A Global Governance Paradigm Shift: First Principles First by Joni Carly

A Global Governance Paradigm Shift: First Principles First

(Edited from Original article in KosmosJournal.org) by Joni Carly

Given that our old normal didn’t turn out to be a viable survival plan, the global call to “build back better” is misguided. We need to build forward by seizing this transformative historical moment to go for our highest vision of a just, compassionate, happy and well humanity living on a thriving planet. Now is the time to go all in on what is at the core of every religion’s teachings, and in “first principles” documents including the United Nations Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, United Nations Declaration and Programme of Action on the Culture of Peace, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, and the Earth Charter.

We cannot accomplish first principles, like equity, justice, freedom and dignity, by just fixing what’s wrong. By definition, fixes perpetuate norms. Focusing on fixes leads to maintaining a status quo that is not fundamentally engineered to fulfill on first principles, in part because it relegates them as unrealistic and secondary to maintaining economic and social norms.

Despite all the good work done in the name of sustainability, it is not even time to sustain because sustaining the way things are would be suicidal and there is no equitable basis for who gets to decide what gets sustained. Merely sustaining is a low bar is also not very inspiring and is not even a biologically sound idea because the nature of life is that it is always changing and the nature of the human spirit is that it’s always reaching for higher expression. Too often, when we think primarily in terms of fixing or sustaining, we are diverting resources from new and different social and economic conceptual frameworks and delegating them to perpetuating dysfunction by patching it up.

We cannot fix or sustain our way to a more equitable and just future because our fundamental conceptual framework, our paradigm, doesn’t hold the requisite valuations for first principles like equity and justice. We now have the unprecedented capacity, resources, connectivity and urgency to stake claim to a reality that reflects our highest vision of who we can be as a species. This historic moment is an epoch opportunity for the world to move beyond fixing and sustaining by actually putting first principles first such that our systems hold them as core accountabilities in decision-making and action-taking.

The principles spelled out in humanity’s most profound declarations and scriptures are generally considered not to be realistic because, like fish in water, our beliefs about what is real and possible are part of our acculturation to the ubiquitous culture we exist in. Current systems rate the high bar of mutually thriving in a verdant and peaceful world as unrealistic. Our acculturation blinds us to how we might be unconsciously perpetuating paradigmatic norms for a world that can be incinerated many times over with a button push while millions of children go to sleep cold, hungry and scared. So-called “realistic” social and economic priorities hold higher valuations for power mongering than for our most common, and most noble, values and aspirations.

The argument of realism can no longer be trusted as a basis for governance, in part because our “realism” leads us to believe that it is more practical to make small changes than to “rock the boat”. But according to systems science, we cannot expect incremental improvements to create systemic change because small changes get absorbed by the continued functioning of a system. Creating the world we want, and the United Nations we need, calls for throwing off the shackles of old paradigm “realism” with bold and bodacious re-visioning of what we hold to be realistic and reasonable.

What if we decided to reset our economic valuations so that the value of militarism no longer exceeds the valuations we assign to our common wellbeing? What if we decided to take this historic opportunity to set the UN Declaration of Human Rights as our initial condition, as the very basis point for building new economic and social norms? What if we make first principles our ground zero conditions? In other words, what if we actually, unabashedly put first principles first? Metaphysics

First principles occur in the intangible realm of metaphysics, the domain of existence, being, knowing and causality. They are articulated in terms like values, morals and ethics, all of which are metaphysical distinctions. We generally overlook metaphysical factors because the paradigm in which most of us are acculturated includes the “fluffy myth,” the fictitious belief that metaphysical factors are unreal, inconsequential fluffy stuff. But there is no evidence to substantiate fluff mythology. To the contrary, the primacy of intangibles, like values and consciousness, has been demonstrated by meta-physicians, unpacked by sociologists, psychologists, philosophers and spiritual leaders throughout time, and confirmed by a plethora of international values and leadership studies across all sectors over decades. (citations in my book: The Alchemy of Power) The data is clear: when metaphysical factors, like consciousness and culture, are accounted for and intentionally developed, almost all social and economic indicators go up. Yet, a cultural narrative filled with fluff mythology dismisses the far more formidable, albeit intangible, power of our consciousness. Although rarely accounted for, consciousness determines what gets materialized and what doesn’t. Every social failure is first and foremost a crisis of consciousness. It is causal and determinative, yet we don’t account for consciousness as the major player it is in all outcomes.

Spiritual paths help us access and articulate the consciousness required to interpret first principles into action and more and more spiritual leaders are transcending traditional boundaries as they align around raising collective consciousness toward a common good centered world. However, I’ve sat at many tables in and around the United Nations with a wide range of religious, indigenous and spiritual colleagues who are there because of their stellar social service work or because their people needed help. But charity and aid work are secondary to their spiritual missions. They hold critical, time tested metaphysical intelligence on first principles, yet there is little space in the UN system for the deeper wisdom that is the primary work of religious and spiritual entities. I have witnessed both overt and covert censorship of metaphysical wisdom but it is mostly just overlooked or dismissed as fluff. We know for sure that morally compromised consciousness diminishes the possible good for people, prosperity, partnerships, planet and peace. Like the expression of all other positive values, morality stokes the human spirit and amorality diminishes it. When people align around values, they get along, are productive and innovative, and they tend to work toward win/win results. (see The Alchemy of Power) Yet, values are rarely accounted for or managed on their own terms.

Values priorities play a primary role in how things go for societies and the people who populate them because values are the fundamental building blocks of cultures. Values are unique in how they bridge the intangibles, like morality, with the tangibles, like systems. They are the link between our consciousness and our physical world. Accounting for values is a means of accounting for individual and collective consciousness. We know for sure that when values drive processes, things more often go better for more people. Although they are metaphysical, values can be quantified and developed. Accounting for values alignment and divergences helps clarify common ground that lies deeper than political lenses can see. Values-based metrics provide a cogent basis for mutual resolution.

Because the influence of values fulfillment on outcomes is so profound and so broad, and because values cut across geographic and political boundaries as well as demographics like race, age and gender, values-driven data would provide a baseline for tracking first principles indicators across the UN system, member states, public and private sectors, and civil society. Values accountancy would provide a coherent, robust, data-based means to ground social development in first principles. Metadata on values priorities would provide scaffolding for new economic, social and global governance structures that are fit for the purpose of building a world that works for all. The ever-growing international call for, and unprecedented need for, paradigmatic change reflects a global consciousness shift that can only be accommodated by transforming global governance such that first principles become our new, non-negotiable initial conditions.

Rev. Dr. Joni Carley, author of The Alchemy of Power: Mastering the Invisible Factors of Leadership, works on consciousness and culture through advisory/consulting services including as a United Nations ECOSOC consultant, NGO leadership advisor, talks, media guest expertise and articles geared toward a principles-based, values-driven unified world. Background includes: Dr of Ministry in “The Reinvention of Work,” Ordination - One Spirit Interfaith Seminary, 30 years of co-creating inter-spiritual events with indigenous, religious and spiritual leaders and spirited artists, incl UN World Interfaith Harmony, UN Forum on Indigenous Ceremony, and global Unity Earth Celebrations.