than would have been the case if growth had been proactively curtailed decades ago. Global leaders now face the need to accomplish four enormous tasks simultaneously:
1. Rapidly reduce dependence on fossil fuels.
2. Adapt to the end of economic growth.
3. Design and provide a sustainable way of life for 7 billion people.
4. Deal with the environmental consequences of the past 100 years
of fossil-fueled growth.
Each of these four tasks represents an enormous challenge whose difficulty is multiplied by the simultaneous need to address the other three. The convergence of so many civilization-threatening
planetary crises is unique in our history as a species.
…
THE MIDDLE WAY was something that Tony Blair often spoke of as the Labour Party's answer to the future prosperity of the UK, unfortunately neither he nor the Labour Party in Government had any inkling of an understanding of what it constituted; let alone "the Middle Way of finding “Right Livelihood”... as described by Schumacher in his book SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL Economics as if People Mattered. It is very apparent, having read BROKEN VOWS by Tom Bower, that Tony Blair had not the slightest intention of establishing 'THE MIDDLE WAY of Economics as if People Mattered' because of his own extremely self-serving agenda which in the context of the curious case of being British, was best exemplified by his decision to become a member of the Church of ROME rather than subscribing to the Church of England, presumably so that he could ingratiate himself and his family with the Pope himself. …
command and control mechanisms for structuring,
organizing and managing more complex civilizations that the new energy regimes make
possible. For example, in the early modern age, print communication became the means to
organize and manage the technologies, organizations, and infrastructure of the coal, steam,
and rail revolution. It would have been impossible to administer the first industrial revolution
using script and codex.
Communication revolutions not only manage new, more complex energy regimes, but also
change human consciousness in the process. Forager/hunter societies relied on oral communications and their consciousness was mythologically constructed. The great
hydraulic agricultural civilizations were, for the most part, organized around script
communication and steeped in theological consciousness. The first industrial revolution of
the 19th century was managed by print communication and ushered in ideological
consciousness. Electronic communication became the command and control mechanism
for arranging the second industrial revolution in the 20th century and spawned
psychological consciousness.
Each more sophisticated communication revolution brings together more diverse people in
increasingly more expansive and varied social networks. Oral communication has only
limited temporal and spatial reach while script, print and electronic communications each
extend the range and depth of human social interaction.
By extending the central nervous system of each individual and the society as a whole,
communication revolutions provide an evermore inclusive playing field for empathy to
mature and consciousness to expand. For example, during the period of the great hydraulic
agricultural civilizations characterized by script and theological consciousness, empathic
sensitivity broadened from tribal blood ties to associational ties based on common religious
affiliation. Jews came to empathize with Jews, Christians with Christians, Muslims with
Muslims, etc. In the first industrial revolution characterized by print and ideological
consciousness, empathic sensibility extended to national borders, with Americans
empathizing with Americans, Germans with Germans, Japanese with Japanese and so on.
In the second industrial revolution, characterized by electronic communication and
psychological consciousness, individuals began to identify with like-minded others.
Today, we are on the cusp of another historic convergence of energy and communication–a
third industrial revolution–that could extend empathic sensibility to the biosphere itself and
all of life on Earth. The distributed Internet revolution is coming together with distributed
renewable energies, making possible a sustainable, post-carbon economy that is both
globally connected and locally managed.…
rapbook-time-capsule, so also would he propose to include
Daniel Wahl's first ever book entitled Designing Regenerative
Cultures, in his extended life's AlphaINDEX of STORIES, if for no
other reason than Fritjof Capra's review, in which he states ...
"Life on the Planet has sustained itself for billions of years by
continually regenerating itself. Our modern industrial culture has
interfered with these natural processes to the point of causing
massive extinctions of species and threatening our very survival.
This book is a valuable contribution to the important discussion of
the worldview and value system we need to redesign our businesses,
economies, and technologies - in fact, our entire culture
- so as to make them regenerative rather than destructive."
…