropologist José Bermúdez de Castro says ´not yet´.
Homo Sapiens would be able to incubate systems that put Common Good/ Universal Goodness in the center of the economical design. Is it acceptable that 8 people in the world have more money than the poorest 3.5 billion people in the world? Is it acceptable that rich immature people still can buy luxury cars and planes that destroy our planet while spending unnecessary millions in unnecessary goods? How is it possible that tax havens still exist?
GIFT ECONOMY/ ECOLOGY:
3. What is the value of altruism in post-capitalist societies?
One of the most radical ideas I have found in my social explorations these last 10 years is Gift Economy.
In a crisis like COVID19 socially resilient systems amplify even more the value of altruism-based relationships. People who find themselves abundant in ‘social wealth’, find themselves in a much better position to navigate a situation like COVID19. But, is this way of relating to each other through altruism and unconditional giving an option to face crises, or is it a real alternative that can build the future economies and social ecologies?
Can we meet all our needs within altruistic alternatives based on intrinsic motivations and mutual solidarity?
In my experience the answer is: not yet, fully. Might be possible in local contexts with clear designs that allow greater consciousness of each other, but it seems more difficult in the decentralized, organic world of the internet. As gift ecology takes root in local contexts, what can we do to support the emergence of stronger local ecologies driven by love and unconditional generosity? And overall, how can we bring the intention of Universal Goodness to our economical designs?
UNIVERSAL BASIC INCOME:
4. As we experiment with new understandings of economy, what current transformative ideas could be implemented straight away to lessen human suffering connected with material scarcity?
I have been exposed to pessimistic thoughts regarding Universal Basic Income, but this crisis shone a new light on it for me.
Even if the worst-case scenario was true, I prefer lazy people having a lazy life than busy people starving or suffering from homelessness or sickness. And hey, it seems worst case scenario is not even a real scenario.
It seems that people receiving unconditional money are actually coming out of their poverty cycles, and overall using it for good causes.
Question then is, is it possible to implement something like this at a global scale? What would it take?
Money is a collective agreement, a fiction we imposed into ourselves that allows our system work. Money is created by human beings and put into circulation through central banks that credit money to commercial banks, that credit money to people and organizations. This is how the system works right now, but, what if we give the money directly to people and allow them to stand on a safety ground that stops for once and for all the fight against hunger, homelessness or material scarcity? Would Universal Basic Income be a good fit for this? Why don’t we start more local experiments that can give us deeper information about this option?
SPIRITUAL ABUNDANCE
5. As we design new systems to stop material scarcity and inequity, how can we help increase the ‘inner wealth’, the inner resilience, the knowing of the inner world that drives us towards greater compassion and generosity for eachother?
In times when spiritual institutionalised traditions are going themselves through transformational crisis, what is filling the gap? What innovations are bridging the need for spiritual life and integration of spiritual values in our daily lives?
As we design for external systems, how can we include this aspect of inner transformation in a transversal way in all our activities? Our elders say that without an awakened heart of compassion, no system will work fully.
In the interconnection between the inner world and the outer world resides the promise of a beautiful life on earth for all, ‘the paradise on earth’. How can we fill the gap of love in our hearts and become full-fledge Homo Amans?
GOVERNANCE OF SARVODAYA.
6. What are the types of governance we can come up with that transcend the fictional borders while empowering local decision-making and a sense of global oneness?
Sarvodaya is a Sanskrit compound invented by Mahatma Gandhi that means ‘Uplift of All’.
In this era, more and more people feel the need of transcending our political borders. Astronauts reflect on how for them: ‘human-made borders don’t fully make sense when you see who we really are from outer space. ’
It’s another fiction. Tension between USA and China, Israel and Palestine or Europe and Africa is built on a collective weak fiction we carry from the Stone Age.
Assuming current governance is ‘the end of the story’ is like telling Galileo that flat earth was the truth, or Einstein that relativity was a fallacy, or Martin Luther King jr. that ending racism was an unworthy pilgrimage…
Transition in this arena will not be easy. Building a different ground for our collective identities seems very necessary. Do you know that some African post- colonialist countries were built just on the basis of a new anthem, a new flag and a national sports team? National ground can go as weak as that. What are strongest, deepest common grounds of our collective identity as humanity? How can we enhance and make those grounds stronger and more visible? What are the edges of trans-national identity and what governance designs emerge out of the feeling of global oneness?
EDUCATION FOR FREE BEINGS
7. What are the education forms that allow greater resilience, free thinking, conscious voting, and a capacity to transcend fake news, manipulation or infoxication? Why don’t they teach us how to build a house, solar panels or a sustainable garden in the 14 years of schooling? What skills are important for beyond- market skills?
Education is also a design. We come from a Taylorist Educational Model, which means our classes and pedagogy was designed with factory-design principles. Moreover, our education systems focus on skills that can be leveraged in the market. Assumptions here are of two kind: ‘market is the only way of doing economy’, ‘we need to train every one for market economies’.
But is there something beyond this Taylorist model, this dogma? Can we hold space for multiple stories in our relationship to self, to others, to economy, to education? How can we transition from this mono-culture of story to a poli-culture of stories?
Multiple intelligence trainings, self-directed education, farm-schooling, home-schooling, or un-schooling are movements on the rise. As we open up our capacity to allow different approaches, how can we increase the awareness of the need to favor free thinkers, responsible and conscious voters, compassionate human beings?
HEALTH IN THE NEW ERA
8. How can we broaden our perspective of what it means to stay healthy? How can we broaden our view of self to include Nature and others in our search for health? How can we include both the outer aspects and the inner aspects of health?
It is widely believed that Covid-19 originated in a wet market, and previous epidemics such as H1N1, the Spanish flu of 1918, Ebola, and SARS are similarly attributed to circumstances where animals were confined or captured as food or medicine. The number of animals the average human eats each year has consistently increased, with more and more raised in factory farms, while animal agriculture is a major contributor to climate change, the loss of global biodiversity, aquatic “dead zones” and deforestation.
If we keep harming the ecosystems as we do today, more suffering and pandemics will be a natural consequence, many scientists say. Keeping our ecosystems healthy means keeping ourselves healthy. How can we become as good as we’ve become curing acute diseases, with preventing diseases and promoting health for all by taking care of our environments, our ecosystems and earth overall?
MEDIA FOR TRANSFORMATION
9. Media is on of the powers in society. Media has the power to change our perspective with a certain way of raining news upon us.
Is there a way to promote compassionate media for social and inner transformation? How can we source our information in a way that serves constructivism over sensationalism, compassion over fear, or free thinking over monoculture?
Media like DailyGood or KarmaTube or others are a ray of light and hope. When not driven by money or recognition, media can become an inspiration for evolution, for change. How can we design and amplify more media for transformation? How can we ourselves become responsible media actors?
WORK IN PROGRESS: SARVODAYA CURRICULUM
MONTH 1: FOOD
HEAD
HEART
HANDS
MONTH 2: TRANSPORTATION
HEAD
HEART
HANDS
MONTH 3: HEALTH
HEAD
HEART
HANDS
MONTH 4: GOVERNANCE
HEAD
HEART
HANDS
MONTH 5: ECONOMY
HEAD
HEART
HANDS
MONTH 6: JUSTICE
HEAD
HEART
HANDS
MONTH 7:?
Sarvodaya 