Social Creativity, Activism and Revolution
an excerpt from the new book, Social Creativity and Revolution
The essence of revolution, reform and social change IS Creativity. People want to destroy one thing and create a new thing. They want to create a new culture and society for themselves and their children.
This creativity is manifested in several forms. First, is the creativity needed to achieve power, at least a first level of power. Social creativity contributes its ideas on reform and revolution, types of revolution, communication, organization, new institutions and dual power, direct and indirect leadership, creative technique and much more. Social creativity recognizes different strategies within dictatorships vs. modern style democracies.
The second issue is after power is achieved. Often in history this creativity is still born. At first it appears from nowhere, it is vibrant and compelling, it makes great changes, and then at a certain point the creativity disappears, that is, true creativity withers away. And the revolution ceases for revolution IS creativity. We then have betrayal or bad compromise, slogans and dogma, conservatism and paranoia. And we might see what we can call “Mis-creativity” which is false creativity, perhaps creative in form but not in content, a deceptive creativity that brings no change or freedom. We enter the era of new Shell Cultures with their self congratulating revolutions, with their high ideal and “low real”.
What activists must do is study the essence of social change: Creativity. If you study the ideas, practices and writings of activists in the 20th century you will generally not find “creativity” as a theme. They have already determined all of the future -- they are proceeding from intellectual dogma, fixed ideas, singular solutions, intolerance of difference and a hierarchy of already programmed solutions. This was the psychology and culture of these times. But after witnessing the demise of these revolutions, we must conclude fundamentally what they lacked was imagination and innovation, or “Creativity” (among other things).
And if they had practiced creativity they would have brought an entirely new mindset that included a host of new behaviors: Flexibility, multiple perception, diversity, multiple solutions, acceptance of chaos, an admission that they did have all the answers and solutions, a comfort with ambiguity and uncertainty, leadership that does not instruct or order etc.
To understand this new world of Social Creativity we must return to a realm of experience that is familiar to many: Personal Creativity. The mysteries of Social Creativity are resolved when we dislodge ourselves from the sociological and political then return to the sphere of the Individual.
Social Creativity proceeds first from the basics of creativity:
1) The rules and methods of creativity…of which there are many. (Please see the book: Glossary of Creativity for a full examination of the techniques and psychology of creativity.)
2) The fact that all creativity essentially is individual…even within social situations.
The goal of Social Creativity is social change while the goal of individual creativity might be personal or social. However, Social Creativity can have a personal goal in the sense of teaching individuals to be creative.
Social Creativity uses its unique set of methods – these include chaos, broad united and diverse fronts, competition, multiple solutions, promotion of schools of thought, the role of facilitators, the method of indirect leadership combined with direct leadership, not culling to soon, research and experimentation, tolerance of uncertainty and ambiguity, multiple perception, flexibility and more. (see book chapter: Some Methods of Social Creativity Leadership)
Social Creativity not only works for a new world, it specifically builds up institutions and practices that will develop creativity in new generations, maintaining the social cycle of creativity which keeps creativity alive generation to generation. And it is ever alert to attitudes and methods that suppress creativity in education, politics, media and business.
Reality is Plastic, and Material Illusions
Social Creativity has some very specific attitudes. It holds that reality is plastic, that it is not fixed at all. Both plans and physical things are malleable and can be reshaped.
Also, Social Creativity says that often many material things and institutions are “illusions” and that inner illusions based upon ideals and ethics are more real. Many systems are simply false realities; they are tactile, durable, physical and powerful, yet they are dysfunctional and anti-social and anti-human.
The Future
On the future, Social Creativity says that no one has yet created a new world of true democracy and freedom or genuinely fair multi-valued economic systems or mass mental health or mass creativity, so history books will not fundamentally help us. We are in new territory, there are no guides except our ideals and the rules of creativity. Social Creativity says do not fear change, do not despair. With faith and hope, patience and creative work we can build the new world.
There will be many spheres of change -- economic systems, business enterprises, government, media and entertainment and art, schools, community, family, mental health, rituals, international relations, repairing the environment and more.
