Featured – Page 12 – Mutual Responsibility

October 22, 2012October 24, 2012

Our New ‘We’ Generation

On May 14, 2012, Greater Good Science Center Faculty Director Pr. Dacher Keltner delivered the

commencement address for graduating psychology students at the University of California, Berkeley, asking them to look for the best in themselves and in humanity.

In 1986, Ivan Boesky, of insider trading fame, gave a graduation speech on this very same Berkeley campus of free speech and Nobel laureates. That day he declared, ‘Greed is healthy.’Below are some powerful excerpts from his speech.

A year later in the movie Wall Street, Gordon Gekko famously turned that phrase into, ‘Greed is good.’ This battle cry was part of a pendulum swing seen before in history, one that expressed a certain view of who we are as a species. We are selfish gratification machines. Happiness is found in material pursuits. Other people’s concerns are not our own. Altruism is an illusion. The bad in human nature is stronger than the good.”

Can A System Teaching Self

Interest Gain At The Expense Of Everyone And Thing Provide Us A Beneficial Society?

That phrase and its accompanying ideology was the mantra of my generation, and scientific studies show it brought us:

Rises in loneliness and a loss of friends;

A loss of trust in our communities and institutions;

Increases in narcissism and decreases in empathy;

Spikes in anxiety, to the point where 75 percent of Americans now say they are too stressed;

And the recent economic collapse, an insulated one percent, and levels of inequality in the United States that are literally shortening the lives of our citizens.”

Science Reveals The Depth Of Connections Between Humans And The Power Of This Influence That Can Have Intrinsic Effects For Humanity’s Improvement Or Destruction

We can care because we have evolved the capacity to rise above the loud demands of the internal voice of self-interest, and imagine the minds, interests, and concerns of others. This empathic flight is enabled by mirror neurons and large portions of the prefrontal cortex of the brain. It is enabled by our wildly contagious tendencies.

Recent studies of a community in Massachusetts find that all manner of tendencies—dietary habits, anxiety, sadness, hope and happiness, and generosity—spread through neighborhoods as readily as flues and colds. Recent studies find that when we give to a stranger, that stranger goes on to give seven percent more in interactions in which we are no longer present.

We are separated by the boundaries of our skin, we are separate constellations of trillions of cells, but in the reaches of our mind we are connected to one another. Other people’s gains and costs can become our own. And in these acts of empathy, where we see the world through the eyes of others, we come to understand that we all suffer, we all yearn for the happiness of our children. We come to see that we share a common humanity.”

The beginnings of love and caring can manifest when humans begin to connect with what is external from themselves. Our young generation shows great potential to begin building an influential environment towards this direction.

In the words of the poet Percey Shell The great secret of morals is love, or a going out of our own nature, and an identification of ourselves with the beautiful which exists in thought, action, or person, not our own. A man, to be greatly good, must imagine intensely and comprehensively; he must put himself in the place of another and of many others; the pains and pleasures of his species must become his own. The great instrument of moral good is the imagination.”

And you are something more. I hear it in the new questions you ask in the classroom and in your research, and I see it in your actions in the world. You’re using psychological science to humanize the criminal justice system, destigmatize mental illness, create nurturing environments that build stronger connections in the frontal lobes, reduce stress—our biggest killer—in the health care system, make Facebook kinder.

You are Generation We. And I don’t mean the video game console Wii; or “wee” in the British sense of meaning “small”; or “oui” the French word for yes; or “we” like what a two year old says when he has to go to the bathroom.

I mean “we” as in us, we as in this human species, we as in common humanity, we as in all sentient beings.”

Dacher Keltner is currently a Professor of Psychology at U.C. Berkeley and founding faculty director of the Greater Good Science Center and co-editor of the magazine Greater Good, an interdisciplinary center that is translating the new science of happiness and compassion to thousands of educators, practitioners, parents, and concerned citizens. The above excerpts were taken from the article: Generation Wii… or Generation We?

Images courtesy of xedos4 & Maggie Smith at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

October 21, 2012October 21, 2012

What Would A Mutually Responsible Economy Look Like?

i love you and i care for you brother ^_^

I have now reached the point where I may indicate briefly what to me constitutes the essence of the crisis in our time. It concerns the relationship of the individual to society.

The individual has become more conscious than ever of his dependence upon society. But he does not experience this dependence as a positive asset, as an organic tie, as a protective force, but rather as a threat to his natural rights, or even to his economic existence.

