Public Intelligence Blog

This excellent piece aligns with one of the most important evolutionary dynamics I've been studying with Michael Dowd, Connie Barlow, John Stewart, and others.  That dynamic, which has operated since the Big Bang, is this:  In evolution's drive towards greater complexity — that is, towards greater wholes comprised of more densely interconnected parts — the breakthrough dynamics have always been those through which the self-interest of the parts becomes aligned with the well-being of the whole.

This offers some obvious places to focus our efforts to transform our global civilization:

*  Internalize economic externalities. Incorporate the true costs (ecological, social, etc.) of a product or service into its price in the marketplace.  When this is done, products and services that produce social and environmental damage cost more than comparable products that are more benign.  This totally reverses the current destructive dynamic that makes the “free market” so toxic — the current ability of producers to pass on the costs of their toxic activities to nature, taxpayers, future generations, etc.  When those costs are “internalized” into all prices, the natural inclination of self-interested consumers, corporations, etc., to seek a low price “magically” (i.e., systemically) aligns their behavior with the well-being of the whole.  One familiar example is carbon taxes, which reduce people's fossil fuel consumption while generating both funds and markets to develop sustainable energy sources.

Continue reading “Journal: Tom Atlee Comments on Great Transition”