Jeremy Rifkin: Emergence Visionary

 Jeremy Rifkin’s more recent project resulted in the encyclopedic book, “The Empathic Civilization: The Race to Global Consciousness In a World In Crisis.” In this work he places, in the words of one reviewer, empathy in contrast to social entropy with the implicit question as to which will emerge as the dominant theme for the future of human kind. He makes the claim that the rise and expansion of empathy as a shared human experience is a rather recent development in human history, dependent in no small part on the enlarged sense of self that has emerged during the 20^th century due primarily to the expanse of psychology and neuroscience research.

I will explore that possibility in a future blog, but for now I’m interested in recognizing Rifkin’s significant contribution to our understanding of emerging trends. A quick glance at Rifkin’s writing more than suggests the breadth of his interest and explorations:

·          1973, How to Commit Revolution American Style, with John Rossen, Lyle Stuart Inc., ISBN 0-8184-0041-2

·          1975, Common Sense II: The case against corporate tyranny, Bantam Books, OCLC 123151709

·          1977, Own Your Own Job: Economic Democracy for Working Americans, ISBN 978-0-553-10487-5

·          1977, Who Should Play God? The Artificial Creation of Life and What it Means for the Future of the Human, with Ted Howard, Dell Publishing Co., ISBN 0-440-19504-7

·          1978, The North Will Rise Again: Pensions, Politics and Power in the 1980s, with Randy Barber, Beacon Press, ISBN 0-8070-4787-2

·          1979, The Emerging Order: God in the Age of Scarcity, with Ted Howard, Putnam, 

        ISBN 978-0-399-12319-1

·          1980, Entropy: A New World View, with Ted Howard (afterword by Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen), Viking Press, ISBN 0-670-29717-8

·          1983, Algeny: A New Word—A New World, in collaboration with Nicanor Perlas, Viking Press, ISBN 0-670-10885-5

·          1985, Declaration of a Heretic, Routledge & Kegan Paul Books, Ltd, ISBN 0-7102-0709-3

·          1987, Time Wars: The Primary Conflict In Human History, Henry Holt & Co, ISBN 0-8050-0377-0

·          1990, The Green Lifestyle Handbook: 1001 Ways to Heal the Earth (edited by Rifkin), Henry Holt & Co, ISBN 0-8050-1369-5

·          1991, Biosphere Politics: A New Consciousness for a New Century, Crown, ISBN 0-517-57746-1

·          1992, Beyond Beef: The Rise and Fall of the Cattle Culture, E. P. Dutton, ISBN 0-525-93420-0

·          1992, Voting Green: Your Complete Environmental Guide to Making Political Choices In The 90s, with Carol Grunewald Rifkin, Main Street Books, ISBN 0-385-41917-1

·          1995, The End of Work: The Decline of the Global Labor Force and the Dawn of the Post-Market Era, Putnam Publishing Group, ISBN 0-87477-779-8

·          1998, The Biotech Century: Harnessing the Gene and Remaking the World, J P Tarcher, ISBN 0-87477-909-X

·          2000, The Age Of Access: The New Culture of Hypercapitalism, Where All of Life is a Paid-For Experience, Putnam Publishing Group,ISBN 1-58542-018-2

·          2002, The Hydrogen Economy: The Creation of the Worldwide Energy Web and the Redistribution of Power on Earth, Jeremy P. Tarcher,ISBN 1-58542-193-6

·          2004, The European Dream: How Europe's Vision of the Future is Quietly Eclipsing the American Dream, Jeremy P. Tarcher, ISBN 1-58542-345-9

·          2010, The Empathic Civilization: The Race to Global Consciousness In a World In Crisis, Jeremy P. Tarcher, ISBN 1-58542-765-9       (list from Wikopedia; also see his bio in the same article about Rifkin))

His public lectures, which are numerous, are a combination of “Jimmy Swaggart, Phil Donahue and Werner Erhard” according to a 1989 Time Magazine interview.  The article goes on to give a typical opening statement he used in that time (which illustrates his style of presentation):

            The nation's foremost opponent of environmental neglect  (in 1989)  is waving a $20 bill as he      makes a bet. … (he) bets that no one can answer this question: "What value has emerged in the        past 100 years as our most dominant value, a value that is the key to our science?"

