The Elements of a Successful World-View

The Elements of a Successful, Third Millennium World-View

The Nazi Story, “Creating a World That Works for Aryans” was successful, if your criterion for success includes the systematic extermination of a significant portion of your population.

The Industrial Story, “We Can Grow Forever” was successful, if your criteria for success includes exhausting and polluting resources that are our children’s natural inheritance.

The Slavery Story, “Creating a World That Works for Whites” was successful, if your criteria for success includes gaining benefits at the pain and suffering of others.

The Scientific Determinism Story, “We Know Everything” is successful, if your criteria for success includes ignoring the world of the spirit.

Since (hopefully) these are not your criteria, then what are the criteria for a successful story?  Here are seven elements; you may add others:

To be successful, a new enacting story must be:

1)    Inclusive.  The story must have a positive role for everyone and every group. We all have to be able to live the story, act out our roles, in our daily actions.   Any story that relies on inducing shame, blame, ridicule or guilt in any group is doomed to a short-lived failure.  Likewise, stories that rely on mass incarceration, ethnic cleansing or genocide are equally unsuccessful.

2)    Authentic.  Values and actions are in balance and harmony.

3)    Spiritual.  The story must articulate and demonstrate our deepest transcendent values and beliefs.  It must include roles for the spirits, ancestors and other invisible beings, depending on religion or belief system.

a)    An enacting story would not require a belief in any particular religious or wisdom tradition.  Likewise, it would not require that you NOT have a religious belief.

4)    Scapegoat-free.  It cannot blame or scapegoat one person or group at the expense of others.

5)    Sustainable.  It must pass the test of the Seventh Generation: does it produce benefits and no harm to seven generations in the future?

a)    “Sustainable” also means that it would meet the “12 Global Challenges”.

6)    Positive, creative and adaptive.   The story has to be able to evolve with emerging conditions or events.

7)  Practical/implementable.  Able to be enacted now, without special relationships[1] and/or equipment[2].  A successful story is not based on speculative, theoretical or fanciful technologies.

[1] no space alien enacting stories, please.  It’s not that extraterrestrials don’t exist, it’s just that a story based on space aliens cannot be enacted.  What would I do when I get out of bed in the morning?

[2] No stories based on cheap, safe, inexhaustible fuel: it cannot be enacted NOW.  Acting now like inexhaustible fuel exists is just a repeat of the current Breaker Story.