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A NEW PARADIGM

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The old paradigm of the mind as a command control cap-sule steering the human spaceship through alien social spacehas served its purpose. It’s worn out.The old programme can-not adjust to a new environment and meanwhile it’s destroy-ing many of the people who base their lives on it.

But, we hear that a new paradigm is just around the cor-ner.What does this mean for our minds? How can we be surethat the new paradigm is not just some projection, on to yetanother promised land, of our disappointment with the strug-gles of making our way in this world? We can’t be sure. Butwhat we do know is that there is an urgent need for a changeof mind, a new paradigm, a move perhaps from an age ofproduction to an age of relationship. Personal and planetarysurvival depend on it.


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...power is not only thetraditional, the classicpower that we used toknow in the 19th and20th centuries, whichis technology, econom-ic, military power. Webelieve that there is anew factor of power...which is what somepeople call soft power,or immaterial powerand the bottom line ofthis new power is iden-tity, the respect of cul-ture, the factor of reli-gion, the factors thatare deep-rooted insocieties.

DOMINIQUE DE VILLEPIN

FRENCH FOREIGN MINISTER

GUARDIAN OCTOBER 18 2003

Shifting paradigms

Possibilities for change

A new paradigm

Taking (more) charge of your mind

Old paradigm

Defining the old paradigm

Old paradigm mindcare: key concernsand contradictions

The ground on which we stand

Power—a hidden presence

Cultures of domination

picture essay

text essay

A new paradigm

Introduction

Signs of a new paradigm of mind?

Sustainability wake-up call

picture essay

text essay

New paradigm perspectives

The ‘mental illness’ barrier

The means to change

Change on a large scale

Bringing about change

Living together

Personal Development: who am I?Potential for changeLimits to changeStarting pointsFinding helpThe workshopClient guideCo-counselling

Professional Development: getting things done

FacilitationCommunicationShared assessmentCultures of cooperationConflict

Spiritual Development: letting the heart sing

New paradigm spiritualityGrounding: historyGrounding: politicsThe limitations of languageAn embodied spiritualitySpiritual culs de sacLetting the heart sing:a liveable spirituality


A new paradigm: contents

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How do I see the new paradigm? Is it the reverse of the old?Might it not be a chimera? A promised land, a palliative foran often oppressive and depressive present? Because new par-adigms are so rooted in changes in what we believe, they canbe dismissed as any of these, and yet new paradigms in humanrelations are a continuing feature in human history.Christianity, Islam, The Reformation, the Renaissance, TheCopernican Revolution, the Enlightenment, the French revo-lution, Darwinian evolutionary theory, the 19th and early20th Century labour movements, the abolition of slavery,universal suffrage, Freud, the women's movements, all haveushered in new paradigms. Growing shoots, even if only mar-ginally, or compromised, of a deepening human awareness.And typically resisted by the entrenched beneficiaries of thesocial and economic pecking orders of the time.

In our time there are many interleaved new paradigmsthat challenge and dismay anyone old enough to have livedwith say, the privilege, deference, child abuse, sexual igno-rance and repression, of only a few decades ago. What mightbe the fundamental shifts? The ones that matters over-whelmingly for planetary flourishing?

The Mind Gymnasium as a whole embodies my take onwhat constitutes such a new paradigm. I see the new para-digm not as a target at which to take aim, that offers, inflavour of the month style, a solution, but as a direction, a re-orientation our lives and our beliefs, towards planetary sus-tainability, and along with, and deriving from it, personal andinterpersonal sustainability.

These new paradigm priorities point in the direction of apolitical commitment to ‘power with’ and ‘power from with-

in’; some personal resolution of our old paradigm history ofliving from, and through cultures of dominance; they point inthe direction of being able to adequately psychologize our-selves and our surroundings through some element of emo-tional competence. They point in the direction of an embod-ied spirituality that gathers all these qualities into an activepolitical commitment to living from love. Moving from thelove of power to the power of love, or if you find that too pre-cious, moving, as George Monbiot puts it, from an Age ofCoercion to an Age of Consent.


