The End!: It’s Hopeless & I’m Helpless!

‘The Matrix’ used the simplicity of Blue or Red pill options to try and seduce us into choosing our ‘basis for reality’.

The choice being ‘Bliss in Ignorant Slavery’ or ‘Enlightened Freedom’, in ‘Misery of Truth’!!!

More and more, we are being reminded that our relationship to ‘truth’ and ‘our reality’ plays a huge role in our sense of Self, Freedom, Power, and the above, ‘Bliss to Misery’, disposition.

In that context of truth, I share some unsolicited personal feedback I received, from the Founder and CEO of a globally significant, ‘Climate Change’ NGO, who I ‘worked’ closely with, through 2018/19:

• “You are somebody who has thought about the problem for long, deep, and is not blinded/corrupted by their own interests. There are VERY few people like you.”​
• “I highly valued, your broad and intriguing experience you brought into the conversations – living in South Africa, operating at the heart of the capitalist system, leading cultural transformations, renouncing the material route and exploring, keeping exploring with enormous curiosity.”
• “Through our conversation, it became clearer to me how key it is to really dig deep, and jointly, into “What is the problem?” 
• I kept intrigued because you revealed so much, and I still was baffled to understand what your true goal was?” 

                         “Baffled to understand my goal”??? 

Surely, his feedback was describing someone of a singularly unusual profession:  That of a ‘Truth Explorer’!  His Goal: ‘Our Climate Problem’:  Finding the Higher Truths!

In 2015, when I embarked on One Point Zero, our ‘Climate voyage’ was in its ‘Global Warming’ stage. Back then, I was presented with a colliding of Society / Nature truths, and with One Point Zero, I chose to confront this conflict, and find out what the ‘Higher Truth’ was?

It’s now five years later, and with that truth, I have had to conclude:

                           “It’s Hopeless and I’m Helpless…!!!”                             

Hopeless….? Helpless….?  Know nothing about Blue / Red pills….?  Don’t care……?  Or a devout Panglossian…?

Bewildered as to what this has got to do with you?

In what follows, we’ll discover the ‘Nine Decoys of Hope’ that are dooming ‘us’ to ‘Terminal Hopelessness’. 

This will be risky for ‘Both of Us’:

In my honesty and openness, I may be judged a buffoon!

Yet in that openness ‘You’ may be challenged on whether your ‘Pill Choice’           or ‘Don’t Care’ strategy, is still a good one?

                       Let our adventure begin…………………..!:

Since the ‘Global Warming’ days, ‘our voyage’ has moved through the ‘Climate Change’ stage, and now being mainstream in the ‘Climate Emergency’, stage.

More are realizing, to their surprise, that they are part of this ‘voyage’. Whether they boarded the ship, voluntarily or not, this can be overwhelming and disorientating! Unlike the ‘lucky’ passengers of the Titanic, the truths are unravelling, before our destiny.

One has only to explore the ‘bleeding edge of truth’, to find strong evidence that this ‘voyage’, has now entered the ‘Climate Tragedy’, phase:  That being the acceptance that ‘Safe Destination’ is no longer possible!  This will naturally bring up many existential questions for all. Read these publications pointing to us having entered this ‘Climate Tragedy’ stage, here..

In the face of this, ‘Biggest ever challenge to Humanity’, is Denial, Avoidance, or Disinterest in ‘our voyage’ truths, increasingly become a foolish and alienating, life strategy?  One, that will ultimately erode our innate Optimism, and our personal Freedom?  Maybe that Freedom lies in the courage of the path below?;

“The Truth will set you free, but first it will make you Miserable.”    James A. Garfield

In 2015, the conflict I was deeply feeling was that between Society’s path to ‘Success’ and Nature’s, requirements, for Humanity ‘Belonging’ on Planet Earth!!

It was clear to me: Our ‘Humanity Path‘ needed a dramatic correction, but even in the Climate Change ‘movement’, I sensed few saw the real Beliefs and Values conflicts, preferring to focus on the technological challenge.

‘Everyone’ wanted BOTH ‘Our Success’ AND the ‘Planet ‘Belonging’.

I had faced that Beliefs and Values conflict myself, and from the perspective of having lived on both sides, and radically transformed myself from one to the other, I maybe naively, believed I could help have some small impact on a ‘Team Humanity‘, ‘course correction’.

I was under no illusion how difficult this adventure would be: Many advised me against it, but the irresistible challenge seemed one of ‘Calling’:

Right at the outset, I knew that without a united ‘Team Humanity’, a clear ‘Team Goal’, a finely aligned, Team Ethic, and a ‘Walk the Talk’ Leadership team,’ WE’ would never solve ‘Our Problem’. 

