An Institute of Noetic Sciences publication
No. 8, September – November 2005
Matters of Consequence
by Copthorne Macdonald
(Big Ideas Press, 2004)
Reviewed by David LorimerIn his foreword to this remarkable book, Paul Ray—co-author of The Cultural Creatives—observes that our 500-year-old modern civilization shows many signs of falling apart, “as if a new and wiser civilization is trying to be born, side by side with looming planetary catastrophes.” Ray calls this new civilization movement a “Wisdom Culture,” which is not only about the content of our thinking and beliefs, but also about “the quality of consciousness we bring to the process.”
This book, Macdonald's magnum opus of his six published works, is divided into four parts: Big-Picture Reality, Humanity's Contextual Reality, Personal Reality, and The Future. Macdonald argues that if we come to understand the human situation “deeply, comprehensively, and clearly, then what needs to be done—both in our personal lives and the world around us—becomes clear.” This involves us in the development of deep understanding, defined as a variety of wisdom in which we integrate an intellectual understanding of contextual knowledge (humanities, sciences, and economics) with the intentional acquisition of self-knowledge. Macdonald thus addresses both inner and outer issues and insists that they must go hand in hand.
The first part of the book dives into the nature of primal reality, and plunges the reader into his thesis that there is “an enduring absolute reality which is the ground of the universal process” (Energy, Brahman, Tao, Spirit, Being), and that there is a transient relative reality brought into existence by this ground (form, information). There is both one and many, unity and duality, implicate and explicate. Macdonald then explains the development of complexity through evolution towards our current highly developed ecosystems and economies. He also gives a tour of the human mind, and puts forward a model of a ground awareness analogous to the primal reality already discussed. This leads to a discussion of cosmic purpose with an emphasis on process, adventure, and even play.
Part Two examines sociocultural systems, the world economic system, and the global life system (the biosphere).The discussion here is well informed both historically and in relation to current developments. For instance, he discusses how the economics of saving were transformed into the economics of consumption, and the social implications of this process. He also reports on trends towards inner authority, subjective well-being, personal meaning, environmental sustainability over economic growth, and a growing interest in the roles of women. He scrutinizes finance capitalism, and he draws the conclusion that the economy of the future must serve social needs and respect biospheric limits.
Macdonald next looks at the evolutionary legacy of the self, and the vital role of spiritual practice in transcending it to achieve “significant doing,” which indicates that the quality of our doing only reflects the quality of our understanding. Macdonald places special emphasis on the role of mindfulness meditation in this context.
The final part of the book addresses our future. It is not so much a question of how to predict it, but how to create it on the basis of the insights he discusses in the first three parts. He suggests having a vision of the world in 2050—a world worth creating—and generating the means of realizing it. Macdonald extrapolates creative trends that are already emerging, and neatly sums up the elements of his vision in a series of sidebars that cover the changes in institutions, economic policies, and social indicators.
He concludes by bringing together the personal and social aspects of transformation with ethical sensibility, reflecting psychospiritual development as in the thinking of Ken Wilber and Michael Lerner. Macdonald truly succeeds in enabling readers to gain a deeper understanding of the current human situation and to formulate a personal plan of action for the future.
DAVID LORI MER is the program director of the Scientific and Medical Network, and editor of Omnipedia: Thinking for Tomorrow, the publication of the International Futures Forum. His most recent book is Radical Prince: The Practical Vision of the Prince of Wales.
