"It always seems impossible until it's done" - Nelson Mandela (1918- 2013)

The future is now. What we do today is the construction of tomorrow. We have the power to shape our futures. Our shared history is full of amazing accomplishments. Why is it then that more and more people recognize the current challenges we face as humans, such as the need to deal with climate change, shortages of natural resources, the imbalance between poor and rich people, extreme violence including terrorism and war, but feel powerless and helpless to make a constructive structural move forward. This is what I would like to address in this article; why and how we can move forward in a constructive way for all people on our planet.

In my opinion, this need for a transition to a new way of doing things is visible in many areas and starting to show itself more clearly. There are concrete examples, which give hope for a better future, when you have seen and experienced them and can connect them as a whole movement. You can think of the political organization The Elders, the business organization The B-team, the scientific team of the Dalai Lama, The World History Project, the Playing for Change movement, websites like Viewchange.org, the lobby group One, the Global Zero movement, The School of Life, the organization Action for Happiness, the numerous facebook pages called "The humans of (...)" (fill in a city or a country) and the many familiar and less familiar (international) social and environmental groups.

In his latest groundbreaking book The Age of Culture, D. Paul Schafer convinced me of the fact that culture has the binding capability to connect all the above movements and so much more. To connect the education movement, the environmental movement, the social movement, the spiritual movement, the artistic movement, the new business movement, the healthcare movement and the new political movement into a holistic whole. One team with many players.

I was really not asking for a second opinion on this matter, but I got one none the less when I was watching a presentation of the RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce) and the English Arts Council called 'A Grand Partnership'. And then I arrived at minute 15.33 of their presentation. Look it up. An image with 4 main circles, Culture in the middle surrounded by Education, Society and Economy. It is culture that connects all, culture at the heart of it all.

Why do we need to transition to a new way of doing things? Why should we think about that? Schafer identifies the following challenges of our time:

• Transform the relationship between human beings and the natural environment;
• Reduce the amount of tension, violence, terrorism and conflict in the world;
• Improve relations between diverse peoples, countries and cultures, religions and civilizations of the world;
• Enhance human welfare and wellbeing everywhere in the world; 
• Reduce the demands human beings are making on the world's scarce resources; 
• Create ways of life and lifestyles that are more in keeping with the new global reality; 
• Achieve much more peace, harmony, stability, and unity in the world.

The main goal is a sustainable life not just a sustainable economy

To understand deeply why we have to make a structural change in doing things to meet the above challenges, we have to know where we are now and why this is blocking further progress in the future. According to Schafer, we are living in an Economic Age. The center of our universe and decision making is economics and economies. If you like me need an image to get the point that is being made, go back to the presentation of the RSA and English Arts Council at minute 15.33 and swap the circle Culture in the middle with the circle Economy on right down side - so that the circle in the middle will be, as it is at the present time, Economy. We have to be productive and more efficient, we have to consume, we have to build up capital, etcetera, in order to get the holy grail of economic growth. Schafer shows us how in the last 400 years this mindset of ours, this worldview on how things should be done has come to be. In his previous book "Revolution or Renaissance: Making the Transition from an Economic Age to a Cultural Age" he explains in considerable detail the origins, evolution, mechanics of the Economic Age. In essence, he explains why we are or came to be so centered on economic thought and practice.

The Guardian reported Pope Francis' view of the economic system:

"This is not just a problem of Sardinia; it is not just a problem of Italy or of some countries in Europe" he said, "It is the consequence of a global choice, an economic system which leads to this tragedy; an economic system which has at its centre an idol called money."

The organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in May of 2011 launched the Better Life Index. According to the OECD there's more to life than cold numbers of GDP and Economics. When Bhutan many years ago came with the instrument of Gross National Happiness and started to focus their policies more around that, I thought that it was fun news, but I didn't take it seriously. That has changed. Not only for me, but mind you also for the OECD. And not only the OECD. The B-Team, which was co-founded by Sir Richard Branson, is a not-for-profit initiative that has been formed by a group of global business leaders to create a future where the purpose of business is to be a driving force for social, environmental and economic benefit. The founders of the B-team have declared this:

"We, the undersigned, believe that the world is at a critical crossroads. Global-business leaders need to come together to advance the wellbeing of people and the planet. In fact, we think business has to think this way in order to thrive."

