Evolve

William Spencer

Description

Should a species smart enough to foresee its own demise be able to consciously evolve in order to overcome threats to its existence? Evolve reveals the nexus of evolutionary biology, sustainability and peace on the journey to PACEM 2050.
There is a Burning Platform threating our species. Although our species is extremely good at cooperation, social polarization is preventing our citizenry from being in adequate alignment to adopt the necessary public policy to mitigate future ecological disaster. There are only three scenarios going forward: extinction; eusocial evolution, or a long-term cultural intervention to overcome our current lack of conceptual understanding, lack of social empathy, and lack of decision making to implement the solutions needed to mitigate catastrophe.
No single government action, no corporate solutions or temporary changes in citizen behavior will resolve the challenges we face. The problems are interconnected and the path to find solutions represents the solution itself. A principle of evolution, and of social change, is that only the system can change the system.
PACEM 2050 is the uncharacteristic social change strategy that changes the structure of how we share the realities of sustainability, social polarization, and approaching ecological tipping points.

Sujets

• Vie de famille
• Relations familiales
• Public Policy
• Political Science
• Conflict resolution

Informations

• Publié par: Balboa Press
• Date de parution: 30 juillet 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9798765242131
• Langue: English

Extrait

Evolve
The Journey to PACEM 2050
 
How we got to where we are; How to mitigate disasters ahead
 
 
 
William Spencer
 
 
 
 
 
Copyright © 2023 William Spencer.
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
 
 
Balboa Press
A Division of Hay House
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403
www.balboapress.com
844-682-1282
 
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
 
The author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for emotional and spiritual well- being. In the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, which is your constitutional right, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
 
 
Dedication quote from Kenneth E Boulding, Stable Peace, Austin: University of Texas Press, 1978.
 
Author photo by Barbi Reed
 
ISBN: 979-8-7652-4212-4 (sc)
ISBN: 979-8-7652-4214-8 (hc)
ISBN: 979-8-7652-4213-1 (e)
 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2023908770
 
Balboa Press rev. date: 07/28/2023
PRAISE FOR EVOLVE
“There is no more urgent and important issue in the world than the intertwined challenge of peace and sustainability. Humanity is approaching a precipice, but we can still turn aside and climb the mountain instead. In this wonderfully visionary and well thought out call to action, the wisdom of Will Spencer shows us a clear path forward in PACEM 2050. May we tap into our full potential to EVOLVE!”
William Ury, PhD
Harvard Negotiation Project
Co-author Getting to Yes , and author The Third Side
“At a moment in history when climate panic and despair shriek off the editorial pages, it’s a relief to find a calm, scientifically informed narrative that is both hopeful and practical. Will Spencer has earned the right to be taken seriously when he says large scale change is possible. He has a four-decade track record of making hard things happen, including the creation of the US Institute of Peace.
Evolve is a bold prescription for another large-scale intervention that shows us a way back from the abyss. Its method is collaboration. Its expression is empathy. Its substance crosses three science-based disciplines. Evolve is a sophisticated blueprint drawn for us by a resilient social change agent. It’s an urgent call for social engagement, appealing to our better angels as responsible citizens of a democracy and as Homo sapiens opting for survival of the species.”
Thomas J Rice, PhD
Former Professor of Sociology at Georgetown University
Co-founder of the Interaction Institute for Social Change
“You might not realize that you’re on a Burning Platform, but you are. Bad news? Indeed! But there is also good news: although we can’t get off the Platform, Will Spencer shows that we can put out the fire. Moreover, there is much in our evolved biology that can enable us to do it. As Smokey Bear famously points out “Only You…” And this book makes clear, you won’t be alone in this essential struggle.”
David P Barash, PhD
Professor of Psychology and Zoology emeritus
University of Washington
Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science
“Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science.”
Charles Darwin
The Descent of Man
1871

 
 
 
Evolve
The Journey to PACEM 2050
 
 
 
 
 
