Don Beck addresses the United Nations

Reported by Elza Maalouf: "On June 21st, 2007, Dr. Beck and I spoke at the Values-Caucus at the United Nations to a standing room only conference hall. Representatives of various Arab, African and Western missions, NGOs and UN agencies employees, nodded their heads in agreement with the emphasis that we put on the deeper reasons for conflict and poverty, and the deeper value-systems codes that produce such “us” vs. “them” polarities. Rather than the surface manifestation of clash between religions, ethnicity, races and nationalities, we showed how the integral framework examines the deeper cultural forces and tracks dynamic perceptual processes that detect deep underlying mindsets and motives..."  Read full report


Transcript:

No doubt you’ve seen a number of delegates and representatives from the Security Council, who after a major decision would come right here and try to explain to the world community why they voted the way they did, and what kind of slant they put on the issues. Once again, what we tend to see, is a logjam, a gridlock between points of view. It really doesn’t matter who’s in the security council. Of course, there are permanent members, who’ve been there since 1945, and there are temporary members who are assigned to this particular function. What is it, though, that this Security Council needs to know to break out of these logjams?  What kind of thinking system now becomes essential when there are 6.7 billion members of our human species? Can the same thinking done in 1945 or in 1951 or 1990 handle the complexities that all of us today have created? And we ask these men and women, in this body, in this wonderful building, to resolve some of the most difficult issues – about the environment, about Palestine/Israel, about a host of matters in Africa, and elsewhere.

What we’ve learned over the years, when we think about the UN, is what kinds of functions should be performed, rather than argue what should be the form or the structure or the membership. The real question is, what needs to be done for us – for all of us – in the 21st century? From our experience that we have learned, from understanding the deep value system codes, because every person who comes here and speaks to the media and the press and to all of us without recognising or reflecting different world views - different Weltanschauungs – and if they had the capability to step out of those and look at how and why they think the way they do, and what is it that forms the value systems in the various cultures and nation states that they represent. This major breakthrough in thinking can, maybe for the first time, provide the insight necessary to deal with the kind of complexity that haunts all of us. And whether or not we will survive as a human species remains to be seen. Whether we can generate the kind of leadership that’s necessary to handle this complexity is the real question.

So our reason for being at the United Nations now is to suggest the possibility of a fresh start. A new lens through which we can see variety and change and transformation. New ways to talk to each other, not in terms of our biases or our ideology, or our religious preferences, but in terms of what it is that makes us human.

Now we all know about the Human Genome Project, and how we have 35 000 genes, and how they are distributed around the planet as humans have migrated into various petry dishes. But we’ve not learned how cultures form, how cultures emerge, why cultures fight, why the great clashes of civilisation that today we are beginning to discuss, and how we can move from those clashes to confluence, to collaboration, to ways of engaging in problem-solving with the win-win-win – the third win, where all of us win. The processes represented by the United Nations can win. And so our reason for being here is to challenge all of us to think about what we can all become and what we can all do that’s so different, as today we are trying to find solutions to some of the most complex problems.

We have a special interest, of course, in Israel/Palestine. And the dynamics of conflict that still characterise internal issues of Palestine. Fatah, Hamas and other kinds of spokesmen. And we’re very sensitive to the historical dynamics between Israel and Palestine. Israeli Arabs, Jews, Muslims. These great global divides.

So maybe it’s time that we look at this whole matter differently, and begin to see what are the universals that connect humans, and how can the deepest fears, that contaminate dialogue, be addressed for the first time? Some of these go back 5 000 years. That’s why they’re so difficult. Some are driven by ethnic kinds of imperialistic belief structures, in which people want to preserve what it is that made them significant in this world.  So by mapping out this, and seeing these deep contours, working with Elza Maalouf and others, we’re beginning to find new, fresh approaches to these very complex issues.

So being here, being here now, being in this space, is a way for us to say that what can happen here can have an impact on our entire species and our entire future. So. Getting rid of what we don’t want is not enough, until we get what we do want. And always remember: no more prizes for forecasting the rain, only prizes for building the ark.

Slide: “Einstein was right about needing new thinking, that has not produced the problems that we are circulating and simply repeating over and over again. We are trapped in a cul-de-sac, a sinkhole. The breakthrough is going to come from new language, new definitions and new ways to understand people.”

“From years of academic research, and years of field testing in various crucibles, this approach has stood the test of time in unlocking paradigms, in generating bottom-line , practical, doable solutions that finally get to the deepest codes, much like our genome effort to find causes for diseases.”

“We are in a sense getting to the memetic codes that cause the societal conflicts and violence with the possibilities of remedies. It doesn’t mean it’s easy, and it means there’s no utopia, no final step, no final solution.”

“There are billions of humans that are ratcheting through different worldviews, mindsets and value structures. Humans are colliding on the surface through religious beliefs, politics and race, because they are oblivious to the deeper codes.”

“These deeper codes define our personal identities, they forge our cultures and they manifest the essence of human nature.”

“We invite you to join with us because what we are saying and doing here has implications for all of us and for generations yet unborn.”

“We certainly don’t claim to have the solution for these difficult problems, but we may have uncovered the starting point for co-developing solutions that we can all support and embrace.”

“Remember, getting rid of what we don’t want is not the same as getting what we do want.”