2013 will still be a year of turmoil, however full with possibilities for new start-ups!
Our main task will be to bring different worlds together, to accept and understand that everything is interconnected. This is not a story about vague predictions, it’s a claim to understand the importance of connecting beyond our comfort zone.
The crisis is forcing us to wake up and to stop dreaming that our malfunctioning society will recover from the current economic downfall without changing our views on economics, politics and power?
2013 will be, no must be, the year where global leaders will realize that setting rules, managing procedures and maintaining order alone, is not sufficient to sustain stability and qualitative growth. The world needs engagement and dedication from us all, to truly understand what it means when the landscape of work changes, to deal with limited resources or an aging society. These are issues you can’t solve in some kind of technocratic way. We are a bunch of people together, all individuals, who can only live in harmony, and excel if we have the chance to educate ourselves and to be given the opportunity to discover what’s inside each and everyone of us and share it with the world. We are wasting precious time, since there are too many people that lead their lives on automatic pilot, without making use of their talents.
Power needs to be given to every individual, because than and only than the chance for a total “power black-out” on a global economical level will diminish. Let’s face it throughout history the establishment have proved to be incompetent to deal with common interests.
We are still dealing with the impact of colonialism, slavery and disrespect for other opinions or religions. While writing this article we might be on the threshold of a war with its roots far beyond yesterday. So the time to act can’t wait any longer!
Be open for our individual power, together we are strong, self-interest – in many cases turned into greed – has shown its limitations during the last decades. Thanks to modern technology we are capable doing great things for little money. Actually, cheap, scarce or quirky things have become the new cool! Limited large scale operations only focused on quantitative growth are so twentieth century! For instance important shopping area’s like Soho in New York or the nine streets in Amsterdam have turned into uninspiring tourist places, while communities like Williamsburg also in the big apple and other off-the-grid area’s and initiatives throughout the world have become the “it” places to be. You have to search for it though, but that’s all part of the experience!
Diversity is what the modern homo sapiens is looking for! And not only to fulfill their individual needs. They simply can’t deal with marketing dictates anymore, they want to be who they are, inspired by others who also chose their individual path rather than one imposed by marketers.
We all need to do business, because we have to restore the damage that had been done. So let’s all wake up and find our inner strength and share it with the world, let’s be successful on our own terms, work hard, fight hard to make it happen and proof there are more ways leading to Rome, providing a stable life for all.
I ask all individuals to stand up and engage themselves in decision making processes, to be conscious of the impact of their actions and to be aware of the fact that we are all interconnected. Be good for yourself and take care of others.
Individualism 1.0 was all about self-centeredness, getting or being rich and obtaining the latest of the latest, yet denying an outside world that appeared to have a huge impact on all of us in retrospect.
Individualism 4.0 is about not following the latest trend dictated by designers and marketers, but creating your own trend, it’s about living closer to natural and human values rather than artificiality and quick gain and not in the last place it’s about understanding and cherishing yourself and the world that surrounds you. In the widest sense of the word, even if that means to go beyond the galaxy we are part of.
This article has been published in the 2013 and beyond issue of Second Sight
