Proposal #5 - The Reformation of Our Time by Robert Paterson

The Reformation of Our Time by Robert Paterson

Here are my thoughts as to how the idea "The Reformation of our Time"
could address our core idea of business and also fit into a 10m word
scale.

The overarching metaphor is that once again we live at a time when a
dogma and not observed reality has gripped society. This time the
dogma is that the world is a machine. All our organizations are embued
with this premisss and as such increasingly work against the real
needs of humans, communities and the planet. The way of the world was
to aggregate more and more power and contro,l in central faceless
organizations both in business and in society such as health and
education.

While socialists and environmentalists has complained for years about
this, the grip of this world view has been so great that it has only
grown in power and ubiquity.

But recently, the largely unshakeable faith in the traditional has
been breached. New organizations are evolving such as eBay and Amazon
that use community as an important lever. Organizations such as
Southwest use an interla community to outperform all comeers. The
music and entertainment industry is being disinertmediated by direct
terchnology. Beyond the copyright issues what is emerging is a direct
model where the creative person is getting more control and the giant
centralizing middle man is losing it. We are all seeing a huge push
back as the forces of personal power gain strength.

We are just seeing the beginnings of health support groups who offer
so much more than a diagnosis and a prescription. Cancer, arthritis
and diabetes groups are making a profound difference to their members.
We are just seeing the emergence of online learning communities that
are all about group participation that that are the opposite of the
sage on the stage ccentral model.

Just as in the 16th century, we are seeing a technology that provides
a loud voice to individuals take on the power of the established
dogma. In my paper I would like to look at the following

1. Open with a few stories of the new - music, health, EBay
(especially the 400K busiensse s that use eBay as a platform - show
the rise of the direct and the community model where individuals give
up the mediating institution and deal direct. Look at the meaning of
the Dean campaign.

Go on to look at the cracks in the old system - Trust in business -
Enron etc the drug comanies etc In warfare where the use of force
alone causes you to lose the moral war which has become war today. We
see the cracks in healthcare - can't afford- it and in education -
fails most kids. We see the cracks in our political system where the
sound bite has replaced discourse - so none of the real issues can be
dealt with

2. Make the comparison between the press in the 16th andf 17th century
and soclal software today. Then extend it - Now a global link that
breaks through time and space. You can have a huge voice on a
planetary scle. What then happens when your voice gets linked to other
- the new media, (what is the lesson of the Tsunami?) the new view of
the "other" and a smaller less tense world?

3. I want to talk then about the idea of voice - we are regaining our
human voice which got lost in the machine world where we had to fit
in. What does the finding of voice mean? My idea - when we find our
true voice we find ourselves - we then can find others and we can
finally find nature and ourr place on the panet even in the universe.
Much of our terrible lonlieness leaves us along with so much of our
dysfunction. What might this mean? I think that it means a decisive
shift in world view away from a Cartesian world where we were split to
a whole view. This is the immesne aspect of the potential - a change
in how we see ourselves and our place. Here is where the value will
come more than any single change in anything that we do.

4. What does this mean then - to business, to health and education, to
war, to politics, to families, to communities and finally to the
world?

What about the reaction to this? We are already seeing the Inquisition
in music and film. Will w face the long and bitter conflict that we
saw in the 17th century. My bet is that we will for when 2 world views
collide there can be no compromise

5. What can we see now - where are the trajectories and where are the
forces gathering - can we use history to help us see the future - I
think that we can at least look at the patterns of the past as a guide

Comments

[Johnnie Moore]

I'm biased as I know Rob really well. I love this proposal.

Big sweep, bold thinking. I think the idea of finding our own voice is rather apt in the context of the project too!