The Age of Resilience: Reimagining Existence on a Rewilding Earth

by Jeremy Rifkin

A sweeping new interpretation of the history of civilization and a transformative vision of how our species will thrive on an unpredictable Earth.

The viruses keep coming, the climate is warming, and the Earth is rewilding. Our human family has no playbook to address the mayhem unfolding around us. If there is a change to reckon with, argues the renowned economic and social theorist Jeremy Rifkin, it’s that we are beginning to realize that the human race never had dominion over the Earth and that nature is far more formidable than we thought, while our species seems much smaller and less significant in the bigger picture of life on Earth, undermining our long-cherished worldview. The Age of Progress, once considered sacrosanct, is on a deathwatch while a powerful new narrative, the Age of Resilience, is ascending.

In The Age of Resilience , Rifkin takes us on a new journey beginning with how we reconceptualize time and navigate space. During the Age of Progress, efficiency was the gold standard for organizing time, locking our species into the quest to optimize the expropriation, commodification, and consumption of the Earth’s bounty, at ever-greater speeds and in ever-shrinking time intervals, with the objective of increasing the opulence of human society, but at the expense of the depletion of nature. Space, observes Rifkin, became synonymous with passive natural resources, while a principal role of government and the economy was to manage nature as property. This long adhered to temporal-spatial orientation, writes Rifkin, has taken humanity to the commanding heights as the dominant species on Earth and to the ruin of the natural world.

In the emerging era, says Rifkin, efficiency is giving way to adaptivity as the all-encompassing temporal value while space is perceived as animated, self-organizing, and fluid. A younger generation, in turn, is pivoting from growth to flourishing, finance capital to ecological capital, productivity to regenerativity, Gross Domestic Product to Quality of Life Indicators, hyper-consumption to eco-stewardship, globalization to glocalization, geopolitics to biosphere politics, nation-state sovereignty to bioregional governance, and representative democracy to citizen assemblies and distributed peerocracy.

Future generations, suggests Rifkin, will likely experience existence less as objects and structures and more as patterns and processes and come to understand that each of us is literally an ecosystem made up of the microorganisms and elements that comprise the hydrosphere, lithosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere. The autonomous self of the Age of Progress is giving way to the ecological self of the Age of Resilience. The now worn scientific method that underwrote the Age of Progress is also falling by the wayside, making room for a new approach to science called Complex Adaptive Systems modeling. Likewise, detached reason is losing cachet while empathy and biophilia become the norm.

At a moment when the human family is deeply despairing of the future, Rifkin gives us a window into a promising new world and a radically different future that can bring us back into nature’s fold, giving life a second chance to flourish on Earth.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, Environment, Nature, Climate Change, Business, History

320 pages, Hardcover

Published November 1, 2022

About the author

American economic and social theorist, writer, public speaker, political advisor, and activist.

Reviews

[Mira Akbar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. What a book.

A fantastic look at what is next for humanity, covering a wide range of lenses: history, sociology, biology, psychology, and everything in between. These seemingly unrelated fields swirl together to give us nothing less than a vision of the next stage of human consciousness. There's bad news in the beginning chapters, and it serves as a revealing history of how we got here and how bad "here" is. But that morphs into well researched truths about humans and the other life we share the planet with. Revelatory perspective shifts abound, and I'm left feeling hopeful and connected without anything coming to fluffy platitudes. "Me" feels larger and more diffuse, and I'm left with a clear sense of my fate being tied with the planet's, and the need to awaken to the connection and empathy. But even more, I'm encouraged by that collective process taking place already.

There's no advice or urging to action here. Instead, the approach is to change the very way we view ourselves. And the book succeeds exceedingly well. Call me enlightened.

[Cari Ritzenthaler · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unfortunately, I found the writing a little inaccessible. Some sentences/paragraphs were hard to follow, but I still feel like I got the general idea and I did find it interesting! It gives a little more hope for the future!

