Archive for the ‘CSM’ Category

Memo to Obama: Forging Our Common Way Ahead

Tuesday, November 11th, 2008

MEMORANDUM

TO: BARACK OBAMA

FR: SHARIF ABDULLAH

DT: TODAY

RE: SOME ADVICE ON FORGING A COMMON WAY AHEAD

Yes, congratulations, you made history, yada, yada, yada. Not to diminish your amazing accomplishment, but since you’ve heard it all so many times by now, I won’t dwell on it (although, if you and I had a few hours, I COULD!)

No, I would rather not take up your time on that. I have a few pieces of advice for you. If I had five minutes of your time, the following is what I would say to you directly.

But first, who am I to be offering you advice? I have been exploring our need for a value-driven, inclusive and sustainable society for decades, including as Founder and Executive Director of Commonway Institute. The title to my second book sums up my philosophy and my life goal: “Creating a World That Works for All”. I offer my accumulated experience to you.

ADVICE #1: REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE

This part goes without saying: while you are in fact the first African-American President (Elect) of the US, that is an IDENTITY, it is not the core essence of who you are. One day, even being President will be a past accomplishment. You, however, will still be you.

You are the first President (Elect) of the 21st Century – I expect you to act like it. (We obviously aren’t going to count the last 8 years. We are now seeing the close of the last Presidency of the 19th Century). As the first 21st Century President, you will set the model for all of the other Presidents to follow. Aim high.

Bill Clinton was a very admirable bridge between the 20th and 21st Centuries. There are many advisors around you who would like to copy those times. Don’t listen to them. Your arc must be higher.

ADVICE #2: BARACK OBAMA – CATALYST IN CHIEF

In our days of fear and ignorance, many Americans needed a “Commander in Chief”, the father figure to command and control their lives. Now, we have just elected you, our first “Catalyst in Chief”. We don’t need you to “lead” or “command”. We know that the federal bureaucracy is virtually ungovernable and incomprehensible. (Of course, we do expect you to do your job and govern as best as a human being can.)

We most need you to display the skills that you demonstrated so well during the primaries and election: the ability to inspire, to engage and to motivate an entire movement of people to act.

It is indeed comforting that your heroes are similar to mine. I too am inspired by the words and deeds of Abraham Lincoln. He presided over the US when it underwent its most painful transition (to date). Now seen as one of our greatest Presidents, he was HATED by half of the country – the half that could not face the future, the half that could not live up to the vision laid down by the Founders in the Declaration of Independence.

I remind you of Lincoln so that you can remember to inspire – even though many of our fellow citizens would rather revile you than listen to you. Right now, they CAN’T listen to you – they can’t get past the color of your skin. However, they too will change. They too are caught on the arc of history. They will forget their hate – it simply is not sustainable. We can wait them out – time is on our side.

ADVICE #3: DON’T LET THE WEASELS GET YOU DOWN

You are a man, a model and a symbol. You symbolize and personify our quest for a new vision for our society, a vision that is hopeful, practical, inclusive and sustainable.

You need advisors who hold all of the above qualities, who can think outside the box.

I know that you have many “real-world” political advisors surrounding you – they are needed, they are necessary and you could not effectively govern without them. But, don’t let them be your sole source of advice – we didn’t vote for you so that you could fill the White House with the old political crowd (Democrats or Republicans).

You need advisors who can think outside the box (who actually don’t even recognize that there IS a box!) Balance your team with visionaries, ones with some dirt under their fingernails from doing real work in the world. There is a real difference between a visionary with achievements versus a visionary with just dreams. You need doers, not just talkers.

ADVICE #4: YOU ARE NOT A “CENTRIST”

Neither the “Right” nor the “Left” have the vision for an America that works for all. Both the Left and the Right have flawed, myopic, partial viewpoints. But, paradoxically, both the Left and the Right hold key elements to the future of this country; they hold parts of the solution. Neither side should be dismissed out of hand.

Your job is to get the dinosaurs to play well together. Only together can those Left-Right viewpoints be transcended, harmonized, and resolved into one greater image.

You know that the traditional “Democratic” and “Republican” parties are outmoded and out of step with 21st Century realities. You know that your campaign for the Presidency has ignited a passion for politics (with the small “p”) that the major parties cannot understand, let alone harness. You know that you can harness this energy.

Your job is not to sit between these two warring camps. Your job is to sit ABOVE them. You are not a “centrist”. You are a “trans-centrist”. Let’s elevate the conversations beyond the uninspiring rhetoric that has been such a turn-off for many in the electorate. (I quote in my book a line from the movie “Slackers”: “Withdrawing in disgust is not the same thing as apathy”.) Your candidacy hit the “on” switch for tens of millions of us. And, you can help keep us turned on.