Introduction

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Is there any tangible evidence that we are moving towards anew paradigm, that a whole new approach to life and livingis beginning to take root? Here’s how it looks to me. Over thelast fifty years or so, several genies have got out of the bottleand are never likely to go back. They include:

Post-Freudian psychology:The exploration of how the mind creates the world

through projection and denial, signalled the beginning of theend of the ‘medieval’ mind—of witch hunts, Heaven, Helland Evil and Hate as a way of explaining our own and otherpeople’s offensive behaviour.

The explosive growth of science:Technical innovation after World War II, driven by mas-

sive defence spending, has fuelled information theory, cyber-netics, computers, artificial intelligence and the internet. andgenerated a vast international scientific community.

Developments in subatomic physics:Research into the structure of matter reveals: the inter-

relatedness of all life and all things; that mass, space and timeare intrinsic to each other; that the act of looking changeswhat is seen; and the extent to which unaided human per-ception provides a very narrow window on the world.

The Bomb:A poisonous fruit of the notion of unlimited scientific

progress, nuclear weapons provided the possibility of thedestruction of human civilization. It also appears to have sig-nalled the beginning of the end of uncritical acceptance of thevalue of male-dominated science.

The earth as a globe from space:Planet earth is seen and experienced as a single entity for

the first time, through photographs and television. The ecol-ogy movement is born, and concern for the environmentbegins to grow.

The women’s movement:

Enough women now have sufficient economic power totake a look at themselves without the aid of men. What theysee is exploitation, oppression, degradation, inequality anddiscrimination. Some women who share this view are toocommitted to their roles in the status quo to leave it. Manyothers refuse to tolerate sexist domination and begin to cre-ate a world where being a woman counts.

Hallucinogenic drugs:

Millions of people take the risk of exploring their owninner space. Experiencing their own personal heavens, hells,purgatories and paradises changes a lot of people’s mindsabout the value of their lives. Daily life begins to look tech-nocratic, competitive, linear, one-dimensional and violent.Some researchers, using LSD to explore hallucinogenic expe-riences, discover that in some acid trips, birth and foetalmemories appear to be re-activated. The implications of thisbirth and foetal research still await integration into the med-ical and psychological establishments.

Whistle-blowing:

Still a risky activity but becoming seen as an essentialcounterbalance to bureaucratic secrecy, administrative collu-sion, and political ‘spin’.


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Signs of a new paradigm of mind?

The stress concept:The US psychologist Hans Selye’s development of the

concept of stress makes it increasingly feasible to admit tohaving emotional difficulties without being diagnosed as‘mentally ill’. Feelings and emotions become morerespectable since stress is accepted as a response to challengeand threat.

The Internet:The explosive growth of the Internet, continuing as you

read, has probably initiated one of the most important shiftsin consciousness in human history. Is this an exaggeration? Yespossibly, but the effect on our minds of the way the internetundermines the hierarchical structuring of our lives in favourof a more horizontal, networked co-operation, shouldn’t beunderestimated. This is not to see the Net through utopianspectacles, it also opens up the possibility of systematic intru-sion into private life by government agencies, but mostimportant it connects minds on a scale and in ways thatappear wholly new.

Non-governmental organizations:The growth of private, or charitably funded, organizations

that research government and social policy and publish stud-ies and surveys; that are independent and well-enough fund-ed to be able to expose weaknesses or dangers of governmentpolicy.

Green politics:Non-violent direct action is increasingly being successful-

ly used against some of the more obviously oppressive insti-tutions, such as the World Trade Organization, and the unac-

countable corporate promotion of genetic modification andthe patenting of life forms. Demands for accountability andgreater openness about policy-making are constantly andmore effectively being re-iterated.

Anti-globalization:Increased awareness of, and determined confrontation of,

North/South exploitation, questionable accountancy, andanti-competitive behaviour of transnational corporations andcollusive governments.

Whistle-blowing:Still a risky activity but becoming seen as an essential

counterbalance to bureaucratic secrecy, administrative collu-sion, and political ‘spin’.

Emotionality comes down from the screen and outof the pages of books:

In the last twenty years the emergence of the notion of‘emotional competence’ accelerated in the 1990s by ‘emo-tional intelligence’, and ‘emotional literacy’, has been accom-panied by an increased tolerance of emotionality in daily andpublic life.