[Greg · Rating 2 out of 5]

An odd collection of chapters. A couple of them are interesting and do a good job of organizing thoughts and telling a story. Others seem to have little to no connection to the main themes and seem disorganized.

[David Garnett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding book. Wow. This book, along with several others I've read within the last few years, makes the case that we're entering into a brand new age. The book talks about the coming end of the age of Progress, the industrial age, the age of efficiency, the age of profit disconnected from all the other things that make all things flourish. All of that must end because it is not working for us. It is destroying our earthly home. Our future has been called into question. Our collective life depends on coming up with new life-giving approaches to the earth and to all life. The future survival of all living things depends on us thinking and acting in new ways that acknowledge the interconnectedness of all living things.

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Age of Progress is over... The Age of Resilience has Begun!

This was a hard one to read but only because I was doing it on audio and I kept having to stop and make notes. I really need to re-read this and if there was a paperback edition I would have already ordered it. Re-read e-book June 2023 and took lots of highlights.

This book first goes through the history of industrialization and principles of Taylorism that have created the modern world of productivity and 'progress' at the expense of the natural world. Rifkin argues that in order to survive humanity must move from a world-view that idolizes productivity and efficiency with one that prioritizes resilience and adaptability. A model that focuses on stewardship of the natural world instead of mastery and exploitation. We need to realize the interconnectivity of all nature and humanity.

Topics explored: the syndemic of obesity, malnutrition, and climate change; Taylorism and productivity culture; Covid and the supply change; unknown unknowns, GPS and the infantalization of the brain; predictive algorithms and the definition of freedom; humans and the electromagnetic fields; Francis Bacon and the failure of the traditional scientific method; economics and democracy; complex adaptive systems modelling; Goethe; attachment styles in relationships and place; the empathic drive; and a lot more.

This truly reflects and elucidates numerous aspects of my personal worldview. I have always been drawn to inter/multi-disciplinary studies and love to flit from a broad range of topics instead of siloing to mastery of one topic. I'm a generalist to my core. One of the issues I had of another recent reads Nomad Century by Gaia Vince was that she saw the future of civilization in uber smart-cities. I reject and find that concept abhorrent in the necessary separation from the natural world- so many of the issues society currently faces is because of that ever-growing divide. Rifkin emphasizes the importance of biophilia consciousness as being the next great stage in human consciousness.

I loved so many aspects of this book and need to re-read it but it wasn't without faults. I found several sections very confusing because he seems to believe we have already made many of the necessary shifts into this new consciousness. While many people have been ever increasingly drawn back to nature we cannot pretend like it is the majority. We still have major political powers that pretend like climate change isn't real or think it's even a joke or could benefit. The corporate greed and production haven't stopped and our desire for ever greater acquisitions of 'stuff' is only growing. Beyond reference to working with a senator or examining a couple citizen assemblies from Chicago, Rifkin doesn't really provide any meaningful advice or steps about how to enact the changes that are required. He advocates for 'peerocracy' over democracy over regional eco-spheres. But how do we get there? I can only presume that once we suffer enough global catastrophes that climate change cannot be ignored and national governments can no longer function these are the governmental systems can be their replacement-- but if we have a 'Day After Tomorrow' scenario are we really pulling these books from the wreckage? I think his view is largely a very optimistic one but this is a topic that needs a big dose of bloody realism to portray accurately. Any future in a 're-wilding earth' (which I don't believe he ever defined) will be one that exacts a high death toll.

I also felt a bit lost on the chapter about the internet and data. He essentially says to not worry about misuse of big data and the inter-connectivity of all devices. I think this reveals an unfortunate naivete about cyber-conflict and the massive potential for abuse of big data.

He also repeated the erroneous claim that Emperor Constantine made Christianity the religion of the Roman Empire. No, Constantine legalized Christianity in 313 with the Edict of Milan. Emperor Theodosius made it the state church in 380. Even as an atheist Rifkin's depiction of religions was a bit cringe-worthy.

