Dear world,

I love you.

I know that these past few years have been a dark and trying time – a time of fear, pain, and loss. A time when we lost friends and family; jobs and businesses; the simple pleasures of a bustling society. A time when our lives were denied us by authoritarians. A time when we witnessed evils and horrors we prayed would never haunt our lives.

Yet – the Sun does shine.

And a new day rises.

The Sun Sets

In scarlet and blue and green and purple, three by three the sovereigns rode through the palace gates, with plumed helmets, gold braid, crimson sashes, and jeweled orders flashing in the sun. After them came five heirs apparent, forty more imperial or royal highnesses, seven queens–four dowager and three regnant–and a scattering of special ambassadors from uncrowned countries. Together they represented seventy nations in the greatest assemblage of royalty and rank ever gathered in one place and, of its kind, the last. The muffled tongue of Big Ben tolled nine by the clock as the cortege left the palace, but on history’s clock it was sunset, and the sun of the old world was setting in a dying blaze of splendor never to be seen again.
- Barbara Tuchman, The Guns of August

So was described the setting of an era in 1910, at the funeral of Edward VII – and we find ourselves again watching the feverish display of glory that marks the sunset of a dying regime:

The World Economic Forum (WEF) drew record crowds in 2023, yet a major news network describes its attendees as baffoonish.

We’ve all watched, often in anger, these past few years as the old world order has been burned to the ground – set aflame by its own priests and architects. Those baffoons of the WEF, who in destroying the societies which empowered them, ended their own rule. Now we see the self-immolation reach its inevitable crescendo and pray only that their destruction spares us in their wake. But they are not alone in this, as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) decided to follow suit and join them in self-destructive policies which crippled their own nation. Indeed, the CCP has had an equally auspicious year.

Those of us who have been watching can see the cataclysm unfolding:

  • self-destructive policies which stifle society;
  • governments overwhelmed by unfortunate events, such as floods and droughts;
  • decaying institutions which lack integrity and capability; and,
  • feelings that the world around us burns.

The Sun Rises

Yet as always, the world continues on. A new order will grow. New governments and institutions, new ways of living and working, new challenges to conquer. What will be the nature of this new order? – how are we to live in this new world?

The Ministry of the Tree is here to help guide us on that journey.

There is an implicate wholeness not just to the world, but to humanity as well. While there are differences between us, the commonalities far outweigh those. Those differences should not be dismissed, nor the confrontations that will come of them, but let us cooperate in proportion to our similiarity. How can it be that we are more similar than different, yet fight more than cooperate?

Much has been said about the coming multipolar world order. But what does such an order look like?

We see it as a great tree.

We choose this vision for two reasons:

  1. This perspective emphasizes what has gone so wrong with our current world order – the leaves are dying, branches are falling off, the canopy is bare, and we’ve ceased producing fruits. We have a swollen and diseased trunk that is starving the tree.
  2. This perspective emphasizes the role of a leader: to raise their followers above themselves, a flourishing and beautiful offering to the Sun.

This is the new order that the Ministry of the Tree will build:

A world where the powerful work diligently to raise humanity upwards, a world order abundant in human flourishing and the fruits of their success.

I love you – and I look forward to building the future together.

- ZMGS

Minister of the Tree