Paddy Murray discuses the “Elders Institute”—a big idea being grown one remarkable elder at a time.
—
‘Sometimes there is an idea whose time has come. Hopefully the idea is useful, effective and doable. Nature is not sentimental neither does it have rewards and punishments – though it always has consequences.’ —Paddy Murray
We sit at a time of growing awareness that the wholesome future of many species—including humans—is questionable.
Without any climate changes we face a future of the world population moving from scarcity and poverty or a low standard of living to an ever rising standard of living. The planet does not have the resources to provide for those resources and the ever-growing production needed to keep up with that will both exhaust resources and create pollution threatening to species survival.
With the addition of the impact of climate change, this future scenario becomes extreme in a shorter timespan.
Significant changes to many areas of human behavior will be necessary to cope with and survive this future. Action on the economic and social investment needed to facilitate these changes is way overdue. Initiatives to create that investment are needed now.
The consequences of not acting now are clear to many of us.
Our major institutions of government and business are trapped in short-term feedback loops. Our Government is caught in a predominantly short-term goal of satisfying the majority of the electorate sufficiently to stay in power. Our business sector responds to the short-term needs of its shareholders and senior executives to maximize the return on their investments.
Where are the shareholders or caretakers of the future?
|
Future generations of our species (grandchildren) and other animal and plant species do not have a voice or vote in decisions that happen now that impact on them. Where are the shareholders or caretakers of the future?
We have a growing sector of older people, mostly retired, who potentially have an abundance of knowledge, wisdom, integrity and resources. From this valuable resource pool, can we source some shareholders or voices to speak for the future?
When we teleport ourselves to the future, maybe with the help of Dr Who, what will we experience what will we see? Imagine ourselves being called as witnesses into a commission of inquiry into the social history that led to this future. What will we say when asked why not enough people spoke and acted to prevent this outcome?
How do we harness the resources of those older people who have the skills and motivation to speak for the future, our descendants?
What are the options for effective strategies and action plans, if we can harness the resources?
The first step is to create a vehicle for a conversation that may find the motivation and energy to make this vision a reality. This discussion paper seeks to start that process.
An Elders Institue – An option for action?
The work or Output
What sort of work output is envisaged towards assisting this vision?
Some ideas:
- Creating focussed conversations among appropriately skilled people, to discover the most effective courses of action.
- To undertake a range of information gathering, investigation and research that creates a useful knowledge and information base. This information to be used for education and influence on the community at large, as well as decision-makers.
- To create an effective communication system to maximize understanding of future friendly actions that need to be engaged with.
This needs an organizing body to both recruit personnel and coordinate the work. It is essential that such a body be effective. That means that it needs be capable of developing a solid and respected identity that enables its voice to be heard and trusted.
Elder, careful use of the word and its concepts
I offer the name “Elders Institute” to both do that work and create an appropriate identity. Elder as a concept has been long associated in our history with the survival of our tribes, states and nations. It is a role that has fallen out of popular use over the last 100 or so years.
Maybe it is time for the role of elders to return, different context and skills but essentially about survival.
|
In tribal times the role of Elder was the holder and teller of stories, the knowledge of lore/law and rituals. People were elected to the role of elder as part of the survival plan for that social group. Elders were expected among other things to be capable of making the hard decisions required for survival. It was a performance-based role. Maybe it is time for the role of elders to return, different context and skills but essentially about survival.
For this to be useful and effective, it needs great understanding and skill. I have been engaged in discussions and activities with others about the role of elders in contemporary society for some eight years now. A recent article of mine, Elders or Eldering? has some relevance to this topic.
I share the following observations about creating an effective and useful understanding of elder in the title Elders Institute.
- Elders is a powerful two-edged sword of a word. Use it well and it is respected. Use it poorly and it becomes a joke.
- The respected use of word Elder is associated with values and characteristics such as: Wisdom, Integrity, Ethics, Honesty, Transparency, Courage, Strong voice, Care about others and being Trustworthy. In using Elder as in Elders Institute, onlookers automatically search for evidence of these values and characteristics. If they are not evident then respect is lost and the voice not listened to and would have diminished influence.
- The joke side of Elder is where people adopt the title as a sort of egotistical badge of entitlement due to age. Others see through this and often regard it as pretentious. When this occurs and there is no evidence of the true qualities associated with the elder concept, respect is lost.
My position is that no one should be entitled to call themselves elder. People are selected as Elder by a group of people in a context and only in that context. Wanting to be an elder is almost a statement of not being one. True elders do not need the name—they just do the work.
In using the name Elders Institute, I mean a group of people who are doing the work of eldering. In this case, the work is looking towards the future survival and wellbeing of our descendants other species and the habitat of the planet. It is in the coming together and doing the work that the work of elders is happens. No one needs to call themselves an ‘Elder’ for this to work—I am working for the Elders Institute is enough.
It may seem a little strange to some readers that I spend time unpacking this concept of Elder, but there is a reason.
