Socialism didn’t work. Capitalism is full of problems. History shows that demolishing old or creating new political and financial systems may help temporarily, but has never been sufficient to resolve our human problems. You can kill the “big boss” so to speak, but not the inner tendency of everyone to be a “boss”. It’s a role in everyone! Each of us — yes everyone!– can be unconscious of dominating others by ignoring or not noticing feedback. So…while fighting the unwitting use of power today, we need to also explore new awareness-based political systems, with people trained in democracy, or deep democracy’s group process awareness. Together, everyone’s awareness with oneself, friends and organizations can help world change. …of course there will always be conflicts and troubles…but in principle we may be able to move through them more quickly than we are now, with our present worldwide political systems. So…Occupy -express the role of the boss, then Occupy and express the deep seated sense of the community’s power, then follow the dialogue…and help things change!.
Politics and Process-Oriented Ecology
World Work combines ecology’s interest in the environment, psychology’s focus on the individual, and social theory’s comprehension of historical change. Worldwork takes politics beyond mundane problems tocreating community, the most sacred and perennial interest of human beings.
Arnold Mindell, Sitting in the Fire (1995), p. 23.
From the usual viewpoint, politics amounts to power, popularity, and who and what runs the world. Politics operates in various ways, through democratic election, tyranny, money or luck. From the process oriented viewpoint, politics is a matter of “poles” – such as the role of the leader, the participant, and all the other various possible people and objects. These roles are not just real, but they are also shared, nonlocal experiences that each person has within her or himself. Like worldwork in general, politics thus becomes a matter of roles, poles, and the dreaming background including visions, and the power of the earth. Today, leadership in any sense includes not just awareness of the consensus reality situation, but also nonlocal shared roles, and the power of the earth.
Possible Meaning Behind Earth-Based Catastrophes
Thanks to Kim Barkmann, die Wiese Frau, for this translation into German of Arny’s ProcessMind book Chapter 10. This translation was done with the hope of being helpful and finding a potential meaning in catastrophes such as Hurricane Katrina and devastating earthquakes such as the one in Japan, March 2011. (click: Übersetzung von Die Wiese Frau Kim Barkmann Kapitel 10 Arnold Mindell’s ProcessMind)
Deep Democracy played an important role in US politics during the US Presidential elections in 2000, (-and will possibly do so again in 2004) Deep Democracy was basic to Ralph Nader’s campaign.
RALPH NADER (U.S. Presidential candidate from the Green Party who “upset the elections” in 2000 , and is again a candidate in 2004 said on public television) “I think I’d issue a proclamation for a deep democracy. I think what I would say to the American people…”
JIM LEHRER (Public Television Newscaster): A deep democracy?
RALPH NADER Right. I would say to the American people is “it’s our responsibility as your representatives
in government to facilitate your political and civic energies.”
(see http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/election/jan-june00/nader_6-30.html for the whole dialogue from which this interview was excerpted)
Politics, by definition (Wikipedia) “…is a process by which collective decisions are made within groups.” Thus, every time we explore what aspects of ourselves are making decisions, we are doing politics. Politics means becoming aware of inner processes, and the decision making aspects of friendships, groups and worlds. Process work, and all psychologies and deeply democratic procedures are ultimately political. In a way, Process work almost by definition, is a political movement, and sees each individual and group as forwards a certain kinds of “politics.”
This article by Amy Mindell was published in the October 2008 issue of the Psychotherapy and Politics International Journal (link goes to Volume 6, Issue 3). She was inspired to write this article by listening to the US presidential primary debates.
ABSTRACT
Democracy in its traditional form is exercised in part through voting, majority rule, laws protecting minority viewpoints, and the freedom to listen to all voices. However, democracy is rarely something that we consciously manifest in daily life — whether during political debates, community meetings, personal relationships, or in our internal lives.
In this article I describe a few communication methods that make it possible to bring an even deeper form of democracy to life in our moment-to-moment interactions. This new form of democracy, based on basic awareness principles and methods, can be used by leaders, group and community facilitators, and anyone who wants to become a ”participant-facilitator.” The framework I describe is derived from process-oriented psychology, its group process application, called worldwork, and Arny’s philosophy of deep democracy.
