The Vision Pioneers Blog

by Staffan Göranson

In Greek mythology, there was once a king named Midas. By Dionysos, god of fertility, wine and growth, he was offered the granting of a wish of his choosing. Greedy as he was, he cried out: Gold! Gold! Gold! And this was granted. Anything he touched became gold. He congratulated himself on all the riches within his touch. Everything around him - trees, bushes, palaces, servants - became gold. Never before had anyone had so much gold in their possession.

King Midas’ happiness was complete until he realized that he was hungry and thirsty. But as the cup touched his lips the wine turned into gold. When he put a grape into his mouth, his teeth cracked from biting into a grape of gold. Soon, the hunger and thirst became unbearable. His daughter reached out to help him get some food into his body. Foreseeing the danger, he tried pushing her away in order to save her. But also she was transformed into a golden statue. King Midas was distraught. He regretted his foolishness, begging Dionysos to make his wish undone.

In the last two centuries of industrialism, most of what we have touched has become gold. The generation of my parents bore in mind the poor, the oppressed - people in their immediate vicinity who had no social security when they fell ill or out of work. I was raised in a family business. My father’s greatest satisfaction was accomplishing good things together with his co-workers, where everyone contributed with their piece of a greater whole. In this way, the company grew into a larger organism. These are good memories that I carry with me still.

However, in the last 20-30 years, the flip side of industrialism has become all the more visible, as the drive for economies of scale leads to a mechanism of growth independent of the actual needs of people - a machinery driving man rather than the other way around.

In ancient times, there was another king who was offered a corresponding wish from his god; namely to wish for anything he liked and it would be granted to him. The king was Solomon and he was succeeding his father king David who had been a legend already in his own lifetime. Solomon wished for the ability to discern between good and evil so that he would be able to lead his people in a just way. Like king Midas, Solomon’s wish was granted. But unlike Midas, Solomon never had any reason to regret what he had wished for. He became the most powerful and the wealthiest man in his lifetime and his nation prospered in every possible way. And the legacy of his wisdom has outlived him.

There is an old truth that says that we will have what our hearts desire. My generation was born during the peak of industrialism, but we are now facing the need for a deeper assessment of its consequences. We are not doomed to follow the flow. We have the opportunity to think our own destiny through. Why not learn from history and start thinking about the kind of society that we really want to see? About what will give a good and meaningful life - for ourselves, our children and our grandchildren.

May we be granted the wisdom that is needed to move in the right direction.

by Miriam Garvi

In When progress equals devolution, I wrote about how easily wisdom is lost in our pursuit of knowledge, as we discard the natural in favor of the artificially modified that will allow for production and consumption en masse.

Lately, there seems to be a common understanding that in order for our post-industrial knowledge society to become environmentally, economically as well as morally sustainable, we need to see some kind of change occur. How deep this change should go, however, is not clear: whilst some are talking about replastering the capitalistic system to make it more palatable, other voices are calling for a more profound and complete transformation of our way of living.

Through the eyes of a child, what beauty would we be able to see?

As we start out, life is rewarding in its simplicity and beautiful in all that it promises. But the precious innocence and playfulness of the young child is lost as we are socialized into the imperatives of modern society. So many of those treasures that are so easily discerned through the eyes of a child, become impossible to see once viewed through the lenses of what is socially correct and normatively acceptable.

People working with strategic change know that achieving transformation includes allowing the taken-for-granted to be shaken at its core. Yet unless there is truly a renewed mindset, any such «unfreezing» technique will only serve to build new walls on the same foundation. And, like the leaning tower of Pisa, it will matter little what we do above ground, if we do not concern ourselves with the fundamentals underground that will hold it all together.

More than change, vision pioneering is about reclaiming that childlike eagerness where life is yet an open book waiting to be filled and where what we make of our lives truly matters. And with the playful why we can rediscover the freedom that is ours to envision what is beautiful, useful, and helpful to mankind.

Let us be young again!

by Miriam Garvi

In this age of technological advancement, so much that was once unheard of has come within our reach. Old barriers are broken as we venture into space or create clones of the living. The enormity of resources that are poured into making scientific progress and creating markets for technology is a testament to how strongly the world holds on to its belief in the power of knowledge.

This last decade is favoring growth-oriented strategies that rely on innovation, entrepreneurship and venture capital to generate such growth that will be valued on financial markets. Little is said, however, about what kind of ideas are brought about and whether we believe that they are actually doing good, not just promoting a strategic agenda. The questions that we do not raise are fundamental in their simplicity: what is the purpose, and whom is it all for?

Our belief in knowledge springs from the assumption that any added building block brings the world enlightenment. In our efforts to exploit and manipulate nature so as to satisfy the growth agendas of our times, the natural is no longer good enough. Instead, we welcome industrially-processed substitutes that are labeled «improvements». And so we put ourselves at the mercy of streamlining profiteers, buying frozen chicken that has been «neutrally marinated» in water and food conservatives simply because someone just realized that the artificial replacing the genuine was a profitable strategy. Less of the genuine; more of the artificial, even as more people around us suffer from cancer and we see our nature going down the drain.

Implications of knowledge, but what of wisdom?

The source of wisdom?

What good is technological advancement, unless it allows for meaningful progress and prosperity for mankind? Can we claim to be enlightened, if we consume what is at our disposal, with no concern for the legacy that we will be leaving behind?

Devolution tells us that everything started from a high and has been slowly deteriorating ever since. In this light, the need is imminent to move away from a foundation that is flawed, looking to discover a different source, one that will give rise to meaningful richness in all its diversity.

by Miriam Garvi

Look at this picture. Nothing but bare skies over a bare, snow-covered landscape.

But beyond what is captured by the camera lens is a moment rich in satisfaction and peace, a moment of untouched open space that awakens the hope of new beginnings. A breather from all the musts and the matters of course that frame our everyday life.

In our relentless pursuit of knowledge, we assemble everything we think we need to know about the ‘how tos’ and the ‘how not tos’. But this structure of fragmented pieces robs us of a quality so fundamental that it is known by the smallest child: that childlike innocence that allows us to believe in the unwritten page of new beginnings.

All too often what we see is blocking our sight. Unless we make room for the invisible qualities of life they will fall into oblivion, quenched by conventional professionalism. Vision pioneering is about unwritten pages and new beginnings: to start afresh by allowing fulfilling qualities to be brought out into the world. It is about new seeds taking form, germinating and growing so that we may be enriched not just monetarily but in a wider, human sense as we experience true fulfilment.