The world is undergoing change. Some say there is an “old world and a new world“. This change will be the central topic of the IF forum in 2010.
There is no doubt that the old world gave us many beautiful things. But as all coins, this scenario, too, showed us its two sides. Thus, the old world was (too) full of problems. We failed to see some of them immediately. Still, they will be highly relevant for our future.
In a nutshell, the characteristics of the old world can probably be listed as follows:
- It is dominated by an “American-European Culture”;
- It is based on the concept of “growth without end” that can easily be achieved by accumulated progress and permanent innovation;
- It is fed by the absolute belief in progress and a boundless technology which eventually might be able to solve all our problems (included illness; even the idea of probably conquering death is a long-term option);
- It is characterized by a strange mixture of addiction towards maximum individuality (single household culture) and the striving towards absolute security;
- It developed a technical and social gigantisms (not just in the failed socialist world);
- It is a socio-economical mega system with a strictly hierarchical leadership culture and a management that creates and controls its own market according to self-centred ideas;
- It makes all else the servant of a ruthless globalization controlled by profit;
- It is nourished by individual egoism and unscrupulous profiteering (“avarice”), both individually and collectively;
- It has declared the “Shareholder Value” principle to be its most important economical goal;
- It is supported by a consumption-and-no-end mentality and promoted by an unbelievable marketing and branding world;
- It is distorted by numerous irrational “compulsory” decisions in a supra-complex and beaurocratically boundless society;
- It is based on a fossil mobility and a ruthless plundering both of our environment and our planet’s nature;
- It spent money that it did not have and indebted itself at a gigantic scale in the virtual value area (What exactly is money?).
In the new world, many things will be different. Since it lies in the future, we do not know what the new world will look like. All we see now are indications – the beginnings of change:
- There is an increased understanding that homo sapiens will remain a “limited creature”, regardless of technological advance.
- Many people start seeing the really important things in life as priorities.
- There is a stronger wish to be enlightened and more people ask themselves if what they took for granted is really unquestionable.
- A new understanding of innovations develops.
- People and social systems will intensify their efforts to build networks across great distances.
- As a consequence, a sort of globalization will evolve.
- In order to survive, people will have to remember the virtues: openness and tolerance.
- The readiness to share (not only knowledge) will have to grow.
- We will have to develop a new and direct understanding of democracy based on networks and collaboration.
- Politically, the world will be less determined by national governments and multi-national concerns. Instead, global and local NGOs will set the tune.
- Capital, too, might get less important.
- Independence and self-responsibility will be necessary in order to substitute an all-around comfort that is no longer possible.
- Knowledge will be a common property that increases as it is divided.
- Mobility will get a new definition. Physical mobility will be replaced by communicative and informative mobility.
- Catchwords such as “swarm intelligence”, “crowd sourcing” and “open learning” will be relevant in our knowledge world.
But we also witness new – hopefully only imagined – dangers:
- The hegemony of the leading countries in the world, both economic and military, will undergo significant change.
- There will be a world-wide domination of cultures and religions that have little in common with ours.
- Resources will soon become scarce. Climate change will create totally new, probably existential problems for many people.
- The development in education and value awareness will differ hugely, both world-wide and regionally.
- Globally and locally, the world will get poorer; the “CO2 footprint” will get smaller.
- The “highly developed” players in the global game will be hit particularly hard by these changes and experience a dangerous increase of social tension.
If we continue to apply the same strategies as in the last century, we will hardly make an impression on the challenges in this time of change. We have to change and take a lot of habits with us in the changing process. Otherwise, fossil thinking will cost us our future.
It would be nice to imagine that our IF forum can contribute even just in an extremely small way towards a prudent change in many people’s awareness. With this idea in mind, we looked for very special female orators for our IF forum. And we found them!
For the first IF forum, we were able to persuade Frau Professor Dr. Kathrin Möslein and Frau Dr. Angelika Bullinger. They will both speak to us in Unterhaching on Tuesday, March, 2nd, 2010. We chose the terms OpenSchool and OpenLearning as a short title for their topic. The two ladies will demonstrate how teaching and science can be seen in the new world.
The second IF forum will be masterminded by Frau Gabriele Fischer. Frau Fischer is the founder and first editor of Brandeins, my favourite magazine. She has not yet decided on the exact title of her presentation. I assume that Frau Fischer will tell us about life in business and society in the new world. The presentation by Frau Fischer will be on a Wednesday in June (either June, 16th, or June, 23rd).
If our speakers agree, we will tape the future If forum presentations and publish them in the internet as “live streams”.
Even this early on, I want to thank our female speakers and all interested parties! And, of course, as usual, we will invite you in due time and also publish a report of each individual presentation in the If blog.
RMD
(Translated by EG)
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