An excerpt from a short talk Lauren gave at a reset, recovery and reimagine round-table of entrepreneurs, business leaders, academics and other forward-looking, fire-starting imagineers in Auckland, New Zealand:
The provocation of this topic - around a possible return to prosperity without damaging consumption and its impact on sustainable life on this planet - is a philosophical conundrum, let alone social and economic.
How can we reset and reimagine a world where less is more?
What can be done to energise people around a shared vision for a thriving society and planet.
The answer is one word. CREATIVITY.
In my observation, it has been CREATIVITY and the ARTS that has taught, placated, entertained, inspired and enthralled an extraordinary number of people around the world as they have been locked up watching, reading, listening, scrolling, making and imagining.
The Creative Industries - the most underfunded sector of most economies, has been the world’s universal therapist.
I personally don’t believe that the entirely logical and terrifying narrative on the #ClimateCrisis, has to date captured the attention and energy of most people around the world in the way it should do. Must do.
Yet I, and many, many others have been more moved, more inspired, more motivated and mobilised through the captivating storytelling in the arts and entertainment that has led the sustainability narrative, while environmental groups and governments seem to have completely stumbled..
From the ethereal My Octopus Teacher to Attenborough’s One Life on this Planet to the shocking Seaspiracy; these, and so many others highlighted Earth’s fragility in a multitude of ways. Stories emerging and highlighting social issues such as The Prom, Immigration Nation, SmallAxe and a plethora of others burst forward with their narratives. I haven’t even begun to list books, podcasts, blogs and all the other storytelling possibilities that have been ours to absorb this past year.
My suggestion is simple - hand the job of mobilising and energising humanity to the true experts in human insights, creativity, and storytelling.
Fund them, support them. Invest in them. The Artists, the Makers, Creators and Imagineers of all kinds.
They do - and will - capture the human imagination far more than governments, factioning organisations and movements at cross purposes.
They always have.