A
"To Save the Children, sustainable development means that each generation should leave to its children a world at least as diverse and productive as the one it inherited. It also means guaranteeing the rights of all today's children, so that they can fulfil their potential in the struggle for development. The millions of children still denied their basic rights as a result of poverty, violence or environmental degradation testify to the international community's failure to make this vision a reality." Mike Aaronson
"Growth for the sake of growth is the philosophy of the cancer cell." Edward Abbey
The Economic Conundrum of an Aging Population
"The shift to a stable population will increase the "dependency ratio" of old to young. While that may stem environmental decline, it could bring economic hardship to the countries that first achieve it. The only real chance of escaping this dilemma is to eliminate the huge economic inequities that now prevail in the world." Robert Ayres, Professor Emeritus of Management and Environment at the INSEAD European Business School [1]
B
"Information wants to be free." Stewart Brand
"Democracy is a promise that the excluded voices are needed to form a greater whole." Alan Briskin
"When I thought of Dialogue in this larger sense, I had the image of the open central courtyard in an old-fashioned, Latin American home… you could enter the central courtyard by going around and through any of the multiple arched entryways that surrounded this open, flower-filled space in the middle of the house… For me, Dialogue is like entering this central courtyard in the spacious home of our common human experience." Juanita Brown
|
C
"The ‘Web of Life’ is, of course, an ancient idea, which has been used by poets, philosophers, and mystics throughout the ages to convey their sense of the interwovenness and interdependence of all phenomena." Fritjof Capra
- "The global city is not London, New York, Tokyo or Jo'berg -- it is the part of each which is connected to an analogous part in each of the others. The global city is a distributed phenomenon. There is only one global city, and it floats on top of the others like lace."
- "Networked organisations outcompete all other forms of organisation, particularly the vertical, rigid, command-and-control bureaucracies."
Manuel Castells
"Society is as needful to us as air or food." William Ellery Channing
"The idea that the American model of liberal capitalism offers the widest scope for individual opportunity is the great ideological hoax of our times." David Clark
"Tell me and I will forget;
show me and I may remember;
involve me and I will understand" Confucius
“Empowering the individual and underinvesting in the collective is our great macro danger as a society,” Craig Charney.
"I thought there would be failure modes, but I wasn't surprised that communities found ways around them. I thought it was important that when the organization proved to be wrong, people could reorganize on their own, that organization could emerge." Ward Cunningham W, the inventor of the Wiki-wiki Web
D
"Sometimes, even if he has to do it alone, and his conduct seems to be mad, a man must set an example, and so draw people's souls out of their solitude, and spur them to some act of brotherly love, that the great idea does not die." Dostoyevsky [2]
|
E
"Amid a frenzy of conspicuous consumption, an inconspicuous revolution has been stirring. A growing number of people are seeking a way of life that is more satisfying and sustainable. This quiet revolution is being called by many names, including voluntary simplicity and compassionate living. But whatever its name, its hallmark is a new common sense - namely, that life is too deep and consumerism is too shallow to provide soulful satisfaction." Duane Elgin
"The new media are orientated towards action, not contemplation; towards the present, not tradition. It is wrong to regard media equipment as mere means of consumption." Hans Magnus Enzensberger
F
"Building a world where we meet our own needs without denying future generations a healthy society is not impossible, as some would assert. The question is where societies choose to put their creative efforts." Christopher Flavin
"All of it must begin with the 'whole'. When we open ourselves awe returns. This will get us out of the oppression of work. We need to return to nature rather than trying to master it. Our inner work is also community work. Schumacher: "We can each of us work to put our own inner houses in order". We should look at the inner houses of all the communities in which we live. We can do this through ritual and other forms of art. Part of it is letting go, particularly of self-pity. We need to move from a cynical society to a possible society. Business has the potential to lead the change. There is so much work needing to be done." Matthew Fox
|
