Robert Paterson's Weblog

End Food Banks - Start Community Gardens - A New Reality in Atlanta

This is surely a good thing?

The Impact of Domestication on Dogs and Man

If you ask why I keep banging on about why it may be good to find a way home to being more self reliant, here is a view of the power of domestication on both animals and us.

Sitting Bull - A Natural and Wild Leader

Grey Wolf - Natural Wild Leader - Look at Sitting Bull's eyes and at the Eyes of the Wolf
'
WSC New Modern Leader

German Shepherd - New  Modern Dog - Both Churchill and the Shepherd still have the remnants of the natural and the wild in them. In a tough corner, you would want both by your side.

Post Modern - Totally domesticated Dog - All wildness has been bred out. Rely on the power of manipulation and on being liked.

What next? This? Totally helpless - totally self absorbed - a complete drain

"You say Tomayto and I say Tomahto" HBR and Rob on the power of Stories

I am convinced that the only way to change the world is to change the stories we tell - if we do that we have a good chance.

I said this the other day in a typical Rob Post
Snip:

We have to be the new to make the change.

We have to build the new to make the change. We have to tell the story of the new in the new way to make the change. When enough us of live it, do it and have told the story, the world will change.

Harold Jarche pointed me to this excellent article by Peter Bregman that says the same thing is  a very different language. Snip:

To start a culture change all we need to do is two simple things:

1. Do dramatic story-worthy things that represent the culture we want to create. Then let other people tell stories about it.


2. Find other people who do story-worthy things that represent the culture we want to create. Then tell stories about them.

For example, if you want to create a faster moving, less perfectionist culture, instead of berating someone for sending an email without proper capitalization, send out a memo with typos in it.

Or if you want managers and employees to communicate more effectively, stop checking your computer in the middle of a conversation every time the new message sound beeps. Instead, put your computer to sleep when they walk in your office.

Or if you're trying to create a more employee-focused culture, instead of making the bride work on her wedding day, give her the week off.

We live by stories. We tell them, repeat them, listen to them carefully, and act in accordance with them.

We can change our stories and be changed by them.

Michael Jackson and us - why his life and death mean so much - for we are he?

The eternal child - Peter Pan - ageless - always a boy - loves toys. Michael Jackson? But maybe also us. Stuck as a child. Maybe us?

I read this passage yesterday in Steven Pressfield's new book Killing Rommel - a book not about Killing Rommel but about growing up. As many reviewers have called it - "A lesson in Honor"

"Stein has a theory about inner evolution. A man matures, he believes from archetype to archetype: from Son the Wanderer to Warrior and from there, if he is lucky to Lover, Husband, Father, King Sage and Mystic..."

This is surely the journey that is open to us all - there are the feminine versions of this too ending of course with Crone.

I think that we are stuck, as MJ was, in the earlier phases of adolescence. MJ and Farrah Fawcett too, embodied our stuckness with YOUTH and its primary energy, the denial of our death.

When we deny death, we deny life and true creation. We deny the chance to become so in later life so big that we start to meld again into the fabric of the universe - like an infant who comes from that place.

For the Crone and the King Sage meld into the Mystic and become one human - the Mystic melds into the universe itself and has all its power available. This is the fullness of a life's potential.

But as eternal teenagers, we remain stuck in Neverland and we become bankrupt in every way. We can never nourish other life.

I think that this is why millions fel so bad today. They have seen part of themselves die and they see how sad and tragic a life that is stuck can be.

Natural Money - A New Book - "New Currency - How Money Changes the World as we know it"

Why can't we fix what we know is wrong?

The gap between rich and poor widens - today a billion people starve - in 1800 there were only a billion people on Earth. Starvation increases. No amount of rock concerts has made a difference. On the other side, the concentration of wealth in fewer and fewer hands continues but there is no idea other than complaining about what to do.