Of course, you will have to drag the mainstream media, kicking and screaming, into this new viewpoint. They still can’t comprehend what your victory means for America. Yesterday, CNN was reporting on how “black” churches were celebrating your election, completely missing the fact that there were at least a few “white” churches that were just as celebratory. They can’t see it. You can. WE can. And the media will, too… eventually.

ADVICE #5: YOU ARE THE LEADER OF A MOVEMENT

As you correctly stated, your job as President doesn’t start until mid-January. (Do not deny Bush the opportunity to further lower his poll ratings or to increase his historic position as the worst president in modern history. It’s his karma.)

However, you are not just “President” — you are also the leader of a movement. That job started decades, perhaps centuries, ago – it has just reached a powerful nexus point.

I started in this movement to save our human family and our planet 45 years ago (yes, you were 2 years old). The movement will continue when both of us are dust. This movement is the legacy that we leave to your daughters and my grandsons.

Unless there is a transformation in how we interact with each other, with our neighbors, with the Earth and with the Divine, those young ones have no future. Once we make these transformations, the future for our children and grandchildren is limitless.

Your role in the movement is obvious: KEEP IT MOVING. The politicos will want the people to sit down, shut up, and “leave it to the pros”. RESIST THIS. The movement for an inclusive, sustainable and loving society will not wait. Leading this movement is the single most important thing that you can do as President. It far exceeds any piece of legislation, any Executive Order, any policy initiative of your Administration.

Although you take the Oath of Office in January, you can stimulate and catalyze this movement RIGHT NOW. Don’t wait for the Inauguration – put us to work.

ADVICE # 6: TAKE THE FIRST STEPS

What you can do, right now, is catalyze a community, regional and national dialog on the fundamental issues facing us as we enter the 21st Century. (Given your present world stature, this dialog could be global.) Ask us: what can we do, on the local level, to address our social, political, economic, ecological and spiritual mega-crises?

This dialog would NOT be: “What must government do for us?” (You are about to find out how little government can actually do!) But, by bringing the conversation to the local level, you can catalyze building the most powerful people’s movement America (and the world) has yet seen.

So, what are these first steps?

1. Dialogs on Food, Water and Energy Security. Every community should know where its food, water and energy come from. Every community should launch discussions on how they can achieve sustainability on the local and regional levels. From these dialogs, each community should develop plans for local sustainability for food, water and energy.

2. Dialogs on the Future of Economics. All of our media-driven discussions on our economics have been focused on fear and insecurity. Most of our “rescue” attempts are aimed at reviving a system based in waste and greed. It’s time to re-define economics, to focus on hope, vision, and the realities human beings in the 21st Century.

In my work with Sarvodaya in Sri Lanka, we are experimenting with something we’re calling “relational economics”. The economics of people who are in actual relationship with each other. Economics not controlled by individuals, corporations or by the State. Economics at the community level. (A side piece of advice for you: to stimulate a community-based relational economics, your stimulus packages should be based on community, not on individuals or governments.)

4. Dialogs on Healing. How do we heal our society? After years spent in a wrong-headed and meaningless war, the men and women in our military are hurt, bruised, confused, angry and sick. After decades of divisiveness, our politics is fractured and visionless. Our legacy of slavery and American-style Apartheid continues to haunt us. The pending economic collapse hangs over our head like a crushing weight. We must atone for the pain and damage we have caused the Earth.

In the face of this, healing is necessary. We all share the pain and we all can, through the exercise of compassion, share in the healing. Asking us to engage in healing dialogs can serve as a start to this long-term process.

5. Dialogs on Our Vision for Our Society. According to Thomas Jefferson, our present Constitution was meant to last only one generation. He believed that every generation should re-write the Constitution.

We are long overdue.

We obviously cannot start with a Constitutional Convention – that would be suicidal. Most Americans have spent so much time as “consumers” instead of “citizens”, we no longer recognize the principles that lie at the foundations of our society. (This is why President Bush could get away with using the Constitution like toilet paper – most of us didn’t know what was in it to begin with.) We are going to have to start over again – to teach ourselves to become the intelligent, informed citizenry that Jefferson and the other Founders envisioned.

We can start with an interactive national dialog on “American Vision and Values”. According to the Bible, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” (Proverbs 29: 18). You can catalyze a dialog process with teeth – the people need not perish.

ADVICE #7: DON’T FORGET TO BREATHE.

I strongly encourage every person who works with me to have a daily meditation practice. It is the best (perhaps only) way to stay focused on the long haul, to not get caught up in the swirling madness of our times. It is the best way to stay true to our common mission: to create a world that truly works for all beings.

