Humanity in Transition and how You Can Be Part of the Solution

Humanity in Transition and how

You Can Be Part of the Solution

by A Nicholas Frank

It is too late now to playaround by labeling people as “pessimists” or “optimists” and politics hasnothing to do with this. Our situation demands us to consider what actions eachof us must take in order to help humanity survive and even thrive on ourendangered planet. Species have vanished before, yet they did not suffer thepain of being fully conscious of their fate nor the guilt of having to facetheir young and their own consciences knowing that they could have done theright thing and created a brighter future, but failed to act. Scientific datais coming in now at an inconvenient rate, faster than we are willing toacknowledge just how endangered we are.

Are we truly approaching ourown extinction? Probabilities pointing towards extinction are high and arerising rapidly! Although a full discussion is too long to delve into here, wecan provide a flash picture of our planet’s crises. Global temperatures arerising and the permafrost has already begun melting. As the permafrost melts,it releases large amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere that help to acceleratethe pace of global warming. The rising temperature will soon release thetrapped methane in the thawing permafrost. 

Methane is a greenhouse gastwenty times more powerful than CO2. As a result, oceans will warm and go deadwith a massive burp, adding to the hot-mix that will further warm and poisonthe atmosphere. There are theories that something like this happened 250million years ago in the Great Permian Extinction that killed off 95% of allliving things. But take no comfort in the prospect of a quick and painlessexit. The extinction we stand to face will not be fast or painless. It couldtake centuries of unimaginable hell on Earth.

We are all on a runawaytrain speeding toward a dark destination. There is very little time left tothrow the switch and transition our train over to the high track that couldlead us to a brighter future. If we act right now, we can still be part of thesolution. But first we need to understand why we are so lost, how we dugourselves so deep into this hole, and just how swiftly and cleverly we must actin order to save ourselves.

The Roots of Our Problem

Our human condition, like abeautiful old oak tree, has deep roots. Though obscured by layers of time andother factors, our roots are broad and complex. They trace back to ourbiological evolution and to the sources and formation of human belief systems.For the sake of brevity, we will only take a quick look at the earlydevelopment of the human thought processes that are largely responsible for ourpresent condition.

We can gain a reasonableunderstanding of how we got where we are by going back more than two millenniaand listening to the conversations that took place in ancient Athens among theleading thinkers of the time. Among the many discussions that probed the depthof human nature and the cosmos, a pivotal argument took place between twoopposing groups of thought. Democretus was the leading thinker within the groupthat believed that the nature of matter and the universe could be understoodonly once things were reduced and studied at the level of their smallest indivisibleparts, their atoms. Opposing the atomists were the holists. Aristotle, the leading thinker of the holistic philosophy,proposed that the universe must be studied as an undivided whole in order topreserve its unique properties and to fully understand its nature.

Through the centuries thatpassed, the atomistic concept gained recognition over the holistic and formedthe basis of reductionist science, which in turn influenced the development ofmodern European/Western culture. Reductionism ultimately did what the holists predictedin principle. It created highly specialized human systems and a culture that isdeeply fragmented and suffers from an immeasurable loss in quality. Whilereductionism is an essential tool of scientific investigation, society can onlybe sustained when functions as a whole system free of the incoherence caused byfragmentation.

A living body is an example:the heart not only beats to sustain itself but to sustain all other organs aswell. Likewise the lungs breathe for the lungs and for all other organs, and soon. Such fully reciprocating relationships are required in order to maintainviable systems. When closely examined, fully reciprocating relationships arealso found in the nuclear world among the protons and electrons that make upatoms, and within the electron exchange between the various atoms that make upthe molecules of all the matter we know.

We find that each part andparticle of nature has “known”, from the beginning of time, that it inherentlypossesses an atomistic structure and emergent holistic quality. These twoattributes are inseparable in nature. A simple example is the systemicrelationship between two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom, which togetherform a water molecule. Water cannot be found in any of the constituent partsbut only as an emergent property with an atomistic structure and holisticquality.

However, the holisticperspective eluded the modern thought process, which has descended from atomistand reductionist philosophies.  Thespecialized, but fragmented social, economic, political and governing practicesthat are in place today are products of reductionism that lack theindispensable holistic component necessary for the establishment of trulyviable and sustainable human societies.

