Al Etmanski

Belonging a 21st Century Challenge

Here is an excerpt from a recent breakfast presentation sponsored by Metro Vancouver.  I had the pleasure of co-presenting with Catherine Clement and Lidia Kemeny, two leading philanthropists with the Vancouver Foundation. Illustration opposite courtesy my talented Australian friend Paul Pholeros.

... I call Belonging a 21^ST CHALLENGE for two reasons.

One, it is a new, complex and unexpected situation – one that has taken many of us by surprise. We are living in an isolation that would have been unimaginable to our ancestors, and yet we have never been more accessible.

The challenge of Belonging, and connectivity or its absence is unprecedented. It crosses boundaries, across sectors, groups, and disciplines. It affects all of us directly or indirectly. Our traditional safety nets are not set up to respond.  It is not easily pigeon holed or categorized. It is ambiguous. We are not even sure how to define it (we feel it as much as anything) let alone, solve it.

Here are a couple of quotes from an article in the May issue of Atlantic, Is Facebook Making us Lonely?

• …Within this world of instant and absolute communication, unbounded by limits of time or space, we suffer from unprecedented alienation. We have never been more detached from one another, or lonelier. In a world consumed by ever more novel modes of socializing, we have less and less actual society. We are lonely in a different way
• A 2010 AARP US survey found that 35 percent of adults older than 45 were chronically lonely, as opposed to 20 percent of a similar group only a decade earlier. According to a major study by a leading scholar of the subject, roughly 20 percent of Americans—about 60 million people—are unhappy with their lives because of loneliness. Across the Western world, physicians and nurses have begun to speak openly of an epidemic of loneliness. 

Canada is not immune.

• One million Canadian seniors living alone
• Over half (51%) of all people aged 75 and over now live alone
• Studies show the health effects of isolation are more hazardous than smoking. (source, Tyze Personal Networks)

The second reason belonging is a 21^st century challenge - it will require moving out of our comfort zone; taking risks; being bold; admitting we don't have the answers; exploring new ways to support each other.

The language of belonging is powerful: Belonging – the living ties that connect us to each other – our families, neighbours, friends, communities - and the earth – and all living things.

Belonging - the glue that holds us together, provides us with safety, security, and nourishment and gives our life meaning.

We know we feel, we intuit, we sense when we belong and when we don’t.

Hospitality, conviviality, celebration, resilience, joy, reciprocity, trust, friendship, empathy, pleasure, intimacy, fun, love.

These words and concepts don’t fit easily into a strategic plan, or the job description of a social worker.  It’s not simply a matter of allocating resources or developing programs.  A friend who has developed more housing for people who are homeless than anyone in America said recently, ' we can’t build our way out of homelessness – we must also deal with the underlying epidemic of loneliness.'

These words and concepts will force us to confront our relationship with each other; with technology; with work; with time; with nature.

Our Belonging challenge is arising at the same time as our health and social services are under constraint. Our traditional safety net was not designed to nurture belonging or combat isolation.

New challenges that defy easy categorizations and response, less money, uncertainty about how to proceed …  Hmmmm.

If there was ever a time to do things differently, for all hands to come on deck, to bring our full creative power to bear, it is now.

To that end Vancouver is about to launch the world’s first Change Lab on Belonging.

On June 1^st, public servants, educators, philanthropists, farmers, architects, environmentalists, planners, business and social service leaders will come together to:

• articulate a common understanding about belonging and its value to each of us
• bring in the best ideas from our past
• generate new ideas, prototype and scale them.

Our goal: a Metro Vancouver where everyone belongs...

Resources:

Here is a link to the full Video of Catherine (at the 2:50 mark), Lidia (at the 21:00 mark) and my presentations (at 37:30). I started my remarks about Belonging with a story and ended by describing a couple of exciting developments on the belonging front in Vancouver including the start of a Belonging Change Lab.

