Bewusstseinskultur

In an era when humanity is losing its dignity, how can we preserve our self-respect?

We need a new guiding principle to help us face up to the planetary crisis. The old model of continuous economic growth, driven by greed, envy, and the pursuit of dominance, is leading us into global catastrophe. There are many reasons why, but the most obvious is the close correlation between economic growth and carbon dioxide emissions.

We need to be honest with ourselves

Realistically, our options are already limited to damage control and intelligent disaster management. Intellectual integrity, compassion, and a particular kind of inner awareness are urgently needed to cultivate mental and political resilience. The concept of a "culture of consciousness" is the starting point for a new debate. 

We need more compassion and radical self-respect

For more than thirty years, we have been failing with our eyes wide open. In addition to our lack of self-respect and our lack of compassion for future generations, a lack of cultural creativity has been one of the main causes of the looming climate crisis: we have been unable to leave the old values behind and create alternative ways of living.

But replacing old values with new ways of life is precisely what is needed to create a cultural context that will let us exit the growth model. We need a culture of consciousness that works at both the individual and the societal levels. This book offers a path towards it.

 We need a radical new culture of consciousness

"Many of us have little compassion and no respect for the people and other sentient beings who will inhabit this planet after us. As a result, we will soon no longer be able to take ourselves seriously as rational beings, because for decades we have deliberately ignored empirical facts and organised our own self-deception at the political level. The climate catastrophe will therefore also lead us to recognise ourselves as a failing species, and the loss of our dignity will result in a historically unprecedented kind of suffering. We need a radical new Bewusstseinskultur." Thomas Metzinger