The human species in aggregate is facing a Meta Crisis.
That Crisis contains within itself the greatest Meta Opportunity in history.
This demands an unprecedented Meta Solution that is actually capable of solving the Meta Crisis and capturing the Meta Opportunity.
Lionsberg is rising because we believe that a tremendous amount of suffering and death lies and at the logical end of humanity's current trajectory, and we are compelled to Act As If it were our responsibility organize ourselves to do something about it.
While it may not be enough, and while we may need to develop new and better ways of organizing ourselves, we know for certain that it will require no less than the basic levels of competency that we use to organize any other significant human endeavor.
We are therefore making an effort to encourage ourselves and our networks to rapidly level up to at least a basic level of aggregate coordinated competence.
It is going to take legal infrastructure, process infrastructure, social infrastructure, technological infrastructure, communications and coordination infrastructure, and an absolutely world class effort to create a field of shared culture and values powerful enough to unite us above the lines that formerly divided us.
We have been working at that the last several years, and places like the 2022.07.05 Request For Guidance, Provisional Structure, and 2022.Q2 Presentation of Value Creation contain information and links to get up to speed on some of the foundational work that has been going on below the ground.
When we use the term "we" below, we are referring to all of us, including you. Many people scoff if resource needs in the billions or trillions are casually thrown out, however there is already hundreds of billions of dollars a year in philanthropic capital and trillions of dollars a year in government capital flowing.
The problem is how it is organized.
And the Reality is that if we don't quickly figure out how to organize it better, society and life on earth are in trouble.
Until we find out that someone else has it covered and our children, grandchildren, and entire living system are on a safe trajectory towards flourishing, we are going to Act As If it were our responsibility to reorganize it.
So there we have arrived at the two main issues:
How do we organize ourselves, and how do we organize our resources, so that they produce throughput of our highest overarching and uniting goals and values?
This Guide focuses purely on Resourcing, however resources need to be applied to an entire System. For information on how people can organize their daily lives to produce throughput of the Goal, see The Power of Today. For information on how people can organize and federate to do things they can't do in isolation, see Organizations The Lionsberg Way. For information on how people, teams, and organizations can rise into higher order functional unity to accomplish a Total Nested Hierarchy of Goals, see the Lionsberg Integrated Delivery Guide. For information on how federated groups can pragmatically structure themselves to protect the life that is emerging, and interface with the old world, see Provisional Structure.
It is increasingly obvious that the Vessel of Society has come unmoored and is careening towards the rocks of chaos.
It is also increasingly obvious that it is dragging Vessel: Earth along with it.
Aside from the mass extinction events of the past, which were driven by natural disasters, this human driven trajectory towards ruin is the greatest threat that humanity and life on earth have faced.
The good news is that because we are the ones setting the trajectory and accelerating ourselves along it, we also have the power to change it.
Recognizing this, a growing wave of millions of people and billions of dollars are arising and beginning to move. Heroic efforts are being undertaken.
However like the first stages after the alarm sounds and we realize the building is on fire, the movement is chaotic, uncoordinated, and disconnected.
Despite our best intentions, we can clearly see that doing more of what got us to this point will not get us and life on earth to where it needs to go in order to not only survive, but thrive in this new millennium.
A massive and positive change is required.
Seeing the chaotic and disconnected array of efforts, and understanding that resources must be applied to solutions that are actually powerful enough to meaningfully move the needle and shift the trajectory, philanthropic capital is increasingly growing frustrated with the lack of high quality impact investment opportunities.
Recognizing that they cannot keep fueling extractive economic systems that are antithetical to our goals and values, investment capital is increasingly growing frustrated with the lack of high quality investments opportunities into projects and organizations that advancing life on earth towrds flourishing.
Recognizing that by investing in index funds and broad ETFs they are blindly providing fuel to extractive organizations that are creating many of the problems that their charters demand they solve, endowment funds are struggling to invest billions of dollars in a way that is consistent and aligned with the mission, vision, and values of the organizations they are intended to support.
Pension funds, social security funds, and other major pools of capital face a similar ethical dillemma, and they struggle to find ways to invest massive pools of capital in a way that aligned with the values and best interests of those they serve.
In recent political and philanthropic campaigns, we have seen evidence of tens of millions of dollars a month of capital available $5 or $100 at a time from the growing wave of individuals longing for change. We anticipate that this will be one of the ultimate long term sources of capital that drives the Critical Path towards The Goal.