Moreover, his position in society is such that the egotistical drives of his make-up are constantly being accentuated, while his social drives, which are by nature weaker, progressively deteriorate.

All human beings, whatever their position in society, are suffering from this process of deterioration. Unknowingly prisoners of their own egotism, they feel insecure, lonely, and deprived of the naive, simple and unsophisticated enjoyment of life. Man can find meaning in life, short and perilous as it is, only through devoting himself to society.”

– Albert Einstein, 1949

A Mutually Responsible Economy?

In essence, we already know what a mutually responsible economy looks like. It is the economy that exists within the family. In the family, each person operates according to need and merit. There is the mother, father, children, and the extended family. Each operates according to a particular role: The baby, the mother, the father, grandparent, etc.

These roles then are further broken down. The baby is, “helpless,” “precious,” “in need of protection.” The father is perhaps the “bread winner,” the mother, “the caregiver,” etc. To contemplate what form an economy based on mutually responsibility would look like, where each seeks to provide for others, it is probably best to start with something we know.

Obviously, all families don’t act in a mutually responsible way. And an economy based on mutual responsibility doesn’t mean, “Shangri-La.” After all, a family can provide each other with what they need and still have disagreements. But a family that operates cohesively is a family that operates with mutual responsibility, where each contributes to the family and is supported by the family.

According To Need And Merit

The family operates according to need and merit. For instance, everyone in the family needs shelter, food, and socialization. But if the son, 15, goes to the father and says, “Dad, I’m about to turn 16. Will you buy me a car when I get my driver’s license?” then the father has a calculation to make: “Is buying my son a car according to need?” After all, the family has a car, possibly multiple cars. Does the son really need a car?

But then there is merit. The father could see that a car is a status symbol, a rite of passage, etc. and then place a condition: “I will give you a car if you do X and Y.” So the family operates according to need but also according to merit in order to provide each other what is needed.

But how can this example of the family apply towards the creation of an economy that exists in relation to everyone, and not just the family which is naturally tied together, where each member from birth or through desire wants to be together?

The Need For A Mutually Responsible Economy

As the above quote from Einstein says, each person in society is tied to all the others. However, although we are tied to one another, each needing all the others in order to receive his or her needs; we do not view these ties as beneficial. Therefore, our economy is structured around the pursuit of the individual and not the pursuit of society as a whole.

But if each did perform their role, their self-calculating role, where each provided for others only in order to acquire one’s needs—and this worked—who would complain? The problem is that this path no longer produces gain. Today economic hardships are increasing. The economic system we have built, according to personal benefit, no longer operates in a way where each generation can build upon the accomplishments of the last, where equality grows, and inequality fades.

Applying Need And Merit To The Economy

When it comes to need and merit in relation to the general economy (i.e., everyone), it should be becoming increasingly more apparent why such a system should hold great possibility. It has been reported, for instance, that nearly 1/3 of all food produced today is thrown away. In correlation, nearly 600 million die a year due to malnutrition and hunger.

If an economy operated like a family, according to need and merit, then no one would go hungry. After all, each person has the need for food, for shelter, for healthcare, etc. so excess food would be given to those who have the need for it. But then what would happen to such things like competition? Wouldn’t competition shrink to nonexistence if such a system were to be put into place? With mutual responsibility, what is to become of those who are stronger, smarter, perhaps more privileged; are they to simply now receive everything the same as those who are perhaps weaker, lazier, not as smart, etc.?

This is where merit can be applied. However, before merit can be accurately applied, first the need for an integral view, to view the economy, the global economy, as a system, as parts in a chain or cogs in a wheel, is first needed.

The Need For New Education

If everyone in society were taught about their natural reliance upon others, that labor is divided so that goods and services can be made available more easily, that society works best when work is done for the benefit of society, then the idea of mutual responsibility would seem like a natural necessary conclusion. Moreover, the need to develop a mutually responsible global economy would also be apparent given the reliance that each nation has upon all the others or their daily survival.

In regards to equality, need, and merit, a mutually responsible society would treat all members of society equally. For instance, given that each role in society is needed, from janitors to politicians; each role would be treated equally because each role would be seen as pivotal for society’s continued operation.

Equality then could be achieved through merit being applied in a new way. For example, instead of paying certain members of society more for doing more skilled work, social merits could be given instead. After all, the one who does more skilled work than one who does less skilled work still has the same needs and the extra merit that this more detailed work demands could easily come through societal honors, thereby creating economic equality while still providing merit for such work.

