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Reality is here

It has been exactly two months today since I announced the Reality of Everything Symposium here on Substack, and today I am excited to announce that our provisional programme is now available on an arresting new website.

For those interested in ‘things designy’, the symposium logo

‘draws on the visual language of analogue television test screens - a shared cultural reference that signals interruption, calibration, and urgent public announcement. It suggests a moment when normal programming stops, and attention is required’.

For fans of The Matrix, the design may conjure a ‘hacked system’, ‘a subtle red-pill/blue-pill moment that asks viewers to question the default narrative’. (And for those of you - like me - who have not watched the 1999 film The Matrix, the red and blue pills are a reference to the crucial choice offered to the character Neo by Morpheus: accept the painful truth of reality (red) or remain in a comfortable, ignorant bliss (blue). )

But design matters aside, the provisional programme is now available and reveals a formidable line-up of New Zealand’s leading experts on topics ranging from the polycrisis and climate change through to public finance, energy, and public health.

Note that the event is in-person only but we will be producing videos of all the presentations to make available for viewing and sharing following the symposium, in a similar format to those of the National Emergency Briefing. So if you want to be part of this event, please secure your ticket soon to avoid disappointment.

Finally I would like to take the opportunity to once again thank those people who have generously donated to this initiative. This has been organised entirely on volunteer effort with no base funding, so every contribution - whether big or small - will help us achieve our aims, which are:

• To lay out the interconnected realities of the global situation - climate change and the broader polycrisis, the economy and trade, energy supply, water & food security and public health – especially as it affects New Zealand.

• To empower people through knowledge and awareness and build a critical mass of reality-conscious, systems-aware people across sectors and communities who can amplify this awareness through their spheres of influence.

• To provide an unparalleled opportunity to connect with other experts and strengthen networks.

• To create the foundation for collective action. To catalyse a movement spanning across organisations and sectors that will force our political ‘leaders’ to act.

Donations (big or small) can be made via our supporting partner:

The Lentil Intervention

38-9023-0304315-00

Reference: REALITY

The Lentil Intervention Incorporated is A New Zealand Registered Charity CC59096. Individuals in New Zealand can claim tax credits for donations of $5 or more. Please email catherine at khm dot co dot nz to request a receipt if you require one.

And I leave the last words (slightly edited) to the Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres, following a UN-hosted conference entitled Beyond GDP in Geneva.

Guterres said humanity’s future required the urgent overhaul of the world’s ‘existing accounting systems’, which he said were driving the planet to the brink of disaster. This follows the release of a UN report, which concluded that the need for an economic transformation had become increasingly urgent and observed that the world is facing a ‘triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution’ alongside rapid technological change that was upending labour markets and exacerbating growing inequality.

This is the polycrisis.

Welcome to The Reality of Everything.