Margaret J. Wheatley is one of my heroes. She began caring about the world’s peoples in 1966 as a Peace Corps volunteer in postwar Korea. Since then, as a consultant, senior-level advisor, teacher, and healer, she has helped millions to better understand ourselves and our world. In her book, Who Do We Choose to Be? Facing Reality, Claiming Leadership, Restoring Sanity, she says,

                “My aspiration is for you to see clearly so that you may act wisely. If we don’t know where we are, if we don’t know what to prepare for, then any path we choose will keep us wandering in the wilderness, increasingly desperate, increasingly lost.”

                I had the good fortune to interview Dr. Wheatley and wrote an article, “Warrior’s of the Human Spirit: Finding Your Path of Contribution in a World Out of Balance.” I said in the article:

                “At a time when many people are afraid of the truth, she tells it like it is. At a time when many people want to run away and hide, she invites us to step into our true warrior spirit in the tradition of Buddhist teacher Chögyam Trungpa.”

                In my book, The Warrior’s Journey Home: Healing Men, Healing the Planet, I quoted Trungpa:

            “Warriorship here does not refer to making war on others. Aggression is the source of our problems, not the solution. Here the word ‘warrior’ is taken from the Tibetan pawo which literally means ‘one who is brave.’ Warriorship in this context is the tradition of human bravery, or the tradition of fearlessness. Warriorship is not being afraid of who you are.”

                I received my own awakening to the warrior spirit in 1993 at a Men’s Leaders’ Conference in Indianapolis, Indiana, sponsored by Wingspan Magazine. As part of the conference offerings, we were invited to participate in a traditional Native American sweat lodge ceremony. In the 4^th round when things got so hot in the lodge that many people had to get out, I was transported into a vision where I saw the sinking of the Ship of Civilization and the launching of Lifeboats For Humanity.  

            Most of those on the Ship of Civilization wouldn’t believe the ship could sink, denied the truth, and went under. A few people, who believed the truth of their senses rather than the propaganda of the ship captain, escaped in lifeboats, banded together, and created a new, more sustainable, world.

            Over the last thirty years this vision has guided my life. Here are a few of the things I’ve learned:

• “Civilization” is a misnomer. Its proper name is the “Dominator culture.”

            As long as we believe the myth that “civilization” is the best humans can aspire to achieve, we are doomed to go down with the ship. In The Chalice & the Blade: Our History Our Future first published in 1987, internationally acclaimed scholar and futurist, Riane Eisler first introduced us to our long, ancient heritage as a Partnership Culture and our more recent Dominator Culture, which has come to be called “Civilization.” In her book, Nurturing Our Humanity: How Domination and Partnership Shape Our Brains, Lives, and Future, written with peace activist Douglas P. Fry, they offer real guidance for creating a world based on partnership.

• There is a better world, beyond civilization.

            When I was given the book Ishmael, by Daniel Quinn, I got a clear sense of the two worlds that are competing for our attention: A world where hierarchy and dominance rule (Quinn calls it the world of the Takers) and a world where equality and connection rule (Quinn calls it the world of the Leavers). In his book, Beyond Civilization: Humanity’s Next Great Adventure, Quinn asks,

                “What does saving the world mean? Saving the world can only mean one thing: saving the world as a human habitat. Accomplishing this will mean (must mean) saving the world as a habitat for as many other species as possible. We can only save the world as a human habitat if we stop our catastrophic onslaught on the community of life, for we depend on that community for our very lives.”

The Pattern of Collapse of Complex Civilizations

                In her book, Who Do We Choose to Be?, Margaret Wheatley says,

                “The only thing evident from the study of history is that we humans fail to learn from history. Yet those who do study the history of civilizations have illuminated the pattern of the rise and fall of complex human societies. The pattern of collapse is remarkably consistent.”

                In her book, The Watchman’s Rattle: A Radical New Theory of Collapse, world-renowned futurist Rebecca D. Costa shares what scholars have learned over the years about the signs of impending collapse:

                “The first sign is gridlock,” says Costa. “Gridlock occurs when civilizations become unable to comprehend or resolve large, complex problems, despite acknowledging beforehand that these issues may lead to their demise.”

