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In a World Full of Challenges New (L)earning Objectives Need to Be Introduced
5th World Congress of Education
November 15 - 17, 2023, Sapporo - Japan
Jean-Paul Close
Ideological founder of Sustainocracy
Eindhoven, the Netherlands
Abstract
We tend to take our condition as human beings for granted. After all, we are born as
such and develop ourselves within the guidance offered by our parents, society and
the education we receive, organized contextually by our human surroundings. We
hardly question the nature of our existence or the complexity of our self aware
presence. We learn to behave and develop ourselves in a politically and financially
driven reality which we refer to as “the system” (fig 1). We made ourselves integrally
dependent on this system which has a particular way of functioning.
Fig 1: We (human beings) are not simply a puppet in a financially dominated system.
We are also and natural ecosystem in an living ecosystem
We may never even consider this functioning within the limitations of a small planet
traveling through space or our reliance on nature as the source of our existence. We
react to the consequences that nature presents to us in terms of shortages, climate
change, pollution related sickness, etc. In our current era, we are painfully becoming
aware of our condition as the sixth cause of mass destruction of life ever since the
birth of this planet. The previous five global disasters were never attributed to an
intelligent, creative and self aware species. They were produced by volcano
eruptions and meteorite strikes.This implies that we need to seriously revise what we
are and how we interact with each other and our planetary environment, people and
institutions alike, in order to avoid further elimination of life, including eventually our
own. The best place to start is by including natural human centered learning
dynamics in our educational environments. However, the teaching infrastructure is
financed by “the system”, according to system objectives. This tends to interpret the
human being in functional terms, not existentialist.
Instead of developing a new educational institution STIR introduces a new
overarching mindset based on the essential natural values of our human existence.
With this mindset, together with the message of a shared responsibility, we invite the
world of education to enter into a cooperative structure with us.
Fig 2: Learning about the integral perspective of being human
Sustainocracy
This article introduces Sustainocracy. The condition of a self destructive parasite on
Earth does not fit our intellectual profile. Our evolutionary wisdom and awareness is
gradually showing us the essential and natural values that are representative to
assure our sustainable, long term perspectives. Over four billion years of a living
environment around us teach us such lessons, as long as we are willing to have a
look and identify ourselves with this learning. These values are not financial, nor
tradable commodities in a financial world or hierarchy. They are natural essentials
that we share with all living beings. This also translates into new phases in our
learning objectives, organizational dynamics, priorities and applied societal methods
for all our current and upcoming generations.
What are we?
The unique and dominant abilities of the human being, compared to other living
species, has brought us severe confusion of what we really are, ever since we
learned how to use them to our benefit. Without the presence of a natural mature
role model to refer to we needed to figure out our own reality through trial and error.
It is quite normal that we, at an early age of our existence, attributed our fears and
blessings to higher powers in nature and the universe. We gave them human
behavioral characteristics such as creative power, anger, jealousy, care, greed,
judgment, guilt, happiness, etc. Over time more rational explanations appeared,
suggesting evolutionary steps that mentally and physically took us away from
common biological ancestors. Other suggestions, within this same confusion about
our origins, include the arrival of an extraterrestrial species, or stardust, in search for
a new habitat. The commonality in all these suggestions is the miraculous,
unprecedented and often inexplicable capabilities of the human being in a habitat
without any natural predators, other than our competitive selves. These unique
superpowers got us to gradually claim ownership over our surroundings, using it out
of our self interest, defending it against others or fighting for desired takeovers.
Certain scripts, that were classified as holy, were conveniently interpreted as
justification of such claims by suggesting that humankind, or certain elites in its
representation, was given stewardship over Earth’s resources by those higher
powers.
Fig 3: Human evolution
We learned to use fire to our benefit, and developed technologies for our wellness
and to do warfare. We gradually invented our own political and financial ecosystem,
with its related arrogance, hierarchies, ownership claims, manipulation, extraction
and the commercialization of the Earth's resources. Whenever desired, and out of
self interest, interregional territorial conflicts arose including use and (mis)use of
human resources, with a total disrespect of the miracle of life that these resources
represent. Our scientific knowledge developed further through our industrial
processes for mass production and miniaturization, the logistics of goods and
people, while developing education to support the development of these activities.
