Learning to Surf on the Waves of Change
A Survival Guide for the next decade and beyond
Eco © 2004

What is the Role of Civil Society in Social Transformation?

If the survival of the planet today is dependent on who I am and what I do, then who will I be and what will I do? R. Buckminster Fuller

Social Transformation and the Cultural Creatives

Social transformation is accomplished through diverse groups coming together in movements which, when they become strong enough, serve to change the worldview of a majority of the people involved.

For the past forty years, beginning with the black freedom movement, movements have been coalescing into streams of consciousness which signify a change in the manner in which our societies are evolving. As these movements come together, for example, the women's movement, human rights movement, ecology movement, student movement, labor movement, peace movement spiritual movement, and gay rights movement, there is a realization of the interconnectedness of the whole based on convictions "that a sense of personal worth, of meaning in life, is a fundamental human right that must be protected by our social institutions" with such conviction underlying all of the separate movements.(Ray et al: p. 216 - 2000).

There is also a growing awareness that the challenges with which we are faced today do not operate in isolation from one another but are interconnected. For example, there is no way to separate the growing poverty among the people and degradation of land in the developing world from the excessive consumption patterns in the developed world. Nor is there a way to deny that destruction of the rain forests of the world effect ocean currents and weather patterns even though the interrelatedness of these systems and how they operate is not clearly understood by scientists at this time. We are just beginning to understand that there are no beginnings and no endings - there is only the interrelatedness of cause and effect.

As people struggle worldwide to come to grips with this new found awareness of connectivity to one another and to the Earth, there is a strong movement emerging in the form of integral culturists who values researchers, Paul Ray and Sherry Ruth Anderson, have entitled 'Cultural Creatives'. These are the people, fifty million strong in the United States, who stand at the center of the general movement for social transformation and form the core of civic society - a new constituency that is taking its rightful place alongside of the private and public sectors.

THE ROLE OF CIVIC SOCIETY

The role of civic society is becoming an increasingly demanding one as it takes on more importance along side of the "public" and "private" sectors. Economics now recognizes that "human capital," along with civic organizations, social structures, families, cultures and values, are necessary components for reshaping a global economy. (Henderson: 53-1999).

Civic society is defined as being "citizens and their movements operating at every level of human societies from global to local". Hazel Henderson, an alternative economist, in her book, "Beyond Globalization, Shaping a Sustainable Global Economy," acknowledges the "specific expertise," "experience" and "knowledge" that ordinary citizens can provide as "vital
feedback for decision-making" at all levels of society. She further goes on to say that this "expertise is now often trusted as providing less biased public interest perspectives than much corporate information, which is necessarily self-serving, or even governments or white papers" will provide.


However, an impediment to the growing influence of CSOs to provide for social, economic and environmental justice worldwide, and lay the groundwork for world peace beginning at the local community level, is the monopolization of commercial media outlets by the corporations. These giants now control television, radio, newspapers, wire services, and are in
the process of over-taking the Internet. Corporate control extends as well into Hollywood where entertainment programming and content is directed for the most part to portraying life in America, with its attendant consumer 'affluenza' dis-ease, as being the most desirable lifestyle on the planet.

While a few 'outlaw' producers and directors try to make films and video productions that make a statement for the public good, most programming is designed to direct the attention of the viewing public away from important issues. A preoccupation with sports and other entertainment venues has produced the 'couch potato' affect and serves to 'dumb down' the viewing
public. At the same time, there is increased pressure to reduce funding for public broadcasting systems which serve to create awareness of critical issues.

At the heart of corporate control are the public relations firms hired by them to provide for programming which subtly manipulates the human mind and shapes it into a consumer-oriented profile which desires the products touted by the corporations in such a manner as to imply that the market is consumer-driven, when, in fact, it is producer driven. Public relations firms are paid handsomely by the corporations to shape the minds of viewers worldwide. One of the ploys is to take a sports or celebrity superstar revered by fans internationally, and feature them in advertising venues directed toward producing consumption patterns. For instance, the lucrative sneaker industry was built on the backs of mega-income sports figures like
Michael Jordan, Shaq O'Neill, and "bad boy" Dennis Rodman. Material Girl, Madonna, was paid millions to set the stage for the emergence of empty-headed women just wanting 'to have fun' as they consumed, consumed, and consumed products that supposedly created the much desired sexually-explicit 'fun girl'.

