BACK TO NORMAL?

Here you can find my article published in the magazine "SENATE - Magazin für eine weltweite, ökosoziale Marktwirtschaft", issue 1/2020

From Sustainibility to Thrive-Ability - to meaning, joy and fulfillment

An invitation to contemplation

Writing this article has been on my mind for many days. I received an invitation to encourage people to "rebuild".

I can't do that, please forgive me.

When I heard the phrase "line up for reconstruction", images of bombed-out Vienna immediately came to mind - the people, the city in ruins.

The word "come-back" is not right either, as it conjured up in me the vision of an ageing diva, an old actor, performing one more time to be acclaimed one more time, to earn some more money. And something about the audience coming to watch the sad spectacle - a kind of "voyeurism of the last days".

This cannot be the purpose of our current and future work, of a living economy.

No - I want to encourage transformation - renewal.

Courage in French means "courage" - I translate it as "acting from the heart (coeur)". And we have done that in recent weeks. We have acted partly out of fear, but also partly from the heart, when we did not want to simply let the old, vulnerable and fragile people die. They were days of despair, but also days of solidarity and community.

Nothing from the images in the media was as impressive to me as the doctors with their masks, the suffering people "breathing for their lives". Nothing as touching as the people singing together and clapping their hands in thanks and encouragement. Nothing as sad as the escape of the Indian or African people from their emergency accommodation in the mega-cities, where they are used as modern slaves, but also thrown away again.

And nothing as encouraging, as joyful as the clear waters, the clear skies - Venice in blue, the mountains so close - dolphins, foxes, birds that have conquered the sea, highways, empty roads - our "dead habitats".

What have we experienced - learned?
Complete change is possible now - really now!

It was unbelievable to me how seemingly unthinkable decisions were made, such as:

No flights because they are dangerous for people

Virtually no car journeys - for the protection of all (hundreds of thousands die as a result of particulate pollution and accidents)

.restructuring of companies - instead of clothes or lawnmowers or cars, fans and masks are produced

.politicians who decide what is helpful now, regardless of party affiliation - acting together

Social distancing - which often actually meant social rapprochement, a warm look....

Impressive - the people who are otherwise never noticed, seen like garbage collectors, cashiers, people who maintain the electricity-water distribution...the salt of the earth.

Old behavior - Who is to blame? A small relapse

Now - after "the crisis" seems to be halfway over, the stores are opening, the cars are driving...conspiracy theories, search for guilt, accusations are beginning to spread like another pandemic:
"The Chinese are to blame, outbreak of the virus from a laboratory - warfare..."
or "The rich just want to get richer - buy up everything now..."
or "Undermining democracy - everything has long been prepared..."

Some wish all the old and weak people, the refugee people in the camps, the poor people in India had died... "There are too many of us anyway... "Al Gore

(My comment: Really? The mass of ants in this world is as much as the possible mass of 30 billion people!)

And the general call: "Back to normal!" - the "reboot system"... continues to work.

Whatever we may think - what remains effective after the corona crisis - what is the core message?

Vulnerability is the ability to look at the wound - it can only be healed in this way.

It is clear that we are vulnerable - everything seemingly safe and familiar can collapse like a house of cards!

The fact is that the background of the increasing zoonoses (according to scientific teams from Switzerland, Germany...) is as follows:

The destruction of the rainforests for our consumption - palm oil, artichokes, pineapples,...

The reduction of animal biodiversity

The increasing infestation of surviving species (field mice, pangolins...), hence the tendency towards virus mutations

The approach of us humans through mega-cities, settlements in the jungle...

The eating of wild animals (out of poverty, because fishing grounds have been lost... or representation of special wealth - out of a "thrill", something new, special...

So why shouldn't the coronavirus pandemic return? Why not new zoonoses? Why not the next wave in the fall-winter?

And what do we Austrians have to do with it?

We are one of the richest countries in the world and have already reached "Earth Overshoot Day" on April 8 - which means that we have already used up the resources we are entitled to according to our share of the world on April 8.

What is the real crisis behind the coronavirus crisis?

The environmental crisis is the result of a crisis in the human inner world.

The old paradigm of "more (quantity of consumerism), faster (than "the others"), further (than before) does not deliver what it promised.

Even the accumulation of recognition, money, power and success does not seem to be fulfilling.
People's sense of happiness has not increased since around the 1980s - indeed, it has decreased and mental illnesses, physical illnesses, drug and tablet addiction, depression... are increasing on a large scale. The environment is being consistently destroyed.

Permanent stress causes our body's defense systems to break down. Self-optimization" is "ego-optimization", we perish from constant comparison, hate ourselves or egomaniacally cheer ourselves on, depending on "likes" or "dislikes".

Wealth - somehow intangible - becomes super-rich - the poor become super-poor - the world a superlative in abundance and in misery - division and separation, painfully visible in our fellow refugees.

So what have we been looking for - for a long time now? What do solutions look like?

Our old form of economy was and still is to some extent very helpful in ensuring survival.

And - it has reached its limits and cannot ensure a vibrant, joyful life, as we can see in ourselves and the environment. Yes, it can no longer even ensure survival - it endangers it.

Environmental disasters - droughts and floods, fires, hurricanes... are constantly increasing. And when nature dies, we die - because we are nature.

We need new growth that is organized from an inner growth, from becoming truly human, from maturation, knowledge and compassion.

We don't need a paradigm imposed from the outside to which we adhere.
We need an intradigm, something that develops from within - an evolutionary process.

For this we need presence - pausing, researching, recognizing - now.

Presence - Insight - Consciousness - Dialogue - Inter-Intelligence for Integral Solutions:

I quote scientists such as Daniel Kahnemann, Nobel Prize winner in economics, and Otto Scharmer from the Presencing Institute and MIT, who say

Cradle to Cradle movement, initiated by Michael Braungart, Tanja Singer, compassion research at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research, David Bohm, the founder of dialog and many more....

"Presence makes it possible to reflect on old patterns, whether language, thought or behavior patterns, and to let go of the meaningless, the used up - and now untrue.

It is the fertile ground for growing awareness and must - indeed may - be practiced in order to move from stressed re-actions to considered, mature actions.

The result is a growing insight and openness to combine the opinions of others and one's own opinion in dialog, a renunciation of the "ego" for the good of all.

This results in inter-intelligent solutions that are integral, "inclusive". They make sense for all of us and therefore lead to joy in what we do and to fulfillment through what we achieve.

It is no longer enough to reduce our environmental impact a little and celebrate our small reductions in the carbon footprint - although even the smallest success counts.

"It's time to develop a wet footprint where everything is green and flourishing and thriving." (roughly quoted - Michael Braungart)

The incredible and wonderful thing is that we have the knowledge, often even the inventions in our drawers, but often just haven't had the courage to put them into practice: green facades, hydrogen-powered vehicles, cultivation in a circular economy, ...

The argument "What if we then lose the jobs (oil, cars, airplanes...)" seemed convincing to us so far.

And what if we will gain many more jobs by healing ourselves and the environment?

Let's apply the knowledge that is coming and what we have long since found now!

It is time to let the environment and all of us flourish - to let it come alive.
Courage!

Trust is the quietest form of courage.

Thank you for your interest.
Eva Gold