Tag: Parochialism of the Present
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MEC: Recap of My Concerns
We are about to turn specific passages from Everything Must Change by Brian McLaren, but before we go there, I want to recap my central observations and clarify my perception of some key issues. My primary concern over the last eight posts has been McLaren’s claim that we live with a “suicide machine.” He generally…
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MEC: Exhausting Scarce Resources?
I've made the case that Everything Must Change suffers from a parochialism of the present. It fails to see the trajectory society has been moving. But there is another way this parochialism is at work. It merely projects the present into the future. It fails to sufficiently consider future adaptations in human behavior and technology.…
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MEC: Measuring Income Past and Present
We have now seen how prosperity, measured in terms of long life, is spreading throughout most of the planet. Yet when most people think of the disparity between nations, they usually think in terms of income levels. Income is correlated with other factors that empower us to survive and thrive. The common refrain we hear…
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MEC: Framing Story
Brian McLaren devotes Chapter 9 of Everything Must Change to the framing story concept. You will recall from the previous post that at the center of Brian McLaren’s societal machine was a dark gear that represented the framing story, coordinating the other three societal systems. To elaborate, McLaren uses the analogy of a human body.…
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The Market in Historical Perspective
I recently read The Church and the Market: A Catholic Defense of the Free Economy by Thomas Woods, Jr. Toward the end of the book, Woods writes the following: Overwhelmingly it is the poor who have benefited from the extension of the market, and for whom the good things of civilization are available in much…