We'll pursue more of this line of thinking in our chapter on media, but civic society has a responsibility to bring values more in line with social ethics if we are to complete social transformation and bring about lifestyle changes that will result in healthy living. In doing so, it is necessary to create new images that will help to shift the paradigm. How to accomplish this effectively and do so within the time limits set forth by the 'ecological time bomb' is one of the major questions of our day.

But as a leadership group, the Cultural Creatives appear to be in for the long haul. They are now acting as the new "Moral Public" and form the largest constituency for the stream of consciousness that is the glue that holds the disparate movements together. (Ray, et al: p. 219-220).

Among the 10 million identified as core leaders in the Cultural Creatives movement is Barbara Marx Hubbard who has chosen to tour a group of as many as thirty speakers to various venues as part of her "Gateway" program; hoping to create a new spiritual awareness that will result in a paradigm shift. However, this approach seems not to be working as well as may be
expected as those in the audience seem to still be confused about what it is they must do, not realizing that this new paradigm shift must come from within, and means a shift into a whole new lifestyle that bears little resemblance to the modern lifestyle of today.

Most seem to view the challenges with which we are faced today through their particular lenses and thus see only a fragmented part of the whole of what social transformation means in terms of preserving our life support system. In reality what it means in terms of systems change is redesigning our institutions in such a manner as to reshape the global economy to include more of the agenda's of 'we-the-people". For example: "food, habitat, environment, poverty, unemployment, social exclusion, human rights, and ecologically sustainable, equitable human development". (Henderson: 22-1999)

What seems necessary, are not just one-time seminars or workshops, but places where ordinary citizens can congregate together in their respective communities on a daily or weekly basis and learn what the critical issues are that are effecting their lifestyles; and determine together as a community how to meet the challenges brought about by these critical issues. Many of which are the result of policies which were set in motion as long as 2,000 years ago and for which we are feeling the effects today. Relative to this is the knowledge that with current advances in communications technology, changes put into effect today will take as little as twenty years to make a difference.

"At the heart of CSO activities is the promotion of alternatives: policies, viewpoints, lifestyles, cultural critiques, and new visions and scenarios of possible and desirable futures. (Henderson: 55-1999). It is the purpose of this book to help explore these alternatives and in such a manner as to encourage group formation and the creation of space within communities which will enable and empower individuals in finding viable alternatives that lead to a sustainable future for all lifeforms and security within each community


While we do not believe it to be the only alternative, we do believe that the concept of the Community Learning and Information Centers to be a viable option for organizing in a manner to create the spaces in which new learning
can take place. Within these learning spaces it is incumbent upon us to explore what the new policies, programs, social interventions, and innovations are that are most likely to result in reshaping a new global lifestyle which can result in social, economic, and environmental justice, and world peace.

In reshaping our global lifestyle, it is important for us to include what has been missing heretofore in the areas of nature, planetary and local ecosystems, and people marginalized by the current form of runaway globalization. It is therefore necessary that we set up a network of learning communities which includes a feedback loop to allow for a system of global monitoring in the areas of: more accurate indicators, regulations regarding codes of conduct and higher ethical standards both for humans and
the Earth, criteria for monitoring; better science and information; and better dissemination of valid information. Organized around local community learning and information centers networked together via the Internet, volunteers are more empowered in taking personal responsibility for their own future as they partake fully in establishing new policies and procedures while directing them from the bottom up. Hence, through establishing these centers worldwide it is possible for billions of people to become involved in designing the future with justice and peace foremost in their mind's eye view.

It is incumbent upon us, as individuals in a civic society, to determine the difference between 'needs' and 'wants' and to expand our awareness and understanding accordingly in order to make the appropriate adjustments to our lifestyles so that all may live freely and as equals limited only by our personal constraints. In so examining our own personal needs and applying the knowledge we acquire thereby, we create a Wisdom Society, based on experience. We therefore learn to live within the tolerances as set forth by Mother Earth and the surrounding Universe and from there begin to define our own requisites in the areas of technology, population growth, consumption, governance, taxation, education, legal and medical needs, ecological
systems preservation, etc.

As more and more of us consider these issues, we are turning inward and asking of ourselves who it is we want to be and what we want to accomplish within our lifetimes. How is it that we want to be remembered in our obituaries?