Open Software:As computer use and development has explosively

expanded, market dominance by a handful of corporationshas stimulated an increasingly powerful counter movementof open, participatory, software development. This is provid-ing a growing contradiction to closed, patent-ridden, propri-etary software products that lean strongly towards monopoly.


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The growth of a global civil society:‘A social counterpart to corporate globalization the emer-

gence of a supranational sphere of social and political partic-ipation in which citizens groups, social movements, and indi-viduals engage in dialogue, debate, confrontation, and negoti-ation with each other and with various governmentalactors—international, national, and local—as well as the busi-ness world.’ Arising out of cheaper, improved, and more rapidcommunication, and more extensive travel.

Collapsing costs of computation:Many homes and small offices have much the same level

of information processing facilities as large businesses.

Process/reflexivity:The diffusion out from a leisured elite earlier in the last

century, to quite large sections of the population, of thenotion of reflexivity—the ability to reflect on how we ‘do’ourselves and most commonly, how we ‘do work’—seeingdaily life as a process, as well as events, or targets.Widely rep-resented in quality assurance processes and some sectors ofmanagement.

Crisis of sustainability:One of the outcomes of a less closed frame of mind in many

people over the last 30 years has been the emergence of a plan-etary awareness. The Gaia hypothesis has argued for the planetas a life form. The melting of the Arctic ice-cap, the Antarcticozone hole, and creeping climate change, remind us that manyof the ways in which we participate in the life of this planet aredamaging to our children’s futures and unsustainable.

Children’s rights:The trend away from authoritarian family styles towards

more child-centred child-care continues. Awareness of thepotential for sexual abuse of children by close relatives con-tinues to emerge, along with help lines for children in distress.Alongside this, the banning of corporal punishment inschools—and in some countries—of smacking of children byparents or carers, has been a welcome addition to a develop-ing range of children’s rights.


moreSee also �

The New Paradigm is of course a notion, one that stands fora wide range of emerging frames of mind, preferences andloosely aligned developments, such as those listed on the pre-ceding screens and in the picture essay that follows. It may yetturn out to be a mirage, a wish dream of people marginal to,and with little influence on the levers of political and socialpolicy. However, one of the new paradigm wake up callsseems unanswerable—the level of gross abuse and domina-tion of some sectors of the planet by other more fortunateones, plus the one-sided and hugely wasteful exploitation ofresources—looks to have reached a point of no return.

The crisis of sustainability that this entails points to mas-sive social and interpersonal re-evaluation. Change, adjust-ment and personal stress seem inevitable. Voluntary changemay yet remain possible but more likely it seems, change onthe necessary scale will come as the result of ecological catas-trophe—the wars between nations replaced by a planet atwar with itself. And yet… over 30 years ago men walked onthe moon and returned safely…

The next few screens present some pointers in the formof a picture essay and text essay that may help you recognizethe new paradigm and how it shapes our minds.


Sustainability wake-up call

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2001 was the sec-ond warmest yearin the past 142years. Nine of the10 warmest yearshave occurredsince 1990including 1999and 2000; Only1998 was warmerthan 2001.

WORLD METEOROLOGICALORGANISATION

GUARDIAN 10.7.2002

Picture essay:For exampleConfronting bio-piracy and monoculturesHorsetalkSelf-regulationResist and contradictNew threaded through the oldSite under constructionSoftware collaborationThe InternetCo-operative energyNew paradigm accountabilityCeremonial dissentConfronting globalization

Text essayDirection and diversityTen principles for sustainable societiesLocal mind, global reachTides, currents and ruddersNew paradigm perspectives


A NEW PARADIGM: picture essay

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Linux Usenet categories

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Nelson Mandela, picturedhere in the cell on RobbenIsland where he spent 18 ofhis 27 prison years, exempli-fies a new paradigmapproach to power.

From leading resistance toapartheid in South Africa,through arrest and impris-onment, he sustained anapproach to power focussedon justice and fairness.

After his release fromprison, he presided over anon-violent dissolution ofthe white apartheid statefeaturing Truth Commissionreconciliation of the hurtand damage it caused

At the height of his poweras an heroic icon, NelsonMandela stepped aside infavour of marriage andretirement.