These are all signs of changes in insight with respect to what matters most in life and in the world. We need to change our focus. I also believe we are at a critical crossroads. We have to realize, as Schafer shows in his book The Age of Culture, that maximization of economic growth does not go hand in hand with facing challenges like climate change, shortages of natural resources, the gap between rich and poor people, social conflict and war. Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and two of her co-authors recently wrote the following:

"We are now at a tipping point that threatens to flip the world into a full blown climate emergency. As the poorest and most vulnerable people of the world endure the increasingly damaging impacts of a warming world, tired excuses and calls to delay action are no longer acceptable.

Economics aside, this is a moral and ethical challenge of the highest order. If ministers leave the UN climate talks in Warsaw this week without a clearly defined roadmap to accelerate the transition to a low-carbon world economy, our window of opportunity will become smaller yet again."

The problem is not economics per se, the problem is the dominance of economic thinking in the decisions we make. The economic system and economic thinking are coming under more and more pressure. The realization is that money is not going to save us. "Instead of thinking outside of the box , get rid of the box." is a quote by Deepak Chopra. The box in my view is economic thinking, which we have been raised up with. We need to get rid of this dominant box.

But then what? What in time, after the transition process is over, is going to replace it? The box of economics is going to be replaced with the connecting circle of culture(s).

Other signs of changing times

There are others signs of changing ideas on how things should be done in addition to the ones already mentioned. Let's start with one of my favorite organizations called The Elders, co-founded by my and probably also your all-time hero, Nelson Mandela, The Elders is an independent group of global leaders who work together for peace and human rights. The Elders stand for the following:

"The Elders represent an independent voice, not bound by the interests of any nation, government or institution. They are committed to promoting the shared interests of humanity, and the universal human rights we all share. They believe that in any conflict, it is important to listen to everyone - no matter how unpalatable or unpopular this may be. They aim to act boldly, speaking difficult truths and tackling taboos. They don't claim to have all the answers, and stress that every individual can make a difference and create positive change in their society."

The Dalai Lama for many years now has tried to make the world a better place by promoting secular ethics and global compassion and encouraging scientists to come up with scientific evidence for constructive change instead of focussing only on destructive behavior. See for example the conference Change your mind Change the World. On this website the event was described in the next way:

"On Wednesday, May 15, several of the world's foremost thinkers joined the Dalai Lama in Madison to discuss how neuroscience, environments, economics, and healthcare can combine to make the world a healthier, happier place."

What groups like The Elders, The B-team, The Dalai Lama scientific team, One, Action for happiness, Global Zero and others like it have in common is an equal interest in the whole, the whole of humanity and the whole of our planet. In the actions we take, we must consider that we're a part of a whole. What we need to understand is that taking care of the whole means at the same time taking care of ones own personal (long-term) interests and those of others. Understanding the connection between you and the whole and vice versa is important for the steps we're going to have to take. Everything is connected in destruction, but more importantly, also in construction. Nature has given us extraordinary powers, one of which is that we can consciously work together with nature in a constructive way to create a healthy ecological surrounding. See, for example the video Hope in a Changing Climate.

Schafer argues in his book The Age of Culture that one has to to think of culture and cultures as wholes. He writes among others things: "Creating a global federation of world cultures where all cultures address a common set of causes and concerns while simultaneously maintaining their identity, integrity, and autonomy could provide the key to this." Now, keeping this in mind, read the following statement of Dr. Dan Siegel with regard to your brain and mind:

"The third principle is at the heart of my work as a psychotherapist, educator, and scientist. Wellbeing emerges when we create connections in our lives--when we learn to use mindsight to help the brain achieve and maintain integration, a process by which separate elements are linked together into a working whole. I know this may sound both unfamiliar and abstract at first, but I hope you'll soon find that it is a natural and useful way of thinking about our lives. For example, integration is at the heart of how we connect to one another in healthy ways, honoring one another's differences while keeping our lines of communication wide open. Linking separate entities to one another--integration--is also important for releasing the creativity that emerges when the left and right sides of the brain are functioning together."

