(2 minute video)
Revitalizing Ourselves With:
The Compression Thinking Series
Although a month or more from roll out, we’re preparing a series of twelve podcasts followed by teleconferences to which you will be invited. Each teleconference will last two hours. We want to deeply engage you in what needs to be done – by you individually, and by collective efforts you can initiate.
The Compression Institute has probed environmental crises for several years. A short post somewhere on our web site outlines a number of them, but far from all. We’ve never reviewed the bleaching of coral reefs, for instance. And recent news disclosed that “non-state actors” will soon be able to concoct a pathogen that attacks only people with a specific chromosome – really. With that, Hitler could have spared the expense of gas ovens.
The mind boggles trying to comprehend the many ways humans could extinguish themselves that it’s depressing. We don’t want to think about it. We have immediate problems to tend – problems of today in the system we have. But we’re running out of time.
Much is happening. Environmental initiatives abound. Most focus on just one or two issues out of many, many.
What can we do about this situation? A clear vision of a better world is also impossible to conjure, so no step-by-step strategy can be devised. Living and working very differently seems like the end of the world. But maybe – just maybe – we can change ourselves and the world we can influence by learning to think differently. We call that Compression Thinking.
Our core message has changed little in six years, but likewise, little has resulted. We’d like to change that. That’s why the Compression Thinking Series.
We’re battling our own psychology. We blank out thinking about dire forebodings or total upheavals in how we live and work. It’s not a platform likely to elect any politician. We prefer to believe that our future will be a smooth transition from our past, that what we have done before we can somehow continue doing, that my company and my job will continue, that my grandchildren will have a wonderful life…
In short, the changes we soon have to make are more fundamental than any in recent human history, but we can’t “see” them. Only by examining our situation – and ourselves – over a period of time do we muster the courage to open our eyes to unwelcome reality and step outside our comfort zones. We don’t like questioning our values, especially those that we don’t realize that we have. That’s why a 12-week Compression Thinking Series. Prior experience is that people listen politely to Compression Thinking, then go on as usual. (Me too, most of the time, and I’m giving the message.)
Here are the topics we will cover, week-by-week, in approximate order:
- Introduction to Compression Thinking
- Deep Change
- Finite Earth and Its Deep Implications
- Symbiotic Thinking
- Organize for Learning
- Quality over Quantity, Always
- Growing Grass vs. Biodiversity
- Fashion Waste: Why So Many Shoes and Garments?
- Cleaning: What does clean mean?
- Health Care: Is Less Curative Care Better for Us?
- Why move ourselves and so much stuff so far?
- Deep Changing Human Behavior: Can We Overcome “Petty” Human Tiffs?
When he can, I’ll be joined in the teleconferences by Ethan Berry, narrator of the podcasts. He has a day job, plus classes. Ethan is 23. I’m 82, so this is a bit of a conversation between the generations. We want you to dialog with us.
If you have 12 minutes, the video below zips through some five years of messages on our web page, leading up to The Compression Thinking Series. Over the next month we will be re-organizing the web page to dive into the Compression Thinking Series. We invite you to set aside some time to dive in with us.
Business Themes of the Compression Institute
(12 minute video)