resilient anthropocene

Mankind is undergoing an evolutionary transformation within a new age, called the ‘Anthropocene’; there are several ways to interpret this mega-shift. Some authors call it the ‘Great Divide’ between the tribalists and the globalists (Robb Smith), some call it a ‘Metacrisis’ (Sean Esbjorn-Hargen) affecting all parts of our lives. I call it ‘New Thinking’: a thinking in which we are able to identify that the ‘way a problem is mentally framed is the real problem’ (Susanne Cook-Greuter); in which more and better data, figures and insights from different disciplines, cultures, beliefs and political systems —generally speaking, critical feedback—are integrated and used to improve our situation and not considered a threat to the identity of the person or the group. This means that we see and appreciate differences and still search for common factors and consensus. We might end up with less information but more knowledge, less control but a deeper understanding, less independence but greater interdependency, and we might end up not being a bigger fish in a smaller pond, but rather become a smaller part in a bigger, often unknown interdependent and limited whole. It is not the chosen governance or technology, but the chosen psychology that is the game changer, enabling or preventing successful survival in the Anthropocene. None of these issues are new, at least not in part. What is new is that we have to find solutions and operate within an era of interconnectedness and boundaries. It is a more progressive way, where world-centric viewpoints, identities, values and mindsets dominate our mental operating system, where we are sufficiently critical towards our single point of knowing and admit the limits to our control, insight and management skills; where we start identifying inconsistencies, contradictions, and uncertainty and become capable of dealing with the unknown. Yet all this requires a different language, different emotions, a different way of communicating and a different way of dealing with one another. To put it plainly: do we simply reshuffle the deck, or do we change the rules of the game? Currently we just have to tell ourselves the unpleasant truth that transformation has to happen on an individual and collective level. But evolution has given us the mental capacities to face it. So we need a new thinking. Contact me or read The Art of Transformation: https://www.herder.de/leben-shop/die-kunst-der-transformation-gebundene-ausgabe/c-28/p-5234/ , available in various languages.