So how do we introduce the new paradigm of Sustainable Change?
Involve the forgotten ultimate customer — the child or young
person!
Local communities are systems in which the child (even
within the hard nosed business man/woman) is the ultimate
customer, and his or her literal children the ultimate beneficiaries.
Pollution of the physical is the result of pollution of
the Spiritual. Until that is addressed, no sustainable change
will ever occur. The child needs a voice in the local and global
community it will ultimately inherit. This will come about as
business gives recognition to the ultimate customers by involving
them in business decisions through strategic partnerships with
schools and Spiritual groups, thus creating a model business environment
within the community (common-unity).
Past initiatives
between schools and industry, sponsored by organisations
such as Understanding British Industry (UBI), didn't involve
the pupils as they were for example in the design in 1997of an "ideal" Edinburgh+. Some local
authorities have already established schools/business partnerships.
In Sweden there is a project named School 2000 based upon
Systems Thinking and Chaos Theory (see notes) which could
be expanded into the broader community. This initiative
capitalises upon the creativity of staff and pupils as each
others customers, giving considerable autonomy to the child
in the determination of her or his own learning. It also
admits that the child knows best what its own learning requirements
are and how through dialogue, these should be met. This
includes older pupils helping younger pupils to learn. But
in so doing older pupils learn how to teach, thus the pupil
teaches the teacher. Consider the analogy between company
directors and teenage stakeholders in the local community.
Synergy may well result in pupils creating their own future
jobs and careers . 8/4/08 Important: Please see "Notes / Postscript" below. Business could subsidise such initiatives
(there's the rub). Whats the payback? Thats up to us to
create, the sky's the limit, make of it what we will. What's
the alternative? Is there one?
The human species is unique as a "thinker" capable
of contemplating its origin and destiny. Consequently, human
ecology is concerned with the Cosmic relationship between
man and planet Earth. The issue of pollution / conservation
is therefore first and foremost a Spiritual one. The will
to sustain change must therefore be Spiritual in the first
instance and secular second. This is the difference between
the environment business , and the business environment!
The third element therefore in this "Trinity of the
Community" are local spiritual groups. Not necessarily
institutional churches, who may also have members in the
other two elements. When all three groups work together
the Spiritual element will be addressed in a practical manner
without which sustainable change is impossible. Such is
the very nature of systems functioning, and polluted communities
are systems with all manner of stakeholders.
As such groups progressively form strategic partnerships, the
creativity of the heart of the child will enlighten the community
as to its products, processes, and procedures such that the heart
of the community is sustained by the community accepting responsibility
for itself.
Remember Einstein: to resolve the issue a higher order
of thinking is essential to that which caused the apparently
insoluble problem in the first place. It is the adult ,
secular, male intellect that has got us where we are today.
Do we really need/want more of the same? Whats the alternative?
Well, we could all go to the nearest star and do the same
thing all over again. Or, a little nearer home we could
develop such communities based upon Systems Thinking which
will act as patterns for other Scottish communities, thus
becoming definitive Learning Organisations within the Scottish
Nation. The key "ingredient" is emergent creativity
which only manifests when the system, that is the community,
accepts responsibility and functions as an integrated whole.
 In
terms of change, we have entered not just a new millennium
which is a secular concept, but a new Spiritual Epoch. This
statement does not refer to the symbols of the Zodiac.Please
scroll down to the red lettering at the end of this web
page. We can therefore expect many changes to come more
quickly than we anticipated. For the "Environment Business"
to become the model "Business Environment" it
must implement sustainable change.
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 Notes
+ In the Eco-city
Project (1997) in Edinburgh, Scotland forty school children
from several Eupopean countries worked with architects,
engineering contractors, and teachers to design a huge scale
model of their ideal ecological city. The professionals
were amazed at the results. This led to the ongoing Children's
Parliament throughout Scotland.
Postscript 8/4/08 The original project was attacked by spiritual forces which are not of our Lord Jesus Christ. The present day Children's Parliament in Scotland and elsewhere which arose from such projects are therefore also in the thrall of these spirit beings. Their aim being to defy The Lord's Will for Scotland through the spiritual corruption of our young people, and thus tomorrow's parliamentarians. These beings are the antithesis of all democracy worldwide. They also have a world wide presence in many universities.
* Cost internalisation: (See paradigm shift on following
page.) Accepting some of the costs which would otherwise
be borne by the wider community. eg forest regeneration
costs and/or unemployment resulting from de-forestation.
Should these be borne by business alone; the end user alone;
or partly by both? Who should make this decision?
A System is an entity which maintains its existence and functions
as a whole through the interaction of its parts. Systems Thinking
therefore focuses upon the integrated nature of action and reaction
for good or ill between individuals within a system; and between
systems . It is concerned with causes as distinct from effects
(symptoms). In the context of this paper the objective for the
individual is to serve the community and thus themselves, whilst
the objective for the community is to serve the planet.
