Rural System's
Speech:
New Century Dreaming a Little
Comments for a SubCommittee - mid 1990s
A Healthy Place for the Next Century
I prefer dreaming without nightmares. For many years I have lectured about the problems of the environment and life in the future. I have been afraid for my children (still am, and now grandchildren to the list), but have never been able to know what to do with such fear. Like society with the atomic bomb threat, fear has become part of everyday life.
Now I'm thinking it may be more useful to do some practical dreaming, that is, imagining things as I want them for myself and the people around me. i long ago realized that few people can be happy or say they have a high quality of life when they are surrounded by unhappy people. They may briefly appear happy, but not for long. The pleasant "night-out" quickly becomes the "weekafter."
Practical dreaming replaces flights of fancy; it's reined-in imagination. It replaces planning that has 40 definitions and no agreement on the leading one. Planning is easily agreed upon, and most people do it. Some do it better than others (as in "I didn't plan to get caught!"), but whether plans or their execution is at fault when matters go awry remains debatable. Legislators, as in a lemming cycle, argue for planning for a few years, then against it.
Practical dreaming -- not fear, classical planning, nor flights of fancy - - seems needed for the New Century Region now being discussed by the New Century Council.
And especially necessary is a new way to approach the needs of people in the region for tomorrow. We need a way to see the prospects for the future and a realistic way to span the gap between present conditions and what's barreling down the track. The exciting part of the challenge, requiring OlYmpic-sport skill, is to hit the rapidly moving target that is the desirable future condition. As in skeet shooting, it requires leading the target.
"Let me tell you my practical dream; you tell me yours." This statement is the basis for work in the region as I see it. In some areas of the world, there are people who don't like such talk. There is a notion that someone may be in charge and may be telling someone what to do. Maybe there can be a conversation. Just sharing.
It's hard finding out what others think. That takes time, which seems in short supply for everyone these days. Perhaps, however, all of the things we are doing now are not as important as such discussions. Research indicates that most people read about four times faster than they hear speech, so written comments may be useful to the New Century Council and boost the efficiency of the data gathering process a few points.
Of course we have some difficulties from the past with which to deal. Several folks have said that the future is going to be like the past, only more so! Other curmudgeons point out that new programs suffer reversals in policies every 10 years or so. Edward Gibbon, renowned English rationalist historian of the 18th century, claimed in his monumental work that the fall of the Roman Empire was grounded in forces of decay and collapse that were built into concepts of what was proper behavior.
What I'm trying to do is escape the magnetic field of classical futures work. I'm dreaming of ways to see the conditions that we really want, before pondering how to survive or how to reach desirable goals. Our region needs to become open-minded; practical; at least as interested in our grandchildren's conditions as our own; inclusive; aware of our history; involved with laughter, fun, and the satisfactions of the human condition; and excited about being a part of the rest of the Commonwealth, the nation, and the world.
As an example, I dream of a region where we have a special insurance rate that rewards people who have superior health. The big-H score is like the reward for not smoking or not have accidents. It's reasonable for people to want good health, but regular, specific, monetary encouragement is not a bad idea.
I imagine grocery stores promoting healthful foods, farmers involved in highly valued natural food production. Zoning could discourage living on sites known from studies to be correlated with cancer incidence. Fire-safety inspections could reduce insurance costs, and (here is the interconnection needed throughout the region) the incidence of fires would be cut, economic loss reduced, fossil energy loss reduced, and the social trauma throughout the area along with the unhappiness coefficient reduced. A new small industry, "the inspection team," would come into being.
