What caused the 2008-2009 financial collapse? Simple greed and incompetence? The unfortunate “perfect storm” confluence of economic cycles, globalization, and other hard-to-predict factors? Yes, yes, and yes. But something deeper was also at work. Understanding this more fundamental ingredient in what we saw will be key to a healthy and sustainable economic future. I suspect the more basic contributor was ideological. Ideology as I use the word here refers not to liberal or conservation economic theories, but rather to commonly held but ultimately limited and limiting beliefs. We appropriately ask how the best of economic and political minds—and all of us—could have been blind to what was in hindsight a situation that was as unstable as a house-of-cards. Neither self-interest nor simple ignorance ultimately explains why events unfolded as they [...]
"Cultural Immaturity"
The Cultural Immaturity Section includes commentary on current writings, policies, and human activities that fall short of the demands of Cultural Maturity. They may fall short in particularly dangerous ways or warrant commentary because how they fall short provides particularly useful learning. Comparison offers one of the best ways to deepen understanding of Cultural Maturity and to separate the wheat from the chaff in our thinking.
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My new general audience book Cultural Maturity—A Guidebook for the Future should be available in prepublication, review copy form in June with formal publication by year’s end. Editorial writers, bloggers, reviewers, and professors interested in receiving a review copy should contact me directly (see contact page.) Two shorter works Humanity at the Threshold—A Brief Introduction to the Concept of Cultural Maturity and Quick and Dirty Answers to the Biggest of Questions will also be released this year. (See ICD Press page for detials.) Charles Johnston.
Cultural Maturity—A Guidebook for the Future describes how the future will require not just fresh ideas, but an essential ‘growing up’ as a species. It closely examines this needed next step in our collective development, what it asks of us and what it makes possible. It also examines how these changes are already beginning to happen, in subtle ways altering every part of our human landscape. The book’s core idea, the concept of Cultural Maturity, provides both big-picture perspective for understanding the times we live in and concrete tools for addressing the immense challenges that lie before us. If the concept of Cultural Maturity is correct, it describes changes that are as or more significant than those that brought us modern democratic governance 250 years ago. If it is not correct, it is hard to imagine a healthy and vital human future.
