Promise Ahead: A Vision of Hope and Action for Humanity's Future

Duane Elgin's book "Promise Ahead" holds out hope for humanity in these dark times, as the Bush administration continues its obstinate pursuit of global domination and exploitation. Though Elgin is fully aware of the possibility of an "evolutionary crash", he also sees the deepening crisis as leading toward an opportunity for an "evolutionary bounce". The result would be similar to the "planetary society" envisioned by John Stewart in "Evolution's Arrow". Elgin sees humanity as presently in its "adolescent" stage, with the crisis of the next generation becoming an ordeal of "initiation". To Elgin "our evolutionary challenge is to consciously retain the lessons of each era while moving on to the next". The next era, if we avoid the crash, will be marked by a "compassionate consciousness" for the "Earth and all its inhabitants". The threat of crash or collapse comes from ecological factors like resource depletion, over population, pollution, and loss of biodiversity, but also from social inequality and injustice. Elgin was well aware of Peak Oil before most people paid any attention. He also cites Jared Diamond's study of the collapse of civilization on Easter Island. This is balanced by the hope illustrated by successful experiments in sustainability like the village of Gaviotas in eastern Columbia. He sees the media as enabling the creation of a "common purpose for humanity". He has personally conducted "electronic town meetings" and proposes the distribution of "Earthvisions" to counter consumerism. Duane Elgin sees humanity becoming a "self-organizing planetary family" as it emerges from its coming trials by fire. Yet, if the book has a weakness, it is its lack of a realistic of vision of how all this might come about. For example, what specific institutional changes should we pursue and what strategies should we adopt for this pursuit? For some of us, new institutions and practices of democratic global governance are an obvious place to start, however visionary this may seem in the current political climate. Deliberative democracy, to be effective, needs knowledge of viable means, as well as of desirable ends. Elgin's crusade for "voluntary simplicity" has helped promote a new morality, which I and many others are now attempting to practice. However it has not offered an alternative global politico-economic system to the current one based on over exploitation of resources for the over consumption of the world's affluent few. I suspect, in fact, that it won't be until "voluntary simplicity" becomes "necessary simplicity" for the affluent world that this alternative system will begin to take form. If Elgin were to team up with some progressive economists for his next book, we might be better prepared.

As the title hints, this is a book filled with guarded optimism that humanity can wake-up to the devastation it's causing on Earth and that wake-up will cause a "bounce" in it's perception of reality moving towards a "paradigm shift" from the old paradigm of environmental parasitism and destruction, to a new sustainable , loving relationship with Earth and all it's myriad life forms and life-support cycles. This is a close parallel to E. O. Wilson's thoughts outlined in his engaging book, "The Future of Life", where humanity is passing through the "bottleneck" of converging circumstances- a long history of environmental destruction, out-of-control population numbers which are depleting the Earth's resources faster than can be regenerated. In both books, education and adherence to vastly more sustainable lifestyles will be the determining factor as to whether we make it past the 21st century and into the future or we will not heed the call to reform and end up going the way of the dinosaurs. "We have met the enemy and he is us"- Pogo. Now that we know, will we change our destructive ways? We have arrived at what Elgin calls "Hitting the Evolutionary Wall" (beginning of chapter 2, p.15) and "Are We Are On A Collision Course With Nature?", so it was fitting that this chapter begins with two good quotes: "What is difficult is to imagine how to get out of the situation we're in right now in a time frame that is in line with the rate of deterioration that we're seeing."- Paul Hawken ["Natural Capitalism"]. And: "If we do not change our direction, we are likely to end up where we are headed." Indeed! Ancient Chinese Proverb. Chapter 3 begins with the mechanisms for change needed for our survival and that is: "A New Perceptual Paradigm: We Live In A Living Universe", we are interconnected to all life and need to realize that we do not live in a human-only world. Our life-styles immediately effect all other life and we need to adopt a much smaller "footprint" to insure the health and safety of all life. Realizing the dynamics and requirements of life for a healthy, rewarding existence vs. "living as just not dying" can be absorbed from meditating on a quote from Teilhard de Chardin: "The whole of life lies in the verb seeing" (p. 43). We might then ad to that: "...and feeling and doing." Elgin posits that "Voluntary Simplicity" or again, reducing one's footprint and impact on the environment is the most immediate and helpful thing we can do to help lessen the load we place on Nature. Do we really need to be lead around by advertisers constantly telling us that we need this or that to be happy? Or can we learn to get by just fine by acquiring only what is necessary for a comfortable living? On that thought it helps to keep in mind, "The price of anything is the amount of life that you have to pay for it."- Henry David Thoreau (p 71). "Promise Ahead" is a beautiful collage of thoughts and parallels to Theodore Roszak's "The Voice of the Earth", Th