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For example

PHOTO: CORBIS


Vandana Shiva, an Indian physicist, here giving a talk at theFindhorn Community in Scotland, is one of the growing com-munity of articulate, well-informed challengers to corporateglobalization.

A leading critic of the patenting by ‘life science’ corporationsof existing genetic material—seen by them as having poten-tial for exploitation in the fields of nutrition or health—Vandana Shiva lists the epidemic of biopiracy as includingneem, haldi, pepper, harar, bahera, amla, mustard, basmati, gin-ger, castor, jaramla, amaltas, new karela, and jamun. The anti-diabetic properties of the last two, along with brinjal, haverecently been patented, despite having long been used inIndia for these purposes.

Another equally valuable strand of Vandana Shiva’s work isto argue for bio-diversity against corporate attempts to pro-mote what she calls monocultures. In resisting the destructionof forests she argues that corporate monocultures in agricul-ture and forestry favour production that destroy diversity andlegitimizes the destruction as progress, growth and improve-ment. Such monocultures, she argues, first inhabit the mindand then propogate themselves through violence and misrep-resentation, for example, through denying the validity ofindigenous knowledge.

Because monocultures are founded on a belief in the over-arching value of centralized control and uniformity, resistingthe impoverishment that they entail requires active protec-tion of, and promotion of, diversity, both as a mindset and away of life.

Confronting bio-piracy and monocultures

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In his work with horses, as his remark-able autobiography details, MontyRoberts bridges from the old paradigmof casual violence to a new paradigmof cooperation and consent.

The age-old practice of ‘breaking’horses through abusive traumatizationis a classic example of a culture of dom-inance rooted in human tolerance ofviolence, cruelty and damage. MontyRobert’s work decisively demonstrateshow unnecessary it is.

Through close study of wild mus-tangs during his childhood, he discov-ered how to enter their world.Thisentailed learning and adopting key ele-ments of their body language.

As a result of this, and eventually toworld-wide acclaim, he succeeded inshowing that, through accurate, mutualcommunication, even a wild horse can,within thirty minutes, be brought intocooperation with humans withoutbeing traumatized.

Befriending horses

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Ricardo Semler inherited Semco, his father’s pump manufac-turing business, over twenty years ago, turning it, as it seemsto me, into a living example of anarchy* in action.

Over the last twenty-plus years, Semler has created theconditions that have enabled employee initiatives to trans-form Brazilian-based Semco from a manufacturer of wash-ing machine pumps and biscuit factories into a businessnow mostly in services and where a significant proportionof revenues are coming from the internet.

With, and as Semler insists, without him, Semco has devel-oped “continuously and organically without formulatingcomplicated mission statements and strategies, announcinga bunch of top down directives or bringing in an army ofchange-management consultants.”

Semler appears to have an intuitive understanding ofwhat has come to be known as complexity theory, gather-ing round him, people who instituted a comprehensiveindustrial democracy. Focused on process as complementa-ry to product, this combines freedom and discipline in anattractive and effective form. Staff turnover in 6 years wasless than 6%, revenues quadrupled to $160 million in tenyears, and Semco grew in size from 450 to 1300 ‘employees’.These ‘employees’ set their own salaries (from a set ofoptions), take as much leave as they want, but re-apply forjobs twice a year, and elect their bosses.

As if to underline his company’s approach to self-regula-tion rather than top-down enforcement and control, RicardoSemler recently stepped down from Semco to develop waysof applying its approach to education.

Self-regulation

* anarchy is historically associated with a desire to dissolve the state andthus anti-state violence. A more helpful update on this is to re-defineanarchy as social creativity in the absence of coercion

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AdBusters, a Seattle-based group, have pioneered avery effective way of challenging the distortionsand arrogance of corporate capitalism.Their special-ity, as here with the US flag, is to find and alter keyicons in favour of greater accuracy, or to invert, sub-vert, or otherwise interrupt corporate messages andbrands that they perceive as damaging.

