A Meme With Potential

Fairytales about growth everlasting are spread steadily by governments and media.  Yet our planet is already stressed.  Even its most clever species is at risk. 

We could be heading toward an order that respects the needs of all people and the Earth.  The knowledge exists to do so and most people would choose that direction if given a chance.

What is stopping us ?

How might we slip the new vision through the barrier that guards the conventional wisdom?

More Fun, Less Stuff. 

These four syllables can provide good-natured access to the better vision for our world.

What does a viable world look like?  
Our enormous technical skills could be applied to making necessary items durable and easily repaired.  Our powerful communication abilities could re-inspire appreciation for durable and familiar products.  It could also illuminate the unlimited, and enduring satisfaction offered by living life well.

Once material sufficiency is met by ecologically sensitive systems and durable products, there are unlimited opportunities to be gathered from learning, love and laughter, creativity, sport, music, dance, appreciation and other life-based activities.

We humans can be leading fulfilling lives without stressing the Earth or requiring dangerous technologies.

We don’t have to grow until we drop !

“More Fun, Less Stuff” implies the basic cultural shift.  People will sense that it isn’t about giving things up, it is about celebrating the richness of living.  Our lives can be so fulfilling that we won’t have time to consume or to pollute on a dangerous scale.

When the big challenges of our day come up at a meeting or in conversation, why not try interjecting the phrase, “More fun, less stuff.”  The message is clear, unifying and memorable.  

A positive human future is within reach. 

- Mike Nickerson

Sent December 16 2015

Dear Leap Manifesto writers,
 
We are a group of people who, like you, are dedicated to social, economic and environmental health and wholeness. We call ourselves Unify Toronto (www.unifytoronto.ca) and our purpose is to accelerate the shift to a just, sustainable and fulfilling society by bringing together Toronto's change-making groups, organizations and citizens. In collaboration with Design with Dialogue, we hold monthly Unify Toronto Dialogues that support Toronto shift-makers to gather and find support and inspiration for their part in stewarding the emergence of a genuinely thriving human culture among all species.  
 
Our last dialogue on October 26 engaged 30 participants in a World Café with spirited conversations inspired by The Leap Manifesto.  All present were inspired and charged by the Manifesto--the vastness and boldness of the call it puts forward, and the concise way it lays out a pathway in that direction.

We thought of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense pamphlet (1776), which presented an argument for freedom from British rule at a time when that was the central question of the day. Written in plain language, it was an immediate sensation, read aloud in taverns and meeting places, and remains proportionally the all-time best-selling American title. Some scholars argue that without that pamphlet, the American Revolution would not have happened.

We would like to see the Leap Manifesto have a similar trajectory in Canada, and potentially around the globe. In that vein, we want to share here the rich harvest of ideas our dialogue generated about how to take the Manifesto forward, create the possibility for it to spread virally, and spark the revolution that is needed today.

First, we would like to present some concrete ideas about how to help make the Manifesto a viral phenomenon that shifts public discourse and influences the political agenda in Canada and around the world:

1. Work with Avaaz to promote the vision outlined in the Leap Manifesto, sending it for signature to a much larger critical mass than the current 31,000, linking to your resource page (see item 2 below). Avaaz has 42 million members worldwide, and the capacity to focus on Canada and/or to inspire people in countries all around the globe to develop their own versions of the Manifesto.
   
   
2. Develop a short YouTube video of the Leap Manifesto (or its key points) being read:

• by Canadian celebrities and intellectual figures (e.g. David Suzuki. These might be some of the signatories of the Manifesto that people would recognize), and/or
• by a diverse range of Canadians, from young children to elders of widely diverse ethnicities and genders, and/or
• illustrated with animation (as in The Story of Stuff or a hand-drawn video as the text is being read)
  
  Knowing of Avi Lewis’ film-making ability, we are excited by the possibility that your team may already have the resources to do this easily. This could be posted on your leapmanifesto.org resources page.

1. Post model letters to politicians on your resources page (which could be written by the Leap team and/or provided by supporters), to engage individuals and groups in sending letters to the Prime Minister and their MPs, MPPs and councillors, to promote action on the Manifesto’s vision.
   