 
William Spencer
Dedicated to Kenneth and Elise Boulding
“The problem of peace policy is seen not as how to achieve immediate and certain success, but as how to introduce a bias into the system that moves it toward stable peace at a more rapid rate.”
Kenneth Boulding
CONTENTS
Preface – Peace As A Progenitor Of Sustainability
Introduction – Sustainability Dominoes
Chapter 1 – Fruit Flies And Smokey Bear
Chapter 2 – A Moment of Dreadful Suspense
Chapter 3 – Darwin’s Dominoes
Chapter 4 – Philosophy of Evolution
Chapter 5 – Urgency of the Burning Platform
Chapter 6 – Peace Gene
Chapter 7 – Protecting the Earth Hive
Chapter 8 – Sacred Cows and Empathy Blockers
Chapter 9 – Conscious Evolution
Chapter 10 – Meaning, Identity, and Structure
Chapter 11 – Selling Peace
Chapter 12 – To Make Peace Possible – Imagining Roadmaps
Chapter 13 – To Make Peace Probable – Adapting Structures
Chapter 14 – To Make Peace Popular – Marketing Empathy
Chapter 15 – To Make Peace Profitable – Revisioning Economies
Chapter 16 – To Make Peace a Principle – Creating Bias
Chapter 17 – PACEM 2050
Diagrams and Insights for Conscious Social Evolution
Endnotes
Acknowledgements
Glossary of Precepts and Principles in Evolutionary Biology
Further Reading and Study / Questions for Discussion
References
About the Author
PREFACE
PEACE AS A PROGENITOR OF SUSTAINABILITY
 
The activist is not the man who
says the river is dirty. The activist
is the man who cleans up the river.
Ross Perot
S hould a species smart enough to foresee its own demise be able to consciously evolve in order to overcome threats to its existence? Our instinct to evolve is not just part of our DNA but assumes a cloak of personal responsibility for the collective outcome. Those who fail to see a way to sustainability, also lack a sense of peace as the core design of our evolutionary process. Cooperation within our species is what has driven our capacity to flourish. It is at the heart of our evolutionary progression and success.
Taken together, these are indeed big concepts and notions, but humanity now faces our biggest dilemma. Human development and learning require both theory and policy to sustain it, much as a river requires water to flow or raised banks to define it. A defining moment for our species is upon us: how will American culture adapt to accelerate the diffusion of concepts and frameworks in order to advance peace and sustainability? This extraordinary need collides with the ordinary compliance of most Americans to protect our lifestyles and cultural norms.
This book addresses two of the most important challenges of our time: social polarization and sustainability. It describes the next phase of human evolution where strategic cultural change is necessary to become more sustainable, and implicitly develop renewed empathy for our natural world, and the needs and interests of diverse communities. This realization calls on our species to become more cooperative than we have ever been. One path forward in this journey is a long-term social change process called PACEM 2050, designed to facilitate our species to adapt to the ecological and social threats we face. The moment in which we find ourselves is the nexus of evolutionary biology, sustainability and peace.
Scientists tend not to be dramatic. But these days scientists are increasingly using words and phrases in their studies and reports like: unprecedented, frightening, dramatic, immense danger, emergency measures, unsustainable, urgency of the crisis, or without a coordinated rescue. There is no question that threats to our familiar lifestyles, even the survival of our species, are on our minds. Cognitively, we know we are headed toward an ecological cliff; prescriptively we either argue or just feel stuck. This is a story of a communal path offering co-learning, hope and a defined direction. It is the way we evolve. It is a social change process familiar to our species, but foreign in current times.
America is threatened by new levels of social polarization and global ecological degradation. These current trends cannot be ignored, regardless of one’s personal political persuasions or geographic home. For nearly 250 years, our country has had its share of social conflict, but none greater than today because such disunity menaces our capacity to mitigate the environmental catastrophes we face. Clearly people want change, whether it be a return to perceptions of the way America used to be, or to heal the nation and get on with better managing the sustainably necessary in response to climate change. In the past America has been threatened by civil and foreign wars, but in this moment, the threat is not merely unrest but the imminence of ecological collapse.
Although people express their desire for America to change, seldom do they express how to affect such change. With an abundance of self-help books and seminars on how to improve our personal lives, there are few prescriptions on self-help for America as we bog down in despair about the threats of climate change and a