Genio and Geniotariat
Social Creativity says that creativity will extend also to making individuals creative. Most people want to be creative though society has denied them this skill and mindset. Most people want to be Genios (creative individuals) and live lives of creative joy. The Geniotariat is a social group composed of creative people. It is an open “class” to which all can join. It is the Geniotariat that must be created and liberated in this age. Marx spoke of a “proletariat”, in this epoch we have a new social demographic, the Geniotariat, the new rising caste that seeks to be creative and to recreate all things. Unlike Marx’s notion, the Geniotariat is positive, open and constructive, while the idea of the “proletariat” became very negative, sectarian and destructive.
United and Diverse Front
The social activist that is creative has its principles of individuality, freedom, equality, directness, democracy, unity on ethics and values and more. She or he brings creative attitudes and behaviors to a social movement, and shapes it so it supports creativity in members and organizes creative projects. The social activist works in a “united and diverse front” to change the world. Organization is highly import for a movement for without it there is no coordination, no planning, no campaigning, no action, no collective dialogue and debate, no re-planning, no training, no recruiting, no building of institutions and thus little chance of success.
Social Individualist
The social activist is a Social Individualist, though she or he feels strongly about the principles of individuality, the activist finds a specific balance that allows the individual to think of others and act in the service of others. Social individuality is a healthy individuality, one that is not extreme and alienated from Humankind.
Personal Mythology
This social activist has developed a self mythology of being a Social Genio, a socially creative person dedicated to making society a better place. Mythology is a highly important self construct without it no one can know who they are and what they are to do in life. The Social Genio has a specific task which is more difficult than normal life, so she or he needs a stronger self mythology.
Difference and Diversity
The Social Genio thinks in terms of difference and diversity. This is only natural because she or he cannot be creative without these perceptions. Difference and creativity proceed from the same source. The activist Genio works to create a healthy Social Diverse of races, nationalities, religions, gender, sexual orientation, the disabled, subcultures and more.
Directness
Further, this Social Genio thinks in terms of Directness, that is, direct action, direct connection, direct communication, direct knowledge, and direct responsibility. In a complex, changing and diverse world, one can only know and control things by direct relationships and direct methods, otherwise “middlemen” will take control away from you. For a creative person this is a natural behavior, the social activist carries this into Social Creativity, and also tries to teach this directness to all.
New Nation
Social Creativity has many, many spheres of activity – one for each aspect of our culture.
The Social Genio is building up a parallel Nation, a rising nation that will replace the moribund and declining nation.
Power, Creative Hegemony
This raises the issue of Power. In personal creativity one needs Power or one cannot be creative, we need power over our conditions and at least to prevent others from undermining our spirit and our plans. Power is very important for a creative person because the world in direct or indirect ways tries hard to suppress our Genio. The same concept applies to Social Creativity, the Social Genio must have power to engage in the activity of creation. She or he or the group must have the power to not be interrupted, to conduct free experiment, to not be de-funded and so on. If the Social Genio does not have Creative Hegemony then NO essential creativity can take place.
Dual Power
Also, Social Creativity produces Dual Power. A new world is being created, at the same time, the old world still exists though it is sinking. Cultures do not change overnight, we have long periods where people’s minds must be changed and new institutions must undergo experiment until they work successfully. More, Dual Power can be built before, during and after revolutionary events. Dual Power is not something that waits until after a revolutionary change, in fact it can help initiate a change. Dual power includes new cultural institutions, new media, new schools, new types of businesses, new stock exchanges, new healthcare and much more. Also, it might include the development of parallel forms of government on the internet where citizens actively study and debate issues and form mock legislation in preparation for a direct democracy to come.
Whether some issue requires reform or revolution is only secondary, this may seem an odd thing to say, but in either case, we will have an extended period of Dual Power. Even revolutions cannot leap into an already-made future, it takes time to create the future. A movement is engaged both in building new cultural institutions and practices as well as political activism, the two behaviors go together, each helps the other.
Civos
The core unit of creativity might be a “Civos, a civilizing act. We will advance one Civos, one civilizing act, at a time, whether revolution or reform. A Civos ends suffering, solves problems, creates healthy individuals, ceases social strife and more. This might be our metric for social change.
Positive, Builder, Helper
The Social Genio wants to do true good. She or he wants to create true democracy, make peace with nations, take care of people, stop damage to Nature. The Social Genio is positive and a builder, and not simply a negative “fighter” -- who only knows how to rally people to destroy but not how to build the new world and all of its new practices, lifestyles and institutions. Ultimately, the Social Genio wants to help people, otherwise what is the point?
