Is there a shift really happening?  According to the Shift movie and its trailer, there seems to be.

We've talked about the Shift before and it seems to be a movie that came about after a string of fascinating ones, such as What the Bleep Do We Know?, Who Killed The Electric Car?, the over-hyped The Secret, etc…

The Shift bills itself as more than a movie, more of a socio-cultural change happening or if you wish the under toe current of a society fed up with the way things are and wanting that ever-elusive change.  The Shift is, in many ways the difference in today's society.  It is about how many of us want more, think differently and live with a greater awareness of our surrounding.  What we think directly influences out environment whether you look at it scientifically or esoterically.

The Shift is a perfect example of this new way of living and doing business, a la web 2.0, it's a  grass-roots movement with the
help of people who not only feel the change but are a conscious part of the shift in awareness and that means you can also be part of it.  Go and check it out. Tell me what you think.

As I watch the news lately I can't help but wonder if we are seeing the end of an era, the end of a system pushed too far, too long, sustained by over the board greed.

Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Merill Lynch, Lehman Bros, AIG, going under.  GM, Ford, Chrysler along the rest of the economy coming to a crawl.  What next?  Capitalism turns social corporate in ways of private company government loans? That's not what I was taught at school and why do we make fun of Europe and Asia when they do that?  Could it be our turn to have a humility lesson?  To watch these so called leaders responsible for acts that defy any business sense, watch them see how far they can push the envelop to only get a slap on the wrist, fired with a severance check that could keep a middle class family alive for decades, it's hard to not wonder what is going on watching this.  What is a CEO of a big company's motivation to do good if they know they will get, at worse a huge severance check?  It almost feels as if the ceiling is falling down.

As I listen to my European friends tell me they are experiencing the same sort of thing there, one thing doesn't change, how hopeless politicians are.  I don't think they are all hopeless on their own, but once together on their team, the results are mediocre at best.  As I watch one candidate hail changes and another trying to look like your everyday Joe, I can't help but ask, is this what we want?  What do we want?  Do we need yet another high school popularity contest?  What I want to know is who will be secretary of defense, interior, economy, not the main figure.  Who are the people who will take care of the day-to-day leadership for this country?  All I see are two people with their running mates.  Hardly a credible team for my questions.

We are certainly living one of the most important time of history.  We are on brink of witnessing an old school system collapsing while another has taken roots already.  As I watch mainstream Detroit auto makers waddle through a mess they not only created but that has spilled onto the economy, to a certain extent, I am dumbfounded how they can ask the government for more money in order to be more competitive in order to sell people more cars and make a profit on the same people who paid taxes in the beginning that helped those companies.  Who feeding who?  Pfew, you have to have gull to ask for this with a straight face and talk about letting other countries outsell you.  Well, if those they hadn't ducked their heads in the sand and watch other countries take over their market shares over decades, maybe we wouldn't be here.

It's fascinating to see how the old school boys are fretting.  What is completely fascinating is seeing new school people emerging left and right, strategically partnering, forming alliances across borders while the big, heavy, bloated and clumsy old boys club scrambles for assistance.  There is no easy way out for them, short of innovation, modern thinking and a vision… but not just their vision, a vision that fits what is happening right now.

For the last decade or so, we have seen two business model.  Let's call them the Microsofts and the Googles of this world.  One is market share based, domineering, little vision about the future outside of its market share wishes.  The other is on the prowl, always looking, thinking outside the box.  One is working hand in hand with web 2.0.  Web 2.0, a world of interconnecting different services over the Internet.  The other is still trying to think its way through owning the entire market, while the slimmer one finds way to partner and capitalizing on it.  Which one do you think will survive?

While I watch these old companies causing a ruckus, I see the new ones jumping ahead along with a slew of start ups in their wake.  There is a revolution and it is happening under the nose of the bloated old corporation who are not swift anymore.  What is happening now is fascinating beyond words.  It is an old system of greed and power, which inevitable leads to despondency, costly mistakes, tribal wars and out of control ego fed by even more out of control greed versus a less centralized system that is more agile and above all, has their finger on the current pulse.  The big companies got too rich and alienated themselves from people want, choice and quality of life without having to lose paychecks and for the first time, their homes.

Do the research yourself and look up something like Project Better Place which is now called Better Place.  Watch out for good old new Google snapping up deals, consistently bringing out free, easy to use tools that make Microsoft's bloated and expensive software look out of place.  Check out Tesla who proved you can come up with super performance electric car with lithium batteries and thumbing its nose at mainstream auto makers.  Check out alternative investing and how it has fueled an industry where already the first returns are fueling more development.  Check out an even more interesting story of how Google is partnering with an unlikely allie in the form and shape of GE in order to revitalize an aging ultility grid and promote electric cars.

So many things are happening right here, right now, heralding a new day and age, one build on strategic partnership working for big goals but each having dominion in their field of expertise.  What does this remind you of?  For me, it's what I have been dreaming of since I was a child.  A Star Trek sort of fantasy of how society should evolve going forward to once again be there for people to develop and not the other way around.

It is a fantastic time to keep your head cool, ground yourself solidly into the present, stay focused, be open to what is happening, keep in mind what history has to teach us and look deep into the future.  What is it you want? How can you make this situation an even better one?  What good can you make out of all this?  I can myriads of possibilities…

I don't know if we'll ever know the truth about 9/11, nor do I care at this moment.  If at the very least we can force politicians to act civilly, then we are back on track.