As an explorer, knowing only a, ‘Walk the Talk’ leadership style, in 2015, I decided to put all my weathered skin, in ‘The Game’::

So, I ‘appointed myself’, as a ‘minor’, ‘Team Leader’ in ‘Team Humanity’, and then ‘set off’ to try make that ‘wee’ contribution!!

Over the years, in search for those Higher Truths of our ‘Climate Problem‘, I have studied a vast array of literature, and engaged with hundreds of people from all walks of life, and all parts of the world.

Well, rather than being welcomed into ‘Team Humanity‘, and finding a bunch of fired up, fellow team members, awaiting a leader: I only found a plethora of ‘human tribes’, all too busy with their Americanism survival pursuits to even care a damn about the ‘Higher Truths‘ of ‘our voyage’; This, around The World.

Those in the ‘Climate Change’ sector, were so busy doing ‘Green Good’ they were myopically enslaved, by their Americanism biased funders, or their loyalty to governments, that they seemed forbidden to ‘cast a glance’ at the Higher Truths.

Even exploring ‘synergy’ with my old, ‘elite’ business network, produced ‘Polite Silence’. Read here.

It seemed that I was the Man from Mars trying to pick up people from Earth to go to Venus! In that ‘mystery’, over the years, I became consumed by the question below:

“Why, do I so clearly Want ‘It’, and yet ‘Society’ so clearly Doesn’t???”      Read my answers here.

It would seem that ‘Walk the Talk‘ leadership is so rare these days it’s mistaken for buffoonery! But rather than a buffoon, maybe I was ‘the boxer’ in Roosevelt’s quote here? Maybe, merely a shadow boxer, and not, The Man who…….       

……spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”?

After five years in an ‘arena‘ I’ve had to sadly conclude:

There IS NO ‘Team Humanity’, let alone one vaguely ‘Fit for Purpose’!

Further: That It’s Hopeless and I’m Helpless, and It’s only left for me to throw in the towel and Self Resign from Team Humanity. That before I get ‘Knocked Out’!   

The official ‘Reason for Retirement’:

Public Ignorance, Lethargy and distraction in Slavery to a Deeply Flawed System, combined with a global, Political and Business, Leadership that promotes this ‘public condition’ for their own Self-Interest, is the unworkable, sad Truth of the State of ‘Team Humanity’!

In the context of ‘The World’ claiming it wants to solve “The Most Urgent and Significant Challenge of Our Time”, and me thinking I could help a wee bit, accepting the conclusions above, were maybe the bitterest part of this strange Freedom journey!!!

Yet, I take full responsibility for my seemingly ‘Poor Result’ and am thankful for all my time spent in ‘The Arena‘!

It may seem perverse, but for the ‘Truth Explorer’, no matter how ‘Hopeless and Helpless’ the ‘conclusions’ are, in their truth, they are the pursued Success!

In my conclusions I’m certainly not here trying to promote doom, gloom, or spread apocalyptic fear. There are too many people doing that with wrongly motivated, self-serving goals.

This line below, from Wallace-Wells’ book ‘Time to Panic’, epitomizes this fear:

“Which is one last argument for catastrophic thinking: What creates more sense of urgency than fear?”

Just like Ignorance, Fear is not the path to Freedom, and I sense more and more of us are seeking authentic Freedom: That being freedom from the burden of some very, very inconvenient, ‘Tragedy Truths’.

Beyond the ‘Team Humanity’ shock above, arriving at the Hopeless and Helpless conclusions have probably been the hardest truths I have ever had to swallow!

So, believe me, if I could have ‘produced’ more Hopeful, ‘alternative facts’ I would have preferred that more popular outcome!!

If the Hopeless and Helpless sound very binary and defeatist, as an always “Hopeful’ and never ‘Helpless’, solo adventurer, I struggled with that a huge amount myself! With hindsight I can see that this struggle was one of the keys for my passage to Freedom.

I sense we will all have to eventually define our own Hopeless / Helpless lines, but you may find ‘my’, Hopeless definition and exploration useful, here.  My Helpless disposition is covered later in this e-letter.

Underpinning my Hopeless conclusion, I uncovered what I call, the ‘Decoys of Hope’:  These are distant, shimmering ‘Oases of Hope’. Yet in their ‘mirage truth’, they “lure or entice us away from our intended course, and typically into a trap”. (Oxford Dictionary.)

In the context of ‘our voyage‘, The Trap”, being one of arriving at a state of ‘Terminal Hopelessness’.  

I have identified, Nine ‘Decoys of Hope’, that today, are leading ‘us’ to the Terminal Hopelessness Trap.