 

BC Ideas - Seeking Innovative Responses to Social Challenges

For the past year I've been part of a group developing BC Ideas - a web based, crowd sourcing platform seeking innovative solutions to some of British Columbia's tough social and environmental challenges. All ideas welcome. No idea too big or too small!

BC Ideas is also one of the key recommendations of BC's Council on Social Innovation. Today, May 16th, marks the launch of BC Ideas. I composed the following post as a guest blogger for BC Ideas.
 

     The Social Innovator's Journey

Then, when he had flown a while longer,                                                               Something brightened toward the north,
It caught his eye, they say.
And then he flew right up against it.
He pushed his mind through
And pulled his body after.

These words by Skaay, an oral poet from Haida Gwaii whom many consider British Columbia’s Shakespeare, describe the start of the social innovator’s journey.

Something’s not right. Injustice burns bright. An idea catches your eye. Your imagination takes hold. You push through prevailing wisdom and ‘the way it’s supposed to be.’ With few resources, and no one listening you persist. You answer yes! to the disinterested, the doubters, and disbelievers. You innovate.

You create a solution to a challenge faced by a friend, family member or neighbour. You invent a successful response to a community problem. You improve how we work together. You see a way for your province, your country and your world to be a better place.

You are, in today’s parlance, a social innovator.

The social innovator’s journey begins with a new mindset. A way of thinking that questions the way things are. That asks difficult questions. That has the confidence to make mistakes. That gives the mind as long as possible to come up with something original. That makes links and connections no one thought possible. That breaks an existing logjam or spots a new one.

British Columbia, like every jurisdiction in the world is faced with its fair share of ‘logjams.’ We also benefit from more than our fair share of natural resources.  What we often ignore is our natural creativity – creativity that could be harnessed to address what some commentators call our ‘wicked problems.’

To address this oversight a group of BC activists, including business, government, foundations, universities and community agencies have created BC Ideas.  BC Ideas is a web-based platform designed to attract innovative ideas, which improve the quality of our lives, reduce vulnerability and increase the resilience of our citizens, families, communities and environment. It’s really a call to passion, imagination and creativity.

We know new ideas are being proposed and explored in our kitchens, coffee shops, classrooms and boardrooms. We know important solutions already exist that could benefit many more. We know great ideas from other parts of the world could be adapted and implemented here.

BC Ideas wants to create opportunities for everyone, young and old, near and far, every organization, every business and every public servant to contribute. 

In return you will:
•    Join a community of passionate changemakers
•    Profile your ideas and solutions to collaborators, mentors, investors and funders.

And perhaps most important, have the satisfaction of brightening the future well being of this corner of the Pacific Northwest.

BC Ideas Press Release

Joe Clark's Advice for Social Innovators - Marry Imagination with Mandate

At a recent Public Policy Forum dinner honouring Canada's six living former Prime Ministers, Joe Clark spoke about the critical talents required for a changing world. It is a world in which non - governmental organizations may have more power and influence than states themselves.  He cited these examples. Amnesty International has offices in 80 countries, more than most countries have embassies.  Only five multi - national companies in the world employ more people than Red Cross/Red Crescent. Greenpeace has more influence on public policy than most national governments.

Without using the phrase social innovation, he managed to describe the skills required to be an effective social innovator. And in a language that was personable and jargon free.  The first ninety seconds of his speech is worth viewing for his witty banter and a self deprecating story that had tears of laughter running down many of our faces.

Coming up with a new idea is hard. Proving that your idea works is even harder.  Tougher still is scaling and spreading your innovation so its benefits are received far and wide. The reason it is so tough - we must rely on others. Spreading far and wide means changing structures, institutional practices and policies, something we can't do on our own.  We must work with friends and allies but equally, strangers and opponents.

Clark identified three sets of skills for this challenging stage of the social innovation journey.

Seek Common Purpose: "... the ability to respect and bridge conflicting identities and different values and patiently seek enough common ground to build trust, respect and then collaboration."

Marry Mandate and Imagination: while non governmental organizations are imaginative inventing new instruments like micro-credit  "what they don't have is the authority to change the rules...  Non state organizations often have the imagination which the world needs, but only states and governments have the mandate and power to change laws and regulations and obligations."

