The Kaimókara Initiative
Creating the Foundations upon which a Healthy Future can Stand
ABSTRACT
The Kaimókara Initiative began in the struggle of the Emberá natives of the Darien Rainforest in Panama to save their world. It soon became apparent, however, that their destiny was inextricably linked to that of the world around them—and the struggle gradually morphed into a project to save that world as well.
The book, Tiller for Tomorrow, argues that, for fifty years, evolving technology and the imperatives of global dynamics have combined with both capitalism and altruism to undermine the rainforest and erode the survival architectures within the Darien which had supported the Emberá for generations. The book also points out that those are the very same forces that had eroded the structures within America which had supported the democracy that made her a beacon of vitality and liberty to the world.
The book suggests, that, in the absence of wisdom, neither capitalism nor humanitarianism nor altruism, nor government alone or in combination can reverse either decline because it is their combined dynamic that creates this result in the first place—that in fact we are witnessing what has been the natural end-game of once-stable ecosystems and societies for centuries.
But the book does offer a solution, and it involves our most defining characteristic—our capacity for creative thought. It suggests that, for the first time in history, there may be a way to use emerging technologies to empower collective wisdom to develop solutions which can end-run the forces of greed and politics that are overpowering our great nation—and the great rainforest.
Simply stated, the goal of The Kaimókara (The Dream) Initiative is to establish and operate (outside current dynamics) a technological framework within which an abundance of transcendent, collaborative, environmentally sound, and inspirational solutions for large-scale and profound problems can be both refined and empowered without the undue influence of, politics, brain-stem reaction, or tribalism.
This idea is woven into the fabric of Tiller for Tomorrow, an adventure tale/memoir which is really a call to constructive action. The book’s objective is to help us see that, though the present may seem unsettling and uncertain, there are tremendous opportunities waiting for us, and future greatness for our nation, and even hope for global harmony—if only we the people can summon the will to positive action.
WHY NOW?
For decades now in America, the center of economic power has been shifting away from the middle and lower classes and concentrating in global players that find in the safety-net culture spawned by middle class American values, an albatross which undermines their competitive position in the global economy. Why, they ask themselves, should their money support these millions who contribute nothing to their success? And they are busy transforming the institutions of America to better serve their own purposes.
Democracy has attempted to respond with legislation, but this can do little to deflect this tidal wave of reality, and many of our leaders have been forced by the nature of government to support this socioeconomic dynamic which is now most responsible for America’ economic vitality. This has created a catch-22 which pits the American Dream against global reality in cycles of conflict, analysis, and reaction (with only the vague hope that a change in leadership will make it all go away).
How did we get here?
For the last fifty years, instead of applying creative thought to our deepest problems, our leaders have been telling us that politics is simply the “art of the possible”, and punting too many of our problems into the future. From healthy healthcare to sane gun control, from election finance, to our drug disasters and anemic infrastructure repair, and dozens of other important issues, they (and we) have thus mired our nation in dysfunctionality and endless bickering over problems that could and should have been solved decades ago—and in doing so eclipsed can-do with can’t do and weakened the thread of common understanding which connects action to result.
This disconnect has spawned a profound naivete in America that fails to recognize that, in attempting to accommodate the consequences of unwise reaction or persistent inaction, instead of dealing proactively and effectually with the root causes, we only accelerates our decline. The war with Iraq is an extreme instance of this misunderstanding which is both broad and deep, but there are dozens of other logical disconnects. Today’s Green New Deal, for example, thinks it can just turn off 80% of our reality to save the environment—and though I presume the idea is that this extreme demand will move ultimate action closer to the goal, I fear it gives fuel to the opposition instead, and creates futile conflict that does little or nothing to reach the noble objective.
Further, such naivete exacerbates a level of polarization which helps cancel the value of truth, blinds us to real solution, and creates such absurdities as that, for example, which led us to hound a good and decent man from the Senate while tolerating a moral vacuum and serial sexual abuser as the leader of the land—an example which only illustrates how dysfunction itself accelerates our moral and ethical decline.
So, culture and ethos and norms have been decaying before our very eyes and compounding a failure which, quite naturally, undermines healthy society, spawns widespread doubt about the exceptionality of America, and weakens the glue that holds her together. By now our fibrillating nation has become trapped in maelstroms of conflict, analysis, and outraged reaction to outrageous consequence, and makes no headway at all to a better future—and I worry that our window of opportunity is closing.
