I’ve decided to retype this introduction here because it makes a lot of sense. The balance between yin and yang – ancient Chinese descriptions for two distinct energetic states – is shifting. It is through books like this, disseminated via the Internet, that will change the path of our civilisation, bringin balace and harmony where before there was none.
Since The Little Earth Book was first published in October 2000 the damage being inflicted on the planet by humanity has become more apparent.
Britain has been subjected to widespread flooding and government policies have led to an orgy of animal slaughter. President Bush has relaxed restraints on the emission of greenhouse gas. The World Trade Organisation has to hold its meetings outside democratic countries. In the South there has been a widespread collapse of commodity process leading to an epidemic of suicides among farmers. The obscene level of inequality within and between countries has continued to rise. And now the stated policy of the US military is ‘full spectrum dominance’- which includes space.
Yet and interesting decade-long social study in America gives some hope. It finds that their society falls into three main categories. The US, like Britain and most countries, is still dominated by the ‘moderns’ – those that believe in growth, competition, control, confrontation and all the male yang qualities. A second small category is the ‘traditionals’, those who would like to turn the clock back. But a third category is emerging: it represents the concerned, caring, co-operative, holistic, female yin qualities. The study refers to these as çultural creatives’. They are not a recognisable demographic group, but they now represent 26% of the US adult population. Let us hope that the planet gives us time to redress the yin-yang balance, allowing world affairs to move towards sanity.
In this edition we add chapters at the end to show some positive developments. We have also updated Free Trade and some of the marginal comments.
James Bruges 2001
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