The so-called civilized world (probably since the institution of empire cities were created some 5-6 millennia ago) have been dominated by an economic paradigm that serves the wealthy at the expense of the common person. The brilliant economist and thinker John Kenneth Galbraith describes this nicely with his four quotes Read more…
“The way we see the world shapes the way we treat it. If a mountain is a deity, not a pile of ore; if a river is one of the veins of the land, not potential irrigation water; if a forest is a sacred grove, not timber; if other species Read more…
Revolutions are never the act of any single person. They are the consequence of groups of people with a like mind who usually have discussed in-depth the problems and options for change. Most of the time in the past it was often a violent sequence of events to overthrow a Read more…
“If future generations are to remember us with gratitude rather than contempt, we must leave them more than the miracles of technology. We must leave them a glimpse of the world as it was in the beginning, not just after we got through with it” US President Lyndon Johnson, 1964, Read more…
In this modern world of social media, everyone is bombarded with memes, the most powerful of which (both good and bad) quickly go viral because of the triggering narrative that sparks the mind (see earlier posts 1 & 2 for more explanation). Memes are important aspects of how we communicate. Read more…
As we move into a new sustainable world, it is important to note that it will be a new kind of society, one that will be defined by greater interaction and connected community, even as everyone will be sovereign and authentically self-actualized. If everyone is going to be living their Read more…
I do not believe that we can be a Global Sustainable Society without living in a way that resolves conflict in a peaceful way. That literally means that violence in all its forms, intrapersonally, interpersonally, interculuturally, against women, and against the natural world has to become obsolete. Conflict is inherent Read more…
The one thing that most people are noticing during these challenging times is how change is coming. Yet, most people are fearful of large changes, since the unknown is a fearful place for so many and the illusion of the status quo seems more comforting. It’s the reason so many Read more…
Worldviews can sometimes be moderately compatible, as in the case of material consumerism and conservationism, but preservation had to be enforced through legal means through the 1900s, and the more so as a newer worldview came on the tails of a populist movement in the 1960s – Environmentalism. Both Preservationism Read more…
“I am sure that if mothers of various nations could meet, there would be no more wars” E. M. Forster. For literally decades now (and especially since I published my Sustainable Living Text in 2012) I have promoted a positive vision for a new and better future for humanity and Read more…
“Communities and countries and ultimately the world are only as strong as the health of their women” Michelle Obama. When it comes to medical and drug research and treatment, it might not surprise you to know that women yet again get the short end of the stick compared to men. Read more…
“Her … food, clothing, ornaments, amusements, luxuries [all] bear no relation to her power to produce wealth, to her services in the house, or to her motherhood” Charlotte Perkins Gilman. My mother (born in 1926) was a powerful personality trapped in a world not of her choosing. This has made Read more…
“The word ‘female,’ when inserted in front of something, is always with a note of surprise. Female COO, female pilot, female surgeon — as if the gender implies surprise … One day there won’t be female leaders. There will just be leaders” Tracy Chou. In the film ‘My Fair Lady’ Read more…
An aspect of the Sustainability Revolution I have rarely seen, except for the idea that we are becoming more androgenous is the notion of femininity. Today’s discussion will be one that all women will recognize completely and that most men will have been unaware, except when hearing complaints from their Read more…
In the last post I discussed the problems of getting past the ‘Coulomb’ Barrier to achieve fusion in which the heat released can be used to generate electricity (steam turbines). Considering the extreme energetic effort needed to reproduce the internal thermonuclear conditions at the core of a star (extreme heat Read more…
I had an email from a reader that in my last post about energy generation I had omitted Fusion energy, which they believed was a major energy solution technology. So, this week’s post is a more-geeky insight in to the problems of energy generation in the post fossil fuel era. Read more…
Technology is always a double-edged sword that can benefit us but can also have severe consequences when used inappropriately without wisdom. We have reached that time when moving blindly forward with uncritical thinking and unquestioning hubris about long-term consequences of technological innovations are swiftly coming back to haunt us all. Read more…
During the 2020 lockdowns, the phenomenon of ‘scientism’ was notable. I have talked about this a lot in the blog, but it is worth revisiting yet again because as we move into a more technological future, such as with Artificial Intelligence (AI) and energy transitioning, it is critical for us Read more…
“We are drowning in information, while starving for wisdom (and). The world henceforth will be run by synthesizers, people able to put together the right information at the right time, think critically about it, and make important choices wisely.” E.O. Wilson. A term I use a lot with specific purpose within this Read more…
Everything at this time is in a transformative phase of transition. Our economic system is also in transition from a failing casino capitalism to a new economic system. While I can outline what it could eventually look like, the very fact that it is in transition means it is full Read more…
“You are not here merely to make a living. You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand” Woodrow Wilson. Read more…
Before I talk about preparing for the sustainable transition, a friend commented that even though John Lennon asks us to imagine a world where we are not ruled by possessions, Klaus Schwab says that we will have no possessions and be happy. OK, the big difference. Lennon is talking about Read more…
“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and freedom” Viktor Frankel. If we are to thrive in the new world coming, we need two major things to change. One is to move Read more…
In the last post I quoted a passage by Bennett Sherry of the OER Project. Go back and reread that passage. Despite numerous efforts to force international agreements on human rights, none have worked. Now ask yourself why? I don’t think it is a problem of the human collective. No, Read more…
I ended the last post with an except by Walter Lippman on the absurdity and insanity of war, and in this case, WWI. Now did the common people really have any specific buy-in to the Austro-Hungarian Arch-Duke who was assassinated, in recently annexed Serbia, at the end of June 1914. Read more…
As I observe what is going on around the world, with large-scale protests and civic disobedience, the unrest, which is poorly covered by the mainstream media, is ushering in a change. What seems clear is that 2024 promises to be an interesting shitstorm of that change. I don’t foresee it Read more…
I have talked about Standard of Living (SOL) and Quality of Life (QOL) a lot in this blog (e.g., Centralized versus Decentralized Living 2 – Economic Considerations (Nov 2019} (click on the ‘Quality of Life’ at the bottom of this linked post tag as a search term for other similar Read more…
“Being engaged in some way for the good of the community, whatever that community, is a factor in a meaningful life. We long to belong, and belonging and caring anchors our sense of place in the universe” Patricia Churchland For many people, there is a cultural sense of place that Read more…
“What you’re doing now, or have done in the past, need not determine what you can do next and in the future” Ken Robinson. I spent the last few posts discussing a probable history of our modern destructive ‘Taker’ worldview. I’ve had people come up and shake their heads after Read more…
First, since globally we use the Gregorian civil calendar (despite many other types of calendars used locally around the world) a Happy New Year to all my readers. Secondly, my worldviews commentary was sidetracked for a few weeks with my Ishmael discussion to frame our modern problems from a historic Read more…