                He rarely loses, not because the answer is so obscure but because it's so obvious. At an easel, he             writes his answer, leaving the word to hang like a biohazard warning sign: EFFICIENCY.   "Everything is efficient," he says. "We're so skewed toward efficiency that we've lost our sense of             humanity. What we need to do is to bring back a sense of the sacred."

Another illustration of his creative presentations can be experienced on a recent You Tube program on empathy: http://i3.ytimg.com/vi/l7AWnfFRc7g/3.jpg  (Don't miss this one!)  (There are also a number of other lectures by Rifkin on YouTube.)

That book-list is a quick indication how Rifkin is, for me, one of those visionaries who can see “emergence” in the less obvious – to me at least -- cultural currents of our time. His sometimes audacious comments and robust claims make criticism of his work easier. But his prognosis has sufficient substance and evidence as to make it more than just noticeable.

Take, for example, what he described in his book, “The Biotech Century: Harnessing the Gene and Remaking the World”. In this work he calls for, among other things, a comprehensive ethic which will help guide the rapidly enlarging body of biotechnology. We’ve already failed by and large to have an effective ethic governing our carbon-based economy, one which considers the long-term consequences to our environment and the future of humankind. Even though we are now more aware of these consequences, of what we are doing, very few of us are willing to seriously modify our reliance on cars (transportation of all forms), electrical generation and plastics which carbon/oil provides;  making any substantial public policy changes are rapidly DOA and buried under the fear of economic chaos: witness what continues to happen to the Koyoto Accords. Now Rifkin poses questions about how we will ethically manage the new emerging economy of biotechnology, attempting to sketch what the consequences will be for this new unregulated sector of our economy.

(In case no one has noticed, biotechnology – which includes health care – is now quickly surpassing the carbon-based economy as the driving force of our lives. The so-called health reform debate illustrates how difficult it is to attempt some modicum of restraint on the large sector of our economy.)

A good case in point is stem-cell research. It wasn’t too long ago that researchers proposed that the stem-cells in embryos could be harvested and used to repair various organs and conditions in our bodies. Soon both religious and political prohibitions were established because the process required creating an embryo in a Petri dish in order to harvest the cells. The resulting limits forced researchers to attempt other strategies for harvesting, such as taking cells from a mature body (such as hair fibers) and train the cell to reverse back into the stem-cell stage. The problem so far is the resulting stem-cell is not nearly robust enough to do the healing work anticipated. In the meantime, the ethical repugnance of creating a live embryo and harvesting stem-cells  has been eroding, for the sake of science and the possibility of living longer with healthy organs. Thus we have a conundrum of wanting to be more healthy and developing technologies running at the whim of researchers looking for the next major source of wealth. I’m not – and certainly wouldn’t represent Rifkin as a ludite; however, he does call us to grapple with this emerging economic force.

Now Rifkin poses the critical question which has emerged in  our time: will we transform our civilization  to one founded on empathy for one another and for creation or will we continue to burn up the earth’s resources, drive ourselves into irreversible economic chaos through gargantuan allocations to shore up the national security state, and encourage tribal, ethnic and religious  warfare. It’s a question worth not only pondering, but seriously letting it contend with our current values.

A three-week musing

ISLAND MUSINGS, VOL. X, NO. 1

June 20, 2011 Val and Wally Ford

           

We just finished breakfast, huddled in front of a small electric heater with the floor heaters on, too, watching it rain and blow as the fog lifts. We arrived 3 weeks ago today, and the weather has been cold, cloudy and or rainy, with only one or two sunny days; temperatures have been in the 50s and 60s with lows in the high 40s at night. We sleep under two comforters in our winter pajamas, and the forecast is for more of the same. We have been able to hang out the laundry only one time. So I’m happy to be upstairs at the computer where it is warmer.