We need to wake up to the reality that, not reaction to consequence, but only wise pro-action that deals with cause has any hope of turning this tide.
Of course, consequence is the tip of the iceberg that we actually see, so it’s quite natural to face such challenges with explicit straightforward seemingly obvious reactions like “just say no” or just change the leadership. But the evolution of these problems, like the evolution of culture itself, is too deeply woven into the nature of evolving reality, and often too indirect, to yield to any superficial solution, especially one that flies in the face of that reality—and in any case, it is not consequence upon which we must focus our pro-active solutions, nor even on dysfunction, but on the roots of our dysfunction. It is not ethos, but the origins of ethos—not the leaders themselves but the “why” they are there.
We think we create culture and ethos and we do but we don't do it deliberately it's a consequence of all the other things we do and if we don't collaborate or have a need to collaborate, the values that support collaboration will not emerge, It has become painfully obvious that as this level of collaboration fades, so does the logic and motivation that supports that WE-ethos—leaving the now-unrestrained ME to feast. But here we run into the immense wall of current reality, a reality which must change if our trajectory is to change. A deep reality which cannot be changed by denial or superficial legislation, but only applying transcendent creativity to reshape its profound origins.
These deep solutions to our deepest problems live in a world of unconventional thought—a world that sees beyond obvious consequence to oblique cause—a place of paradigm shifts in perspective often antithetical to government’s central responsibility to support the socioeconomic structures that sustain it. And though we hope that better leadership will return us to sanity, it isn’t really leadership which shapes healthy ethos in a free society, but mostly ourselves as we create the vigorous people-powered “survival architectures” which demand the presence of successful collaboration (the more inspirational the better)—collaboration which requires a healthy WE-based ethos to function at all.
So, though many think that government and a change of leadership can return our country to health and excellence, I doubt it. I believe that we are far more likely to succeed in this existential challenge if we rely on the source of our nation’s greatness in the first place—ourselves and our incredible capacity for creative thought.
And the tipping point for America is now. There is still time to reverse our fall, but only if we reject the endless cycles of action and reaction that consume us now and act, not with pasted on legislation, but with America’s collective creativity aimed at the breeding grounds for civility, integrity, truth, and morality—inspirational and inclusive collaboration.
But how to begin? Without government, how can we organize ourselves on a scale necessary to overcome these massive trends?
HOW
We have become confused here in America and put the cart before the horse. It wasn't government that created America, it was ourselves as we accommodated what had already evolved across the sea to our reality in the new world—and then created the constitution which documented the patterns of that reality and the government which managed it. But Government itself doesn’t possess the ability to imagine what has never been—a government capable of functioning in this vastly new technological reality.
I would suggest, instead, that we are far more likely to succeed in this existential challenge if we rely on the source of our nation’s greatness in the first place—ourselves and our incredible capacity for creative thought. And though it is unreasonable to believe that government can lead the disruptive change that must occur to save our future, we can hope at least, for a wise and decent government which can keep the door to creativity open and ultimately help manage the coming sea-change in reality.
But how to begin?
Fortunately, though politics may be the “art of the possible”, creativity routinely makes the impossible possible and we have already created the technological canvas upon which we can draw. The Kaimókara (The Dream) Initiative aims to capitalize on the immense power of emerging technologies to create technological 24/7 platforms designed to help reestablish and supercharge the kinds of widespread inclusive, inspirational and economically vital collaboration which can reinvigorate our democracy, breathe life back into our national ethos, and inspire us to believe in ourselves once again—and at a pace only possible in this age of digital miracles.
The Initiative will be introduced with the upcoming publication of the adventure tale/memoir Tiller for Tomorrow, into which is woven the nature of the challenge and the logic underlying the need to transcend convention. Publication will be followed by a 300-plus-event odyssey aboard our Emberá-crewed Rainforest Phoenix—an odyssey which will be similar to those of the past, but with events presented by the heroes of the initiative—the independent-minded, proactive, inspirational, and/or visionary thinkers who can help focus collective creativity and purpose in order to lift our country, and humanity in general, to new levels of vitality, sanity, and unity.
The idea is to seize a unique opportunity (as we emerge from this political swamp) to trigger a widespread can-do ambiance with a critical mass of intriguing, newsworthy, large-scale, and inclusive solutions that aim to resolve long-standing problems and open new paths to the future.