Lead from beside: "As power disperses in the world so does the capacity to lead. And in almost every case the most effective leadership will have to be shared," Clark said. "The model now should be leadership from beside." 

These skills Clark concluded, " define a collaborative, respectful, innovative world..and speak to the most challenging issues of the future.

Here's the You-Tube of former Prime Minister Joe Clark's complete speech. Wise words from one of our best.

 

 

 

 

 

BC Social Innovation Council releases final report

The BC Social Innovation Council released its final report, Action Plan Recommendations to Maximize Social Innovation in British Columbia, on Friday April 27th.  Here is the report. The eleven recommendations are meant to enhance the work of social innovators and entrepreneurs today as well as creating opportunities for new ideas and new players in the future.  The recommendations are illustrated in the diagram below.

The structure associated with the Social Innovation Council was innovative itself and reflects the words of Emily Carr, one of British Columbia's greatest artists: perfectly ordered disorder, designed with helter skelter magnificence. 

There were three co-chairs, one each from business (Jim Fletcher), government (Molly Harrington) and community (yours truly.) Molly also chairs a thirteen Ministry Assistant Deputy Minister's Committee on Social Innovation Partnerships created to work with the Council.  An elected politician, Gordon Hogg who is both Government Caucus Chair and  Parliamentary Secretary for Social Innovation was an active participant and political advisor to the Council.  Thanks to his leadership, members of the Opposition New Democratic Party were briefed and invited to attend Council public events. Finally, the Minister responsible, Stephanie Cadieux met with every visiting expert the Council brought into the province to keep abreast of what was happening around the world. This helter skelter combination of tri-sector co-chairs, elected official and public service blend, political leadership and spirit of non partisanship has never been tried in BC.

From the outset the Council was committed to model the spirit and value of working together by bridging faulty assumptions, traditional boundaries, misunderstandings and past grievances. It may appear complicated or confusing in desription. In practice it was effortless and creative. This is one of the reasons the recommendations already have momentum behind them. They are anchored in a common appreciation for our challenges. There are alliances, resources and commitments coalescing around most of the recommendations. 

The job now is to shepherd them through to implementation.  That is why the Council recommended the creation of a successor body, with the interim name, Partners for Social Impact. And why we welcome the addition of other individuals, groups, institutions and companies to accomplish this task. Partners for Social Impact will no longer be advisory to government.  Instead the BC Government is committed to join other members as an equal contributing partner.

The opportunity is now to make something magnificent of our perfectly ordered disorder.

Download Social-InnovationBC April 2012_C-2

Related Posts

BC Government Establishes Advisory Council on Social Innovation

Council on Social Innovation Releases Interim Report

Consider this:

• there are more First Nations youth in government care today than at the height of the residential school travesty in Canada
• funding for on -reserve schools is 25 per cent less than funding for public schools and
• only 40 per cent of first nations students on reserve graduate.

Something should be done about this.  Somebody should do something.

In fact there is and they are. This past week Cindy Blackstock, the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society (FNCFCS) and the assembly of First Nations enjoyed a major legal victory. On April  18th the Federal Court overturned a ruling of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal which had dismissed their complaint without hearing any arguments.  FNCFCS alleges that the Government of Canada is discriminating against First Nations children by underfunding child welfare services.  The recent ruling paves the way for a new Human Rights Tribunal hearing before a newly constituted panel of adjudicators.

Not only has our federal government been actively opposing the court case and original human rights complaint but also, has placed Cindy under surveillance.  In November of 2011 it came to light that officials from the Department of Aboriginal Affairs are tailing her, showing up at more than 70 of her speeches and appearances, taking notes, following her Facebook page and sharing what they find with the Department of Justice. (source CBC)

There are many social policy issues that have defied solutions over decades.  Support for First Nations people is certainly one of them.  No government can lay claim to solutions and few service providers inside or outside First Nations would claim omnipotence. We are faced with a tough stubborn challenge that has resisted everyone's best and meagre efforts. For example, when Sheila Fraser retired as Canada's Auditor General she wrote:

I find it really tragic that after ten years, over thirty audits of first nations issues on reserves, a fair bit of money and hard work by public servants, conditions are worse today than ten years ago... We can’t keep doing things the same way. Obviously it’s just not working.

