The Bretton Woods Monetary Institute & Festival
~ The Bretton Woods Global Working Circles ~
“The aim of the Bretton Woods Conference was the creation of a dynamic world community
in which the peoples of every nation will be able to realize their potentialities in peace.”
Henry Morgenthau, Chairman, Bretton Woods Conference, US Secretary of the Treasury
Dear Friends,
A warm welcome to participate in, and help to round, the Bretton Woods Global Working Circles in your profession and related trade.
The purpose of the Bretton Woods Global Working Circles is to fulfill Morgenthau’s opening words by offering solutions to the most pressing problems-challenges–opportunities facing humanity, beginning with the redemption of our debt-based monetary system.
Participants in The Bretton Woods Global Working Circles are both global experts and fellow citizens endowed with expertise, drawn from lives and labors devoted to practice in the world. One and all recognize the opportunity to make a difference, an historic difference, upon the global platform that Bretton Woods offers, including for your own related labors and/or aspirations.
Participants represent the breadth and richness of our human race. What they share in common is the commitment to working together to create a future worth envisioning for our children, grandchildren, and for the generations to come: All Our Relations. This commitment is realized in the fruits of the Working Circles: The 21st Century Bretton Woods Accords.
The Working Circles constitute the framework for the work of The Bretton Woods Monetary Initiative, including its Institute & Festival. The arising Working Circles will encompass the breadth of professions/trades: banking, business development, economics, entrepreneurship, finance, fintech, health care, public service, law, science, technology, education, the media, war and peace, religion/spirituality, the arts, agriculture, multi-culturalism, the environment, community building and construction. Further proposed professions/trades are welcome.
The focal question of the Working Circles is: How can each circle (e.g. banking, the arts, education, health care, public service), how can each profession/trade, including the military itself, contribute toward “the creation of a dynamic world community in which the peoples of every nation will be able to realize their potentialities in peace”?
We commend to those more martial souls, the “Farewell Address” of the former Supreme Allied Commander and 34th president of the United States, Dwight D. Eisenhower. Eisenhower’s words were spoken after a Second World War had drawn to its devastating end, claiming the lives and limbs of an additional 80 million soldiers and innocent civilians.
Participants in The Bretton Woods Global Working Circles are working together with fellow citizens in New Hampshire’s impoverished North Country — with Bretton Woods, a resplendent island, in its midst — to create a Universal Model for Economic & Cultural Renewal. The model is committed to the fulfillment of the words: The last are destined to become the first.
The Universal Model and fruits of its Working Circles, the 21st Century Bretton Woods Accords, will be offered for adaption and adoption to sister-cities/communities and regions the world over.
The first fruit / accord is The Bretton Woods Initiatives’ Year 1 Keystone Project : The Bretton Woods~Concord Resolution. The resolution has risen out of the The Bretton Woods Global Working Circle On Monetary Policy. As such, the resolution provides both an unprecedented and, we propose, the long-awaited means to get our global “House,” public works / infrastructure in order, to shore up our roads, bridges, schools and sewage, water systems, without communities going into deeper debt. This is accomplished in a way whereby everyone benefits, including the 1%.
Those interested in taking part in the Bretton Woods Global Working Circles are invited contact <info@concord-ium.us >.
Distinguishing Elements
“To act collectively is according to the spirit of our institutions.”
Henry David Thoreau, “Walden”
The distinguishing elements of The Bretton Woods Global Working Circles are:
1) The Working Circles focus on what, we suggest, is the central problem-challenge–opportunity of our time, in Morgenthau’s words: “the creation of a dynamic world community in which the peoples of every nation will be able to realize their potentialities in peace.”
2) The Working Circles recognition of a, if not the, root cause behind the failure, to date, to create the “dynamic world community” spoken of. That root cause, we suggest, is our view of the world that focuses on what divides us, as distinct from what aspires to unite us: humankind. The Bretton Woods ~ Concord Resolution traces this division right down into our monetary policy, dealings with money.
3) The Working Circles work out of the understanding that this division, as all divisions, begins with the way we think about the world. Accordingly, the Working Circles are seed-beds for the cultivation of the new kind of thinking that Einstein calls for, essential aspects of which are native to the Original Peoples of this land. Such a renewed thinking will be required — if we are to address the deep divisions that have arisen. Simply expressed, the thinking referred to arises out of the transformation of rationalism into relationalism. Such a thinking can be referred to as an enlightened common sense, a shared sense for what would relate and unite us, humankind.
4) The Working Circles are, accordingly, distinguished by their rich diversity — along lines of race, ethnicity, gender, age, social-economic and professional backgrounds — that embraces the breadth of perspectives and offers an unprecedented collaborative environment for designing creative solutions that engage the problems-challenges–opportunities before us.
5) The circles are working with a format — a deliberative ceremonial (creative) change process* — that is not only indigenous to this land but universal in its applications and unprecedented in its possibilities. The change process both recognizes and moves beyond the divisive, dualistic thinking — which otherwise all too often undermines our deliberations — and facilitates instead co-design and co-creative solutions. Such solutions are preeminently win/win, life-affirming and thereby, as noted, unprecedented in their potential to bring forth the change that humankind seeks.
* This process has been inspired by the remarkable and timely work of Choctow/Dine Elder and international educator, Patricia Anne Davis, “Living the Loving Way, As A Way of Life, A Reverent Revolution,” Whole System Design Portfolio, Center for Creative Change, Antioch University, 06/15/2005. The Navajo Nation Justice Department, Window Rock, AZ.www.nativeamericanconcepts.wordpress.com. Facebook Indigenous Wisdom Institute Page.
6) Finally, what distinguishes the The Bretton Woods Global Working Circles is Bretton Woods itself, one of the most universally recognized brands of our day. Bretton Woods has been, and remains, a center stage, platform recognized the world over.
The Working Circles’ Template
The following template is presented here for the Bretton Woods Global Working Circle in Education. The same steps can be applied to the other Working Circles. The steps enable the Working Circle participants — in person or on-line — to arrive at ready consensus in terms of designing solutions, whereby education, in this instance, can contribute, as noted, to “the creation of a dynamic world community in which the peoples of every nation will be able to realize their potentialities in peace.”
1) Welcoming Word:
2) Introductions: your name, work, and where you are located. (Further biographical information will be visible on the conference platform.)
3) What aspect of our educational system do you identify as in most need of our collective efforts toward change?
4) Prioritize the top 3 aspects for more in-depth consideration.
5) What is the root cause behind each of three identified aspects?
6) How do you propose undoing and dismantling the root causes?
7) What creative solutions can contribute toward creating a future worth envisioning for our youth and the generations to come? Note: The focus is on systemic changes, not merely coping.
8) How can these solutions be best introduced into the educational system?
9) What is the first step that each of us can take in the implementation?
10) Reflections.
11) Next steps/meeting.
12) Concluding word.
~ ~ ~
Photo Gallery for 2015 Bretton Woods Convocation (if password required, enter concordium )
