Distributive Leadership
Our emerging sense of biosphere consciousness coincides with discoveries in evolutionary biology, neurocognitive science, and child development that reveal that people are biologically predisposed to be empathic— that our core nature is not rational, detached, acquisitive, aggressive, and narcissistic, as many Enlightenment philosophers suggested, but rather, affectionate, highly social, cooperative, and interdependent.
Homo sapiens is giving way to Homo empathicus. Social historians tell us that empathy is the social glue that allows increasingly individualized and diverse populations to forge bonds of familiarity across broader domains so that society can cohere as a whole.
To empathize is to civilize. Empathy has evolved over history. In forager-hunter societies, empathy rarely went beyond tribal blood ties. In the hydraulic agricultural age, empathy extended past blood ties to associational ties based on religious identification. Jews began to empathize with fellow Jews as if in an extended family, Christians began empathizing with fellow Christians , Muslims with Muslims, and so on. In the industrial age, with the emergence of the modern nation-state, empathy extended once again, this time to people of like-minded national identities.
Americans began to empathize with Americans, Germans with Germans, Japanese with Japanese. Today, at the outset of the Third Industrial Revolution, empathy is beginning to stretch beyond national boundaries to biosphere boundaries .
We are coming to see the biosphere as our indivisible community, and empathizing with our fellow human-beings and other creatures as our extended evolutionary family. The realization that we are an empathic species, that empathy has evolved over history, and that we are as interconnected in the biosphere as we are in the blogosphere, has great significance for rethinking the mission of education. New teaching models designed to transform education from a competitive contest to a collaborative and empathic learning experience are emerging as schools and colleges try to reach a generation that has grown up on the Internet and is used to interacting in open social networks where information is shared rather than hoarded.
The traditional assumption that “Knowledge Is Power” to be used for personal gain is being subsumed by the notion that knowledge is an expression of the shared responsibilities for the collective well-being of humanity and the planet as a whole.
Rifkin, Jeremy (2011-10-04). The Third Industrial Revolution: How Lateral Power Is Transforming Energy, the Economy, and the World (p. 236). Palgrave Macmillan. Kindle Edition.
Empathy: identification the power of understanding and imaginatively entering into another person's feelings. Empathy is the ability to mutually experience the thoughts, emotions, and direct experience of others. Dictionary.com
Empathic: Empathic tendencies are inherited; traits passed down from our ancestors are indicated in our DNA. Richard Newstead
Homo-empathicus : We now face the haunting prospect of approaching global empathy in a highly energy -intensive, interconnected world, riding on the back of an escalating entropy bill that now threatens catastrophic climate change and our very existence. Resolving the empathy/ entropy paradox will likely be the critical test of our species’ ability to survive and flourish on Earth in the future. This will necessitate a fundamental rethinking of our philosophical, economic, and social models.
Third Industrial Revolution that is ushering in a new era of “Distributed Capitalism” and the beginning of biosphere consciousness. We are on the cusp, I believe, of an epic shift into a “Climax” global economy and a fundamental repositioning of human life on the planet. The Age of Reason is being eclipsed by the Age of Empathy.
The most important question facing humanity is this :
Can we reach Global Empathy in time to avoid the collapse of civilization and save the Earth?
Rifkin, Jeremy (2009-12-14). The Empathic Civilization: The Race to Global Consciousness in a World in Crisis (Kindle Locations 113-114). Penguin Group US. Kindle Edition.
Really John what the hell is all that about J. Rifkin is he a crackpot or what. Like a lot of Humans I like to find like-minded Humans that think like “ME”. I don’t know Mr. Rifkin, although I would like to be able to articulate a thought as well as he does. For 20 years I have studied Buck Minister Fuller and felt like I was amongst a bunch of idealist and crackpots. I have been looking for a way to think beyond the money systems and it limited meaning in Universe affairs.
My great friend Jason T sent “ME” a skype message as Follows
“do not know if you have read or listened to anything by Jeremy Rifkin … pretty insightful … here is a couple of his videos I think you will understand ."
When Jason takes the time to send “ME” a video I watch it now. That minute no questioned asked just do it. There is an urgent requirement for change on this planet.
What I want all readers to understand Jason lives in Georgia in the USA, Rifkin is a US citizen working in Germany as I understand it, and I live in Australia. Yet in less than 20 minutes I’m able to get access to Mr Rifkins videos, books, audios and study for understanding. I would like to able to write like Mr Rifkin, however I can feel the absolute meaning of Age of Empathy the Homo-Empathicus.
I feel I have apprehended Empathic Human for the last 20 years of my life. I have spent the years studying the concept and like always thinking Gees John you are so original in what you think……nobody else thinks like that. Every time I have thought that I have always found that there is always someone else on the same wave length and I have just tuned in something from somewhere else. That to “me Is the great design of Human in Universe…… we are tuning device transmitting and receiving information at different level and length of the spectrum broadband of life.. I have to say I’m both excited and feel privileged that Jason T would take the time to send “ME” the information and that J Rifkin would take the time to risk who he is and write, televise, and record his thought audibly. Needless to say I’m on it as how to apply in my day to day businesses.
JDS OUT! ! !
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