Raymond Moore's Blog
July 8, 2025
Fractured and Holistic Futures
I am pleased to announce that Fractured and Holistic Futures: Critical Essays on Civilization, Utopia, and Transformation (Volume 1 of LOOKING FORWARD: 30 essays in futures studies) is now available for purchase on Amazon for only $4.99. At this point, only the digital version is available. It is comprised of 15 essays, whose titles I will relate at the end of this announcement. In the meantime, I will copy and paste here excerpts so that you can obtain a glimpse of the whole work. Also, since I'm not all that excited about contributing to the wealth of an American oligarch, I'm still exploring and am definitely open to suggestions for alternative means of publication and marketing.
That said, first of all, I was quite fortunate that Tom Lombardo wrote an excellent "Foreword" for the book; hence, I will begin with just a couple of paragraphs from his foreword and follow up with an excerpt from the "Introduction," titles of the essays, and then the link to the book.
==================
From "Foreword: An Analysis of the Past, a Critique of the Present, and a Vision of the Future" (Tom Lombardo)
"Morgan’s analysis of humanity’s journey from past to present and into the future draws upon a wealth of scholarly resources, interdisciplinary research, and philosophical and futurist ideas. His analysis is especially strong and well-grounded in the social sciences and socio-political philosophy. Reading the two volumes provides an excellent educational overview of numerous theories and their connections in the ongoing study and analysis of the evolution of human society, covering seminal theories, ongoing challenges, and inspirational visions for tomorrow. But still, even if the book is grounded in a well-developed philosophical and scholarly foundation of ideas and sources, it equally highlights the existential risks and practical issues facing us in contemporary times.
As Morgan explains in two of his essays, two key perils facing us are civilizational death due to a sudden “nuclear fire,” or due to the 'slow burning fire of global heating.' We live, so Morgan argues, in an urgent time with colossal threats and dangers looming on the horizon, and concrete systematic action on a global level is needed to avert planetary and civilizational disaster. Morgan’s book pulls together scholarly thought and research with pragmatic, action-focused issues. And given the existential dramatic narrative Morgan develops throughout his essays, he also weaves together his intellectual analysis an emotionally charged message concerning the survival of humanity."
==================
FROM "INTRODUCTION"
These essays are a culmination of the work I did throughout my association with the futures studies field (if we can call it that). They represent my perspective on some of the key issues and thinking in futures, but more importantly, these essays express my thoughts on some of the urgent issues that are affecting the future of humankind, literally “as we speak.” Honestly, I believe that we stand at a crossroads of history and human evolution, and there is no guarantee that we will survive this century. Since we are in the very crux of it now, during post normal times in the early decades of the 21st century, midst a planet and world in chaos, in very unstable times and unsure trajectory, the next few decades are most crucial; there has never been such an urgent time for humanity throughout its brief history on this planet, and now that we’re injecting our own processes into the life cycle of the planet, initiating the transition from the Holocene to the Anthropocene epoch, even the future of life on Planet Earth is no longer certain but is up for grabs.
While Polak was writing about the role of the image of the future in human evolution, at the same time, Arnold Toynbee spoke of the vital role that the creative minority plays in the survival of a civilization. This “creative minority” is, in fact, a product of the times that we live in; as a response to the mega-crisis of our civilization and world, we of the creative minority must rise to the occasion to realize and apply the principles of conscious evolution so that we can make an impact, enough to radically change the current trajectory in the course of human civilization and evolution. The fact that we are aware of our predicament and are capable of imagining a different world is in our favor. In this collection of essays, I address these issues in more detail, relate about the obstacles we face, explain how we should respond to them, and lay out the course we need to take to make the transition to a new paradigm and worldview happen. It is not an easy task, yet it is not impossible and is, in fact, essential if humanity is able to make it through this “perfect storm”—the Mega-crisis and Collapse of Civilization—that is, how to navigate and ride it out, to “surf the tsunami” (as Jim Dator refers to it), to finally punch our way through to the “other side,” exploring these “pathways of descent” and the birth of the 21st century mind in the Age of the Anthropocene.
