Crunch Time: How to Live a More Ethical and Meaningful Life Without Giving Up Your Worldly Goods, Joining a Commune Or Losing Your Sense of HumourAllen & Unwin, 2004 - 248 pages Crossing lines of economics, politics, and family, this guide to 21st-century life offers new ways of engaging with the challenges of living in this expansive time. The dilemmas the book deals with are not only complex and systemic but also have far-reaching consequences for subsequent generations. Issues tackled include money and work, the environment, democracy, corporate power, and globalization. Intelligent without being alienating and credible without being academic, the text explores these issues and looks at their practical implications and productive solutions. Readers can move past worrying about the state of the world and into having concrete answers and implementable strategies for overcoming seemingly insurmountable personal obstacles. For all those who believe that living well in this century necessarily means being accountable to the next, this helpful book gives readers the tools to meet the challenges they face in a manner that can make the world a better place. |
Contents
| 1 | |
| 13 | |
Environment | 37 |
Science | 66 |
Democracy | 91 |
Security | 120 |
People people people | 143 |
Corporate power | 170 |
Globalisation | 194 |
Conclusion | 220 |
Readings references and resources | 234 |
Index | 244 |
Common terms and phrases
Adrian Adrian Monck Alth American Australia Bernays better billion bomb brand Britain Burnhams capitalism cash cent chapter chess chessboard civilisation corporate countries create Crunch culture decades democracy democratic Den Fujita destroying disease earth economic growth economists elected Enron environment environmental Europe everything feel future global warming globalisation happen human India integrated circuit Internet issues John Maynard Keynes Keynes kids Kilchberg less Lippman lives London look Malthus means Mike Monck Naomi Klein nuclear organised ourselves political politicians poor population poverty problem produced Ray Kurzweil rich world says scientists Shafaei Sid Meier social society stuff techies things Tiviski toys trade twentieth century twenty-first century Wal-Mart western World Bank World Trade Organization wrong
Popular passages
Page 34 - Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity.
Page 154 - Therein is the tragedy. Each man is locked into a system that compels him to increase his herd without limit - in a world that is limited. Ruin is the destination toward which all men rush, each pursuing his own best interest in a society that believes in the freedom of the commons. Freedom in a commons brings ruin to all.
Page 153 - I think I may fairly make two postulata. First, That food is necessary to the existence of man. Secondly, That the passion between the sexes is necessary, and will remain nearly in its present state.
Page 153 - I say, that the power of population is indefinitely greater than the power in the earth to produce subsistence for man.
Page 107 - The extension in space of the number of individuals who participate in an interest so that each has to refer his own action to that of others, and to consider the action of others to give point and direction...
Page 111 - Town- meetings are to liberty what primary schools are to science; they bring it within the people's reach, they teach men how to use and how to enjoy it. A nation may establish a system of free government, but without the spirit of municipal institutions it cannot have the spirit of liberty.
Page 89 - ... Universe', a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest- a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.
Page 89 - A human being is part of the whole, called by us the universe. A part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separate from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us.