Through this and innumerable other imagesand slogans, Adbusters and their supporters arevery effective in contradicting one of the key fea-tures of capitalism—its capacity to seeminevitable, a part of nature.

because my country has sold its soulto corporate power

because consumerism has becomeour national religion

because we’ve forgotten the truemeaning of freedom

and because patriotism now meansagreeing with the President

I pledge to do my duty...and take my country back

‘

’From Adbusters summer2003 campaign

Resist and contradict

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Elements of the new paradigm co-existwith, or are threaded through, the oldparadigm, they point to new possibili-ties, demonstrate, or model, better waysof being, or living ,or relating.

An example of this is the institution inover 400 European cities of having anannual car-free day. In Brussels (right)this opens the whole city to cyclists,pedestrians and taxis.

As I, and no doubt many others found,this demonstration of the absence ofthe burden of urban vehicle culture, canbe a very shocking experience.

A gesture? Yes, but as congestioncharging elsewhere is showing, ourdependence on vehicles has peaked, isanyway unsustainable, and the damageand trauma it entails now outweigh its advantages.

New threaded through the old

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European Union:site under constructionIn the first years of the 21st century, the EuropeanUnion is in a phase of re-design and consolidation.While still mired in old paradigm status games, itnonetheless represents an emerging new paradigmculture of international negotiation, participationand subsidiarity.

Despite some suspicion that it may be capturedby corporate globalization, the continuing accumu-lation of states within the European Union, and howthey balance civic well-being with economic pros-perity, points to how a new political paradigmmight play out in practice.

A contrary, old paradigm, view sees the self-con-tained world of rules, laws, transnational negotiationand cooperation, of the European Union as a ‘para-dise’, a protectorate, which can only exist by cour-tesy of the mailed fist of US military might.

Could it nevertheless be a template for new formsof international relating that hold integration anddiversity in a framework of the rule of law? Insofaras it mirrors the origins of the USA, could it eventempt the US hegemon off its increasing fragile andindefensible perch?

As the European Union finds its place in theworld, it increasingly reveals a sharp divide betweenthe bullying and enemy-making of old paradigmmind and the painstaking negotiation of a para-digm of mind that sees nation states as vehicles forconnection rather than alienation.

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Linux

One of the more concrete demonstrations of thefruits of new paradigm mind is the Open Softwaremovement. This is a counter-culture of new para-digm collaborative power-sharing in the field ofcomputer programming.

Devoted to producing non-proprietary systemsthat match, and in many cases out perform, com-mercial software, the movement makes the evolvingprogramme code publicly available so that anyonewho can see faults, amendments and improvementscan contribute to its development. Networks of com-petent and interested people sieve and integrate theofferings, and make them freely available them toanyone who wants to use them.

A list of such freely available and cooperativelyproduced software would include: Mozilla, aninternet browser; GNU/Linux, a powerful and wide-ly used alternative operating system; Apache serv-er software, running on GNU/Linux, and drivingaround half the web pages you are likely to see,was written and developed by a collaborativecommunity of developers and users.

Software collaboration

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The internet is a self-organizing global sys-tem built out of a myriad of local initia-tives that continues to energize new para-digm notions of collaboration, participa-tion and community.

Key features now familiar to many peo-ple include email, the world wide web,Usenet, search engines, chatrooms, discus-sion lists and innumerable directories.

Usenet (below left) is a self-organizingand regulating system of something like45,000 discussion groups. Usenet main-tains ‘a delicate balance between individ-ual freedom and collective good’. In a keydemonstration of new paradigm relating,no-one owns usenet, no-one polices it, nordoes it have a central authority.

DMOZ, the Open Directory Project (top)is the largest, most comprehensive human-edited directory of the Web. It is construct-ed and maintained by a vast, global com-munity of volunteer editors.

OneWorld.net (centre below) providesthe focus for a global community workingfor human rights and sustainable develop-ment. Over 900 partner organizationsacross 80 subject categories, in five lan-guages, use Oneworld.net to reachInternet users in 90 countries.

The Internet

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In a curiously eloquent and practical contra-diction of the American love affair with cor-porate consumerism, over 600 TouchstoneEnergy cooperatives in 44 US states deliverelectricity to more than 17 million cus-tomers every day. Consumer owned, thecoops supply commercial, industrial, agricul-tural and residential customers.

The Touchstone cooperatives seem anexcellent example of the new paradigm inoperation.They demonstrate how grass-roots control and power-sharing, support-ing and nourishing initiative and responsi-bility in communities at a local level, can becombined with the visibility and resourcesof a nationwide network.

