I’m grateful for your thoughts on this topic. I do indeed agree with you that from any rational analysis point of view the outlook for change is pretty grim, and I especially agree with the sentiment that “we need project developers more than essay writers…”

But here’s the heart of the matter for me: Where, and how and why do people start being project developers rather than essay writers? For myself, I spend most of my time as a project developer, because I am inspired by a new vision of the future, not because I fear the loss of the present. And that seems to be true of most of the other project developers I know. I haven’t seen people inspired into the kinds of deep creative action that I think are necessary when they are motivated from the place of collapse, nor am I motivated from that place.

For me the question is what puts us into the creative stance, the place from which new possibilities emerge. And the answer is inspiration. Thus, my sense is that quite to the contrary to your request that we be less grandiose, that what we need is large scale inspirational vision that can ground us in new ways of looking at reality and our place in it. This may indeed seem grandiose. But I can tell, you that I am not struggling for a merely sustainable future. I am working towards a wholly thrivable one that involves radical change in all human institutions and understanding. A change which I believe is on the order of the arrival of language into human consciousness.

You wrote: “Eric seems to be more on the optimistic side – partly because of the accumulation of science, knowledge and understanding by humanity over its history.” Well, I certainly am an optimist, that’s true, but it’s not because of the accumulation of knowledge and understanding. I’m an optimist because it seems to me that we are at a nodal point in the evolution of consciousness, and I like the possibilities I see on the other side. Certainly all our history was necessary to get us here, but what gives me hope is not the past of that accumulation, but the strength, beauty and power of the future that I believe we are being called into. (Which says nothing about the likelihood of succeeding in getting there!)

As to my own projects, on the large scale, my passion is the creation of a new expressive capacity that I hope will radically enhance the ability of communities (of all scales) to create and enhance their social DNA such that they are actually capable of generating true well being. This work currently takes the form of the MetaCurrency project (http://metacurrency.org). On the smaller scale, I’m also attempting to live this into being as part of the intentional community that I live in. If you are interested in either of these I’d be happy to have more conversation about the particulars of them with you as they entail (in part) exactly what you refer to as “different forms of productive organisation.”

And one final thing on language and the reality that results from it, here’s a story that I like:

One evening an old Cherokee looked into his grandson’s eyes and asked, “My son, I see fear in your eyes what is troubling you.”

The boy responded, “Often I feel as if two wolves are living inside me, one is good and does no harm. He lives in harmony with all around him and does not take offense when no offense was intended. He will only fight when it is right to do so, and in the right way. But…the other wolf… ah! The littlest thing will send him into a fit of temper. He fights everyone, all of the time, for no reason. He cannot think because his pain and fear are so great.

“Sometimes it is hard to live with these two wolves inside me, for both of them try to dominate my spirit and are always struggling against each other.”

With tears streaming down his face the boy looked intently into his Grandfather’s eyes and asked, “Which one will win Grandfather?”

Grandfather smiled and quietly said, “The one you choose to feed.”