The other frustration that is commonly expressed is the reality that while there are many small opportunities available to help, major holders of resources simply do not have the time, the processes, or the technology that would be required to sort through and evaluate the massive volume of small opportunities. Their models and the volume of capital in play demand that they identify and focus on larger opportunities that are significant enough to move the needle.
In summary, nearly every capital group we encounter is expressing frustration with the scarcity of high quality projects to invest in that measurably move the needle and advance the critical path towards the Goal.
On the flip side, potentially valuable impact projects and impact organizations feel scarcity in the reverse direction. Impact projects often feel stuck in a subordinated and disconnected position in relationship to the resource holders, and express concern and dismay at the lack of available funding, and the perceived social and political machinations that drive where funds ultimately flow.
Just as flourishing small businesses are the lifeblood of a thriving economy, so too are flourishing small impact projects and organizations the lifeblood of a global community of mission and values driven action.
While large established impact organizations possess endowments and infrastructure, social entrepreneurs often feel helplessly disconnected from the ladders of infrastructure required to mature through various phases on the path towards realizing their potential.
Impact organizations are also constantly looking for the next level of relationships and collaboration, so that they can meet the needs and solve the problems that they know they cannot solve in isolation.
Additionally, many impact organizations express that they feel overwhelmed and bogged down the administrative, compliance, and operational burdens of trying to do everything in isolation. They find themselves spending significant time out of their areas of passion and giftings, draining energy on "overhead" activities instead focusing their energy and passion on the real issues and opportunities that drive them.
These burdens coupled with the the fact that the previous generations built millions of impact organizations means that an entire generation of social entrepreneurs is ready to pass the baton and enter a new phase.
This succession issue is present at massive scale in both the non-profit and for-profit worlds, and small businesses and small impact organizations struggle with issues of legacy and continuity.
Lastly, because of the tremendous inefficiencies and dysfunctions of how things are currently set up, many teams are simply exhausted after years of struggle, and looking around wondering why no one cares enough to roll up their sleeves, open up their resources, and help.
At the same time, countless millions of people of goodwill are on the sidelines, watching with dismay the dysfunctions of the various political, philanthropic, or religous systems or leaders that they hoped would step up and solve the problems.
There is tremendous frustration with the way things are, tremendous desire for something better, and tremendous potential time and energy that could be mobilized.
But as the stream of news stories, social media posts, and documentaries rolls by each day, demonstrating how far off track we are, there is a sense of hopelessness and a lack of agency for many.
We know things are on the wrong track. We want to help. But what could we actually do that would make a difference?
The harsh reality is that even if the latent tsunami of available energy and resources were unleashed on the current array of uncoordinated efforts, temendous resources would be wasted by an increased level of activity that was not truly transforming the deepest root causes of the problems we are facing.
In a strange way, this additional activity would further mask and subsidize the suffering being caused by the true root causes, and delay the ability of the System to recognize its failing state, and transform into something new.
So how can we differentiate mere activity, even from the purest of intentions, from true transformational impact that creates genuine value and advances humanity and life on earth towards its Goal?
Additionally, we have drifted a long way from the multi-generational thinking, planning, and action of wise ancient societies, and have sacrificied deep eternal Wisdom for a short term gain that has reduced our standards of measurement down to quarterly returns and daily movements in the markets.
For any society to last, each generation must make decisions and operate as if they were deciding and acting for the 7th or 52nd generation to come.
We are hard pressed to find anyone who believes that if we keep doing more, harder, and faster of what we are currently doing, the outcome will be good for future generations.
Finally, if we believe that we are on the wrong trajectory and headed in the wrong direction, that problem grows far larger if we have created robots, technology, and AI that are creating robots, technology, and AI at ever high levels of capability, at ever faster rates of speed.
As massively powerful new forces in-break and accelerate us along destructive old pathways, the issues we face threaten to grow exponentially wrose.
There is a massive chasm we must cross to get the better future we all desire, and a massive chasm requires an unprecedented and massive solution.
That unprecedented and massive solution is going to require an unprecedented and massive shift in the way we think about and allocate our energy and resources.
We have helped a network of friends and allies recognize itself, and we are bringing together lifetimes of wisdom and experience to construct a vessel and a system that we believe might actually be capable of helping humanity and life on earth across the chasm that separates the Old and the New.
