2 - How Did We Get into This Mess? How Do We Get out of It? An Overview

Summary

The political system, the economic model and the business model have stopped providing answers to the challenges facing the global system. In a growing number of places, populism and nationalism are creeping into the political system. A whole range of new elements distort the economic model. Greediness and short-sightedness dominate the business sector, distorting its societal role. Policymaking is still anchored in industrial age thinking. General equilibrium — once thought to be an ideal state — is replaced by permanent disequilibria. The social contract linking business, governments and societies around a common interest is in danger of abrogation. Humans cut the links to other human beings, and even more so to nature, risking an artificial worldview which threatens the whole of humanity in the long term.

Industrialization transformed everything we do — it also transformed who we are. Conceptually, industrialization introduced economic thinking as the governing factor in human relationships, breaking from feudal thinking such as honour, social status and dignity. To distribute industrialization's vast new accumulation of wealth, a political system was needed, and the response was liberal, representative democracy. The nation-state was born to provide for the logistical, infrastructural and legal organization of society — all of which were necessary to reap the fruits of industrialization, first at a national level and subsequently at international and global levels. These radically new ways of living have been blended together into a coherent worldview which seemed to be obviously accurate and true — for had it not produced miracles, in the form of unprecedentedly high material standards of living?

To analyse and understand the implications of industrialization, the social sciences were invented. These differ fundamentally from the natural sciences, and it is permissible to ask whether they even deserve the label “science”. They are about human behaviour, which is such a unique phenomenon that it escapes objectivity and the kind of research protocols (such as laboratory testing) that normally underpin science.

The raison d'être for the social sciences is their ability to deliver solutions or guidelines for policymakers. If they are not able to do that, why should societies continue to support them? Yet, here they have failed miserably — proving unable either to predict major crises or to offer solutions for them after they happen.