next gathering:
date: to be announced
place: datscha of albert and saskia, katwijk aan zee, wassenaarseweg, barrack 063-819 (between farmers van duijn and van paridon)
agenda: play a simulation of present economic behaviour to see where we can change it
latest gathering:
date: saturday 21 march, 18:00
place: museum voor kunst en actie, lombokstraat 40, amsterdam
joining: world wide hug party
agenda: make a plan for the caravan of love and distribute tasks to realise it
goal: open up all 100.000 initiatives in wiserearth.org to a tour in august 2009
although more people had wanted to come, two people attended the birth of the caravan of love, albert and me
the world wide hug party was also visited by the world peace march and so we now have found the right platform for the caravan of love
the goal of the world peace march is to abolish violence, including economic violence, which is my main interest
albert and i decided to move on to his datscha in katwijk aan zee
another world is possible
the caravan of love is an expedition into that world
everything we need and wish for is here in our world of affluence already
so that other world is not only possible, it is here already
all we have to do is open our hearts and look for it
connect ourselves and share
the crux of the era ahead is that from our consciousness of unity we can, want and dare to trust, connect and share
the caravan of love is a manifestation of this unity
by now it is obvious that our economic systems do not serve values such as respect, freedom, equality, fraternity and love
many of us are now looking for answers, how to deal and wheal from the consciousness of our unity?
the wonderful news is that there are myriads of solutions already in operation
the caravan of love is a tour visiting these initiatives, cooperations, foundations and communities around the world in august 2009
you are invited to join
some background
a widespread phenomenon in our world (of all time) is the simultaneous generation of ideas. many great ideas didn't have one inventor but many independant inventors. usually we only know one of them, but in fact there were more. i'm a mathematician and some mathematical discoveries for example were done independantly and simultaneously by different people. and accordingly these discoveries are named in different countries after their national discoverers. now this last observation is quite essential. because in general we may ask how do different people, who initiate comparable initiatives, interact with each other?
will they cooperate or compete? and why will they choose what? in the past era it was considered natural to keep ideas for yourself as the example with the mathematical discoveries above illustrate. a whole industry based on patent rights and much more has emerged.
so the competition-answer to this question is: fight and hope to win. this is what we see in our competition economy: when a great idea is implemented several times simultaneously they start competing with each other. and no single idea gets to hear from any of the others what they have learnt. each and every one of them is inventing the wheel over and over again. it is very important to understand that this cumbersome way of innovation is eventually driven by the belief that we need these ideas to survive, our ideas are our weapons. we deal with intellectual property as if it is scarse real estate and apply animalistic territory-craving.
now that our world is breaking through to the consciousness of unity many ideas arise everywhere around the globe to materialise our unity. i claim that in the era ahead of us from this consciousness of unity another way of dealing with synchronicity will arise. or should i say an old one will revive, for our ancestors in the middle ages were much more accustomed to such ideology.
now if we choose to cooperate how do we find each other? this is where openness comes in. and the internet obviously. we want to connect and share and so our imperative can be ubuntu. from this perspective our ideas are our gifts to each other.
so now we come to the cooperation-answer to the above question. let all these ideas connect and strengthen each other (instead of weakening each other). so now what to do when you have an idea that you want to share with the world? for this we are devising the cooperation protocol:
suppose you have an idea that you want to share with the world, then (inspired by the open source movement):
- look around to see where this idea is already operational
- once you have found that initiative join it and see what you can add, like making a local copy in your home town or neighbourhood
- in case you couldn't find any initiative that implements your idea start an initiative yourself
- open up your initiative to others so that they can strengthen the idea
the paradigm shift behind these rules is that we are no homo economicus, we are homo unitas
now how do we operationalise the caravan of love?
remember that the caravan of love is here already, all we have to do is open our hearts and look for it. i invite you to list here where you have found it.
one way of proceeding is to split up in dedicated groups and have a quarterly symposium at the start of each season (21st of march, june, september and december)
- where the groups share what they have found
- compose our findings
- decide upon next steps to be taken
- split up into new groups each executing one of these steps
one way of composing our findings is to make simulations, a game like environment to test our ideas before executing them. in this way we can simulate this other world, discover and start a solidary economy.
where to start? there are many places to start from, one of them is wiserearth.org.
the main thing is that joining the caravan means looking for a place where you can fit in.
the wonderful news is that there is a place for everbody.
central notions include
- unity
- openness
- khalifa
- love
- respect
according to nico baken people start to trust each other when they take each others perspective
