It’s not just the weather that seems unsettled and unseasonal. It feels like we are experiencing cyclones, earthquakes and volcanoes not only physically but also politically, socially, and philosophically. Change is occurring rapidly and most of us are staring open-mouthed wondering what’s next.
It seems that so much that has been effective and useful in the past is becoming increasingly useless. The old solutions and methods no longer work. There are pressures that are demanding new ways of doing things. Joshua Cooper Ramo in his recent book *The Age of the Unthinkable: Why the New World Disorder Constantly Surprises Us and What To Do About It *argues that we must adjust to a more complex view of the world, abandoning the past habit of reducing the world to simple models. Using the analogy of earthquakes Ramo says:
That is our world now, filled with…cracks and surprising energy. Radical change in one area produced radical change elsewhere…But this infectious energy of change now exploding around us **can* be harnessed. In fact, it can be understood and used by each of us. It**’**s true we can no longer rely only on our nations or companies or armies to guarantee our security, that we have to take responsibility at least partly into our own hands.***
As the traditionally ‘male’ power structures fail, it could be said that the masculine is in decline, and the feminine is rising. When life was largely about putting bread on the table, we relied on the strength and courage of the masculine mind for our survival. Now, as people all over the world are demanding democracy and the sharing of power, the old rules have become largely irrelevant, even obsolete. Everyone, everywhere, is thinking about what sort of world we want to live in.
We seem to be leaving old notions of separation and division behind as we countenance the idea that not only are all peoples on the planet intricately connected, but that we are all profoundly connected to the earth. To survive in the new world we must find a level of collaboration and cooperation, qualities of inclusion which are innately feminine. Men and women are starting to see the need to work together, that the equal contribution of both sexes is crucial in creating this new world, this chance for a new way of being.
We will be required to abandon our old notions of what it means to be a woman or a man. We must find new ways of being that will enable us to thrive in the new world order. It is becoming increasingly urgent for men to become more compassionate and loving; whilst, for women, the task is to become stronger, more independent, less attached to what men think of them.
The change we need will require a radical shift in the power bases of our societies. Power must be redefined and institutions must be reinvented to accommodate the new power model. Although this may be difficult in some quarters, the shift offers the potential for a profound improvement both in the life we live and the planet we live on.
The new power is love.