[Miska · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first book I’ve read from Rifkin and I enjoyed a lot the first three parts, however the last part doesn’t seem to bring in much novum while the main point becomes a bit repetitive to me.
I largely agree with his view that industrial/financial/technological capitalism is in crisis and humankind must find its way back to nature in order to survive not only the devastating impacts of climate change but also to overcome illnesses to which currently we have no cure, simply because the dominating mechanical world view according to which we research things is inherently wrong. A general shift from an isolated/static to an inclusive/dynamic view could bring about positive changes in all aspects of society.

[Lauren Federer · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book seemed to contain more trivia than original thoughts. The concepts Rifkin is trying to emphasize are drowning in the amount of supporting evidence, weakening the author’s arguments instead of supporting them.

Additionally, I’d like to note that Rifkin credits Watson and Crick rather than Franklin for the discovery of DNA. Can we trust someone who isn’t up to date on the politics of science to inform us about the current politics of climate science? (no)

[Paul]

I was disappointed by this, but I think it's my fault. There's lots of interesting info and the overall tone is optimistic. I just didn't come away changed or more optimistic. I'm sure others will have a different take.

Thanks very much for the free review copy for review!!

[AB Freeman · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this comprehensive and timely approach to examining our current moment, Jeremy Rifkin advocates that we are in a transitionary window, the Third Industrial Revolution, situated squarely between the Age of Progress and the Age of Resilience. As such, we must put away the Taylorist approaches that maximise efficiency and productivity while ignoring the natural world, and instead focus on adaptive and regenerative strategies leading to a world of improved systemic resilience. Short-termism be damned!

This thesis succinctly combines a wide range of theories and arguments that I’ve already come across within my own readings. Below is one of the book’s key quotes:

“The handover from efficiency to adaptivity comes with sweeping changes in the economy and society including the shift from productivity to regenerativity, growth to flourishing, ownership to access, seller-buyer markets to provider-user networks, linear processes to cybernetic processes, vertically integrated economies of scale to laterally integrated economies of scale, centralized value chains to distributed value chains, corporate conglomerates to agile, high-tech small- and medium-sized cooperatives blockchained in fluid commons, intellectual property rights to open-source sharing of knowledge, zero-sum games to network effects, globalization to glocalization, consumerism to eco-stewardship, gross domestic product (GDP) to quality-of-life indicators (QLI), negative externalities to circularity, and geopolitics to biosphere politics.”

4 stars. In approaching climate disruption books, I prefer texts that provide clear delineations of where we’ve gone wrong while providing practical and tangible avenues for resolution. As noted in the above quote, Rifkin provides several solutions, some of which are already being piloted in Europe and other places around the globe. Ultimately, he advocates that citizens of the world should reflect on our own history of adaptability and join the Resilience Revolution already underway. There’s much to think about in this work.

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has some seriously good background stuff, a well written account of how we got to the current state of climate emergency and mass extinction. The first half or so was thus quite absorbing, even if you already know much about the history of mankind, how our quest for ever increasing efficiency and the objectification of nature has given us so much but with a hefty bill that is now very apparent as we enter into a more volatile planetary state. What then followed was the author's vision of what should come next. I say 'should' because he writes it as if this transition is natural and in the order of things, which I feel is most certainly not the case. Abandoning the centuries long path of ever rising consumption and the concentration of wealth and power is definitely going against the grain, in spite of the examples he gave. We cannot transform science from greater specialization to a systems analysis so easily. How can we know how the system works without knowledge of the parts? How do distributed governance and energy systems break away from a central authority with all the political and administrative bureaucracies and regulations that have to be and have been in place? Being empathetic with other species is indeed ideal, but it flies in the face of everything that has led to this point. Moving towards a civilization of resilience is what we must do or have to do given the increasingly unstable world, but I simply do not see how we can overcome the huge momentum of the status quo.

And lastly, he keeps mentioning a 'rewilding Earth', heck it is even in the book's title, but not once is this subject actually discussed. Is it a natural process, if not how are we doing it? Alas it seems the word is used as a tag and nothing more.

