As Journaling goes, this would be WEEK 11 in my series documenting the journey of Project: FORWARD, however this is not really an article about the progress being made, but rather about the intentions and logic behind the project. Still, in a way it is a part of the journey of developing the project, and I hope you'll enjoy it:
It has been a while since I wrote anything, but I never stopped observing worldwide events and tracking vital changes in our world. Things are not looking great and those unaffected are also the unaware, which in itself creates a collective problem with profound repercussions.
The lesson, if we can still call it that, continues to remain unlearned. A collective problem - a collective mess, really - can only be solved collectively. Superman, God, or the wish-granting Jinn will not intervene. Not this time. Not ever. THAT is the lesson.
I could write about climate change - that climate change which according to the “new science” does not change and is not a threat to anyone - but I believe that almost everyone knows about it by now, or feels it. Unprecedented would be not the climate change itself, but the accelerating shortening of our runway for survival. I could say that we are facing an extinction level event, but we’re not actually facing it - we’re rushing towards it like a mad herd being driven into an abyss by some lunatics with the power of the political and financial whip. But I will not write about it, because - just like you - I am in a state of ignorance by helplessness.
I could also write about the war. Wars. But there are no wars to write about, just “mere military operations”. Basic stuff. Drone stuff. Other people dying, elsewhere, in lands far, far away from my (our) perceptual realm. Of course we care - we are human beings after all - but we are not directly feeling it, except for the higher priced fuel, expensive food, and maybe a sense that something, somewhere is not entirely quite right. And with that thought, I (we) slip back into the mentally and emotionally comforting state of ignorance by helplessness.
Two powerful (disruptive and devastating) forces driving me (us) closer to my (our) demise; one simple cop-out “solution” out of a misplaced - yet entirely justified - sense of emotional preservation.
Two absolutely terrifying historic tsunamis. One absolutely mind boggling reaction - or lack of a logical reaction actually. If we ignore it, it doesn’t exist. Just like climate change, or wars, or famine, poverty, environmental destruction, corruption. Or loneliness. Out of our sight, out of our mind - but is it really “out of our mind”? In reality, no. It never is. We can run from these issues, but can never hide from their consequences and their hidden costs to our wellbeing, safety, and even future survival.
We can simply state that there is no climate change and that there are no wars. When truth no longer carries any value or power, it becomes a social media brand, a tag and a slogan, allowing us to practically twist it and turn it into whatever we want.
Tangentially, nowadays many of our current politicians and governmental heads often refer to the Presidential social media posts with a culturally disturbing sentence - “You saw the Truth” - truth which now literally represents a random social media post, akin to a Tweet or whatever other nicknames exists for this sort of intellectually abhorrent phenomenon. This cultural hijacking is not accidental, but that should be the subject of a different writing at a different time.
Back to the subject at hand, yes, from this perspective, there is no climate change. Crank up the Air Conditioner (if you have it) and just buy and drink more bottled water (if the AI data centers haven’t gotten to it first). From this perspective also, there are no wars. Just some local conflicts, a few ethnic cleansings, and some minor disruptions to major energy supplies logistically interconnected to absolutely everything - from your soap to grains, shoes, toothpaste, underwear, potatoes, milk, aspirin, and everything in between. Totally out of sight, and out of our minds, right?
Until.
Until the consequences come knocking at our door. And truth be told, these consequences will not come knocking. They will not be polite. They will offer no negotiating timetable. They will simply and unemotionally…hit. Nothing personal, really. Just tsunami forces unleashed beyond our apparent control. A control we - the current 8+ Billion humans currently alive on Earth - voluntarily continue to relinquish to a bunch of criminals, sociopaths, and psychopaths placed in a position of “leadership” by an ideologically-driven financial cartel playing God.
I could write about these two powerful forces about to converge and clash into each other while I (we) roam around in the middle, never looking up, never locking eyes, never holding hands - but that would be too poetic, philosophical even - and who needs that in a time of efficiency and achievement?
Instead, I will write about an idea very dear to me. A utopian - you might say - vision of a collective social organism where we are all recognizing, respecting, and acknowledging our interconnectedness. From the start though, I wish to state that for me, the word Utopian is a good word. Rolls off the tongue with elegance, even if it is almost instantly dismissed by most people as being akin to daydreaming - a neurological fundamental and necessary process to our brain, while also a culturally ignored and even reprimandable behavior.