Chaos Theory: One description of Chaos Theory suggests that the
flutter of a butterfly's wings may cause a hurricane on
the opposite side of the world such is the complexity of
global weather as a system. It maintains that there is an
order at the centre of all (apparent) chaos, the objective
of course being to discover the rule which when applied
will result in order out of chaos.
The theory relates to the "twilight zone" between science
and art or religion, as the ultimate system is the Cosmos.
A more intuitive, and yet potentially more pragmatic "experience"
of the theory is given below:
For want of a nail, the shoe was lost,
For want of a shoe, the horse was lost,
For want of a horse, the rider was lost,
For want of a rider, the battle was lost,
For want of battle, the Kingdom was lost!
The folklore quoted above exemplifies the chain of sequential
and cumulative events that may cause chaotic outcomes in an orderly
world. The Theory therefore studies such events to find the order
in chaos. You may care to reflect upon global politics in this
context!
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The Paradigm Shift
The child or young person as the universal, largest and most
fundamental Spiritual resource available to global business —
She or he is also almost completely marginalised as an stakeholder
in the community which inherits the outworking of the patriarchal
mindset regarding the environment. The adult assumes that the
child has nothing to contribute to the sustainability issue because
she or he has no intellectual knowledge or experience of the adult
world, and of business in particular. The child however not has;
but is, Spiritual Wisdom and intuition as a symbol and vessel
of the Cosmic Christ. This reality (is there more than one?) was
envisaged amongst others by Robert Owen an enlightened mill owner
in New Lanark , Scotland almost two hundred years ago. His dream
(?) is even more imperative to the world today than it was in
Robert Owen's own time. Planetary survival , of which sustainable
development is but a subset, will not be solved by the adult intellect,
but by the heart of the child working alongside the adult brain.
The whole concept
of sustainable development requires to be placed within
the broader perspective of global survival. Any other approach
is naive or arrogant, or both! Many global businesses of
which even the more enlightened nationals and multi-nationals
are a part do not accept this hypothesis because of vested
interests and shareholder responsibilities. Sufficient effective
action has to be taken however within about twenty years
to avert global climatic meltdown in fifty years time. This
will require an act of reparation on the part of global
business towards The Biblical Divine Feminine, and not merely
a reduction of the rate of global rape, which is based upon
the same fear and competitiveness which cause wars local
or global. Until such acts are based upon community altruism
no substantive change will have taken place. Every one of
us as a customer is required to be part of such reparation.
The concept of sustainable development cannot be exclusive
of the customer and therefore the customer has to participate
and be involved in sustainability decisions.
Initiatives such
as "To the Heart of Sustainability" launched by
The Centre for Human Ecology in Edinburgh in 1999 are necessary
and laudable if business is to be orientated towards sustainability
as a first step in community regeneration -- and thus global
survival. It is one thing however to build foundations with
the intellect, and another to build the walls with the heart!
The motivators for such initiatives are still largely individual
or cognate group business survival and competitiveness to
meet the demands of shareholders. This is not business "common-unity"
or an act of reparation towards the ultimate provider of
the factors of all production -- The Divine Feminine. It
is sustainability, yes, but primarily of "my"
profit margin; directors personal credibility; and dividend
levels. Until values change, nothing has really changed
at all -- the God is still Mammon, it is still taking, and
little giving.
Until levels of proposed cost internalisation* are such that
shareholders permission is required, no act of reparation to the
community by the community local or global (same thing) has taken
place. Business wades into tropical forests with a vengeance and
throws crumbs at internalising costs. It capitalises upon third
world business opportunities, terminator genes included, whilst
Western governments attempt to control industrial revolutions
in such countries as ecologically undesirable. Until and unless
the entire community participates and is involved in the outcome
of decisions such as cost internalisation no reparation will be
made because the intellect doesn't function in the Spiritual domain.
This "common-unity" must include shareholders and stakeholders
/ inheritors ie children and young people. Only children are innately
Spiritually minded, and unrestricted by illusionary intellectual
boundaries in their creative thinking. They intuitively love their
neighbour including those in the other four Kingdoms, not to mention
their counterparts living in Moscow whom their own parents would
destroy with Trident missiles in the name of sustainability --
of precisely what? This is Human nature vainly attempting to save
itself using its own arrogance to do so!
Thus UK politics, part funded by business sets the model for
business to follow of fear, greed and competition. Take the European
issue as the prime example of the inability of European business
to achieve a common unity, far less global business. Systems Thinking
is oft quoted in an academic approach to human ecology but is
largely exclusive of the Kingdom of God. Thus the finite (mind)
would seek to resolve an issue of the Infinite using the other
side of the same coinage of thinking as causes the ecological
crisis -- intellect and ego! In the meantime our young people
look on mute, and dis-enfranchised. Thus it is not possible for
the complete (Cosmic) system to "think" and so the "emergent"
Spiritual creativity of the child in terms of systems thinking
cannot arise.