[Wedma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Diese Zeilen beziehen sich auf die deutsche Ausgabe, erschienen im Campus Verlag, 12 Oktober 2022, isbn 978-3593506647.

Aufschlussreiches Buch, das ich sehr gerne gelesen habe.


Mit wenigen Worten wurde hier viel erreicht. Durchaus treffende Analyse des Ist-Zustandes und wie man dort hingelangt ist. Diese Herleitung, die unverbrauchte, aber zutreffende Sicht der Dinge fand ich bereichernd. Und vernünftige Vorschläge, wie es für die Allgemeinheit weitergehen könnte/sollte. Von der Effizienz zur Resilienz. Mehr Details im Buch.


Wohl durchdacht, prima strukturiert, überzeugend argumentiert. Unterhaltsam dargeboten noch dazu.


Diese Ausführungen haben nicht nur Spaß gemacht. Viele Anregungen, reichen Boden zum Nachdenken und Diskussionen geliefert.


Fazit: Sehr lesenswert! Mit wenigen Worten viel erreicht. Wohl durchdacht, prima strukturiert, überzeugend argumentiert. Unterhaltsam noch dazu.

[Serhat · Rating 1 out of 5]

I do not know what he was trying to convey: "We destroyed the world. We detroyed ourselves. Capitalism is bad but I have no alternative to propose, I haven't even thought about it. By the way, the world is better without us. Wait, I have a solution! Let's be more adaptable. I was complaining about AI, algorithms a few chapters ago but I have changed my mind. Let's connect everything together and optimize it to be more adaptable and more resilient!!!"
I stopped reading after two third. He lost me completely when he proposed Internet of Things will be different than Internet. It will be more distributed, much more democratic, and so on.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

***.5

Mostly good stuff, but it's all over the place, with way too many seemingly random asides to unrelated topics. The author also has some disturbing opinions about cities, religion, politics, technology, education, children, psychology, and nature. He throws around many references and statistics, but they are often only vaguely related to the point he's making at the time.
Which is a shame, because it detracts from the main thesis of the book, which is that we need to transition from viewing "progress" and efficiency as paramount to a more resilient, forgiving, and adaptive society and economy.

[Ulrike Bungert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alles ist im Fluss, alles hängt miteinander zusammen. Die Resilienz nach Rifkin ist ganzheitlich und ist eine Gesamtgesellschaftliche. Gute Zukunftsvisionen, allerdings mit verwirrenden Oberbegriffen und Titeln. Auch etwas "alter Wein in neuen Schläuchen" für die Sozialarbeiterin in mir....

Everything flows, everything is connected. According to Rifkin, resilience is holistic and affects society as a whole. Good visions of the future, but with confusing titles. Also some "old wine in new bottles" for the social worker in me....

[Mark · Rating 2 out of 5]

disappointing; though the assessment of the unsustainability of how civilization currently operates is of course correct, the prognosis for our re-imagined future seemed like a whole lot of philosophical mumbo jumbo and wishful thinking; i suppose it was intended to be inspiring as a vision of a new approach, but there were absolutely no solutions there to address how we can provide quality of life to billions of people sustainably while addressing and repairing the damage we've already done to the biosphere

[Orion · Rating 3 out of 5]

It very clearly goes over its points. It's a good reminder of the exploitative nature of current global society. I'm not a fan of the very eurocentric way it is written, with the views on religion being very much like it. With more animist cultures being described as something of a very far bygone era when some indigenous cultures around the world with these views are still trying to survive.

Along with this, the 4th section gets more repetitive and rambly, and I start getting confused as to why some parts are there, though it ties up loosely in the end. It felt rushed.

Overall, has some good and interesting points, worth reading.

[Cristian Cristea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rifkin… always an optimist whenever something isolated can confirm his theory he creates a process and defines an age an era etc.

