When I first wrote “Creating a World That Works for All”, we were well aware that the title was a Vision Statement, a Life Goal… and was also a MEME, an idea that could spread to others, that could become viral.

To identify whether or not this happened, I set up the phrase “Creating a World That Works for All” as a Google Search Alert, then sat back and waited…

… about 20 years.

At first, I would get alerts once every few weeks, almost always about either the book or its publisher (Berrett-Kohler adopted the meme as their mission statement). Then, alerts started coming in more regularly, when Tom Atlee wrote his book, “The Tao of Democracy”, which uses the ‘World for All’ meme as a sub-title. Then, another boost when, a few years ago, Unity churches started using the meme as part of their outreach.

Starting this year, I was noting two or three alerts per week. And then, somewhere around 6 months ago, something shifted. Now, I’m receiving 5 or 6 alerts PER DAY. From sources around the world – from Russia to Argentina to South Africa.

Part of the boost is from the global “student strike” picking up the meme. And part of the boost is just from an idea whose time is now ripe.

Does this mean we are reaching a tipping point? Does this mean that things are really getting ready to change?

There seems to be a pattern here. It was roughly 20 years between the advent of the “Prague Spring” and the success of the Velvet Revolution. 28 years between the creation of the Berlin Wall and its destruction. 27 years for Nelson Mandela to be in prison.

Perhaps 20-30 years is the “incubation time” for a revolutionary thought. Perhaps, like a plant spreading its roots, anchoring itself for a major growth spurt, the notion of “A World for ALL” has been taking hold, slowly, silently, invisibly. And, perhaps when we least expect it, the change will BLOSSOM. When it does, the change appears inevitable. Until it does, the change appears impossible.

I was in Berlin a few weeks after the Wall fell. The party was still going strong!

I sat at an improvised cafe, watching enterprising Berliners, chisels and sledgehammers in hand, turning the Berlin Wall from a hated symbol of totalitarianism into tourist trinkets. (I didn’t buy my chunks of the Berlin Wall. I found a pipe and bashed out my own pieces of history.)

My point: the demise of the Berlin Wall and the end of Communism in a divided Germany was completely unexpected. Everyone said it was impossible…until it was INEVITABLE. The CIA didn’t see it (but, they don’t see much…) The Stasi (East German secret police) didn’t see it — and they were motivated to do so. The media didn’t see it.

And then… everybody did.

Right now, more and more of us are seeing the “World for ALL” revolution. As the powers of the status quo (Democrats, Republicans and all in between) go about planning for… more of the same, the ice melts from beneath. And some of us are getting prepared…

QUESTION FOR YOU: Do you use the “World for All” meme in your own conversations about our future? I know that many of us still use the relatively empty phrase ‘Make the world a better place’ (same goal as Adolph Hitler and Pol Pot). Wouldn’t it be better to use a phrase that is specific, tangible and measurable? Try it and see!