The wave of the boom/bust continues. If we recover soon from this blow, when will the next one come and how bad will that be? Also how can the solution be to get credit going again so that we can start buying more stuff from China and lay off more workers at home?

Where does the idea of limitless growth go in a planet that has real boundaries?

Key natural resources get scarcer - fish, wood, water! No one has any confidence that we can halt this degradation. What will happen we we run out? Worse, no one is thinking about the reality of Peak Oil. The very underpinning of our world today is easy to get cheap oil.  Why can't we even get ready for this?

Is our economy unsustainable by design? it sure looks that way.

Who will make the changes that we all need? Corruption and cynicism at the elite level seems to be the new normal. Few if any who run institutions seem to care about the real mission - they seem to care only about themselves.

But simply explaining this as greed does not help.

Simply complaining does not help. While all of this has been going on for decades, people have pushed back. But all this push back has failed. Why? Why is there no progress? Why would only trying harder get us a result?

What are we missing?

The issue is Context. If we all live in the Matrix, we cannot do anything because we use assumptions that take for granted our dysfunction.

To solve our contextual problem you have to take the Red Pill. You have to step out of the prevailing context and see our reality for what it is. Then you can work to shift the context.

At the centre of any human reality is our contextual relationship with money. Money is it self only an artifact. It is the reflection of our prevailing values. As such it is also a lever to change values.

Jordan McLeod has written a book that may become one of the most important books of our time. In it he defines the root cause of our problems and offers a robust solution. Align money and our culture to nature's rules.

The Book is called "New Currency - How Money Changes the world as we know it" - it will be available this week - Here is the Amazon Page.

The book is a tour de force. It is short, highly readable and deep - I would not dare to summarize it except to offer the key points.

Core to his analysis of the problem is Context.

Jordan's perspective is that we are an adolescent society. It's all about me. It is Narcissistic.

Narcissism is "a pervasive pattern of grandiosity, need for admiration, and a lack of empathy." ^[1]

The narcissist is described as turning inward for gratification rather than depending on others, and as being excessively preoccupied with issues of personal adequacy, power, and prestige.^[2] Narcissistic personality disorder is closely linked to self-centeredness. It is also colloquially referred to as "the god complex". (Wikipedia)

Sound familiar?

So our money is no longer a means of exchange but has become an eternal force - the only store of wealth that does not have a life. Of course all people and all things have a life - none of our resources are boundless or eternal.

The result is that we have indeed made money itself our eternal god. This means that we have a mismatch between our view of reality and money and the reality of how nature works.

That is why we fish until the last fish. That is why our financial system pursues money as THE end at the expense of people's real needs.

Only when money itself has a life and is subject to time, can there be a balance and money can return to being a means of exchange and not  the end.

So long as we all give money this meaning, then there can be no improvement. That is why all attempts to solve our problems that work within this mindset of Narcissism have to make the situation worse.

The idea of money has to change. The meaning of money has to be changed. So how do you give money a real life?

Jordan goes back in time to see the root of the problem. Interest.

With interest money can and does grow exponentially. Nothing in nature can do that indefinitely.

Exponential growth in the natural world is typified by cancer. In nature, other forces fit the parts into a healthy relationship with each other.

All our ancient traditions warn against interest. In their wisdom they knew that the best investments were made in things that would themselves grow to benefit the community. That money was best used only as a means of exchange. To work best money must not be hoarded but circulate fast.

Sounds unrealistic?

In the 1930's when national currencies lost their trust and value, many communities started their own. The most successful example was in the town of Worgl where the economy boomed when the local currency was designed to lose value over time.

Keynes at Bretton Woods hoped for such a global system but a triumphant US blocked this.

The point is that real wealth is not a store of money - but a healthy watershed, a healthy people, a system where the parts support each other.

