CIVILIZING GLOBALIZATION, CELEBRATING THE NEW MILLENNIUM: NOT WITHOUT SYSTEMS, NOT WITHOUT THE SPIRIT

摘要

Globalization today provides the frame for development and underdevelopment of nations. It is coexistent with the postmodernist "compression of time and space", accompanied with crowding of cultural space, acceleration of history, evaporation of geographical borders, and intensification of processes of economy, politics, culture and technology. Globalization has caused visible economic disparities and deep social divisions, and de-legitimization of institutions both sacred and secular. A transcendental sense of the crisis prevails. There is a near universal emptiness of being, and a sense of personal vulnerability. Belongingness is gone out of social relations, and a general negation of norms prevails. Violence and destructiveness have become expressions of personal assertions. Complexity is a natural human condition which must be carefully analyzed to understand the roots of social and moral pathologies under Globalization and to intervene in the redesign of our destinies at the Dawn of the New Millennium. This is possible by using the holistic all-encompassing models and methods of systems sciences. To do this, however, we need to complement systems theory with other epistemologies and to develop an applied systems theory that accommodates both structures and substance of systems. In addition, we need to realize that social scientific approaches by themselves will not help us civilize the processes of Globalization. To have a cause for celebration at the Dawn of the New Millennium, we must invent a new definition of development, redefine quality of life and achieve a massive redistribution of the planet's resources among and within societies. In turn, this agenda may be impossible to implement without the use of spiritual strategies rooted in a new moral consensus: "One God, of All Peoples, above All Religions." (Spirituality and Systems Special Integration Group).