Conversations on the future we want
UN AGENDA 2030 WITH VICTOR MOTTI The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted in 2015 as the universal call to action to end poverty and hunger, protect the planet and ensure inclusion, peace and prosperity for all by 2030. Many people believe that the COVID Global Pandemic now makes this unreachable and unreasonable. However, there are those who believe that this crisis provides the opportunity to reset the pathways to achieving these global goals in new and previously unimaginable ways. What is certain is that without active involvement across all borders and boundaries Agenda 2030 is not capable of delivering wide scale impact. Understanding of the SDGs and actions towards achieving them should be integrated in everyday lives of leaders as well as of ordinary people. We need ways to reach people in ways that speak to them and offer content in a form that allows them to engage. In this interview we hear from Victor Vahidi Motti, Director of the World Futures Studies Federation (WFSF) and Lead Futurist at Alternative Planetary Futures. He is the author of the 2019 book titled: A Transformation Journey to Creative and Alternative Planetary Futures Victor employs an Integral Futures Framework, which is based on the science of complex systems, and called after Zurvan, the transcendental, neutral, and entire deity of infinite time and space in ancient Persian mythology-theology.
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HUMAN FUTURES
This framework consists of seven steps which are: 1) Scoping - defining the issue, 2) Identification of Opposite Twins, 3) Listing hero / heroine, anti-hero / anti-heroine from the local myth sources, 4) Elaboration of goals in domains of biology, psychology, society, and culture, 5) Finding Illusory Beliefs, 6) Developing Wise Strategies, 7) Building Transformation Narratives. Claire Nelson: What is the vision and mission of Alternative Planetary Futures and how is it shaped by the Global Agenda? Victor Motti: As a starting point the key contribution is to highlight an emerging binary opposite: Planetary versus Global. The mission is to convince people all around the world to abandon outdated, sometimes harmful sources of identity, and embrace planetary identity as an important alternative. This requires a fundamental change in the mindset