There are two pre-conditions for solving tough problems. 

The first is to improve how we work together. Any solution no matter how innovative must be implemented within an eco-system of players comprising friends, allies, opponents and strangers.  If there is no capacity to work together the best and worst solutions will be undermined. And we will get a repeat of past failed efforts. Court cases, human rights tribunals, personal surveillance are not conducive to creating this enabling environment, to nurturing trust and respect.

The second is for organizations, agencies and advocates to admit they are flummoxed, baffled and desperate - that they don't know the solutions or indeed how to arrive at them - that, as Sheila Fraser stated, - it's obviously not working.  This move from hubris to humility opens up the possibility for rethinking the problem, for re framing the solutions, for exploring ideas you might otherwise reject, for taking risks, for entertaining new approaches.  Businesses do this naturally. They have to constantly rethink their business model. They call it R&D. Otherwise they will go out of business - think Kodak, or video stores.  Before innovative solutions (business or social) can be introduced it is essential to put aside your claims of omnipotence and at least admit you don't have all the answers.  This is tough for many of us but particularly for our governments who are assailed on all sides with criticism.  Their protective shell is quite thick.

There may be some satisfaction in getting your case before the Human Rights Tribunal again but I suspect Cindy and other advocates, inside and outside government, would rather get on with the tougher job of finding and implementing solutions. I look forward to the day when politicians, public servants, First Nations, Aboriginal, Metis, funders and advocates can put down their legal tools and work differently together.

NOTE: Vancouver residents can see Cindy speak this Tuesday April 24th at the Central Library, 350 West Georgia, Alice McKay Room - 7:00 - 8:30

For further Reading:

The Tyee - Taking on the Feds for Aboriginal Equality

CBC - First Nations Child Advocate Wins Battle with Ottawa on Services

Related Posts:

A Disturbing Repeat of the Residential School Nightmare

Implementing Shannen's Dream - Inspiring Approaches Through Changemakers

Big Changes in the Ability World

My blog has been silent these past two weeks because I've been engaged in confidential negotiations with the federal government associated with their recent budget. I'm now in a position to make an informal announcement.  Full details will be released by the PM at a press conference this week.

The federal government has made PLAN an offer we can't refuse - to take over the running of the Federal Office of Disability Issues. The Board of PLAN has agreed to the takeover - with two conditions:

1. the majority ofl employees must be based in BC.  We will maintain a skeleton office in Ottawa but since BC has been the major source of disability innovation in the past three decades (think Rick Hansen; Sam Sullivan, Jack Collins; Ted Kuntz; Joan Laurence; Barb Goode, Stephanie Cadieux) it makes sense to be headquartered where innovation thrives.
2. the emphasis will shift from advocacy and rights to families and networks

Seems that Cabinet believes that the planned cuts to hrsdc will reduce their capacity to maintain the status quo, let alone make the changes that need to be made.  They would prefer to outsource the job to families who always get the job done (think RDSP) and who have been the driving force for change since March 1956. 

Individuals with disabilities will still have a role - a big role - but not the only role.  Families will now resume the preferred status they've lost after five decades of being ignored. 

"Essentially this is a back to basics - return to families agenda," says Federal Minister Marg Delahunty.

"Families know what's in the best interests of their loved ones," says newly elected PLAN President Bernie MacDonald.

The focus will now shift to family inclusion best done by establishing a planning innovation laboratory.

As of today the Office of Disability Issues will become the Family Of Origin Lab.

Its main purposes will be:

• to reunite adults with disabilities and their families, preferably in the same house
  
• to create simulated family of origin networks for people with disabilities who have no families. 

