Please donate to help cover the costs of operating Greater Democracy. Note that Greater Democracy is not a formal organization, and your donation is not tax deductible. Greater Democracy is not affiliated with any other business, organization, or party.
December 7, 2004ImaginationOne of my favorite artists is Brian Andreas, the creator of StoryPeople, an imaginative combination of art and poetry. We're fortunate enough to have 10 of his sculptures dancing on our living room wall. And one of my favorite Story People is called Imagining World: In my dream, the angel shrugged & said, If we fail this time, it will be a failure of imagination & then she placed the world gently in the palm of my hand. So, imagine the world in the palm of your hand and come with me on a journey of imagination... Imagine the possibilities that opened for us on September 11, 2001, when the whole world declared itself American and reached out to embrace us with the empathy that only shared experience can elicit. Imagine how we might have reached back. Think about millions of Americans finally leaving the comfortable cocoon of their country and traveling all over the world to learn about other cultures and customs. Imagine school children being taught foreign languages in kindergarten, and every college student required to spend a semester abroad. Imagine a United Nations empowered by an overwhelming influx of American funds and talent in a concerted effort to make it more effective in its mission of peace and world community. Imagine Iraq being invaded, not by our military, but by our musicians. Imagine thousands of Iraqis waking up one morning to the strains of Mozart's "Jupiter" Symphony playing in their square. Imagine Palestinians, Arabs, and Israelis all participating in a Middle East Fair where they talk, laugh, and learn about each other. Imagine a huge picnic on the outskirts of Baghdad--catered by the US, with entertainment and skits provided by our troops. Imagine the US offering a free trip to Disney World (including complimentary mouse ears) to anyone in the Muslim world who can't afford to pay. Imagine what we could do with our resources and power! Imagine what could happen if we focused on life instead of death, on our friends instead of our enemies, on our potential instead of our fears. Imagine the world in the palm of your hand. What can you imagine? Posted by Elissa Bishop-Becker at December 7, 2004 12:30 PM | TrackBackComments
Don't just imagine it, search for it, search for common ground. http://www.sfcg.org is doing neat projects around the world. Check them out. Posted by: Aldon Hynes at December 7, 2004 3:08 PMNow those are GREAT Ideas! Posted by: Patty Ann Smith at December 7, 2004 3:31 PMElissa, How do we establish the conditions that would allow the "dream" to come true? What will it take to make this the majority dream? I dream of a new social contract that goes beyond LeFeber's analysis of Manifest Destiny, Exceptionalism and Individualism married to reductionist thinking [the 400 year old definition of being American?]. I dream of a new social contract that is greater than the sum of private, public, and market inputs and in which all players share the benefits with justice and fairness. We need a new social contract that is not limited by zero sum strategies and is able to escape the limits of reductionist approaches. But I wonder if the folks who voted for Bush, for what ever reason, share this dream? What is their dream? Where are the common points in the dreams? How do we find them? Posted by: Jock Gill at December 7, 2004 9:02 PMThank you all for your comments. I hope there will be more! I think we can make our dream real, but it will take time and focus. If we try to rush it because we're afraid or anxious or impatient, we're much more likely to fail. Remember the Founders and how deliberate and thoughtful they were. Above all, I don't think we can decide on the forms all this will take before we know what direction we're going. One thing we don't want to do is waste our energy on acting for the sake of acting. We can't have a direction before we do the work of clarifying our own core values and understanding the personal resources we have to express those values... and what values we will express and how and why.... When each of us has done our own work, then we can start talking about connecting. Only then will we be able to see clearly how each of us fits into the bigger picture. Then we can begin to create our new social contract. The coming paradigm will be the sum total of all of us, not imposed from the outside or through a hierarchical structure. You know this, Jock. And because it will be the sum total, it will also be more than the sum of its parts. As for those who voted for Bush, we need to be the change we want to see--which means we need to start by treating them as members of our community. Meanwhile, we can watch and listen. Our leaders are not listening. I hear the rumblings everywhere these days... out there along the edges. Posted by: Elissa at December 7, 2004 10:39 PMPost a comment
|