Radicality
The path to wisdom
Does Transformation start with pissed off people?
I believe it has another origin: Radicality.
The radicality of a posture does not discredit it. On the contrary, radicality refers to an understanding of the origin. It means going to the roots.
Indeed, if we want to make radical changes, we need to go to the roots.
Imagine we could move under the surface of a visible situation or a way of life, as if we were descending into the roots of a tree and becoming aware of an invisible landscape : we could cross patterns of thought, familiar ways of looking at things, assumptions, beliefs etc…And then, underneath all this, we would reach a place where the Revolution might start: our inner source, what I call our “Soul Compass”.
That inner place holds what is most authentic and fully alive in us. It is the root “cause” that puts us in motion and drives everything we do. Some would name it “Instinct”, sometimes “Basic Instinct”.
I believe it is rather a landscape of elevated “reasons” that can’t be reached by “Reason” only. It is the “sacred” space where we meet with our intentions: our direction, our deep aspirations and desires, our dreams and values.
All the things that gives us Dignity, for which we are ready to truly engage with our lives and embark on the journey.
Because we are most happy when we live a Life which harmoniously reflects our intentions.
As David Bohm, one of the remarkable Quantum physicists of all times, puts it:
“If it has Meaning, it has Value. It can then become a Purpose”.
Radicality is the direct connection to our inner compass.
That's where transformation, sometimes revolution, starts.
Because it drives us to authentically question the meaning of our lives, asking ourselves the question of what we really want in the face of imperatives greater than satisfying our needs.
It leads us to question our relationship with the world as it is AND as it could be in a creative and revolutionary way.
If, from that place, we ask ourselves:
Is this really the world I want to live in?
What is a radically different and Desirable Future I aspire to?
Our “Soul” compass “knows” that the “normal” way things are – our standard practices, what we “have to believe, the rules” we must obey - need to be challenged and that a more beautiful world is possible, despite the effort some people put in place to “make us believe” there is no alternative.
Our “Soul” compass knows that we need to courageously take a stand.
We can’t just remain witnesses. We have a Response-ability.
It is this one;
“Be careful about the Present you create because it must look like the Future you dream of”. (Proverb from a collective of women in Bolivia)
The “double” stance for Energy and Impact: the BIG NO and the BIG YES.
The BIG NO
We need to take a stand “against” the things we can’t stand anymore – be it the lack of job opportunities for certain categories of people, needless blindness, conflicts, lack of love, blind obedience to destructive Capitalism, ambient Bullshit, outdated approaches to Education or the unbearable politization of the judicial system.
In other words , we need to say a BIG NO to a world we want no more or less of!
But that won’t be enough.
Because, as the great scientist and futurist, Buckminster Fuller once said:
“You never change things by fighting the existing Reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete”.
The BIG YES
We also need to take a stand FOR the world we want more of.
And that would be a BIG YES to our aspirations. “I have a Dream” said Dr. Martin Luther King, opening the hearts of millions of people. He didn't say “I have a nightmare”.
So we need a Transformative vision that will give a new and meaningful orientation to our life.
Then, we can start in the Present to create the Future we dream off.
The “Soul Compass” is a wise choice-making device to enhance our lives.
It gives us Clarity, Integrity, Verticality and Rectitude.
It is a place of Wisdom and Freedom rather than Confusion, Compulsion and Submission.
A Living guide to make choices that elevate our lives rather than restrain us in survival.
Radicality leads us to the Authenticity, Creative Imagination, Unconventional Wisdom and "Radical" Thinking that is so vital today.The Shapership way
The approach described above is what we develop with “Shapership”, a concept we invented to open new windows in the Mind and which means: the Art of Shaping the Future(s).
For our book, we studied dozens of people who have "changed the world", at least part of it, in the Past and recently. They have opened new paths - in Education, Justice, Management, Health, etc. - which were invisible until they came along.
We called them “Shapers”.
We focused on the way they perceived the world, i.e. on their way of seeing, being and acting to make alternative and meaningful Futures visible and actionable.
We found something super simple.
Shapership is a capacity anyone anywhere in the world possesses, as soon as he/she poses a fresh look at “Reality as it is” and at “Reality as it could be”.
It is based on a fundamental attitude and aptitude to “see” what is possible, beyond “what is”. It emerges from the simple consciousness - “belief” or “Vision” - that another “world” is possible, that “what is possible is richer than what is”. [1]
All the shapers practice the DNA of Shapership”. They adopt the “Altitude Attitude” and open their “Soul Compass”. It is an integrity of the Being based on a full connection between Open Mind, Open Heart and Open Will.
