Mapping the Way Ahead

 Standing in the path of ‘progress’ may seem a hopeless, even an empty, gesture. Nevertheless, the time has come, as the Walrus said, “to talk of many things”, not least of which are the many writings left as a guide through the seemingly impenetrable haze of problems. In this venture, the three books mentioned in this piece chart interconnections between the natural, human and spiritual worlds. The Tree of Life demonstrates the historical role of the Christian[1] perspective in shaping much that is good, valued and positive in global ‘civilization’. Through the much neglected medium of the story, Asses in Clover provides thought-provoking humour, satirising in comic form the follies of the rising twentieth century. Finally, The Politics of Money draws together key ideas and thinkers on the subject of the rule of money in the 20^th century.

The three books constitute a timely review of all that is best in traditional learning. In reuniting the spiritual with the practical and the intellectual approaches to life, it becomes possible to read and interpret the signs of the times. It is all too easy to be anti-poverty, anti-war, anti-environmental destruction, anti-third world debt, anti-despotism, or anti-terrorism while remaining firmly within the working-for-money world which is the cause of all those problems. In the meantime the little children of today are growing up to expect the market to provide for their everyday needs, so long as they are single-minded in their dedication to well-remunerated work in the money economy. The buck may well start with the banks, as the man from the Fed. said, but it stops with you.