Linking separate entities to one another, integration it turns out, is important in our mind and in our world culture(s). To make it visual in the movie Ghostbusters, there is a moment, when the ghostbusters realize, that there is now only one way to survive, and that is to integrate the various energy beams to one beam. This one beam still is made up of separate beams. A lot of people in Europe, for example, are afraid that an European culture is going to replace their own national or regional culture. Schafer cautions us in his book about thinking in terms of a single and dominant monoculture. To prevent it, it is necessary to maintain our own identity, integrity and autonomy (world cultures) while simultaneously addressing a common set of causes and concerns (world culture). We need to keep the personal and collective identities of the world family: Unite the human race in all of its diversity.

The role of the Arts in the transformation process

The role of artists in making new connections, widening our imagination, relaxing and opening our minds, speaking to our feelings, triggering our senses, filling us with joy, making us feel our unresolved pains, giving us comfort, shedding light on injustice, being critical, making us see the world through the eyes of someone else, giving us a mirror of our behavior, and so much more, cannot be emphasized too much.

In the United States of America, there's an Arts Advocacy Day every year, where supporters of the arts let their voices be heard to politicians and more importantly to the public at large. One of the highlights of this day is the Nancy Hanks Lecture, where every year a prominent speaker stands up for the arts with a passionate speech. Often held by artists themselves who do their best to convey in words the essence of the miracle we call 'arts and culture'. I am very grateful for those people who keep vocalizing the importance of arts and culture. Here are three quotes from past Nancy Hanks Lectures that I find very thought provoking, touching, and interesting:

"These kinds of experiences that I had as a young kid matter. And they matter for kids all across this country and they matter around the world, because art and creativity are one of the most significant ways that humanity uses to fight back against and lift itself out of the muck, and the dirt, and the grime, and the horror, and the unfairness of political persecution, racist attack, hatred, intolerance, and downright cruelty." 

- Kevin Spacey -

"Art's primary purpose is to serve humanity. Art that does not increase our understanding of this particular journey or our ability to withstand this particular journey, which is life, is an exercise in futile indulgence, a demonstration of vapid foppism. I don't think art is obliged to answer the questions of conscience and morality, but art must pose those questions. Art needs to ask us, "What do we think is our reason for being on this earth? What is our duty to the planet? To other forms of life, with whom we are connected? To our own species?" 

- Maya Angelou -

"Before we sang, we spoke. Before we danced, we walked. Before we wrote, we told stories. Before we told stories, we lived. Those songs, dances, writings allow us to speak to one another across generations. They gave us an understanding of our commonality long before that DNA told us we are all part of one glorious procession. At any point on the timeline of human history, there are tales to be told of love and loss; glory and shame; profundity and even profound stupidity; tales that deserve retelling, embellishing, and if need be, inventing from whole cloth. This is our story. This is our song. If well sung, it tells us who we are and where we belong." 

- Wynton Marsalis -

Schafer begins his book The Age of Culture with reflections on how his personality was and is shaped, how he became to see and feel the things the way he does. It is something we should all do from time to time, reflect on why we do the things we do, think the things we think, and feel the things we feel. Education specialist Sir Ken Robinson said the following on Feeling and Knowing, one might call it your personal culture:

"Feeling and knowing are part of the same complex of a whole being. Our feelings are a form of perception. And they are affected by what we think. By our frameworks of ideas. They are affected by how well we can express ourselves and the languages we have available to do that. So part of the task of education is to connect ourselves with ourselves. And I think the reason so many people get depressed and lost is they have lost the connection with themselves." 

According to Schafer, the best thing his parents did for him when he was young was give him an education in the arts. Schafer writes in great detail about why the arts and an arts education are so important and vital for a person and for a society. As a more general note he writes: "Since the arts engage the mind, body, heart, soul, intellect, spirit and senses, they provide a way of bring together all our human faculties to create a harmonious and organic whole. This makes us more balanced with ourselves, as well more in tune with the world." Schafer states that an arts education is about making the world a better, safer place for all its diverse people and countries.

