Daily pages - September 14, 2021

There is a hidden world that exists below and in-between the familiar world. The world we know is a competitive place where people and governments and businesses are all fighting for what they think they deserve.In this world, there are winners and losers. The winners live extravagant lives with more money than most of us can imagine. The losers barely get by.

The hidden world is different, more subtle. It’s still made up of people and governments and businesses, but it is a cooperative place, a place where people work together in support of each other.

The US national government seems to always be in conflict with some part of the world. As a nation, we’re competing with China and Russia at a military and economic level. We have enemies like Iran, Cuba and North Korea that we try to undermine using punishments like economic sanctions.

But state, county and local governments have a different agenda. For example, our city government funds a maker space to nurture creators in our community. Libraries are usually county or city institutions. Where the national government often refuses to work with other countries to help reduce carbon emissions, for example, state and local governments often put in place their own laws and regulations that limit pollution or protect the environment.

In the same way, there are industries and businesses that are damaging our Earth or our people and they are either unable or unwilling to do things differently for the good of everyone. For these companies, money is almost always the motivator and the reason for being in business. They want no restrictions on how they operate and are the minds behind what is called neoliberalism or free market capitalism.

But there are other businesses that operate under different guiding principles. They’re focused on creating value for the people they serve.

So we can’t just say that government and business are bad, or ineffective, or frustrating. It’s certain government and certain business, and another kinds of government and business are good, inspiring, effective, cooperative and moving in the direction we need to move. In other words, some government and some businesses are part of the hidden world, the global civilization.

So I’m realizing that the approach that I’m taking on the Global Civilization pattern is not quite right. And it feels wrong too, which is why I find myself thinking “is that really true? Do I have evidence for that?”

In terms of the Global Civilization pattern, I’m no longer making it the top pattern, at least for now. I think it helps complete the three center patterns: World That Works, Integrated Individuals, and Flourishing Earth. It’s kind of the big picture regarding all the people already participating in the related movements. From their collective efforts, the global civilization is emerging.

In other writing, I’ve made a distinction between the global civilization and the creator community. Maybe there is a distinction, but it seems less real now. I would need to be clear in being able to say “these people taking these actions are part of the global civilization, but are not part of the creator community.” The act of creating is so inclusive, I’m not sure I can list those things. The opposite would be the destructor community, I suppose, but I have trouble seeing how a destructor community is part of a cooperative civilization.

So it might be accurate to say that the global civilization is both cooperative and takes a creative approach to making a better world. I run into the idea that by creating better alternatives, we are (in essence) trying to destroy the old systems, but we are doing it by trying to make them obsolete, not destroying them directly. In that sense, it’s more of a natural growth kind of approach. Growing new branches and letting others die off as a way of adapting to the environment.

The insight about government and business makes me wonder if I shouldn’t have patterns for what the better kind of each of these is. It might be easier for the business because there are people already writing about what makes a business a positive influence in the world. Seth Godin and Marie Forleo, for example, are trying to help people run businesses that make a difference.

Government, it seems to me, might be more difficult. There are those who advocate for smaller self-governing regions. That would make government more responsive to the needs of the locals, which we could theorize is why local governments end up doing better things for the common good.

In both cases, they might be too much in the realm of specific fixes and that might need to go to other books.