For full reference, Utopian means aiming for a perfect society, being idealistic, or showing impracticality. The word comes from Sir Thomas More’s 1516 book Utopia, combining Greek roots for "not/no" and "place". In more current times, it seems to have acquired connotations related to socialism - which is ironic since Karl Max rejected Utopianism entirely. More importantly, before modern times, Utopia can be traced back to Plato’s literary and philosophical exercise in social studies via Kallipolis, an ideal city described in his work, The Republic.
Since the word itself has such range, I decided long ago that, for me, it will mean more than just dreaming of an ideal, and instead it would reach into the realm of possibilities. Utopia for me is potential. From this perspective, and this perspective only, I am a Utopian, a person who follows the logic of possibilities by means of a logical process of imagination.
Let me rephrase that - for me, being a utopian involves logic employed in building strategic processes in order to re-imagine the design of our society and ultimately of human civilization.
As an example, I don’t just merely dream of flying cars. I envision ways in which education can enhance the dynamics of a society, or how the distribution of work-time would jumpstart an unprecedented leap in how our civilization progresses out of the current exploitative model, etc.
So, for the sake of this article, put aside the notion of “utopian” you have been accustomed with. That notion acts as a cultural filter installed in our minds with a single, specific purpose: to block vision, to pre-emptively dismiss imagination being employed on matters of civics, progress, and future civilization design. To label, thus to limit.
Ready?
One characteristic of mine is an utter lack of patience. Even when I appear to be patient, I am not. Inside my mind, thoughts always rush at galactic speeds and when I do manage to quiet the mind, the silence and absence of thoughts leaves me with a tremendous feeling of power, an inertia-like leftover from the rushing thoughts that were temporarily released from their rush. This silence usually lasts a few seconds, minutes maybe. While I enjoy the power of this stillness, I prefer - and am even addicted to - the speed of my thoughts. The silence of thoughts I speak of is rather a suspension of thoughts and it is a practice I learned from my beloved mentor in my turbulent youth. He was one of the kindest, respectful, and loving humans I have ever met. The galactic speed of my thoughts on the other hand, is a personal practice I kept as a mental companion throughout my life and it is reflected in almost every aspect of my life.
These two bits of information I just shared - one about me and one about the word “utopian” - are really a necessary intellectual lens through which to understand what I mean, how I mean it, and why I mean it the way I do.
If you ever read Science-Fiction, or even if you watched Sci-Fi shows or movies, you are familiar with the concept of parallel universes. As they are portrayed, these parallel universes are almost identical, but slightly different from one another due to slight variations that led to major divergences from a timeline or a character or place. As a concept, the use of parallel universes reflects an exercise in imagination that logically follows “what if” parameters. These “what if” parameters are often very small, but have significant and often essential and consequential value.
For example, should your parents have never met, you would not have existed - and everything connected to your existence would have been entirely different, or even non-existent. A small, insignificant moment of two individuals meeting on a single moment in space and time, suddenly carries tremendous divergent power in the context of a parallel potential timeline.
My approach to analyzing the future, specifically progress, follows the same logical pathways where various modifications to rather small elements in the framework of our society can effectively lead to re-imagined social designs. These modifications are not impossible by any means; on the contrary. By following the cause and effect process, we can re-imagine and re-design how our real world works. If we insert a single element that breaks the laws of physics into this process, everything eventually collapses and we are thrown into the entertainment realm. Therefore, ironically, what I mean by being a utopian requires absolute honesty, an honesty fundamentally rooted in reality.
My own personal Utopianism requires great discipline of thought. (Think of it as the fuel for flight. If you fuel a plane with orange juice, it will never take off and fly unless someone designs a micro-bond-dissociation-fission engine that can break down any molecule and turn it into usable energy.)
All that being said, and with all of that in mind, let me take you inside the “utopian” dream behind Project: FORWARD and why I believe it to be a positive and constructive project for everyone involved, but especially for its intended participant audience - Youth.
