"A failure of imagination" ...
That is the recurring theme that emerges
when we look closely at the most challenging issues across our globe.
This excerpt from A Creator's Guide: Principles, Process & Power to Transform Our Lives, Work & World traces the crucial evidence of our lack of imagination - and the consequences it has on our world:
From the U.S. 9/11 Commission, to global economist Thomas Friedman, to futurists from across the globe, we hear the message of the centrality of Imagination, and its power to change the course of civilization, in both practical and profound ways, every day. Pivotal examples abound:
• Terrorist Threats - For example, of the four principle failures that led to the disaster of 9/11, the U.S. 9/11 Commission prioritized as Number One the failure of “imagination.” Citing not only the lack of imagination and a “mindset that dismissed possibilities” on the part of the U.S., but also noting that the imagination of the Al Qaeda mastermind, Al Qaeda’s innovative network, and its use of technology made this small terrorist group “more globalized than we {the U.S.} were,” the 9/11 Commission concluded that, for the U.S: “It is therefore crucial to find a way of routinizing, even bureaucratizing, the exercise of imagination.”
• Creative Competition - Moreover, in The Flight of the Creative Class, Richard Florida warns that in every country: “Today, the terms of competition revolve around a central axis: a nation's ability to mobilize, attract and retain human creative talent. ...America's growth miracle turns on one key factor; its openness to new ideas … wherever talent goes, innovation, creativity, and economic growth are sure to follow.”• Global Issues - As important as competitiveness may be in our current WorldView, even more important, as we rise into this new consciousness, are the larger global issues - terrorism, nuclear threat, genocide and environmental crises - that will require of us more creative collaboration, on a worldwide scale, than ever before. Once again, conscious use of our imagination is the key. As former U.S. Vice President Al Gore says: “[Climate change is] a moral issue because it affects the survival of human civilization. It’s a challenge to our moral imagination to understand that we could actually be affecting the entire planet.”
Copyright 2008 Julie Ann Turner
Yesterday, former Vice President Al Gore - in a pivotal speech that challenged America to "commit to producing 100 percent of our electricity from renewable energy and truly clean carbon-free sources within 10 years" - once again called for Americans, and the world, to use their creative imagination - their creative choice, and their creative leadership, to transform (and save) our planet (from ourselves):
Al Gore:
I've begun to hear different voices in this country from people who are not only tired of baby steps and special interest politics, but are hungry for a new, different and bold approach. ... This is a generational moment. A moment when we decide our own path and our collective fate. ... We must now lift our nation to reach another goal that will change history. Our entire civilization depends upon us now embarking on a new journey of exploration and discovery. Our success depends on our willingness as a people to undertake this journey and to complete it within 10 years. Once again, we have an opportunity to take a giant leap for humankind.
Gore, rightfully, likened this global environmental challenge - and opportunity - to the challenge to send a man to the moon. Powerfully, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (a Republican, mind you) uses the same example, and sees the same need for creative leadership, in This Week with George Stephanopoulos (7/14/08):
Basically, this [Presidential] Administration did not believe in global warming or they didn't believe they should do anything about it, since China is not doing anything about it and since India is not willing to do the same thing - so why should we do the same thing?
But you know, that's not how we put a man on the moon.
We did not say 'Let everyone else do the same thing, then we would do it.' We said 'We want to be the pioneers. We want to be out in front.' And we're out in front in stem cell research, we're out in front when it comes to high technology and biotechnology, with our university systems ...
I think we have a good opportunity to do the same thing with fighting global warming.
So here's to the to the pioneering spirit - and to the power of the human Imagination.
Here's to those bold enough to envision and create the future together.
Share your thoughts with us below ...
In creative spirit,
Julie Ann