We have an ever-growing grey population living for longer. Most of them are coming to retirement dealing with a significant identity crisis. The move from an employment structure, which has been part of their social and personal identity for many years, can be a very difficult transition. Some let go of the old and enjoy the freedom of the new, others cannot let go and keep seeking the structure and the identity it brings. There are many sitting in between those two extremes. There is a tendency for some of these people to see Elder as the new identity, regardless of what the term really means.
It is important in its early days that the founding members of the Elders Institute understand this and avoid it being used as an identity prop. That is why I suggest we do not allow the use of the name Elder as an individual title and only use it as the role of the Elders Institute.
It is also important not to associate the concept of Elder with age.
|
It is also important not to associate the concept of Elder with age. There are many people younger than 50 or 60 who have the skills and attitudes that we associate with the work of Elders. In traditional societies,
Elders were often older people but some were younger people where they were the ones with the appropriate qualities and skills. Anyone who supports the vision and work of the Elders Institute should be welcome regardless of age, race or gender.
Objective and Non- Aligned
Nature does not have attitudes, opinions or political parties. It simply has needs or conditions that allow it to exist. Likewise, with humans for us to survive we have a minimum set of environmental conditions for us to survive.
To gain respect and attention and be capable of influence the Elders Institute must be seen as objective and not aligned to any interest group, business, religious or political. As soon as people see lack of independence and objectivity, they automatically discount the work of that group.
Contemporary society sees corruption and vested interest and political cause groups associated with most of our business and political organisations. With few exceptions, this keeps our society locked into the short-term interest cycle which minimises a priority for the future.
Put simply it is a choice between short-term gain for long term pain or short term pain for long term pain. Short-term pain does not win elections or pay dividends to shareholders.
So in order to be part of the solution the Elders Institute needs to act independently and with clear objectivity. Off-course values and beliefs impact on just about all findings and decision making processes. This is acknowledged even with scientific research where someone said the scientists have learnt to torture the data until it tells their truth.
It is important that values and beliefs associated with the Elders Institute work is named so that it is transparent at all times and not seen as a hidden agenda.
Reality – What is achievable?
For the Elders Institute concept to work it must first attract the interest and attention of sufficient people who can bring it initial fruition. So starting a conversation that can lead to that is the first step. Secondly, no matter what the vision and guidelines are the work of the Institute will largely be determined by the skills and resources it attracts.
The first step is this concept paper, which you are reading. The second step is to circulate the paper via web based email networks to assess initial interest and support for the concept. Initial circulation amongst contacts has seen support from people I respect in the UK, USA and Singapore. The third step is to invite some face to face conversation groups in my region ( Sydney, Canberra, Wollongong) to start to flesh out the concept and plans for going forward.
I think it would be necessary to form an initial core grouped of appropriately skilled and resourced people (time to commit).
The use of web based promotion of the idea and the creation of a web based vehicle such as a web/blog will be a critical part of the concept development. Some form of social networking will also be appropriate. It may be that the concept can develop on a global basis. It really depends on where the interest and motivation are.
It is important to be quite strategic with plans. The aim is to create an alternative voice that maximises its influence on decisions that affect the longer term future. Part of the elder skill set required is the wisdom to choose the most skillful means in achieving this.
Some key conversation points and questions, please add yours, send me an email.
- We can forecast a general direction for the future but how that presents in real life is often surprising and unexpected.
- As a consequence of the unpredictability of the future we need to maximise the qualities of adaptability, resilience and creativity.
- Growth based economic development is our dominant paradigm. What are the workable alternatives or adaptions that are required to that growth based economic model.
- We know the cultural qualities and values that sustain growth based economic development. If we have alternatives to that what will be the cultural qualities and values that will underpin them?
- What are the trends immerging that are useful for the future how can we name, promote and support them?
- What we do now creates the future and the past. What is it about the now that has the most impact on our future.
- Is the lack of transparency by government and business decision makers a problem? Is there a lack of in depth analysis about our decision making that is publicly available? Can we remedy that to some extent?
- Are our democratic government systems suited to make decisions necessary for long term sustainability? What are the options? How can we influence that that adoption of more appropriate mechanisms?
- What are examples of successful contemporary initiatives that seek to influence cultural change towards a sustainable future, say like Tedx? What can we learn from them?
- What skills would we need in this initiative. Some maybe:
- Researchers
- Academics
- Writers
- Policy formulators
- Co ordinators
- Publicists and marketers
- Video makers
- Podcast creators
- IT support people
- Editors
- Lobbyists
You are invited to register your interest with Paddy Murray by email [email protected] or by phone 0427 837830. I will undertake to keep all those who contact me informed of progress.
[image: Neil Moralee on flickr]
Paddy, I’m in my late 50’s and have a lot of life left in me….tons of knowledge and experience but here in the US, elders appear to be no more then “you lived in a different time old man, things are different now.” With the unemployment as bad as it is here, elders are truly behind the 8-ball. Many men have been displaced and have little to no career future. I know more then a hand full of guys that are 50+ and have nothing but find memories. Too old for many jobs, way over qualified for others. At the… Read more »