   
2. Encourage (again, on your resources page) organizations, studios, and offices to put up Leap Manifesto posters with some distillation of its content, along with a hard copy to sign.
   
   
3. Engage cities and towns to pass motions adopting the Leap Manifesto at the municipal level.
   
   
4. More broadly, engage and inspire media specialists, scientists, philosophers, artists, novelists, film-makers and others to tell the story of the world that “taking the Leap” would create, as if it had already happened. Many of the initial signatories of the Manifesto have the capacity to engage the public and the political imagination, moving the vision of the Leap from controversial to mainstream in a short time. Think of the way the normalization of homosexuality in popular entertainment media helped pave the way for the widespread legalization of gay marriage. How do we replicate such a shift in social attitudes and norms?

 
Second, we wish to share some reflections on the potential risks and pitfalls of The Leap Manifesto as an instrument for change, along with our thoughts about how to work through them.

We were struck, during our dialogue, by the sheer magnitude of the shift in culture and consciousness required to make the Leap. We recalled cases of large-scale change with transformations of the political order (e.g. the former Yugoslavia and Syria), which began as peaceful grassroots-led movements but devolved into civil conflicts with regional and global implications. We are mindful of these precedents, and the fact that the massive economic and political shifts implicit in the Leap inevitably rub up against vested interests within government, in the private sector, and among specific groups of people such as workers in fossil fuel-reliant industries. Focusing on protesting and opposing the status quo and those who support it runs the risk of replicating the very dynamics of conflict and power struggle that plague the world today.

We talked about how the Leap might instead be approached from an attitude of inclusiveness and compassion. To this end, The Leap Manifesto could become a platform for convening broad dialogue. This would require involving (rather than opposing) those currently seen as the obstacles for change, to establish a new “social contract” among all stakeholders, particularly among those who are not normally heard. Providing spaces for grieving the old order, and reaching out to people who feel challenged by the emerging new reality, would be important elements of this strategy. The Leap requires a process of healing at all levels and could be approached in that spirit.
 
Specific possibilities that emerged under this rubric include:

1. Encouraging face-to-face meetings (e.g. in churches, schools, colleges and universities, community centres, public libraries and cafés) to read The Leap Manifesto aloud and discuss its implications, as we did in our Dialogue session. We would be happy to provide a suggested format and facilitator’s guide for these events, that you could post on your resources page.
   
   
2. Building on the involvement of indigenous rights groups in writing the Manifesto, calling together one or more councils of indigenous elders across Canada to provide wisdom and guidance toward realizing the Leap. As Justin Trudeau said recently in Paris, “Indigenous peoples have known for thousands of years how to care for our planet. The rest of us have a lot to learn and no time to waste.”
   
   
3. Supporting subtle activism -- myriad forms of prayer, ceremony and mindfulness practices -- both as a tool for engagement and as a way to manifest the breadth of change we are seeking to achieve.
   
   
4. Engaging The Elders (theelders.org) in support of a global mission of peaceful change through seeking political commitments to true human flourishing across cultures and nations.
   
   

Unify Toronto Dialogues draws on a broad network of change agents, many of whom have well-honed skills in designing and facilitating dialogue and engagement processes. We are excited about how we might help mobilize these kinds of actions, and would love to connect with you about this possibility.

Would you be willing to contact us by return email so that we can continue the conversation?

In a spirit of collaboration, and with deep gratitude for your leadership and catalytic initiative in this pivotal time,
 
Gennie Brukner
David Burman
Peter Jones
Bruce Lyne
Paul Overy
Nenad Rava
Natalie Zend
of Unify Toronto Dialogues

Dear Mr. Harper,

Actually, as you will see shortly that we are actually closely related, let me call you Stephen. You see we both have the same Mother. It’s not that our human mothers aren’t different, but when you think about it, how did we get to be fully grown adult humans from that tiny fertilized ovum we started out as? It’s only by absorbing the plants, and the animals that eat them, as well as the water, sunlight and air, that we were able to grow. Which means that every atom of our bodies comes from the Earth. So the Earth is literally our Mother. Which makes us brothers.

Not only that but it makes us related to everything on Earth, including all those things that make life possible, like the water, air, soil, bacteria, insects, fish, birds, trees, mushrooms, rocks … all of which we egotistically call Nature. And since I’m quite a bit older than you, it is my prerogative as older brother to help guide you through the complicated process we call Life.