I show that without awareness of our moment-to-moment overt yet subtle, dreamlike signals, democracy is a dream that has not quite happened.
With greater awareness political debate as well as community and personal dialogue can transform into more co-creative and deeply democratic interactions. I also speak about a new kind of leader who can be ordinary and one-sided as well as bring awareness and openness to the various people and levels of any interaction. To make my point, I use examples from large group work, the recent presidential race in the United States, as well as personal interactions.
Click for Full article: Bringing Deep Democracy to Life
Nov 2007, by Amy Mindell.
From protest music to Mardi Gras, from healing rituals to theater, all over the world and throughout time people have turned to special transformative and artistic modalities for greater understanding and inspiration.
In this article I show how dreaming in community process can help navigate more fully community tensions, bring about more sustainable resolutions, and contribute to healing the historical split between these two diverse yet central approaches to community life.
Download article (PDF format; download Adobe Acrobat Reader here)
Thanks to the American Group Psychotherapy Association for releasing for public view, the article “From Individual to World Work” published in 2002 in their “Group Circle” magazine. Amy and Arny were consultants to “AGPA”, and then “Conference Opening speakers” at their 58th Annual conference. In this easy-to-read interview, the Mindells speak about the spontaneous group process that took place on 9-11-01 about “9/11”.
The President (or the political leader) of any country is a real woman or man, and at the same time a role in every culture worldwide. Whether we like her or him or not, much power is associated with, projected upon, or unconsciously transferred to such figures. By realizing they are roles in our thoughts, our conversations and our actions, we can retrieve “their” power, and notice our own capacity to be citizen- diplomats wherever we are.
Amy’s “Mr President” is meant to represent the multidimensionality of such figures. She created her puppet version of this “role” using foam, children’s clothes and other materials. Look, experience, imagine, interact with and re-create your own new diplomacy, the leadership we need.
I mention safety in my books from a variety of perspectives because it is a complex issue and not just a program that can be instituted and insisted upon as it is around the world.
Safety is an experience that interests everyone. We are all living human beings, and sensitive to life and death. Vulnerability makes us all interested in safety, fear for our well being and the well being of others. We know from Worldwork experience that safety is a perception that depends upon the person’s individuality, age, health, gender, sexual orientation, culture, dreams, nationality, and so forth. For example, if something is marginalized or rejected by your conscious mind, you are constantly afraid and “in danger” of a reaction from that “something” within yourself, often projected onto the outside world.
By Professor J.J. Hendricks,
California State University,
Stanislaus Department of Politics and Public Administration
Introduction
This paper examines the points of agreement and difference between two theorists who address similar themes in very different milieus, coming from different perspectives and disciplines. One of the theorists, Arnold Mindell would call this a bootstrap paper discussing two bootstrap theories. Seyla Benhabib’s stated philosophical project is “to situate reason and the moral self in contexts of gender and community , while insisting of the discursive power of individuals to challenge such situatedness in the name of future identities and communities, and universalistic principles.”
1 A critical theorist, Benhabib extends Habermas’ discourse theory by reconstituting it phenomenologically though insights gleaned from Hannah Arendt and Carol Gilligan. She intends to capture a pragmatic, yet utopian vision of reflexivity and radical egalitarianism through the moral conversation, and further, she extends the options for the marginalized in challenging their situatedness as mentioned above. She situates discourse theory, “between liberalism and communitarianism, Kantian universalism and Hegelian Sittlihkeit.”
2 Arnold Mindell’s is a theory of emergence.
3 His stated psychological goal is “to develop skills and methods for working with the emerging world situation: a planet with five thousand different languages and religions whose inhabitants know more about launching spaceships than about getting
along with each other. This form of process psychology is world work – an interdisciplinary method that helps small and large groups of people to live, work and grow together within their environment. The challenge is to develop organizational and conflict resolution so that they reflect democratic principles and are widely applicable.
4 Mindell draws on modern psychology – “the Jungian method of following the unconscious, the Gestalt focus on process, Carl Rogers unconditional support for the individual, the transpersonal focus on the divine, and the systems principles from economics, politics and physics.”
5 His primary influences are Jung, physics and the Tao. He too, is interested in extending options for expression of voices left out of the discussion.