Considering the current presidential debates, it seems we are far from that, but getting closer to having more mature candidates.  I am still appalled at these candidates who feel they represent me when what they do is belittle each other, attack one another.  Sorry, but I don't do that in life and I expect the same from you.  Apparently you don't represent me.  You're not matured enough.  It's also puzzling middle class America feels represented by these two people when they get paid hefty salaries and own too may homes to even remember.  Obviously, they are out of touch with reality.

It's confusing to have to vote for the best of the worse.  We vote against candidates now, not for one.  I hear so many people say they will leave the country if one particular candidate wins.  While the republicans look as if they are out to get votes by representing themselves as "normal guys", it feels like lip service, or worse yet, high school popularity contest.  I don't care about hockey moms, give me someone who addresses real issues with proven records and stop lying about it.

The democrats are no better either.  They seem completely incapable of portraying themselves as regular people.  Though it is formidable of them to tackle the "real" issues, again these people do not live in middle class' shoes. None of these politicians have to scrap to pay for gas, being comfortably driven around Washington D.C. in gas guzzling Lincoln limousines.  Ah, yes, ask me to make a sacrifice.  Do as I say, not as I do.  Sorry but those are no leaders for me.

Time will change, it has to change.

As for 9/11, Virginia and I were there, living in Manhattan.  And I can safely say, what we experienced in the city was different from the constant verbiage journalists were tearly spitting out.  The truth of the matter is that the city had been closed down, effectively keeping us captured, at the mercy of whatever else would happen.  I felt as if the government and officials had let us down, trapped us in an insane nightmare instead of rescuing us.  Tunnels were close, trains blocked.  And then there was the eerie sound of F16 zooming above for days on end without the familiar sound of regular airplanes.  Where were they when they practiced at the same time the tragedy happened?  Yes, what happened?  The city was dead quiet.  For once everyone stopped and there was a sense of fraternity, caring and being together.

Eventually things went back to normal.  And that was the strangest part but a month later people were getting drunk again from alcohol, money, power, sex.  It was back to normal as if nothing had happened, no one had learned a thing.  Though I don't think we need to dwell on disasters, if they don't change you deeply, you haven't learned a thing.  And I don't mean we need to arm ourselves.  We need to make sure our intelligence works.

The more I think about it, the more it makes sense.  We are moving from an old system based on a feudalistic top to bottom hierarchy to a more collaborative one.

No wonder we have so many people who are fretting, so many corporations having a hard time grasping this transition and desperately clinging on to a business model loosing steam every day.

First there the Open Source Movement and Unix was opened to anyone for free. The only thing required is that you had to give back any modifications to the community.  this way, you benefited from the OS and what you improved would benefit the entire community.  Everyone wins.

But who makes money this way?  And that is the biggest problem companies are facing right now.  How do we make money? Maybe it is time to redefine how money is made, who makes it and how much is allocated.  Obviously, having CEO, Presidents and Chairman making more money than small countries is taxing this society.  As consumers are feeling the pinch of ever-higher prices, gas has shot up 30% in a year, groceries followed.  Everything seems to go up in prices, including salaries of the people who sell goods to consumers who in turn make their positions possible.  I see the ridicule in it.  They are the service and need consumers.

A few decades ago, we saw the loss of innovations.  As companies became bigger and more complex to operate, funds were diverted from research to advertising.  Take a company as Xerox was which had a culture to innovate and grow.  Then, take a company as Microsoft became these last ten years.  I know it's fashionable to bash them, but there are reasons.  Microsoft took Xerox's ideas and sold them.  It's nothing too moral but not the end of the world either.  What happened later was a hunt to acquire any companies that innovated and competed.  Once bought, they were either incorporated or if not possible, shut down.  Eventually, less and less innovations made their ways to the public and those who did had to face bigger, slower corporations that squashed them down in order to maintain their stranglehold.  But anything that you strangle eventually lacks air.  And this is where we are.

The automobile industry went the same way, acquiring each other, buying technology and patents, keeping them tightly under drawer.  And now we have a bloated industry having an incredible hard time negotiating an oil-free future, dragging its feet.

Next on the list, governments and politicians.  Talk about status quo in this department.  Politicians are great a speeches but pale when it comes to changing anything.  Promises are made but once in office, we are told things are not that easy to change.  After 4 or 5 decades of seeing this, it's obvious these people are operating from an old model that clearly doesn't work in this day and age of change people clamor for.  And things are happening, albeit slowly here to.  Newer candidates appear with a glimmer of hope.  Older ones don't want to be left behind and jump on the bandwagon but they look awkward, unfit as modern gymnastics.

Even the music and entertainment industry is under pressure to change.  The old business model of making money by holding the reigns so tightly it suffocated its artists is seeing a flock of people turn to independent movies and music.  Case in point, Radio Head delivering its own album personally on their website and do away with the cash-cow industry middle man.  Ever since the 70s, the music industry has killed most artists that would have probably blossomed to be amazing by now. 

Things are changing, have changed and will continue to change.  For once, I am happy to see that change and be part of it.  I used to dream of being alive in the mid-60s experiencing Woodstock or well ahead into the Star Trek years in order to not have to deal with this awkward society clearly wanting a better future but constantly being held back by a ferocious greed that infected almost every companies. 

Things change.  Things always have to change.  Only those who try to freeze time get stuck in celluloid.  In time, they have to move on also.