One of our first priorities will be to negotiate new disability agreements with each province.  Since few people with disabilities live up North we will leave the Northern Territories alone and redirect all funding to the Martime provinces.

I've been asked to take on the hybrid role of Minister and Deputy Minister. In order to maintain impartiality I regret to inform all colleagues that I will no longer be available for meetings. Please don't e-mail me either.  I won't have time to respond.  Best to contact me through 10 assistants (one for each province) I have hired to screen my mail and schedule my appearances.

My new e-mail format as of April: aetmanski@fool.bc.day

Be sure to insert the right provincial abbreviation.

Related Posts:

PLAN Sues Google

Humour and Social Change

Labs I have Experimented In

Caroline Casey - What Am I Skating Towards? A Global Disability Business Movement

I am in Ireland at Ashoka's massive Change Nation initiative (more on this soon).  One of the organizers is Caroline Casey an Ashoka fellow and force of nature.  Here is Caroline's response to What Are You Skating Towards in 2012?   Download the full collection here.

                             A Global Disability Business Movement

HAVING BROKEN MY SHOULDER attempting cross country skiing without a sighted guide last March, I am far happier to skate — much less treacherous!! Having an awful habit, like most social entrepreneurs of wanting to do too many things at one time — 2012 is the year I am going to have to focus, and say “no” more than “yes” as we develop a global business movement around the disability business case and roll out the Ability Awards internationally.

After the incredible success of the Ability Awards in Spain, our first country outside Ireland we will be working to map out the next 5 countries for replication, building the global MIS system necessary to support the rollout, launch the international advisory board of 16 global leaders and with Telefonica confirm our global implementation partners.

Back home in Ireland we will be developing the Kanchi Network — a business membership network created to drive inclusive business. In the latter half of 2012 we will be launching Ireland’s Disability Business Case Standard. Why? Central to our work is to reframe disability, moving from models of charity, deficit and dependency to a market driven approach based on ability, value and contribution. It is our long-standing belief that in order to change the lives of people with disabilities, ensuring dignity, respect, a right to self-determination and full participation we need to engage the extraordinary influence of business. Business is all pervasive in society; therefore if we can change their attitudes, practices and behaviours towards the disability demographic, then society will naturally become more inclusive. But to do this, we must talk their language, (the disability business case) and create methodologies and initiatives that are practical and realistic for business to engage with (the Ability Awards, the Kanchi Network and Standard). And if we are lucky enough to get that right, we have to spread the word!

2012, is about throwing the net far and wide and ramping up impact! But perish the thought that I say “no” to absolutely everything! It is 10 years since I embarked on my elephant odyssey in India and 8 since Around the World in Eighty Ways! As 2012 draws to a close I hope to be dusting off my adventure boots and heading out to the Wild West to go Blue Sky thinking again! It’s going to be a big year!

Caroline is founder of Kanchi, the Ability Awards and Co-Founder of Elephant Family. She is passionate about difference and positively disrupting the norm. She is a social entrepreneur, used-to-be Adventurer, elephant owner, self conscious cook and wannabe biker chick. Among her many awards she is an Ashoka fellow,Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum and Eisenhower Fellow. Twitter - @carolinekanchi

To read all essays Download the PDF What Am I Skating Towards?

Related Posts

Caroline Casey - One Billion Member Disability Market

Global Disability Initiative

What Are You Skating Towards? The Complete Essay Collection now Available

I am always attracted to unoccupied space. Realms where the dominant culture has not advanced its patriarchal or empire narrative."writes Peter Block in the collection What Are You Skating Towards in 2012?

His essay is one of 60 which begins to occupy this space. Combined they are, as Gord Tulloch suggests in his own contribution, the "collected living answers to the question, what matters? How do I best live?" Download What Am I Skating Towards?

Some essayists followed Gretzky's observation that success depends on skating to where the puck is going to be.

Rather, I anticipate the unexpected — the bumps in the ice, gaping holes to avoid, gale force winds... counter-balanced with a serendipitous touch of magic which will alter the colors and fill the air with music, wrote Cairine MacDonald.

