From Despair to Inspiration

Below, two different Points of View - or mental lenses - to look at the landscape

Consider those 2 metaphorical locations as metaphorical  Points of View on the Landscape. A point of view is what I can see from where I stand — so a question might be : what does it mean to shape the future from this point of view? And how can I make a conscious shift in perspective - if I want to - to change the landscape I see, and the future I shape.

We propose the Altitude Attitude: a higher vantage point from which we look, at the same time, at the world we want less of and the world we want more of. (see a small practice here under)

I believe we have a response-ability. it is this one:

Be careful about the Present you create because it must look like the Future you dream of

Now is a moment of choice: from MAD Land to NO MAD Land
Frederik Jameson famously said: it is easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism. That’s unfortunately true. An entire generation — in fact the entire world — is living in 24/7 capitalism. No Alternative, No hope.

“NOW” is a moment in time for each of us, whether in Business and/or Life, to raise good questions and make wise decisions. The decisions we take NOW will allow us to continue an organized human life on this planet. Or they won’t.

We have a fundamental choice to make:

• Preserve a M.A.D. world based on Mutually Assured Destruction
• or invent and move to a NO-M.A.D World, grounded on Mutually Assisted Development.

A powerful metaphor can help us see what is happening as an opportunity: the metamorphosis of a caterpillar into a butterfly. This mirrors what we are living through.
What are we looking at? A world is collapsing while another is emerging right before our eyes: the breakdown of an existing civilization and the simultaneous creation of a new, thrivable Future.

As Biologist Bruce Lipton says:
“This is the most important step in the survival of the human civilisation. we can view this moment as a crisis or an opportunity to evolve.”

Either we focus on the dying caterpillar, locked in despair, fear or denial. Or we invest our energy in birthing the butterfly: we foster right causes, we fully commit to shaping a more viable civilization, grounded on new Values and worldviews.

The real question is not how to make the caterpillar bigger and bigger.
What matters is to become a butterfly.

This is the whole purpose of this concept and method we have created : Shapership, the Art of Shaping the Future(s). Shapership is above all a way to “look” at the world, completely aware that “the eye only sees what the brain is ready to understand”, thus that we have the power and freedom to change our “Reality”.

How to make this paradigm shift? By working at the root level of transformation: our mental maps.

Our mental maps are not the landscape, but they define how we shape it.

As Albert Einstein said: “The world we have created is a product of our thinking. We cannot change it without changing our thinking.”

This is why we are creating Shapership Game, an eclectic vehicles to move from MAD to NO MAD Land, which allows to seriously play with our mental maps, i.e with our points of views.

As an example, look at the two images and legends above - Cape of Desperation and Cape of Inspiration - and Adopt the Altitude Attitude: (Let the images work on you.) Pause. Hold both viewpoints simultaneously. Trust your intuition

• Ask yourself: What do these metaphors bring up for me? What does the contrast trigger?
• Then ask yourself a few questions
• Explore MAD Land: am I stuck in a metaphorical « despair » point of view ? How have I been capture by this ? Who/what benefits from it staying in place? Is this a form of resistance to the dominant world ? Which beliefs, “rules of the game”, and social rewards keep this stuck in place?
• Explore NO MAD Land: When do I escape the Stuck ? How do I do it ? What does this reveal about my skills, values, courage, and dreams ? What stories of survival, resistance or success might inspire and guide me ? What new field of possibilities does this NO MAD image and legend open for my Future?
• Bridge: Where do I stand ? What is my preference ? Why ?

Shapership stands for building the Future on Imagination, Desire, Hope and Radical Wisdom, to resist Stupidity, Fear, Despair and Violence. It says A Big NO to being trapped into an Ego centric world of materialism. And a BIG YES to being inspired by an ECO centric world — a NO MAD Land grounded in Mutually Assisted Development.

We can redirect our attention and cultivate a Cape of Inspiration by noticing what is already emerging. I want to honor, among many others, inspiration I find these days: the courageous Prime Minister Mark Carney for taking a stand at WEF Davos, Jan 20, 2026; Cornel West (Activist, philosopher, freedom fighter) and his fruitful disagreements; Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, the youngest Member of Parliament in New Zealand House of Representatives in 170 years who embodies the radicality I like ; Olivier Hamant and the turn from performance to robustness.
Books like “2 milliards de réenchanteurs” (Aurélie Piet & Marc Luyckx Ghisi) and “Anti-chaos” (Mathieu Dardaillon); initiatives like Cyril Dion & Pamela Moritz — “Démocratie maintenant”.
The Zebra economy movement — and the independent magazine ZEBRE, born from a necessity (and a slight allergy to ready-made ideas).
And beyond names: thousands of regenerative initiatives, such as a large-Scale Forest Restoration in Costa Rica, and the long inspiration of peoples like the Kogis, supported by voices such as Éric Julien.

What would you start doing if you adopted « the Cape of Inspiration » vantage point for 48 hours ?