Healthcare was deployed to remediate the related health consequences and sustain
productivity. Expensive layers of regulations and bureaucracies tried to place some
limitations to the negative environmental impact while maintaining functional controls
and support over people and structures for the benefit of the system itself. And each
of these areas of attention developed their own silo of hierarchical and financial
interests.
In more recent times we have become aware of the limitations of our planetary
resources. Also the delicate balance of the living ecosystem, that we have been
manipulating and influencing with our behavior, became evident. Within the lifetime
of my own generation (1950´s till now), the human population on Earth has tripled,
reaching an unprecedented size of about eight billion souls. As we sustain an
unlimited consumerist and competitive lifestyle, that has passed its existential
threshold already in the 60´s of the last century, we are overshooting every year the
limitations of available and regenerative resources provided by our environment. It
sparked the discussion about “sustainability” in the 70’s (The Limits to Growth, Club
of Rome, 19721) and the meaning of it. It also sparked the tendency to develop
diplomacy over warfare, in a new phase of our peace desired self domestication as a
species. Gradually we are outgrowing our thousands of years of violent
confrontations caused by our competitive quest for ownership, control and growth. A
new era emerges on the horizon, an era that needs to be filled in with new
behavioral norms, ethics and habits. An era that deepens our understanding of the
meaning of life itself, our own complex reality as an unique manifestation of such life
and the imperative need to harmonize our existence with ourselves and our natural
environment.
Sustainocracy became a first attempt to evolve society into a reality centered
around sustainable human development, including the powerful and symbiotic
harmonization with our natural environment. It developed ideologically and
embryonically at first in 1996. Experimentation with the intentions brought
important milestones until the announcement of the Society of Tomorrow initiative
(STIR Foundation, feb 2009), just after the financial crisis of 2008. Sustainocracy
(Sustainable human development and a real time democracy of shared
responsibilities) was published in the Netherlands in Dutch for the first time in 2012
to distinguish itself from the existing narratives. Ever since it has seen the growing
1https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Club_of_Rome
engagement of numerous partners within all the silos of society, not only in the
Netherlands but also elsewhere.
The essential values for our existence
Whatever the origins of the human presence on Earth, we do have certain things in
common with all the other living organisms on this planet. We all use the same
molecules that are available around us to manifest the diversity of lifeforms, including
our own. My good friend, the late Prof. Dr. Paul de Blot JS, Jesuit and professor in
business spirituality at Nyenrode Business University in the Netherlands, once asked
his audience a challenging question. He pointed at a bird in the sky and asked: “Why
do all those molecules that shape that bird stick together?”. He openly wondered
how these molecules would not dissolve in the rain or melt in hot weather? That type
of fragility is what molecules show when they are not powerfully interconnected
through the force of life. When the bird dies, this magical adhesive, this molecular
bonding force, disappears and the bird disintegrates back into its surroundings. We
can equally apply this to ourselves. It makes us reflect into more depth about what
we are and what this magical and powerful energy is that keeps us together as a
living entity. It also may give us a glimpse at the miraculous uniqueness of each of us
as individuals. At a larger scale this force of life can also apply to human
communities, under the right circumstances.
Apart from reflecting about the possible answers to these questions it is already a
mind blowing experience for many to become aware of our physical, molecular and
energetic existence. A reality that we respectfully share with all other living species
around us. We all together form a sustainable, evolving ecosystem that has been
present already for billions of years. We human beings appeared in this ecosystem
only a few million years ago. We can even go a step further and show that our
individual physical presence is not a single entity. Each of us humans represents a
delicate and complex ecosystem of its own in which billions of microscopic species
connect and interact in a mutually symbiotic way. We start realizing that our inner
world is as complex as our outer world, and its existence is mutually dependent. Why
then would we manipulate, destroy or pollute it? Doesn’t it become clear that by
doing so we equally manipulate, destroy and pollute our own selves? This shows us
that our own sustainable existence during our lifetime, and for the long term through
our children and the children of our children, is very much related to the sense of
responsibility we show to care for ourselves by caring for the environment.