Now, Stephen, the relatives and I are quite concerned that you have joined a dangerous cult: the Cult of Perpetual Growth, the one that worships Mammon. I know it’s a very prominent cult these days; and back in the day when some rich men decided to leverage their money to make themselves richer it wasn’t such a terrible idea. With the relatives being generous and all there seemed like there was a lot to go around. So nobody complained too much.

But lately this Cult has been getting completely out of hand. Did you know that we humans use up 150% of what the other relatives can regenerate? And the relatives are not feeling so generous these days; in fact they are starting to complain loudly. Like the trees, as 75% of the Earth’s (that’s our Mother, Stephen) forests have been cut down in the past century. Or the water being polluted, the soil desiccated and devoid of life, and the fish – half of all ocean fish are gone, Stephen. The list goes on and on.

You know how it is when some cells of your body join the Cult of Perpetual Growth, don’t you? Say some of your liver cells devised a plan to grow indefinitely, exploiting a disproportionate amount of resources from the other organs, and getting the rest of your body to work for them. You know what happens don’t you? Unless there’s some radical intervention, you die, don’t you.

So you put yourself through extreme inconvenience and considerable expense for the radical intervention that you need to (maybe) save your life. And those cancer cells (that’s what we’re talking about, aren’t we?) end up dying along with the rest of you, so they don’t win either.

It’s not just growth, you know. That would just be a lump. It’s when your liver cells travel and colonize other parts of you and take over their resources so that they can’t function properly that eventually the whole system stops working. It just stops.

Well as it turns out, you and I and all the other relatives don’t actually live on the Earth, we’re part of the Earth, just like those liver cells are part of you. And the same thing is happening to our Mother as happens to you when your liver (or any other part of you) gets involved with this Cult. So you can see why the family and I are so concerned.

Now, Stephen, I see that you have become quite influential in this Cult of Perpetual Growth, even blocking some international agreements that might slow down the rate that we humans are using up so much of what the rest of the family need. Many species can’t even survive, and more of them are going extinct every day.

That’s cancer, Stephen, and you can use your influence to get our Mother (and you and me and all the relatives, since we’re part of Her) the radical help She needs to reverse the damage that’s been done by the Cult.

There are other ways of growing without the Cult of Perpetual Growth. Like planting trees everywhere (the most advanced carbon sequestration technology in existence) – nut trees, fruit trees, shade trees, soil regenerating trees.

And we can grow in our capacity to listen with our hearts to the whole family.  And food - the plants are eager to participate, along with the organisms of the soil. Every flat roof, every wasted lawn, could be food, Stephen. Our human communities too can grow in their resilience and self-reliance with help from you and the rest of the family.

The relatives are behind you all the way in your new life-saving venture. We know you can do it, Stephen. But first you have to leave the Cult.

We love you, Stephen, and wish you all the best in your deprogramming.

All my relations

Your brother, David

David Burman, DDS PhD
University of Toronto
Unify Toronto Core Group member
www.davidburman.net 

1000 Dinners TO organized a citywide discussion about Toronto's future on October 7 2014. That night, five hundred people hosted dinners for up to 10 people all across the city to discuss ideas that can make Toronto an even better place. Suggested discussion questions included: 

Climate change, peak oil, mass species extinction, and the inherent unsustainability of our interest-based money and growth-reliant economic system mean that our current industrial growth system will not continue. In this context of vulnerability and change, we would like to see Toronto become a truly resilient city with a strong culture of civility, humanity and caring, and a tight social fabric.

Ultimately, we would like a city where inhabitants have fair and equitable access to decent livelihoods, dignified shelter and clothing, and healthy, nourishing and delicious food. And we’d like to see Torontonians living happy, healthy, meaningful lives. And we’d like to see people enjoying all those things in a way that can last for future generations.

For a picture of what could be possible for Toronto, and how we could get there, see the recently-published book, Visions: Co-Creating Our Future, by Ottawa author Kaia Nightingale (www.kaia.ca) (and come to her upcoming Toronto events on Sat Nov 15 1:00-3:00 and Mon Nov 17 6:30-9:00!)

