Alternative Editorial: Making The Existing Model Obsolete
“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”
― Buckminster Fuller
When we first began The Alternative UK, we used this quote to describe the ‘originality’ of the work we were committed to. How many of you reading have also backed Bucky Fuller’s insight, maybe by adding this from Albert Einstein too:
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Between them, Einstein and Fuller create a great open space of possibility – the permission to start afresh, unencumbered by the failures of the past. It’s a great feeling and essential for the ambition of any movement that hopes for transformation: the ability to begin again.
However, as every one of us who has adopted that ‘spirit’ of renewal will know, there is no ‘real’ possibility of simply leaving the past behind and regaining a tabula rasa. We are all deeply entangled in the past – we can’t even know ourselves without relying on a shared history of true events.
On a personal level that would include a coherent narrative about our life so far – whether we were orphans or ensconced in family. On a social level, each of us is living in a story about the present moment – good or bad – that we share with others. And more than that, we are physically embedded in that story.
For example, even those of us who are committed to zero-carbon futures are currently dependent on fossilfuels, from waking till sleeping (and through the night). To condemn others for their lack of commitment is often to condemn ourselves. And each of us sits somewhere on the continuum between believing in being an exemplar—and believing it makes no difference what you do, if not enough people are also doing it.
Anthea Lawson’s book on The Entangled Activist hits the mark: we lose precious energy on fighting ‘the other’, when we ourselves are perpetuating the reality we abhor. How can we get away from that? As Buddhists are prone to say: it’s like trying to lift a table while you are standing on it.
Of course, Bucky Fuller was not making a flippant remark when he encouraged us to be bolder. But he might also not have known as much as we do today what the ‘old system’ is: how it shows up in each of us, shutting us down whenever we try to make a move. Einstein too never lived to be in the conversation most of us are in now.
Understanding the power of patriarchy, of colonialism, the English language itself – we have all been fashioned out of what Audre Lorde would call ‘the masters tools’ . Fuller and Einstein themselves benefited hugely from these tools, and continued to well after they shared their words of wisdom.
So are we doomed to stay in that slipstream for ever? No: once we have faced those elemental contradictions, we can still make choices but maybe with more humility. Meaning: make clear commitments to something genuinely new; spend less time attacking those who are more trapped than we are.
Given that most people would choose a healthy, flourishing future if it was on offer, free of shame (“wrong”, “stupid”, “evil”) or punishment (a miserable lifestyle awaits) then why keep shaming and punishing people? Or ourselves? Why not, as Bucky would say, just keep focused on the future you are trying to bring?
Where we give our attention, invest our energies consistently, is where we will experience growth. Of course, that’s not an injunction to lose our critical faculties – all journeys of self-improvement are away frominadequacy and failure. Yet, if we are wholly focused on the de(con)struction of the current system – protesting, loathing, beating – those we believe to be the cause of our pain, there’s little energy left to build the alternative. In fact, it’s all too easy to become part of the old system—to sustain it—through mirroring its dehumanising of others.
So, when we talk about building the parallel polis, what does it mean and what does it take? For sure, it takes its courage and creativity from Bucky and Einstein. But from there it needs a new set of resources – new concepts of agency, different forms to inhabit and yes, new sets of tools. In particular, the future needs a new ontology – meaning a new way of being human on planet earth. New language, sounds, feelings.
The good news is that we are on our way there already and don’t have to start from scratch.
This is the true benefit of the internet – that it has not only given us access to information and each other, but also trained our capacity for relationships, performance and skills of observation. We have all become curators of our own bubbles – we know what we like and don’t like. True, it’s not easy to create safe boundaries with the virtual world, that is relentlessly out to extract capital from us. At the same time, we are all on the path of greater autonomy, consciously seeking connectivity to what we believe to be good.
One might even say this is a moment of evolution – something we have always been preparing for. Similar to the way that, by design, childhood prepares you for adulthood. However, it’s unlikely that we will be feeling confident about that, because – well – confidence only comes from pushing through to the next stage, regardless of how you feel. On the other hand, those that went before you can also be crucial in egging you on. As well as modelling the benefits of getting over the hurdles.
When we first began in 2017 with the question ‘if politics is broken, what’s the alternative?’ we had already pushed our way energetically out of the force field of the old politics (see "Is The Party Over?) and committed to ‘building a new model’. However, we did not yet know what that model looked like – only that we sensed, like adolescents, that there was something better to come.
For the next four years we mostly acted on that belief by noticing what was innovating all over the world. New tools of democracy but also, all sorts of initiatives that might bring diversity, capacity, architecture, emotion—transforming our senses and, with that, our values.
By our fifth birthday we could see clearly that huge networks of people were attuned to a better future, but had nowhere to go with that sensibility. These included some who were reclaiming their authenticity in the face of a collapsing modernity – largely women and others who historically prioritised connectivity and relationship over capital.
But it also included those who had benefited from technology that enabled them to meet and appreciate people from other parts of the world for the first time. They were responding to the current crises both differently (bringing new tools) and, in some cases, showing commonality. By connecting with them under umbrellas (or #hashtags) of shared interest, we could develop belonging between us. That is cosmolocalism.
Planet A was born to acknowledge firstly, that we – those that are ready to build the new model - need somewhere to gather, where we can put our feet down and feel at home. Secondly, that we don’t need to leave Earth, Elon Musk style, to get away from our past. And thirdly, that we have a natality mind-set. If Gen X, Y and Z are the carriers of the old system, RegenA is committed to the new one.
Digital natives like millennials find this territory easier to occupy, but there are also older people who have invested decades in the belief that this time was coming. All are standing – whether they know it or not – on Planet A. While it is early days, Planet A represents, or holds the space for, the ‘new system that makes the old one obsolete”.
It was a bold move that found particular buy-in from our European partners – see here for LIFT’s adoption of Planet A and the new system it reveals. At the same time, it was difficult to know how to organise the multiplicity of people wanting to co-create this space. Not simply because of being too thin on the ground to self-organise effectively. But because of the multiple forms of agency that needed more time than was available to integrate.
Those interested in personal development while dreaming of a better future, found it hard to connect with those focused on narrative crafting or democracy designing – even if they were all dreaming of a better future on similar terms. Namely, flourishing for individuals, community and planet at the same time.
Which is why a year later, March 1st, 2023, we introduced four incubators – meaning four entry points to Planet A. For those schooled in integral theory, the four relate to the four quadrants of reality integrating the inner and outer aspects of individuals within collectives. More immediately they give anyone who wants to build on Planet A a choice of emphases – cosmolocalism, personal development, media or democracy (see here). We also established a Hylo platform for connecting with others and initiating projects.
However, after a year of experimenting at this interface, we knew we had to initiate an idea capable of holding all four spheres of action in one. Without a shared dream of what success looks like, the activity lacks direction – we are playing into a void. No longer.
Launching Spring on our 7th birthday feels like a vital – maybe final - piece of a new model that could, as Bucky called for, make the old one obsolete. With this final step, by way of the incubators, we are stewarding 1) a learning system for individuals and communities to ‘upgrade’ themselves for the future 2) meetings of cosmolocal communities to develop best practice 3) a media system capable of reflecting Planet A and attracting others 4) a new political system to bring in an age of human creativity and agency.
Now, having moved to Scotland, where a proportional system is available to give political entrepreneurship visibility and viability, we can work actively with those who have been building and weaving for decades.
From here we can demonstrate, in real time, how Winter turns into Spring.
If you want to join us in this endeavour, sign up as a co-creator and / or donate here. This work is hard to fund and we are in a steep scaling moment: every bit of support is gratefully received.