Peace,

Sharif Abdullah

PS: Incidentally – if you are interested in my help with any of the above, please do not hesitate to call.

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in CSM, General | Comments Off

Slavery and Colonialism — Part One

Wednesday, August 27th, 2008

Howdy

All around the world, people are talking about global climate change as the problem and “sustainability” (meaning different things to different people) as the solution.

I consider this to be the “low-hanging fruit” of the global transformation movement. Relatively easy to see, relatively easy to fix.

["What!?! Sharif, are you CRAZY??? Global climate change is EASY to fix??? What have YOU been smoking!?!?"]

(I thought I’d add that comment, to save the rest of you from having to write it.)

I believe that, in the restoring, “Mending” work ahead for us humans, coming to grips with the legacies of the combination of colonialism and slavery will be the deepest, most painful work that we will have to do. The changes made necessary by global climate change will pale in comparison. If we DON’T take on this effort, there won’t be any of us around to do the climate change work.

Think about the Holocaust. The entire world knows about the deprivations and horrors visited upon the minority people of central Europe, including 6 million Jews being put to death. Outside of a few crazies, no one denies that this exists, or minimizes its impact.

However horrible, the Holocaust is an event that occurred over a 4-6 year period (depending on how you mark the start). That’s half a decade. It impacted people who were the minorities in Germany and its surrounds. That’s half a continent.

The period of European colonialism and slavery lasted over 500 years. That’s half a millennia. I can’t think of a single continent, a single country, or a single ethnic group, that has not been negatively impacted by this history. It looms so large on the human horizon, we cannot see it.

I can see it. I am the descendant of slaves.

The two-headed monster of slavery and colonialism destroyed more civilizations than we can count. Greed and arrogance decimated African societies, South American societies, North American societies… Wherever the twin institutions of slavery and colonialism existed, the disruption of the fabric of humanity was the result.

And we haven’t figured out how to put it right yet.
Every single war raging on this planet right now (70-100 wars estimated being fought right now), every one of them, is a legacy war of colonialism and/or slavery. No one wants to own up to this. However, until we do, we will continue to dance around this major issue, to our collective doom.

Every time a black man looks at a white police officer (or anyone else who is a visible representative of authority), they look at each other over a gulf of half a millennia of oppression, pain and suffering. This gulf will not be crossed by ignoring the problem. This gulf will not be crossed with a weekend workshop or encounter group. We pretend that the gulf does not exist, but our very pretense makes the gulf wider than ever.

I know this to be true. I am the descendant of slaves.

My white friends say, “But I didn’t enslave your ancestors! I would have been an abolitionist. Why is it on me to make things right?” The answer is simple: just like we must deal with the global warming that started in the Coal Age, just like our children will have to come to grips with the mounds of garbage created in the Disposable Age, we must deal with the legacy wars, the legacy economics, the legacy disruptions created during the Age of Slavery-Colonialism.

No, you didn’t create this Mess. You just get to clean it up.

I do not forget that I am the descendant of slaves. Your task is not to forget that you are the descendants of the slavemasters.

I do not forget my heritage. While I recognize on one level we are indeed all One, I also recognize that we were each put upon this Earth, at this time, in these bodies, with these various histories, for a reason. Our job is not to FORGET our history, but to TRANSCEND it.

And, transcend this we will. We will because we must. I think about the numbers of people around the US and around the world who are doing cross-barrier dialog talks. I think about the various inter-religious, -ethnic, -cultural, -social groups that have sprung up over the years. I think about the hundreds of millions of people struggling with the legacy problems created by the European powers meddling with international borders and international people. (I find it interesting that the first act of the fledgling United Nations was to ratify the world’s international borders. The Third World borders were created for the benefit of the colonial powers, created by arbitrary, capricious and arrogant means.)

Yes, the people of the world will seek and give forgiveness. Yes, the people of the world will reconcile. Yes, we will re-do ALL of our national borders, we will offer and receive reparations for our great grandparents activities, and we will end the legacy wars and the legacy oppression of the Second Millennium.

Global climate change is supposed to change the shorelines of the world’s continents over the next 100 years, as oceans rise. Human activity will change the REST of the world map, as all the lines change when we transcend our history of slavery and colonialism.

And remember: global climate change and slavery-colonialism are just TWO of 50-100 symptoms of “the Mess”. We’ve got to roll up our sleeves and get started!

Peace,

Sharif

Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in CSM, General, Personal Musings | Comments Off

Two Predictions for 2007

Wednesday, August 27th, 2008

Howdy

For two reasons, I want to put a prediction or two in writing. First, because its 2007 and you’re supposed to be making predictions! Secondly, and more seriously, President Bush is about to announce his new Iraq strategy, and I feel moved to say a few words about that.

