PHOENIX
The Tipping
Point
As previously promised, here is the first instalment of the Tipping Point, which found its inspiration in August 2008, when I attended the South African Auto Strategies Conference, and was spellbound by a paper presented by Klaus G. Langer of the Munich Advisors Group. As I said at the time, his message was so powerful and compelling that aBr decided to run a series of articles based on his presentation, plus insights gleaned from a stimulating interview conducted with Klaus on the eve of his departure for Germany. The first article will appear in the next issue of aBr, but as an appetiser here is the Phoenix editorial in the October 2008 issue. And it is indeed food for thought, especially 18 years later.
‘ During the interview it became clear that Klaus is, maybe unwittingly, part of an influential group of new progressives, referred to as“ Cultural Creatives”, who are disenchanted with materialism and hedonism, and who will eventually find their identity and change the world. Cultural Creatives were recognised in 2000 by socialist Paul H. Rey and psychologist Sherry Roth Anderson in their book“ The Cultural Creatives – how 50 Million People are Changing the World”. The point man for me on this was Hardin Tibbs, an internationally renowned scenario planner who visited South Africa in May 2007 to give his views in a talk titled“ New Global Dynamics and Future Prospects”. I quote from his presentation,“ The survival of our natural environment in its present form, and the existing type of human society within it, is not assured. One of the main direct causes of this environmental and cultural risk, or unsustainability, is the pattern and scale of the worldwide industrial economy. As the industrial economy approaches the same physical scale as the biosphere, a new organising pattern for industry is urgently becoming needed, one in which a new form of physical organisation will be matched and supported by a new organising template for business activity.” post-modern world view and a revisionist authentication of Maslow’ s Hierarchy of Needs in a flatter version, whereby both physiological needs and self-actualisation emerge at the top of the pyramid. Thomas Malthus’ theories would also be under threat, as mankind moves from conventional to rational and responsible thinking. As Hardin puts it,“ Balanced rather than negative reciprocity.” This involves mankind and particularly business participating in an ethical expansion, and keeping nature in balance. Tibbs is optimistic, and he postulates that mankind is a hair’ s breadth away from this evolutionary leap of thinking and cultures, and he believes that we are close to the tipping point, whereby the cultural creatives reach critical mass and move us to a new paradigm.
Al Gore and Tibbs are both pioneers in the dissemination of these thoughts, and Klaus Langer, from an automotive perspective, is doing a similar thing. Klaus says that the time for is ripe for the for the automotive industry to do a U-turn in its thinking, and that the race is already on for a new breed of vehicles. Vehicles that appeal to the cultural creatives, and vehicles that will conform to the aforementioned evolutionary thinking. The good news is that Klaus returns“ home” next year, when he relocates to South Africa to open offices for the Munich Advisory Group, to point the way for the local automotive industry, and to play a role in the new organising pattern for this vital cog in South Africa’ s economy.’
To put this bluntly, we are moving from wiping out other species to wiping out ourselves, by making our environment uninhabitable. Hardin Tibbs says that we do have the ability to step back from the precipice, as we possess the evolutionary DNA to change our thinking and behaviour, to create a new world, something akin to a
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