Also, in regards to competition, in a mutually responsible economy it would still exist. The form would only change: Instead of competing to profit for oneself, a person would compete in order to best benefit society. Equality then could be achieved rapidly and competition would be a driving force for it and the creation of a continually more cohesive and sustainable society.

Image: “i love you and i care for you brother ^_^” by ๑۩۞۩๑~OTH~๑۩۞۩๑ on Flickr.

October 21, 2012October 21, 2012

Time To Act: Continued Constant Economic Growth Will Lead To Collapse

The earth is full. It’s full of us, full of our stuff, full of our waste, full of our demands; yes, we are a brilliant and creative species, but we’ve created a little too much stuff—so much that our economy is now bigger than it’s host, our planet…”

– Paul Gilding, independent writer and adviser on sustainability.

The above and following quotes are from Gilding’s TED talk on sustainability.

A Familiar Message With Little Regard Given To It

It is nothing new that advocates and scientists are warning that consumption is out of control on our planet. However, little is done to educate us, the various populaces of the planet, that our current levels of consumption are detrimental to the future survival of our species, other species, and the planet as a whole.

As Gilding says,

We’re burning through our capital, or, stealing from the future… what this means is our economy is unsustainable … when things aren’t sustainable they stop.”

In Love With A Crazy Idea

When we think about economic growth stopping we go, ‘that’s not possible,’ because economic growth is so essential to our society that it is really questioned… it is based on a crazy idea, the crazy idea being that we can have infinite growth on a finite planet… I’m here to tell you the Emperor has no clothes, that the crazy idea is just that: It is crazy.”

Gilding states a counter argument:

But we need growth. We need it to solve poverty. We need it to develop technology. We need it to keep social stability.”

His reply:

I find this argument fascinating, as though, we can kind of bend the rules of physics to suit our needs… the earth doesn’t care what we need. Mother nature doesn’t negotiate. She just sets rules and describes consequences and these are not esoteric limits. This is about food and water, soil and climate, the basic practical and economic foundations of our lives.”

The Specifics Of The Growth Crisis

Many of you will be thinking: ‘But surely we can still stop this. If it’s that bad, we’ll react.’ Let’s just think through that idea.

We’ve had 50 years of warnings.

We’ve had science proving the urgency of change.

We’ve had economic analysis pointing out that not only can we afford it, it’s cheaper to act early.

And yet the reality is we’ve done pretty much nothing to change course. We’re not even slowing down.”

We’re not acting. We’re not close to acting. And we’re not going to act until this crisis hits the economy and that’s why the end of growth is the central issue and the event that we need to get ready for.”

Here is Gilding’s full TED talk [17 min.]:

The Lack Of An Integral Perspective

So, when does this transition begin, when does this breakdown begin? In my view it is well underway. I know most people don’t see it that way. We tend to look at the world, not as the integral system that it is, but as a serious of individual issues.

We see mistakenly each of these issues as individual problems to be solved. In fact, it’s a system in the painful process of breaking down.”

Change Takes Everyone Working Together

We are more than capable of getting through everything that’s coming… when we feel fear and we feel loss; we are capable of quite extraordinary things… There’s certainly no economic or technical barrier in the way… the only thing we need to change is how we think and how we feel and this is where you come in… we can be more. We can be much more.

… We can choose this moment of crisis to ask and answer the big questions of society’s evolution. Like, what do we want to be when we grow up when we move past this bumbling adolescence when we think there are no limits and suffer illusions of immortality?

… We can do what we need to do but it will take… every one of us. This could be our finest hour.”

Image: “Built for collapse” by Danny Birchall on Flickr.

October 20, 2012October 19, 2012

Can Africa Continue Booming In A ‘Global Crisis Economy’?

Africa As Other ‘Emerging Markets’ Is Still In An Upward Swing, Especially Compared To The Stagnating Western Economies

An article, “Africa’s Big Boom” on the pages of Project Syndicate discusses the recent positive developments on the “forgotten continent.”

Africa is undergoing a period of unprecedented economic growth. According to The Economist, six of the ten fastest-growing countries in 2011 were in Africa. Average external debt on the continent has fallen from 63% of GDP in 2000 to 22.2% this year, while average inflation now stands at 8%, down from 15% in 2000. This positive trend is likely to persist, given that it is based on structural geographic and demographic factors, such as rising exports, improved trade conditions, and steadily increasing domestic consumption.”

