The city as antagonist
In our city life, is the city the antagonist or citizens? It’s hard to say. Consider this passage from Lynn Coady’s The Antagonist (p. 234-5): I am starting to view my past in a different way these...
View ArticlePurpose of evolution is evolving
If the work we do creates our cities, and if, as individuals, we lose our sense of purpose in our work, so do our cities. If we lose track of where we are going, then the very cities we build that...
View ArticleCity purpose – survival and improvement
In my last post, the purpose of evolution is evolving, I introduced the work of Steve McIntosh and his book, Evolution’s Purpose. There is another layer of insight from McIntosh that frames the...
View ArticleInstrumental and intrinsic purposes
The evolutionary pattern of wholes, or holons, is helpful to understand purpose at scale. To explore this, I draw on the work Arthur Koestler, Ken Wilber and Steve McIntosh, who articulate the...
View ArticleBe an evolutionary agent
“You become the evolutionary agent.” These words of Andrew Cohen, in Evolutionary Enlightenment: A New Path to Spiritual Awakening, jumped out at me last week. I realized that the chapter title I...
View ArticleBe a conscious citizen
A few years ago, a friend told me that the world is run by those who show up. I’ve wondered since, are cities run by those who show up? Cities are made by citizens, so all of us who live in and...
View ArticlePrototype social habitats
As I prepare to host friends new and old at the November 12-15, 2013 Art of Hosting BIG Decisions gathering, I have engaged in a learning experience with my co-hosts, and a few others, to explore...
View ArticleDo it all, all at once
Do it all, all at once, as appropriate. That is what is necessary to engage a whole system. Otto Scharmer and Katrin Kaufer, in their work Leading from the Emerging Future, describe four levels of...
View ArticleCity evolution inside and outside
‘Think about it. We are like water, aren’t we? We can be fluid, flexible when we have to be. But strong and destructive too.’ And something else, I think to myself. Like water, we mostly follow the...
View ArticleSovereignty is necessarily disruptive
I watched two men well into their 60s get into a physical fight at the ski hill yesterday. I’d taken a break to sit in the sunshine and give my knee a moment to tell me if skiing was a good or bad...
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