The 2020 Challenge: Conclusion

8. Conclusion

This report began by looking at the story of humanity's journey. For roughly 50,000 years, we have been on a purposeful journey that has required that we consciously separate from nature in order to develop our unique capacities. That path of individuation and differentiation is generating a global rite of passage for humanity that, in turn, may open up a new evolutionary opportunity-consciously reconnecting with the natural world and with one another to create a sustainable and meaningful future for the community of life on Earth. To accomplish this unprecedented turn from separation to reconnection ,we are poised to pass through a self-created rite of passage-a time of evolutionary initiation and turning toward a higher maturity.
There is substantial reason to believe that humanity can make this evolutionary leap forward. In addition to our enormous material and technical powers, we have four intangible powers that are even more transformative:

the power of perspective -- to see the universe as alive and to consciously bring a soulful dimension into the human journey,

the power of communication -- to engage in a new level of dialogue as a human family about our common future,

the power of choice -- to voluntarily choose a sustainable and meaningful way of life, and

the power of love -- to bring reconciliation and transformation into relationships of all kinds.

Combining both our great material powers and these immense powers, it is evident that we have the means and the opportunity to achieve an evolutionary bounce. The motivation to make this happen is up to us. We are the leaders that we have been waiting for. We are the social innovators and entrepreneurs that we have been seeking. We are the ones who are challenged to self-organize and pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps. Our time of initiation is not an evolutionary failure, but is a result of our great success. We are entering a time of great opportunity-and great peril. In the coming generation, a momentous initiation and a great turning will occur with consequences that will reverberate into the deep future. Future generations will look back on the legacy of these years and reflect on how this generation met the challenge of living through one of the most stressful, turbulent, exciting, and important times in human history.

Reviewers
I am extremely grateful to the talented and thoughtful reviewers who gave feedback on early versions of this report. Their comments and reflections have greatly improved this study.

Alan Atkisson, researcher, musician, writer, consultant, workshop leader Boston, MA
Clem Bezold, president, Institute for Alternative Futures, Alexandria, VA
David Brown, businessman; president, Hidden Leaf Foundation, Berkeley, CA
Lawrence Chickering, program director, State of the World Forum, San Francisco, CA
Susan Davis, director, Women's Environment and Development Organization, New York, NY
Elizabeth Dowdeswell, former director, United Nations Environment Program, Toronto, Canada
Dave Ellis, author of Creating Your Future, life coach, president, the Brande Foundation; Rapid City, SD
Peter Eisenberger, vice provost, Columbia Earth Institute, Columbia University; New York, NY
Hilary French, vice president for research, Worldwatch Institute, co-author of numerous State of the World reports and other books; Washington, D.C.
Hazel Henderson, author of Paradigms in Progress and other books, consultant, speaker; St. Augustine, FL
Holland Hendrix, former president, Union Theological Seminary, co-founder of the Campaign 2020 Initiative; New York, NY
Brooks Jordan, director, Pathfinding Project, Institute of Noetic Sciences; Sausalito, CA
Robert Johansen, president, Institute for the Future, author, researcher Menlo Park, CA
Peter and Trudy Johnson-Lenz, co-founders of "groupware" and Awakening Technologies, Portland, OR
Coleen LeDrew, co-author Global Consciousness Change, researcher, San Anselmo, CA
Michael Marien, author and editor, Future Survey, LaFayette, N.Y.
Donella Meadows, author, Limits to Growth, global citizen, speaker, professor, Plainfield, NH
Nicholas Parker, senior vice president, Technology Development Corporation, Toronto, Canada
Wendy Parker, consultant in organizational leadership, Larkspur, CA
Larry Rasmussen, professor of social ethics, Union Theological Seminary, New York, NY
Richard Rathbun, president, Foundation for Global Community, Palo Alto, CA
Paul Ray, survey researcher, author, and president, American Lives, Inc. San Rafael, CA
Keith Reinhard, chairman and chief executive officer, DDB Needham, New York, NY
Vicki Robin, co-author with Joe Dominguez, Your Money or Your Life, president, New Roadmap Foundation; Seattle, WA
Deborah Stern, senior management consultant, Payne, Forrester & Olsson; co-founder, Campaign 2020 Initiative; New York, NY
Mary Evelyn Tucker, Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard University; Cambridge, MA

About the Author
Duane Elgin is an author, speaker, and consultant. In addition to Voluntary Simplicity (published by Morrow in 1993) he is the author of Awakening Earth: Exploring the Evolution of Human Culture and Consciousness (also published in 1993). He co-authored with Joseph Campbell and others, Changing Images of Man (published in 1982). He is also the author of two major reports that were distributed at the 1997 State of the World Forum in San Francisco: Global Consciousness Change: Indicators of an Emerging Paradigm, and Collective Consciousness and Cultural Healing. Duane was formerly a senior social scientist at the "think-tank" SRI International where he co-authored numerous studies on the long-range future; for example, Alternative Futures for Environmental Policy Making: 1975-2000; and Anticipating Future National and Global Problems. Prior to SRI, Duane worked as a senior staff member for a joint Presidential-Congressional Commission on the American Future. During the 1980s, Duane founded and directed the nonpartisan and nonprofit organization, Choosing Our Future that worked to revitalize citizen participation through the development of "electronic town meetings." Duane has an M.B.A. from the Wharton Business School and an M.A. from the University of Pennsylvania.
Visit Elgin's website: http://www.awakeningearth.org
Awakening Earth is dedicated to research, learning, and action that fosters a sustainable, compassionate, and creative future. This web site provides reports, books and resources in four major areas: indicators of global consciousness change, voluntary simplicity, media activism, and the evolution of human culture and consciousness.

© Copyright 1999, Duane Elgin
duane@awakeningearth.org

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