Our Next 250...
- Piper Hendricks
- Nov 12, 2025
- 2 min read
"Big bangs."
That's not a reference to Texas hair in the 1990s. It's a reference to human civilization, "'each dramatically amplifying the complexity of human life' by expanding the number of empowered actors, connections, interactions, and feedback loops in human society."
I read with interest Thomas L. Friedman's recent opinion piece and felt encouraged by the assertion that the world now runs on "21st-century networks of collaboration built on trust, not bullying."
But as he covered the Anthropocene era, Information Age, AI Age, and Polycene era, I could only think how accurately the Two Loops model captures the messiness we find ourselves in now.
Call it "binary to polymorphic."
Call it "liminal."
Call it complexification.
At Stories Change Power, we think of it as the space between the two loops, as the theory of change credited to Margaret Wheatley and Deborah Frieze describes.
That theory, like our logo, recognizes that change isn't linear - it's messy. There aren't clear steps - there are jumps and chasms.
This space we're in now requires a heck of a lot of bravery - and, as Braver Angels recognizes, COURAGE.
You likely already sense we're most definitely moving away from the ways we've known the world to be. Or, put more accurately, the world has changed, whether we were ready or not.
The question isn't WHETHER we need to shape what's next.
The question is HOW are we are going to do that.
As Friedman recognizes:
We will either build healthy interdependencies and rise together or suffer through unhealthy interdependencies and fall together.
Whichever way we go, though, we're going there together.
The fact 2026 marks the 250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence feels incredibly relevant.
How many of us will be on the yellow loop
as we start our next 250?
