Chapter 6

The purpose of humanity

This really is the “meaning of life” chapter – “Why are we here?” We explore a range of thoughts on this and extrapolate what has been discussed in the previous chapter. The hypothesis for testing is that all of life exists to thrive and celebrate itself – collectively. If the purpose of life is indeed to “thrive in community and celebrate the process”, then it would seem reasonable that this should be the mission for humanity. This also carries the responsibility for sustainability so that life can continue to fulfil its purpose long after we are gone.

Introduction

If, as I propose in Designing the Purposeful Organization, vision is the manifestation of purpose at a particular time horizon, then the SDGs really are a powerful vision for humanity. The time horizon is 2030 and so far I have asked thousands of people to close their eyes and imagine the world at that point. They always describe a world consistent with the SDGs, even if their particular focus is on some goals more than others.

So, if this is the manifestation of a purpose for humanity or indeed for life, then what is that purpose? It is useful to know this as it explains the raison d’être for the SDGs and, thinking longer term, it will help us to establish a vision beyond 2030 when it becomes appropriate to do so. The other reason for understanding our purpose is that purpose is a useful tool for delivering our vision, as we’ll see shortly.

The eternal question

Since humans first set foot on our planet, my guess is they have been asking and thinking about the purpose or meaning of life. Like many people, I too ask the question and have frequent conversations with others who are willing to engage on this topic.

Purpose as the pursuit of human needs

There are clues regarding the purpose of life, especially human life, when we examine what matters to people. In 1943, in his paper “A Theory of Motivation”, Abraham Maslow proposed that we humans seek to fulfil a series of needs, starting with our most basic “survival” needs such as food and water. With these needs met, we seek safety from harm and then to live in “social” relationship with others. According to Maslow, we then begin to grow a sense of self-esteem by feeling that we are of value in society until, ultimately, we become all that we can be and our self is “actualised”. This, now famous, “hierarchy of needs” is shown in Figure 6.1 and gives us a real sense of the evolution of our sense of purpose.

This evolution of purpose hints at a progression from fear for our demise to a love of life and meaning alongside others.

In more recent years, Richard Barrett expanded on the thinking of Maslow and especially on what matters during self-actualisation. We see more than a hint of Maslow in Barrett’s “seven levels of consciousness” which we will explore in Chapter 10 of this book.

Barrett suggests that what matters to us, or our “values”, can be diagnosed and plotted to provide a clear picture of where our attention is and an indication therefore of our purpose. We shall explore Barrett’s work in Chapter 10 when we examine values and their importance in designing the purposeful world. But for now, let’s just acknowledge that our needs and our values will greatly influence how our purpose in life is felt.

In search of one simple, inspiring purpose

So, it seems that our purpose, that of humanity as a whole or indeed all of life, is complex. It will depend on who is looking at it and what their context is. Nevertheless, wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could find a way of expressing this purpose in such simple terms that we can all buy into and which embraces all variations from the most basic needs suggested by Maslow to the most ambitious contributions anyone might make? I have tried many ways of expressing this and the answer I keep coming back to is that the purpose of all of life is this:

Figure 6.1Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

• to thrive in community and celebrate life itself

It is true that in the most threatening of contexts (at the base of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs), where just surviving as an individual is all we can think of, the idea of thinking of or collaborating with others or celebrating life might seem beyond our care. Then again, if life didn’t hold some promise of joy, if it didn’t give us something to celebrate with others, then why would we even bother trying to stay alive.

I don’t claim to have defined a meaning of life that will work for everyone at any time and it will always be a meditation but it works for me and it seems to resonate with those I have shared it with. I also like this definition as it seems to work not just for humans but for all of life.

Activity 6.1: The meaning (or purpose) of life

It isn’t my choice of words or how I’ve put them together that really matters. It’s the essence that counts. Of course, people have been trying to understand the meaning of life for thousands of years, so I don’t suppose this activity is a new one. But, as an anchor to understanding the whole of this book, why not craft your own purpose for life in a few words and write it in the space below. Feel free also to contact me and let me know. Or post it on the SDGs Facebook page.

It seems to work for the simplest of life forms

My logic for this is that there seems to be plenty of evidence that all living organisms seek to thrive. As previously noted, stem cell biologist and author Bruce Lipton taught that identical stem cells could be placed in different contexts in Petri dishes and would adapt in order to thrive, thus creating a variety of tissue types that could ultimately be used for medical purposes. At every scale of magnitude we see the same pattern. Insects, birds, animals, humans and communities organise themselves with the intention of thriving, consciously or otherwise.

