What is security?

Given the continual uncertainties about the global economic crisis, and with the shaky situation in Europe with Greece, many people are wondering what they need to do on a personal level to ensure their own ongoing viability. I am not going to pretend to have any answers, but I do have some thoughts.

Overall I am an optimist. Having worked for most of my life with the human condition, I am aware that most people evolve and grow more when they have a level of uncertainty and instability. Its very hard to make major changes when your life is a joy and everything is peachy! Major changes usually occur when the very earth beneath our feet has shifted. When we really question “what is security?” In times of great change and uncertainty we might learn things like creativity, ingenuity, entrepreneurialism, collaboration, humility, a deep understanding of value...True some people become paralyzed by instability, but others rise through this time in the most remarkable and innovative ways.

If we look at the structure of our economic system which I do believe is in the process of unraveling, it is built on a platform of endless growth in the exterior...more stuff, more people, more weapons, more, more.... ... This is unsustainable. The growth that needs to occur now is in the interior. Not just the interior of the human in the form of higher awareness and consciousness, but in the interior of the very system. In community, in the ways we collaborate, in invisible aesthetics, like design. We need a game change.

What most people do not see is that the current economic model is also built on the principle of scarcity and fear. Within the design is an insatiable quest to discover just what is security, often by its very lack. Like a fish can’t see water, we simply do not see the level to which we are embedded in scarcity and fear and the search to discover what is security. In very simple words, in order for me to eat/survive (the coming economic collapse, or life in general) someone else has to lose. This is our current model.

Take for example gold (and other precious metals), which many smart people cite as very important to stockpile in order to survive any coming collapse.

If we really are to practice integral thinking and being, and the art of positive deviance, we must be mindful of the total cost of us stockpiling gold/precious metals. (or indeed the cost of stockpiling anything, including cheap “made in China/India” obnoxico.) For every 2 ounces of gold extracted, 20 tones is the norm of earth that needs to be mined. At what cost to the environment? At what cost to the communities that have made the mine areas their homes for hundreds of years? At what cost to their health and well being? And then what about all of the other costs? Like energy to extract, and transport to deliver.. ? Unless we take into account the total cost, we continue to participate in the very system that fills us with fear. (For an article on the field effects of our every thought at action click here) We continue to seek to find the eternal solution to just what is security.

We are moving towards a completely new economic model which makes all of the old obsolete. A model that is not built on endless exterior growth and scarcity, but on a higher consciousness of the field effects of everything we do. And a model that at its core understands and reflects true value.

What then do we do in the interim? Do we buy the usual assets such as real estate, stocks, bonds, precious metals? Do we diversify our portfolio? How do we make sure we are secure? (And this then raises the question...what is security really? Ahh, a very rich question, and one deserving of a full article.)

But before we go there, here are some questions to consider.

*Is there a model that ensures the healthy emergence of all humanity? Surely that is the one we would be seeking if we claim to have any form of advanced development.

*Is there a new way of being in value exchange that honors all of life and not just the lucky few?

*Are we positive deviants able to demonstrate a bridge that crosses from the very broken old model, to the new, yet to be born model? If so, what is that bridge? And I am specifically talking about a financial bridge. A way we do business together? Surely we need to be the leaders in this new model?

I am not against having a strong financial foundation. However, I do believe that the future of a strong financial foundation is not the usual one consisting of a diversified portfolio of stocks, bonds and real estate. The fringe events that are likely to occur in the next few decades will catch almost all of us unprepared. The unforeseen events such as an attack on the computer cloud and a loss of ALL data (including the data about the amount of money in our bank accounts), or a solar flare, or a new pandemic, a volcano, an oil spill of epic proportions. These events will challenge any idea of what is security.

What does that mean to us as individuals with families to feed? Well, for a start, we have to start to recognise that it is not OK for my child to survive when millions do not. We at the beginning of the global age, where it is not about me OR you, but me AND you. Now I am not about holding hands and singing kombaya. However, if we do want to break down the old and dysfunctional systems, it is up to us to step out and demonstrate.

The skills that we need more than anything are creativity, flexibility, entrepreneurship, a deep understanding of value (the conversation on value is well beyond the scope of this article, however I do discuss the principle of exchange here), the ability to collaborate, build community, ask much better questions (like exactly what is security?); these are the kinds of investments I am interested in. And to invest my money in people who are living this way, who are building the models of the future. Those rare individuals who really get that the very system is breaking down and a new system is being born, and they are working their tails off to facilitate the transition. That is where my time, energy and money is going. The larger my global network of positive deviants around the world who are creating the systems changes, the wealthier I am, in all domains, in good and challenging times.

Where my knee jerk response is scarcity (and I have to fight this shadow element in me every day), I have to drag my fear of lack, fear of loss of security, fear of starving, fear of no money...what ever this fear is, and I have many..back to another place. A place where I truly believe in the creative ability of my fellow man, but only, and here is the rub, only, when they are pushed to the very edge. I am challenged every day to question what is security at the deepest level.

We emerge through emergency.

All of our certainties...our investments in houses or stocks or bonds or precious metals..all of these things offer no security in the long run. History has shown this time and again. The greatest security is in our ability to rise through adversity and discover new and better pathways. This is the very principle of emergence. Couple this with a view that shifts from scarcity, to recognising where there is plenty (plenty of creativity, plenty of energy, plenty of talent, plenty of love..the very principle of positive deviance)..or even better, to discipline our thinking to seek the plenty rather than contract to the scarcity, this is where our healthy future lives.

What is security? To answer, my challenge to you is...Where you usually see lack, or when you contract with fear, look for the abundance. Look for what you didn’t see because you contracted, or are so conditioned, as we all are, to see scarcity.

When we discipline ourselves to see the spaces differently, to see what is there in plenty, the world of opportunity opens to us.

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