I cannot in this short review come anywhere close to the power and sheer elegance of Jordan's argument. (This is a link to a short article in Kosmos where he ofers a precis)

Snip:

Today, as members of the G20 and architects of the global Bretton Woods II convene to consider new financial instruments for building the 21^st century economy, a circulation charge should be at the top of their list. A validation fee of this sort addresses the essential design flaws of the current economy that make it utterly impossible to reconcile finance with environmental sustainability and the alleviation of poverty. These flaws include compulsive exponential economic growth in a world of finite resources, the myopic discounting of the future and a regressive redistribution of wealth into the hands of the world’s wealthiest via the interest on money.

A circulation charge effectively goes to the root of these problems by changing the qualitative nature of how we hold money. It inherently shifts financial thinking towards longer time frames. It creates a natural incentive to lend money without the need for interest, which would mitigate compulsive exponential growth, lessen the costs associated with borrowing and investment and reduce social disparities. It is precisely by shifting these central financial dynamics that markets can naturally begin reversing the inequalities between the rich and poor, facilitate investments in alternative energy infrastructure and create a more resilient financial system.

The implementation of a circulation charge in the global financial system will require profound, unprecedented cooperation between nations. Much like any other global instrument, it will rely on widespread adoption and integration to take hold and succeed. It is for this reason that the G20, as a relatively broad and diverse group of nations, is an excellent starting point for considering this tool. In addition to serving as a catalyst for restoring lending and confidence in markets, it would simultaneously enable a pragmatic shift within the financial system towards achieving the 21^st century objectives of sustainable development and the alleviation of poverty.

A circulation charge could be integrated into the financial system through its simultaneous adoption by several nations for their currencies. The tool itself, however, is more naturally predisposed to function as an integral part of a global currency. In fact, it could enable the realization of a global currency by transcending the present weaknesses in monetary policy that arise out of current national fiat currencies and policies. These limitations characteristic of today’s national economies include exponential growth, interest rates, hoarding and inflation. The diverse economic conditions of nation-states within the current economic paradigm mean that national monetary policies are often divergent and frequently irreconcilable. It is therefore only when a global currency is realized that the problems inherent to national currencies are likely to be resolved.

I urge you to read him yourself.

But in closing I offer one Rob idea. How to make this a new reality?

There are maybe 50 million cultural creatives in America today.

(source Values Technology - Dr Brian Hall)

They are people whose values are in Phase III - there is a critical mass of people enough to tip the system - but they are unconnected and have no power.

Jordan reminds us that there is an evolution of human culture just as as we get older as individuals, our world view changes. A 2 year old lives in a very different reality from an 8 year old. This is a map of how we develop. Of course you can see that societies evolve as well.

We live today at possibly the biggest break in values possible. In Phases I and II, the child/teen years, we are attached to the directly seen and experienced. In Phase III, we progress to the phase of meaning and connection.

This shift is not a linear progression. It demands that the Boy die. The adult lives for us. The Boy for Me. This shift is not made with grace and ease. This is why the "Boys" are hanging on so hard.

A catalyst may be the inevitable collapse of the US dollar as the world's reserve currency? The God of the Boys will die. But when this happens, there has to be new thinking and a new mindset or we will simply try to do the old again.

We have to grow up. We have to make the move to "Us"

So how do we put Jordan's idea into action? We change the social process. How do we do that? We change the story? How do we do that? Here is the link.

The Recession - Wall or Oil? Jeff Rubin on why it's Oil

Jeff is one of the best economists around - why he is now on his own!

The world is going to get local soon - time to plan for this Distance will cost money is the key idea.

There will not be a global economy - Jobs will have to come home

We will not be able to stop oil from going to triple digit prices. The central figures cant help us.

We have to use less, and take back our power locally

Resilient PEI - Heating with Wood - Start with the Schools

PEI's schools are very vulnerable to any increase in the price of oil. (Here is a link to the risk for schools) So of course is PEI itself.

How can we reduce this risk? How can be get ahead of the risk and create a whole new economy that regular Islanders can participate in?

Stop heating with oil!