                She goes on to say,

                “Then, as conditions grow more desperate, the second sign is the substitution of beliefs for knowledge.”

                Costa says these conditions are present in all complex societies that expand to the level we call empires. Drawing on the work of historians such as Dr. Joseph Tainter, in his book The Collapse of Complex Societies, she says,

                “Tainter believes that war, crop failures, disease, and political unrest appear to have caused the fall of the Roman Empire, but in truth ‘diminishing returns on investments in social complexity’ was the root cause. As systems for commerce, governance, and defense grew more complex, the ‘energy’ needed to manage them simply exceeded the capabilities of the Roman people.”

                Margaret Wheatley draws on the work of Joseph Tainter, Sir John Glubb, and others who have studies the collapse of empires and notes that whether it is the Roman, Arab, Ottoman, Spanish, or British Empires, they all fall after approximately ten generations or 250 years. It is clear to many that as we celebrate the 250 years from 1776 to 2026, the United States is no exception.

                Wheatley says,

                “This is the Age of Threat, when everything we encounter intensifies fear and anger. In survival mode, we flee from one another, abandon values that held us together, withdraw from ideas and practices that encouraged inclusion and created trust in leaders. And most harmfully, we stop believing in one another.”

                It is time we stopped blaming ourselves and others for our predicament. No political party or administration can save us and none is ultimately to blame.

                “We are walking the well-trodden path of collapse documented in the history of all complex civilizations,” says Wheatley, “so we must find a new path of contribution.”

The Future of Our Country, the World, and Ourselves

                 Many of us who have been working to make the world a better place have broken our minds, hearts, and souls trying to fix what is unfixable. With wisdom (and age — I turned eighty-two this year) some of us have concluded that there are some things that humans have done in our woundedness and ignorance that cannot be fixed.  

                Many of the changes that we have brought about, including the destabilization of the climate, are not reversible. We will have to live with the consequences. But that does not mean there is nothing we can do. Here’s what Meg Wheatley says to those who are ready to hear the truth and feel called to do something constructive:

                “The perfect storm is here, created by the coalescence of climate and human-created catastrophes, insatiable greed, fear-based self-protection, escalating aggression and conflict, indifference for the well-being of others, and continuing uncertainty. As leaders dedicated to serving the causes and people we treasure, confronted by this unrelenting tsunami, what are we to do? My answer to this is also stated with full confidence: We need to restore sanity by awakening the human spirit. We can onlyachieve this if we undertake the most challenging and meaningful work of our leader lives: creating Islands of Sanity.”

                This is what I’ve been doing since 1993 when I had the experience in the sweat lodge where was given both the vision of collapse as well as the potential future of the “life-boats for humanity.” One of my other heroes is a woman named Clarissa Pinkola Estes. She wrote the book, Women Who Run With the Wolves. She also offered this heart-felt call to action:

                “Mis estimados queridos, My Esteemed Ones: Do not lose heart. It is hard to say which one of the current egregious matters has rocked people’s worlds and beliefs more. Ours is a time of almost daily jaw-dropping astonishment and often righteous rage over the latest degradations of what matters most to civilized, visionary people.

               “You are right in your assessments. The luster and hubris some have aspired to while endorsing acts so heinous against children, elders, everyday people, the poor, the unguarded, the helpless, is breathtaking.

               “Yet, I urge you, ask you, gentle you, to please not spend your spirit dry by bewailing these difficult times. Especially do not lose hope. Most particularly because, the fact is – we were made for these times…”

                Margaret Wheatley says that,

                “An Island of Sanity is a gift of possibility and refuge created by people’s commitment to form healthy community to do meaningful work. It requires sane leaders with unshakable faith in people’s innate generosity, creativity, and kindness.”

                In June I will be sharing some new opportunities for our MenAlive community. I wrote about them in a recent article, “Becoming Rebels in Our Own Time.” I hope you will join us. Come visit me at MenAlive and sign up for our free weekly newsletter.