What is a Culture of Interconnectedness?
And how can it help with our problems?
The goal of the Omni-Win Project is to co-create a future of democracy where everyone wins. That means we need to create a political culture that strives to include everyone. We need to build the systems, structures, tools, and processes to have conversations that welcome diverse perspectives. As far as I can tell, we have plenty of solutions to improve the future of democracy.
My strategy is to raise awareness of all these different strategies, get people to think about them, and put them in conversation with each other. Hopefully, this will accelerate the creation of a democracy that serves all of us.
My last essays were about collaborative communication and citizen-centered democracy.
Today, we’re looking at what it would take to create an omni-win culture that embraces our interconnectedness. In this culture, we’d be trying to support each other to build the future we want.
First, let’s take a look at what culture actually is.
What is culture?
Culture is basically a way of life for society. It's acquired knowledge passed down from generation to generation. We absorb and learn it from those around us, and it has an almost viral effect of moving from individual to individual.
We have culture at a societal level, but we can also see it within different spaces. There's culture in everything from hip-hop to offices and even your local club. We also have our own culture. Each of us has our way of seeing the world and living in it.
Culture teaches us what's important and our values. It shows us how we interpret reality and what stands out for us. That leads to things you can see from the outside: Artifacts and behaviors. We have food, art, movies, and all our cultural artifacts, but there are also institutions, behaviors, and language. All of that is part of culture.
Can we change culture?
Culture is a really interesting thing to try to change. Here’s why:
1. It's very durable
Changes we make can last long into the future. As culture has that self-generating capacity, if you can change something, it can spread out to everyone. It also means that it's very hard to transform culture.
2. It’s our way of life
The way we do things is intuitive or obvious. It's hard to see it. A fish doesn't recognize that it's in water because that’s simply its existence. It’s completely normal to the fish. Our culture is normal to us, too, so change can seem inconceivable.
What are the problems with our culture?
Let's talk about why we might want to change our culture. There are many different ways to think about the problem with our politics. Here are two big categories I want to focus on:
Us-versus-them
Complexity
On the one hand, we live in a culture that hugely emphasizes our separation and individuality. This creates an us-versus-them mentality, and it even pits humans against nature. Tied up in this thinking is the concept of win-lose or rivalrous dynamics.
Separation and rivalry lead to polarization. Our win-lose approach has this right-and-wrong aspect, and we have a damaging punishment/revenge culture. We don’t give people space for redemption. Instead, we organize the world into good and bad guys.
As our culture becomes more globalized, it becomes increasingly complex. We’re constantly adding variables. There are always more things to consider, so it's harder for us to understand what's going on.
We're under a lot of pressure because we face an environmental crisis and many other problems. There’s an imminent need to fix things. All of that is creating what Daniel Schmachtenberger calls the “meta-crisis,” and “Game A” is our current win-lose culture.
If we keep following Game A rules, humanity will drive right off a cliff. So we urgently need to change some cultural aspects.
How can we change culture?
There are some really cool things out there to help us change our culture, embrace interconnectedness, and deal with complexity.
We need to recognize our interconnectedness to escape separation and rivalry. We can trace the idea of separation back to the Enlightenment, the Fertile Crescent, and even the origins of civilization. Both recent science and old-time spirituality show that we are interconnected. We are all one. That is an indisputable truth.
Lifting up the importance of each of us being a sovereign individual can help us escape separation and rivalry. While we’re individuals, we’re also in relationship. This generates a dynamic tension that’s always going to be there. So how do we be individuals in relationship?
We need to learn, share, and talk about this within our culture. Escaping the “these guys are good, and these guys are bad” fallacy is a step closer to a better world for everyone. As culture is so deeply embedded in civilization, how can we make our society a better place to live?
Three methods for cultural change
Game B
Game B is an awesome framework focusing on a win-win outcome for everyone, and even a few aspects of this movement would enrich our culture and society. Game B focuses on creating an infinite game where everyone wants to keep playing, rather than our current win-lose system, which relies on people losing. What are the rules of the game that are sustainable, good for everyone, and don't lead to win-lose outcomes?
If you’ve been following me for a while, you’ll know about Game B, but here are some resources if you want to learn more:
Integral theory
Another technique is integral theory. It's also been called the post-progressive approach, meta-ideological thinking, and meta-modernism. (Check out the Meta-Ideological Politics Podcast from Ryan Nakade.)
You can think about it as a framework for holding all the different perspectives and saying, "I like what's going on. I see some cool ideas in conservative thinking and some good things about progressive thinking. I see some interesting stuff in mainstream thinking. All views are really important, and I see their value."
Of course, it can be tricky to welcome all perspectives when you’re used to only seeing your side of things. We need to collectively and individually make these changes. (I’ll be addressing strategies for individual work and growth in my final Omni-Win strategy essay, so look out for that in your inbox soon.)
Systems thinking
A growing field of science is taking a systems approach to looking at the world around us. Anything that's part of a system is interconnected, all the different pieces impact each other, and the system functions as a greater whole. Usually, that greater whole is also part of a greater system. Essentially, everything is a piece of the puzzle.
The whole idea of systems thinking helps us recognize that it's not just a question of us-or-them or either/or, but we are interdependent. We have this meta-ideological, integral understanding of all the perspectives, recognizing the interdependence of polarities and all the parts of a system. The whole global community is one system, so we can't separate ourselves from one another.
That’s not all!
Tomorrow’s essay has three more cool methods for change, tips on tackling complexity, and the future of the Omni-Win Project. I’ll also be including some really awesome resources if you want to learn more. Stay tuned.
If you prefer to watch your content, here’s a video on the topic:
You can find more information about the work I do in conflict transformation on my website: http://www.omni-win.com
You can schedule a call with me here: https://calendly.com/duncanautrey
Don’t forget to check out the rest of my posts as I discuss how we can work together to ensure we all win.
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