GLOBAL EMPOWERMENT AND TRANSFORMATION

Marilyn Ferguson: What I called the Aquarian Conspiracy in my book seems to be in fact, kind of a worldwide phenomenon in terms of people having a new sense of what’s possible. And I have in the, a little more than two years since the book came out and two years since Toronto, I have traveled all over the U.S., in many cities in Canada to Europe on several occasions, and what I find is that, in a way, the dream of a new beginning—the idea that societies might be more humane, that people might somehow establish a greater sense of community and people could feel more—is that they had some personal power and that they could imagine their own answers. 

That seems to be picking up all over. It’s as if the world situation has to get desperate enough, or the existing institutions fail enough, the economy get into serious enough problems so that then people begin looking to themselves for the answers. And that seems to be happening.

Interviewer (Not identified): Does it happen in the same way in every place, or is it colored by culture, by language? 

Marilyn: It’s very much colored by culture, by the type of city, like whether you’re in an urban area or rural area. I spoke yesterday, in fact, to 500 from women near Old Alberta, and they have their own sense of wanting to make an impact and wanting to begin somewhere to make changes in their lives and then affect changes in the world. And they’re going to do it differently than say, the group of 500 Swedish businesspeople I talked to a year ago. And they’re doing it differently because, particularly as you go from country to country, in some countries, like the European countries, the idea of social transformation has tended to have more political coloration than it does in the United States and Canada. We sent to tend to see it more as community regional networks or personal and less involved with the with the political. 

Then again, I talked this morning to members of Congress, at a breakfast at the Congressional Clearing House for the Future. I find politicians are now more and more and more interested in the idea that, in fact, people going through personal change, shifts in personal values are beginning to, in fact, have been creating kind of a grassroots movement in a whole new direction. And they want to begin to understand what it’s about. 

Interviewer: How did you tie that in with the coming communications revolution?

Marilyn: Well, without modern technology most of these ideas would not have been able to cover the planet as quickly as they have. I think people, in fact, they almost don’t appreciate how important it’s been just to be able to Xerox something, to photocopy something that you want to send to someone else, to pick up the telephone and call long distance. Much less, you know, computers and computerized typesetting and self-publishing and teleconferencing and so on. I think even just looking at the more available popular communications technology, it’s greatly facilitated what’s happening. 

It would be very nice if we could accelerate this process because we have no way of knowing that we’re not going to blow the planet up. You know, people have a tendency to say that I’m very optimistic. I’m optimistic about the process if it gets a chance. I really believe we are moving more and more into a kind of socially transformational process. But we are, we are at serious risk in terms of the arms race.

Institutions are people you know, they have people in them who make those decisions and people who go through personal change and think a lot depends, say within, within any institution, within an educational bureaucracy or a hospital or a corporation. A lot depends on how many open-minded people are there. What kind of leaders are there and how much support they can get, as to whether that institution will survive or not. 

Interviewer: Is there any danger of violent changes as there were when people’s image of themselves changed, like the for instance in the 17th century?

 
Marilyn: It doesn’t look like it, and I think it’s in part because part of this deep change that happens for people, causes them to tend to identify with other people and to include other people. When I know what it is that makes me afraid of change, then I’m going to have compassion for other people if they’re afraid of change. So then my approach to them, if I want to give them a new idea, is going to be different, than say pounding and throwing rocks and demonstrating with placards. 

What I’m most excited about here is kind of the sequel to Toronto. I began noticing in Toronto that the transformation track of that conference was full to overflowing and I had no idea because futurists used to be very high-tech people and they saw kind of technical, technological fixes for the future. And what I’m seeing here, even more than in Toronto, in fact vastly more than in Toronto, is a tremendous interest around values, around the idea of transformation, deep and fundamental inner shifts in how we perceive, how we value, what our realities are. And I think, in fact, this reflects what’s happening with the American people and with people all over the planet. 

I spoke this morning to members of Congress, the Congressional Clearinghouse of the Future, attending congressmen and women there with their staffs, and that was basically what I was saying to them and what they already believe. I mean, that’s why they were there. Something is happening, something fundamentally new and exciting. It’s been two years since the Aquarian Conspiracy came out and I have traveled all over this country—Canada and other parts of the world. But I see is there is a rapidly rising interest that seems to be spreading kind of spontaneously. It’s like something that is yeasting that in fact, the more urgent the world situation gets, the more urgent the economy gets, the more people are looking to alternatives, the more people are looking to innovation, to new visions. And so I think that’s very important. 

A lot of people make too much of conservative backlash. It’s really not what’s happening. People are opening up. And I have found the—my book has been translated into numerous languages. I got a call the other day that there were meetings in Tokyo or people who had read the book and wanted to create networks. It’s like this. It’s very much a cross-cultural thing that people are sensing that we can have a new beginning and they’re doing it everywhere. They’re doing it in corporations, they’re doing it in the military, they’re doing in the mainstream of life. I think where the peace movement is, is just evidence of that.