Schafer is not alone in his passionate conviction that the arts can transform lives and the world we live in. See, for example the following inspiring presentations by artists, academics, and other arts advocates. In the transition phase to an 'Age of Culture,' the arts play a prominent role. This makes supporting arts not a nicety, but an essentiality.

Education of the whole human being around the world

“ 1. Develop your senses   

2. Study the art of science  

3. Study the science of art  

4. Realize that is some way, everything connects to everything else    

                                                                                                                                                                     Leonardo Da Vinci”

The above quote was shared by Tony Buzan, who you might know as the founder of Mindmapping. Author Paulo Coelho does the same with quotes from Albert Einstein. Author Christopher Hitchens said: "The essence of the independent mind lies not in what it thinks, but in how it thinks." There are a lot people who are protesting against standardized testing regimes in schools. One such example is a letter by American authors to President Obama in October of 2013. I believe that we're too focussed on what we should learn and not enough on the how and why we learn.

Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere (Chinese proverb). According to education specialist Sir Ken Robinson, at the very heart of education are the teacher and the learner. If we want to improve education, then our primary focus should be on teaching and learning; everything else has to take place around it. Sir Ken Robinson also argues that the equal purposes of education should be: cultural, economic, personal and social. He also states that we have to see school more as an organism than as a mechanism.

In a Tedx Talk and in his manifest "Stop Stealing Dreams" author Seth Godin asked a simple question: "What is school for?". He argues among other things that we teach our children according to the Industrial Age Method. He asks this: 

"As we get ready for the ninety-third year of universal public education, here's the question every parent and taxpayer needs to wrestle with: Are we going to applaud, push, or even permit our schools (including most of the private ones) to continue the safe but ultimately doomed strategy of churning out predictable, testable, and mediocre factory workers? As long as we embrace (or even accept) standardized testing, fear of science, little attempt at teaching leadership, and most of all, the bureaucratic imperative to turn education into a factory itself, we're in big trouble." 

Schafer argues that the basic biases or tendencies of our present dominant value system (the Economic Age) are: centralization, specialization, imitation, standardization, conspicuous consumption, and forced obsolescence. As biases or tendencies for the emerging value system (the Age of Culture) he names: decentralization, integration, innovation, diversification and conservation. Which of these general tendencies are dominant at our schools? Which of these general tendencies are dominant in our workplaces and in the communities we live in?

Presumably you have heard of Sal Khan and the Khan Academy, a worldwide online school. If not, see and hear its founder on this marvelous enterprise. What if a next Albert Einstein or Ludwig van Beethoven is living in Africa, but he or she does not receive an education and so that talent is not found and trained? It is a great loss for that particular child, but also for society at large. The wellbeing of other people on this planet is in our self interest too, and that includes great education opportunities everywhere. One of the leading voices on education for everyone is the courageous and wise Malala Yousafzai. Children want to learn and take risks for their own future and for the future of their community. See, for example how to become an successful entrepreneur.

Wellbeing @ Work

According to author Daniel Pink, the secret to high performance and satisfaction--at work, at school, and at home--is in the deeply human need to direct our own lives, to learn and create new things, and to do better by ourselves and our world. He claims that three elements motivate us truly. They are: autonomy, mastery and purpose. Sir Ken Robinson wrote two books about being 'in your element;' he wants us to get the importance of connecting our passions with our talents. Robert Steven Kaplan held a presentation at Google about his book "What you're really meant to do". Randstad UK has started a campaign called "Fulfillment at work" and one of their guest speakers to explore this subject was philosopher Alain de Botton. Chief Executive's Lecture at the RSA, Matthew Taylor, discussed what "good employment" means. What all these examples tell me, and the many others you may find or know, is that there's also a transformation going on at the working place. Work now also has to connect with who we are as a person and has to connect us with the common good, in whatever shape or form. One might call it authentic work.

"Positioning economies properly within cultures would reduce the strain on scarce resources, because much more emphasis would be placed on activities that make fewer demands on nature. It would also humanize economies by placing a higher priority on income and resource sharing, job creation, training and retraining, diversity, distribution, cooperation, and inclusion than on consumption, exploitation, uniformity, profits, competition, exclusion, and the market." 

