Sustainability, Communication, Hope & the Future (5.2)

Sustainability, Communication, Hope & the Future

It is often hard to envision a reality of positive social reprioritizing. Our societal goals are still stuck in capitalist consumerism that creates unbelievable wealth for the few and immeasurable problems stemming from the wealth disparity between the few and the majority. Far too often I find myself focused on the negative economic/environmental/societal realities to envision a world of positive and sustainable interconnectedness. I watched the short film at the following link;
What the World would look like Global Oneness Project:
www.mrcse.org/index.php
I was hoping to see artist renditions of a utopian society so that I could focus on what could be; instead the film offered more of a reality check. Although I was not able to sit back and relax my noggin the site provided many important things to think about especially in terms of how we are supposed to move foreword in light of all our differences. One of the quotes from the film that really struck me was that we have to “have respect for everyone’s narrative”. I think far too often we focus on the technology behind the change, for example we focus our effort on new ways to sustain our current mentality. By these terms we do not stray far from individualized notions of our narratives and how we relate/conform to larger society. For change to really happen we must all be aware of the multiple narratives, we must be beyond aware we must have acceptance and find a connection not in spite of narrative differences but in conjunction with narrative differences. I think only then can we effect the massive global change that is necessary for our survival on this planet. One of the speakers talked about challenges that will inevitably occur if we are to develop a community minded global identity. I think often people think that to develop this sense of interconnectedness we must loose sight of ourselves, our current identity. So much of identity is tied to cultural value and religious beliefs and a sense of separation from those who are not part of this tied identity. Creating a new global identity means that those aspects by which we define our identity are not removed but rather acknowledged. This acknowledgement is not in the current light of separation which inevitably has brought conflict and animosity, but in the light of interconnectedness, a global community identity. This global identity connects on the shared level that we must all work together and live together and that other aspects of our identity can flourish under these terms. However the key is to eliminate separation tied to other aspects of our identity and redefine our identity to acknowledge out larger connection.
I enjoyed looking at the following site;
Jean Houston Social Artistry
www.jeanhouston.org/socialartistry-whatitis-new.cfm
What was so interesting to me about this site is the way it presents our part as well as society’s role to effect change. It does not present the majority of people as stagnant and complacent under the power of society’s thumb, rather it envisions us as actively capable of creating a better reality through “the canvas of our social reality”. The site describes us as artists, social artists capable of creating whatever it is we want much like an artist who is given a blank canvas. “Social Artists are leaders in many fields who bring the same order of passion and skill that an artist brings to his or her art form, to the canvas of our social reality. It is within the depth work of Social Artistry that we can access the inner capacities to align ourselves with the earth's higher purpose. Ultimately, it is about all of us together co-creating the human and social changes needed to make a better world”

For the last part of this assignment I wanted to find a site that addresses how to really effect change economic disparity must be addressed.
End Poverty 2015
www.endpoverty2015.org/We far too often ignore the plight of so many people. We can not effect change unless we are willing to do something about the issues that prevent change such as poverty. Poverty is a worldwide pervasive problem. To eliminate poverty would have direct positive effects on decreasing child maltreatment. This site gives me hope that the issue of poverty is being addressed across the world. As I mentioned earlier alot of what we focus on to effect change are things we think we can do in our current social climate that allow us to maintain our current identity. We often think that the issue of poverty is far too big a problem to do anything about. Poverty connects to sustainability communication and culture it connects to everything we have learned in this class from ways to live sustainably to recreating a global interconnectedness/mindedness. Why? because poverty is proof of how our current global economic system has failed. If we eliminate poverty we exemplify a real positive global connection that is based on value and support. Proof of positive change comes with the elimination of tremendous wealth disparities. We can build and use all the green technologies we want to maintain our society, but if poverty still exists we have done nothing beyond restylizing our dysfunction.