We need to work together to change the underlying stories that have served some of us in ‘the West’ well for the last couple of centuries. These stories have underpinned the growth of European and American power as we used the industrial revolution, colonialism and resource extraction to improve our lifestyles.
But these stories are now leading us towards global catastrophe, by destroying the biosphere that supports us along with all other life, by driving up poverty, famine, war and death.
These simplistic stories that we’ve learned in childhood, adolescence and early working life, have become our mental models of how the world works.
They need to be abandoned and rewritten if we want a chance of bringing about a new way of living that we all long for. This paradigm shift in our consciousness can then allow a paradigm shift in our economics and politics to take place too.
First, there’s a lesson for us from systems thinking, and then I’ll propose what we should do.
The Iceberg Model
Systems thinkers have shown us that a strong lever for undermining the failing structures is to show the falsity of the underlying stories from the conventional wisdom, and to tell new ones fit for the society we wish to build. This learning comes from the Iceberg Model.
Here’s a simple example.
Tip: First, read down the EVENT, PATTERN, STRUCTURE, MENTAL MODELS parts of the picture; then down the questions on the right, and see how they marry up with the iceberg itself. In this diagram the stories we tell ourselves is named MENTAL MODELS.
Failing & false stories
Here’s some of those stories, or mental models:
- Humans are fundamentally selfish and competitive, and that’s because of our DNA.
- Growth is a necessary underpinning of a civilised society.
- We need leaders to unite us and tell us what we should do – otherwise everything gets chaotic.
- We humans aren’t subject to all the laws of ecology – we are distinct from nature – because we have superior powers through our intelligence, rationality and technology.
- Capital and Labour are the only inputs to an economic system – so ignoring that energy and other materials are primary inputs too.
- We live in a well managed world, and we have peace because of the rules-based-international order.
And there’s many more.
So what might we do?
Well, the ongoing genocide in Gaza gives us a clue. It’s a truly revealing event.
We’re horrified by the bombings and mass killings, the plight of people having to move with as many of their possessions on their backs as they can manage, carrying their children, elderly and wounded. And they’re having to do this repeatedly, ending up in tent cities on the beach. Both the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice have decided there’s a case of genocide to be investigated. Yet this horror is supported and encouraged by both United States governing parties, and those of most of the ‘Western’ states too. And the Prime Minister of the UK, once a human rights lawyer, supports it!
A truly revealing event.
We don’t live in a well managed world. And many have come to realise that the idea of the rules-based-international order is a fiction.
Other recent revealing events include the toppling of the Colston Statue into Bristol Docks, and the police killing of many Afro-Americans which led to the BLM movement.
So what should we do?
We should start work thinking of possible future revealing events which might lead to a national, or even global conversation. These events might be the unfolding of history, over which we have little influence; or they might be the result of some kind of newsworthy action. We need collective brainstorming on this.
And at the same time, we need to work up a response for each of the false stories we’ve identified:
- Write about this (future) event, how it’s come about, and what it exposes
- Write a new inspiring story which can become part of the new paradigm
- Learn it and put it in our kitbag
And when the time comes, when a revealing event occurs; share what we’ve learned across all our networks.
Thank you for reading this to the end. Please help by adding new stories to the list. And tell me what you think of this in the comments, and how it could be improved. Bob