As Systems Collapse, Citizens Rise?
By: Helio Borges
Tags: Crisis, Venezuela, Rebellion, Politics, Democracy

What’s happening is a legitimate—and inspiring!—uprising against a dictator with no democratic legitimacy. Yascha Mounk. Political Scientist at Harvard University

Why Venezuela’s Systemic Crisis Is So Difficult To Understand?

This crisis is difficult to understand, for a foreigner, specially for American and European liberals, among whom I have many friends. It is also difficult to understand for the local population, who are in the middle of a left right confrontation, and who suffer the consequences of a “Complex Humanitarian Emergency”. Consequently, the main reason for this article is to raise awareness about its nature. So, if you allow me, I will take you on an “Empathy Walk” into the crisis. For that, I will suggest that you first read The Citizens and The Point of View Of A Harvard Political Scientist, quoted below. Second, take a detour and read Otto Scharmer’s article The Main Axis Of Political Conflict. Third, experience what Theory U is about by Crossing The Threshold with me. After that, you should be able to have a deeper sense of the complexity of the Venezuelan systemic collapse, and hopefully, to answer a few tough questions.

The Citizens

My wife and I met 79 years old Ms Malraux during the citizens march of may 1st 2019, she was one of the demonstrators in favor of the ceasing of Maduro’s dictatorship. Here is her story.

Ms Malraux, my wife and I on the may 1st demostration

“I am a child of the war, when my family arrived in 1947 from France, I was 7 years old, and when we got out of the ship and put our feet on Venezuelan ground, my father said to my brother and me, ‘this is a beautiful country, we are going to live here, you are going to study and work here, and you will grow to be a good woman and a good man’. And so we did,

this is my country, and we have to defend it to cape and sword, because it is the best country in the world.”

My wife and I had had a story too. Our first date was on may 1st 1984, It was love at first sight. This would be a date in which we would normally celebrate our life and our time together by opening a bottle of champagne, or going out to a nice and romantic restaurant, or going for a well deserved scape to a solitary beach. But not this may 1st, due to the fact that like millions of other citizens, everyone with his/her own story, we took to the streets because we are part of the uprising of the Venezuelan people.

I am not the type of person who throws rocks at tanks, nevertheless, I was there on Apr 30th, and again on May 1st. By risking my life I am trying to save it, because we are keeping #OperacionLibertad (Operation Freedom) alive.

An armored vehicle plows over demonstrators on apr 30th 2019, killing one, wounding several others. Reuters TV

The Point of View Of A Harvard Political Scientist

Ricardo Hausmann is a Venezuelan Professor of Economics at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. He is also a cabinet member of Juan Guaido’s legitimate government. It is evident that he has had a tough time (like myself) trying to explain the complexity of the Venezuelan systemic crisis. Consequently, he let a Harvard colleague, Yascha Mounk, do that for him.

"Don’t miss this thread by Harvard’s @Yascha_Mounk on how to think about events in Venezuela. Yascha is a great political scientist who understands the delicate balance between liberalism and democracy and the threat of right- & left-wing populism. He got Venezuela right! @Yascha_Mounk’s 04/30/2019 Tweet transcription: “A few thoughts on the crisis in Venezuela and the cynical enablers of Maduro’s terrible dictatorship. Venezuela shows the "idealism" of parts of the left at its worst. What matters to Momentum, to Galloway, and other defenders of Maduro is not the suffering of people around the world; it is blaming the West for every one of its ills. Against all evidence. At any price. Anyone who still denies that the Chavez regime led to a massive humanitarian catastrophe is more interested in ideological purity than in helping people who are starving. You’re sacrificing the poor on the altar of your “fight for the downtrodden.” Be ashamed. But Trump is on Guaido’s side! Surely that means Guaido must be bad? No. The left faces a simple choice: Will it be guided by its own principles? Or will it turn against any value, from free speech to bread for the Venezuelan people, that’s endorsed by the wrong people? So Trump supporting Guaido is no reason to oppose him; nor is it a reason to credit Trump. The administration is trying to exploit this crisis for domestic consumption. If they really had the good interests of Venezuelans in mind, they’d have the good sense to SHUT UP. Is what’s happening in Venezuela a coup? A coup is the overthrow of a democratically elected government by military means. What’s happening is a legitimate—and inspiring!—uprising against a dictator with no democratic legitimacy. A military uprising? Yes.(1) A coup? No. So we should hope that the uprising succeeds? Absolutely. But it better succeed fully. Terrible as the current situation in Venezuela is, a prolonged civil war is probably the worst of all possible outcomes—as the fate of Syria has amply demonstrated. Do you believe in justice and freedom and international solidarity and giving bread to the starving poor? So do I. And that’s why I’m hoping that today’s uprising will succeed in displacing a terrible despot from office. [The End.]”

There is one thing about which I don’t agree with Mr. Mounk, this is not a military uprising, is civilian, even though the military eventually will tip the balance one way or the other. The Venezuelans are writing democratic history as we go along, and whatever happens in this country will have a profound effect in the Americas in the next decades, because, as Mr. Mounk says,

“Terrible as the current situation in Venezuela is, a prolonged civil war is probably the worst of all possible outcomes — as the fate of Syria has amply demonstrated”.

The Main Axis Of Political Conflict

Otto Scharmer, Senior Lecturer at the Sloan School of Management of MIT, says that modern societies keep producing results that nobody wants because their leaders try to solve the complex problems of today with the same mind frame that produced them. He developed Theory U, a consciousness based systems change methodology, with the intention of changing the operating system of our societies, so that they can begin creating structures and organizations that are able to generate wellbeing for all.

