Margaret J. Wheatley is one of my heroes. She began caring for the peoples of the world in 1966 as a Peace Corps volunteer in post-war Korea. Since then, as a consultant, senior advisor, teacher and healer, he has helped millions of people gain a better understanding of ourselves and our world. In her book, Who Do We Choose To Be? Facing Reality, Asserting Leadership, Restoring Sanity, says,
“My ambition is for you to see clearly to act wisely. If we don’t know where we are, if we don’t know what to prepare for, then whatever path we choose will have us wandering in the desert, more and more desperate, more and more lost.”
I was fortunate enough to interview Dr. Wheatley and wrote an article, “Warrior’s of the Human Spirit: Finding Your Path of Contribution in a World Out Balance.” I said in the article:
“At a time when many people fear the truth, he tells it as it is. At a time when many people want to run and hide, he invites us to step into our true warrior spirit in the tradition of Buddhist master Chögyam Trungpa.”
In my book, The Warrior’s Journey Home: Healing Men, Healing the PlanetI quoted Trungpa:
“Warrior here does not refer to waging war on others. Aggression is the source of our problems, not the solution. Here the word ‘warrior’ comes from the Tibetan pawo which literally means “one who is brave”. Polemics in this context is the tradition of human bravery or the tradition of fearlessness. Warriorship is not being afraid of who you are.”
I received my own awakening to the warrior spirit in 1993 at a Men’s Leadership Conference in Indianapolis, Indiana, sponsored by Opening wings Magazine. As part of the conference offerings, we were invited to participate in a traditional Native American sweat ceremony. At 4u when things got so hot in the shelter that many people had to go out, I was transported into a vision where I saw the sinking of the Civilization ship and the launching of the Lifeboats for Humanity.
Most of those on the Civilization ship would not believe that the ship could sink, they denied the truth and went down. A few people, who believed the truth of their senses and not the captain’s propaganda, escaped in lifeboats, joined together and created a new, more sustainable world.
For the past thirty years this vision has guided my life. Here are some of the things I’ve learned:
- “Culture” is a misnomer. Its proper name is “Sovereign Culture”.
As long as we believe the myth that “civilization” is the best that humans can aspire to achieve, we are doomed to go down with the ship. In The Chalice & the Blade: Our History Our Future First published in 1987, internationally recognized scholar and futurist, Riane Eisler first introduced us to our long, ancient heritage as a Cooperative Culture and our more recent Dominant Culture, which has been called “Culture.” In her book, Cultivating Our Humanity: How Sovereignty and Partnership Shape Our Brains, Our Lives, and Our Future written with peace activist Douglas P. Fry, they offer real guidance for creating a world based on cooperation.
- There is a better world, beyond civilization.
When they gave me the book Ismail, by Daniel Quinn, I have a clear sense of the two worlds competing for our attention: A world of hierarchy and dominance (Quinn calls it the world of Receivers) and a world of equality and connection (Quinn calls it a world of leaving). In his book, Beyond Civilization: Humanity’s Next Great Adventure, Quinn asks,
“What does it mean to save the world? Saving the world can only mean one thing: saving the world as a human habitat. Achieving this will mean (must mean) saving the world as a habitat for as many other species as possible. We can only save the world as a human habitat if we stop our destructive assault on the community of life, because we depend on that community for our very lives.”
The pattern of the collapse of complex cultures
In her book, Who Do We Choose To Be?, Margaret Wheatley says,
“The one thing that is apparent from the study of history is that we humans fail to learn from history. Yet those who study the history of civilizations have illuminated the pattern of rise and fall of complex human societies. The pattern of collapse is remarkably consistent.”
In her book, The Watchman’s Rattle: A Radical New Theory of Collapse, World-renowned futurist Rebecca D. Costa shares what scholars have learned over the years about the signs of impending collapse:
“The first sign is deadlock“, says Costa. “Idleness occurs when civilizations fail to understand or solve large, complex problems, despite having recognized in advance that these issues may lead to their extinction.”
He goes on to say,
“Then, as conditions grow more desperate, the second sign is the replacement of knowledge by belief.”
Costa says that these conditions exist in all complex societies that extend to the level we call empires. Drawing from the work of historians such as Dr. Joseph Tainter, in his book The collapse of complex societies, says,
“Tainter believes that war, crop failures, disease and political unrest appear to have caused the fall of the Roman Empire, but in fact ‘diminishing returns on investment in social complexity’ was the root cause.
Margaret Wheatley draws on the work of Joseph Tainter, Sir John Glubb and others who have studied the collapse of empires and notes that whether it is the Roman, Arab, Ottoman, Spanish or British Empires, they all fall after about ten generations or 250 years. It is clear to many that as we celebrate 250 years from 1776 to 2026, the United States is no exception.
Wheatley says,
“This is the age of threat, when everything we encounter intensifies fear and anger. In survival mode, we turn away from each other, abandon values that held us together, withdraw from ideas and practices that fostered inclusion and built trust in leaders. And most damaging, we stop believing in each other.”
It is time to stop blaming ourselves and others for our predicament. No political party or administration can save us and no one is ultimately to blame.
“We are walking the well-trodden path of collapse documented in the history of all complex civilizations,” Wheatley says, “so we must find a new path of contribution.”
The future of our country, the world and ourselves
Many of us who work to make the world a better place have broken our minds, hearts, and souls trying to fix the unfixable. With wisdom (and age — I turned eighty-two this year) some of us have come to the conclusion that there are some things people have done to our injury and ignorance that cannot be fixed.
Many of the changes we have brought about, including climate destabilization, are irreversible. We will have to live with the consequences. But that doesn’t mean we can’t do anything. Here’s what Meg Wheatley says to those who are ready to hear the truth and feel called to do something constructive:
“The perfect storm is here, created by the confluence of climate and man-made disasters, insatiable greed, fear-based self-protection, escalating aggression and conflict, indifference to the well-being of others, and constant uncertainty. My answer to this is stated with complete confidence: We must restore reason by awakening the human spirit. We can onlywe achieve it if we take on the most demanding and essential task of our leaders’ lives: the creation of Sosti Islands”.
I have been doing this since 1993 when I had the sweat lodge experience where I was given both the vision of the collapse and the potential future of “lifeboats for humanity”. One of my other heroes is a woman named Clarissa Pinkola Estes. wrote the book, Women who run with the wolves. He also offered this heartfelt call to action:
“Mis estimados queridos, My esteemed ones: Do not lose heart. It is hard to say which of the current glaring issues has shaken the world and people’s beliefs more. Ours is an age of almost daily surprise and often righteous indignation at the latest degradations of what matters most to civilized, visionaries.
“You are correct in your estimations. The glitz and hubris that some seek while advocating such heinous acts against children, the elderly, everyday people, the poor, the unguarded, the helpless, is breathtaking.
“However, I urge you, please, my ladyship, not to waste your spirit dryly mourning these trying times. Especially not to lose hope. Mainly because, the fact is, we are made for these times…”
Margaret Wheatley says that,
“An island of sanity is a gift of possibility and refuge created by the commitment of people to form healthy community to do meaningful work. It requires healthy leaders with an unwavering faith in the innate generosity, creativity and kindness of people.”
In June I will be sharing some new opportunities for our MenAlive community. I wrote about them in a recent article, “Becoming Rebels in Our Own Time.” I hope you will be with us. Visit me at MenAlive and sign up for our free weekly newsletter.