Life thriving alongside life

I have also proposed that it is essential that life thrives alongside life, in community. Again, this is complex, especially as we see life taking life in order to survive and thrive. This seems to be part of the grand design.

Not only does life need to co-exist with life, it also appears to be designed to thrive in community. Look at the amazing way the 70 trillion cells in our bodies have congregated and self-organised to form the life form we call “me”. In the same way, you and I have come to identify along with 7 billion others to form the “we” we know as “humanity”. And in the same way that I am conscious at the “me” level, many of us are increasingly becoming collectively conscious at the “we” level.

Consciously thriving at the global level

Of course, there is much more to life than humanity. James Lovelock described our interconnected global organism as Mother Earth or Gaia. This mega-community of a myriad of life forms suggests at the “energetic” level a joined-up global consciousness with a collective intelligent awareness. At a biological and material level it is a mega ecosystem that (on a good day) seems to work.

Does consciousness diminish at the micro level as it matures at the macro?

It is interesting to ponder that when consciousness arises at the collective level, so the consciousness at the individual level seems to subside. We can all think of people who have put their families, their team, their nation or the utmost collective good before their own wellbeing. We experience it when we are with someone who is hurting. We feel their pain more than our own sensations in that time and place. We experience it when we see the harrowing images of conflict on our television screens.

We notice it when individuals are prepared to sacrifice their own life for the collective good. We might naturally think of this mainly with humans in mind but might it be possible to stretch our imagination to make sense of how life is sacrificed for life in the food chains of our global ecosystem?

Behaviours shift as our consciousness grows

As we associate ourselves more with the whole, amazing things begin to happen. For example, Otto Scharmer, author of Theory U: Leading from the Future as It Emerges, describes how our listening changes as we evolve. At the most primitive level we have the closed mind that simply listens for facts to support our own stance. At the next level we listen with an “open mind” in the knowledge that others have valid data we can learn from. As we mature, we learn to listen with an “open heart” where we have empathy for the feelings of another. Finally, in our most evolved state we become less aware of our separateness and more in tune with a collective future that is seeking to emerge. This deep listening for an emerging future is what Scharmer refers to as “generative listening”.

Living together as one, literally

This is exactly the nature of a collective purpose. It has a life of its own. Frederic Laloux, in Reinventing Organizations, describes purpose in highly evolved “teal” organisations as being independent from any one person’s control. The CEO and other executives are in service of the purpose (as opposed to owning it) as are all other parties associated with the organisation.

Why does all this matter?

The beauty of having a simple purpose for all of life is that it provides an anchor for all we do. It provides alignment and commonality in a world that is all too often divided. Seeking to thrive together and wonder at life itself is surely something we can all buy into without feeling we have to leave our particular faith or philosophy behind. A simple purpose for life has the power to unite and build bridges.

It is therefore critical to understand how the context of a human being might affect how it will respond to a “thrive and celebrate the process” hypothesis. Clearly someone living in a context of love and sufficiency might find thriving and happiness easier than someone living amidst starvation and fear of violence.

Maybe, as suggested by Maslow in his “hierarchy” of needs, there is a basic need to survive first before someone has any chance to rise to the purpose of thriving and celebration. However, this doesn’t seem to be as straightforward as it seems. History abounds with stories of heroes and heroines who have laid down their lives through love for others. We also know of others who have more than enough to survive and yet live in constant fear of losing even a small proportion of it.

This conundrum is at the heart of whether humanity will indeed deliver the SDGs. With a collective heart of love we could do this today. In a world of fear, we have no chance to succeed. Phil Clothier of Barrett Values Centre describes his number one value as “love”. Indeed, he also describes this as his purpose. Love might easily be defined as the desire to share life with others, to thrive and be happy. In which case, there will be those amongst us who might understandably simplify my thoughts on the purpose of life still further as being “to love”.

Love does not prevail uncontested

Interestingly, as I write this chapter, much of the world seems to be at a fear versus love crossroads. Western politics are more polarised in this manner than has been the case for many recent years. We saw this playing out with Brexit in the UK and in the US and French presidential elections. Whilst this has been a sad and frustrating distraction from our commitments to sustainability, my optimism believes that this may be a necessary playing out of the human psyche. Those at the “love” end of this spectrum might consider those at the other to be cruel, discriminatory and selfish. In turn, they themselves might typically be regarded by their opposites as soft, trendy do-gooders, living on a cloud of delusion far removed from the harsh realities of life.