They are listed below:  (Click on each one to understand more about the ‘false hope’ behind that decoy.)

1. It’s ‘ONLY’ about Carbon Emissions.

2. All’s OK: We have The Right Goals for The Right Success.

3. ‘Team Humanity’ Today is The Right Team for The Challenge.

4. Green Growth and More ‘Neoliberalism’ will Solve it.

5. The Climate Change ‘Movement’ will show THE Way.

6. Technology will Save US.

7. Democracy will Take US There.

8. We Have Time..!

9. Hope is THE Plan, with No Plan B.

No doubt, most would have thought about the issues connected to many of these Decoys. There are also plethora of publications covering them, the majority take an opposing stance to my views, and the Decoy conclusions.

Clearly, it’s very personal, and for each to decide what truth, and truth strategy, works best for them.

In that pursuit I caution that ‘vested interest’ has been one of the biggest barriers to truth, that I witnessed ‘out there’. In that context, I present my claim for a ‘Five Star Disinterested’, rating’ here!.

In the context of all the above, I’m satisfied that over the past five years and more, I have explored these nine areas, individually and collectively, with intensity and thoroughness, like few would have ever done. And in my truth sharing I feel you are getting a deep part of ME!        

I realize that some may be way ahead of me in your ‘voyage conclusions’, whether that be intuitive or from rigorous exploration: I hope in the reflection space of this e-letter you find further validation of your truths.

Beyond the Hopeless conclusion above, the issue of my Helpless relationship to it, is naturally, something a lot more personal.

I sense just like what I did, many will also be asking: “So, if it IS Hopeless, what then can I do to help ‘Our Situation’?”

‘Feel good’ change, focusing on ‘Plastic cups’, ‘Recycling’, ‘Veganism’, or trying to get people to ‘Stop Flying‘, etc, was never My Goal. These are all necessary but really are just symptomatic of THE Problem. Read why I stopped Flying here.

I have always seen the conflict between Nature and Humanity as being a human, ‘Way of Life’ problem: One requiring fundamental and Systemic / ‘Ideology’ change. Read why here.

In my sharing of the specifics the ‘Nine Decoys of Hope’, it should be clear that this Systemic / Ideology change is deeply connected to each one. Without Ideology change, which requires ‘radical’, Systemic change, I have absolutely no doubt that our voyage will always remain Terminally Hopeless.

Further, I have never been more convinced than now, that all efforts short of this radical change agenda are merely tinkering with the milestone dates for that progressive extinction.

Yet since 2016, almost all global elections have had voters choosing this tinkering (at best) path, and so continuing our voyage on its ‘Not to BE‘, path!

‘Tinkering‘, in seemingly offering a convenient solution avoiding significant social disruption, is deemed heroic. Yet history will show that this was cowardly.

Having worked deep within the capitalist system, some of that in the Financial Services industry, I have long concluded that ‘Money’, and its Role in Society, is at the centre of this ‘Ideology’ problem:

How ‘Money’ is Issued, Earned, Valued and Used in society today.

I concluded that globally, we need a new socio-economic system where Money literally does: ‘Grow on Trees’!!!

Essentially if we linked the only issuance of money to ‘Trees’, and our global currency was Leaves, while everything we needed was priced in those Leaves, with our individual spending being limited by our fair share of the limited amount of Leaves available globally, our ‘Climate Tragedy’ situation would change ‘overnight’:

 From the ‘Hopelessness of Today, to the birth of new, Flourishing Success!

Fairness would necessarily replace Freedom in our values hierarchy, and not being a fan of handouts, charity or altruism: Nobody gets ‘A single Leaf’ unless they have contributed ‘fairly’ to the ‘Tree planting’ efforts!

Sadly, because of our global addiction to Americanism, these are not tenets of a vision that win elections today!  That’s an indictment on ‘us’ the electorate!

The ‘Tree Economy’ above a bit tongue in cheek, yet analogous to the serious, new Socio-Economic / Ideology solution that I have worked on for the past two years.

One that has all of Humanity living within One Point Zero, Planet’s Natural Resources as its highest Global Goal of Success.

Over the years I have shared its concepts and architecture with many academic, politician, and businessman, alike. One for Beyond Americanism, with a ‘New Money‘. Feeling like an adventure? Read about it here.

Beyond democratic solution, I searched ‘the world’ for partners for an embryonic ‘Movement’ that could pursue the New Vision. Read about how that movement would work here.

All this with Team Humanity as the chronic patient, yet only to face almost total rejection and being treated with mostly disdain, ‘comrade’ or buffoonery, ridicule. The lonely road of ‘The Truth Explorer’!!   Read more here.

