Claudius Van Wyke identifies different levels of intensity in six different social initiatives towards transformation: http://transformationstrategies.org
• The Synthesis Complexity think tank – Claudius a fellow (http://www.synthesisips.net/) – looking to advance our thinking structures about how the world works and humanity’s contribution/interference with that from the quantitatively measured linear to the qualitatively measured nonlinear – from the mechanistic to the organismic – from hard interlocked logical ‘bits’ to soft interrelated emergent relationships – from the reductionist to the holistic.
• The Civil Society Forum – Claudius a convener (http://www.civilsocietyforum.com/) – looking to the proactive re-empowerment of engaged citizenry through intelligent discourse and collaboration – and offering transformative education possibilities to acquire the requisite skills at that
• The Re-Imagine political platform – http://www.reimagine.org.uk – Claudius is one of the initiators of looking to establish a transformed platform for a citizen-led engagement in politics that is intended to transform political discourse from petty ideological point scoring to deep inquiry into what is possible in terms of deeply ecological and sustainable systems of governance
• Schumacher College – http://www.schumachercollege.org.uk/, where Claudius sometimes lectures on Complexity Economics, facilitate the Holism and Leadership program and volunteer (teaching assistant to Prof Eve Mitleton-Kelly in Complexity and Collaboration) – looking to supporting institutional transformation with internal transformation
• At Sediba Mountain Retreat – http://www.sedibamountainretreat.co.za/) Claudious is part of a core group of gatekeepers attempting to maintain the highest spiritual perspective and practice commensurate with the deepest spiritual, humanitarian and ecological insights of Christian mysticism – and where from time to time he offers an integrative perspective of holism, quantum physics, applied complexity theory and scriptural insight into the human Odyssey from a cosmic perspective
• The Scientific and Medical Network of which Claudius is a Member http://www.scimednet.org – nicely encompasses much of the above but focused on a deeper understanding of the nature of the human person with a rigorous inquiry into growth, healing and consciousness.
Intrinsic to all of those is how we think about the deep life-giving milieu, how we employ, own, distribute and manage that taken for granted ‘gift’ in accordance with our limited views of what is both desirable and right in respect of human needs and rights/entitlement, and institutional and natural sustainability. And intrinsic to that struggle is our grappling to embrace the holistic living organismic view in an age where mechanistic thinking has produced such sophisticated technology that we are deluded into thinking we understand nature and can improve her – and we can produce holistic design through sophisticated IT. God and Spirit is thus removed from the equation of ‘good living’ and humanity continues to wander in the 21st century desert of Sinai when the Promised Land (the Sabbath) is a day away.
At the core of the resolution of the entire dilemma is a transformed view of the human person encapsulated so brilliantly by Paul in 1st Corinthians chapters 12 and 13 where he provides the context for praxis of Jesus’ injunction from Matthew 22: 37 – 39.
I wonder whether James Quilligan’s ‘commons’ vision might still be the most clear attempt to articulate that ideal? We need that vision – as so clearly expressed in Proverbs 29: 18. Claudius.
