---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Smart CSOs Lab <[email protected]> Date: Thu, Jul 18, 2019 at 4:24 PM Subject: Evolutionary Toolbox for the Great Transition To: Michel <[email protected]> Now available in ebook form in addition to the paper copy. View this email in your browser <https://mailchi.mp/c77d9c91a8bd/switching-off-the-autopilot-2988461?e=331c725150> [image: Smart CSOs logo] <https://smart-csos.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=5cf566bc194b8a0b681ceefb4&id=59cb3a8102&e=331c725150> July 2019 Dear Michel, We are glad to announce that our new book *Switching off the autopilot: An evolutionary toolbox for the Great Transition* is now also available in ebook form as well as in a pdf with a single-page layout. You can order the book <https://smart-csos.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=5cf566bc194b8a0b681ceefb4&id=52ea92e589&e=331c725150> and ebook <https://smart-csos.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=5cf566bc194b8a0b681ceefb4&id=fa33d53226&e=331c725150> or download the pdf <https://smart-csos.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=5cf566bc194b8a0b681ceefb4&id=757606b5d2&e=331c725150>. <https://smart-csos.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=5cf566bc194b8a0b681ceefb4&id=95cacf8e91&e=331c725150> This book is about the ecological crisis that threatens to collapse our entire civilisation. It is about the crisis of liberal democracy unfolding before our eyes. And it is about a new approach that aims to tackle both crises. [image: front cover of Switching off the autopilot] <https://smart-csos.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=5cf566bc194b8a0b681ceefb4&id=4659c740a8&e=331c725150>Here are some excerpts from the book: “We are currently experiencing a continuous spiral of polarisation in our societies. It is unlikely that we can successfully transform our whole economic system to tackle the ecological crisis in the face of growing opposition to this project by a significant segment of our societies. Progressive civil society in the Western world is far from having understood the dynamics that are at play in this process of polarisation and what role they themselves play in this process. Everybody who supports the Great Transition should also support ways to stop and reverse polarisation.” Tribalism is a deep-seated human drive. History shows how the right circumstances can activate our genetic predispositions, put us into tribal mode and make us capable of committing the worst atrocities. Culturally, we need to develop much more awareness of the fact that the enemy is within us. It is not some kind of outside group of bad people – it’s us. We need to develop systems, institutions and a culture that prevent us from getting into tribal mode. This requires first developing a good understanding of the social mechanisms that make the situation likely. Preventing significant segments in our societies from feeling threatened is a good starting point.” “A systemic approach is open-ended and looks at the world from diverse perspectives. It is an open-minded and science- based attempt to understand the system, its grievances, its potential causes and solutions.” “Instead of dividing the world between bad and good people or seeing it mainly as a result of structures of oppression created by the dominant classes, activism would gain much from taking an evolutionary worldview. It much better explains how we have arrived to where we are now. It explains the ugly part of human history (domination and oppression), but it also shows that hierarchy, competition and our groupish instincts have played a positive role in creating the amazing civilisation that we have. Most importantly, an evolutionary worldview will help us find better solutions and strategies for our (intentional) cultural evolution. Nicholas Christakis: ‘We should be humble in the face of temptations to engineer society in opposition to our instincts.’ ” “As an important first step to get out of the current mess, we the Western, educated, industrialised, rich and democratic (WEIRD) people should indeed realise that we are the WEIRD minority, globally speaking. We have to learn to live alongside this majority of people who don’t fully share our morality. Only from a position of respect will we be able to focus on what unites us as citizens of this planet. Our fate depends on each other.” “This book is presenting a preliminary set of ideas for how we should approach the project of intentional cultural evolution for the Great Transition. My impression is that we are still in an early stage of developing the evolutionary toolbox for a successful transformation of our societies. As a next step we need to set up processes with multidisciplinary teams who have the capacity, skills and energy to get involved in prototyping for intentional cultural evolution. In the spirit of evolution, these teams would be seeding and supporting a pool of cultural evolution experiments. The goal would be to design variation and selection systems that will allow alternative institutions or organisational forms to compete with each other.” [image: Smart CSOs Lab] <https://smart-csos.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=5cf566bc194b8a0b681ceefb4&id=78aada66e1&e=331c725150> [image: @smartcsos] <https://smart-csos.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=5cf566bc194b8a0b681ceefb4&id=a29c0beb40&e=331c725150> [image: Smart CSOs website] <https://smart-csos.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=5cf566bc194b8a0b681ceefb4&id=475267d2ef&e=331c725150> *Copyright © 2019 Smart CSOs, All rights reserved.* You are receiving this e-mail as a member of the Smart CSOs community or because you opted in at our website. *Our mailing address is:* Smart CSOs . ., . Spain Add us to your address book <https://smart-csos.us2.list-manage.com/vcard?u=5cf566bc194b8a0b681ceefb4&id=7e4f1c129d> Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences <https://smart-csos.us2.list-manage.com/profile?u=5cf566bc194b8a0b681ceefb4&id=7e4f1c129d&e=331c725150> or unsubscribe from this list <https://smart-csos.us2.list-manage.com/unsubscribe?u=5cf566bc194b8a0b681ceefb4&id=7e4f1c129d&e=331c725150&c=3616d32bb6> . [image: Email Marketing Powered by Mailchimp] <http://www.mailchimp.com/monkey-rewards/?utm_source=freemium_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=monkey_rewards&aid=5cf566bc194b8a0b681ceefb4&afl=1> -- Check out the Commons Transition Plan here at: http://commonstransition.org P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net <http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation>Updates: http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens #82 on the (En)Rich list: http://enrichlist.org/the-complete-list/