A New Reality by Jonas Salk

Author:Jonas Salk
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: City Point Press
Published: 2018-05-02T12:31:31+00:00

Though the present period of crisis confronts us with the danger of self-extinction, it also presents us with an opportunity for development that could aid long-term survival of the human species and enhance the quality of individual life.

part five

Resolution

and

Integration

In the preceding sections, we have presented shifts in human society and human values that will need to take place if we are to transition successfully to Epoch B. The challenges of this transition are substantial, and meeting them will involve change at every level of human existence, from the individual to the global.

In this concluding section, we will indicate that the resolution of conflicting tendencies in the human realm has begun and will likely continue. The convergence and integration of the values of Epoch A and the values of Epoch B will result in an as-yet-to-be-created synthesis of the two.

We are at a unique juncture in human history and evolution. We are faced with the opportunity and the responsibility to create new relationships, systems, and institutions. This will come about through the adaptive convergence and integration of currently divergent and conflicting tendencies.

This figure, which was first presented in part 2, reveals an image of the present era when seen in the long-range context of population growth.

We see that the human species is experiencing far more rapid and sustained change in terms of population growth and sociocultural development than has occurred before or is likely to occur in the future. Intuitively, we sense from this image that, from a biological, psychological, and social standpoint, human beings may be better adapted to conditions associated with less rapid change (such as those that existed in the more distant past and that are anticipated in the coming centuries) than they are to those we currently experience. 23

Photo: © Pep Bonet / noor

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