This is a well-written book which provides deep hope, in a realistic way, for the future of human society. Good insight into the historical development of human culture and the evolution of personal consciousness. Really puts its finger on the main developmental challenge as the personal and cultural transition from adolescence to adulthood. Read this together with another excellent book on the potential of adulthood for the planet: A Conscious Life: Cultivating The Seven Qualities of Authentic Adulthood, by Fran and Louis Cox.

What an aptly named book! In a brief 200 pages, the author delves deeply into key issues facing humanity at an important juncture in human history. The book describes where humankind is along our evolutionary path, the global environmental and social problems confronting us, and the opportunities before us for charting a better future. Be forewarned -- if you read this book, you might just find yourself overwhelmingly compelled to make changes in your life that will ripple out to others. It has the ability to transform the way you view people and the world around you. It is a must read for anyone concerned about where humanity is headed, and wants to roll up their sleeves and make a difference. Enjoy!

Humanity is at an important point in history. Duane Elgin, author of the 1993 classic, VOLUNTARY SIMPLICITY, observes in his new book that the human species is in its reckless, rebellious, "teenage years" (p. 1), more concerned with appearance, instant gratification, and "us versus them" thinking and behavior (p. 2), than searching for a deeper meaning and purpose in life (p. 5). Elgin examines several "adversity trends" that could result in an "evolutionary crash:" global warming (pp. 18-23); population growth (pp. 23-26); mass extinction (pp. 26-28); depletion of natural resources (pp. 28-32) and world poverty (pp. 32-37). "Instead of supporting a flourishing and robust biosphere," he writes, "humans are busy cutting down forests, overfishing the oceans, paving over the land, and pouring toxins into the water, soil, and air. The net result is decimation of the community of plant and animal life on the Earth. The health of the planet is in jeopardy as industrial activity is causing the mass extinction of animal and plant species" (pp. 26-27). Twenty-percent of the world's population holds 82.7 percent of the world's total income, Elgin notes, while "grinding poverty and the absence of opportunity are the way of life for the majority of human beings today" (p. 33). According to Elgin, now is the time for "growing up."To turn an "environmental crash" into a "spectacular bounce," Elgin encourages us to "live lightly in a living universe" (p. 67). "If life is nested within life, then it is only fitting that we treat everything that exists as alive and worthy of respect. Our sense of meaningful connection expands to the entire community of life, including past, present, and future generations. Every action in a living universe is felt to have ethical consequences as it reverberates throughout the ecosystem of the living cosmos. The focus of life shifts from a desire for high-consumption lifestyles (intended to provide both material pleasures and protection from an indifferent universe) toward sustainable and simple ways of living (intended to connect us with a purposeful universe of which we are an integral part)" (pp. 67-68). In contrast to "the dark side" of the American Dream, Elgin advocates a life of voluntary simplicity, in which a rich inner life takes precedence over getting rich. The "hallmark" of voluntary simplicity is that "life is too deep and consumerism is too shallow to provide soulful satisfaction" (p. 73). For Elgin, a promising future is also contingent upon our ability to communicate (p. 95) with "mature and soulful compassion" (p. 113).This is not a pessimistic book of revelation. Despite its sobering statistics, Elgin's thought-provoking book is filled with promising possibilities for the unknown future of planet Earth. However, given the serious "adversity trends" plaguing our planet, it is challenging for me to share Elgin's optimism, and many of his simple and idealistic solutions are not entirely convincing.