We’ve been living in a bubble. A Take Make Waste Bubble. The good news is that we’re not the first to be in one, by any means. History is full of societies, industries and “ages” that stopped working the way they should – at least according to the prevailing wisdom inside the bubble. Like the dot-com bubble, our present, much larger, so-entrenched-it’s-invisible bubble is showing signs of instability because it’s not obeying a kind of “law of gravity” in the natural world.
“Wisdom” of the Industrial Bubble vs. Nature’s Laws (or Last 200 Years vs. Beginning of Time)
Energy: Fossil Fuels vs. the Sun
Food: Global Production vs. Local
Materials: Huge Waste vs. No Waste
Variety: Standardization vs. Diversity
Social Well-being: Maximize Income (GDP) vs. Build Relationships
It’s not a question of whether the Industrial Age will come to an end or not – just listen to the news! The question is “Will our bubble deflate or burst?”
What about you? Have you been living inside or outside the bubble’s logic? To what degree?
And what about the place you work? What’s the prevailing wisdom there? Is it an organization that’s positioning itself for a new age, or doubling it’s efforts to make the logic of the Industrial Age work?
(This summary of the first chapter of Peter Senge’s The Necessary Revolution was originally posted on my blog in February 2009.)
© 2012 