Cooperative energy

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One of the tasks of a commitment to new paradigm values is tobring them into play locally, in daily and working life.The UKIndependent Practitioner Network [IPN] to which I belong, is a liv-ing example.

IPN arose in 1995 out of a widespread concern that psychoprac-tice in the UK was being colonized by trade associations that weremore committed to the business of training psychotherapists andcounsellors than to client, orindeed practitioner well-being.Since then IPN has continuedas a laboratory for the develop-ment of new paradigm ways ofholding accountability toclients, and practitioner welfare.

IPN has no centre, or adminis-tration but takes the form ofvoluntary network with anevolving set of principles andprocedures.While any practi-tioner can become a participantin the network, only groups, ofwhich details below, can bemembers of the network.Thereis no individual membership.

The basic unit of the IPN is the practitioner group, typically withbetween five and eight people.The accountability process entailsthe members of each IPN group getting to know each other wellenough, both professionally and personally, so that through a for-mal process of self and peer assessment they can assert that theystand by each other’s work.The group must also develop and pub-

lish to the network an ethical statement detailing the commit-ments they make in working with clients. In the group to which Ibelong, the self and peer assessment process is updated fromtime, and when new people come into the group.

Accountability in IPN is seen as taking many, but always self-and peer regulated forms.The preferred but not exclusive form ofaccountability takes the form of belonging to a group whose

process is under continuouslyunder review by two other linkgroups. Such a group is then enti-tled to call itself a full membergroup. In the event of a complaintabout an IPN group member froma client or elsewhere, link groupsare charged with the task of pur-suing mediation, or redress.Thereare two levels of sanctions: groupsupport links can be withdrawn,and the group itself may ask aparticipant to leave if they can nolonger ‘stand by’ their work.

Gatherings of the whole IPN net-work process current concerns

and pursue other business, either through individual effort, orsub-groups that form and disband as required.

IPN participants are very fastidious in detecting and interrupt-ing tendencies towards coercion and dominance, and the net-work is a very solid demonstration of the kind of social ingenuitythat emerges if the fear, blame, and top-down threatening behav-iour of cultures of dominance can be side-stepped.


New paradigm accountability

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Street demonstrations havebecome a necessary urbanritual—ceremonial occasions forcommunal participation in theexpression of dissent—usuallyminority opinion, or voices thatspeak from the margins of societyto a seemingly deaf centre.

This event (left) filled the centreof Brussels with tens of thousandsof Islamic supporters of thePalestinian people.

Is this the new paradigm?Might it not be one old paradigminstitution, Islam, decrying theactions of the Israeli state, anoth-er notable example of the oldparadigm?

There is perhaps something inthis but helping a dispossessedand violently oppressed peoplesuch as the Palestinians asserttheir human rights, might also bethought to epitomize new para-digm confrontation of old para-digm cultures of dominance.

Ceremonial dissent

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Confronting globalizationA key element of new paradigm mind is tohave a political eye open on the quality ofhuman relations. Such a political eye tendsto show us that, as this street sculpture inDusseldorf suggests, we have become toomuch creatures of global corporate society,smoothed and made uniform by politicaland corporate globalization and con-sumerism, driven in turn by our depend-ence on growth, exports and oil.

Essential new paradigm tasks that fol-low from such a perspective include: con-fronting the fallacies, double standardsand injustices of corporate globalization;since we cannot leave it any more thanwe can get outside nature, taking steps torid our minds of the fundamentalist beliefthat free market capitalism is a final andinevitable way of conducting economiclife; and joining, supporting and becom-ing active within global civil society.

This entails finding and giving support toother people with a similar awakening,holding with them a global, ecological per-spective on priorities, while taking localaction to consolidate the skills andresources of civil society in confronting andtransforming the corporate feeding frenzy.