Once we begin to understand the genuine nature of our existence, we start to
respect certain things that before would not have captured our attention. We also
stop taking certain things blindly for granted and pay more attention to the essential
values of our existence. After all, what is more precious than that? Personally I only
became aware of what such essentials could be when life's circumstances brought
me into a situation of single fatherhood. I realized that we have a natural tendency to
protect and guide our children with the help of our understanding of certain key
values. Before my condition of fatherhood, my life had been of a highly educated,
international executive in several multinational companies, resident and active in
various countries. Those key essentials of our existence had never been explicitly
put in the forefront of my attention. I simply was blind to them, just like nearly
everyone else. High school diplomas and several university degrees had covered
many cognitive subjects, preparing me for an intelligent and productive life or career
in a finance driven and dependent world. Never any attention was paid to our
existence and resilience as a species, not at home, not at school nor as part of the
religious catholic beliefs that were passed on in my family. Only as a father did I
gradually come across viewpoints that never seemed to have been important
enough to be included in my training. I could not blame my uneducated blindness for
being so irresponsible in many real human based issues. I could however blame
myself if I would not adjust my behavior using my awareness breakthroughs.
Why, as a society, would we prioritize other things than our own sustainable
development as a species? Are we so fixated within our own social-political-financial
structures and agendas that we are totally blind of our dependence on our natural
environment? If we carefully look at the way we structure our modern societies and
the way we educate ourselves, we can easily see how much we have eliminated
nature from our lives. We have created a mechanical reality around us and we act in
it as if we were robots. In a way we are even expected to behave that way. The
awareness breakthrough of us being a unique expression of nature itself is an “I am”
revelation that goes beyond our molecular composition or the understanding of the
complexity of our own individual natural ecosystem. No wonder that our societies
have entered into a state that is known these days as the “anthropocene” (National
Geographic: Anthropocene, 2022)2. This refers to the significant, lasting and
destructive impact our human presence and activities have on Earth’s geography
and ecosystems. If we are keeping ourselves ignorant about our own life essentials
and related responsibilities, we are bound to go from crisis into crisis all the time.
This is a serious contradiction to our condition as a self aware, intelligent and
creative species.
It is never too late to actually develop this understanding and act as a consequence.
After all, who could be against our sustainable resilience as a human species? This
can be interpreted as a cynical question in view of the huge material interests that
have developed over time among the globalized human structures, hierarchies and
power plays worldwide. On the other hand, when I became aware and started acting
as a consequence, I did gradually find support, even at institutional levels of society.
Analyzing, listening, inviting to participate, and publishing3about our core essential
values for our sustainable existence as a species, did have its impact. So what are
3https://sustainocracy.blog/publications/
2https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/anthropocene/
those core values that I am referring to? When reaching back to my condition as a
single father, most parents around the world will recognize those values as ones they
tend to apply in their own family lives.
Our main concerns towards our offspring tend to be their health and safety. We
generally take responsibility together as parents. We also care for their learning
process as they grow up and teach them how to fulfill their basic daily needs. It is
our natural instinct that carries these values as a shared responsibility. We also
defend those values towards and with others whenever we believe this is
necessary.
(The essential values are underlined).
Fig 4: The five essential natural human values defined in Sustainocracy as a shared
human and institutional responsibility
Why then have we deviated from those essential values as a society? Why do we
allow unhealthy and unsafe practices if they are only justified by financial gain? It is
even becoming evident that the financial pressure placed on parents, as only means
to have access to their basic needs, has created broken families, traumatized
children in the upgrowing phases, developed into burnouts and enormous levels of
unbalance, even lack or deterioration of health in society. STIR became seriously
aware of this when we started our local COS3i (Social inclusion and innovation)
initiative. This was a response to the AiREAS (air quality and health) initiative, also
STIR, in which research among citizens (s.a. The backpack project)4showed that at
least 50% of our exposure to unhealthy air pollution was caused by ourselves. This
was later confirmed by the sniffer citizen science project in Belgium. Instead of
moralizing about bad polluting behavior we decided to start COS3i to positively try to
engage the population into developing their own health proactively. This is of course
broader than just air quality hence we decided to introduce a new name. In the
process of developing CO3Si5we came across a severely damaged population.
