In this Omega Conversation, hosted by Omega founder Michael Lerner, Dr. Gary Kendall presents and discusses thought-provoking perspectives on why our collective reluctance to reconceptualize paradigms commits us to a future of growing systemic risk. He is joined by guests Gerry Salole, Tamzin Ractliffe, Mark Valentine, Lynnaea Lumbard, Asher Miller, Joan Diamond, Lynn Murphy, Carlos Schultz, and Miguel Altieri.
The Covid pandemic has been considered by many as a crisis event, one of the epic proportions that brought society to a grinding halt. It has presented the spectre of a near total collapse of the global economic system and demonstrated the inadequacy of just-in-time business models and supply chains. illuminated how global tax “efficiencies” have undermined the robustness of public health systems and the public sector itself most especially in the world’s largest democracies and irrefutably exposed the extent of the fault lines in our society, the inequality, both in the resilience of sectors of society and in the divide between those who grow richer through the virus and those who face dire hardship. Covid’s persistence has perhaps allowed us – or forced us – to consider that the pandemic is demonstrative of a trend, that it reflects cascading, systemic risks making up what is referred to as the polycrisis.
If you think about this question of “What’s next?”, in no trivial way, what’s next is what we make of it. What we are able to convince others of, what we are able to do, what we are able to show. The morals we set, the ethical examples that we give. These things are passed on to others through global continuous engagement. That’s why the battle of ideas has to be joined, that’s why being on the side-lines is no longer an option for any of us. That’s why we have to engage because if we don’t, others will drive the agenda. We have a responsibility to create the world we want.
Ian Goldin
This Omega Conversation was co-sponsored by Impact Trust, FAN Initiative, The New School at Commonweal, and MAHB.