What then are the medium term prospects for sustainable development
initiatives launched in a global political environment which in
the UK alone now has more, not less, Trident warheads pointing
at Moscow than during the Cold War? What human intellect, individual
or collective is going to stop the world's military in its tracks
and thus put millions out of work? What then of sustainability
as far as the unemployed are concerned? Who then would buy the
products of this sustainable development? And if the military
is not stopped sooner or later the button will be pressed, such
is the fallibility of human nature. This is not doomsday thinking
, it is pragmatism and accepts the certainty of Divine intervention.
If a (relatively) sane country like the UK increases the number
of it's Trident warheads after the Cold War what does that say
for the less stable nations? The concept of nuclear deterrence
is now accepted as an illusion, but the system still remains "locked
on". How do we police, plead for, demand, influence global
contraction in the use and manufacture of weapons all in twenty
years on our track record to date? Divine intervention is so radical
that it begs the re-defintion of "radical" ecology,
and questions the depth of "deep" ecology. Einstein
speaking as a physicist considered the definitive question to
be "Is the universe a friendly place?". Matter can be
safe or dangerous, but to be friendly implies a living Being.
What or who then
is the missing link which bridges these related imponderables
of sustainable development and sustainable Life? Who is
this living Being? — The child or young person! Only
the Cosmic Child (Christ) within us all will lay down its
arms, then help its neighbours. Until this happens on a
large scale nothing has really changed at all, and it will
never happen as long as the intellect holds sway. Robert
Owen was a self styled millennniumist two hundred years
before the callander event. Only Divine intervention will
realise his dream. All is therefore based upon faith; actively
calling upon The Divine Being, otherwise it is still the
intellect no matter how well intentioned or technically
brilliant. Owen appears to have trusted mostly in the intellect.
 How
can the Child's Vision become Reality?
Through an educational initiative which brings together in the
"classroom" of common-unity children / young people;
industrialists; and business people (women and men) where they
may learn from each other. In many instances this will mean the
child inside the adult actively listening to, and being taught
by the (apparently) physical child. This will be based on local,
national, and inter-national community.
Thus and only
thus will learning opportunities be limitless , and sustainable
development , that is development of the human Spirit, and
hence species come about, embracing sustainable business
development as a means to a beginning not and end in itself!
We speak of the new millennium in secular terms giving little
thought to the prospect of it also being the "new age"
of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. The focal point of
all human history was / is the birth and death of Jesus
The Christ. The coming of Biblical Divine Wisdom*
to humanity as so choose, having been first chosen -- is
the changeling of this millennium.
*
Please see: Proverbs 4 and 8 / Ecclesiastes / The Song of Songs / Revelation
12.
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Let the Children Speak — A Young Person's Vision
 Preparing
The Future!
The problem
Albert Einstein, one of the world's great scientists, said;
"some problems which seem to be impossible to solve
cannot be resolved by the same type of thinking as that
which caused the problem in the first place".
At this moment we are all living dangerously with an apparently
insoluble problem. Our world is in serious trouble. Many
researchers throughout the world agree that pollution and
destruction of our natural world including forests and animal
species is now at such a level that it threatens the long-term
survival of our planet. For example, a business adviser
concerned with the environment said recently that he reckoned
our planet has "about 50 years left" unless we
change the way we think and act. This seems incredible,
but many people are beginning to share this view. The two
pages you are now reading are all about giving you a chance
to think, act, and be heard by adults such as your teachers,
business men and experts who are willing to hear your ideas
and to work with you to make them happen; - it's about nothing
less than saving our planet!
If you listen to our political, business and educational
leaders you might believe that the answer is just to work
harder to improve the economy. The talk in Britain rarely
moves away from this theme. Businesses are told to be "more
efficient". Schools and school pupils are told that
they have to raise achievement, which usually means improving
the number of passes in examinations. In other words, the
future of our planet is thought to depend on economics;
better business, harder work, and better examination results.
Unfortunately things are not so simple. Of course economics
(the use of limited resources, such as labour, land, and
money) matters, but economic policies in Britain in the
last 20 years have been all about selfishness, about how
much I can get for myself; about who gets richer and who
gets poorer; about winners and losers! The result is that
even though our economy has prospered, and though overall
examination results have actually improved, our planet is
being destroyed at a faster rate than ever!
The Solution
So we now face one of Einstein's "insoluble problems".