PREDICTION#1: President Bush will ignore the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group and will opt instead for a rapid escalation of the war.

PREDICTION #2: The strategy will fail.

I base Prediction #1 on my reading of President Bush’s personality. Like most people locked in the “I am separate” mentality, he finds it difficult to admit when he is wrong — difficult to see other points of view. Therefore, I believe he’ll do more of the same, with greater intensity, and hope for a different result.

I base Prediction #2 on understanding the reality of insurgency. Conventional warriors find it impossible to “see” an insurgency, even when it’s kicking them in the butt. The Israelis cannot see the Palestinian insurgency, the Russians cannot see the Chechnyan insurgency, and the American military has never been able to see ANY insurgency. (The US military can defeat ANY regular military, in any country in the world. Against an insurgency, they are impotent.)

While the President and his advisors debate what happens next in Iraq, the Iraqi insurgency is PREPARING. If there is a “surge”, the insurgency will already be prepared. Insurgencies, by their very nature, are prepared for any and all outcomes. The Iraqi insurgency is the epitome of an “emergent” system — leaderless, distributed decision-making.

Of importance to those of us designing a new society, the present quagmire in Iraq is an unfortunate clash between two ways of seeing. The two ways are “Point” and “Field”.

Breakers, those who tend to see reality from a “Point” perspective, see individuals, and tend not to see or understand group actions and behaviors. In Iraq, Americans were told that the capture of Saddam Hussein and his sons (3 points) would bring peace. Then, we were told that capturing the top 52 Iraqi leaders (52 points — remember the deck of cards?) would bring peace. Then, it was Zarqawi (point), then his successor (point), then Al-Sadr on and off (point).

Despite achieving most of these point-goals, the situation in Iraq continues to “spiral out of control”. Look at the choice of words. That, if we controlled these points, we would control the situation.

It does not happen. It will not happen. It can NEVER happen. The problem is not one of bravery, or tactics, or military hardware. It’s a problem of perception.

Perceiving society as a field, the Iraq field consists of many different layers. The so-called Iraqi government is the newest, frailest and LEAST important “field?” of these many layers.

The Sunni-Shia-Kurd “field” is important, but not overly so. The thing that is driving the violence in Iraq is the FIELD OF PAIN AND DESPAIR. The American government disrupted EVERY field in Iraq with its invasion, and must bear 100% of the responsibility of what follows in its aftermath. And, there is no part of Bush’s “surge” that will address this field.

Many of you have heard about the psychology experiment from my college days: take two rats, put them in a large enough cage, with ample food and water, and the two rats will cohabit. Send a mild electric shock through the floor of the cage, and the two rats will start to attack each other. They don’t know anything about electricity: all they know is: “I’m in pain, and there’s another rat in this cage. He must be CAUSING my pain in some way.” So goes the Field of Pain and Despair.

So, what’s the answer? Well, if we could all fit into my Time Machine, we could roll back the clock to early 2003 and simply stop the nonsense — the notion that Iraq posed some kind of “threat” to the US. Since I don’t have that many seats installed yet, all of our other options are much less palatable.

What do I recommend?

  1. An apology for invading in the first place. A deep, sincere, heart-felt recognition that we were WRONG to invade another country. It is simply amazing how much an apology can clear the air.
  2. An announced, phased withdrawal of all invading military personnel. No permanent bases. No conditioned withdrawal. (Those who say an announced withdrawal will “aid the terrorists” have been completely, totally wrong thus far.)
  3. An INCREASE in the number of unarmed, civilian, conflict-resolution trained Americans going into Iraq. (Yes, this means going directly into harm’s way, with no “protection”. It means recognizing that the best military hardware in the world did not “protect” the 3,000+ Americans killed, nor the tens of thousands of US wounded. We would go in at the same level of risk as the Iraqi husband trying to get to work, or the Iraqi mother trying to escort her children to school. We would get our butts out of the “Green Zone”. We would go in acting as though peace is important.)
  4. The payment of reparations, the amount to be determined by the amount necessary to knit Iraq back together again. It may turn out that we spend a trillion dollars or more, first taking the country apart, and then putting it back together. (Nothing will pay for the lives lost and damaged.)
  5. Forget about democracy. Focus on the field. My goal would be an Iraq where people are practicing inclusivity with each other, regardless of the form of government under which they practice it.

Will that work? Maybe. Will Bush’s plan (or even the Iraq Study Group proposals)? Absolutely not. So, we might be right back here a year or two from now, looking for solutions to Iraq Failure #2.

And — don’t forget, I told you so.

Peace,

Sharif


Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in CSM, General | Comments Off