Pangea Day - A Cross-Cultural Celebration
/"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction." Albert Einstein
I forwarded part of a email about Pangea Day to a friend...
...Take a look at these films. They are each just one minute long. They feature a choir in one country singing another country's national anthem: a simple idea that packs surprising emotional power.
France sings for USAKenya sings for India
Japan sings for Turkey
They were shot by film directors looking to support the landmark TED project Pangea Day....
After reading the email and listening to the singing, my friend wrote back:
"OK, you've got my attention - the idea is absolutely amazing (something about the simplest things)"
In deed! Pangea Day will be a remarkable day because people all over the world will come together, physically in communities, and virtually around the world, to celebrate together what is working. As of last count there were more than 1000 communities organizing events to gather the local energies, hearts and spirits to watch and sing and be inspired enough to continue the dialogs well past May 10, 2008.
The idea is simple really. Create a large vision. Share it. Create a self-organizing ecosystem of doers and like-minded people. Inspire networks to pass the word and create more self-organizing events.
Many years ago we had simple market places where good ideas fermented and took root:
"In the market, language grew. Became bolder, more sophisticated. Leaped and sparked from mind to mind. Incited by curiosity and rapt attention, it took astounding risks that none had ever dared to contemplate, built whole civilizations from the ground up." The Cluetrain Manifesto, 2000
Today we have a global marketplace called the Internet. It is a remarkable tool. It encourages local and global participation. Here ... possiblilly ... we can once again contemplate and build a new civilization from the ground up. It is ideas like Pangea Day ( find a community near you) that can cause us to forego the daily news of doom and gloom and gather to let our minds be sparked and perturbed ... incited by curiousity and rapt attention ... to build on the simple beginnings of a good idea.
We can take this simple good idea and turn it into a great swelling. Good ideas don't often take root over night. They grow and mature in fits and starts until they escape to a higher order. Pangea Day (programs) offers an escape from the daily news of a world falling apart ... systems no longer able to support viable, healthy futures ... and gives life to that which is being born.
In assembling complexity the bounty of increasing returns is won by multiple tries over time. As various parts reorganize to a new whole, the system escapes into a higher order. Ilya Prigogine