Beyond Left and Right

Humans are adaptable creatures, capable of thriving in a wide range of settings. We have been able to create successful societies based on the human urge to dominate. We can also thrive in organizations that rest on the human desire to cooperate. Family groupings and small communities exemplify the latter; the modern successors to feudal structures shape the former. Our history has left us with structures which define the acceptable ways for us to express ourselves. In the political arena, this means that left must battle right for control of a structure that has competition and growth at its core. If we are to survive, we need a broader view of the human dilemma.

We do have other options. It is possible to build large, urban-based industrial societies that prioritize our urge to cooperate over our drive to compete. That world, built on empowered individuals and self-organizing structures instead of on hierarchies, and encouraging responsibility instead of the dumping of harm onto a commons where everyone and no one is responsible, moves naturally towards equality, towards dealing kindly with the earth, towards sharing the work that needs to be done to provide a good life for all. We are rich enough to create this world. It is within our grasp.

This book answers the questions of how we acquired such a dual nature, how that led naturally to a tribal phase which was inevitably replaced by our present hierarchical world, and what actions we need to take to set free the better parts of our nature.

A future without hunger, inequality, war, domination, and a damaged world is ours if we want it. Asking the right questions is the place to begin. That begins in chapter one.