Jonathan Rowson on Ten Flavours of Meta-crisis

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= Essay: Tasting the Pickle: Ten flavours of meta-crisis and the appetite for a new civilisation, by Jonathan Rowson Feb 9th, 2021

URL = https://systems-souls-society.com/tasting-the-pickle-ten-flavours-of-meta-crisis-and-the-appetite-for-a-new-civilisation/

Excerpts

"Whatever the precise model or terminology, it seems clear that the desirable destination is less like a new place and more like a renewing and regenerative process that will include several features:

  • A relatively balanced picture of self in society, free from the alienation of excessive individualism and the coercion of collectivism, with autonomy grounded in commons resources and ecological interdependence.
  • A more refined perception of the nature of the world, in which discrete things are seen for what they have always been – evolving processes.
  • A dynamic appreciation of our minds, which are not blank slates that magically become ‘rational’ but constantly evolving living systems that are embodied, encultured, extended and deep.
  • An experience of ‘society’ that is not merely given, but willingly received or co-constructed through the interplay of evolving imaginative capacity.
  • A perspective on the purpose of life that is less about status through material success and more about the intrinsic rewards of learning, beauty and meaning.
  • An understanding of our relationship with nature that is less about extraction of resources for short-term profit and more about wise ecological stewardship (some would add, for the benefit of all beings).
  • Patterns of governance that are less about power being centralised, corrupt and unaccountable and more ‘glocal’, polycentric, transparent and responsive.
  • A relationship to technology in which we are not beholden to addictive gadgets and platforms but truly sovereign over our behaviour, and properly compensated for the use of our data. (And where, in Frankfurt’s terms, we ‘want what we want to want’.)
  • An economy designed not to create aggregate profit for the richest, but the requisite health and education required for everyone to live meaningful lives free of coercion on an ecologically sound planet.
  • A world with a rebalancing of power and resources from developed to developing worlds, and men to women, and present to future generations."

Jonathan Rowson

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