Nine Shift

#3 August story. Pause and listen to "Woodstock" again

You are not too busy for 3 minutes to listen to the song, reflect and reinforce that sense of awe, and mission, that is our profession of lifelong learning.

   The 50^th anniversary of Woodstock this month was not about music, it was about values. That was clear as we celebrated anniversaries of 1969 events regarding gay rights, women’s rights, civil rights, peace, the environment. All of those causes, and more, were initiated in the late sixties, and are still alive today.  Click here to refresh your spirit.

  Proof: LERN’s new online course on “Community and Social Change” generated big participation this month from young people in the workforce.

   No, those sixties young people did not sell out and become multinational corporate bureaucrats. They became consultants, but environmental consultants. They became attorneys, but defense attorneys.  And they are not the ones trying to hold back change today, they are still working for positive change.

   Stop for a moment, go to YouTube, and listen to Joni Mitchell sing the song she wrote 50 years ago this month. It starts “I came upon a child of God.” Here’s some of the lyrics that are as relevant today as then, for all of us.

"Well maybe it is just the time of year. Or maybe it’s the time of man. I don’t know who I am. But you know life is for learning."

 

 

#2 August story. 2.7 Million Smart Boys Missing From College This Month

As millions of college students came on campus again this month, some 2.7 million smart, really smart, boys were missing. The Department of Education will tell you that, but they won’t give you a reason.

Schools and colleges won’t provide a reason either. But we will. It is gender bias. Boys are given worse grades than girls, but learn and test just as well.   

The OECD says the U.S. is one of the worst advanced countries in education gender bias against boys. The Educational Testing Service under President Nancy Coleman proved the gender bias in the classic research work, Gender and Fair Assessment.

If you are interested in working on gender equity for boys in education, just click here and visit our ParentsOfBoys.org website for more.  Email [email protected] to sign up. And then make a comment on our Facebook page  Facebook.com/parentsandboys  

 

 

#1 August story. Why You Hate Your Kids

Generational conflict dominated the news in August.
This month prominent politicians around the world verbally attacked and even threatened the life of this 16 year old girl.  And it raises the question: why do older people hate young people right now?

Writing an article in the Washington Post last week, Stanford psychology professor and neuroscientist Jamil Zaki says that with time and distance, empathy decreases.  You know how you get upset about the mass shooting victim staring you in the face on TV, but the 100,000 young people who are committing suicide this year is just a number?  Empathy also decreases the farther one looks into the future, to your children and grandchildren’s lifetimes.

There is one other reason. NineShift convened a panel of highly rated psychologists, Drs. Moe, Curly and Larry.  And what they told us is that in times of societal change, like these, when not only reality is changing but also the values and attitudes of the lost past era are coming under attack, that people cling ever more to their belief system, shouting ever louder defending their outmoded obsolete values.  Because that’s the big thing older people have left.

They don’t really want the Amazon to burn down.  And they know they won’t ever have to ride a train or become a vegetarian. They will be dead long before meat is rationed and trains have replaced cars.   But they do have their belief system, and will have their belief system until they die, and that appears to be the one constant they - - we - - you - - have in this rapidly changing  way of life.  PHOTO: Greta Thunberg, age 16, of Sweden, arrived in New York earlier this week aboard a zero-emission no-pollution sailing ship. She has become a world leader on the climate emergency.

July 2019 Top NineShift Stories

Only 5 more months to go to the Roaring Twenties. 
And to the full total start of the Knowledge Society, the end of our story.
Here’s the top NineShift stories for July 2019.

#4 What’s Your Moon Shot?  The End of Big Visioning.
The 50^th anniversary of the moon landing this month also coincides with the end of big visioning. One of the best new economy leadership vision questions of the last 20 years, “What’s Your Moon Shot?”

The era of big visioning for this century is mostly over, as by 1920 almost all of the big inventions and companies of the last century had been established.  Maybe teleimmersion and some bio-medical inventions still left. Niche or organizational visioning is still a leadership skill and organizational advantage, so if you want to take your moon shot, do it. 

 

#3 Millennials Take Down A Government

Peacefully but forcefully, millennials took down the government of Puerto Rico this month. Puerto Rico is part of the U.S.  Of NineShift’s two millennial friends on the island, one protested for the first time, reporting to us:

“I would dare say ninety percent of the people there were millennial, my generation. We grew up in chaos, always having corruption in our system.  It’s been amazing to be part of that change. We made history. For the first time in our story, a governor had to resign because the people didn’t want him there. We made possible the change we’re about to see now. It is clear that his resignation was just the beginning, for he isn’t the only snake in our government, it will take time and effort, but we will change this government.” 

 

#2 NineShift Exclusive: Answer to Big City Crowding

A McKinsey report this month noted the trend of people moving and crowding into as few as 25 big cities in the country. Reasonably priced housing is now scarce, creating an urban crisis.

NineShift has predicted the solution. Here it is again: trains.  Train routes will be built from smaller cities and areas into the big cities, allowing workers to live in more reasonably priced housing in small towns.  Some will take the train daily into the big city, others will work from home and just go into the big city for meetings.

Small cities located on a train route between two large cities will triple in population. Millennials already embrace trains to the max, and while governments are trying their hardest to avoid the transportation system of the 21^st century, the U.S. will eventually catch up with the rest of the world. Why? See our #1 story this month.

#1 New World Leader Rattles U.S.

We predicted young people would take on one more big battle before 2020, and here it is: saving the planet. Saving the planet clearly the top story this month.

The leader to save the planet is Greta Thunberg, a 16 year old Swedish girl. She started a movement in Europe for people to switch from planes to trains, and the airlines noticed. This month she rattled the U.S. with two moves. Greta’s success prompted KLM to run a full page ad in NYTimes supporting environmental friendly travel. That prompted a wave of “can’t do” columns by Americans claiming it is too costly to save the planet.

Then Thunberg announced she will attend a UN climate change conference in New York. Owners of a world class sailing yacht volunteered to take her across the ocean - - emission free.