Review by Martha White
(author, educator, organizational theorist, strategic social
architect, and ordained inter-faith minister)
This review of Matters of Consequence was written for Amazon.com. The reviewer gave the book a five-star rating. A link to the Amazon.com page can be found at http://mattersofconsequence.com/booksales.html.
Whole Systems Thinking and Visionary Solutions, June 13, 2004
Matters of Consequence marks Copthorne Macdonald as one of the few authors who attends to deep matters in the domains of science, humanism, and spirituality, and does so in a way that can be understood by any reader. He offers solid, viable, visionary solutions to the serious brokenness of the human condition.People, today, seem to be divided into a few "camps," so to speak. Those who choose to live in the past have little to offer, and we can only hope that those individuals interested in consumption, power, and money will shift their perspectives as the seriousness of the human situation becomes ever more obvious. There are those who are interested only in their own personal growth and spiritual development. If they stay with it, they will mature and care for what is outside of themselves as well as what is within.
There are "progressives" who spend all their time exposing failures and wrongdoings of the moment, but never extrapolate from that to the creation of solutions. Career activists are valuable, to be sure, but some of them seem to have based their lives solely upon campaigning AGAINST something - never seeming to move forward to creation of something better.
Then we have the very few who think and feel holistically. These are the people who have real wisdom to offer. Paul Ray, author of the Cultural Creatives study, frankly states that Matters of Consequence is the one book he always hoped he would find.
It really is the most comprehensive piece of writing I have ever read - particularly between the covers of one book. Wisdom resides on every page, and his deep research, and the breadth and scope of his knowledge and vision are astonishing.
Given the truly desperate situation facing humanity today, if you read only one book this year, I honestly hope, for all our sakes, that you consider making it this one.