To help trigger this positive perspective, the book offers examples of transcendent solutions applied to six failing areas—Healthcare, Environmental Conservation, Transportation, Education, Crime and Punishment, and, most importantly, social architecture and governance in the Digital Age.
The Kaimókara Initiative itself involves four steps:
Step One—Find the Participants: Locate the hundreds of thousands of individuals in America and the world in general with open minds and deep understanding and a willingness to invest themselves in constructive action by helping to develop best solutions
Brilliant entrepreneurs come to mind, as do returned Peace Corps Volunteers, Acción International members, Rotary Clubs, Kiwanis Clubs, The National Civic League, Lions Clubs, The League of Women Voters, Boy Scouts, The American Association of University Women, etc., etc., etc.
Send each potential participant a free digital copy of Tiller for Tomorrow to spark interest by arguing the need for creative action and by outlining some potential solutions.
Step Two—Refine the solutions, and grow enthusiasm for action with a Global Pro-activity Odyssey which will stage public symposiums in the towns and city ports, first along the East Coast of the USA, then the West Coast, then the world. These will involve noted proactive thinkers who will discuss and help analyze the solutions that have percolated to date. The goal—to find the best solutions.
These symposiums will be conducted aboard the hundred-foot Peace Corps inspired, jungle-built yacht Pájaro Jai (Rainforest Phoenix), and on adjacent docks if necessary.
As with prior odysseys, events will range in size from up to sixty key players in the main saloon, to up to two hundred on board (below and on deck) with a thousand participants or more on dockside facilities.
The odyssey is scheduled to start in late-summer of 2021 in Washington DC (depending on the status of Covid-19), and will involve up to 300-hundred events along the East Coast of the USA over a six-month period.
To help broaden enthusiasm and to crowd out the incessant drumbeat of outraged reaction and pessimism which has overwhelmed us lately, we will invite media from both the right, and from the left, to track the odyssey and interview participants. This Emberá-crewed yacht has long attracted public interest and media headlines, and now, their struggle to save their rainforest while supporting a parallel effort to save a great nation, creates a tale well worth telling. Documentary film-makers have already expressed interest.
Step Three—Evaluate the Emerging Ideas. Create a framework for intelligent discussion in order to generate, evaluate, and combine these ideas in order to find wisest solutions.,
We are currently developing AI-Powered software we call Tiller for Tomorrow (TFT) to locate and supercharge best solutions through idea prioritization—a process similar to, though more sophisticated than, the information prioritization we see in search-engines like Google. or the opinion-driven discussion vehicle Quora.
Until that software, which is described in the book itself, becomes available, we will employ conventional hierarchical methods involving Blogs, email strings and YouTube commentary to gather ideas and evaluate solutions.
Step Four—Act on the Solutions. Use those these public symposiums combined with promotional capacities built into TFT to generate investment in those best-of-ideas through creation of the appropriate investment vehicles—corporations, LLCs, non-profit foundations, and cooperatives are all possibilities.
FUNDING
Initial funds will primarily be developed through crowd funding, and large scale enterprise will be invited to participate only when strategic alliances might provide important benefits to Tiller For Tomorrow objectives—as in global beverage marketing for the Emberá Rainforest Initiative, or as in Virtual Reality expertise for our Global Education Initiative.
The funding for the Tiller for Tomorrow software will evolve through three stages:
Crowd funding and membership betting will initially fund development, operations and lottery prizes built into TFT.
One percent royalty returns from all TFT generated enterprise, and membership betting, together will fund operations maintenance, and lottery prizes.
One percent royalty returns and membership betting together reach levels which (beyond operations, maintenance, and lottery prizes) can also fund weekly salaries for best idea contributors.
When
The Kaimókara Initiative will begin on the internet during the spring of 2021 by inviting discussion of important issues confounding humanity at present. It will continue in the late-summer of 2021 with the Global Pro-activity Odyssey along the East Coast of the USA beginning in Washington DC, and continuing along the West Coast during the late summer and fall of 2022. If these tours are successful, it will attempt to globalize the concept in Europe in 2023, and Asia in 2024.
For in-depth discovery of the origins and ideas underlying The Kaimókara Initiative, read Tiller for Tomorrow.