Full spectrum consciousness

The truth is that we need people at both ends of the spectrum to “generatively” listen to each other so that, if nothing else, a better level of understanding is achieved. Such wisdom, as Richard Barrett might say, leads to the development of “full spectrum consciousness” where people truly have values across all levels of consciousness. People with full spectrum consciousness still respect and value safety whilst taking action to make a difference in an holistic context.

Politics of fear and love

What is interesting is the trend of the division between the politics of fear versus those of love. Whilst not a strict rule and without wishing to polarise or alienate, there is evidence to suggest that, in general, the nationalistic, isolationist politics of fear find more favour with older people and those who are less well educated. The younger generation, who are often also better educated, show a distinct preference at the ballot box and in their life choices for fewer social barriers and greater compassion for others.

The rise of the politics of love

The point of raising this topic is not to make this text political. It is simply this, that as older people die and education becomes prolific and widespread, we might speculate that the politics of fear will diminish and the politics of love will prevail. Humanity may then find it easier to focus on its true purpose. Such progress would be well facilitated by a focus on the SDGs and an ultimate trend towards the politics of love may give us more reasons for hope – that might easily have been added to that message in Chapter 2.

The fight back of fear

However, this won’t happen overnight and it won’t happen without some initial discomfort. Make no mistake, those living in fear and promoting fear in defence of their fear-born self-interests will not lie down easily. As the world naturally becomes more joined-up and compassionate, those who are against such trends may well resort to desperate measures. We’ve already seen the lengths they will go to in order to further their cause, including the adoption of aggressive tactics and blatant use of misinformation or “false-facts”.

Nor is it the case that everyone who is materially wealthy will find safety and security in their wealth. There are plenty of such people who have what to others may seem a disproportionate fear of losing even a small proportion of a vast wealth and a need to grow their wealth far beyond their needs. Similarly there are many materially poor people who would give their last cent to help their neighbours and who leave their doors wide open to strangers.

The need for compassion

Wealth and power in the hands of people who lack compassion is a dangerous thing, especially when they find allegiance amongst those who have little, with whom their words of fear resonate. There is little point in compassionate liberals ignoring this as their high ideals will simply serve as a turn-off. Instead, they need to listen generatively to the needs of the many and find a way of responding that makes more sense than the alternative messages of fear and defence.

Wealth and poverty, fear and love it seems are largely an attitude of mind. But research into the topic of “happiness” suggests that it is to be found in the spirit of love, generosity, compassion and abundance.

Educated, loving people come to the conclusion that “we’re all in this together”. They know that big topics like climate preservation and world peace require a strong collective effort. They know that inequality adds fuel to fear and causes division. Ultimately there is no winner from the path of fear. But the path of love must embrace the needs of the many in order to succeed.

The power of celebration

We need to find a way to make sustainability attractive. In this respect and in our quest to accelerate our journey to the purposeful world, a key additive to our fuel is the power of celebration. Celebration of purposeful successes strengthens the purpose itself. I have noticed, by the number of views we get on our SDGs Facebook page, that when we celebrate progress on the delivery of the goals, people are drawn into curiosity and find inspiration. They become less interested when we over-focus on the problems and more interested when they see solutions. This is the case when we post new innovations in renewable energy and when we celebrate victories for gender equality such as women piloting planes in countries where they’re not even allowed to drive. It is the case when young people find business opportunities cleaning our oceans and when permaculture solutions return Africans to ways of farming that were lost during colonial diversions from their heritage. It is the case when the life of an endangered animal is saved and when young women defy their oppressors to receive the education they deserve.

Activity 6.2: Celebrate what’s right with the world

Too often the voice of sustainability is one of doom and gloom. This is perfectly understandable and we do need to acknowledge the problems with compassion and sincerity. However, if we are to succeed in preserving our planet we must find ways to make doing so a truly attractive proposition. And it is. Science and innovation is sexy. Progress is delightful. Education is exciting. Children playing safely is a joy to behold. Preserving and witnessing life on land and under the sea is amazing.

National Geographic photographer Dewitt Jones reminds us to “celebrate what’s right with the world” and I would encourage every reader of this book to watch Dewitt’s video of the same title. There are plenty of tasters and trailers of this work on YouTube if you’d like to sample his work before getting a copy of the full version. Watch as much as you are able and inspired to do and make your own notes below on what you think is “right with the world” and how this can be leveraged in the interests of sustainability.

Every time we celebrate progress relating to a purpose we inspire more of the same and the power of the purpose grows. In turn, a powerful purpose will drive a compelling vision which is my cue to the next chapter.

Chapter reflection

Score the following statements out of ten where:

• 0 = not at all
• 2 = a little
• 4 = moderately
• 6 = mainly
• 8 = significantly
• 10 = completely