We think that what would make Toronto a better place is an aspirational narrative for our city, one that gives Torontonians a shared sense of what we are here for. We’d like to see a collective story that gives us a long-term, wider vision of what we are creating together—a just, sustainable, thriving, resilient city.

We need a mythic story that connects us to our roots, that reconnects us with our lineage(s) and the land that makes our lives possible. The story needs to acknowledge the vital gifts First Nations cultures have to offer current-day Toronto. It also needs to invite immigrants and their descendants to dive deep into their cultural heritage to offer the vital ingredients of their countries to a new human unity that Toronto is uniquely positioned to create (e.g. a deepening of the now defunct concept of the Toronto International Caravan).

Such a story is the soil that is needed for our city to come alive and grow in life-regenerating ways. The role of the politician is to create this soil, taking a long view and creating the conditions for new life to come through and flourish. 1000 Dinners TO--and Unify Toronto--could be a vehicle for Torontonians to write such a narrative together. 

We propose more support for sharing and trading of private goods, services and space for the larger community.

Neighbourhood-level private social networks would be one fantastic initiative to improve local-level social cohesion, a sense of belonging, and to enable people to get their needs met within their local community by sharing knowledge, skills, goods and services. nextdoor.com has a great platform for this. Let’s bring it to Toronto!

We are also excited and encouraged by many existing initiatives that enable this type of sharing and would like to see financial support and expansion of these initiatives and models. For example:

• Not Far from the Tree (http://notfarfromthetree.org), which picks fruit from privately owned fruit trees in Toronto’s urban forest, and shares them with the owner, volunteers, and food banks, shelters and community kitchens.
• Yes in My Back Yard (http://thestop.org/yes-in-my-back-yard), which connects people who would like to garden but don’t have the space, to people who have space in their yards they are willing to share.  
• Little Free Libraries (http://littlefreelibrary.org), a box full of books that people place on their front lawn or on public property, where anyone may stop by and pick up a book (or two) and bring back another book to share. 
• Tool Libraries (http://torontotoollibrary.com), which loan specialized tools to community members. Let’s integrate this with the public library systems.
• Seed Libraries (http://www.torontoseedlibrary.org/about/), which provides free and easy access to viable seeds so that as many people as possible are growing their own organic food and also encourages and enables people to save seeds. Let’s integrate this too with the public library system.
• Farming on private property (http://www.neighbourhoodfarm.ca), food growers who use private urban yards to grow food for sale. Government and private subsidies please!
• Skill and knowledge sharing (http://tradeschool.coop/toronto/), alternative learning project that runs on a barter system. People pay for a class with a barter item (like food, supplies or help) that the teacher requests.
• Clothing and other swaps (http://www.swapsity.ca/meets), online swapping and large swap meets. In the last year alone, Swapsity events (aka the Swap Zone) have saved Torontonians a whopping $200,000, recycled 30,000 items and swapped more than 25,000 items.

We were inspired by the concept of 1000 Dinners TO, and the potential for this model to continue and grow. This kind of initiative can build an infrastructure of civility in Toronto, engaging people in collective meaning making and passion.

Features of the model that especially excite us include:
1) the use of private (and public) spaces for collective benefit;
2) the inclusion of breaking bread together, which creates intimacy and builds community;
3) distributed local-level responsibility, where people throughout the city volunteer to host small-scale events, like cells working together as an organism;
4) a “minimal, optimal” structure to support meaningful yet free-flowing conversation; 
5) achieving scale through simultaneous self-organized events; 
6) an evidence base to ground dialogue (the Vital Signs report)
7) the emphasis on dialogue and constructive ideas rather a focus on problems, positions and debate
8) a meaningful harvest (these surveys culminating in reports, with the involvement of the print and broadcast media);
9) at least one tangible, timely outcome (input for the mayoral candidates’ debate and for municipal politicians).

We would like to see this type of gentle political engagement repeated. This is a way to connect the tiles in the mosaic of Toronto. It is an opportunity to encourage political conversation—something that is not characteristic of Toronto culture. We see this event as the start of an important process that should continue, building toward a shared vision for our city. This kind of process can also develop a culture of caring, intimacy, and humanity in our cities, qualities and practices we need in times of vulnerability to climate change, peak oil, and economic, political and civilizational crisis.