Runaway World by Anthony Giddens is an interesting read. Unlike many authors dealing with the subject he does not focus on the pro's or only on the cons and even more importantly does not solely focus on the economic impacts but rather brings into the discussion family, society and lifestyle.
I will place a few excepts and comments and ecourage discussion around them.
In his first chapter he states changes around us are "...creating something that has never existed before, a global cosmopolitan society. We are the first generation to live in this society, whose contours we can as yet only dimly see. It is shaking up our existing ways of life, no matter where we happen to be....this is not.. a global order driven by collective human will. Instead it is emerging in an anarchic, haphazard, fashion carried along by a mixture of influences. ..Many of us feel in the grip of forces over which we have no power. Can we reimpose our will upon them? I beleive we can. The powerlessness we experience is not a sign of personal failings, but reflects the incpacities of our institutions. We need to reconstruct those we have or create new ones." he then goes on in later chapters to describe how society has shifted from a local to a national to now a global power animal. To succeed we need a three legged stool or institutions based on three levels. Local, national and transnational we need local government to impact locally, nations to play their role but now the third leg of the stool with perhaps the least control and yet the greatest power is cross border organizations, the will of the people, the groups focused on issues of common need or interest. He goes on to state
"Young people are not, as has so often been said a generation X, disaffected and alienated. What they are..is more cynical about the claims that politicians claim to make.. and (they instead are)concerned about issues about which they feel policians (local or national) have little to say. ..On an economic level they do not beleive that politicians are able to deal with the forces moving the world. As everyone understands, many of these go beyond the power of the nation-state. It isn't surprising these activists should choose to put their energies into special interest groups since these promise what orthodox politics seems unable to deliver."
What groups should our rural towns join, our farmers, our disaffected rural structures? He challenges us to look at how we can join with others around the world facing similar issues and problems and by uniting to impact upon those global changes by joining a new global cosmopolitan network of like minds and organizations.
I will place a few excepts and comments and ecourage discussion around them.
In his first chapter he states changes around us are "...creating something that has never existed before, a global cosmopolitan society. We are the first generation to live in this society, whose contours we can as yet only dimly see. It is shaking up our existing ways of life, no matter where we happen to be....this is not.. a global order driven by collective human will. Instead it is emerging in an anarchic, haphazard, fashion carried along by a mixture of influences. ..Many of us feel in the grip of forces over which we have no power. Can we reimpose our will upon them? I beleive we can. The powerlessness we experience is not a sign of personal failings, but reflects the incpacities of our institutions. We need to reconstruct those we have or create new ones." he then goes on in later chapters to describe how society has shifted from a local to a national to now a global power animal. To succeed we need a three legged stool or institutions based on three levels. Local, national and transnational we need local government to impact locally, nations to play their role but now the third leg of the stool with perhaps the least control and yet the greatest power is cross border organizations, the will of the people, the groups focused on issues of common need or interest. He goes on to state
"Young people are not, as has so often been said a generation X, disaffected and alienated. What they are..is more cynical about the claims that politicians claim to make.. and (they instead are)concerned about issues about which they feel policians (local or national) have little to say. ..On an economic level they do not beleive that politicians are able to deal with the forces moving the world. As everyone understands, many of these go beyond the power of the nation-state. It isn't surprising these activists should choose to put their energies into special interest groups since these promise what orthodox politics seems unable to deliver."
What groups should our rural towns join, our farmers, our disaffected rural structures? He challenges us to look at how we can join with others around the world facing similar issues and problems and by uniting to impact upon those global changes by joining a new global cosmopolitan network of like minds and organizations.
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