Heresies: Essays on the Future of Humanity

By Richard David Hames

The world's inhabitants, a population of seven billion people and growing, are living on the hinge of history.

Arising from a set of intuitive responses to unprecedented life-conditions - prior to and following the globalization of communications and trade - dilemmas now abound that need urgent resolution.

Our prevailing attitude is to continue on the current course, doing what we are doing, or to ignore the issues, hoping they will go away.

But it is not that simple any more. The issues confronting us are dynamically complex. Orthodox problem-solving methods can actually make matters far worse. From the devastation being wreaked by climate change on the one hand and the industrial war machine on the other, to the anxiety and despair of those who simply cannot find sufficient water for their most urgent needs; and from the cancer people trafficking, to an international economy based upon compound debt; our world-system is imploding, and our species is faced with the need to approach societal design with far greater wisdom and cultural inclusion.
Tragically we are not set up for collaboration. In an age where we urgently need radical empathy and cooperation, our dominant mindset is one of competition - across all strata and sectors of society.

This book by a philosopher-activist explores a few seminal ideas: critical propositions that, while heretical today, will need to be adopted and applied by successive generations as we consciously evolve the human story over the next one thousand years.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Richard David Hames
• Release date: Feb 11, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301390700

Richard David Hames

Dr Richard David Hames is an Australian citizen, born and educated in Europe, now resident in Asia.Recently described as one of this century’s most insightful philosopher-activists, and by Forbes Asia as one of the smartest people on the planet, Richard is considered to be among the world’s most influential intellectuals and strategic knowledge designers.Richard is the Executive Director of the Centre for the Future, Executive Chairman of The Hames Group, and President of the Asian Foresight Institute. Richard works internationally as an adviser to governments and with many of the world’s most innovative and entrepreneurial business corporations. Richard has been a personal mentor to heads of state, government ministers, CEOs, company directors and entrepreneurs across Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Europe and South America and is also acknowledged within the foresight community as one of the world's most accurate futurists.A celebrated speaker and writer, Richard is the author of several best-selling books including The Management Myth; Burying the 20th Century and The Five Literacies of Global Leadership. He is currently working on three new books, Contagion; Dancing with the Future; and Arcs of Intersection & Ascent. All three are concerned with the development of a post-humanitarian cosmology and societal paradigms from advanced levels of collective consciousness.

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