One of the smartest things we did on PEI was to kick start wind energy by deliberately creating enough scale at the outset by the Provincial & Federal Governments taking their share of the power from wind. This guarantee of use, built the foundation.

We can do this with wood heat as well. All Public Buildings could shift from oil to wood.
This chart shows PEI's Energy use and costs in the ramp up in 2008. Nearly $200 million, A THIRD OF PEI'S INCOME TAX REVENUES - is spent on heating oil. While prices are lower today (71 cents vs 1.09) we can be sure that in the future even $1.09 will look like a bargain.

What if we started to use this same model with PEI's Public Buildings? What if we converted from oil to Wood?

This is easier than you might think. Here is Dick Arsenault taking us around the test of a new Pellet/Chip furnace at the Ecole Evangeline in Western PEI.

You will see that such a furnace

• Can be easily installed
• Can be fed easily
• Has NO emissions
• Is easy to clean
• Can save a school about $100,000 a year

There are 2 new schools that will be built in the next year. There is federal money.

If we went full tilt in the public sector and went wood (pellet and Chip) we would create the support systems and the local businesses that we could then lever to help with the rest of PEI's oil heating.

Lots of real jobs that are not going to go away will be created.

If we can pull this off, we would have to do a lot of work on conservation as well that also leads to many new jobs, then $200,000,000 at least will stay in the hands of Islanders.

The biggest tax break ever.

PEI will also be on track to start to reduce its dependency on oil and the outside.

Oh but Rob there is not enough wood for that!

Yes there is. Here is a snip from Roy MacMullin's great piece on this question:

Looking at a wood alternative, we would have to cut 2.8 million cords of wood to replace this volume of oil. (For all of Atlantic Canada) To compare, the existing residential usage of hardwood in New Brunswick is roughly 500,000 cords each year.

Using wood as a solution requires an additional 332 thousand cords to be harvested annually to displace the New Brunswick fuel oil requirement. (Roy lives in NB) This shouldn’t be a problem with mills shutting down. Pellets and briquettes can use softwood that is compressed to provide the same heat density of hardwood, with less moisture content.

Wood heat could very quickly meet the requirements of a conversion program. The reduction of oil purchases of 943,000 barrels would retain $137 million a year in the New Brunswick economy as opposed to sending it offshore. Over the years, this would be the equivalent of investing over a billion dollars in the local economy.

If Efficiency NB extended their offer of $2,250 to oil heat customers converting to wood, it would go a long way toward alleviating the problems of oil prices. The cost of the providing stoves would be $135 million (60,000 x $2,250), probably spent over a number of years.

The use of EPA rated stoves ensures an efficiency of 70% and emissions that are less than 10% of previous generation stoves. In urban areas, the use of pellet or briquettes may have to be mandatory with round wood as a rural option.

We are at the beginning of an emergency, perhaps a low intensity war. This change from low cost energy to high cost energy will sap our resources, leave us poor and eventually cold. If we fail to adapt to the heating oil challenge as well as the other aspects of peak oil, we lose.

This is surely the easiest political choice before us? There is no downside.

Peak Oil - One of the best papers for a community I have seen - Moncton NB

Is your community officially exploring the impact of Peak Oil?

Maybe this excellent paper written for the City of Moncton by Tim Moerman may help you convince your community to begin thinking. It is clear, short, well written and relevant for any community. A first class piece of work.

Moncton has also set up a task force to explore what could be its plan.

Critically important to assess our situation for each community - the process of just thinking about what very expensive oil will mean will help awaken the intelligence of people and bring your community together.

The first project for Moncton - Urban Farming - Hello Charlottetown!

Over the past several years, several municipalities have begun to
take action on Peak Oil. In January 2006, the City Council of
Burnaby, BC received a detailed staff report on the issue; Hamilton,
Ontario also commissioned a report. In the United States, the
councils of cities including San Francisco; Oakland, California;
Portland, Oregon; Franklin, New York; and Bloomington, Indiana
have passed Peak Oil resolutions and/or established task forces to
address the issue. Citizens'groups in cities including Dallas, Austin
and Seattle are developing resolutions to be presented to their
respective councils. The Town Council of Kinsale, Ireland has gone
so far as to adopt an "Energy Descent Plan" intended to cope with a
permanent decline in fossil fuels.

