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The Blue Star Future provides us a direction-setting beacon for the future — a template for guiding our regional visions.
Embracing the Blue Star Future as our direction-setting beacon helps us escape the gravitational pull of today’s dominant paradigm.
The five Blue Star Future elements provide a template that can be used by regions in co-creating their visions for an “ideal” 2020 future. Each element can become a bridge that supports imagining a vastly different kind of future. “Imagination,” according to Einstein, “is more important than knowledge. It is our preview of life’s coming attractions.” The five elements of the Blue Star Future are:
o “Success” redefined as “contribution to the well-being of life.” Imagine the implications of our choosing this design principle as we set out to transform our existing social systems and invent new organizing forms.
o Full co-creative partnership with the rest of nature. This goes beyond the realization that everything is connected, and that our well-being is dependent on the well-being of the rest of nature. A full co-creative partnership implies that we learn to listen to nature in a deep way — to engage with nature and find inspiration in nature’s beautifully elegant designs as we make those design choices that affect our future. A full co-creative partnership goes beyond a commitment to sustainability – it is a commitment to support each other in thriving and true-wealth creation.
o Opportunities for all to go “Full Maslow.” An obscenely high percentage of humanity is struggling to achieve the lower rungs of Maslow’s hierarchy. Many of those who are most successful by material standards are some distance from “Full Maslow.” Can you imagine a world where every one had that opportunity? Whatever would we do with our prisons and our war-making machinery?
o Fulfilling work for everyone. Employment is one thing. Fulfilling work is something quite different. Fulfilling work has to do with being fully engaged, using your innate gifts and talents, with being and becoming fully alive, with contributing your absolute best for the benefit of all of life. Whether you’re a farmer or an infant or a contemplative or a corporate executive, there is a potential for fulfilling work for everyone.
o All systems consciously self-evolving. Very few of our social systems have been designed to be self-improving, much less to be consciously self-evolving. As a consequence we are enmeshed in a vast array of social systems (education, health care, penal institutions, corporations, governments, etc.) that are both broken and unable to transform themselves. Consciously self-evolving systems hold a great promise of continuously improving and reinventing themselves so to increase their contribution to the well-being of life.
Going for a Blue Star Future may feel as daunting as the ‘60s commitment to put a man on the moon and bring him back safely. It is that daunting. We’ve made it to the moon and back. Though we may never make it to a Blue Star Future in our lifetime, we can choose to begin that journey and give it our all. For us it promises to be a rewarding journey. Our children’s children will be grateful for our foresight.
Bill, I just found your site as referred from John Renesch’s site. I am intrigued and feel I am on your wavelength. I am currently writing a few books and a creating a netcast show that I hope will be part of the shift of social consciousness. Regarding the Blue Star Future (why is it blue??), I particularly like the concept of self-evolving social systems. All social systems evolve, but the one you refer to is conscious of and supportive of self-improvement. I look forward to perusing your site more. And I will tweet this page for sure. Best, Rich Guy Miller
Hey, Rich Guy.
Thanks for your comment and question, “Why is the Blue Star Future Blue?”
We make extensive use of the Rainbow Lens Zones to discern and qualitatively measure levels of quality which are not normally seen as measurable, e.g., quality of relationship, quality of agreements, quality of purpose. We had chosen Red to indicate the “toxic” end of the continuum and Blue for the “generative” end. By “generative” we mean self-regulating, self-improving, self-propagating and self-evolving — life-giving like the rest of nature. You can find a more detailed description and examples of Rainbow Lens applications at http://www.theinfinitegames.org/e05/02_01.php.
We initially thought of this as a direction-setting North Star, and then realized that this wasn’t too appropriate for the Southern Hemisphere.
I believe the starpoint, “Self-evolving social systems,” is the key to on-going movement toward the other four starpoint goals.
The GlobalGEA web site includes many of the bare bones for the skeleton of the story of how we collective reinvented “civilization” in a way that moved us away from toxicity, transcended our mechanistic consumption-centric world view, and moved us toward a generative or consciously evolving future. Our challenge is to find the story-tellers and media-mavens who are inspired to help flesh out and enliven these bare bones, and to do so in a way that attracts those who are intended to inhabit the story and bring a Blue Star Story into our present.
Might you happen to know of such beings?
With blessings and appreciation,
Bill@MISA.ws
When Bill Veltrop came to Wellington New Zealand he spoke to a group of people hosted by Celia Wade-Brown our mayor and so inspired us that we have an active Blue Star Future group working to make Wellington the most livable region in the world based on the Blue Star Future. To see our progress and to learn from our learnings I invite you to go to http://www.buestarfuture.org.nz
We have a very active node in New Zealand and love being part of a wider Blue Star Future network.
THIS IS THE SOUL OF THE STORY
The system is no longer working.
We feel trapped and unable to change it.
But underneath changes are coming together.
Now is the right time.
The butterfly wings are flapping.
You are not alone.
With courage and a new story, you could be the one.
Best wishes from New Zealand
Bruce Holland
Bruce.holland@virtual.co.nz
Bruce, thanks for showing up on this site and opening your pioneering kiwi initiative up to the rest of the world. You have played a huge role in taking an idea and nurturing it in a way that it has taken root and begun to sprout in the Wellington region. Like the Ents in the Lord of Rings I’m picturing your plantings growing legs and ultimately influencing all of NZ and beyond.
Note to Fellow Champions of Generative Change: Bruce Holland’s “Strategic Snippets” mailings represent an extraordinary collection of pragmatic guidance and insight. Check it out and get on his mailing list.