Susan Strong <sstrong@igc.org>
12 Dec 2001
Dear Friends of the Metaphor Project,
Below is a version of a letter I recently sent to the New York
Times that
conveys my current thinking about an important kind of metaphor
we need now:
World Rescue Campaign.* A World Rescue Campaign could provide
a big enough
metaphorical tent to cover all the kinds of positive, cooperative
problem
solving we desperately need to set in motion now to resolve our
current
global crisis for the long term. Although World Rescue Campaign
may sound
grandiose, it is certainly no more so than war on terrorism. (As
for the
concern that setting out to rescue others may not be psychologically
sound,
please consider our current national alternatives when evaluating
this
metaphor.)
For some ideas about what might be included in a World Rescue
Campaign, try
looking at the brand new Living Economy Initiative which has been
posted at
the Social Venture Network's website
(http://iisd.ca/pcdf/SVN_Living_Economies.htm)
{Thanks to Susan Burns
for this reference.} The Initiative is a 40 page document written
collaboratively by David Korten, Elisabet Sahtouris, Amory Lovins,
Hazel
Henderson, Duane Elgin, Bernard Lietaer, Michael Shuman, Judy
Wicks and
others, which summarizes in brief compass their best thinking
on what must
be done to keep our planetary home safe. Interesting enough, on
Sunday,
Dec.9, Thomas Friedman also published an op ed in the New York
Times
entitled "Ask
Not What. . .", in which he emphatically laid out positive
steps U.S. citizens need to take, saying, "If we are going
to be stomping
around the world wiping out terrorist cells from Kabul to Manila,
we'd
better make sure that we are the best country, and the best global
citizens,
we can be. Otherwise, we are going to lose the rest of the world."
Included after the sample letter is also a graphic that could
go with the
idea of a World Rescue Campaign, the Think
Big! flag, created by Bay Area
artist Mary Ford soon after Sept. 11th. We suggest that the design
be
updated now by superimposing the Earth image on top of a Red Valentine
style
heart, with the words Think Big! also over the heart design at
the top. If
you have the graphics skills to update the flag design, please
go ahead and
then send a draft to Mary at the address given below for her approval.
If
you like the design as it is, she gives permission to use it in
any way you
like, so long as you attribute it to her and include her contact
information
which is: Mary Ford, mfordlew@aol.com
or 510-526-3455.
If you like these suggestions for language or images, please
use them in any
way you can.
Best wishes for your holiday season,
*N. B. As for the choice I made to use the word world, it seemed
to me that
the word earth was too narrowly linked in the public mind to environmental
problems alone, and the word global too linked in ours to the
excesses of
global corporatism. The word world, I felt, includes both the
people and the
place the most easily for the most people. Whatever language you
choose
though, just don't drop the word rescue!
Let's think really big: how about a World Rescue Campaign?
Dear Editor,
If we really want to rid the world of terrorism, if we are
actually serious
about this, we will have to mount a World Rescue Campaign. Although
war has
a way of organizing human societies and nations to do many things
they
ordinarily would not be able to do, the magnetic pull of rescue
is greater
by far. Ever since Sept. 11th we have seen its enormous power,
along with
the flood of public generosity it has unleashed. Rescue is an
expression of
all the very best human traits: healing, caring, thoughtfulness,
creativity,
taking care to do things right. Even more than war, rescue calls
for
courage, strength, responsibility, self-discipline, heroism, cooperation,
focusing, and very high levels of organization. A World Rescue
Campaign
could include every kind of group in our country, even in the
world, in a
brand new and highly durable consensus. It could also provide
a big enough
metaphorical tent to cover all the kinds of positive, cooperative
problem
solving we desperately need to resolve our current global crisis.
Although a
World Rescue Campaign may sound grandiose, it is certainly no
more so than a
global war on terrorism.
Moreover, fighting global terrorism with war alone or even
with crime
detection and prevention activities is, at best, a band-aid approach.
It
attacks the symptoms but not the disease that caused the illness
in the
first place. We all know this, even the Bush Administration. They
have
already taken some baby steps in the rescue direction--providing
some
limited Afghan relief, planning for nation building to follow
the Afghan
conflict, trying to open once again the dialogue about a Palestinian
state.
The news we do get about the Afghan War is being largely presented
as a
rescue of the Afghan people from the Taliban.
But a comprehensive world rescue campaign would mean much more
than that.
There are so many conditions in the world right now which promise
to breed
new conflicts to come. A world rescue campaign is simply the most
realistic, pragmatic, and effective thing to do, given the desperate
state
of world society today and of the increasingly fragile and stressed
ecosphere on which it rests. (For make no mistake, as our ecological
system
breaks down further, and as Earth's climate changes, these disruptions
will
also seed new refugees, desperately hungry and sick people, some
of whom
will be looking for ways to get back at all those who have ignored
them.)
Creating a highly visible and active World Rescue Campaign would
go a long
way toward defusing terrorism, guaranteeing national and global
security for
the long-term. Nor is it true that we lack the resources today
to create a
World Rescue Campaign. For example, the costs of giving everyone
clean
water, enough food, simple housing and education have been repeatedly
shown
to be astonishing low.
Another very important benefit of starting a positive World
Rescue Campaign
now is that it could include the kind of innovative technological
initiative
that always drives economic progress. This component of an WRC
would be a
worldwide campaign to shift global industrial production processes
and their
products toward the ecological sustainability we must have to
stay safe on
this planet. A World Rescue Campaign would make an excellent Earth
Ecosphere
insurance policy. And unlike a global war on terrorism, which
has been
likened to hitting dandelions just about to go to seed with a
golf club,
Operation World Rescue could plant fruitful seeds of hope all
over our
troubled planet.
Best of all, a World Rescue Campaign fits Einstein's criterion
for truly
effective problem solving. He warned us that a problem cannot
be solved on
the same level that created it. A world rescue campaign moves
the solution
to our current problem up to the next level, beyond mere fighting
back or
stagnation- breeding repression. A WRC is really our best and
only hope for
a livable future on this shared planet. And it is a common task,
in which
all can take joyful part, at whatever level they choose.
Susan C. Strong, Ph.D.
Former Senior Research Associate
The Center for Economic Conversion
Orinda, CA
This "Think Big!" flag jpg was originally 21.8 inches by 16.7 inches, and was reduced for easy loading and viewing -- but remember: It should be BIG!
Permission granted for any use if accompanied by this notice:
This "Think Big!" flag designed by Mary Ford, mfordlew@aol.com / 510-526-3455.