This is was Schafer writes with regard to the new economy in an Age of Culture. In short, the challenge in our personal lives is the humanize the work we do and the challenge in society is to humanize our economy. Both processes will constructively influence each other. Because of the need to survive as human beings on this planet we really need to change the dynamics of the economy. A sustainable economy is essential part of achieving a sustainable life on our planet for all (human) beings.

Our shared history

In his book The Age of Culture, Schafer also sheds light on culture from many different perspectives:

• Culture as Cultivation; 
• Culture as the Arts and Humanities; 
• Culture as the Legacy from the Past; 
• Culture as a Complex Whole or Total Way of Life;
• Culture as Values, Beliefs, and Behavior; 
• Culture as the Relationship between Human Beings and the Natural Environment; 
• Culture as the Organizational Forms and Structures of Different Species.

For more insight of the richness of culture and to understand how powerful it can be, this part of the book by Schafer is a very good read. It is to much and to deep to cover all this in this article. However, when Schafer discusses all the perspectives on culture mentioned above, it results in the following definition of culture:

"The way in which species in general--and the human species in particular--create wholes or total ways of life that are composed of many different parts as they go about the process of meeting their individual and collective needs and working out their complex association with the world. Among other things, this includes how species see and understand the world, organize themselves, conduct their affairs, elevate and embellish life, and position themselves in the world."

An important aspect in the transition to the Age of Culture is coming to grips with our shared history. This can be accomplishment in many ways. I will provide a few examples. On youtube, you can find five extraordinary episodes of the BBC-series "How art made the world" with art historian Nigel Spivey. This shows our shared cultural history and the impact that it still has today. In the book that accompanied this documentary, Spivey writes: 

"Only we humans have the imaginative power to make symbols, to represent not only the world around us, but also what goes on within our heads. This book explores the history of how we developed and exercised that power: to tell stories, to create social hierarchies, to connect with the environment, to express the supernatural, to make images of ourselves - and to mitigate the hard fact of our mortality. The book's title, though tendentious, is not meaningless. After all, the human species, or something like it, existed long before humans became artists."

On the youtube channel of Unesco, you can find numerous video's on our different world heritage, from here to literally Timbuktu. In addition, Bill Gates recently initiated the Big History Project which is described on the facebook page as: 

"Big history weaves evidence and insights from many scientific and historical disciplines across 13.7 billion years into a single, cohesive story. The course highlights common themes and patterns that can help us better understand people, civilizations, and the world we live in. The concept arose from a desire to go beyond specialized and self-contained fields of study to grasp history as a whole. Big history explores how we are connected to everything around us."

Just as we have to connect with our personal histories, the good things we did and the mistakes we made and hopefully learn from them, so must a community. On the legacy of the past, Schafer writes:

"Like the less expansive ideas of culture, this substantially broader notion of culture as the legacy from the past or cultural heritage of humankind possesses a number of qualities and capabilities that are of utmost importance to the world of the future. One of these is the ability to create a strong bond between the past, the present, and the future, and therefore enhance people's identity, belonging, solidarity, and ability to move backwards and forwards in time. Another is the ability to speak directly to people about what is most dear to them, and hence about their values, ideals, and rootedness in the world. Still another is the ability to expose people to the mistakes of the past, and consequently the need to correct these mistakes in the future. And yet another--and one that is especially important in the modern world and promises to be even more important in the future--is the ability to focus on the fact that every person, country, culture, and civilization in the world acquires a great deal of cultural baggage over the course of their development that they carry with them in the present, regardless of where they are situated in the world."

It turns out that dealing with history is also very important in serious conflict resolution. Michael van Walt van Praag, Visiting Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study, explains why in the presentation "When Truth Gets in the Way: Addressing Multiple Realities in Intrastate Conflicts". Off course, one the most famous examples in dealing with history in a constructive way is the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa which was under the guidance of chairman Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

The humanizing element of culture

Who are you? How would you describe yourself? Lyn Heward, Former Director of Creation for Cirque du Soleil, said at Fòrum Impulsa 2013: 

"It's said when questioned about his great sculpture David, Michelangelo replied: 'But David was inside of the stone, I just needed to chip away all the pieces that weren't David.' Similarly Franco Dragone, Cirque's longtime stage director, used to demand while workshopping with young artists: 'Who are you?' This he did in order to strip them of the stereotypical tics and behaviors that often plague young gymnasts, athletes and artists in general. By sticking his hand quite literally down their throats he brought forth real raw beings (...)"

