Instead, we take the same approach a doctor takes when dealing with a serious illness of unknown origin. First we perform a diagnois, then we determine an appropriate treatment. Thus our driving question is: "Why, despite over 30 years of prodigious effort, has the human system failed to solve the environmental sustainability problem?"
It appears this question has never been answered because the question has never been seriously asked before. This paper attempts to change that by posing the question and performing an analysis, which provides a surprisingly deep possible answer.
This site is dedicated to helping to solve the sustainability problem. However it appears that to solve that problem, we must first solve another problem: a broken political system. It's broken because it is no longer working for the common good of all. Instead, it's working for the uncommon good of special interests. While this problem is universal, it has grown acute in the United States, especially during the last eight years.
If you have noticed this trend, then the video below is for you. It's all about how to solve the broken political system problem.
Truth or Deception: Are You Fool Proof?
watch in normal quality
Above is a 10 minute video introducing the Truth or Deception pamphlet. The November 4 election in the United States was so critical that Thwink.org prepared this video and pamphlet to help voters see the truth, not just in this election and country, but in any election and country. The problem of political deception is universal. So is the solution.
After you've watched the video you can can read this one page brochure about the Truth Test. If you'd like to read the pamphlet, you can read the first few pages here, and then go to TruthTest.org to read the rest. We've just opened that website and welcome your comments.
The great crisis of the 21st century is the global environmental sustainability problem. The pamphlet is a small first step toward solving the sustainability problem by first solving another problem: the dominance of too many political systems by powerful special interests. After that problem is solved, politicians will seek to optimize the common good of all, rather than the uncommon good of the few.
At the top of their list of problems to solve will be the sustainability problem because if it's not solved, aggressively and proactively, then eventually no other problem will matter because our species will have destroyed its own ecological niche.
Our Fundamental Thesis
The fundamental thesis of the work at Thwink.org is that the modern environmental movement is mired in the Initial Failure mode, due to the reasons given in the diagram below. Our work focuses on how to move the movement to the Eventual Success mode as quickly as possible, so we can solve the sustainability problem before the human system becomes too weakened, distracted and demoralized to solve it.
This is a rather unconventional viewpoint. But if over 30 years of solution failure has occurred, can the environmental movement be anywhere else but in the Initial Failure mode?
We invite you to explore this site, where you will find much more than an explanation of the above diagram. This is from Chapter 12 of Analytical Activism.
No Simple Answer
Thwink.org does not have a simple answer to how to solve the global environmental sustainability problem. However, if you are one of the few who realizes there is rarely a simple solution to a complex problem, then this may be the website for you.
Robert Gowans of Tyresö, Sweden has been kind enough to summarize the Thwink message in a few paragraphs:
Rarely can a complex new concept be stated briefly. For example, Darwin's The Origin of Species ran over 600 pages. Today's high school biology textbooks describe the theory of evolution in a few short paragraphs.
The Thwink method of solving the global sustainability problem is novel, complex, non-intuitive and has its roots in emerging scientific and business disciplines and tools such as systems thinking, memetics and dynamic modeling. Beyond sustainability, the greatest challenge mankind has ever faced, the Thwink method may be able to solve other complex human problems that have plagued mankind such as poverty and war. The Thwink method is truly a paradigm shift.
The core of the approach is the process must fit the problem, systemic change resistance is the crux of most difficult social problems, and the only reliable way to diagnose the root cause of complex social system problems and find the high leverage points necessary to resolve the root cause is simulation modeling.
However, whilst the Thwink method offers great hope to humanity, the paradigm shift it represents also makes it a very hard sell.
If you find these ideas of interest, then here is a time efficient way to evaluate the material at Thwink.org:
1. Watch the 10 minute Truth or Deception video.
2. Read the the Truth or Deception pamphlet. It's only 48 pages, the same number as Thomas Paine's Common Sense.
3. If this makes sense, then tell others about the video and pamphlet.
4. The purpose of the above is to "push" on a high leverage point that has not been pushed on before. If you'd like to find out how we found this leverage point, read the Dueling Loops paper. This has opened more eyes than anything else on the entire site since it was written in 2005.
5. Finally, to get the big picture of all the work at Thwink.org, download and watch the 2 hour Progressive Paradox video. If this hits the button, then show it to your friends.
Then, if you find yourself wanting to help spread this new paradigm, here's the biggest way you can help: Think of an organization you know that would do a great job of implementing one or more of the ideas you found at Thwink.org. Contact them, sit down with one person there, and personally tell them what that one idea is all about.
Little is going to change until respected, sound organizations who are looking for a better way... find it.
