glyph 565: free cities, free ports free zones ... transcultural homes for emigrants, digital and analog, members of a new global civilization ... tranculturalism, digital natives, internet ... elearning: trust-building digital gifts left on beaches ... Phoenicians, gift leavers 3000 years ago ... now, an opportunity, because freedom, added to low-value land, creates a basis for the creation of shareable wealth ... Hong Kong, Dubai ... Mark Frazier, Openworld
Abstract [with paragraphing added]
Once-confident cultures today feel rising strains. Fears over job loss, crime, wars, and religious extremism are feeding calls for enclosure. Politicians are reversing policies that have fostered free movement of ideas, people, and commerce. Yet those who call for walls in the name of protecting cultures and economies are on the wrong side of history. Affordable bandwidth lets about one billion people each day directly interact with others of their choosing, enabling new cross-cultural contacts, friendships, and trade links to form and spread. The numbers of individualistic and confident 'digital natives' will continue to swell as costs of Internet access plunge, and opportunities in online markets grow.
To date, however, no coherent vision has emerged of a global civilization that transcends today's self-enclosing cultures. It is time for such a Transcultural vision to emerge - one that honors all individuals and the peaceful paths they choose, including paths that appreciate existing cultures.
This paper describes an opportunity for an inclusive, coherent Transculturalism - rooted in respect for freely chosen personal destinies - to emerge and spread across the planet. A path for this was found 3000 years ago. In the aftermath of protracted conflict, Phoenician merchants began leaving physical gifts across the Mediterranean to systematically plant seeds of transcultural trust. Starting with these trust-building gifts, they created a thriving trade network of free zones and free cities.
In our time, 'digital gifts on a beach' can reach individuals around the world and spark a global Transcultural awakening.
"Leading with a Gift" by Mark Frazier
Supporters of a coherent Transcultural ethos can offer inspiring eLearning resources about its values, and provide paths for interested individuals and communities to use new tools and Transcultural partnerships to rapidly improve their conditions. These new digital resources will make it possible for individuals to connect with kindred spirits, gain skills, enter online free markets, and launch a new generation of asset-awakening free economic zones. Such gifts can accelerate the grassroots understanding of Transculturalism and lead to creation of new havens for those who wish to leave areas scarred by intercultural conflict.
A global co-evolutionary civilization can arise by these actions in which individuals from all cultures are free by birthright to peacefully pursue their paths in both virtual and actual realms. -Mark Frazier, Paper for the Berlin Future Forum, October 13-16, 2016
Mark Frazier's page at academia.edu/MarkFrazier hosts this paper and many others.
Mark's talk at Startup Societies Forum, November 2016, adds a lot to the "Leading with a Gift" paper.
See also vortex Openworld for more info on free zones and cities — a principle area of interest for Explorers Foundation, and something Mark personally left on our beach, many years ago. The word Openworld was made at Mark's foundry, Openworld.com
https://explorersfoundation.org/glyphery/565.html
October 30, 2016; edited/updated June 4, 2018