Values researchers, Paul Ray and Sherry Ruth Anderson, in their book, "The Cultural Creatives" reveal the value changes of approximately fifty million people, who as integral culturists are looking inward in order to define a whole new worldview for themselves and others. Their research, along with others, affirms the growth of civic society within the United States and the
attendant change in thinking".

David C. Korten in "The Post- Corporate World" verifies that this trend is taking place worldwide citing the research of Ronald Inglehart in a 1990-1991 World Values Survey taken from forty-three nations representing 70 percent of the world's population in which Inglehart "identified clear evidence of a shift toward the values of an integral culture in a number of
societies. . . .". Korten writes that the "real test of a values shift is the behavior change that accompanies it" - "one expression" of this being"the choices of millions of people who are voluntarily choosing to limit their consumption in favor of simpler lifestyles." (Korten: 219-1999)

The trend toward simpler lifestyles is supported by the Trends Research Institute and the Harwood Group with the Harwood Group research indicating that as many as twenty-eight percent of those surveyed had voluntarily reduced their incomes over the previous five years. (Korten: 219-1999)

Another indicator of the desire for Voluntary Simplicity in one's lifestyle is the number of copies of Your Money or Your Life, a book written by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin that have been sold. By mid 1998, shortly after its release, 750,000 copies in English had been sold with sales in five other languages doing well. It was also on Business week's best-selling list for two and one-half years.

These are all encouraging signs that modernism and consumption are loosing their grip on society. But imagine what could happen if just one thousand 'cultural creatives' worldwide were to organize Community Learning and Information Centers and each center were to congregate several hundred individuals together to participate in learning focused on the critical issues related to the creation of sustainable lifestyles. And, if the consequences of their learning resulted in a changed 'worldview' what a difference this could make if attendant and appropriate actions were taken that brought real meaning and satisfaction into people's lives worldwide while at the same time establishing a path to social, economic, and environmental justice and world peace in a coordinated movement.

Several other Cultural Creatives are raising their heads above the not-so-crowded deck. Among them are Vernon Woolf, Ph.D., founder of Holodynamics, who has shown his proficiency in creating social transformation by emptying out mental institutions, jails, and neighborhoods of drug users here in the U.S. Recognized for his work in Russia as a proponent of peace, Dr. Woolf is currently involved in bringing new wellness centers into being. These centers have demonstrated the ability to heal
those which the conventional medical community has given up on, using "holodynamics".

Another Cultural Creative is Jay Earley, Ph.D. author of the book, "Transforming Human Culture". Earley maintains that for the first time in history, we have the "knowledge and ability to choose our overall direction with foresight, but he is also concerned that we are going to run out of time before we "seriously undermine our life support system". Now developing an 'Atlas for Social Transformation" to help guide us along the path to social change, he cautions us that our "transition can happen wisely
or it can happen with great suffering and destruction." (Earley: p 1-2002)

To further study social transformation and how it may best take place, Earley and Fred Cooke have designed a "Conscious Action" network of which the 'Atlas for Social Transformation" is a project.

People like David Eisenberg, founder of the Development Center for Appropriate Technology; Ecological Designers, Jim Bell and Reinhold Zeigler, Ray Darby with the California Energy Commission, are all people who are demonstrably living their dream for social change.


Of all the movements coming together, possibly the most influential are the Social and the Consciousness movements. Within the new Social Movements we find "Environment/Ecology, the Women's Movement, and the Social Justice/Activism Movement", and within the Consciousness Movement, the Alternative Health Care and the Human Potential/Spiritual Psychology Movement. (Ray, et al: p. 220 -2001)

Yet, in spite of the growing awareness of the Cultural Creatives of what the problems are, we still lack clear cut answers about what it is we need to do to find solutions to the overwhelming problems with which we are faced today in every area of our lives. We are faced with growing numbers of homeless; there are now one billion people in the world who live under the poverty level and as many may be unemployed or underemployed worldwide. We are struggling with economic problems, major discrepancies in wealth, threats of terrorism, critical topsoil loss, water shortages, over population, global climate change with attendant local climate changes that disrupt growing patterns and disrupt food supplies, air pollution at levels that threaten to increase global weather changes, and proliferation of nuclear weapons. While these problems seem to be unrelated, a closer look reveals that all are related to how money is created and distributed and the need for the capital/industrial system upon which a major portion of the world's present economy is based, to continually expand its markets.