Here is the pdf.Download Moncton Peak Oil Report - June 8 2009

reboot11 - Action - Rob's List of 10 things to do

This year's reboot 9 (reboot11) may be the last reboot. I get the sense that Thomas feels that this may be the swansong. The topic for reboot11 is action. He asked me to offer up my 10 point list of what I thought this may mean.

With all action - there has to be a context. So here is my context (Heavily influenced by Jordan McLeod - whose book on Money I will review this week)

Context - THE WORK is to change our paradigm from Narcissism (The world is all about me - I am separate from it and from all things and all people - I get my kicks from the use of power and getting stuff) to Integration (I am one with the world and all things and people - I am made whole by participating fully in the wonder of the life of all things)

Why do we have to do this? Becuase as we can see, living as Narcissists is unsustainable. We are imploding.

None of the tools of the Narcissistic world can help heal it. There is no mechanistic reform that can work. No new regulation of the old system can work. Look at the mess in Washington. Acting in the old way will in the end only make things worse for the action is all based on the premise that we can and should continue to act in a self centred way where our connection and reliance on nature and others does not matter.

We have to be the new to make the change.

We have to build the new to make the change. We have to tell the story of the new in the new way to make the change. When enough us of live it, do it and have told the story, the world will change.

We know how to do this.

1. Know that our goal is that we have to change the prevailing story from "its all about me" to "it's all about us"
2. First step is that each of us has to take is to start to live this new story. We cannot lecture. We cannot explain. We have to live it.
3. You might start with your family and your close friends - start to see them as one with you and start to act in such a way as to make that real
4. Start to do this in your work. If you work in a traditional "Me" organization - be "Us". If you are a freelancer, go to the "Us" work. If "they" throw you out - all the better. If you are poor because there is not much "us" work - all the better - you influence
5. Look for "Us" work - Find a local issue that is all about "Us" - Local Food is a good example and get behind it. Connect and showcase others who can be part of this. It does not have to be local food - but it has to be a vital issue for where you live. Local energy - what is happening to Kids - health. It will be work that gives power back to people and takes power away from institutions. So this work has to be dangerous. It must offend "them" If you are not taking risk, you are not doing the right work.
6. Use social media to connect to others who are doing this work all over the world and so make what you are doing locally part of the world work. Find your support and strength from the millions of people out there who are doing this work. Make "Us" a huge group.
7. Use Social Media to tell your local story with authentic power. Look at Iran! The objective is to create a huge collective story. Once the collective story about real things making a difference in the "Us" world become big enough - we will find ourselves at the edge of a Tipping Point - we need about 15% of the population to get there - it's not impossible
8. Be brave. "They" will fight back. Again look at Iran. The irony is that when "They" go too far, "They" push many who had been on the fence to shift too. Expect to be attacked. It is a sign of their impending defeat
9. Meet your allies face to face - locally and globally. You will draw energy from them - they will inspire you - reboot itself has been a social incubator of this fellowship. But also be sympathetic with those that oppose you. For they are "Us" too. The British left India when India was ready. Martin Luther King's non violent approach has lead to President Obama. Mandela's compassion enabled the Whites to give him power
10. Bring your children into this. We like Moses and the children of Israel are in reality all ex princes or slaves of the system. It will be Jonathan and the children who cross over into Jordan - Don't expect a quick result but be certain that if enough of us act, that our children will inherit a legacy beyond price.

Bless you Thomas (@mygdal) for bringing so many of us together over the last decade and for planting the seed of renewal

Natural Organization - My Talk at reboot9

I gave this talk 2 years ago. It is 34 minutes long. It is the essence of what I think will prove to be our new reality.