My illustration is brief, but note what it contains. The practical dream has at least five related parts: it can be done now (no inventions needed), it has financial dimensions, it may have costs but they are offset or equaled by benefits, and it need not produce the past, only more so! Other curmudgeons point out that new programs suffer reversals in policies every 10 years or so. Edward Gibbon, renowned English rationalist historian of the 18th century, claimed in his monumental work that the fall of the Roman Empire was grounded in forces of decay and collapse that were built into concepts of what was proper behavior. What I'm trying to do is escape the magnetic field of classical futures work. I'm dreaming of ways to see the conditions that we really want, before pondering how to survive or how to reach desirable goals. Our region needs to become open-minded; practical; at least as interested in our grandchildren's conditions as our own; inclusive; aware of our history; involved with laughter, fun, and the satisfactions of the human condition; and excited about being a part of the rest of the Commonwealth, the nation, and the world. As an example, I dream of a region where we have a special insurance rate that rewards people who have superior health. The big-H score is like the reward for not smoking or not have accidents. It's reasonable for people to want good health, but regular, specific, monetary encouragement is not a bad idea. I imagine grocery stores promoting healthful foods, farmers involved in highly valued natural food production. Zoning could discourage living on sites known from studies to be correlated with cancer incidence. Fire-safety inspections could reduce insurance costs, and (here is the interconnection needed throughout the region) the incidence of fires would be cut, economic loss reduced, fossil energy loss reduced, and the social trauma throughout the area along with the unhappiness coefficient reduced. A new small industry, "the inspection team," would come into being. My illustration is brief, but note what it contains. The practical dream has at least five related parts: it can be done now (no inventions needed), it has financial dimensions, it may have costs but they are offset or equaled by benefits, and it need not produce "blue-chip" investment returns -- just a great, sustained, healthy place for people in the Next Century.
Even the Underdog Has a Chance
At one time I analyzed a seven-county region in an effort to identify optional land uses for a large tract in its middle. I found a solution but it soon dawned on me that it was a good idea that would not work. It was a non-solution. The reason was: you cannot have a vi tal, viable enterprise in a depressed area for long. By analogy, you cannot have a really healthy heart in an otherwise diseased body -- at least not for long. Another analogy is portrayed in the cartoon in which one person yells to another: "Hey, your end of the boat is sinking!"
As I dream about the New Century Council Region, I imagine it becoming a centerpiece for land management, for sensitive industrial development, for a new intensive model for education, for sustained agriculture, for unusual recreational opportunities, and for a population of people very proud of their region and their diverse culture.
When I stop dreaming, I see what is around the region and realize that a place cannot be rich (at least its people not very happy very long), if it is surrounded by the poor or less fortunate. As I dream about the New Century Council Region, I take heart, for I believe that what is done for the region can be done elsewhere. The ideas shared, computer programs exports, data shared, techniques transferred.
I learned from a Mr. Leon Powell in Covington about the buoyancy principle. You get ahead by improving the status of the people around you. Perhaps the principle will apply with the New Century Council Region. The concept justifies intensive work on the council and in the region because then maybe more citizens, if not all, stand to share the benefits.
Just dreaming a little... but it makes sense to me.
Modern Version of the CCC Camps
When you're doing practical dreaming, you are not planning in the classical sensei instead, you are thinking about human objectives, what groups of people really need, and wondering how you would know the answer if you saw it. The sequence is different from classical planning, which defines the problem and proposes how to fix it.
In my practical dreaming I dream of a camp for select, non-violent delinquents. It involves several components: interwoven relationships, financial considerations, long-term effects, things that can be done now, and whether the outcome increases the aesthetics of beauty, art, fun.
The camp makes a profit. It costs taxpayers less than they now pay for juvenile detention facilities. It includes health studies, with expenses (that eventually get offset by the long term benefits) to get these people in good physical and mental health. It has a computer team to teach the youth basic skills first and then how to use computer research as a tool to improve the New Century Region. Thirdly, the camp would expose youth to active work in developing the recreational potentials of the outdoors -- mostly trail work for hikers, horseback riders, and cross-country skiers.
The camp idea seeks to demonstrate what I view as a practical dream. It is responsive to real needs, it potentially cuts taxes, it responds to space needs created by currently overloaded facilities, it is related to a health objective. It uses the analytical and research strengths in the region. It requires meaningful work with results similar to the beautiful trails of the CCC days, it prepares troubled youth for future work. It develops computer programs for local use, it prepares programmers, and it provides employment opportunities for local people (computers make the choices endless).
There could be five sites to which the camp migrates every four months. Non-violent emphasis is critical. Absolute needs versus what is liked may have to be confronted.
The end result could be positive social consequences to the people in the program and in the region. The "camp's" support services could enhance many companies as well as create new businesses throughout the region. It could make leaders out of potential criminals.
One major reason for sharing this practical dream is to suggest that ideas that have committee names may not work the way we envision. We need to approach the region as a whole. We need to think of relationships as much as parts.
We need to dream about how the good that is in the region can be turned up a notch because there are forces at work turning it down. We need to move up just to stay level. Practical dreaming is one way to do so.
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