collective sense-making and self-governance during Uncertainty

Schmachtenberger's discussions of collective sense-making seems relevant to this crisis. Look at how many of us read up on the pandemic, saw the exponential curve, and self-isolated before any mandate was issued in our area. This is evidence that the majority of us are capable of self-governance and cooperation once we get some convincing facts.

Alex Evans asserts that "In a networked world, new forms of cooperation will be needed ...We must all decide whether to see ourselves as separate islands or as part of 'a larger us' that understands, and acts on, our irreversible interdependence."

Evans continues, "The world has shut down in order to protect its older people." Young people have done this at the cost of their own income, while knowing that they are at little personal risk if infected. He calls for a response to this generosity: "The redistribution of wealth from older people with assets to younger people with little to their name is part of the answer [and] more sustainable, equitable and resilient patterns of development that many younger voters desperately want."

My hope is that we also use this time to break out of the economic structures that force so many who want to be sovereign and self sufficient — for example, small farmers and ranchers — to take on enormous burdens of debt or else sell off their land for developers or large agribusiness.