Earthfamilyalpha II

On the anniversary of the second year of Earthfamilyalpha, I am moved to try to recapture the genesis of this project and to once again imagine its purpose.

Last year, after the defeat of John Kerry, it became evident to me that there was now a fundamental shear in the American system of government away from its democratic moorings.

I recall with excitement last election day, when according to almost all signs, a new president was soon to be elected. The signs were everywhere. Boston had won the World Series. The all important Redskin football indicator showed that the defeat of the incumbent was all but certain. Early on that day, the election trading sites were tilting towards Kerry. Exit polls showed Kerry a clear winner throughout the day.

I was cautiously non pessimistic.

But there was a little gnawing in my craw.

The night before, I asked my favorite divining device, the Tarot, to give me insight. I asked, “Will Kerry Win?”

He will, but he won’t.

I threw it again.

He will, but he won’t.

And again.

He will, but he won’t.

As the returns came in, I hid my concerns. I was the voice of confidence in an election watch group that was becoming increasing distraught. Finally, it was clear.

Ohio would be red.

Earlier in the year, I had started writing a new book that had the working title “Earthfamilyalpha”. It was to be my fifth book. My first book is mostly cultural philosophy with a focus on the human potential as we respond to climate change. The second is an energy handbook for communities. My third is a parable about culture and human settlements. My forthcoming fourth book is a discussion of a new operating system for our bio computers, and this fifth book would be about the creation of new inventions of social contract that could transcend our existing geographic social contracts.

I wrote several chapters on the book before I realized that a book about cyberstates would most definitely need to be written on line in cyberspace.

That revelation, coupled with the realization that the American Democracy was now in tatters, moved me to start Earthfamilyalpha.

Earlier this week, I was invited to a wonderful lunch at a friend’s house. She is a designer who moved here from NYC. We ate outside on her deck. The cool fall air was invigorating. The other guests were bright and intelligent and caring. One had worked with Bucky Fuller during his last years. Another was an environmentally attuned attorney.

We began to do what all open minded thoughtful concerned people of conscience tend to do these days.

We despaired over the lack of vibrant, meaningful leadership for our positions and causes.

I took that as my cue. And I made my pitch.

I shared that perhaps now is the time for people of conscience to quit despairing about our lack of leadership on the national level and instead begin to let go of this pathology of nationalism.

Every four years, we spend our money, our time, our energy, and our worn warm hearts trying to return to Camelot.

It is not there.

I offered that if we, as people of conscience, are to once again have power on this earth, we must create that power.

We cannot wrest this power away.

Like Google, or Microsoft, we must create this power.

In my view, the creation of large cybercoops or states is the only non-violent alternative we have to achieving a new dimension in human organization, freedom, and justice.

Such global cyberstates will embody the perfect marriage of the freedom and wealth building potential of capitalism with the justice and equity potentials of communal holistic living systems.

The global forcing issues of climate change, peak oil, accelerating technological advancement, and the increased consolidation of wealth and power, coupled with the now unveiled hegemony of shaped information systems, will channel us down this ravine as surely as an afternoon mountain thunderstorm brings a torrent of water and silt through the canyon.

We will survive, but the ride will be wild and fast.

For the tranquil sea,

is but a thin gray line,

on a far distant blue horizon.


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