Attending integral and positive health required healing attention first.
People, in the traditional society, develop behavioral problems, receive therapy or
expensive healthcare, while pressure remains exerted to perform. Pressure to
sustain a system that increasingly creates more social separation, health and
environmental problems than benefits. Meanwhile many people are demanding
space, away from this forced dependence, to develop themselves in a different and
more resilient way, physically, emotionally and spiritually. The overarching system
tends to react with the introduction of limitations, controls, impediments,
bureaucracy, new rules and increased financial pressure (inflation). Sometimes
aggression against their own population is applied in a painful attempt to sustain
hierarchical self interests. These are all natural signs of the eminent changes that
are occurring in the twilight years, decades or centuries of societal transformations
full of tensions. Ethical breakthroughs are to be expected.
5
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/365605330_COS3i_social_inclusion_into_our_core_human_
values
4https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309370222_The_Backpack_Project
Fig 5: The Anthropocene presents itself as points of potential collapse
Working with Sustainocracy
One of the main problems of an established, interests driven, overall mainstream
reality is that it does not let itself be convinced to change, unless maybe hit by
tragedy. Many people, NGO´s and organized gatherings already were strongly
criticizing “the system”, often with street demonstrations, lawsuits, supporting political
parties with harsh promises and other measures. This is all legitimate and over time
we have seen that such actions can be successful, often at the expense of a war and
a lot of suffering first. It forced “the system” to bend and accept some of the
complaints, making adjustments to its functioning for the benefit of certain groups of
people. Like this we have seen a number of social securities and human rights
appear. Think of voting rights for women, emancipation, etc. Although these
measures satisfied the general public, it made “the system” more demanding, more
expensive and people more dependent.
Sustainocracy was introduced as a mindset of shared responsibilities. It applied not
only to “the system” but also to the citizens. In fact, it addressed the citizens first
because as such we are the living representatives of the (biological) human being.
The essential and existential values of our existence affect us first. Institutions may
have their legally registered identities like people, their foundational DNA is based on
the functional, competitive financial surroundings in which they were set up. They do
not represent the human being, they tend to represent their self interest, using the
human beings where necessary. We are the workforce, consumers, political voters,
“the market”, etc. The majority of people are so used to this, that it is very difficult to
change.
This does not mean that participating in Sustainocracy is out of reach of the
institutions, on the contrary. Many institutions, that have their own values driven
authenticity in the competitive political and financial world, learn to see great
advantages in participating. Institutions are not stupid. After all, they consist of
people that define their functioning. They see the overarching problems ahead but
tend to have no means or power to initiate a new model all by themselves. When
they are invited to participate many of them are grateful for the opportunity, even if
this means the need for sincere self reflection of their own identity and the
re-evaluation of their contributions to this values driven environment. They see
unprecedented opportunities arise that stimulate their leadership, seeing a new world
emerge full of possibilities with little to no competition. Only institutions that are in
survival mode have no time to develop moral justifications for engagement. They are
just focused on short term income, no matter what. Similarly, certain organizations
that were born and had grown in times of abuse of our planetary material resources,
have their DNA so firmly attached to their disastrous functioning, that it seems only
possible to slow them down or stop them if a world crisis occurs. Or when the
Sustainocratic alternative evolves in such a way that their presence is gradually
eliminated from the societal equations in a natural way. This shows the diversity of
situations that we can see in the panorama that displays itself in front of us. People
in leadership positions in politics, science and business are all human beings. They
run the same risks at a personal level as anyone else. They also have families to
take care of. So when they are made aware of the need to care, they are confronted
with a moral choice. They either do their best to act, or they don’t and accept the fact
that they can be blamed for it. When there was no choice, there could be no blame,
only maybe the recognition of their professional blindness. After all, seeing our reality
as a financial cost is also a way to feel responsible and care. Now we become aware
that it also blindfolds us to a much larger reality and makes us vulnerable. Knowing
this we can learn to see finance as a means and develop other ways and objectives
than financial goals. The existential essentials and shared responsibility presented
by Sustainocracy help to do this.
