Charles Johnston has written a book that asks whether we can be optimistic about the future:
Hope and the Future examines what legitimate hope for the future necessarily depends on. It describes how we face a growing number of human challenges that require that we think, act, and relate in new ways—often fundamentally new ways. And it looks at how addressing those challenges will require not just fresh ideas, but a critical “growing up” as a species—a new Cultural Maturity.
In a beautiful turn of philosolocavorism, or perhaps localegism, he is offering his neighbors here in Wallingford free copies. Charles writes:
Dear Neighbors,
I’d like to make a new book of mine available to my Wallingford neighbors as it might make a good source of neighborhood conversation as we plan for Wallingford’s (and the planet’s) future. For those who don’t know me, I’m a psychiatrist and futurist who has written numerous books on the future and the new kinds of thinking—and general cultural “growing up”—that future challenges of all sorts will require of us. “Hope and the Future” is the first book I have written for a broad audience. I could imagine it being a book people in the neighborhood might find of value.
The publisher is happy to make free digital copies available if I ask — and they said copies for my neighbors are just fine. You can go to the book’s website www.hopeandthefuture.com to see if it is something you might have interest in. If you would like a copy, simply email Lyn Dillman at [email protected] and let her know what format you would prefer to receive it in (e-pub or pdf).
In spite of being short and written for a general audience, “Hope and the Future” is necessarily still a challenging book. We live in challenging times that ask new things of us—that is the book’s message. It describes how our times are requiring a new maturity and sophistication in how we think and act in all parts of our lives—from the most personal of daily and community choices, to the decisions we make collectively as a species. The book argues that this greater maturity and sophistication is in the end common sense. But it also makes clear how this is a kind and degree of common sense that we as a species have not before been capable of fully making sense of, much less putting into action.
If you get a copy and read it, I hope you enjoy and find it of value. And I look forward to conversations that might grow out of it. ICD Press is the publishing arm of the Institute for Creative Development, a not-for-profit think tank and center for advance leadership training. The Institute is dedicated to supporting and clarifying the kind of understanding and action a healthy and vital human future will require. (You can learn more about the Institute’s work at www.creativesystems.org.)
All the best in community – Charles Johnston, MD
