PART TWO covers societal issues, broadly speaking, and opens with Ervin Laszlo, founder of the Club of Budapest. Laszlo talks about the limits to "trend-based forecasting," i.e., an assumption that the future will just consist of more of whatever is now. As a former professional futurist and co-founder of the World Future Society I can argue both sides of the fence, but let's go with Laszlo for the time being.
Laszlo says that societies are transformed in four major phases, the fourth and final one being the Chaos Point (based on chaos theory) at which point the system can either devolve toward breakdown or evolve to breakthrough. His position is that we are approaching just such a chaos point and predicts, not surprisingly, that we are likely to reach it "on or around the year 2012."
John Petersen, another futurist and founder of The Arlington Institute, looks at various disturbing global trends and notes that, "Many sources, both conventional and unconventional, suggest that we...will undergo an epochal shift to a new era" between now and 2012. And he doesn't confine his thoughts to the nuts and bolts of oil depletion, global warming and economic disruption but sees that the "real paradigm shift" might be in our spirituality and the shaping of our reality through intentionality.
John Lamb Lash addresses stelae and standing stones, while Karl Maret, a student of "cycles," looks at 2012 in light of esoteric astrology. Jay Weidner also looks at cycles -- as well as the Great Cross of Hendaye, alchemy, the precession of the equinoxes, and hyperdimensional forces. According to him, shamans in Peru are saying that we are approaching Pacha Cuti, which literally means "the world turned upside down," and that it will arrive, you guessed it, in the year 2012.
Corinne McLaughlin sees 2012 through the prism of socially responsible business, the "triple bottom line," LOHAS (Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability) businesses, non-adversarial politics, and the World Business Academy -- for which I confess a special partiality because it was co-founded by my late friend and mentor, Bill (Willis) Harman.
Part Two is obviously a mixed bag; it should contain something for everyone.
