#21 Shaping our Destiny - Paradigm Shift (July 2011)

The theme of this AFWW newsletter is paradigm shift. A less fancy phrase for a cultural "paradigm" is "world view." 
Picture
Paradigm shift - what and why

On Christmas Eve in 1968 the astronauts on the Apollo 8 mission beamed a message to earth, including this photo, Earthrise. This image of our tiny blue and white planet against the vast darkness of space is a powerful envisionment of something critical about the human journey.  We evolved in Africa, we have spread throughout the globe, and now, in the words of the ecological economist Herman Daly, our globe is full. 
 
And what many of us sense is that the ways of living that worked during our long journey out of Africa...they aren't working so well any more.
 
In a blog entitled Paradigm Shift for a Human Future of Peace, Dr. Judith Hand explores our dilemma. She
  • defines "paradigm,"
  • explains the nature of a cultural paradigm that underlies the rationale for war and that has become maladaptive, and
  •  suggests a paradigm on which those who love peace can focus shared efforts in order to replace this maladaptive world view. Read Paradigm Shift and a Future of Peace.
Ghandi
Paradigm Shift - Making it Swift and Enduring 
 
Putting an end to war would be a transformation of enormous magnitude, easily as profound as the Agricultural, Industrial, and Digital revolutions. For that change to endure, the cultural paradigm that fosters war would have to change (see Paradigm Shift and a Future of Peace.
 
Furthermore, the greater the evil, the greater will be the difficulty in shifting the supporting paradigm. Nevertheless, long-held cultural world views can be altered, and from a historical perspective, altered relatively quickly when we decide to do it.
Picture
For example, a decision was made to end foot-binding in China. For nearly a thousand years, the essence of Chinese feminine beauty was having tiny feet...ideally no more than three inches in length. In 1911 the New Republic of China outlawed binding, and then work began to change the Chinese conception of what makes a woman beautiful. The practice is now defunct. A paradigm of 1,000 years changed in less than 100.
 
The recent history of major social transformation efforts, such as those of the U.S. suffragists, Mohandas Gandhi, and Martin Luther King Jr., illustrate how massive change is brought about using two different but complimentary processes: Constructive Program (good works) and Obstructive Program (nonviolent persuasion).
 
The essay "A Cultural Paradigm Shift- Swift and Enduring" outlines these two approaches, and explains why both are necessary to achieve a rapid shift that also endures. It also explains why neither one alone is sufficient. Learn more.
Shaping the Future: Groups Seeking to Create or Facilitate a Critical Mass for Positive Change
Picture
​In unity there is power
 
Listed below, with links, are a selection of organizations, alliances, and projects for which paradigm shift is their main purpose. They think globally and are working, in their own ways, to bring about a historical cultural shift. A shift so delightful that it will astound us. A shift that will make this a time of epic historical change that our descendants will remember with profound gratitude. This shift will place our human journey on the path to a more egalitarian, just, less violent, and ecologically sustainable future.
 
Dr. Hand's essay Shaping the Future: A Proposal to Hasten a Global Paradigm Shift for the Security and Wellbeing of All Children Everywhere outlines a mechanism to unite these efforts and more like them. A great number of partners like these united into a grand, common, cultural shift campaign will achieve visibility and power impossible to ignore and able to energize millions.
  • This list is not an exhaustive-merely a sampling. It has a bias toward U.S. based organizations because these are most familiar to AFWW. Its purpose is to provide readers with a sense of what is happening "out there," projects that might catch the readers' interest.
  • These alliances characteristically have a focus that reflects the expertise and interests of current members. Their concerns are not all the same.
  • What they share in common is that they all have already arrived at a global vision, at the conviction that to have sufficient clout to shape the course of history we must unite, and they are committed to growing a global people's movement for change.
If this is also where your thoughts are, you may check them out and then decide to join one or more as a partner.
 
Note: AFWW finds each one of interest and valuable in its own area of pursuit, but listing them does not constitute an endorsement.
 
The site wiserearth.org provides a directory of: Organizations, People, Groups, Resources, Events, and Jobs.
 
The following are listed alphabetically:  
Alliance for a New Humanity
Alliance for Peace Building  
Beyond War
Better World Links
Earth Charter Initiative
Foundation for Global Collaboration and Peace 
Four Years Go 
Great Transition Initiative
KOSMOS
Peace and Collaborative Development Network
Positive Futures Network
Simpol
Tikkun
World Shift Network
Global Solutions.org  
The Need for Change is Great and World Citizens are Responding
Quotable Quote 

Here is arguably the quintessential paradigm shift quote: "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has."
- Margaret Mead 
 

A Good Movie
 
"The U.S. vs. John Lennon." He didn't just sing songs. John Lennon was an Activist, Visionary, and Revolutionary.  He frightened the U.S. government. Watch and appreciate Lennon's work to lay a foundation for a future without war.   
A Future Without War
Believe in it.
Envision it.
Work for it.
And we will achieve it.
 

QuickLinks
​
These three quick links are to Dr. Hand's core articles on paradigm shift:

To Abolish War

Shaping the Future

Paradigm Shift: Swift and Enduring

More Links:

How Long Ending War Would Take

Why Women Are the Key to Security

The Nine Cornerstones

AFWW Newsletter Archives
Picture
​Nonviolence: Poised to Change History at Last 

Cultural change activists seeking to forge a better future for coming generations are aware that this can't be achieved using force. Using force elicits blowback that is the opposite of what is desired. We will need to use the power of nonviolence.
 
The kind of nonviolence practiced by Mohandas Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., and most recently the protestors in Egypt's Tahrir Square is a people's force, and it is a powerful force. 
 
BUT: it is fair and reasonable to ask, If Nonviolence is so Powerful, Why Hasn't it Already Succeeded in Transforming our Dominator Cultures into Peaceful and Egalitarian Ones? Why has it not already given us the cultural paradigm shift so many long for?
 
In Dr. Judith Hand's essay "Until now, Nonviolence Movements Were 'Before Their Time," the works of suffragist Alice Paul, of Mohandas K. Gandhi, and of Abdul Gaffar Khan are set into historical context.
 
Two barriers are then suggested as the primary reasons why those movements, and many others which made astonishing forward progress, have not yet resulted in an enduring transformation of our violent, dominator systems of government:
 
Finally, six historical factors going back rough 700 years are introduced that make our time, the early 21st century, extraordinarily different from all preceding historical moments ... a time that is RIGHT, at last, for nonviolent movements to achieve the next great social transformation in the human story. Read the full essay.
Picture
About A Future Without War
We want to provide newsletter readers with a reminder about our extensive website, www.afww.org. 
 
The materials can be a reference for personal use, something to share with friends or colleagues who doubt that it would ever be possible to abolish war, and as thought pieces to stimulate discussions, for example, by your students, a book group, or peace activist organizations.  You will find on the site:
These are titles of and links to current Miscellaneous AFWW Essays:
Picture
A Reminder About AFWW Links

AFWW has completed an initial listing of over 100 links to a selection of organizations in the vanguard of efforts to create a better future.  If you belong to or head up an organization, you may find your organization listed.  Check under the Nav Bar "Good News and More" and click on " Links ."
A Future Without War ​