What Would Tyler Durden Do?

Checking in with sadness, anger, hopeless today.  I'm at the Social Innovation Summit in LA and have only heard one person mention the climate crisis.  No one has brought up the collapse of our democratic institutions. No one has questioned the capitalist system that creates all the externalities their jobs are designed to address.  Let me be more specific - their jobs depend on capitalism creating these problems.
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I’m wondering if any of these assholes even know about the UN IPPC report, if they have really grokked that we have 10 years to completely re-boot our complex interdependent presence on this planet.  Do they get that their children's lives are at stake?  Have they experienced Drew Dellinger's Hieroglyphic Stairway?  Are they moved by Greta Thunberg?

 
Instead, we’re jerking off CSR, microfinance and philanthropy execs by giving them our attention.

I’m wondering if I should sit through another day of this, or if there is something more purposeful to do with my time.

I think I’m especially hit hard, as I’m in a deeper inquiry around my contribution and impact.  Right now, I’m not feeling as connected to soul and purpose awakening as I am to the word “dignity”.  For me, dignity is in crisis. We don’t have a dignified relationship to our planet, our souls, each other.  We don’t have a dignified economy.  We don't have grown ass men and women dignifying the sacred charge of their offices.  We have a bunch of clowns competing for power and mindshare.

This morning, I was sharing my experience with my wife on the phone and a guy overheard me.   Turns out he was the former head of CSR at Deloitte. He agreed, this is bullshit. Social Innovation is bullshit. CSR, impact investing, philanthropy - all bullshit.  Not what’s needed now.

It’s time for a bigger game.

There were many purposeful people doing their thing in 1941 - hundreds of thousands of teachers, bakers, mechanics, factory workers and entrepreneurs who loved their work. However, when it became clear that all we hold sacred is at stake, they put down their craft and picked up a rifle.
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It feels like that time.  Time to set down my craft, everything I have worked on, scope the field of battle and forge my attack.

A couple weeks ago, a friend of mine who is really into Life Design, ran me through it and said that I’m a reflector.  I amplify what is arising.  I perceive the world from the vantage point of the world, humanity as humanity, cosmos as cosmos.  It resonated. This view was main ingredient in Planet on Purpose.

In this light, purpose work / soul awakening at scale still feels necessary, but not sufficient, not big enough.  We need more than soul right now. We need dignity. We need systems that reliably meet our needs, that honor the dignity in each human soul, that empower us to live in harmony and realize our full potential.

So I sit here in the lobby at the Hotel Intercontinental in downtown LA, listening to technopop, watching the train of Louis Vuitton purses and Armani suits network their little cross-fit asses off, and I'm wondering, what would Tyler Durden do?