For most of the short period of time that humanity has existed as a species we were hunter gatherers. This implies that our basic intent in dealing with other people was co-operative, because if hunter gatherers do not co-operate they die. Around ten thousand years ago we discovered agriculture and everything changed. Agriculture enabled the production of surpluses that could be controlled by the powerful to dominate the weak. Our basic intent therefore changed from being fundamentally co-operative to being fundamentally competitive, from being here to give to being here to take.
Etsko Schuitema
This intent to take has become so deeply entrenched that for most of us today giving unconditionally appears at best naïve and at worst self destructive. However, global developments over the last decade demonstrate that it is the intent to take that is naive and destructive. Our greed run financial system has met with catastrophic failure. Our environment is rapidly becoming uninhabitable. Despite being showered with material comfort undreamed of by previous generations, 21st Century man has either become obese, deeply alienated and depressed or is struggling to stay afloat with his nose just above the breadline. All round we are hemmed in by the internal and external conflict that is the necessary companion of unbridled self interest.
For the past 20 years we at Schuitema have been developing a set of models, approaches and interventions that are not based on the assumption that the individual’s primary motive is self interest, enlightened or otherwise. Rather, we are convinced that when the individual is here to give or serve, a spontaneous sense of wholesomeness, function and wellbeing becomes true for individuals, small groups and larger collectives, be they corporations or nations. This is true because we do not exist as individuals. We exist as part of a greater whole that incorporates us, subsumes us and demonstrably is benevolently disposed toward us.
This is clearly true on purely physical level. If there was not a constant and dynamic interplay between me and the world I would be dead. I have to take in from and give out to other moment by moment. The process is called breathing. If I cut myself off from other I asphyxiate. I cannot account for the ingenuity and sense of design that enables me to breathe. This comes from other than me. I am physically not sustainable as a disconnected individual. I am not feasible on the basis of my own ingenuity.
The Xhosa expression ‘umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu’, ‘a person is a person by other people’ expresses this same truth on a social level. As a species it true for us that if we do not hang together we get hung separately. What our work has demonstrated is that when the self acts on the basis of the best interest of the other in any given situation it not only enables the best in and for the self, but a spontaneous order is introduced from the level of small groups to large organisations which enables the group to achieve truly stunning performance, however that performance is defined.
What we propose to do with this blog is to bring to your attention bits insight, success stories and case studies that are consistent with this proposal that our fundamental best interest is served by acting in the best interest of the other in every situation we are in. In so doing we hope to make a small contribution to the turning of the intent tide of our time from being here to get to being here to give. We are convinced that the survival of species and our world is dependent on this singular variable.
