[Below is my way of looking at this. There are however many
other approaches which I fully
support and encourage you to check out.] [See also the list of
Y2K Project ideas and my quick
summary of Eight ways to deal with
Y2K, once the chips are down.] (See also The
Co-Intelligence Dimension of Y2K)
Here's the way I categorize such activities as of mid-May 1998
(revised early July). All these need to be done simultaneously.
Below I discuss each item in more detail. In the future I will
expand on these, discussing existing and potential Y2K/breakthrough
projects.
1) PROCESS PEOPLE'S EMOTION
AND CONFUSION -- using co-counselling,
fear and empowerment sessions,
process worldwork, fishbowl,
videos, drama, all the arts, meditation and other spiritual practices,
mass media, etc. And provide clear, dependable information about
the problem and related possibilities to orient people. Dealing
with emotions and confusions will often be a prerequisite to the
other activities (listed below). On the other hand, its success
will often depend on people working with each other to actually
address the problem. Ultimately, emotion and confusion about Y2K
need to be dealt with in the Y2K-impacted real world, or at least
well grounded in that real world.
2) CULTIVATE BREAKTHROUGH UNDERSTANDINGS -- clarify the spiritual
challenges presented by Y2K, the cultural
assumptions and psycho/social
dynamics and institutional arrangements that led to the problem,
how these relate to what else is going on in our lives and the
world, the mythic or developmental meaning of it all, alternative
approaches and social visions, practical pathways to something
better, and the problems people encounters as they try to move
down those paths (and what to do about those problems). This is
a vast arena with dozens of basic principles and thousands of
ramifications, so there is no one right approach; only a self-organized,
highly diverse meta-approach will work. Perhaps we should use
the metaphor of a Y2K Tranformational University of Life -- involving
a think-tank knowledge-development function, an educational knowledge-dissemination
function, and a pilot project laboratory-out-in-the-field function
to provide high-visibility experiments in new social forms, etc.
With feedback between the field and the thinktank functions --
and lots of networking and information sharing among everyone
-- the whole system becomes one of co-intelligent
societal learning. And, of course, actual educational insitutions
can be part of this.
3) STIMULATE BREAKTHROUGH DIALOGUE
-- such as listening circles,
study circles, open
space conferences, world cafes,
scenario-work, computer conferencing, civic journalism, etc.,
in which people can deal with these subjects and support each
other in transforming themselves and their communties. This includes
proxy forms of dialogue like citizen juries, wisdom
councils and citizen technology-assessment
panels -- whose members are drawn from the public, whose deliberations
are visible to the public and whose results are available to the
public for further dialogue. Some of this can be self-organized,
but much of it requires facilitation, so existing facilitator
networks need to be engaged, plus new facilitators trained soon.
4) BUILD COMMUNITY - small circles & storytelling, bridge-building
among community factions, multi-stakeholder forums, community
visioning/history/future search,
building public spaces and the commons, engage diverse existing
organizations and networks (especially neighborhood groups/activities
and religious institutions).
5) ORGANIZE COMMUNITY SELF-RELIANCE - whatever will help a community
supply its own food, water, waste management, transportation,
health care, public safety and defense,
shelter, energy, currency, communications, decision-making, statistical indicators,
etc. -- whether or not the infrastructures currently supplying
these fail on 1/1/2000. We aren't after community self-sufficiency
(off the grid independence), but rather an increased capacity
to rely on each other and one's community that will enhance a
community's ability to manage whatever comes up. Things like co-ops,
renewable energy, community gardening and composting (and community-supported
agriculture), biopurification of water, local currency and trading
systems, block organizations, etc. [At this stage of our social
development, community self-reliance is very relative, especially
in urban areas. To successfully navigate the Y2K rapids, minimal
infrastructure should be in place, and this is dependent on government
action. See #9 below.] (In Y2K
and Our Big Bet, Larry Shook provides exciting evidence
that we can establish
decentralized, sustainable agriculture and energy systems
throughout the U.S., if we just decide to do it in time. A visionary
description of what real self-reliance would be like can be found
in Protecting Ithaca from
Computer Chaos by Paul Glover. See also The
Year 2000 Problem and Sustainability for a more extensive
discussion of this issue.)
6) CULTIVATE BREAKTHROUGH RESOURCES - Promote Y2K/breakthrough
investing and philanthropic re-orientation; develop study materials,
web sites, and alternative technology productivity; do community
asset surveys...
7) CREATE CONNECTIONS - coalition building, conferences, internetworking.
This is an opportunity for linking transformational agents (potential
and existing) with each other and with mainstream agents, as well
as with all other sectors and factions.
8) RESIST CULTURAL BACKSLIDING - We don't want local mafiaization
and gangs, economic centralization, militarization, fascism, scapegoating,
excessive survivalism, etc. Some of these involve our basically
dysfunctional systems being reduced to the absurd, such as the
flood of litigation that will result from Y2K. (Since it is obvious
that both the overwhelming number of potential lawsuits and
the efforts to prevent them are equally co-stupid,
it is clearly time to transcend the assumptions of our legal system
and find something more functional for all.) Successfully resisting
cultural backsliding may also require providing active assistance
in solving the Y2K computer problem in key systems to prevent
real systemic collapse or to shore up particularly vulnerable
systems such as small businesses, non-profit organizations and
Third World (or former Soviet) countries whose demise from Y2K
may empower already dominant powers.
9) PROMOTE POSITIVE GOVERNMENT ACTION - Most of the previous 8
actions are primarily grassroots efforts. But what various governments
do -- especially the U.S. federal government -- can have a powerful
influence for good (e.g., subsidies for sustainable technology)
and/or ill (e.g., martial law). Governments could play
a positive role in virtually all of the previous 8 actions, but
is more likely to play a role in the latter ones. In particular,
government action is required to ensure the basic survival needs
of large urban populations are met, since metropolitan areas cannot
survive without extensive infrastructure. Urban chaos could easily
spread, negating every effort to create positive breakthroughs.
And, of course, grassroots action is needed to push government
into action. Further information and specific political agendas
are available in The Y2K Political
Action Project.
For strategies, click here.