So Sustainocracy was introduced into institutions at human level, which is where it is
most effective from an awareness and engagement point of view. As human beings
we are all equal. Subsequently one can look at the diversity of functions that people
occupy to see how they can integrate the newly developed awareness into their
activities. Another aspect of Sustainocracy was that the essential values were
presented as a shared responsibility of everyone, not just of political or financial
leaders. This meant that these leaders could safely integrate the values into their
functions and decision making, especially since these values started to resonate with
the rest of their surroundings, including the local citizens, customers, voters and
personnel.
Sustainocracy was not presented as yet another political party, a separate institution,
a business, or anything like that. It was suggested as a common mindset switch, a
necessary step in human, institutional and societal evolution, away from financial
steering and dependence and into structured human natural values defense,
recovery and sustainable maintenance. It is a step that is done by everyone together,
citizens and institutions alike.
Level 4 regional development
Key in the evolutionary path is the aspect of “respect for the existing structures” in
society. We cannot deny that our economic development has brought a lot of good
over the centuries. We cannot blame any of the leadership archetypes of the existing
society directly or individually for the destruction that is taking place. The
anthropocene has been provoked collectively and we are all involved. These
executives have developed their professional excellence within a functional context
of financial growth that has guided their actions. Financial profitability and growth has
been the name of the game on which the entire societal normative has been based
for a long time. This material growth desire was originally created by warfare,
expressed in gold to be made available to military forces. This model was extended
into entrepreneurial services and products with three different scenarios. The first
was based on speculation with shortages. The second was based on planned
creative and productive processes for the delivery of products and services in
increased volume. Thirdly there was the development of a remedial regulation and
care system. In the 70’s the financial needs for the societal care and bureaucracy
were getting so high that the gold backing of currencies was abandoned. Financial
speculation around fear and shortages and debt development started to become the
mainstream of financial markets, hierarchies and controls.
If today we divide the available money with the human population worldwide, we
would make every human being in the world a millionaire. This shows that financial
poverty in theory does not exist. What does exist is a financial dominance that is
hungry for more at the expense of our planet and our fellow human beings. The
related societal responsibilities, regional development, social securities, citizen
engagement through labor, the worldwide shortages of natural resources, etc have
created points of stress for all layers of society. The financial crisis in 2008 surprised
the world that was still in the firm belief that everything could be solved through
money. It opened the minds and doors for new ways of thinking. One of the
understandings that developed was that:
“Poverty is not the lack of financial means, it is the inability to be self-sufficient in
the provision of one’s basic needs.” The biggest (actual, moral and ethical) poverty
worldwide is the forced dependence generated by the hierarchies of the financial
world, no matter how rich they tend to present themselves”.
If we need to blame anything then it is this overarching context that needs to be
addressed. If this overarching mindset is altered, then the same participating
players transform their effectiveness within the new criteria. Since the positive
invitation of Sustainocracy started in 2009 as “City of Tomorrow”, to participate in
values driven cooperatives of such shared responsibilities, we have seen the gradual
transformation of such institutions. They are still finance driven but place their
activities in context of human, societal and environmental benefits. Money is just one
of the many means. Positive engagement, creativity, insights, awareness, teamspirit,
open communication, co-creation, are often more important than just money. This
type of values driven entrepreneurship, that also involves local governments, is
referred to as 4 x WIN (Entrepreneurship of the 21st century, Researchgate, 2022)6.
In the venn-diagram below (fig 4) we see how the different stakeholder silos
converge in the shared responsibility of co-creating and maintaining a healthy,
unpolluted environment, referred to as the AiREAS (AiREAS, Sustainocracy for a
Healthy City, Springer, 2016)7context.
