This is important material. Weizsäcker, Wijkman (2018) Come On!

{"translated_text": "The Club of Rome has released a strategic report. Its authors are two club presidents and 34 of its members. It will take some time before this report can be properly understood. Here we present the text of the report itself and several quotes reflecting the diversity of reactions to it.\n\nWeizsäcker von E. U., Wijkman A. Come On! Capitalism, Short-termism, Population and the Destruction of the Planet A Report to the Club of Rome. Springer Science+Business Media LLC, 2018. 232 p.\n\nThe author of this page learned about the \"Come On!\" report from a message by Oleksandr Malakhov.\n\n\"The anniversary report was written by two presidents of the Club—Ernst Weizsäcker and Anders Wijkman—with the participation of thirty-four other members. The content of the report may surprise readers who have not followed the intellectual trends of recent years. Former divisions poorly reflect reality—many ideas in 'Come On!' will find more understanding among traditionalists than among classical liberals, but many others will provoke protest from both. Harsh criticism of capitalism, rejection of financial speculations, refusal of materialism and reductionism, calls for an alternative economy, a 'new Enlightenment,' a holistic worldview, planetary civilization—such is the agenda proposed by the Club of Rome. <...> The starting point for the authors is the 'full world' concept proposed by American ecologist and economist Herman Daly. Human civilization formed under conditions of an 'empty world'—a world of unexplored territories and resource abundance. Prevailing religions, political ideologies, social institutions, and habits of thinking are still rooted in it. In reality, however, humanity has entered a 'full world,' filled to the brim, with rather vague prospects for further expansion. If we continue to live by the rules of 'empty world,' collapse will not be long in coming.\"\n\nA couple more fragments from Malakhov's review.\n\n\"The Club sees the task of education in forming 'futures literacy' among youth. Education capable of doing this must:\n\nBe based on 'connectedness'—relationships were and will be the essence of learning; the use of information technologies 'is valuable and effective only when they facilitate connection between people.' Education must 'arouse interest, free energy, and actively engage each student's ability to learn for themselves and help others learn.'\nHave a values character, rooted in universal values and respect for cultural differences. 'Values are the quintessence of human wisdom, accumulated over centuries'—at the current stage they are embodied in the emphasis on the well-being of all living beings and the world as a whole.\nFocus on sustainability—most knowledge regarding ecology, system interconnectedness, and sustainable development has appeared recently and has not yet become part of the general cultural heritage; therefore, teaching new generations appropriate disciplines and skills is of fundamental importance.\nCultivate integral thinking, not limited to analytical thinking. The authors note that systems thinking training is insufficient, since 'systems thinking retains the tendency to view reality in rather mechanistic categories, incapable of grasping its organic integrality.' Integral thinking can 'perceive, organize, harmonize, and reunite separate fragments and achieve genuine understanding of fundamental reality.' It differs from systems thinking, just as integration differs from aggregation.\nProceed from content pluralism. The Club notes that many universities promote specific schools of thought, instead of 'giving young minds the full spectrum of conflicting and complementary perspectives.' Today's students need inclusive education, in which some forms of knowledge complement rather than exclude and reject others. Cultural diversity is as necessary for social evolution as genetic diversity is for biological evolution.\"\n\n\"Come On!\" is the strongest text I have read recently. It is a profound work on which dozens of leading thinkers labored. One need not support the Club of Rome or agree with the assessments contained in the report to appreciate the significance of this document. Given the Club's influence and the depth of the authors' expertise, 'Come On!' can be considered an authoritative expression of the views of the most advanced part of the world's intellectual and political elite.\"\n\nI will not provide sources for this and the next quote (I hope it is clear why; if you want—you will easily find them). I present these fragments because they vividly demonstrate the intensification of passions associated with this report.\n\n\"This is only the second genuine Club of Rome report in its forty-three-report history—the others were formatted as reports from various expert groups to the Club of Rome. Its authors are current leaders of the Club of Rome, its co-chairs Ernst von Weizsäcker (Germany) and Anders Wijkman (Sweden). The first is the grandson of SS Brigadier Ernst von Weizsäcker and nephew of former German President Richard von Weizsäcker; the second is a former UN Secretary-General assistant, a functionary of several international organizations, specializing in demographics, ecology, climate change, and humanitarian aid. Thus, the informal status of this document is extremely high, which together with its almost revolutionary content produced the effect of an 'exploding bomb.' <...> Actually, the concepts presented by Weizsäcker and Wijkman in 220 pages of book text, bearing a pronounced anti-globalization character and de facto requiring a change in the entire mode of production/consumption of modern humanity, can without much exaggeration be attributed to the ideology of 'left fascism,' quite popular in the 20s-30s of the 20th century, but politically destroyed during World War II, or rather during its preparation.\"\n\n\"The overwhelming majority of media outlets gush over this ephemeral organization. Narrow-minded journalists quote publications from this club without thinking, believing in the Roman word as if it were the word of God. And they immediately cry conspiracy theory, with this very Club of Rome at its head. <...> What is the Club of Rome? Even without delving into reference materials about this ephemeral organization, I will note the main thing: it is—nothing. Why? Because, think for yourself, over fifty years of continuous analysis and issuing 'smart' reports, none of them explained or predicted anything worthwhile. Try to recall, do you have anything interesting about this club in your memory—that which was predicted, that which was understood? <...> The latest Club of Rome report, titled 'Come On!,' was written by two club presidents—some Ernst Weizsäcker and some Anders Wijkman. Who are they? Unknown. Or rather, known in narrow circles of Club of Rome members. And these two gentlemen were assisted by another thirty-four members as literary ghostwriters. <...> Commentators note that this report carries a certain fresh breeze. This breeze, like the spring scents of a mature male, brings analysts to an almost pederastic tremor—clearly reflecting the tendencies of decaying Europe.\"\n\nIndeed, quality 'sharikovshchina'? I can say that the intellectual movement associated with the Club of Rome helped me understand many things. Although one must agree that the Club of Rome and its supporters could not qualitatively change the direction of current humanity.\n\nWhen I shared this report on Facebook, one of the readers responded with this quote:\n\n\"On the elevation stood the agenda, framed in greenery; first was the global urban catastrophe, second—the ecological, then—the climate, energy, and food, after which a break was promised. Military, technological, and political catastrophes were postponed for another day, along with the discussion on free topics. The speaker was allocated four minutes—quite a lot, considering 198 reports from 64 countries were announced. To save time, reports were to be studied in advance, and the orator only named numbers—key paragraph numbers from their abstract. To better grasp this wisdom, we turned on pocket tape recorders and mini-computers; between them the main discussion was supposed to develop. Stanley Hazleton from the USA immediately stunned the hall, articulating: 4, 6, 11, hence 22; 5, 9, ergo [2] 22; 3, 7, 2, 11, from which again results 22!!! Someone, half-rising, shouted that it is still 5 and perhaps 6, 18, 4. Hazleton refuted the objection on the fly, explaining that one way or another—it's 22 all around. Looking at the number index, I discovered that 22 means final catastrophe.\" Stanisław Lem, \"Kongres futurologiczny,\" 1971.\n\nI propose that readers explore this text in the original and form their own impressions about it."}