We need to make big changes but time is short
History is really evolution in action. We live in a nested society consisting of communities of many types: families, schools, states, religions and so on. All these communities compete, co-operate or co-exist with each other within society as a whole. Human progress has been driven by individuals and communities striving for success in an evolutionary process. Those communities that thrive, propagate their technologies, skills, organisational systems, knowledge and culture. Only those communities with the best meme sets will succeed, the unique habits, language and mores of failed communities fall into disuse.
The development of technology has always been an agent of change. Three groups of technologies in the past: the Neolithic Revolution, the Writing Revolution, and the Industrial Revolution, have caused paradigm shifts in the nature of human society. At each stage wholly new types of communities were created, each of which operated in increasingly large and complex society structures.
We are now at the start of a fourth paradigm shift: the Information Revolution. We have created a globally interactive society communicating instantly with each other over the internet. As ideas and information can be exchanged in a matter of seconds, evolution is acting faster than ever. We can actually see evolution happening in our lifetime; it’s changing lifestyles, altering our culture and affecting the environment. Currently we are being bowled along by (natural) competitive instincts to create a divided society that is destroying the planet. Only by understanding these forces and co-operating to find ways of mitigating their effects can we create a better world for our children.
In this new and rapidly changing world there are four effects of evolution that we are already seeing:
- Technological change is continuing to transform all aspects of human life: work, culture, war, and the way we interact.
- World population is still growing rapidly, but principally in the Southern Hemisphere. The Northern Hemisphere will have the contrary problem of an aging population, provided that immigration levels from the South are restricted.
- The environment is deteriorating at such a rate that it is threatening the lifestyle of future generations
- New class divisions in society are emerging. A new international super-rich aristocracy is being created which holds its money offshore avoiding tax. At the same time in the West the loss of manufacturing has resulted in the demise of the old working class, organised by trade-unions. It is partially being replaced by a highly stressed labour force working on zero hours contracts, self-employed in the gig economy.
None of this is new. We all know this is happening and yet what are we doing about it. We and our politicians remain resolutely short sided. Most of us are too concerned with day-to-day existence to look into the future and make cogent plans for confronting the coming problems.
Humans are clever; by choosing the way we act, compete and co-operate with each other we have the ability to alter the direction of evolution and avoid its deleterious effects. There are three changes in particular that need to be made:
- We need to improve our systems of democratic government. Their modus operandi has proved to slow to anticipate and mitigate the rate of evolutionary change. All governments have been characterised by short-term thinking with a lack of expertise at their heart. Only by proving that electing one’s leaders is a better governing process than one-man rule can we reverse the current trend towards autocracy.
- We need to improve our systems of economic management. Economic growth alone, as measured by GDP, is no longer adequate to avoid the problems in hand. In particular the problems of environmental degradation and increasing class division need to be urgently addressed
- We need to co-operate internationally on the basis of a common understanding of the direction of change, and an appeal to common humanity. Great strides were made after the Second World War in establishing the organisations that supported international co-operation. In addition, the International Declaration of Human Rights formed the basis of a common morality. These are now being challenged by an increasing trend towards nationalist thinking. Co-operation for the good of all is much easier if we can find a common purpose and reject tribal divisions.
These 3 aspirations form the basis of the eco-humanity programme. They can be characterised as improved democratic systems supported by better economic management with a desire to operate for the good of all.
We are at the start of an evolutionary period, when global wealth will not advance, life expectancy will deteriorate and humanitarian crises will proliferate. As we cope with the coming emergencies, we have big decisions ahead about the type of society we want to become. We need to make big changes, but time is short.
References:
Compete or Co-operate – the evolutionary choice that will determine our future