At a minimum, it is capable of quickly leveling up a network to the basic levels of strategy, coordination, and focused execution that have been present in the billions of dollars of infrastructural, economic, and technological we have collectively been a part of bringing into existence.
We think it might work, and we believe it is the single best opportunity present on earth right now to solve the Meta Crisis and forge the best possible future for All.
Because we are all sovereign, autonomous individuals voluntarily bringing together lifetimes of work, we have brought together and started multiple different "named things" for multiple different purposes and reasons.
The important note is that they are interoperable, created to function together, and here in service of the same overarching and uniting Goal.
The Meta Idea that is expressing itself through Lionsberg and the Meta Project and surrounding network of networks is that we are all working in service of a single overarching and uniting Meta Goal.
Our unique named expressions, skills, platforms, networks, focuses, and passions are elements of something larger than any of us, which is the collective ethical imperative of every human being on earth to do their absolute best to rise and meet this moment in history.
In the same we can view our diverse array of unique organizations, networks, and projects as a single uniting Meta Project that we should coordinate and succeed in...
So too could we conceptually view the total set of all unique, focused funds around the world as one Meta Fund that we have the right, the responsiblity, and the ethical imperative to steward and deploy in the right way.
In a strange way, the reality is that in a moment of crises on planet earth, every resource on earth belongs to us All and to God, and it is our responsiblity before God and one another to be good stewards of all we have been entrusted with.
Like the Meta Project, the Meta Fund is an interesting concept because it is a reality whether we choose to recognize it and Act As If it were true or not.
There is a total set of resources available to meet this moment in history, and the only choice is whether we deploy them wisely in service of All, or whether we selfishly, fearfully, and ineffectively act in isolation to try to preserve our own position or status.
So what would it look like IF... we were to Act As If we were All stewards of a part of something far greater than any of us, and recognize that it was our ethical obligation to coordinate and apply the resources that God / the Universe / Humanity has entrusted us with?
There is an ancient story about man very rich man who was about to go on a long journey. So he called his staff together gave them charge over all his possessions. As stewards of possessions that belong to another, they are charged with taking care of them, increasing them, and striving to do with them what the Owner would do were he present. To one person he gave $50, to another he gave $500,000, to another he gave $500 Million, and to another he gave $50 Billion. To each one, he gave according to their own ability. Having entrusted them with the resources, and instructed them to do their best to accomplish his goals, he left and went on his journey.
The one he gave $500,000 to immediately went out and did business with the resources, and created another $500,000 in Value. In the same way, the one who was entrusted with $50 Billion went out and created another $50 Billion in Value, and the one who was entrusted with $500 Million went out and likewise doubled the Value. However the one was entrusted with $50 went out and dug a hole, and buried the money in the ground.
After a long time, the Lord of the manor came back and called in the staff to find out what they had done, and settle accounts with them. The one who had received the $500,000 came up to him and said, "Sir, you entrusted me with $500,000. See, I have earned $500,000 more. The Lord said unto him, "Well done! You have been good and faithful. Because you were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things! Come now and experience being in my joy." Likewise the one who was entrusted wtih the $500 Million, and the one who was entrusted with $50 Billion, came unto him and showed him their faithful, and received the same response.
Now the one who had received the $50 also came up and said, "Sir, I knew you to be a hard man, and I was afraid. So I went away and hid your $50 in the ground. See, you still have what is yours." But the Lord answered unto him, "You worthless and lazy person! Did you not know that I desire the creation of Value? Then you at least ought to have put my money in the bank, and on my arrival I would have received my money back with interest. Therefore take the $50 away from him, and give it to the one who has $50 Billion. And cast this unfaithful steward out of my household."
Recognizing the vast array and disparity of the way the resources belonging to God and all past and future generations are distributed throughout the earth, how might each of us act as if we were faithful stewards of whatever has been trusted to us?
If you do not already have a clear answer to this question, that also gets you and life on earth across the chasm, we can show you a way that we can act on together if we so choose.
The parable above, common sense, and spiritual and economic principles all dictate that whatever resources we are entrusted with should not be stockipiled, buried, or hidden in fear, but should be deployed to create Value.
However as a human species we are not acting as if we understood what Value is.
Agreeing on what constitutes Value is a prerequisite to coordinating and applying our energy and resources in harmony.
For a discussion on this topic, see Value.
The Lionsberg System was established to realign and optimie these various resource flows in a multi-side economy and system aimed at The Goal, and recognizing Value on that basis.