Perhaps, you will respond that what I’m proposing here is impossible, the stuff of utopian thinking. If so, I prompt you to read my discussion of the invaluable role of utopia, along with the idea of progress, in the formation of the modern image of the future and further argue that rather than trying to eliminate utopian thinking (which is practically impossible anyway), we need to recognize and maintain its positive role as images of the future, while at the same time, redefine its identity (along with the idea of progress) to meet the challenge of the future in the 21st century, the Mega-crisis and Collapse of Western Civilization, playing out and being documented even as I write this. Rather than taking the postmodern risk of throwing out the baby with the bathwater, I apply the integral approach to transcend and include, transforming the idea of utopia and progress to guide us through pathways of descent to the new paradigm of a multi-polar world of Global Sustainable Development within Earth Community.
Presently, the people of this planet are being held hostage to a state of permanent war by the reactionary forces of American Empire, with its mad merchants of death in the war industry profiting from it, regardless of the fact that this trajectory could go nuclear at any time, either through accident, miscalculation, sabotage, or false flag event. Who knows what spark could trigger the fire that will engulf the world almost instantaneously, followed by the nightmare of nuclear winter in the subsequent years for the few “fortunate” ones, that is, the remnants of the human race who manage to survive? To be sure, this is not a scenario that anyone wants to imagine, yet imagine it we must so that we are motivated to do everything we can to stop this horror from unfolding, the likelihood of which increases as we continue in Empire’s path of permanent war against all of humanity, the planet, and future generations, with its “business-as-usual” approach, that is, the “business” of death and destruction to those who refuse to “bend the knee.” This madness of western “civilization” is a “race to the bottom,” a “zero sum game” spiraling downwards, eventually pulling all of humanity and life on Planet Earth with it to the abyss of self-destruction and annihilation. History tells us that empires do not always go down gently into the night but are often screaming in denial, defiance, and resistance to their inevitable collapse.
Well, if we are to make it through to the “other side,” we must be sober about the challenges and threats that we face. If we don’t know ourselves, which way we’re facing, nor understand the forces pulling us down, how can we know what direction to take? How can humanity tackle the trend of global heating that threatens to severely compromise, if not destroy, the quality of life for future generations if it is so divided, held hostage by this state of permanent war that American Empire, like the global bully that it is, threatens the world with? Besides the mindset and imperatives of capitalism, the state of permanent war is the greatest obstacle to cooperation in a genuine effort to transition from the model of unipolar global hegemony of Empire to the multipolar model of Global Sustainable Development within Earth Community, radically reducing (if not eliminating) all nuclear weapons and renouncing war; only then, can the challenge of global climate change can be effectively met. Still, the window of opportunity remains open to humanity to change directions towards a post-war, post-empire, post-carbon, and post-capitalist world. It’s a huge challenge, but then, what choice do we have? Change is hard, as the saying goes, but stagnation is fatal. We need to meet this challenge of the future, and we need to do it soon.
=================
Volume 1
1. The Birth of Utopian and Progressive Images of the Future in Modern Times and their Subsequent Breakdown (pp. 1-8)
2. The Dialectical Image of the Future in Modern History (pp. 9-13)
3. The Origins of the Idea of Progress and Utopic Images of the Future in Modern Times: Are Images of the Future within the Idea of Progress Utopian or Dystopian? (pp. 14-22)
4. The Historic Rise of the Idea of Progress and the Modern Image of the Future (pp. 23-28)
5. The Modern Image of the Future as the Technological Society (pp. 29-33)
6. Will the Human Race Survive the 21st Century? (pp. 34-6)
7. Scenarios of Human Civilization Destroyed by Nuclear ‘‘Fire’’ (pp. 37-48)
8. The Second “Fire” of Death: The Slow Burning Fire of Global Heating (pp. 49-59)
9. The Socialist Challenge to the Dominant Image of the Future (pp. 60-7)
10. The “End of Utopia?” “Nowhere?” “A Good Place?”: Towards a New Thesis for a 21st Century Image of the Future (pp. 68-76)
11. The Image of a Nonkilling Future as a Reflection of Postmodern Consciousness (pp. 77-85)
12. From Techno Futures to Transhuman Singularity (pp. 86-93)
13. The American Denial of Culture and the Contradictory Origins of American Futures Studies (pp. 94-8)
14. Postmodernism and the Nihilism of Corporate Culture: The Crisis of Democracy and the Global Impact of the American Corporation (pp. 99-105)
15. Anti-Civilizationists and Spiritual Transformationalists in the Upper Left Quadrant of the Integral Futures (IF) Framework (pp. 106-111)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FDDVVX5J?...
