Sivu 1, 1:sta

Best Available World: a manifesto for a new future

ViestiLähetetty: 07.07.2010 13:39
Kirjoittaja Antti Roine
[i][b]With a growing world population, diminishing global resources, predicted climate change and a shake-up of the global economy, perhaps the time is right to rethink every aspect of how we live our lives.[/b][/i]

The high living standards enjoyed by some 1 billion people on the planet today have been made possible thanks to the amazing scientific and technological development over the last 100 years. However, the remaining 5.5 billion people are still waiting for the same standard of living when it comes to their own houses, water pipes, cars, TVs and education, as well as fair legislation and a safe and active society.

This means that the world is going to need much more energy, metals, food and legislation etc in the near future. The global dilemma can be summarised by the following question: how can we raise the living standards for more people and simultaneously maintain the beauty and biodiversity of our nature?

This cannot be done with a savings policy or using new technology because the global population will increase by 100 million every year. Therefore, sustainable Best Available Technology (BAT) is simply not enough. We need much more, because the other aspects of our society and lifestyles can destroy, spoil or misuse any of our technological achievements. Global wars, economic depressions, terrorism and corruption are just a few of the most obvious examples.

We need Best Available Economics (BAE), which is not based on short-term gains but on strategy and plans lasting 10 to 20 years. Bonus schemes based on short-term results and fast career development only commercialise confidential core competence and kill off R&D investment – all of which are essential for the long-term success of both companies and society. We will lose the economical race to China, which plays by its own rules, if we are not able to update our own economical system.

We need a system that utilises the innate human desire to reap benefits from hard, honest work but that also shares excessive profits among the whole of society, which provides all the facilities to us. Automobiles do not stay on the road without shock absorbers. Our economic system needs similar devices, which tax short-term share transactions more heavily than long-term investments. Best Available Technology must be based on a system of processes and companies working in symbiosis with each other within the industrial ecosystem.

We need Best Available Politics (BAP), which is not based on corruption and dogma but on the dynamic development of best practices and legislation. We need Best Available Religion (BAR), based not on fear but on confidence and faith, which helps us to love our neighbours. We need religion that improves our spiritual welfare and makes us happy.

We need Best Available Societies (BAS), which are founded on solid family units with competent and responsible parents. We need Best Available Science, which is not based on scholarship and funding missions, but on the pure experimental truth. We need science that improves our physical welfare. We also need Best Available Management (BAM), which is not based on authoritarianism and exploitation but on encouragement, dialog and a long-term strategy.

This sort of change starts from individual human beings. Companies and countries do not feel, think or make decisions; only individuals are capable of these tasks. We should think about what we are doing and why. That is, we must have targets. We must understand that the world is not “black and white.” Instead, differences and variations make us strong. We need continuous development and dynamic economics, religion, science and technology.

We should continuously revise and update our own ideology using the best available ideas and concepts, which we can also borrow from other societies and nations. Continuous change makes our life exciting and challenging. Forgiveness may be the most important and difficult skill that we have to learn. We can see the effects of our right and wrong decisions precisely because our world has been made incomplete. We have the privilege of learning using empirical experience.

We can always identify the best options from the results. Natural sciences are based on experimental work. The best available technologies may be found by comparing the results of different options. The same procedure should also be applied to the other fields of our society. For example, history books give us an extensive amount of results from past political, economic and religious experiments. This is why truthful, unbiased historical records are extremely valuable. We should not distort or hide our history or set limits on freedom of speech, because otherwise future generations will sooner or later reproduce our errors.

We can make this world a better place for everybody while simultaneously maintaining the beauty and biodiversity of our planet. However, we need a dynamic revision and development of the whole of society using “best available” principles and practices. After all, we can always identify the best options from the experimental results. We must also remember that we are all in charge of this vital and positive development project.

Antti Roine, Finland, 29 May 2010

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PUBLISHED:
Helsinki Times, 24 June, 2010