Firsts

Each year there are things we look forward to as we approach the Island, and this year, as always, we weren’t disappointed:

The first view of the sea and the red rocks that mark the Island as we limped across the 9 mile bridge on an almost empty tank;

Planting those first seeds and pulling the first weeds;

Seeing our first lupins, lilacs and tulips;

Going to our first community small hall performance;

Reading the June Buzz to find out what there is to do here this summer – always too much for our minds to take in;

Reading the Sat. Globe and Mail and the daily local Guardian both of which give us a respite from the relentless ugly politics in the US and help us locate ourselves as participants in our summer Canadian home;

Our trip to the local market and our first dozen eggs from our friend, Carol; those eggs really do make recipes richer!

Seeing our first red wing blackbird as we take our first walk along the sea, our first heron perched on the sandy beach, and our first American gold finch and purple finch at our newly filled feeders watching them fight and fuss over a full tube of  niger seed;

Sitting down with Mary Oliver and our journals for the first time and beginning our summer of reflections;

And best of all realizing that our pace can now slow to a crawl until harvest.

Gardens:

We were able to get the veggie seeds in about a week after we arrived, and everything has peeked out of the red soil, but they are not growing as fast as usual because of the temperatures and lack of sun. This year we have planted carrots, beets, green beans, romaine lettuce, chard, kale, rhubarb, mesclun, cucumbers, and tatsoi (an oriental mustard green). We have weeded all of the 10 flower gardens as the weather and my back has allowed, so it has gone more slowly and peacefully than usual. I have finally realized the weeds don’t care when they get pulled. It’s a joy to watch the beauty of the flower gardens from the front windows surrounded by the sea and bayberries.

Entertainment

Festival of Small Halls Opening: The Island is dotted with small community halls from one tip to the other, and the Festival is a ten-day event that honors these rural halls with evenings of music, storytelling and dance. This year there are 33 events with performers from away (Nova Scotia, Ireland, Quebec, US) as well as PEI, and it showcases some of the best fiddlers in the world. The opening event was sold out and included performances by Richard Wood whom we go to hear each year and who makes the fiddle strings dance; Le Vent du Nord, a group from Quebec that plays classical Acadian music featuring the hurdy curdy, the accordion, fiddle, and guitar; Irish Mythen, a marvelous lesbian singer, and Meaghan Blanchard, a country western singer plus 3 story tellers and three step dancers from the College of Piping. It was a 3 ½ hour evening and took our breaths away.

The Full Monty: We were amazed that such a raunchy musical could be performed to sold out crowds on PEI – and it was a wonderful show. The Guardian had several articles about how the director had to work with the men to deal with their hesitancy about removing their clothes. While the full monty at the end was blocked from view by strong lighting, the men did appear in red g strings, and we certainly experienced their courage – especially the very heavy set man whose g string hardly showed as his belly covered it. I loved the show because through music and drama it deals with sexism, classism, racism, and homophobia. Our uptight Presbyterian neighbor, who went with us, was offended by the language and the inclusion of two gay men who fall in love and oh, my gosh, hold hands! So I guess it worked.

Books and Movies that we recommend:

The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar (set in modern day India with two amazing women at its center)

Suddenly and then because I liked the author so much A Good House by Bonnie Burnard (a Canadian author who won the Giller Prize)

The Room by Irish writer, Emma Donoghue, who now resides in Ontario

That Old Cape Magic by Richard Russo, a Pulitzer Prize winner and one of our favorite authors

And movies include: Mao’s Last Dancer (absolutely breathtaking); Blue Valentine, Made in Dugenham (set in London in the 60s about a strike at Ford by women – a sheer delight); Welcome to the Rileys;

Wolf Hall  by Hilary Mantel (set in England in the 1520s following the steps of Thomas Cromwell).

