The state of a complex system is an emergent result of individual, self-organized processes within the system and is composed of the relationships between different constituent elements. Relationships are habitats. No human being can exist without relation to oneself, others and the environment. The primary intention of a human being is to experience himself in relationships as a subject that has two needs: that of connectedness and that of autonomy. When people are not taken seriously in their subjectivity, but are made the object of goals and actions, both basic needs are simultaneously violated. However, our current relationships are shaped by objectification, which leads to division, competition, systemic greed and egocentricity, making a sustainable society almost impossible.
A stable, sustainable society needs people who live in relationships with themselves, others and the environment, that are characterized by subjectivity and allow autonomy and connectedness at the same time. In order to make this possible, skills that often disappear in the background, such as empathy, compassion, and mindfulness, as well as the ability to self-organize, develop potential, and systemic thinking, are needed. Yet, those skills are what we learn by ourselves, in associations, self-help books and spiritual classes. We don’t learn them in the institutions we are an inherent part of – our schools, universities, work place. In order to organise a sustainable society, we need to institutionalise learning of skills that actually matter.