And that means we need to go into the corners and fight for the things we believe in. Ted Jackson.

Others were more reminiscent of Joni Mitchell's River to skate away on...

I’ve been skating towards the intersection of voice and agency for a long time now. Shari Graydon.

I’m skating towards oblivion. Sorry to say it but so are you. Patrick O'Neill

So I ask you to skate with me as we accept that we don’t know where the end is but to live in hope that it is better than where we are. Allyson Hewitt

Between the old and the new, there is a place that is a kind of nowhere-land and it is one of the most challenging places to be. It can be lonely and is full of uncertainty and tension. Cheryl Rose

Others sought the skater's skill to balance life's paradoxes:

It strikes me that balancing the fine edge of pain and possibility is what is being demanded of me today.  Vickie Cammack

The loss of the soul is painless.  replied Jacques Dufresne

We can’t feel an obligation to another unless and until we see that person as vulnerable, as open to ourselves to pain and suffering. This seeing in turn requires a special capacity of the mind: moral imagination.  Mark Kingwell

We face a widening gap between our need to work together and our ability to do so. Adam Kahane

The most striking thing for me about our world today is the lack of alignment between our wealth, abundance and cascading knowledge and the utilization of these resources to overcome the complex challenges we face. Tim Draimin

How can we have one of the most successful societies this planet has ever known and yet have what so many feel is such a dissatisfying relationships with our government and political institutions? Sean Moore

Others were more goal oriented:

There is a screaming need for a credible political movement that recognizes that we need to get our fiscal houses in order — in order to be able to achieve improved outcomes on the social side.  Jim Fletcher

And to think that these gifts are all from the first generation in many years that will have fewer job opportunities, more debt and more challenges than their parents. Molly Harrington

Of all the big ideas I’ve taken a shot at in the past several years — social enterprise, nonprofit technology, open data, impact investing — the one that still holds the greatest promise in my eyes is microphilanthropy. Peter Deitz

Do we have the courage and wisdom to build economies of well-being and a civilization of love? Mark Anielski

I am going to walk with those who desire new forms of leadership. I want to visit places that embrace leaderfulness. Places where lots of leadership can co exist and where people are learning to walk together and pull in the same direction. Paul Born

And finally skating morphed into another sport in this light hearted excerpt from Karin Melberg Schweir describing her son Jim's recent citizenship test.

The Judge smiled. He turned. “Do you know the words to O Canada, Jim?” Well, absolutely! We began with great gusto; the Judge even joined in. At the end, Jim yelled, “Play ball!”

Indeed, where are you throwing the ball? Perhaps a question for another year?

To read all these essays and more Download the PDF What Am I Skating Towards?

Charles Holmes - What Am I Skating Towards? Wish People and Wish Organizations

This is Charles Holmes' response to What are you skating towards in 2012?                                 

                                                Wish People and Wish Organizations

MY QUESTION FOR 2012: Am I working with wish people and wish organizations? A few days ago I received a touching message from a client who has become a dear friend. She recalled a story I told about a year ago, when facilitating a workshop with her executive team. It went like this:

When my oldest daughter, Sierra (now 16), was 4 or 5 years old, I took her to a lantern festival in Burnaby, British Columbia. It was magical! Hundreds of intricate, beautifully decorated, handcrafted lanterns hung from the trees, above pathways of candles that wound around a lake.

One of those pathways led to a wishing well. Sierra asked if she could go in and make a wish. When she came out, she took my hand and we continued along the candlelit pathway. I leaned down and asked, “So, what did you wish for?” She looked up at me and with a somewhat incredulous tone, “Dad, I can’t tell you that, or my wish will not come true!”

We walked a little further, and then all of a sudden she stopped. “Dad, I want to tell you my wish.” When I asked what had changed her mind, she replied, “I think that if I told you, you might be able to help make it come true.”