From Our Journals (Val)

Sitting in my chair                                              Wanting nourishment

With gratitude and delight                                  Earth fed by rain opens up

Aging like the trees                                           I dance in the mud

News and Views

The daily Guardian is the primary provincial newspaper. As such, it carries stories that are quite local in importance (.e.g., a recent front-page article outlined the 30 minute traffic delay caused by a fender-bender auto accident on the bridge coming into Charlottetown) although the one page ‘world-news section’ does give us a flavor of what’s happening globally. Interestingly, a recent ¾ page article carried the headline “New Mexico Fires Smother State in Smoke.” The Globe and Mail Saturday edition fills in global news, the arts and book reviews, in-depth reporting (such as gang-life on the Rez) while offering a range of opinion pieces. We spend most of Saturday afternoon and evening perusing it.

Sticker Shock

This is the first year in our sojourns that the exchange rate has turned against us as US  citizens. The lower dollar value plus bank transfer fees takes about $.05 out of each US dollar. Gas prices continue to be much higher here, about $5 a gallon, and our first trip to the grocery store reminded us of the higher costs for food.  All of which is a good exercise in remembering the importance of frugality, reducing tendencies to frivolous purchases. Taxes run about 15% on purchases – although a little less that ½ of that is for the universal health plan – so no complaints.

Our Karma?

Before we left Albuquerque, we spent some attention attempting to rid our patio of squirrels (not that we dislike the little beggars; its just they nibble away at fresh  plants); we successfully trapped and relocated 2 of them. After about a week here, having set out our bird feeders, low and behold one shows up. They are known to be destructive if they nest in a house (as one neighbor recently found out). So I got out our ‘coon’ trap and relocated our visitor. Only to have 2 more – probably juveniles – show up. They too have been relocated into the woods.

Harvesting

Last Wednesday we had our first low tide, so out I went to do some claming; found enough for our first batch of clam chowder. Had planned to go in Saturday as well (the best low tides are around full-moon and new-moon). But the persistent wind and rain prevented that. So now must wait until new moon.

From My Journal (WF)

Tidal time not only encourages a slower pace, but also patience. As Lao Tzu teaches: Do you have the patience to wait until the mud settles?” Rilke: “Have patience with everything that remains unsolved in your heart….Try to love the questions themselves, like a book written in a foreign tongue which one day you will learn.”

            Shouldn’t trees be doing more than just standing there

            adding another dark ring celebrating a successful rotation

            around the sun?

           

            Shouldn’t dandelions be doing more that just

            growing their roots deeper,

            popping up stems with yellow flowers

            camouflaging the next population explosion

            parachuting a 1000 progeny all around?

            Doesn’t the ocean have more to do than lick away

            at my shore, taking it away grain by grain,

            then heaping them somewhere

            giving clams a free home?

            And none of these spend much time with

            “if only’s” and “what if’s”.

And this prayer offered one day in a funk:

            Spirit, dance me into the center again.

            Lift this grey cloud,

            Or at least let it become rain

            For some new seeds trying to germinate

            An enthusiasm for the day.

             

What's in a name?

A brief side-trip: how I came to name this blog: emergence. It’s not so much a novel idea. In fact, a quick perusal of some recent book titles indicates how wide-spread the idea is:

• Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software , Steven Johnson, 2002.
• Emergence: Contemporary Readings in Philosophy and Science, Bedau and Humphreys, 2008
• Emergence: The Shift from Ego to Essence, Barbara Hubbard, 2001
• Emergence: From Chaos to Order, John Holland, 1999.
• Emergence, David Palmer, 1985
• Engaging emergence: Turning Upheaval Into Opportunity, Peggy Holman, 2010
• The Emergence of Everything: How the World Became Complex, Harold Morowitz, 2004
• The Architecture of Emergence: the Evolution of Form in Nature and Civilization, Michael Weinstock, 2010
• The Re-emergence of Emergence: the Emergentist Hypothesis from Science to Religion,  Clayton and Davies, 2008
• (I myself have written an extended essay on emergence as the spiritual and moral foundation of human relationships)

What I have found to be a common theme in these explorations, is how conflict, collapse, deterioration, disorder, chaos, are not necessarily negative. In fact, emergence signals rebirth, regeneration, revival, reconnecting, rebuilding – all a part of the creative enterprise. As a mediator, for example, I can attend to the conflict which two persons may have with each other not as a problem to be solved, or reestablishing order, but the creating of a new relationship narrative, a new horizon of possibility.