Yet almost everyone I met, agreed that ‘The System’ today is “Broken”, while they unashamedly admitted they were deeply ‘invested’ in its healthy continuation, so they could continue feeding off it cherished fruits!

I now understand that their reaction wasn’t about me, but rather a reaction in their fear of the brutal truths of ‘our voyage’.

Those few that warmed to my proposals, always concluded:

“Your System is exactly what’s needed, but you are dreaming ‘mate’: Capitalism is here forever, and surely you of all people, should know that you are wasting your time?!” Read why Capitalism, isn’t the problem, but rather it’s ‘us’, here.

I can see It was too radical for ‘Today’.

Maybe for the future, when the Greta’s of Today are in Power?

Or is that why we are entering the ‘Climate Tragedy’ stage:

Behind the ‘We have Time’, Decoy of Hope, is the truth that we ‘We don’t have (that) Time’, and so, history will show that actually ‘it’ was:

‘Not ‘Ahead of its Time’, but actually, ‘Too late’!

So, in the context of the Hopelessness of all the Nine Decoys of Hope, I have failed to find any other way to connect my ‘package of offerings’ to ‘a place in society’.

Further, I now understand why almost all the global election results since 2016 have been ‘Not to Be’, outcomes, and will continue being that way for years to come?

I hope you will also see that the answer lies in the Nine Decoys: They enable the problem of voter Ignorance, Lethargy, and Slavery  mentioned higher up:

   THIS state of ‘we’ the public is THE Real Tragedy of the ‘Climate Tragedy’!!

So, in these hard-won truths I have had to reluctantly accept that I’m Helpless to contribute any ‘more’ than the conclusions in this e-letter, to the course of ‘our voyage’.

A year back while still in ‘the ‘misery stage’ of the Truth to Freedom journey I’d not been able to put out this ‘open kimono’, sharing communication!

So, let’s never lose sight of that fact that Freedom is the goal for ‘Truth‘.

In the context of the unfolding ‘Climate Tragedy‘, this whole e-letter is essentially about helping others with their own ‘Truth to Freedom‘ pursuit.

I understand it’s a very personal journey, but I know myself, that knowing one isn’t alone, and witnessing someone else’s struggle (and buffoonery!) is often helpful, entertaining, and inspiring!!!

In my personal Helpless conclusion, I don’t want to distract anyone from seeking their own, life enhancing, Help-ing connection to these truths.

My frustrated effort doesn’t mean all will perceive it the same way and / or be similarly frustrated by the power of the Nine Decoys.

On the contrary, if just one person turns my Hopeless / Helpless conclusions into a ‘Help-ful’, not Helpless opportunity for them, my whole contribution to Humanity would take a step up.

With the hindsight of my five years, and now my ‘life void’ in my conclusions, I honest believe that there are few more meaningful ‘places’ in society to contribute, if one REALLY can. However, ‘Be aware’:

Over the past year I was presented with offers to ‘Help’. Upon investigation, it was clear that they were based on having Hope in one or more of The Decoys.  I see this as being tantamount to helping catalyse Humanity’s self-extinction. I will never be part of that, no matter what potential kudos attached.

I’ll rather remain more ‘Helpful and Free’, in my current, Hopeless / Helpless state.

     Good luck with ‘Your Voyage’ as a fellow human on ‘Our Voyage’!!

In many ways, this e-letter is my final Rite of Passage step in my Truth to Freedom journey.

It is also The End of my One Point Zero quest.

I live Life as a Series of Adventures!  Three to five year ‘ones’. Always Onward and Upward from each, to ever increasing personal, Life Mastery. 

Courage to Truth, Truth to Freedom, Freedom to Power, is the core thread of each adventure. Reflection between each the vital  mortar for learning growth.

I plan to use my truths, learning and freedom in the shared context of the unfolding ‘Climate Dystopia’.  A dystopia that is no more feared in ignorance nor in conflicting truths.

Part of this adventure will involve the transformation of the One Point Zero website to one that can play a inspiring ‘adventurist’ role for all who embrace the core message of this e-letter: Those seeking to embrace personal freedom in the ‘Climate Tragedy’ phase of ‘Our Voyage’. Details in the future.

I sincerely hope you will be part of it!  Feel free to contact me on if you have any ideas and would like to be intimately part of it in collaboration!

(I believe) Life is Finite, and there is No Plan B! So, if you don’t have ‘it’ already, find your ‘Arena of Truth’ and become that Man or Woman in ‘It’!

PS:    Sadly, we live in an age of the ‘deceptive influencer’! So if you want to understand more about my deeper motive for all my sharing in this e-letter, read here.