Is Local Development, Continuing Growth & Progress Possible In An Otherwise Struggling Global System?

One of the biggest problems and reasons that no solution has been found for the global economic crisis is that isolated outlooks on all kinds of situations, including the economy of single nations or continents, still prevail. In other words, outlooks that do not take the full, global picture into account.

Thus, there is a lot of talk about “emerging markets,” China and India, and now also Africa, regions and continents that were either suppressed, or were dormant up until recently and that have now started to catch up to the more developed part of the world.

This, however, does not mean that the system being used, which copies the Western model, is a fruitful one. It simply means that they now have a lot of growth potential in relation to where they were before.

Looking at the global picture, however, these regions or continents have no chance of avoiding the problems the Western part of the world is already facing, since the economic paradigm, viewed from a global perspective, is based on a faulty and unsustainable foundation.

So on paper, China is still growing using its previous momentum, India is already slower, and the same goes for South America, and of course from a level at almost zero, Africa too can produce spectacular results until they hit the same wall everybody else is hitting.

The Present Socio-Economic Model Is Unnatural & Unsustainable, Regardless Of Region, Nation, Culture Or Governance Structure

Constant quantitative growth is simply impossible to maintain. It is unsustainable because it does not suit the system humanity exists in today.

Today’s world has reached a certain maturity. It is like a child who completes its “child” stage of development and moves on to becoming an adult. Now, instead of more quantitative development, a different, more mature, more qualitative kind of development has to start.

When a human being completes its growth, it happens gradually, some body parts and limbs still grow for a while, but the body in general stops growing and has to transform to a different kind of function.

This is what is happening to humanity today, it has reached a new stage of growth which requires a different kind of functioning than what the past models offer. Until people start understanding this concept, and in the meantime, continue stubbornly trying to push for further quantitative growth, they appear as if they are promoting cancer. In other words, by isolated parts of the “body of humanity” only focusing on growing themselves and not taking the benefit of the whole of humanity into account, by that they exhibit cancerous qualities that end up endangering other parts of humanity, and ultimately also themselves, as a result.

A Global, Interdependent Network Can Only Function Based On Global And Mutually Responsible Cooperation

At the end of the article, regional integration is suggested as being necessary for the further improvement of the economic situation in Africa:

African governments should pursue intra-regional trade liberalization, institutional integration, and infrastructure development with greater determination than ever. Their commercial enterprises need to progress in these areas in order to develop further and improve living standards for all.”

This regional integration is a positive step, but it is not enough. For development that would truly improve the living standards of all, such integration would need to extend worldwide, crossing all national and continental borders, using the already existing multi-level interconnections in a positive way.

As humanity shifts into a new globally interdependent era, new kinds of leaders and experts are needed, people who take into account the whole integrated system, who understand its laws and principles, and who can provide its citizens with the knowledge and tools to experience this global interdependence in a positive way. While isolated outlooks still prevail over global ones, the only “growth” taking place is the growth of multiple cancers, trying to take in as much as they can for themselves at the expense of the whole body, not understanding that by doing so they cause harm to other nations and ultimately, this harm also returns to themselves.

Image: “Africa in hearts” by futureatlas.com from Flickr

October 19, 2012October 20, 2012

Breaking Down The Borders Between People

To Be Alone, Or Not To Be Alone?

“The individual in his sociological aspect is not the complete organism. He who attempts to live without association with his fellows dies. Nor is the nation the complete organism. If Britain attempted to live without cooperation with other nations, half the population would starve.

The completer the cooperation, the greater the vitality; the more imperfect the cooperation, the less the vitality. Now, a body, the various parts of which are so interdependent that without coordination vitality is reduced or death ensues, must be regarded, in so far as the functions in question are concerned, not as a collection of rival organisms, but as one. This is in accord with what we know of the character of living organisms in their conflict with environment.”

If We Learn The Depths Of Our Interdependence And Embed In It The Power Of Cooperation, Could We Steer Towards A Brighter Future?

“The higher the organism, the greater the elaboration and interdependence of its part, the greater the need for coordination. If we take this as the reading of the biological law, the whole thing becomes plain; man’s irresistible drift away from conflict and towards cooperation is but the completer adaptation of the organism (man) to its environment (the planet, wild nature), resulting in a more intense vitality.

Man’s general way of thinking of the totality, i.e. his general world view, is crucial for overall order of the human mind itself. If he thinks of the totality as constituted of independent fragments, then that is how his mind will tend to operate,

but if he can include everything coherently and harmoniously in an overall whole that is undivided, unbroken and without border (for every border is a division or break), then his mind will tend to move in a similar way, and from this will flow an orderly action within the whole.”