Our Unsustainable Economy

Most of today’s nations andsocieties are dysfunctional to varying degrees. They are nothing more thansocial, economic and political fragments waiting to be reassembled into viableand sustainable systems. Among the many dysfunctional aspects of 21^stcentury global culture, the economy is most at risk. Whether we refer to it ascapitalism, consumerist capitalism, or capitalist consumerism, we know that weare all participants in what has, in recent decades, become a vulnerable globaleconomic monoculture. Our economy is endangered because monocultures, whichlack variety and choice, cannot adapt or evolve. It also suffers because it isdisconnected from a systemic consideration of the resource availability and thenatural life support capacity.

This disconnect has led tovarious problems. One is capitalism’s infinite appetite for resources – aperpetual hunger for economic growth through production and consumption. Ourplanet, with its finite resources and limited life support capacity, cannotsatisfy that demand. The other problem is related to capitalism’s inherentdrive to concentrate wealth. In the global capitalist zero-sum game this hasresulted in progressively fewer big winners and growing numbers of losers.

Over time the concentrationof wealth will produce irreparable polarization and polarization itself leadsto continued fragmentation of the world. For example, the East-Westpolarization of the Cold War has been replaced by more fragmentary and lesspredictable global terrorism. Terrorist cells for the most part are produced fromthe millions of hopeless have-nots of the world.

We know that surgery to anyorgan would be useless if the organ was disconnected from the rest of the body.Similarly, fixing the economy or any other disconnected part of our societywill not yield a viable remedy unless it includes a truly systemic solutionthat addresses all aspects of the way we live, work, commute, consume andgovern our communities.

Transition to Sanity

Humanity has traveled so fardown a dead end road that the steps required for correction seem too difficult.Yet just as placing the right pieces in the right places can solve a dauntingjigsaw puzzle, the potential solution I propose requires surprisingly simplesteps that can help solve the problems of our future. I have worked on thispuzzle for the past twenty-five years and I believe I have been able to placemany of the pieces. I am asking you now to help find and fit into place theremaining pieces to demonstrate a formula that will help us survive and securepeace and sustainability in communities around our planet.

As the first step in thetwo-step Transitional/Holigent solution, I propose the building of aTransitional Urban Village on the banks of the soon-to-be revitalized LosAngeles River. While a Transitional Urban Village can be built in many places,Los Angeles has all the necessary parts for the making of a successfuldemonstration model.

A nonprofit organization isproposed to build and manage the demonstration Transitional Urban Village. Suchurban village would function as a mixed-use, human-scale and primarilycar-free, pedestrian community with employment in close proximity. It would beserved by a high-speed electric rail transport system. The community wouldprovide multiple options for residents to transition from car-dependent tocar-free living.

Affordable housing will beprovided through earned community credit (C-credit). Residents will be able toearn C-credit by performing community service and apply C-credit towardssignificant rent reduction. The hours put into community service will beapplied to facilitate the community’s physical and social maintenance,security, environmental restoration and community outreach programs, includingmentoring at-risk youth.

The Holigent Solution

While the formation ofTransitional Urban Villages will solve many urban problems, one big puzzlepiece is still missing: economic security. The Holigent Solution will providefor economic security as well as for social harmony – the two ingredients essentialto the making of a stable and peaceful society. The essence of the HoligentSolution is a three-way agreement between participating employers,employee-residents, and the nonprofit organization that manages the community.

The three-way agreement willprearrange a flexible balance between pay, time commitments, and rentobligations and will be activated during periods of economic difficulty. In theworst-case scenario, during economic recessions, companies that are at riskwill go into a dormant state rather than shut down, and employee-residents willbe on unpaid furlough instead of being laid off. Employees will be recalledonce work is available again. Furloughed employee-residents will have theoption to earn extra community credit through community service in order to paymost or all of their rent with C-credit. This plan will preserve company assetsas well as maintain housing and the high quality of life for employee-residentseven during recessions of the general economy.

If We Built It Would You Come?

If we built a nonprofit Transitional Urban Village on the banks of the (future)revitalized Los Angeles River, would you come to live and work there? Would yoube interested in life-long job security, living in an affordable high-rise homewithout fear of ever losing it, reducing your rent or purchase pricesignificantly with community credit you can earn through community service, andenjoying a high-quality lifestyle, with car-share rather than car ownership, ina self-organized, safe and sustainable community?

Be Part of the Solution

Learnmore at www.holigent.org Go to “Be Part of the Solution”