According to evolutionary biologists, cooperation ultimately outcompetes competition and violence. As we confront the end of the old paradigm, we are on the cusp of realizing our intrinsic unity and interdependence.
A brief update from Daniel Pinchbeck:
Another year, and another massive super-hurricane batters the East Coast. Florida Governor Rick Scott ordered one and a half million people to evacuate their homes. “You need to leave,” he said.
My new book asks the question, How Soon is Now?, because whether we admit it or not, we can feel the truth of things: our biosphere has been pushed to its limit and has, reluctantly, started fighting back. What’s worse, like a mother protecting its young, it will do everything in its power to stave off the threat. Alas, this is the threat we – our human family – now pose to the intricately interdependent web of life surrounding us, as we eliminate more than 10% of the Earth’s remaining biodiversity every ten to fifteen years.
The outrageous prosperity of the Post-War era bred a sense of entitlement directly into the underlying genetic code of our culture. We believe our lifestyle is the most attractive and that we can consume without recourse. And yet we can see the proof all around us–whether you live on the Eastern coast of Florida today, or Haiti yesterday, or everywhere tomorrow, we will all feel the effects of the ecological mega-crisis. No amount of property or wealth will save us.
It’s only fair, since that’s precisely we’ve been doing as a society and increasingly as a global system, for 150 years. Before the industrial era, the planet’s bio-sphere was relatively stable…for 10,000 years. It was this period that allowed human society to flourish.
And now we’ve gone and ruined it.
But perhaps this is our moment to break out of the collective chain of illusions and delusions that our society, and the mass media that so obviously controls it–breeds into us. Instead of distracting us with years-long election campaigns, debased entertainment and reality hysterics, we need a media that reports science as fast, unapologetically, and clearly illustrates our need to change, now.
We need a media committed to offering solutions and spurring collective action.
How Soon is Now?
This is the question we all have to face together, because the sooner we can start realizing the urgency of this collective moment, the more quickly we can begin what I believe will be our most beautiful act as a species: Transforming our societies, our politics, our values systems, our economies, our expectations and beliefs, learning to cooperate and thrive sustainably on this fragile spinning orb. According to evolutionary biologists, cooperation ultimately outcompetes competition and violence. As we confront the end of the old paradigm, we are on the cusp of realizing our intrinsic unity and interdependence. If you agree, than I invite you to read How Soon is Now. In this book, I offer, as Russell Brand put it, “a blueprint for the future.” I’ve spent the last decades studying the dynamics of global change, while building relationships and tapping into communities that I believe can make a difference and accelerate our evolution. Although the book comes out in February, you can pre-order it here.
Filmmaker and futurist Jason Silva recently had this to say about the book:
Daniel Pinchbeck’s HOW SOON IS NOW? is a powerful exploration of our need for a massive upgrade of collective consciousness if we are to address the inconsistencies and pathologies that afflict the modern world. While we have seen massive progress, we have also seen moral failures… and our unwillingness to question preexisting dogma might cost us dearly. Daniel’s book offers a startling call to action!
Republished from Daniel Pinchbeck’s Newsletter.