While most political and religious institutions detest chaos and conflict, there are spiritual traditions which not only embrace such events but recognize the potential for new life, new beginnings in such situations. For example, Taoism affirms that it is out of chaos in which the new is created. The creation story in Genesis 1 is an affirmation of the creative power of chaos out of which comes the unfolding of life itself.

In the list above, Peggy Holman looks specifically at organizations and systems which are moving into a state of decline, even chaos and identifies key methods by which the new can be created, quickly or incrementally revive, restructure, redesign, rebuild that which is ‘falling apart’.

The recent experience of Egypt is another example of emergence, where the old order was seen truthfully for its incapacity to maintain the well-being of the citizens and out of the chaos is beginning to emerge new possibilities, all in spite of the futile attempts of the old order to maintain the status quo.

The emerging church movement is yet another example of those who have gathered around the evidence of the institutional churches growing incapacities to be relevant and are exercising creative options for new forms and ways of being church.

On a personal level, -- and here is where the theme fits in for me – emergence points to new perspectives that shift the landscape in which I find myself. The old voices and values keep tugging at my imagination. Yet, I sense a chaotic disentangling also taking place. Peeking into that vista awakens the possibility for creative discoveries.

Part of making all this more public is the possibility of sharing a larger conversation with you, one that generates a creative engagement with what is ‘emerging’.

Awakening a 2nd time while walking along the shore:

Green and sea great me

“Where have you been all night long?”

“Dreaming paradise.”

Eliminating Horse Races

At a dinner gathering earlier this week, the conversational theme turned, as it often does here, to politics. Canadians we know tend to be astonished at our political machinations, although continually curious out of a recognition that they well-being of Canada relies so dominantly on the US – although interestingly enough China is very close to having the same sphere of influence these days.

The conversation turned specifically into variously shared dissatisfactions with the representative form of government practiced here, especially how patronage is so blatantly practiced – the condition of the road passing through one’s own ‘riding’ (the term used for our electoral districts – depends on how many people voted for the person representing that riding in the provincial Assembly and who live on that section of the road. (all of this is our equivalent of the “pork” garnered by a particular senator or representative.)

This dissatisfaction is finding expression in a growing support for changing the electoral process from “first across the line” wins the seat (riding/district) to proportional representation. The advantage, they say, is that by having a slate of candidates listed under the banner of a particular party, then the party’s platform becomes the deciding matter, not just which candidate achieves sufficient popularity as to win the election. It also, they claim, can provide for more equitable representation, as a party can create their candidates’ list to reflect gender, ethnic, economic balance. But the primary strength is that a slate representing a particular platform is given to the voters to decide.  After the election, each party selects the number of candidates in proportion to the percentage of votes they received. It’s the party that continues to be held accountable to the citizens and can be more easily replaced.

Additionally, they claim, the cost of elections can be greatly reduced. Individual candidates, in ‘first across the line” must raise a considerable amount of money personally in order to be elected and then re-elected. In the PR (proportional representation) system, the party is responsible for funding their campaign. They also claim this reduces the influence of special interests, who usually come into a candidate’s back-door through campaign contributions.

In almost all instances of PR form of elections – and there are far more countries using this method than I at first realized (New Zealand is one which relatively recently went to the PR system) – the governments formed are “minority” governments in which the parties must work together to develop coalitions and compromise, resulting in a plurality of perspectives rather than just one dominant power base.

Would such a system work in the US? It’s hard to imagine we could make the shift; it probably would take a major collapse of our electoral system for that to happen.  But it’s interesting to contemplate given the rancor and obscene expense of conducting elections in the US, the power of special interest groups, the incapacity we have to regulate campaign finances and the rise of the political class of professional politicians, who primary question seems to be: how can I get re-elected.