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A NEW PARADIGM: text essaymore

Picture essay:For exampleConfronting bio-piracy and monoculturesHorsetalkSelf-regulationResist and contradictNew threaded through the oldSite under constructionSoftware collaborationThe InternetCo-operative energyNew paradigm accountabilityCeremonial dissentConfronting globalization

Text essayDirection and diversityTen principles for sustainable societiesLocal mind, global reachTides, currents and ruddersNew paradigm perspectives

It seems likely that monocultures of mind such as con-sumerism, fed, if not caused directly by, corporate globaliza-tion, will eventually seem a catastrophic error, a historicalanomaly as unintelligent as other kinds of fundamentalism.The extensive critique of the failings and unsustainability ofcorporate globalization as an economic religion seems alreadysufficient. The harder task, of moving from complaint andresistance to creating a world we want and respect, continuesto be an onerous challenge.

Part of the challenge is finding common ground acrossmyriad special interest groups and lobbying organizations. AsGeorge Lakoff has pointed out in ‘What Conservatives knowthat Liberals don’t’, this may be the task. Bullying, fear, threatand hierarchical dominance create a spurious unity throughcollusion and the suppression of dissent and diversity.Yielding to the temptation and habit due to our cultures ofdomination and seeking our own liberal monoculture of themind, a civil society brand, is likely to result in making thenew in the image of the old. Contradicting this tendency to adominance-driven ‘single vision’ seems to mean finding aunity of direction and multiple ways of following it.

An promising example of this is the realization that agrand alliance of G-77 nations, supported by sympathetichelp from the North, could bringing about sweeping changesin the distribution of global power, a quantum leap in theinterests of democracy, the environment, and the well-beingof the poor. Such a change has precedents in the dismantlingof the transatlantic slave trade and the dismemberment of thecolonial empires.

On the following screens I include pointers to how a sus-tainable future might be constructed.


Direction and diversity

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Events around the World Trade Organization meeting inSeattle in 1999, energized a number of groups challengingthat organization legitimacy. One of them, The InternationalForum on Globalization, later published a set of ten core prin-ciples for sustainable societies, that are the mirror opposite ofthe processes and inclinations of corporate globalization:

New, or living, democracyRestoring sovereignty from corporate society to governments

and communities.Securing community control over natural resources.Refocusing government agendas on citizens’ agendas.Creating governance systems that ensure that those that bear

the costs are heard, and that their interests carry weight.

SubsidiarityWhenever decisions can be taken locally they should be, and

power that belongs locally should reside there.‘Protect the local, globally’.Legitimate authority flows upwards.The authority of distant administrations is subsidiary to local authorityInherent right to self-determination of people, communities and

nations as long as this doesn’t infringe other’s rights

Ecological sustainabilityRates of use of renewable resources do not exceed regeneration.Loss, or disposal of non-renewable resource, is matched by the

introduction of renewable substitutes.Rates of pollution are below the rate of assimilation.

Common heritageWealth is rooted in common birthright of: water, land, air, and

forests; culture and knowledge; health-care education, publicsafety and social security.

Property rights imply an obligation to stewardship.

Monopoly ownership of common heritage resources such aswater, seed varieties, or forests, is unacceptable.

DiversityCultural, biological, social and economic diversity are essential

for human flourishing.

Biological diversity is essential for vitality, resilience, and innova-tion in living systems.

Cultural diversity nourishes social, intellectual,and spiritual accom-plishment,and contributes to identity,community and meaning.

Human rightsAlongside civil and political rights—also economic, social and

cultural rights—eg clean water.

Universal human rights should take precedence over localauthority that violates those rights.

Jobs, livelihood, employmentProtection of the rights of workers, both in formal, and infor-

mal (the majority) employment.

Food security and safetyLocal community production of food the highest agricultural priority.

Preference for shorter trade distances.

Reduced reliance on expensive inputs.

EquityReducing the gap between rich and poor.

Holding a balance between incentive and equity.

Instituting both an economic floor and a cap on wealth.

The precautionary principleRestricting, or banning practices, or products, that threaten

harm to health or environment.

Proponents of a practice, or product, have the responsibilityfor showing that it is innocuous.


Ten principles for sustainable societies

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One of the distinguishing features of the new paradigm ofmind is that it favours local intelligence, local knowledge, thatis distinct from, and yet part of a global intelligence—culture,art, history, myth, language, science and so on. If you find thishard to get your mind round, the recent explosive growth ofa longstanding phenomenon, global civil society may help.

