6 Questions For Our Social Networked Globe

Paul Hawken asks 6 great questions in his book “Blessed Unrest”.

• “At what point in the future will the existence of 2 million, 3 million, or even 5 million citizen-led organizations shift our awareness to the possibility that we will have fundamentally changed the way human beings govern and organize themselves on earth?
• What are the characteristics of leadership required when power arises instead of descends?
• What would a democracy look like that was not ruled by a dominant minority?
• What would a world feel like that created solutions to our problems from the ground up?
• What if we are entering a transitional phase of human development where what “works” is invisible because most heads are turned to the past?
• What if some very basic values are being reinstilled worldwide and are fostering complex social webs of meaning that represent the future of government?

These are but a few of the questions collectively posed by a movement that has yet to recognize it is a movement.”

He’s coming from his survey of the global and distributed environmental movement and his book is aimed at this diverse audience, but these questions are equally apt for the Gov 2.0/Civic 2.0 movement, or the Placemaking movement in urban planning, or the Ed 2.0 movement in education, etc.

From where I stand his observations three years since publication resonate even stronger.

The sheer size of the current paradigm shift can numb or make us cynical in the face of the parallel massive consolidations of power by those who already have too much. But take time to recognize the size of this massive change, understand this evolution, then get engaged with this world of ours and help figure out how to best live together. Get inspired…