ABSTRACT
Although government can clearly help or hinder the struggle to create a more humane society, it should be clear that only a fundamental shift in the way in which we all think about, and act in, the world will be sufficient to break free from our current, disastrous course. Integrity is a word that is out of fashion, and one reason may be that it means, at its simplest, ‘wholeness’. In human terms, that implies a sense of coherence, consistency and a feeling of being at one with one’s self which, in our fragmented world, is hard to achieve. Personal responsibility, consensus and local currencies are the cornerstones of community. One of the central issues of human existence is the relationship between the individual and the group, and they offer ways of looking at the creative imbalance between the self and the other that provides the potential for a win-win outcome for both.