This intentionally indistinct notion, points to a sphere ofideas, values, institutions, organizations, networks and individualsthat sit between the family, the state, and the market, and thatalso operate beyond the limits of nations, politics and economies.

Think of it as growing network of nerves and synapsesthreaded through, yet distinct from, corporations and govern-ments.A community of humankind,even a global consciousness.

Corporations are not elected and yet their power increas-es daily. As their transnational arteries of resourcing, and sup-ply expand and deepen—when the market and other transna-tional phenomena take over from the state—representationof our interests becomes a problem. Global civil society, inthe shape of myriad non-governmental organizations, chari-ties and trusts such as FairTrade, Oxfam, Médecins SansFrontières, Greenpeace, Amnesty International, The SoilAssociation and thousands of others, provide an essential wayof taming, humanizing and calling globalization to account.

Some see global civil society as means of revitalizingdemocracy. As fewer and fewer people have respect forpolitical parties, more and more have joined the global civilsociety organizations listed above, supporting their commit-ment to minimizing violence, maximizing economic well-being, realizing social and political justice and upholdingecological sustainability.


Local mind, global reach

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A new paradigm of mind sharpens awareness of what is hap-pening to us, so that we notice that a current in the flow ofplanetary life is taking us onto the rocks of ecological unsus-tainability. It also reminds us that there is a human capacityto choose, to lean on the rudder, to turn away from, or steeraround the ecological catastrophe that looms.

A new paradigm of mind that will enable us to navigat-ing more intelligently in human affairs, both personally andsocially, is a matter of political skill, psychological sophistica-tion, and spiritual awakening. A spiritual approach demandsthat we learn to live from love, a psychological one shows ushow to be more emotionally and imaginably sophisticated, apolitical perspective insists that build institutions that side-step dominance, and that we confront injustice and the abuseof power.

Alongside these considerations, a psychohistoricalapproach sees the new paradigm moving forward inexorablyunder the impetus of benign changes in child-care. Corporalpunishment is generally no longer legal, sexual and otherabuse of children, a commonplace a century ago, is nowmuch less common. In the UK, though later than manycountries, smacking children is likely to be outlawed; a sharp-er focus on child-sexual abuse means that bullying is alsoreceiving public attention.All this arises out of, and supports,the shift to a more child-centered childcare.

Tides, currents and rudders

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As you move on through the rest of TheMind Gymnasium keep in mind the new paradigm perspec-tives of the previous screens:

The importance of building institutions based on ‘powerwith’ and ‘power from within’.

The continuing work of confronting cultures of domina-tion that deny these ways of relating.

A commitment to holding in one place three essentialdevelopmental strands:

—the transformational potential of ‘psychologizing’;—the social/political commitments that holds us in the

couple, the family, the community; and the planet;—a spirituality which, if and when it ripens in us, can

release a deep sense of meaning and purpose


New paradigm perspectives

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See also �

APPENDIX> COPYRIGHTCONTENTS THEMES GO BACK JOTTER Help�INDEX

Letting the Heart Sing - The Mind Gymnasium: digital edition

An interactive guide to personal and professional development

Literary content, sound track, music, images,selection and arrangement etc

© Denis Postle 2010

The right of Denis Postle to be identified as the author of thiswork has been asserted by him under

the UK Copyright Design and Patents Act 1988

All rights reserved

COPYRIGHT NOTICES

Wentworth Learning Resources acknowledgesand respects the rights of the owners of any trade

or service mark mentioned in this publication.

Published by:Wentworth Learning Resources

LONDON W4 2YLCD-ROM: ISBN 0-9545466-0-1

www.mind-gymnasium.comemail: [email protected]

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Previous editionsThe Mind Gymnasium, a Gaia Books original 1989

ISBN 0-33-47338-8 (UK) PapermacISBN 0-7318-0042-7 (Australia) Simon and SchusterISBN 82-09-10623-6 (Finland) DreyerISBN 0-7318-0042-7 (Spain) Plaza & Janes EditoreISBN 2-221-06637-5 (France) Robert LaffontISBN 0-07-050569-1 (USA) McGrawHillISBN 5-699-02592-8 (Russia) EKCMO

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a new paradigm - mind gymnasium · new paradigm spirituality grounding: history grounding: politics...

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