Corruption, government conflicts, the unstructured economy, recession... Confluence of problems... Everything seems to be collapsing... But what is collapsing? In fact, it's the old system, which is falling apart with the many diseases gnawing at its bowels. And who is responsible for creating the new that will replace it? A “savior of the homeland” or all of us?
Living with this sick system made us learn a lot. With a conscious use of this learning and the knowledge and technology of the 21st century, we can engage all citizens of this country in the process of creating a new political, social, economic and structural system. Something highly participatory, with new forums that we are going to create without falling into the trap of leaving this task to sick and unreliable groups and processes. The objective would be the collective creation of a new way of doing democracy, brilliantly designed and based on the common good, resistant to manipulation and distortions, and that transcends an outdated mechanistic management.
A seemingly impossible equation? No doubt. But if we overcome the barrier of “it won't work” and enable collective leadership, we will reach the solution. An equation of this nature calls for radical innovations. Traditional recipes don't do it. They will only make what is no longer working less worse.
The important thing is to bring the equation to the table. From there all the energy changes, it becomes pro-solutions. We came out of pessimism and defeatism and created a climate of overcoming challenges, constructive, innovative. In that energy, each of us can initiate a small citizen action group. An action that will evolve into a larger task force and from there to a network of task forces. Not mechanically, but biologically – as Life itself happens.
What are crises for?
Whether in personal, professional, organizational or social life, crises serve to take us out of some kind of accommodation. We get used to what doesn't work anymore. With a way of life that generates diseases all the time. With a way of being that makes us chronically ill (pessimism, fears, self-depreciation, etc.). We live with various types of corruption as if this were normal. With a democracy of appearances. A distorted electoral process. Misleading advertisements, electoral contributions and the conflicts of interest they generate. We are used to replacing competent people with “people from the class”, even if this compromises the quality of management and public service. We complain about the effects of all this, but we don't act. We blame those above, the “others”, that vague entity that seems to be the source of all evil.
But it is our conformism and accommodation that allow and even foster these distortions in all dimensions of life in society. It is the sum of these “small” imbalances, in a systemic network of relationships, that is leading our society to the ICU.
But if in the hospital bed, we reflect on our way of life and reinvent ourselves, we can be reborn. transformed. Otherwise, there is a high probability that we will relapse into conformity and return to the ICU in an increasingly critical condition, in a veritable downward vicious circle.
Today we live in a moment of collective reconstruction. If we all get involved in a great task force, we will leave the ICU changed by the roots, reinvented. And if this task force continues, reflecting the effective practice of true democracy, we will be able to anticipate problems and diseases. We will be balanced all the time and in continuous evolution.
That way, we will never need major crises to wake up again. Because we will always be aware and awake...
Oscar Motomura is managing director and founder of Amana-Key