Listening at the edge of probability

Planning for any emergency or crisis requires that the planner be able to ideate and chart solutions for the most pessimistic of possible outcomes. For me – given the current economic state – that means listening not only to the more conservative “things will work out” analysts, but also the “sky is falling” folks who see the beginning of the end in the wild fluctuations of the market.

Falling more squarely in that latter category is Daniel Pinchbeck. He has been sounding the alarm for a number of years in his lectures, books and now with his postings at Reality Sandwich. Most of his thinking centers on Mayan mysticism and the 2012 endpoint – a fascinating subject that blends history, cosmology, economics, psychedelics, spirituality, and Gaia perspective into a potent cocktail of change thinking.

In his most recent post Pinchbeck takes what he describes as an “obsessive” look at our troubled economic and financial systems and sees a house of cards. The data he finds is ominous and points to an obvious and troubling conclusion:

All of this data, and much more, strongly suggest that the global financial system, in its current form, cannot be salvaged. At best, we may have a year or 18 months before the system fails us entirely. After that, money, in its current form, may have no value at all, as basic trust in our institutions evaporates.

We are, without doubt, facing a season of dramatic social, economic, and technological change. Yet – if we approach this change with an enthusiastic and dynamic sense of obligation – if we look to build rather than preserve – that change stands a decent chance at being a positive transformation.

The challenges that lie ahead of us as citizens, as workers, as friends, as neighbors, as family – as people – are in no way insignificant. In order to meet these challenges we will need to shed the ego of me – we will need to invert obsolete management pyramids – we will need to embrace collaborative, bottom up frameworks – we will need to recirculate coagulated, top down value systems – we will need to learn to let our institutions fail – we will need to embrace innovation in order to deal with that failure – we will need to put to rest archaic, ego driven, control oriented religious sentiment – we will need to give more – we will need to expect less – we will need to grow more – we will need to need less. In the words of Mr. Pinchbeck:

Put in the simplest terms, then, our global society is going to have to undergo a rapid – almost immediate – transition from competitive and possessive behavior to cooperation and sharing if we want our species to survive, let alone thrive, on the earth.