That said, first of all, I was quite fortunate that Tom Lombardo wrote an excellent "Foreword" for the book; hence, I will begin with just a couple of paragraphs from his foreword and follow up with an excerpt from the "Introduction," titles of the essays, and then the link to the book.
==================
From "Foreword: An Analysis of the Past, a Critique of the Present, and a Vision of the Future" (Tom Lombardo)
"Morgan’s analysis of humanity’s journey from past to present and into the future draws upon a wealth of scholarly resources, interdisciplinary research, and philosophical and futurist ideas. His analysis is especially strong and well-grounded in the social sciences and socio-political philosophy. Reading the two volumes provides an excellent educational overview of numerous theories and their connections in the ongoing study and analysis of the evolution of human society, covering seminal theories, ongoing challenges, and inspirational visions for tomorrow. But still, even if the book is grounded in a well-developed philosophical and scholarly foundation of ideas and sources, it equally highlights the existential risks and practical issues facing us in contemporary times.
As Morgan explains in two of his essays, two key perils facing us are civilizational death due to a sudden “nuclear fire,” or due to the 'slow burning fire of global heating.' We live, so Morgan argues, in an urgent time with colossal threats and dangers looming on the horizon, and concrete systematic action on a global level is needed to avert planetary and civilizational disaster. Morgan’s book pulls together scholarly thought and research with pragmatic, action-focused issues. And given the existential dramatic narrative Morgan develops throughout his essays, he also weaves together his intellectual analysis an emotionally charged message concerning the survival of humanity."
==================
FROM "INTRODUCTION"
These essays are a culmination of the work I did throughout my association with the futures studies field (if we can call it that). They represent my perspective on some of the key issues and thinking in futures, but more importantly, these essays express my thoughts on some of the urgent issues that are affecting the future of humankind, literally “as we speak.” Honestly, I believe that we stand at a crossroads of history and human evolution, and there is no guarantee that we will survive this century. Since we are in the very crux of it now, during post normal times in the early decades of the 21st century, midst a planet and world in chaos, in very unstable times and unsure trajectory, the next few decades are most crucial; there has never been such an urgent time for humanity throughout its brief history on this planet, and now that we’re injecting our own processes into the life cycle of the planet, initiating the transition from the Holocene to the Anthropocene epoch, even the future of life on Planet Earth is no longer certain but is up for grabs.
While Polak was writing about the role of the image of the future in human evolution, at the same time, Arnold Toynbee spoke of the vital role that the creative minority plays in the survival of a civilization. This “creative minority” is, in fact, a product of the times that we live in; as a response to the mega-crisis of our civilization and world, we of the creative minority must rise to the occasion to realize and apply the principles of conscious evolution so that we can make an impact, enough to radically change the current trajectory in the course of human civilization and evolution. The fact that we are aware of our predicament and are capable of imagining a different world is in our favor. In this collection of essays, I address these issues in more detail, relate about the obstacles we face, explain how we should respond to them, and lay out the course we need to take to make the transition to a new paradigm and worldview happen. It is not an easy task, yet it is not impossible and is, in fact, essential if humanity is able to make it through this “perfect storm”—the Mega-crisis and Collapse of Civilization—that is, how to navigate and ride it out, to “surf the tsunami” (as Jim Dator refers to it), to finally punch our way through to the “other side,” exploring these “pathways of descent” and the birth of the 21st century mind in the Age of the Anthropocene.
Perhaps, you will respond that what I’m proposing here is impossible, the stuff of utopian thinking. If so, I prompt you to read my discussion of the invaluable role of utopia, along with the idea of progress, in the formation of the modern image of the future and further argue that rather than trying to eliminate utopian thinking (which is practically impossible anyway), we need to recognize and maintain its positive role as images of the future, while at the same time, redefine its identity (along with the idea of progress) to meet the challenge of the future in the 21st century, the Mega-crisis and Collapse of Western Civilization, playing out and being documented even as I write this. Rather than taking the postmodern risk of throwing out the baby with the bathwater, I apply the integral approach to transcend and include, transforming the idea of utopia and progress to guide us through pathways of descent to the new paradigm of a multi-polar world of Global Sustainable Development within Earth Community.