Fig 6: Converging silos around our shared responsibility for natural human essentials
7https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-319-26940-5
6https://www.researchgate.net/publication/364311933_Entrepreneurship_of_the_21st_century
The new layer of societal development, referred to as level 4 awareness driven
shared responsibilities (see fig 7), is made partly possible with the level 3 SMART
city approach. The technology driven SMART environment has filled the location with
measurement techniques that help visualize the invisible of the dynamics of a
society. We can now see how traffic moves and impacts on the environment, we see
what the invisible air pollution does, how people cluster around specific areas, etc. If
placed within the context of for instance “integral health” then it becomes clear what
adjustments need to be made. But these adjustments need the involvement of the
citizens that will be confronted with changes in their habits, lifestyle and
conservative, behavioral comfort zones. In order to do this a shared responsibility
approach shows to be more effective than a top down imposition.
Introducing level 4 in a community has an impact on everyone involved. It involves
all leadership archetypes, their mission and interrelationships. It tends to strengthen
their individual authenticity within the ecosystem which develops into lasting respect
and cooperation. It also affects the underlying levels, as the transformation will put
demand on the technologies used and the way the basic and integrated
infrastructures need to be modified to accommodate the new dynamics within the
region.
Fig 7: The layer of shared responsibility
A new overarching learning environment and reward system
As Sustainocracy and its sense of shared responsibility evolved, it equally developed
the shared learning environment referred to as the essential value of “awareness”.
City of Tomorrow had started experimenting with awareness based evening lectures.
They were offered free of change and attracted self aware people from all layers of
the traditional society. Gradually university based PhD students became interested in
taking the ideology, and its spinoffs, along in their research. Some of the topics that
came across were:
● Business and Spirituality, the Sustainocratic way (Nyenrode Business
University)
● The human right to develop our own insights of environmental hazards
(University of Law, Tilburg)
● Playful systems for societal engagement in transformations (Technical
University of Eindhoven)
● Measurement systems for exposure to air pollution (University of Utrecht)
● The instant effect of air pollution on school going children with respiratory
problems (University of Twente)
● The water effectiveness of aquaponics (Avans high school)
● etc
Most of the topics were still very much related to environmental issues and
connected strongly with the working of AiREAS. Within the City of Tomorrow other
initiatives were born too, within the same field of shared responsibility but prioritizing
other combinations of the essential values. These clustered many citizens, NGOs,
new age 4 x WIN (or at least multiple WIN) small and medium enterprises and
science, with education to a minor extent. This was mainly because of the large
institutional interests that still developed around societal dependence and financial
speculation, rather than supporting the organization of social cohesion (COS3i,
community for social inclusion, Researchgate, 2022)8and regional self sufficiency in
fulfillment of basic needs (FRE2SH experience, 10 years of experimentation,
Researchgate 2022)9. It was only a matter of time to see changes here too.
Gradually secondary schools started to open up to participate in activities related to
the AiREAS approach. We called the learning environment “participatory learning”. It
had a great impact on the pupils. They developed high levels of interest in all their
learning dynamics, including the cognitive offerings of the school. This was because
the essentials presented to them made everything relevant within the challenges
9
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/365579156_FRE2SH_experiences_Ten_years_of_open_ex
perimentation_with_the_development_of_regional_regenerative_food_engagement_and_self_sufficie
ncy
8
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/365605345_Social_inclusion_in_the_shared_responsibility_f
or_our_core_natural_human_values_through_the_COS3i_initiative
they got involved in. They were invited to measure air quality in their classrooms,
learn about technology, its applications, interpretation and creative thinking in teams
to come up with solutions. The level of self leadership was enhanced and so was
their positive self image in relation to their personal contribution to the team
processes. This empowerment got them to pay much more attention to all the
learning offered by the school and place it into context of the core values at hand
with their own contributions.
