Energy Democracy - The New Story of Freedom for Power and People
- Kralingen
- Aug 11
- 6 min read
Updated: Oct 27
All Great Civilizations Innovate Energy: A Journey Through Time and Leadership
All great civilizations have one thing in common: they innovate energy. This innovation fuels functional, emotional, social, and financial progress, ultimately leading to greater freedom. Today, we’ll explore the narratives that connect energy innovation and democracy. We’ll dive into two types of energy that resonate with our times: sustainable power usage and life force energy. In simpler terms, we’ll discuss power energy and people energy, with a sprinkle of creative energy along the way.
(This blog is inspired by my Dutch language article on the future of The Netherlands on Frankwatching)
All Successful Civilizations Innovate Their Energy
Successful civilizations share a common trait: they innovate energy. To achieve this today, we need an inspiring story that blends the functional with the emotional. It’s about renewing both consumption energy and life force energy, especially in light of the negative energy emanating from many of our leaders.
Globally, we grapple with indecisiveness on critical issues affecting us all. Healthcare, aging populations, bureaucratic red tape, oligarchic tendencies, and environmentally harmful practices plague our societies. We struggle to find common ground or even communicate effectively. While there are exceptions, we aren’t moving swiftly or decisively enough to tackle the world’s pressing problems.
The Current Story of Leadership
The deeper reason for our stagnation lies in the narrative of our leaders. It remains trapped in a 'left versus right' populist rhetoric that is failing in more ways than one. Great leaders elevate themselves above these often-shifting differences by telling a story that unites the majority. The solution to break free from this left-right thinking pattern is glaringly obvious: energy innovation.
In this zeitgeist, we must focus on two key aspects: consumption energy and life force energy.
Consumption Energy Innovation
Let’s start with consumption energy. Civilizations that renew their energy consumption emerge as winners. Think about the harnessing of fire, the use of horses or oxen for plowing, and the invention of the wheel. Papyrus and ink in Egypt made information transfer much easier than those heavy stone tablets. The Persians pioneered powerful windmills, leading to significant breakthroughs. The Greeks invented the oar, allowing for faster sea travel, which enriched them and gave them time for philosophy, art, and science.
The Roman Empire thrived due to the construction of roads and aqueducts. The Chinese developed hotter blast furnaces and forges, improving their tools and creating explosive energy with gunpowder. This innovation was cleverly adapted by the Turks into cannons during their siege of Constantinople. The impact of the steam engine in England is well-documented. The Americans initially excelled with electricity (AC current) and later with atomic energy. Even the brief Grüne Wende in Germany yielded positive results for a time.
Textbook Dutch Energy Innovation
A textbook example of energy innovation is the Netherlands during its Golden Age. The Flemish mathematician Simon Stevin (1548-1620) made numerous inventions related to sluices and spillways, helping to prevent and control flooding. This directly led to the creation of the so-called polders: former sea masses transformed into land. He also improved ship design, allowing Dutch vessels to move faster, with all its obvious benefits.
However, it was his invention of the 2/3-sided gear teeth that ushered in a new era. This innovation tripled the power of wind and watermill wheels, enabling stronger and faster sawing. The result? An overflow of wood, which was crucial for shipbuilding. Soon, the Dutch had many more ships, leading to increased trade and wealth.
Back then, many ships didn’t make the perilous journeys home. To ensure revenue, a shared model was created in the form of stocks in the VOC company. This distributed wealth equally among ship owners, regardless of whether their ships returned. While the deeply shameful chapter of Dutch slavery remains, this shared revenue model ultimately led to modern stock markets and set the Netherlands on a long journey toward freedom, attracting artists, scholars, funds, and inventors in the 16th and 17th centuries.
Fast Forward to Energy Today
Today, the Netherlands, like many other countries, has stagnated in its energy consumption efficiency and effectiveness. Worldwide, we face energy-related challenges that hinder progress. Huge energy demands for dubious technology, new housing unable to connect to the energy grid, and overloaded energy networks lead to blackouts. This halts the necessary sustainable innovation of materials and building methods.