Presently, the people of this planet are being held hostage to a state of permanent war by the reactionary forces of American Empire, with its mad merchants of death in the war industry profiting from it, regardless of the fact that this trajectory could go nuclear at any time, either through accident, miscalculation, sabotage, or false flag event. Who knows what spark could trigger the fire that will engulf the world almost instantaneously, followed by the nightmare of nuclear winter in the subsequent years for the few “fortunate” ones, that is, the remnants of the human race who manage to survive? To be sure, this is not a scenario that anyone wants to imagine, yet imagine it we must so that we are motivated to do everything we can to stop this horror from unfolding, the likelihood of which increases as we continue in Empire’s path of permanent war against all of humanity, the planet, and future generations, with its “business-as-usual” approach, that is, the “business” of death and destruction to those who refuse to “bend the knee.” This madness of western “civilization” is a “race to the bottom,” a “zero sum game” spiraling downwards, eventually pulling all of humanity and life on Planet Earth with it to the abyss of self-destruction and annihilation. History tells us that empires do not always go down gently into the night but are often screaming in denial, defiance, and resistance to their inevitable collapse.
Well, if we are to make it through to the “other side,” we must be sober about the challenges and threats that we face. If we don’t know ourselves, which way we’re facing, nor understand the forces pulling us down, how can we know what direction to take? How can humanity tackle the trend of global heating that threatens to severely compromise, if not destroy, the quality of life for future generations if it is so divided, held hostage by this state of permanent war that American Empire, like the global bully that it is, threatens the world with? Besides the mindset and imperatives of capitalism, the state of permanent war is the greatest obstacle to cooperation in a genuine effort to transition from the model of unipolar global hegemony of Empire to the multipolar model of Global Sustainable Development within Earth Community, radically reducing (if not eliminating) all nuclear weapons and renouncing war; only then, can the challenge of global climate change can be effectively met. Still, the window of opportunity remains open to humanity to change directions towards a post-war, post-empire, post-carbon, and post-capitalist world. It’s a huge challenge, but then, what choice do we have? Change is hard, as the saying goes, but stagnation is fatal. We need to meet this challenge of the future, and we need to do it soon.
=================
Volume 1
1. The Birth of Utopian and Progressive Images of the Future in Modern Times and their Subsequent Breakdown (pp. 1-8)
2. The Dialectical Image of the Future in Modern History (pp. 9-13)
3. The Origins of the Idea of Progress and Utopic Images of the Future in Modern Times: Are Images of the Future within the Idea of Progress Utopian or Dystopian? (pp. 14-22)
4. The Historic Rise of the Idea of Progress and the Modern Image of the Future (pp. 23-28)
5. The Modern Image of the Future as the Technological Society (pp. 29-33)
6. Will the Human Race Survive the 21st Century? (pp. 34-6)
7. Scenarios of Human Civilization Destroyed by Nuclear ‘‘Fire’’ (pp. 37-48)
8. The Second “Fire” of Death: The Slow Burning Fire of Global Heating (pp. 49-59)
9. The Socialist Challenge to the Dominant Image of the Future (pp. 60-7)
10. The “End of Utopia?” “Nowhere?” “A Good Place?”: Towards a New Thesis for a 21st Century Image of the Future (pp. 68-76)
11. The Image of a Nonkilling Future as a Reflection of Postmodern Consciousness (pp. 77-85)
12. From Techno Futures to Transhuman Singularity (pp. 86-93)
13. The American Denial of Culture and the Contradictory Origins of American Futures Studies (pp. 94-8)
14. Postmodernism and the Nihilism of Corporate Culture: The Crisis of Democracy and the Global Impact of the American Corporation (pp. 99-105)
15. Anti-Civilizationists and Spiritual Transformationalists in the Upper Left Quadrant of the Integral Futures (IF) Framework (pp. 106-111)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FDDVVX5J?...
