David Peat

SevenRE-ENVISIONING THE PLANETThe human mind delights in creatingall-embracing theories and definitive explanations. Yet, as we haveseen in the preceding chapters, quantum indeterminism, chaos theory,the limits to language, and the incompleteness and uncertainty ofmathematics all call into question the validity of such ambitious goalsand plans. But here the reader could be excused for objecting that thesecase histories from science, philosophy, and mathematics, interestingas they may be, are remote from daily life. In most cases they are theend result of brainwork created by academics who work in ivory towersand look out at the world from a relatively privileged position. And,when we speak of a transformation in consciousness that began in thetwentieth century, is this change confined only to an elected few, ordoes it apply to everyone?This chapter discusses far more pressing issues—the global andlocal choices we face in our daily life, and decisions that will have animpact on our children and our children’s children. These issues con-154