ABSTRACT
Human beings must order their collective lives around a radically altered worldview or paradigm based, not on Enlightenment science and philosophy, but on the fndings of modern environmental science, quantum physics, and neuroscience. The stranglehold of the Enlightenment box on the imaginations of the world's major decision makers remains strong, and the twin challenges of terrorism and global financial collapse may be dampening hopes for moving more rapidly toward the deep ecology paradigm. The idea that there are certain human rights that ought to be inalienable and that human beings have the ability and right to self-governance are Enlightenment ideas that stand the test of time. Like neoclassical economic theory, International Relations theory purports to be "scientific." It explains and predicts relations between nations. International movements of indigenous peoples and peasant farmers have gained voice for a different understanding of and relation to the land, a more participatory form of governance to that of the sovereign nation-state system.