It is a book that helps you think, allows for interesting approaches to history and prepares for what is to come.

Where we might have some issues with what he argues is that it will never happen at the scale Rifkin foresees. And this is why it will not matter.

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Non condivido pienamente le tesi di Rifkin, e trovo spesso le sue argomentazioni viziate da una lettura assai parziale di dati ed eventi, ciononostante ne apprezzo l'impegno e l'ampiezza di visione.
Letto in italiano.

[Cia007 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book filled with thought provoking facts, gave it one less star as I found the ending of the book to be quite weak. Nevertheless a book to inspire ideas, better root cause analysis and solutions to many issues facing us today.

[Jeffrey Fisher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rifkin has a knack for capturing what's happening in the roots of society and presenting a vision of what it could mean for the future.

[Edward ott · Rating 4 out of 5]

We have to try something different. The current system is killing us

[Bob Edwards · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jeremy Rifkin successfully connects a lot of the past, current and future concepts related to human evolution on the planet earth in The Age of Resilience: Reimagining Existence on a Rewilding Earth. The Age of Progress or efficiency has brought us to a tipping point where we can no longer afford to believe that we are the masters of the universe wielding power over nature. Catastrophic events are becoming increasingly more widespread, destructive and common in greater frequency with increasing costs. Resilience is less about our ability to rebuild and maintain the status quo and more about our ability to adapt to an evolving world environment. While we can’t turn back the clock, we can make a paradigm shift towards adapting rather than conquering our natural habitat. We can learn to coexist in rewilding earth rather than continuing our current path of destruction.

[Lucía · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hum. I'll be back with a review.

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lot broader approach than I expected, but great nonetheless.

[Heidi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I highly recommend this book. Jeremy Rifkin really packs a ton of diverse info into it --and justifiably so, the issue is complex. I had to read it twice (and am actually starting my third read of it) and still can't say I've retained everything, but I know that the acceptance and implementation of the ideas in this book are crucial for the survival and health of life on Earth.

I honestly don't care if humanity survives and sort of hope we don't, but I do care about all the animals, plants, trees, the biosphere, and the Earth itself as a lush, fertile whole. I feel anger and grief over mankind's destruction of the unique, diverse, miraculous beauty of Earth.

Jeremy Rifkin's apparent optimism is admirable, and I wish I shared it. But, while I fiercely love certain specific humans, I don't really have much faith in humanity as a whole. I hope I'm wrong.

For those who, like me, are grieving deeply for the premature end of the Holocene epoch, the words of my dear friend Woody Hastings might comfort you to some small degree, as they do me. Woody is a brilliant energy and environmental policy analyst, and Earth lover, from whom I first heard the term Anthropocene. He gets comfort from his study of the long time history of Earth (from the Hadean, to Archean, to Proterozoic, to the current Phanerozoic period). He comforted me recently with these frank words about the end of the Holocene and the beginning of the uncharted territory of the Anthropocene epoch:

"We had a very precious and wondrous thing, and if you and I live another couple decades, we will watch it die. The yangtzee freshwater river dolphin, gone, the ivory-billed woodpecker, gone, the Sea of Cortez Vaquita, almost gone, the Monarch butterflies, almost gone, etc etc etc. rainforest destruction, coral reef die-offs, the arctic and antarctic thawing out, and on and on and on.....

If it makes you feel better, Earth was a seething ball of fire for its first 500 million years. The Hadean Eon. There was never any guarantee that any of this would ever emerge. But there is certainty that it will all go back to fire again someday...

We are only here a blip in the long scheme of things. And so much beauty has come and gone already in the Permian, Cambrian, Silurian, Cretaceous, Triassic, Jurassic, and more recent Paleocene and Holocene. Amazing creatures and plants forever extinct from all those eons and eras...

Thought of in these terms, it's easier to accept it. Like coming to terms with your own death. Is that nihilism? Perhaps. Whatever it is, it's what gives me peace when I grieve for all the beauty we are destroying prematurely."