Otto shows us how to make a shift in our political thinking in one of his latest articles “Axial Shift: The Decline of Trump, the Rise of the Greens, and the New Coordinates of Societal Change”

“…In all these places, the main axis of political conflict is no longer primarily between left and right, as it was in the last century, but between open and closed”. Otto Scharmer.

The new political coordinates. From the article Axial Shift, by Otto Scharmer

How Are We Dealing With The Collapse Of The Venezuelan Political System?

I live in Venezuela, and I have been able to deal with this complex crisis so far because since 2015 when I took the course MIT x u.lab, I have been a practitioner of Theory U. Since then, my two partners and me, through #Proyecto Hikola (Breath of Life in Yanomami language), have been training change makers in that methodology in order to catalyze the creation of lasting solutions for the Venezuelan systemic collapse.

Team Proyecto Hikola is currently taking, along with other 300 teams of change makers from all over the world, the second stage of u.lab, u.lab-S: Societal Transformation Lab, hosted by Otto Scharmer and the Presencing Institute. When that program is finished in May 30th, we will have completed 4 years of study, practice, teaching and doing research in action with Theory U in the change of complex systems. For that reason, we feel that we are prepared for the challenge that the systemic crisis of Venezuela is presenting to us. We are at the right place, at the right time to take the opportunity that this crisis is presenting to us, in order to be catalyzers for a deep change in the operating system of the Venezuelan society.

The problem in Venezuela is political. As of this moment, a comprehensive program called Plan Pais (Country Plan), that has been made by specialists with the collaboration of all the key stakeholders in Education, Economy, Finance, Health, Business, Government, etc, is ready to go and will be launched once we solve the political problem that we are confronting. That will be Venezuela’s “D Day”.

Crossing The Threshold

Dear reader, please take a quick journey with me through the U process using the example of the Venezuelan crisis as seen by Yascha Mounk.

Crossing the Threshold. From www.otoscharmer.com/theoryu

First. Please “Suspend” your reaction in order to allow your curiosity to see with new eyes and give yourself a chance to redirect your attention to the new facts. By “Opening your Mind” you give yourself a chance to leave the space of left vs right and to penetrate the space of Open vs Close like Yascha Mounk did: “But Trump is on Guaido’s side! Surely that means Guaido must be bad? No.” …“The administration is trying to exploit this crisis for domestic consumption. If they really had the good interests of Venezuelans in mind, they’d have the good sense to SHUT UP.”

Please “Suspend” your reaction in order to allow your curiosity to see with new eyes and give yourself a chance to redirect your attention to the new facts. By “Opening your Mind” you give yourself a chance to leave the space of left vs right and to penetrate the space of Open vs Close like Yascha Mounk did: Second. Please feel some empathy for the sufferers in order to “Sense from the Field”. In this case, from the ground where things are really happening, not from your own point of view, allowing you to “Open your Heart” to the new reality that is showing before you: “So we should hope that the uprising succeeds? Absolutely. But it better succeed fully. Terrible as the current situation in Venezuela is, a prolonged civil war is probably the worst of all possible outcomes — as the fate of Syria has amply demonstrated”.

Please feel some empathy for the sufferers in order to “Sense from the Field”. In this case, from the ground where things are really happening, not from your own point of view, allowing you to “Open your Heart” to the new reality that is showing before you: Third. Having “Let Go” of old judgments and reactions, embrace your courage in order to “Open your Will” and act immediately on your best future possibility. This is what Otto calls “Presencing”. Quoting Yascha once more:

“Do you believe in justice and freedom and international solidarity and giving bread to the starving poor? So do I. And that’s why I’m hoping that today’s uprising will succeed in displacing a terrible despot from office”. Yascha Mounk.

At The End Of The Day

At the end of the day, rocks, songs, and prayers, wouldn't make it. 4 demonstrators died of gunshot wounds, two of them 14 and 16 years old teenagers, one 27 years old mother, 1 other youngster died of wounds when he was run over by an armored truck, hundreds were injured, more than 200 were illegally detained and very probably are being subjected to tortures as I write this note. After that brutal repression, the “terrible despot” is still in office, and the “Complex Humanitarian Emergency” is getting even worse.

Evidently, an uprising of the citizens is not enough to put an end to a collapse of the political system caused by “a terrible despot”. This is a fight of David against Goliath, We the people are David, and the usurper is Goliath. After years of resilient rebellion and immense suffering, the international community is finally finding out what is really going on. They are our slingshot.

More than 50 countries have recognized Guaido as the legitimate president of Venezuela. Are they going to stand still watching on CNN, BBC, DW or Al Jazeera how people are decimated by systematic repression and induced famine, and let a Syria like crisis explode in the Americas? This is the second largest crisis of that type in the XXI century. As history has repeatedly shown, the international organizations like the UN are forensic institutions, they intervene only when the stench of the dead is so strong that it is morally unbearable. I sincerely hope that this won’t be the case in Venezuela, David, without his slingshot would have been crushed to death by Goliath. Paraphrasing Shakespeare, something is rotten in the way politics are practiced today. Isn’t it time for a dose of international conscience and, as Otto says, to face a crisis in the light of Open vs Close instead of Left vs Right?. This is the opportunity that the Venezuelan crisis is presenting to the world, the immense human suffering that this crisis is causing could be the tipping point that makes international leaders jump from guilt to compassion, and from there a world of possibilities begins to open.

Is the world ready to implement the R2P (Responsibility to protect) chapter of the UN? How? Would it be possible to implement an international East-West negotiation for humanitarian reasons instead of an East-West confrontation for political gain? But most important of all, are you, the reader of this article, going to stand still and let business runnig as usual? It would be very sad to quote Bob Dylan in the answers to these questions.

May God be with us.

Helio Borges