Coupled with immense droughts, nitrogen-rich soils, mortgage interest troubles, and an abundance of red tape, we struggle to transition our energy and sustainability needs quickly enough. This stalls our freedom to innovate or even relocate, while we all know that fossil fuels—regardless of your stance on global warming—will eventually run out. Not to mention the undemocratic regimes that still dominate that trade.
The Energy of Leadership
These challenges in energy consumption are significant. Yet, an underlying issue drives our stagnation: the energy of our leadership—or the lack thereof. Despite the troubles we face, the solution is glaringly obvious: energy consumption innovation can provide a competitive advantage (read more on the Seamless & Down to Earth Sustainable trend here). This advantage seems to elude our leaders, who point in every direction except toward energy innovation.
To break this cycle, we need a 'Father Drees'-like vision. The prime minister of the Netherlands in the mid-20th century, Willem Drees, understood that the next big thing in energy consumption would be distributing natural gas to all homes. He laid the legal groundwork for its implementation, which was famously rolled out in just five years across the entire country.
His vision united the vast majority of political parties in a deeply divided Holland, transcending left-right thinking. This self-sufficient energy innovation improved our lives and cooking, ranking among the best political decisions of the 20th century in our small country.
Life Force Energy & Mental Weakness
Instead of implementing a global energy push in our connected world, our current leadership squanders time bickering over the remnants of outdated neoliberal systems. The solution of energy innovation is right in front of them. This wasted energy often manifests in hostility toward migrants, the vulnerable, and each other. Consequently, we see new, harsh rules and regulations that hinder progress and merely create the illusion of control.
This not only undermines democracy worldwide but also radiates mental weakness.
It’s called 'scarcity thinking': a mindset trapped in the belief that all is lost. In this mindset, it’s every person for themselves, leading to fights over trivial matters. This paralyzing mindset breeds fear of losing—be it a political job, voters, or money—resulting in finger-pointing instead of fresh ideas. In essence, it’s a bad story we tell ourselves.
Imagine being on a team where everyone believes they will lose before the match even starts. They’d play solely for their own careers and interests. With that mindset, no team can ever win. This reflects a lack of self-confidence and self-awareness. Our leaders seem to lack the confidence to set ambitious goals and collaborate with the people to achieve them.
This impasse leads to unnecessary stress, while depression and aggression are rampant. This brings us to the second point of our zeitgeist: mental and physical energy.
Positive Energy & Abundance
We should cultivate a mindset of abundance: the belief that we possess wonderful societies and exceptional individuals who collectively have more than enough creative energy and talent to tackle the shared challenges ahead.
A healthy society that values life-force energy and the abundant energy from nature is more resilient, regulates emotions better, and grants individuals greater freedom. This life-force energy, rooted in abundance thinking, thrives with a focus on (preventive) healthcare, sports, and education. This mindset aligns with ongoing innovations in our mental and physical health.
Strengthen the heart, mind, and soul, and you can innovate your way out of anything.
The Combination of Power and People Innovation
In summary, the energy innovation of our time is the dual focus on consumption energy and vital life-force energy. This combined approach should be the cornerstone of our investments.
Embracing this unconditional energy renewal can lead to significant advancements on a global scale within five to ten years, much like the progress seen after Father Drees's initiatives or our collective efforts to strengthen the ozone layer. Such a vision compels us to address many other issues more swiftly, as they become less relevant in the grand scheme of things.
I call this new narrative Energy Democracy, infused with fresh consumption and life energy. It brings social and financial progress while strengthening democracy. If this generation of leaders lacks the energy for this vision, I suggest they make way for others who can inspire us. Leaders who will guide us back to our centuries-long journey toward freedom through energy innovation.
Love, as always,
Rogier
(And check out my book on Storytelling to strengthen your stories too!)
