Is a World that Works for Everyone Possible?
Humanity is standing at a fork in the road. One direction leads to almost universal impoverishment within the next couple of decades, and the other to universal peace, prosperity and fulfillment beyond anything that has yet been seen on earth.
The era of fossil fuel driven technology is drawing to a close, and will be effectively over by the year 2050 at the very latest. Most of the “green energy solutions” that are being discussed are unrealistic. Millions of us were aware of this over 50 years ago, during the 1970’s. Many of us thought that these obvious facts would drive human societies to take rational steps to make a smooth transition to a genuinely sustainable and regenerative way of life. As time went by, without any serious progress towards these goals, it slowly dawned on us that those holding the real reins of power in this world were not interested in any of that. This remains a mystery to me why they could not be concerned by these prospects. Clearly they must be in the grip of an obsession with their own short-term egocentric goals of ever-increasing accumulation of wealth and power.
As an engineer, I’m excited by the prospect of developing appropriate technology to capture the abundant energy streaming from the sun to raise the dispossessed peoples of this world out of poverty and into a life of prosperity, freedom and fulfillment. I’m excited to speculate how the industrialised regions of the world could make the transition from the brutally inefficient, wasteful and unjust systems to harmonious processes that conserve the benefits we enjoy, and enable them to continue to be provided for countless generations to come.
As one who worked in the world of Finance many years ago, and has watched its progressive deterioration year by year, I’m interested in speculating how we could create a system of trade that would serve humanity equitably and ethically.
None of this will come to pass without a radical reorientation of our understanding of who we truly are, and our relationship to each other and the wider universe.
As the great historian Arnold Toynbee wrote: “This awakening to a sense of unity broadens and deepens as the vision expands from the unity of Humankind, through the unity of the cosmos, to the unity of a spiritual presence within and beyond both Humanity and the whole of the Universe.”
If enough people have a clear vision of a possible and inspiring Future, then it will come to pass. How many is “enough”. I have no idea. The reason I produce these messages is that they are my puny contribution to making that future a little more likely.
If you are interested in exploring the space of Possible Futures, and being a part of this conversation for creating a Workable World, I invite you to join our community. There will be three levels of membership: Explorer, Navigator and Captain. The Explorer level is free of charge, and will provide you with notice of all of our events and access to our online discussion forum. Register here, and I’ll also send you a free PDF copy of ‘The Letter from 2100‘ (You’ll receive a confirmation email which directs you to the download page).
A few days ago, I awoke to find that the light of the full moon lit up the landscape with a startling silvery clarity. Then – as the mood fell behind the hills to the West, and the sun had yet to appear above the Eastern skyline, an intense blackness descended to obliterate the view. I was reminded of an aphorism that was bandied about in the early 1970s:
“It is the darkest hour before the dawn.”
Many of us were sure that the world had got as crazy as it could possibly get, and sure that we were at a Turning Point towards better times. How wrong we were! We would not have believed it possible for Humanity to have 50 years of descending relentlessly further into the depths of insanity! But now, we really have arrived at the fork in the road. If we don’t see a turning of the tide in the next year or two, it may well be too late to grasp the opportunity.
The Past is a collection of stories about memories of events that happened.
The Future is an infinite space of Possibilities.
Many people look around at the chaotic and dysfunctional state of Human Society and dwell in the dystopian regions in that infinite space of Future Possibilities.
Just as the Captain of a ship or aircraft departs with a clear choice of their intended destination, so we can choose our own intended future circumstances from all the Possibilities in that infinite space. That in itself does not of course guarantee a safe arrival. But travelling through life without clearly chosen destinations will reduce us to the state of a rudderless ship drifting aimlessly at the mercy of the winds and tides. Or worse yet, we may hand over our destiny to the deranged egoists who have appointed themselves as our Masters, and who have brought us to the edge of the Abyss. As so memorably expressed by John Lennon – “The World is run by insane people for insane purposes”.
This applies whether the Futures we create are for our own individual lives, for our families and communities, for our nation, or for the Global Commonwealth of All Humanity. It is of course essential that the Future we choose to create is “grounded” in reality: that it is not a mere fantasy or pipe-dream.
One such Future is described in outline in my book ‘The Letter from 2100’, which also looks back to the times we are passing through now and the journey we have travelled to reach this point.
I recently had an online conversation about the ideas in the book, and you can watch the recording of it here.
And, I’m holding another free online session to discuss these ideas on Sunday, 22nd October at 8pm GMT:
After registering, you will receive instructions for joining the call. Come prepared to ask questions or contribute your comments if you so choose. And please join a few minutes before 8pm, as we will be starting promptly on the hour.