—Sir Norman Angell

Image courtesy of Idea go, Mr Lightman & David Castillo Dominici at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

October 19, 2012October 18, 2012

What Kind Of World Do We Market To Our Youth?

This is a lot more then about selling products and services. This is about the direction we are going as a culture, as a society, and as human beings.”

Many practitioners of the social sciences have performed extensive research today, which concludes the powerful influences from our surrounding environments and its affects on our choices, feelings, thoughts and behavioral patterns. One of our major sources of influence comes from digital media technology which surrounds us 24/7. Our youth generation eat, drink, play, go to sleep and wake up with it. As a matter of fact today, children and teens are the number one demographic target for spending on the latest manipulative marketing techniques.

We need in a proactive forward looking way, as a society, need to say… ‘How is this changing us? How is this changing our environment? How is this changing our society? And do we want this?'”

Consuming Kids: The Commercialization Of Childhood [Trailer]

We need to look at this as a systematic problem, as a a social cultural problem and say we need to protect children from corporate marketing… What does this mean for our well-being? For their well-being?”

We have become a country that places a lower priority on our children’s emotional, cognitive, social, even spiritual development, then it does on training them to be consumers.This is a lot more than about selling products and services. This is about the direction we are going as a culture, as a society, and as human beings.”

October 19, 2012October 18, 2012

How To Deal With Tax Evasions

Singapore, A Tax Haven, A Refuge For Tax Evaders, Started Taking Steps In Tightening Regulations

The article “Singapore: Full disclosure” in The Economist describes how Singapore is introducing tougher measures trying to combat tax evasion in line with the worsening financial crisis in the Western world.

From July 2013 financial institutions will be legally obliged to alert authorities to any overseas customer who they suspect of bringing in funds to evade taxes at home, just as they are expected to report on other offences. Equally, the authorities have been sending out stern circulars to all the banks warning them to monitor their customers better, follow the existing guidelines more closely and generally get their houses in order.

The flurry of activity is partially a consequence of the debt crisis in Europe and America. Cash-strapped governments have been ramping up tax-collection efforts. Inevitably, attention has therefore turned towards those countries perceived to be offshore havens. Just as Switzerland has become a target for European tax authorities, so has Singapore.”

People Need Either A Negative Or Positive Motivation For Change

The key to solving these problems is motivation.

As long as the solution is forceful, there will always be people who will find another way, tax evasion, offshore accounts, one trick to the next, and there will always be people, organizations and nations helping them since it is in their best interest.

Firstly, today’s global society will have to find a way of educating its citizens, aiming to lead them to the understanding that by cheating, by harming the system, they actually harm themselves.

Today there is enough actual field data and scientific knowledge showing clearly that humanity has become a single, interwoven network, and when someone “bites the network,” causes harm, the same person actually bites into his own flesh.

However, the majority today still only focus on short term self-centered benefits, not understanding that in the view of today’s big picture, the prosperity and health of the individual is fully and directly dependent on the prosperity and health of the whole system.

The Process May Start With Negative Motivations & Restrictions, But For Long Term Sustainable Results, Only Positive Motivation Built On Understanding Can Work

The steps Singapore is making is already a positive example in how a changing environment can lead others to change their practices, since otherwise they could be facing sanctions and exclusions, with the other obvious example being the embargo against Iran. But these are still restrictive, negative motivational tactics. The optimal way would be when the same “rogue” states or individuals change their practices to ones where they understand that it is their best interest to fall in line with others, mutually cooperating with everyone.

Image “Fishing nets” by Jack Newton from Flickr

October 18, 2012October 19, 2012

2 Roads To A Different World

People Are Running Out Of Options How To Save, Maintain The Integrity Of The Eurozone

Ashoka Mody, a visiting Professor of International Economic Affairs at Princeton University writes about the narrowing options for the Eurozone in his article, “The Eurozone’s Narrowing Window.”

Thus, the eurozone faces three choices: even more austerity for the heavily-indebted countries, socialization of the debt across Europe, or a creative re-profiling of debt, with investors forced to accept losses sooner or later.

Austerity alone cannot do it. Some countries face the growing risk of near-perpetual belt-tightening, which would further dampen growth and thus keep debt ratios high…

…More ambitious pan-European efforts are embodied in various Eurobond proposals. These schemes imply socialization of debt – taxpayers elsewhere in Europe would share a country’s debt burden. These proposals, once in great vogue, have receded. Not surprisingly, the political opposition to such debt mutualization was intense.