If you read my description of the project, you’ll see that the intention is to gather video testimonies from young minds around the world, describing what THEY envision our future civilization to have the potential of becoming. This documentary series is meant to instantly bridge social and cultural differences, merging a diverse pool of points of view into a common thread - a civilization for all, a civilization by all.
While this description of the project is relatively straight forward, I would like to invite you to dive deeper with me, at intentional level, where the essence of the project is a fluid vision of human potential - flowing like a river of life along landscapes of possibilities, all based on real human universal values as well as concrete socio-cultural principles and processes.
Project: FORWARD started as an idea for a documentary series. It then evolved into a documentary series residing within a platform for youth citizen journalism, a platform meant for communication exchange, collaborative works, and a social projects incubator.
As this concept took shape, it became apparent to me that one of the essential roles this project could play is to remind young generations of their own power to design their own future, and to bring into focus - for older generations - how relevant and crucial they are in supporting this future.
However, as humanity is crossing uncharted geo-political territories, a secondary role began to emerge in my mind. As this concept started to claim cultural, political, social, and environmental coordinates in our current reality, a new map was revealed - a map of possibilities and potential where the landmarks represented actual human ingenuity and visionary treasures. At that point, Project: FORWARD grew into its most powerful enveloping mantle: a depository of dreams.
This creative process of developing the roadmap for Project:FORWARD led to a convergence of (1) a project with the concrete potential for action, (2) a “utopian” path forward, and (3) a dream vault containing real testimonies from real people about a real possibility for our civilization.
While this may sound complicated or even impossible to achieve, let me give you a really silly example - an example that was relatively common not too long ago across the world:
Imagine a group of friends getting together. Maybe they are college friends. Maybe they live on the same street. Maybe they are old army pals. Whomever they might be, they share something in common - a dream, a history, a passion, or more. So these folks get together one late afternoon (maybe after school or after work), with the sole purpose to spend time together. Because they like each other. Because togetherness feels good. Because they can laugh together. Dream together. Sing along. Talk each other’s ears off with topics that range from personal stories to how the Universe unfolds. And as they settle into their random, heart warming and often passionate conversations, one of them brings up an issue.
Suddenly, the collective attention shifts to a single thread of reactions. Maybe the music turns from Dire Straits to a softer Bob Dylan song. Maybe the lights dim. Maybe the voices change tone, and the laughter turns to whispers and wonderment. This entire moment follows a natural flow of state of mind shifting, something very well known and cherished by those of us who experienced it. This was maybe in our youth. Definitely before mobile devices and social media. And maybe it still is in parts of the world, and where people still remember how good it feels to…just be together.
Now, as everyone’s leaning closer, ideas start to fly across the space, like tiny sparks from a fire, illuminating not only the ether, but also each individual heart, soul, and mind present in the group. Questions bolt forward and in every direction, becoming akin to street signs - pointing in various directions, becoming part of a new map for a new concept, a new project maybe.
And just like that, the one thing that makes this possible - togetherness - fuels a new bond of ideas and resources merged into a plan toward solving the issue that jumpstarted it all.
As cinematic as I might have described it, this possible moment in time is not “utopian.” It is possible, now and here - in your time and space - with a little bit of willingness, a pinch of bravery to reach out, and a simple curiosity to experience it. I know this is possible because for me, this is not the exercise in imagination of a scriptwriter, but a memory. My own memory, from my own youth, of my own friends. This is possible. Togetherness IS possible.
Unless.
Unless we forget. Unless we become so entrapped by our busyness that we run out of time for ourselves and for each other. Unless our time, the brief window into existence we experience, is surrendered to the plethora of distractions and noise pulling at our attention, awareness, and ultimately our sense of a rhythm in sync with nature - and with our nature.
This is my full dream for Project: FORWARD. A story told by one young mind from every country on Earth to remind us all of the possibility for togetherness. An invitation to cross-cultural collaboration beyond all borders. And, a repository of our dreams for a bright future - a testimony and reminder of our potential when we release our collective visionary creativity in the service of all humanity and of the planet we call home.
Project: FORWARD is a statement and a call to action:
Ignorance by Helplessness No More.
Come aboard. This could be an exciting, rewarding, interesting and unique experience.
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