In fact, Shapership arises from two simultaneous visions:
1. that the current “Reality as it is” needs to be challenged. That status quo must be resisted. We call it the Creative Resistance or the BIG “NO”
It starts with a way of looking at "what is”. We look at reality square in the face and feel a deep and sincere "NO" to a “taken for granted” situation, considered as “normal” by a vast majority of people. We sense the need for “something else”. Status quo has to be disrupted; inertia needs to be overcome.
2. that radically different possibilities - other ways of seeing and doing - that would better serve Life exist. That's what we call the BIG “YES”: a transformative Vision or a creative reconstruction of Reality as it “could” be which opens new paths towards the Future.
It is a way to SEE” what could be”: a radically different alternative that is absolutely desirable and for which we are ready to go through anything. It is a commitment to a desired Future, something that “needs to happen” because it represents the Hopes of many and enhances the Dignity and the meaning of human Life.
The transformative Vision is a ”Meaning-Making Story”: it radically shifts the way others make sense of what is possible. It is like a lens which opens new paths towards the Future and becomes the axis upon which we can align Vision and Actions.
Shapership is having this enlarged Perception or Vision of what we call “Reality”. It means adopting vanguard lenses and paradigm shifting visions, making a creative reconstruction of what we commonly accept as THE “Reality”.
It gives Shapers the capacity to see / think BIG and Radical, to adopt a helicopter view yet in tune with Reality, to act from a deeply connected perspective, way beyond Ego awareness, and to open meaningful and progress-generating trails for the entire human “Eco-system”.
The truly revolutionary impulse of Shapership arises from the articulation between the Big No and the Big Yes that anyone can activate in his/her everyday life.
For instance
Dr. Govindappa Venkataswamy (India 1918-2006), said a BIG NO to “useless blindness” and a BIG YES to “eliminate needless blindness among the poor in india”. He created one of the best and most famous eye care hospital in the world
Judge Baltasar Garzón (Spain, 1955-) said a BIG NO to massive corruption and a BIG YES to “Law above Politics”. He became a magistrate without borders and Shaped Universal Justice, paying Justice to thousands of victims and to History
Rob Hopkins (United Kingdom, 1968-) said a BIG NO to “passively waiting for institutional responses to peak oil” and a BIG YES to “engaged optimism: transformation by the people for the people”. He initiated the Transition Town Movement , referred to by BBC2 as “the biggest urban brainwave of the Century”
Ricardo Semler (Brazil, 1959-) back in 1985, as a pioneer to what is now called the “Liberated Company”, he said a BIG NO to “the prison atmosphere” in his company and a BIG YES to “Industrial Democracy” in the workplace, treating all employees as responsible adults who can be trusted. He led his company to incredible success and invented a Model that received a great deal of recognition all over the world.
That's what did Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, the youngest Member of Parliament in New Zealand House of Representatives in 170 years.
Hana Rawhiti Maipi Clarke, 21, who belongs to the country’s native Maori community, made her grand entrance into the House on December 12, introducing her inaugural speech with an electrifying ‘Maori Haka’ performance – a ceremonial war dance – which traditionally serves as a powerful expression of identity and heritage.
As the title of an article says,
War dance in New Zealand parliament...
But it was above all a way to pledge her commitment to her people
With an energy that comes from the “Creative Resistance” to a dominant colonial attitude from a government that has, as she says, attacked every corner of her world, she says a BIG NO to the status quo and a BIG YES to a dream she stands for: Peace and Unity.
“To Hauraki-Waikato, I am at your service in and outside of Parliament. I will die for you in these chambers, but I will live for you outside these four walls.
The words she pronounces in the Haka:
What is this all about? What is the purpose of this gathering in this sacred place? Unity! It's about coming together under the mantle and Unity of Kingitanga, on the foundations of our Maori self-determination. Emanate and shine! Spread what is right! Spread Life! Spread Peace! Let all these things come together!
here is the galvanising video (with French subtitles)
Well articulated, this double stance between the BIG NO and the BIG YES really gives energy and impact. It may create the “Erotica of the Future” and give a group – a community, a nation- the density of Passion - and the power to act collectively towards more desirable Futures.
[1] Henri Bergson, French Philosopher