A preview of the unpublished book A CIVILIZATION WITHOUT A VISION WILL PERISH: AN INDEPENDENT SEARCH FOR THE TRUTH by David Willis. CHAPTER 1: INDIFFERENCE (Part 27). This blog is a continuation of the review of The Inner Limits of Mankind by Ervin Laszlo, written in 1989.
Appendix: A Long Way to Grow. A Bird’s-eye View of the Current Goals of the World’s Peoples
A quick overview is provided here of the dominant varieties of goals and aspirations of people in each of mankind’s ‘three worlds’.
The First World’s goals and expectations
The ‘first world’ comprises the industrialized democracies of North America, Western Europe, Japan and the Australian sub-continent, together with a few other nations such as Israel, South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore. In the United States, people are not used to formulating long-term goals and plans either for themselves or for their country. They tend to believe that the least planning produces the best results – that free competition within the framework of existing market forces distributes benefits to all.
Well-endowed and powerful industrial-military lobbies
In recent years the need for more conscious long-range planning has been increasingly recognized by a number of scientists and managers, but the implementation of such plans and policies is strongly constrained by the ethos and the institutions of the free market. Well-endowed and powerful industrial-military lobbies drown out the nascent expressions of awareness and concern. The nation as a whole seems to have succumbed to the fear that material sacrifices may be attendant upon the envisaged reforms.
Handled on the Community level rather than by national governments
Canada, with its smaller population and medium-power status, would be able to shift its sights more rapidly and efficiently, but the traditional economic growth orientation still prevails – business circles conserve their political influence. The countries of Western Europe have considerable experience in international cooperation, among themselves as well as jointly with the rest of the world, but are at very different levels of development. The people of Europe are becoming convinced that certain goals and objectives – trade and finance, the protection of the environment, the applications of science and technology, and the balance of power – are better handled jointly on the Community level than individually by national governments. Australia is economic growth oriented but is becoming more conscious of interdependence with others. Japan is not part of the Western world but very much part of the developed one. Material expectations of the people have been largely fulfilled, but many voice still higher demands. Business interests, intellectuals, and country people find themselves on opposite sides of the debate on Japan’s future, and the government mediates uneasily between the conflicting factions.
The Second World’s goals and expectations
The East European bloc is now entirely disintegrating. Central planning for five-year periods has become hardly more than an empty formality in the rapidly transforming economic system. The Soviets are intent on catching up with the free market countries in economic growth, industrialization and technology. The Chinese were considerably more insulated from Western currents than East Europeans and managed to find a delicately balanced path between poverty with good conscience and economic growth with Western methods. The enormous population has made remarkable progress in self-reliance. An accelerated national effort is under way to achieve, by the end of the century, the ‘four modernizations’ of agriculture, industry, science and technology, and national defense.