And on the 7th day…..

The Island is wanting its way with me, and I am about ready to succumb. Our bags are unpacked, stored stuff brought out and activated, the garden prepped and planted, our first dinner guests served, and first week is almost over.

The relatively slow traverse over the North American continent to reach this place – 3000 miles – doesn’t immediately release me from the grip of the desert, the variety of landscape and human habitations we traveled through not withstanding. My inner landscape still carries the images of the vast llano, the sculpted mountains still trumpeting their ancient thrusts out of the deeper terrains, the sleeping volcanoes nestled among their own long finger beds of lava, the ragged edges of the great Colorado Plateau with its cliffs and outcroppings, and the slender threads of streams giving now only hints of the melted snows, all bathed in constant sunshine and winds.

The Island’s first declaration is “you are boundaried”. It comes first in the conversation between sea and land, one that has been has been going on a long time, since the retreat of the last great Ice Age, 15,000 years ago, began a conversation that comes sometimes in the slow pulsing of comfortable chit-chat, sometimes the intense power of chaotic conflict. The ebb and flow of the tides mark each day twice while the moon’s phases determining how far in and out the tide will go. Boundary, tide-time and ebb-flows are once again becoming essential vocabulary in my metaphorical lexicon.

The next declaration is “Welcome home”. That greeting is offered not just by “the Island” but by everyone around us who are not ‘from away” (another distinction the boundaries create). When first we meet again, after inquiries about the weather, the greeting is offered, “When did you get back home?”

And it is home, in a way. My ancestors arrived here in 1827, coming from Appledorf or Ashreigney or Bidford, in Devon County, western England. I’m not certain which village as records for peasants are not all that clear. Even though families in that area trace their lineage back into the time when Bideford was a Celtic settlement, there is no clear paper trail for the Fords. In fact, the origin of our name is Celtic: “port”. We were people from “the port” (Bideford); that’s the full accounting of our worth back then.

King George III had gotten this Island which the original people, the Micmaqs, called Epekwitk ( meaning "resting on the waves") from the French (who named this 104th largest island in the world – although they didn’t know it at the time – Ile de St. Jean). After expulsing the French (in a tragic manner) he had it surveyed into 64 parcels which were then sold off to English noblemen and rich merchants who in turn could use the allotment for their own personal income source. He also changed the name to Prince Edward (who later was the father of Victoria). Many of the lot owners in turn recruited sharecroppers to come and clear 50 acres of land in turn for having a farming site of their own. In 1827 George Ford accepted the offer, came to the Island, cleared 50 acres of land in the township of Ebenezer and had at last “a home”.

This development phase, unfortunately, almost denuded the Island of its original forest as most of the limber was shipped back to England, which was already bereft of building supplies. But it also resulted in establishing the primary economic base of the Island: farming. By 1850 the sharecroppers wanted the right to ownership, and a series of minor revolts took place, eventuating in the English Para lament, granting the right to the farmers to actually own their property.

The Island is extraordinarily fertile. It evolved originally from fresh water streams dumping silt and debris off the continental shelf between 250 and 300 million years ago into what is now the Gulf of St. Lawrence. With the last Ice Age, a deep gouge was formed between the ‘debris’ and the continent. By this time the ‘debris’ was mostly sandstone or mudstone with heavy concentrations of iron oxides creating the predominantly reddish brown sandy and clay soils. As ocean levels rose with the melting of the glaciers, and as the land rebounded, the crescent shape of the Island emerged about 5000 years ago. (Check your Google maps to see what it looks like today).

That is the Island’s 3rd declaration: “Not the biggest island by any means, but if you accept the boundaries of sea and weather, there is a carved-out place here for you, where you can grow and flourish; you can have a name here.” That may be what a homeland is all about.

Yesterday after planting our veggie garden, my muse spoke this haiku to me:

Finger presses seed

Into soil womb, lingers

Forming birth prayers