When I told her I very much wanted to hear her wish, she looked up and said, “I wished for a world where there is peace and no war.” Now it was time for me to be incredulous! “Thanks for sharing that, Sierra. Do you think I can help?”

“Sure,” she said confidently. “Now let’s skip.”

In her email, my client recalled how I had asked her executive team if they considered GNG a “wish organization.” She also wrote about how she was inspired by colleagues she considered “wish people.”
After reading this email I thought: “How can I work with more wish organizations and wish people - to support Sierra’s wish?” Because that’s what I want — for her and for all children!

I am fortunate to work with many wish organizations and wish people.

One organization is the Salvation Army in Canada. For 15 years now, my dear colleague Carol MacKinnon and I have taught leadership to people who have truly committed themselves to making a difference for others.

There are so many people in my life; my family, clients, colleagues and friends who truly inspire and encourage me to continue to pursue my passion — to support people to live lives they love and organizations where people can be their very best.

Charles Holmes is an educator and facilitator with a particular talent for negotiation, dialogue, team building and leadership. He is the driving force behind the Connecting for Change Dialogues in association with the Dalai Lama Centre for Peace and Education.

Note: I release individual essays from the collection, What are you skating towards in 2012?  on a regular basis. Upcoming contributions are by Gordon Hogg, Caroline Casey, Arthur Wood and many others. You can access the accumulated essays here.

Jacques Dufresne - What Am I Skating Towards? The Hill of Life

Here is Jacques Dufresne's response to What are you skating towards in 2012?

                                                                     The Hill of Life

MY CONCERN THIS YEAR is the threat to the frail, imperfect, but rich, vibrant and organic life of humans, of communities and of nature, a threat that comes from the very forces we have engaged to preserve and perfect life: mechanical efficiency and formal systems.

There can be no doubt about the benefits of science and technology in support of life and in service to humans. So we come to think and to accept that technology will solve and cure everything; that it has the power to correct and expand life, and, ultimately, that it has a life of its own: that what is technically feasible is by that very fact necessary and inevitable. This is why we fail to notice when technology ceases to serve and when it starts to transform us in its likeness. The loss of the soul is painless.

Without noticing it we lose our vitality and begin to function rather than to live. Instead of being alerted to our soul’s decline we become more machine-like. And one day, it is too late, too late to go back to life, too late to once again become autonomous. We are on an irreversible trend... at a high human and financial cost.

Thus food becomes fuel; we gain the convenience of filling the tank at our convenience, but lose the rhythms and rituals of the table that made for sociability. Play becomes performance; teams of experts push athletes beyond their given limits, but the joy and the natural ripening of their gift is lost. Farming becomes food production; and we gain in yields for a time, but wear out the soil with increasing quantities of additives, rather than treat it like the living resource it is. Our spirits become moods to be curbed or flattened with drugs; even desire can be manipulated with a sufficient dose of viagra. An immortality of sorts awaits us, or so we are told, by the transfer of our brain circuits onto a hard disk— if we can be convinced that our mind and our brain circuitry are the same.

What these developments share in common is the reduction of life to its formal, numerical, digital dimensions in a world of virtual contacts. Has the living and breathing homo sapiens — call him homo vivens — become an endangered species, about to be replaced by homo computens in the same way that homo sapiens once replaced Neanderthal man ? What is endangered is the very life in us. What gets lost when life is reduced to its machinery is creativity, presence, participation.

We are inviting you to join the editors of L’Encyclopédie de l’Agora and their friends in creating an international movement in defense of homo vivens. Humans make humans human, not machines.

Jacques Dufresne is a farmer, author and philosopher, alas better known and more influential in Quebec and the French speaking world than in English speaking Canada. He hosts L’Encyclopédie de l’Agora one of the most popular French speaking websites in the world.

Note: I release individual essays from the collection, What are you skating towards in 2012?  on a regular basis. Upcoming contributions are by Gordon Hogg, Caroline Casey, Arthur Wood and many others. You can access the accumulated essays here.

Related Post

Becoming Visible - Totalitarian Ignorance