The Pursuit of Virtue:
THE PATH TO A
GOOD FUTURE
Thomas Lombardo, Ph.D.
Center for Future Consciousness
www.centerforfutureconsciousness.com
In a time when we possess more financial wealth, society and outline a psychological and ethical
material goods and comforts, and technological answer to creating a better world. This new way of
conveniences than ever before, many of us suffer thinking proposes that happiness, deep purpose,
from excessive egocentricity and untethered personal and social evolution, and realizing a good
wishy-washy relativism; information overload and future are maximized through the exercise and
dizzying speed and chaos in our lives; anxiety, development of a core set of character virtues that
stress, and feelings of fatalism and nihilism; closed- heighten our future consciousness.
mindedness, anti-intellectualism, and defensive
paralysis in the face of change; a disproportionate
reliance on money and consumerism as the
answer to life; and an hypnotic and addictive
immersion in technology and social media. Of
special significance – for many of us our conscious
sense of the future, as well as of our memory
of the past – is narrowing and weakening. We
are becoming lost and forlorn, drowning in an
overpowering present. What is going wrong and
what can we do about it?
psychology William James once said of infant
world, according to many futurists and social consciousness – in a “blooming buzzing confusion,”
commentators, is becoming increasingly frenzied, without a meaningful and positive sense of overall
fragmented, and disarrayed. Many of us feel we purpose and direction.
are swirling about – as the father of American
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HUMAN FUTURES
I propose that future consciousness is our most
distinctive and empowering human capacity
allowing us to purposefully guide our own
evolution. A positive future is best realized through
enhancing this capacity, and this capacity can
be most effectively strengthened through the
conscientious and self-responsible development
of a key set of character virtues described in
this book. Moreover, the synthesis and highest
expression of these character virtues of future
In my new compact book The Pursuit of Virtue: consciousness is the virtue of wisdom. To most
The Path to a Good Future (122 pages in length), intelligently,
I first examine in depth those destructive and address the problems of the modern world, the
disruptive features of our contemporary modern virtue of wisdom should be our guiding light.
society introduced above and then second I Living a wisdom narrative for the future of both
outline a constructive approach for addressing ourselves and the planet is the key to the good
such problems, improving the quality of our future. The path to the good future is not to be
lives, and creating a positive future. My approach found in some external reality, such as wealth or
is unique in that I highlight key psychological technology, but within ourselves and our own
dimensions of major challenges in contemporary psychological and ethical evolution.
1 Lombardo, Thomas (2019) The Pursuit of Virtue: The Path to a
Good Future. Kelowna, BC: Wood Lake Publishing. 2 Lombardo, Thomas (2017) Future Consciousness: The Path to
Purposeful Evolution. London: Changemakers Books.
1
Our modern high-tech, fast-paced, consumerist
As extensively explained in previous publications, 2
ethically,
and
comprehensively
HUMAN FUTURES
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