Spring | Summer 2013

Kosmos is for those who want to participate in the global transformation from industrial society to the new civilization. It is for all of us who have been disillusioned with the greed, materialism, disrespect and deep suffering caused by inequities in harnessing the world’s resources and wealth.

The world is in need of adopting a radical new operating system. The challenges are vast. The sobering reality is that not a single person knows the best way through to greener pastures, or even if such a world is attainable.

The commons has been my passion for the past fifteen years. This shift in my energies came about as I […]

Yellowstone is a powerful reminder and example of the need we have as human beings to do things together, to share the bounty and beauty of nature together, and to both appreciate the beauty and the wonder of the natural world, and to therefore bind ourselves to rules and regulations that safeguard such beauty and splendor.

This series of articles looks at the meaning of value in economics. We are pondering the idea of a thing, a common object. Our guidepost is Aristotle’s division of basic kinds of things into C (commodities as a means to household satisfaction) and M (things as a means to making money). In terms of the human actions involving things, we have identified C-M-C’ (interconnection, cooperation, use value) with the right hemisphere and subjective side of the brain, and M-C-M’ (separation, competition, exchange value) with the left hemisphere and human objectivity.

Since Galileo, science has had a bias towards simplification for the very sensible and practical reason that it was all it could handle. Nothing is wrong with this as long as the limitation of the method is not projected onto reality, limiting it.

It’s 2013. You have probably noticed. We survived the end of days, so what now? What is humanity’s future?

As we look out at the world today, we take inspiration from what is happening around the globe, from young people participating in movements like the Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street; to the new monastic movement among evangelical Christians dedicated to prayer and radical service to the poor; to the conversation among Protestants of an ‘Emerging Church’ (“. . . not a new religion, but a new way of being religious”); to small groups of Muslims who are gathering together, allowing women to lead worship, and reinventing what it means to answer God’s call; to ‘engaged Buddhism,’ blending the sublime practices and compassion of the Buddhist path with social activism; to the ‘spiritual but not religious’ youth who are beginning to take responsibility for their own spiritual lives outside the walls of our traditional religious institutions.

Humanity is in the midst of a great transformation across the globe. This is now apparent to even casual observers, […]

Most of my professional career was spent on assignments outside of Europe. I have worked mostly in the development field, mainly for the European Union of which I have been a civil servant for the last three decades. Besides diplomatic functions associated with the job, I also remember a life made of packing and unpacking from house to house in ten countries and four continents. Traditional diplomacy was a necessity. However, sense-making and learning from the ground appeared more efficient—and more enjoyable—than toasting with dubious political benefits. Diplomacy was born on the understanding that it is wiser to listen rather than to eat the messenger, so there was no risk for me!