Limits to Ignorance: the challenge of informed humanity
Ojembaenweilo | 08.09.2004 10:53 | Ecology | Education | Globalisation
The Annual Conference of the Club of Rome, staged in Helsinki on the 11th and 12th of October, will focus on human inability to respond to the pressing issues we are facing today, such as grave environmental risks, population explosion, and conflicts between cultures. The main questions are: Why? What is wrong with us? What is it with us? Are we all in a state of collective denial?
The Annual Conference of The Club of Rome is a call for rejuvenation of human sanity. We cannot be trusted with our knowledge.
Helsinki, Finland: 2004-10-11 to 2004-10-12
"Limits to Ignorance: The Challenge of Informed Humanity"
2004 Annual Conference
The wealth, volume of information produced has grown enormously in the past few decades. Formerly isolated information today is ever more connected. This globally networked information is ever more easy accessible to a growing number of people world-wide. Standards of education, mobility and cosmopolitanism of the middle class in industrial societies, as well as emerging developing countries, have grown enormously in the past few decades. The volume of information and the range of media have also increased considerably, making information readily accessible to an increasing number of people.
Yet in Yet and in spite of higher standards of education and almost unlimited access to information, the world is still beset by the well known challenges, such as grave environmental risks, a growing gap between the rich and poor, and conflicts between different cultures. The course of humanity has not changed, even though an increasing number of people have all the informational resources needed for responding to the situation.
The crucial question for the future of humanity is:
1. Whether we learn to understand the challenge of sustainable development implicit in this issue in time.
2. What are the thingsis needed for changing ignorance and the lack of vision into global responsibility and awareness?
3. How can we motivate the middle-classes and other responsible actors to make the commitment to achieve global change?
So, in summarising, what we want to bring into public discussion is ... this contradictory development:
On the one hand we recognise an increasing flow of information that may potentially provide us with more knowledge about the world around us. On the other hand we also identify a growing information overload causing confusion and disorientation and an increasing tendency on misuse of information channels, obscuring the premises of the public and private decision-making and increasing to public ignorance.
El Hassan bin Talal, President of The Club of Rome
Markku Wilenius, Finnish Association for C.o.R.
Link:
http://www.clubofrome.org/
Helsinki, Finland: 2004-10-11 to 2004-10-12
"Limits to Ignorance: The Challenge of Informed Humanity"
2004 Annual Conference
The wealth, volume of information produced has grown enormously in the past few decades. Formerly isolated information today is ever more connected. This globally networked information is ever more easy accessible to a growing number of people world-wide. Standards of education, mobility and cosmopolitanism of the middle class in industrial societies, as well as emerging developing countries, have grown enormously in the past few decades. The volume of information and the range of media have also increased considerably, making information readily accessible to an increasing number of people.
Yet in Yet and in spite of higher standards of education and almost unlimited access to information, the world is still beset by the well known challenges, such as grave environmental risks, a growing gap between the rich and poor, and conflicts between different cultures. The course of humanity has not changed, even though an increasing number of people have all the informational resources needed for responding to the situation.
The crucial question for the future of humanity is:
1. Whether we learn to understand the challenge of sustainable development implicit in this issue in time.
2. What are the thingsis needed for changing ignorance and the lack of vision into global responsibility and awareness?
3. How can we motivate the middle-classes and other responsible actors to make the commitment to achieve global change?
So, in summarising, what we want to bring into public discussion is ... this contradictory development:
On the one hand we recognise an increasing flow of information that may potentially provide us with more knowledge about the world around us. On the other hand we also identify a growing information overload causing confusion and disorientation and an increasing tendency on misuse of information channels, obscuring the premises of the public and private decision-making and increasing to public ignorance.
El Hassan bin Talal, President of The Club of Rome
Markku Wilenius, Finnish Association for C.o.R.
Link:
http://www.clubofrome.org/
Ojembaenweilo
e-mail:
okmagne@hotmail.com
Comments
Hide the following 4 comments
we we we
08.09.2004 15:32
in the end, 'we' each deserve space to speak for ourselves, to be heard on our own terms and our differing needs (not just our multiplying wants) respected.
only then maybe the shit this club aims to tackle might begin to die down....
good luck to them though, cos 'we' all need to try every angle we can!
z
Mmmmm...........
11.09.2004 04:50
Or does experience count for nothing?
The middle class are more responsible in the oppression of the poor than the poor themselves.
Stephen Dempsey
e-mail:
zebmeth@aol.com
Mmmmmmmoney
15.09.2004 12:55
Ojembaenweilo
e-mail:
okmagne@hotmail.com
Motivating the Middle Class Is Impossible
29.11.2004 00:01
"They" follow one creed - what I have is what I am
the middle class aspire to own their own home, educate their children, keep a well paid job, maintain a standard of living that precludes them from ammassing wealth.
"They" exhibit no enthusiasm to reach any higher than middle class and expect that " the government" will solve all their problems as well as provide free health insurance, subsidised education and economic stability.
"They" have grown too comfortable, life is too easy. Even motivating "them" to participate in elections is difficult so it is unrealistic to expect that "they" will become enthusiastic about anything that does not improve their level of comfort or ease their tax burden.
Good Luck .
Bob
e-mail:
bhayne@ozemail.com.au