Systems are multi-potential.
The efforts of so many people bore fruit in Georgia on the same day as the attack on Congress.
Beware of conclusions that are black and white.
All is neither lost nor saved.
And, in self-organization, systems evolve and shift. Small actions snow-ball.
Progress activates forces in a reactionary direction. But that activation re-invigorates the move towards progress.
In it all, in the tumult, if you can stand fast in your values and act from there, that will shape the future, in tiny ways, and now and then, unpredictably, in big ones.
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Every day I understand more about why, for almost 50 years, my field has been shouting “there are limits to growth” and not getting through in a way that leads to substantive change.
After all, its a simple matter of math and physics. And the consequences are by now so devastatingly apparent.
Why has the existence of limits never truly sunk in at a mass culture level?Why was that 1972 work pushed back against so hard?
Hear me out: maybe a system that looks to be delivering us to catastrophic climate change and can't even keep us safe from a pandemic could benefit from some tinkering.
Oh no, don't possibly change anything about this highly evolved and carefully designed global economy whose primary behavior mode is to turn flows of life energy and mind boggling biological complexity into stockpiled wealth for a tiny fraction of humanity.
How frightening, all your proposals for aligning the economy with what we understand of how life works.
Systems thinking can help us navigate tumultuous times. We can predict momentum and prepare for ripples of impacts. Yay!
Except that's not enough is it?
If we just surf these waves without addressing root causes of dysfunction in our systems of government and economics, not to mention our shared beliefs and assumptions, the waves we will have to surf will just keep getting higher and steeper.
But that's OK. Systems thinking helps identify root cause drivers and flawed mental models.
Except that's not enough is it? Identifying the roots is helpful, but not enough.
Stop with the headlines and articles that imply to people that it's the turning of the calendar year that's going to make things better. That's not it.
We will make it better by changing how we act, what we believe, and who we hold accountable.