Fig 8: Techrouters, the impact of social media on our youth
Gradually the approach started affecting all levels of education. Certain institutions in
the higher echelons of education started to call themselves “for society”, opening up
their learning routines for participatory learning, together with the City of Tomorrow,
AiREAS and Sustainocracy. The same happened at European level where a
program called “Erasmus+” offered students and teachers the opportunity to travel
and get acquainted with the functioning of other cultures. At first the subsidies were
provided primarily around the traditional government dependence of job creations
and employability. But gradually the European Community approach became much
more oriented towards awareness development and the existential challenges at
hand. It started to value programs for young people and their teachers that could
break with the old comfort zones, allowing them to become more open minded
towards new approaches. Empowering them to “be that change themselves” is a key
step forward to develop the motivation of those youngsters and their innovative
thinking and handling. Over the years we have received and inspired thousands of
young people from all over Europe with Sustainocracy, our shared responsibility
approach and sharing the essential values of our existence.
The whole program also showed the multiple rewards people receive with their
engagement and involvement in developing the essential values. Rewards are not
measured anymore solely in financial terms. Personal satisfaction, leadership,
appraisal, empowerment, being heard, feeling significant, a positive self image,
applied creativity, entrepreneurship, health, emotional fulfillment, etc have become
equally or sometimes even more important. 4 x WIN shows this multidimensional
type of entrepreneurial spirit that leverages every participant to a layer of unique
recognition and importance. It gradually also transforms the economy from blind
financial growth orientation, with numerous costly and often irreparable
consequences, into forms of regional harmonization with constant triggers for values
driven innovative exercises. People and institutions would start to engage
professionally in these new values driven dynamics, finding each other in their
objectives and operational routines. A positive, heart driven vibe is sensed in the
entire community and the crossovers of the interactions between all actors. All of the
actions become relevant for measurable integral wellness and healing processes
that make a difference. All educational disciplines have found their inspiration in
Sustainocracy already, whether it is architecture, regional development, political
science, Artificial Intelligence, care for health systems, ICT, law, applied science,
resilient food systems, psychology, anthropology, sociology, cook schools,
humanistic sciences, persuasive technologies, environmental sciences, business
sciences, hospitality, etc. Most recent developments are at the level of primary
schools and the impact of this education on parents, neighborhoods and
neighborhood design.
Final remarks
Evolutionary steps are difficult, especially if they represent significant changes in
behavior and societal positioning. Executives that visited the region of Eindhoven for
different reasons, learned about Sustainocracy and its approach. They were heard
saying “it exists, we want it too”. In order to do this it cannot be a one side approach.
In Eindhoven it took nearly 12 years to manifest itself strongly. It would never have
happened if we had not first suffered the consequences of the financial crisis in 2008
and the threats to society presented by the level of air pollution in the region. It
shows us that humankind tends to react and learn in a painful way. Chaos tends to
open our minds for awareness and new layers of societal development. Enough
chaos is present in the world right now, affecting us all in the short and long term.
The priorities in regions may differ but the shared responsibilities presented here do
not. It was Einstein that suggested that “we cannot resolve problems with the same
thinking that caused them”. But the changing of our overarching mindset needs to be
done at societal level, with all the pillars of society involved. “Healthy city” or regional
“Sustainocracy” developments motivate people and institutions to contribute to it.
“Growth city” too, but in a different way, attracting different players. Often the
following political remarks were heard about a local industry with lots of pollution that
affects lots of local citizens: “They produce a lot of labor”. That is not a justification
for pollution. Their business and impact on the labor market may be important but
this business also has an environmental and health responsibility. We have
surrounded the use of a hammer or a knife with ethical considerations, why have we
not done the same with polluting industries or politics?
With the appearance of healthy business expressions in a region the integral
economy improves, healthcare can be reduced and focused while overall wellness
goes up. It is a regional leadership choice to take the essential values seriously and
create an environment of togetherness that develops such wellness. It will become
attractive for people, especially parents with small children, to value such
environments more than highly polluted, unsafe regions where priorities differ.
Responsibility is not politics, nor financial economics. It is an overarching way of life
that leads to values driven politics and economics, not the other way around.
Everyone can do it, as long as we do it together.
Fig 9: From a 1 x WIN degenerative downward spiral to a regenerative, 4 x WIN,
positive evolution
Eindhoven, September 2023