A Future World Vision

One of the interesting aspects of this informative and wide-ranging book is its historical perspective on reform, going back to French revolution and dividing the time since then into 43 year periods where one becomes aware of the reforming timeline and the major political advances that have been made since that time. Unfortunately, these seem to have gone into reverse over the last 15 years with the war on terror encouraging us to trade in our freedom for a somewhat illusory security so that the existing war machine economy can be perpetuated. The six central concerns of this book are freedom, education, reform, technology, humanism and world government, though not through the New World Order. Our communication systems give us a means of reinventing democracy, which is already happening through widespread online petitions. An important underlying theme is the author's encouragement to shift from becoming to being. In this respect he identifies six principle considerations connected with responsibility at every level, proper education, consideration of the consequences of technical innovation and recognition of the need for genuine reform. The author makes many constructive suggestions in the course of discussing the major issues facing humanity today, including resources, world population and the need for coordinated governance. The real issue seems to me that we know what best to do but not how to bring it about, as these actions will certainly not be taken by our elected representatives. However, it would be a start if more people were aware of what is really going on and the ways in which we are manipulated by those in authority and the press. Richard provides a useful handbook, and the next step is to work out in more detail how this new vision can be implemented and what role we as individuals can take.