Many years ago, I came across this little gem of a saying in the William Gibson novel “Neuromancer”.
I’ve been thinking more about it in the last few days, events have made it quite relevant, haven’t they? I’ve been reminded of it in Secondlife recently, though I suspect that the people involved don’t entirely realise that they’ve been teaching me.
Moreover, I’m seeing the need for this saying in the crisis round the world. If we’d measured twice, we’d have realised that this is the end of the way things have been. We cannot carry on in the same manner for much longer and expect to survive long term. I’ve seen this called The Long Emergency, that’s pretty much right on the mark.
- We cannot build a future on debt and commodity bubbles.
- We cannot build a future on grandiose consumption and unlimited growth.
- We cannot build a future in which most of the wealth is put in the hands of a few, while the majority suffer.
- We cannot build a future in which the resources of the world are exploited by only a few nations, in an unsustainable way.
We must build a future based on compassion, both for others and for ourselves, it the only way we can survive and prosper. To quote Bill Adama “It’s not enough to survive, we have to deserve to survive.”.
We’ll only get one chance to make the cut, let’s try and get it right.
Amen! Well put!