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All Connected Now: Life In The First Global Civilization
Going beyond the narrow economic focus common to most books about globalization, All Together Now describes four kinds of global change - economic, political, cultural, biological - all of which are now accelerating, driven by the increasing mobility of symbols, goods, people, and non-human life forms. Anderson describes how we are entering an "age of open systems" as systems of all kinds - organizations, nations, ecosystems - change in similar ways. Boundaries around systems are penetrated, challenged, renegotiated, relocated. Systems that were once relatively isolated develop new connections and linkages to other systems. Anderson argues that this globalizing world is radically "uncentralized" even though people and societies are richly interconnected. All Together Now shows how globalization is advanced even by anti-globalization movements, while global-scale problems such as climate change draw us together into the first global civilization.
320 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2001
55 people want to read
About the author
Walter Truett Anderson
16 books9 followersWalter Truett Anderson is a political scientist, social psychologist, and author of numerous non-fiction books and articles in newspapers and magazines.
In his public lectures, he frequently speculates that, if we had a history of every advanced species in the universe, we would find that they all had to pass through two large, difficult and unavoidable transitions: (1) accepting conscious responsibility for the future of all life on their planets; and (2) recognizing that their systems of symbolic communication – such as language and mathematics – don’t merely describe reality, but participate in creating it.
Most of his major writing efforts have engaged one or both of these evolutionary themes. His defining statement on the first was To Govern Evolution: Further Adventures of the Political Animal. Its vision of human impacts on Earth’s life systems had been foreshadowed in his earlier book on American natural history, A Place of Power: The American Episode in Human Evolution, and was further developed in Evolution Isn’t What It Used To Be and All Connected Now. He is now at work on a new book that explores the evolutionary challenges and frontiers of the 21st century.
His major statements on the second (constructivist) theme were Reality Isn’t What It Used to Be and the subsequent anthology The Truth About the Truth. In other books on related subjects, The Future of the Self described changing ways that people are constructing personal identities in contemporary global society, and The Next Enlightenment points out the similarities between Western constructivist thought and Eastern spiritual traditions such as Buddhism.
He is currently President Emeritus of the World Academy of Art and Science (having served as president 2000-2008); a founding Fellow of the Meridian International Institute; a Fellow of the Western Behavioral Sciences Institute (LaJolla, CA); and a Distinguished Consulting Faculty member of Saybrook University in San Francisco.
In his public lectures, he frequently speculates that, if we had a history of every advanced species in the universe, we would find that they all had to pass through two large, difficult and unavoidable transitions: (1) accepting conscious responsibility for the future of all life on their planets; and (2) recognizing that their systems of symbolic communication – such as language and mathematics – don’t merely describe reality, but participate in creating it.
Most of his major writing efforts have engaged one or both of these evolutionary themes. His defining statement on the first was To Govern Evolution: Further Adventures of the Political Animal. Its vision of human impacts on Earth’s life systems had been foreshadowed in his earlier book on American natural history, A Place of Power: The American Episode in Human Evolution, and was further developed in Evolution Isn’t What It Used To Be and All Connected Now. He is now at work on a new book that explores the evolutionary challenges and frontiers of the 21st century.
His major statements on the second (constructivist) theme were Reality Isn’t What It Used to Be and the subsequent anthology The Truth About the Truth. In other books on related subjects, The Future of the Self described changing ways that people are constructing personal identities in contemporary global society, and The Next Enlightenment points out the similarities between Western constructivist thought and Eastern spiritual traditions such as Buddhism.
He is currently President Emeritus of the World Academy of Art and Science (having served as president 2000-2008); a founding Fellow of the Meridian International Institute; a Fellow of the Western Behavioral Sciences Institute (LaJolla, CA); and a Distinguished Consulting Faculty member of Saybrook University in San Francisco.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 4, 2014
Although this book is more than ten years old, and much if the information is dated, there is much here that remains relevant and thought provoking. Walter Truett Anderson does a great job of introducing the reader to the deep complexity of what a multifaceted "globalization" actually means.
"Constructive social activism in the twenty-first century carries the obligation to understand this globalizing world and to regard it not as an opportunity or a threat but as a challenge -- more frightening but with greater possibilities than any the human species has yet contemplated during its brief adventure on earth."
"Constructive social activism in the twenty-first century carries the obligation to understand this globalizing world and to regard it not as an opportunity or a threat but as a challenge -- more frightening but with greater possibilities than any the human species has yet contemplated during its brief adventure on earth."
April 7, 2008
Prescient review of the effects and future consequences of globalization. If you're at all interested in one of the most influential forces shaping society today, pick it up. You'll learn a thing or two and be satisfied in your newfound knowledge of terms like "chaordic" and "complex systems theory".
May 19, 2008
A very interesting book on globalization. I loved reading it, it was accessible and educational. Highly recommended!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews