Quick user guide
Systemic (Oxford Dictionary)
Relating to a system, especially as opposed to a particular part: e.g. “the disease is localized rather than systemic.”
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Problem solving
If it impacts everyone, it should include everyone! Does the problem affecting you affect people everywhere? Is the root cause globally systemic or is it a national or local problem only? If it is global then it requires a global cooperative solution.
Insert Systemojis within your text to express:
- How widespread a problem is
- The scale of action required to tackle this problem.
Value honouring
In your conversations, who are you thinking about or caring for? What are your loyalties and who are you responsible for?
Insert Systemojis within your text to express:
- The scale of your thinking, care and connections.
- Who or what is most important to you right now?
- Me Emoji. (An individual /me as a system). What are my basic physiological, psychological and economic needs? What do I want? What is important to me? What do I value?
- Family Emoji. (Family systems. Immediate or extended family. Clan. Family business.) What are the needs of my family, my loved ones? What do we value
- Community Emoji. (Community systems. Tribe. Neighbourhood. City. Local businesses and commerce. Local government, services and charities. Community groups. Community culture. People’s Assemblies. Land rights). What are the needs of my community? What do we value?
- National Emoji. (National systems. National government, institutions, national constitution, companies, commerce, services, charities and NGOs. National culture.) What are the needs of my nation? What do we value?
- Global Emoji and Global Emoji +. (Global systems. World religions: Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Judaism, etc. – World views: capitalism, neo-liberalism, fascism, socialism, communism, anarchism, global empire, cooperativism. – Global governance: Occupy. Global Democracy. Global People Power. The Global Spring – Organisations: IMF. World Bank. Multinational corporations. The United Nations [The U.N. is made up of competing nation states] The Bilderberg Group. – Global NGOs. – Humanity. Races, global tribes, the human race. – Ecological: atmosphere, oceans, bio-diversity and land). What are the needs of my religious group, my world view group, my organisation? What are the needs of humanity? What are the needs of the planet? What do we value? The + symbol attached to the Global Icon + means that Pioneers strive to understand, value, honour and include the diverse values and world views of other Pioneers.
“Humans each have a personal horizon, beyond which they normally dare not look. But occasionally they do venture further, and then their habitual way of thinking becomes inadequate. Today they are becoming increasingly aware of the existence of other civilisations. In such circumstances, old problems take on a new appearance, because they are revealed as being parts of larger problems.” Theodore Zeldin, An Intimate History of Humanity.
Example 1:
The forest where I live has been destroyed as has my (3) tribal way of life. The (4) national military oversaw the carving up of the land for logging and then of the mining for minerals. This is part of the nation’s drive towards industrialisation and becoming a (5) global economic power through the international market’s demand for resources. I therefore propose that the (5+) The Universal Rights of Mother Earth becomes a legally binding global law.
Example 2. (Including the use of Empathemojis)
(W) I understand that (1) my wages have not risen in line with (4) inflation due to an economic crash that was caused by the irresponsible and illegal activity of some of the(5) world’s largest banks. That is the reason why I find it difficult to pay (2) my family’s bills at the end of each month and why I am looking for a second job. (G) I want (4) my government to (5+) join other governments around the world to take the power to create money out of private hands (International Monetary Reform) and to fix the banking system so as to end boom and bust economics and debt slavery.
More in-depth
“You can’t solve a problem with the same thinking that got you into the problem in the first place.” Albert Einstein.
Systememojis are an aid to systems thinking. Systems thinking is the process of understanding how things, regarded as systems, interact and influence one another and at different levels within a whole. Ultimately, systems thinking highlights how everyone and everything is interconnected as whole systems within whole systems. For example, we are social systems as families, communities, nations and whether we are aware of it much or not, as citizens of the whole world – within our solar system, galaxy and universe.
Systememojis visually represent how humanity has adapted more complex societies and systems to deal with wider, more complex problems. The more widespread a problem is, the more widespread the solution needs to be involving higher levels of cooperation.
Systems can be healthy or unhealthy, balanced or imbalanced. For example, in order to stop a health issue from recurring, alongside dealing with urgent symptoms more locally, it is best to deal with the whole person at the same time.
It is vitally important for Global People Power Earth-Citizens to be able to think locally to globally every day because global systemic problems such as climate change and unjust economic systems require global systemic solutions. It is now just as important to to protest, unite and create solutions at the global sphere as it is to do so at the local and national sphere.
Values
Systememojis provide a rough map of our awareness as it evolves and becomes wider and more inclusive. For example, it can be said that humanity learns collectively like children learn, through making mistakes and through an impulse to explore new horizons, new systems. Through the destructive excesses of the present age of individualism and global corporate competition, we are learning that a new kind of globalisation is needed, a globalisation that is in harmony with the natural world and is based on common values of inclusion, participation, peace, justice, sustainability and prosperity.
With regards to being a Global People Power Earth-Citizen, it is most vital to attempt to honour and enable the healthy expression of other people’s values no matter how much they differ from our own. It is not diversity of values that is the main contributor to conflict but restriction of the power to express one’s values.
Each Systememoji is not a box or category to stick people in. Instead they relate to an experience of increasing interconnectedness and complexity. As a map with marker points, they are a communication tool that enable people to better understand their own and other people’s thinking, the people they need to work with to tackle global problems.
Each Systememoji can be described as a more distant horizon which can be viewed the further one moves out from the planet. It is only likely that people will be inclined to venture further to new horizons when the needs of preceding Systememojis have been met. Systememojis as values are not fixed. They develop, become more complex and can take on more perspectives as needs are met within each Systememoji sphere. When times are hard however, our horizons can become more limited and we may need solutions to more immediate and localised problems.
How horizons widen or narrow
- If the parents of a family are so poor they cannot feed themselves or their family sufficiently, then their needs and concerns will probably be more localised and immediate. They will be thinking more about how to survive day-to-day and less about taking global democratic action. Where basic needs are met, long-term action is facilitated.
- Here in the UK there is a growing trend (exacerbated by vested media interests) towards blaming the cause of the UK’s economic problems either on the poorest and least fortunate in society for draining public resources or on immigrants to the UK for taking jobs. If by using the Systememoji map however, UK citizens traced their economic problems to the wider world it may trigger their memory that the economic downturn was caused by a crash at the Global-emoji sphere through the illegal practices of the world’s largest banks. Using the tool, they might also work out how economic global practices and foreign policy exacerbates poverty and conflict compelling far more people to emigrate away from the place they know and love in search of a better life.
It is a truly revolutionary thing for any individual to take time every day to think about the whole world and all its people, to broaden one’s horizons and to see the bigger picture. This will be especially true when it means understanding, valuing, honouring and purposefully including the needs and values of other people no matter how much they may differ from one’s own values; people whose needs may be more urgent and closer to home. Use of the Systememojis will no doubt help World-Citizens connect with each other through noticing how there is far more that unites humanity than divides us.
Systememojis also enhance objective thinking. They enable you to watch yourself being yourself within the wider world. Using them does not mean you have to agree with other people all the time. They help you to better understand where you are coming from, what your values are and why you disagree.
We cannot and therefore should not force anyone to think in a new way. The most moral way to support people to reach new horizons is to honour their values by allowing them to be expressed. Collectively we can then nurture the healthy, balanced expression of those values. (It is extremes of values which are problematic, not values themselves.) Finally, the very best way to help humanity to broaden it’s horizon and to become more inclusive is to lead by example.