W2 module 4

© 2012 Giordano Bruno GlobalShift University

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WORLD 2

A Critical Assessment of the Current Human Predicament

MODULE 4The Impact of Dominant Worldviews on

Global Diversity, Social Structures and Systems


• Is there a level of continued material growth that is sustainable at the planetary level – and if so, for whom?

• What makes world peace and collaboration difficult to implement at this time?

• What needs to change at the individual, local, and global levels?

Focus Questions


LEARNING UNIT 1Consequences of the Quantitative Growth Model

LEARNING UNIT 2 Economic, Political and Religious Obstacles to Global Peace and Collaboration LEARNING UNIT 3 Putting the Current Civilization on Trial from an Holistic Perspective and Pointing to Potential Transformation


LEARNING UNIT 1Consequences of the Quantitative Growth Model


The Resumption of Economic Growth — Considered a Necessity by Contemporary Western Leaders

“Get down to Disney World in Florida… Take your families and enjoy life, the way we want it to be enjoyed” – President George W. Bush, after September 11, 2001

“A failure of either Europe or the US to return to robust growth would be bad for the global economy” — Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Laureate, July 2011

“We need to jumpstart economic growth” — President Barack Obama, October 2011

“Growth is a priority to get us out of the crisis” — Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel, January 2012


How Much is Enough?


Source: Avastone Consulting, http://www.avastoneconsulting.com

We Can’t Reconcile Three “E” Megatrends

EconomyMust Grow

EnergyCan’t Grow

EnvironmentIs Being Depleted


Era of Extraordinary Change

Source: "A Crash Course" by Chris Martenson, http://www.chrismartenson.com

© 2012 Giordano Bruno GlobalShift University 10

Hypertrophy of the Economic Sphere

Cultural sphere

(education, arts, media,

family)

Politicalsphere

BiosphereGeosphereEconomic

sphere

Source: Alain Gauthier, http://www.coreleadership.com


Managing Without Growth in Developed Countries

Image: - Dusk Dining - by *factorone33 on deviantARTSource: http://factorone33.deviantart.com/art/Dusk-Dining-24770967


Growth Should not be Confused with Development or Evolution

• Growth: an increase in size or quantity

• Development: an amelioration of conditions or quality

• Evolution: a tendency toward greater structural complexity and organizational simplicity, more efficient modes of operation, and greater dynamic harmony

Source: Growth, Development and Evolution – the parameters of change in a dynamic world, Dr. Alexander Laszlo and Stefan Blachfellner


LEARNING UNIT 2Economic, Political and Religious Obstacles to Global Peace and Collaboration


What the Creators of the Global Peace Index Tell us

Image: gulfnews : Saudi analysts laud launching of World Peace AwardSource: http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/saudi-arabia/saudi-analysts-laud-launching-of-world-peace-award-1.891227


Fundamentalism can Take Many Forms that Stand as Obstacles to Peace and Collaboration

Image: WORLD Magazine | Illustration by Lisa Haney/SISSource: http://www.worldmag.com/articles/18744


LEARNING UNIT 3Putting the Current Civilization on Trial from an Holistic Perspective and Pointing to Potential Transformation


Poly-crises are Interrelated Facets of a Deeper, Systemic Crisis of Development

Inspired by Edgar Morin’s La Voie

Educationalill-adaptation

Financialspeculation,hyper-debt

Ecologicalthreats, pillageof the Earth

Development crisis

World hunger,pandemics

Widening gapbetween rich and poor

Economicdisparity & instability

Meaning-lessness,addictions

Ethnic and religiousconflicts

Politicalcorruptionand discredit

Erosion of solidarity

Source: Alain Gauthier, http://www.coreleadership.com


Applying the Three Principles of Holismat the Global, Local, and Individual

Levels• Systemic thinking,

sensing and being

• Integration of rational and intuitive thinking

• Embodying the patterns of nature


socially desirable culturally acceptable

psychologically nurturing economically sustainable

technologically feasible operationally viable environmentally robust

generationally sensitivecapable of continuous learning

Sustainability Criteria

SocialFinancial

Environmental

S u s t a i n a b i l i t y

Cultural

Source: Laszlo and Laszlo, Systemic Sustainability in OD Practice


What Needs to Change at Global, Local, and Individual levels?

Image: S-CAR Undergraduate Program | The School for Conflict Analysis and ResolutionSource: http://scar.gmu.edu/undergraduate

W2 module 4

News & Politics

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