But remember what Einstein said. He stated that we need
a different type or "level" of thinking to solve
the problem. If our politicians, business people, and educational
leaders cannot see this, who can? This is where you, the
young person, come in. Many of us believe that this complex
life we live has a Spiritual (of the heart, how we feel
inside) as well as an economic side to it, and that Spirituality
has mostly become lost from sight. It is not always easy
to experience Spirituality, or to understand what it means.
However, just think for a moment. You must know that there
is more to life than making money, and much more to learning
how to live and love than passing examinations. There is
not even a very close relationship between passing examinations
and "doing well" - whatever that means - in later
life! Life is about love, joy, happiness, sadness, and comforting
others. A complex experience in which we are all related
one to the other. Each of us ideally should have choices
through which we can each make a difference to life on our
planet of which we are all a part. Some adults believe that
we shall only succeed in saving the future for you, our
children, if we accept and believe that every one of us
- politicians, business people, teachers and young people
- must solve problems by working together and learning from
each other. This means that we must change ourselves, our
attitudes, and our beliefs. We must recognise that we are
all part of one another, we are all part of the global community.
How can we change?
Every single one of us is unique, talented, multi-skilled,
and never to be repeated as an individual person. So we
are all special, with different ideas and ways of looking
at things. Adults should believe that their children are
their future, and that you, as young people, can make a
difference! Sadly, adults seldom involve young people meaningfully
in talking about the future, and seldom listen to what you
feel and what you think. As adults we create the rules.
We decide when you should have lunch, whether you should
wear uniforms, what qualifications you need for a career,
and what courses you need to follow at school. But if we
are all unique, it is almost certain that by telling you
what to do we miss the opportunity to listen to you, and
learn from you.
However, not all schools are like this. There is an unusual
school in Sweden where the teachers listen to the pupils.
The head teacher in this school says: "We do not know
what the future will be when our children are growing up
in the world. Because of this we cannot base their upbringing
on the knowledge we have around us today. We have to give
them possibilities to manage a world we cannot predict:
possibilities to do all right in unforeseeable circumstances.
Knowledge and information are always built upon "today
and yesterday". It will be good enough tomorrow only
if everything stays the same, which it never does. Even
as individuals we all change each day of our lives. Because
of this, adults have to give children and young people a
different type of school, a school which encourages the
creation of possibilities, and teach children how to use
these possibilities in their own lives, and in the community
of which they are a part."
One of our most famous business writers, Charles Handy,
tells the story of a traveller in the hill country who came
to a village only to find his road forward blocked by a
mountain. So he sat and waited for the mountain to move.
Years later he was still there, old now and white-haired,
still waiting. Then he died, but he was remembered in the
village as a proverb, "The man who waited for the mountains
to move." The point of this story is that God doesn't
move mountains, nor does He cause any of life's "Big
Issues". We climb mountains with God's help! Don't
therefore look for Him, or someone working on His behalf
"outside" yourself. Look for Him inside, inside
you, and using His eyes find new bits of yourself which
you never even knew were there! Scary, yes -- but exciting,
and you have friends all around to help you!
 So,
change starts with you! Did you ever think of this possibility?
No, well now you know! Human beings are a unique species
as a "thinker". We are able to think about how
and why humans (and the planet we all depend upon) came
into being, and where we are all heading as a race. Some
of us may even see ourselves as "children" of
Sophia referring to Biblical Wisdom. The issue of how we
live with planet earth is therefore, first and foremost,
a Spiritual one. That is not just about "nuts and bolts"
and scientific formulas; it concerns how we feel in our
hearts and what we do about how we feel. If you are willing
to work with others from business, the churches/Spiritual
groups, political parties, your own and other schools, to
"Prepare the Future" together, literally anything
is possible. Remember Einstein. To survive and prosper we
need a different type and level of thinking. You can't imagine
what that may be or what it may feel like? Me too! Let's
find out together. You, the young person can bring this
new thinking to the "child" who lives within all
adults. You can teach us for a change! - A Big Change!
Let's talk about these possibilities
more face to face - how does that sound?
END
The
graphics below symbolise the outpouring of The Holy Spirit
over the entire planet as Cornucopia in the present Dispensation
of Jesus as Cosmic Christ. Amen. The water symbolises the
Second Coming of The Christ Child in the fluid realm of
the etheric body.
They
do not represent what is popularly understood as (the age
of ) Aquarius.
Hebrews
1. 1- 4 New International
Version (NIV)
"At
various times in the past and in various ways God spoke
to our ancestors through the prophets; but in our own time;
the last days, God has spoken to us through the child."
 "This
child God has appointed to inherit everything and through
whom God made everything there is ... The
child is the radiant light of God's glory and the perfect
copy of the Divine nature, sustaining the
universe by his powerful command - who has gone to take
his place in the heavens at the right hand of Divine majesty".
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