David Korten: The World of Our Dreams

[marmar]

from YES! Magazine:



The World of Our Dreams
A stunning and hopeful truth: The world we must create in order to survive is also the vision that unites us.


by David Korten
posted Apr 18, 2011


In 1992, I participated in the civil society portion of the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It involved some fifteen thousand people representing the vast variety of humanity’s races, religions, nationalities, and languages. It was, at the time, the largest and most diverse global gathering in human history. Our discussions centered on defining, and committing ourselves to, the vision of the world we would create together.

These discussions were chaotic and often contentious. But at one point it hit me like a bolt of lightning. Despite our differences, we all wanted the same things: healthy, happy children, families, and communities living in peace and cooperation in healthy natural environments. Out of our conversations emerged an articulation of our shared dream of a world in which people and nature live in dynamic, creative, cooperative, and balanced relationships. The Earth Charter, which is the product of a continuation of this discussion, calls it Earth Community, a community of life.

I’ve lived in a lot of places with starkly different cultures: Ethiopia, Nicaragua, Indonesia, the Philippines, California, Massachusetts, Florida, Virginia, New York City, and Bainbridge Island in Puget Sound. Surprise! Look beneath the colorful differences in cultural expression and you find at the core everyone wants to breathe clean air and drink clean water. They want tasty, nutritious food uncontaminated with toxins. They want meaningful work, a living wage, success and happiness for their children, and security in their old age. They want a say in the decisions their governments make and they want to live in peace.

....(snip)....

We have been trapped in Empire’s pernicious rule-or-be-ruled, kill-or-be-killed, play-or-die dynamic by geographic and cultural barriers that have kept us divided and unable to embrace our true nature and common interest. The possibility to liberate ourselves from this self-inflicted tragedy is within our grasp. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.yesmagazine.org/blogs/david-korten/the-world-of-our-dreams

[txlibdem]

1. Wonderful! Thank you for posting

I came to the same conclusion as you when I was in my 20s and finally got to visit foreign countries. It should be mandatory for every college student to live in at least one foreign country for 6 months. They will instantly see past our tiny differences and find the reality underneath: we are all the same people.