One of my favorite movies is "Les petits mouchoirs." In general, the film is about relationships between friends, and how a few hard issues between them have never been discussed. It's about how emotions and frustrations that have evolved over many years have never been dealt with. At their annual group vacation, all these bottled up feelings and emotions come out, which creates tension and distance between the friends. At that precise moment in the movie an artist, in real life singer Maxim Nucci, arrives at the vacation house of the friends and is asked by them to stay for dinner. The artist accepts the offer and after diner he gets his guitar and plays a song for the troubled group of friends. How often do you talk to your family and friends about things that are important to you, and the things that bother you or keep you awake? How often do friends and family share their innermost feelings with you?

We are talking about the universal power of relationships and why we need to take care of them. There is a new nonprofit organization called Relationships First which has made their main focus making relationships better. The organization consists of therapists, relationship experts, best-selling authors, social entrepreneurs, and artists. One of the members of the Board of Directors is singer and songwriter Alanis Morisette. One of her songs is called "Underneath", part of the text goes like this:

"There is no difference in what we're doing in here  

That doesn't show up as bigger symptoms out there"

The School of Life is a school founded by philosopher Alain De Botton. According to De Botton, the humanities should help us to live. On the website of the School of life it is stated that: "The School of Life is devoted to developing emotional intelligence through the help of culture. We address such issues as how to find fulfilling work, how to master the art of relationships, how to understand one's past, how to achieve calm and how better to understand and, where necessary change, the world." The School of Life gives Secular Sermons on Sunday, which I love to watch, and can be found on their youtube channel. If you are unfamiliar with Sunday Sermons of The School of Life, I would suggest you start with a lecture by its founder Alain De Botton on "Art as Therapy".

Richard J. Davidson, PhD is a renowned neuroscientist and founder of the Center For Investigating Healthy Minds. He claims that kindness can best be regarded as a skill. This means that if like me you're not always as friendly as you could be, you can train yourself and learn to become better at that, to be kinder both for yourself and your surroundings. For adults, the positive results and effects of mindfulness or meditation are clear and based on hard scientific proof according to Davidson. The Center for Investigating Healthy Minds is now examining if mindfulness and other constructive mental tools can also be taught to children and if they have a long lasting effect on children. To give you an idea of what mindfulness for children in the classroom might look like, I recommend the following documentary called "Healthy Habits of Mind".

What these three organizations, Relationships First, The School of Life and The Center For Investigating Healthy Minds have in common is they want to give us practical tools that enable us to create more healthy and happy lives for ourselves.

Paul Ekman, psychologist, says that problem of our time is to achieve a global compassion or otherwise run the risk that we will destroy ourselves. Ekman has worked with agencies such as the FBI, the CIA, and local police forces. He's a man who can speak out of 'hands on' experience. Ekman and the Dalai Lama are co-authors of a book called "Moving toward global compassion". While writing this article, the book was not yet published. Hopefully, it will be available at the beginning of 2014.

I begun and will end this article by quoting my great hero - who passed away in December 2013 - Nelson Mandela. One of the quotes of Mandela that I saw shared often by people in remembering him is: 

"Overcoming poverty is not a task of charity, it is an act of justice. Like Slavery and Apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings. Sometimes it falls on a generation to be great. You can be that great generation. Let your greatness blossom."

Nelson Mandela concluded his Nobel Peace Prize speech in 1993 with:

"Let the strivings of us all, prove Martin Luther King Jr. to have been correct, when he said that humanity can no longer be tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war. 

Let the efforts of us all, prove that he was not a mere dreamer when he spoke of the beauty of genuine brotherhood and peace being more precious than diamonds or silver or gold. 

Let a new age dawn!"