Earley and others concerned with creating social transformation warn us that this 'modern' view, "which has guided us for hundreds of years", is now outmoded and our systems' structure is stressed to the breaking point at every level. "Similarly, our current lifestyles are outmoded" yet we are seemingly at a loss as to how to change effectively and create new systems that more nearly meet the needs of today's world.

Perhaps the first step for us to take as individuals is to begin to write a new 'origin' story to serve as the basis for our future world. If, as Earley suggests, we have the ability to create our future, or at least, to co-create it, we must somehow learn to think in new ways. Father Thomas Berry suggests that it is perhaps a new emerging scientific paradigm coupled with a deepening human spirituality that will help us create a new story of the universe -- which brings us to an awareness of the importance of this 'age of knowledge'. Fully seventy-five percent of all of the knowledge available to us today has been discovered in the past twenty-five years; knowledge is now doubling every 2.5 years. So, the question arises as to how
we are to deal with this information overload. Fortunately, computers have enabled us in gathering, sorting, categorizing, formatting and disseminating information at a speed without which we would be completely overwhelmed and unable to deal with the situation.

What makes this situation increasingly complex, however, and the information difficult to understand, is the manner in which think tanks and other groups acting on behalf of special interest groups, subtly manipulate the data and feed it to the media in ways that are assured to guarantee an outcome most beneficial to the interests of the ruling and sub-elites, that is those who
benefit from investment in technology. Particularly, since the end of World War I, and increasing in intensity since World War II, information has been manipulated to such an extent that little of what is 'real' gets into the general public's awareness. Consequently, we-the-people are continually basing decisions on untruths. Is it any wonder then that we are acting in
such a way as to destroy our life support system at an unprecedented rate while acting in denial that we are doing so? All in order that the entities involved in so doing can continue to reap profits over and above that which is fair for all concerned while at the same time wasting our Earth's ecology to such an extent as to undermine our life support system beyond its natural ability to regenerate itself at a normal rate.

Many have placed great hope on Civic Society in the form of the organizations which make up the World Social Forum which meets annually in Porte Alego, Brazil. However, since these organizations are funded by the very corporations which make up a part of the structure of the Global Monetocracy System, doubt exists as to the ability of Civic Society in this form to create any meaningful change.

Having witnessed the debacle of the 2004 presidential election, little doubt remains that the vote at the ballot box has been closed as well to the Civic Sector and it has been left without representation.

As pointed out by Madron and Jopling in GAIN DEMOCRACIES, the Civic Sector has failed to ensure itself of representation by any legal document, relying solely on the Constitution, a document written by wealthy white men to
protect their interests at the time of conception and which still exists today.

Madron and Jopling also point out that the Global Monetocracy System has ensured itself of continued rule via its Operational Documents even should one of its sectors be overcome. The system, under the guidance of the descendents of those who designed it, and who have continued its evolution, whether by lineage or business association, has continued to evolve in
sophisticated and complex ways guaranteed to ensure continuity.

This appears to leave the Civic Sector virtually without a leg to stand on, that is, and unless it unites to fight fire with fire and begins to withhold its support from the system by directing its buying power in the marketplace toward an alternative and sustainable living economy. The problem herein lies in the inability of Civic Society to even begin to imagine what a sustainable living economy looks like, so brain-washed have we become by the zealousness of the GMS to keep us tied to the vision of the present capital intensive society of today.

The inevitable outcome of this may be a total collapse of the present economy due not only to errors on the part of those who guide the system today, but by competition from the Euro, coupled with over-extension of debt and imbalance in trade deficits. Already crippled by disenfranchisement from the labor force due to the de-linking of human labor from the financial markets accompanied by advances in technology, the Civic Sector finds itself not only without a leg to stand on, but up a creek without a paddle, as all safety nets evaporate into the thin air of which they were created.

If it is to survive in other than the direst, and most primative of conditions, Civic Society must somehow pull itself together and unite in a common plan based on survival. Faced with the uncomfortable circumstances presented by economic collapse, coupled with energy shortages, and global warming, the future for humanity looks dire indeed. However, by adjusting our lifestyles instead of relying on techonology to save us, we could possibly live, not in the absurd luxury to which we have become accustomed, but comfortably in alignment with nature.