Given that perpetual austerity is untenable and others in Europe can only do so much, without robust growth the options will narrow quickly. As a result, much now hangs on the ECB’s actions – and how long they will be sufficient to maintain a truce with financial markets…”

It Seems, As It Happened So Far In Human History, Humanity Will Only Make The Necessary Next Step In Development When The Present System Collapses, When The Present State Becomes Intolerable

While based on the article’s argument that the window is narrowing, and that European countries as well as the whole global economy are gradually running out of options, this narrowing and eventually closing window still leads to solution, to the next stage of development.

It seems that all the windows have to close, people have to try and fail in everything they presently know and want to use, before a fundamental change in understanding emerges: that the whole system needs to change at its foundations.

As long as people still seemingly have other options and other solutions, which they think they haven’t tried yet, yet another bailout, yet another kind of austerity, some more “easing” or “injection” they will continue their futile attempts until they become so desperate, falling on their knees, that there will be no other option but to change the only thing that can change: the human being, one’s attitude toward the world, one’s lifestyle, one’s grabbing of everything for oneself, expansively growing where it is impossible to grow, exploiting everything like a cancer until the whole human system and the environment is on the brink of “death.”

This is the story of human evolution, history so far, where for every next step, a leap was made when the present actual state became intolerable. Then came a revolution, a war or some other violent change, pushing humanity to the next level.

So as things stand today people have to wait until the whole system collapses after the futile “stimulus vs. austerity” attempts dry everything out, countries break away from each other or break apart themselves … leading to unpredictable and scary scenarios in a long, crisis filled transitional period. And then a new, better, sustainable system would be built on the ruins of this one.

The Other, More Pleasant Option Would Be The Understanding Of The Root Causes Leading To The Present Crisis, And The Subsequent Adaptation To The New Evolutionary Conditions Around

Of course, there could be another way, if humanity finally started understanding through the daily examples of the crisis and the countless scientific publications coming out each day that humanity evolved into an unprecedented new state, in a global, totally interconnected network with each other, within the closed, finite natural environment, where only a completely new, mutual and equal human socio-economic system, based on necessity and available resources could prosper.

With each day there is less time to choose the better option.

Image: “desperation” by Eleni Papaioannou from Flickr

October 18, 2012October 18, 2012

Trying To Push A Cube Through A Circular Hole

Politicians Are Desperately Helpless In Tackling The Issues Of The Deepening Crisis

Hugo Dixon, the founder and editor of Reuters Breaking Views writes in his article, “Spanish circle getting hard to square“:

The art of politics is about squaring circles. In the euro crisis, this means pushing ahead with painful but necessary reforms while hanging onto power.

In Spain, where I spent part of last week, these circles are getting harder to square. Mariano Rajoy isn’t at any immediate risk of losing power. His 10-month old government has also taken important steps to reform the economy – cleaning up banks, liberalizing the labor market and reining in government spending.

But the recession is deepening, the prime minister is a poor communicator and his political capital has plummeted. Madrid will also find it harder than thought to access help from its euro zone partners…”

Humanity Is Trying To Push On With A Fragmented Worldview In A Rounded World

The example of squaring circles is a fitting one, and it is even more fitting turned around.

The problem with Spain, Europe and in fact with the whole global economy and political leadership is that everybody tries to push a square through circle, or more precisely try to push on, force a polarized, fragmented and isolationist mindset and behavior in a world that has become round, global, that has evolved into a totally interwoven and interdependent network.

All the present tools and even Nobel Prize winning ideas are based on the “old” square reality, and they do not work in the new round, circular reality. Not only are they useless; they are self destructive.

On top of that the main engine, the constant quantitative growth economic model has also become obsolete, exhausted and unsustainable, the fact of which is proven each day by the daily vents of the crisis, and more and more scientific studies.

Fundamentally New Tools & Methods Adapted To The New, Global Interconnected Reality Can Serve As Basis For The Crisis’ Solution

There is a need for fundamentally new political and economic theories and practice, basically there is a need for a total operating software reinstallation, a new socio-economic system adapted to the new “hardware,” the closed and finite and at the same time global, integrated reality humanity today exists in.

Image: “Day 279. Cube on circle” by Alf Storm on Flickr

October 18, 2012October 15, 2012