Civilization as an Art Form

Join Ann Racuya-Robbins, founder of the World Knowledge Bank, as she discusses her career exploring the concept of “wholeperception” and the corresponding concept of civilization as an art form. Racuya-Robbins proposes that each human being’s life experience is an intrinsically creative insight into life and argues that all lives, in the composite, create a work of art called civilization. She will discuss what that means and how it can serve humanity and life on earth.

In her words, “I consider civilization a form of art. A form of art deeply interconnected with many other works of culture from the most practical of feeding ourselves to speculations, inventions and technology of every sort. Few things are more complex and everywhere tangible and intangible than civilization. At the outset it is often difficult to even think about it let alone parse it into its many constituents such as society, culture, technology, government…and argue the importance of each. In part because civilization seems to have emerged from a historical and psychological perspective (process) it is often assumed to be about the past, about something one only sees after it has arrived, so to speak. This tends to give civilization an a priori quality. For most of human history people have viewed civilization, if they thought about it at all, as something they are born into and need to learn about, something created by gods or rulers. What it is and how it came about were and still are largely not understand. The first principles, the underlying assumptions of a civilization, as with so many things, are missed entirely. Many think of civilization as the source of war and so much life suffering on earth. Many think of civilization as the source of food and security. To be sure it can and has been all of these things. From my perspective civilization is a creation that more or less serves life.

Ann explores her vision of a civilization that serves life much more generously, justly and appreciatively than in typical today. She argues that a more or less average human being has the capacity to create such a world and discusses its founding principles.

Ann will also discuss her work at the World Knowledge Bank®, with its message of “When you share what you know in a just way, you sustain life and transform the way the world works” to demonstrate how these founding principles can be implemented in the civilization she calls Yefief.