GreenSudbury: Make Hope Visible

Well it is a common situation, um, and I think that it is an absolutely critical political idea that if people don't understand whats happening in a positive way, they either assume that nothings happening, which is depressing, or that negative things are happening, which is even worse. So, umm, its a terrible challenge because, we have so much information, so much broadcast, about crisis, conflict, violence, you know, its a constantly negative portrayal of our behaviour; when in fact the dominant reality of our behaviour is collaboration. The dominant story of the 20th & 21st century is freedom, collaboration, success. Thats um, I mean its a really radically successful period. And, but people, the thing that they see the most, you know I went home and watched the news last night and they were talking about executing a mass murderer, and another mass murderer on a military base, in the United States. Now thats what dominates the, you know, thats what dominated my imagination by watching the news. There was nothing on the news about the extraordinary energy that we found here in Sudbury that 500 people in a small town like this came out to talk about the future of the city and how we could apply design, to think of this place as a park. To think of it as a park that we live in. Thats, thats way more important than the fact that somebody got killed. Sad thing, it is compelling, but its way over there, it has, I cant affect it, so Im disempowered, and it has really no relevance to me; but its in my imagination.

And its not that we shouldnt understand what is going on in the negative, but weve allowed the negative to dominate our reality, when our reality of our reality is positive. So one of the important things that needs to be done as part of this, as part of the process of this Centre for Massive Change in Sudbury is that we need to show people the heroes of our own community. We need to understand that these people are extraordinary people who are making personal commitments to change and development for their community, for their children, for their childrens children. And those people are way more interesting ultimately, well, lets say that they may not be more interesting to us, they are more relevant to us, we may not realise it.And part of what we need to do is actually is make them interesting. We have to make the heroic accomplishments that are being done here, interesting to ourselves and one another, so that people really see wow these people, the work that Imagine Sudbury is doing, um, you know, thats going to shape the future of this place.

You know, the work that the university is doing, the things that the city is doing, these things are going to shape the future, and I think for me one of the most important effects that weve been involved in, and the most important experiences that we have are around people discovering their own power to shape the world. People discovering their own capacity, that the city doesnt happen to them. You know, their life doesnt happen to them. And that transformation its very tough one to errr, it a difficult one for people to get in a world that is, you know, is very much re-enforcing the idea that you are a consumer, youre powerless, youll be manipulated and youll leave within the category that we have imagined for you. Ah, in a, when in fact were living in an era where you can re-invent that category, ah, you can re-invent consumption, you can be a producer not only a consumer, ah, and collectively you have the power to shape the world.

So that transformation I think is such a, such an exciting time to be living in a world where those tools are becoming available where people can get into their hands, especially kids, you know, kids have a natural, they hit a natural point in their development where they reject their parents. They reject the existing structure, they reject the status quo, and they want to make something. And they discover their own voice. And they discover their own power. And now they have tools that amplify their power on such a scale that they can really become um, world changers, and they can do it from anywhere in the world. Unlike um, even a few decades ago, there is nothing preventing a kid from Sudbury ah, changing the world, from Sudbury. You no longer have to leave to do that.