Yesterday I had the chance to hear Rabbi Lowenthal of London speak about leadership, paradigm shifts and modernity. He used the example of the center and the periphery to characterize the past three paradigms and clarify their differences. He said that in the Medieval Era in Europe the center was all that mattered, it was absolute and the system existed to meet its infinite desires. Meanwhile, the periphery was an undifferentiated mass that existed to serve the center and had no importance of its own. The center was the king and the serfs were the periphery.
But then came strong leadership and a wide variety of revolutions that ushered in the Modern Era where the periphery started to matter and influence the center. Democracy rose in favor, and individualism gained importance. However the Modern Era still had the differentiation between the periphery and the center. While the center now existed to help the periphery improve and to satisfy the peripheries infinitely increasing desires, the element of center and periphery still existed.
He then explained how we have entered the globalized, Post-Modern Era where each individual in the periphery is in themselves a center of infinite importance and value to the system. An era where the desires of all are something to strive to meet and respect for all humanity should theoretically be paramount.
He made this point to explain how we are entering a new age of enlightenment and empathy, but there was something fundamentally flawed in his prediction of the future that bothered me. In his explanation, we can keep growing and growing to satisfy every need and every want that exists and will exist. This simply cannot happen. The world is finite, although much of it is replenishable. No system can function based on the concept of infinite growth. There are natural limits. We can advance technology, but inevitably we will run out of resources if we use them in a non-sustainable manner.
I do not necessarily disagree with his statement that we will enter an age of reason, understanding and compassion. But I do think that we will enter an Era of Rationalism. We will enter an era where the truth that the world is finite will be an integral part of our system and being. An era where rational management of finite but renewable resources will be the norm and we will seek balance with the limitations of nature that we cannot overcome. We will still improve technology and increase resource availability on the margins, but fundamentally we will accept the fact that the world is finite and some things cannot be done.
The rabbi said that leadership is what shifts paradigms and I mostly agree. However this new paradigm will be forced upon us as we consume our way through the Earth's resources. We will inevitably realize that there was a limit to our growth, a limit to satisfying our constructed needs, but leadership will determine if we realize that when the plate is empty or if we realize it in time to achieve the necessary balance.
I believe that that quest for balance and internalizing the fact that we do face limitations will be the great challenge of our generation. Future leaders will be responsible for managing, rather than forcing, the inevitable shift in paradigms so that we can be ready when the time comes. It is up to us to prepare ourselves and our communities for this change.
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Reposted on http://what-rocks.com/
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