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.jpg) This is the inaugural issue of Beyond One, an online magazine dedicated to ideas that break the conventions of selfishness and short-term self-gratification; ideas that provide a positive social impact, think in terms of a generational horizon, and fuel a sense of idealism.
We live in a society that has focused on the individual as the sole unit of humanity. The individual trumps the family, the community, and the world at large as the center of gravity. It started in the industrial age, it was fueled by popular theory (e.g. the rugged individualism of the US, Freudian theory of self, etc.), and is perpetuated by rampant consumerism. We not only see it in our individual lives, but it is reflected in our corporations, our government, and our foreign relation policies.
Individualism is also inextricably linked with short-sightedness. Countries think in terms of fiscal periods or election terms, companies plan strategies on a quarterly basis, and individuals plan their lives according to immediate desires.
The contrast to that world view is what we call Generational Thinking. Rather than using the concept of One as an end in itself, we try to see it as the building block for all other permutations and combinations - it represents all possibilities. This issue will discuss ideas that think Beyond One person, one community, one nation, one race, or one generation.
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Generational Thinking is an approach to thinking that examines the generational aspects of our behavior rather than individual lifetimes. Many who adhere to this school of thought see humanity itself as the unit of measurement for our activities. In using such a broad lens, we give ourselves the power to expand our insights beyond the relatively short periods of human lives which we are accustomed to thinking.
There has been a wide variety of pioneers who have urged us to think in generational terms from spiritual leaders like the Dalai Lama to environmental activists like Steward Brand. Brand’s Long Now Foundation is in fact one of the inspirations for the
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Many of our readers are probably familiar with Jared Diamond and his books such as Collapse and Guns, Germs, and Steel (GGS). As this issue is foc used on Generational Thinking, we wanted to talk about the latter book and its implications for our current world view. As mentioned earlier, most of the major issues of our time have taken generations to form and will probably take longer than one generation to solve. But the corollary lens is that, it’s not
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One of the great difficulties in migrating to a long-view is the visualization of scale when it comes to space and time. Out of all the human senses, our vision was the first to develop and as a result, it’s the most advanced. As such, shifts in consciousness require a visual narrative, and these narratives require great storytelling to be brought to life.
The good news is there have
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