Paradigm Shift – Stolen from Joanna Macy (actually she gives it away!)

See Coming Back to Life by Joanna Macy and Molly Young Brown

Or Joanna’s DVD on running workshops.

This is about a paradigm shift in thinking. Several centuries ago there were two views of how the world is made proposed. These are summarised as follows:

Parmenides: the Stuff based view / Heraklitos: the flow based view
The universe is made of stuff, and to understand it we need to understand matter.
To understand more about something take it apart, see what it is made up of.
Objects are in relationship to each other but it is the objects that are significant and foreground / The universe is made of flows. To understand it we need to understand how these flows work in systems.
Conglomerations of flows form objects which may also be interesting, but the nature of these can best be understood by looking at the flows they are part of, and flows within them.
Diagram of objects linked by relationships / Diagram of flows forming objects
Power over – bigger objects can influence smaller / Power with – if one element in a flow is doing well so will the next
Win – lose: with a finite amount of stuff the more I have the less is available for you / Win – win and lose – lose
If there are large amounts of flow everyone does well; if the flow reduces everyone does worse
Independence: my relationships are optional and exist through me / Interdependence: I exist through my relationships
The total amount of stuff is limited / Unlimited amount of flow – you can keep increasing flows in existing systems, and create new systems with new flows without having to create more stuff
Competition for scarce resources (our economic model) / Cooperation produces abundance for everyone (have you seen this in other cultures?)

From Stuff to Flow

Exercise 1: what is wealth?

Give everyone in a circle £5 (these could be Totnes £ or pounds written on pieces of paper). If you want to be more controversial you could give people different amounts, to reflect the real world more accurately.

Also give everyone 5 “objects” – also pieces of paper with a picture of something and a prices - £1 to £5. E.g. food, a book, a spade, a plant, a massage, a picture

A stuff- based economy.

First of all see what happens when there is no flow – no trading.

Everyone has £5 and some stuff. Does it feel abundant? Do you feel rich?

Now let the room trade – you buy from the person on your right and sell to the person on your left.

What happens?

Now everyone has an income, and everyone is getting goods.

You could restrict the speed of trading to being with, then “double” it. When this happens everyone has twice as much income and enjoys twice as much stuff.

Does this system feel abundant? Do you feel rich? If there were wealth differentials, does that matter so much?

It’s good to have a report back after this exercise. There will often be feedback about the different kinds of “stuff”. For instance, the massage is used and then gone. Likewise food.

But you can grow more food, and easily create a massage from nothing.

Some goods like books are used once and then can be passed on.

Some, like plants, can regenerate and make more of themselves.

Closing loops in such a system is essential – for example reclaiming organic waste to keep plants growing.

Exercise 2:What flows are you a part of?

Think beyond the chemical, physical flows…