Conscious vs. Unconscious Activism
Sometimes, revolution is often an unconscious act of rebellion in which the perpetrator has no clue as to the future, as to what is next. The revolution of a Social Genio is more self aware, she or he is conscious of the general outlines and some specifics, she or he has a worldview and general methods of creativity and diverse thinking. One may not have the exact solutions to a problem but with the right outlook and skills , one can over time experiment and build a new world.
Creativity and Certainty
The Social Genio has no tolerance for dogma or preconceived plans or fear of change, at the same time, the Social Genio has a high tolerance of ambiguity and uncertainty. Why? Because when we are in a state of creativity we do not know what the final product will be, we are temporarily lost, if you will. Our only certainty is that we will eventually find a solution to a problem by our creative methods. Those who have all the answers live in a world of excruciating detail, while those who do not live in a zone of that is imprecise. For the Social Genio we have our basic principles and values, and we have creative process which we know will eventually resolve all problems in detail. We have unflagging confidence in our abilities and great faith in the power of creativity.
Psychology of a Creative Activist
The Social Genio revels in diversity, difference, flexibility, experiment, the new, schools of thought, multiple solutions, freedom, evolution and individuality . The activist that is not creative does not like difference for he wants uniformity. He does not like social diversity for the same fears. He is inflexible in thought. He is intimidated by the New. He does not want experiments. He does not want different schools of thought, he does not want multiple solutions. He is panicked by the idea of mass freedom. He does not like the concept of evolution or a process of change. And he ultimately does not like individuality for that means difference and eventually creativity -- creativity is the ultimate expression of conscious difference in Human beings, wanting to be different personalities with different views, with different solutions.
Fear is the emotion that parallels dogmatic thought – fear of the different, the new, the unknown.
And this leads to a need to control people and processes and ultimately control history -- which is futile because history is an evolutionary process, and one cannot control evolution.
Some people cannot stand the chaotic social process that creates radical action because they desperately need something to grab onto, their tolerance of change is very, very low. However, we are in an Age when social change is going to accelerate again across the planet. We have just passed out of a few slow decades. The fall of communism signaled the end of a first cycle, social activism reached a peak in the first half of the 20th century and another peak in the 60s.
Today we can see a second wave of big changes coming on the planet, a second wave of radical change as developing nations gain economic power and established powers lose their privileged position.
The individual who has a low tolerance for change, should not be a social leader or activist in this epoch. The revolutions and reforms made by these personalities are partial, interrupted and stalled. They cannot go the distance because they cannot be creative. These personalities harbor a paradox, on the one hand, they want change but they only want change so they can control. Change however is continuous and stopping social change is futile. The best approach is to try to guide change, and this what the Social Genio does with techniques of Social Creativity that try to steer creativity. It is true that we shall find from time to time that even our plans will be upset by innovations and new things which will catch us off guard and unprepared for the next big change. However, if we are alert and honest we can quickly recover and fix our mistakes.
We are imperfect but we will do much better if we think in terms of Social Creativity guiding social change rather than the old modes of dogma and control, for this misbehavior will lead to misery and long periods of social stagnation.
Other articles in this book will explore aspects of this thesis. For your reference below are some qualities and attitudes of a creative social activist for discussion:
Diversity
Social diversity
Difference
Flexibility
Experiment
The new
Schools of thought
Multiple solutions
Freedom
Equality
Evolution
Chaos
Competition
Individuality
Social individuality
Ambiguity
Uncertainty
Faith and confidence in creativity
Love of the different
Directness
Transitions
Reality is plastic
Material illusion
The future as art
Universal application of creativity to all things
Personal myth
And more……….
Also, here is a list some strategic concepts just discussed and others to come:
Geniotariat
United and Diverse Front, UDF
Social Individuality
Social Directness
Social Diversity
New Nations
Dual Power
Creative Hegemony
Objective and Subjective aspects of Revolution
Types of Revolution
Conscious and Unconscious Revolution
The relation of Revolution and Reform
Civos
Indirect and Direct Leadership
Facilitators
Specific Social Creative techniques
Specific methods of Social Creative leadership
Diverse Wholes
Negative United Front
Mis-creativity
Polythea
Pandermath
And more….
Cage Innoye