ABSTRACT
Writing this chapter was both agreeable and useful, as it helped me to put together many of my pet hates, and it provided a context upon which all of the other, more positive chapters would build; but I feel that I should apologise to the reader for its uncharacteristically negative tone. I sincerely hope it does not sour the rest of the book, which is intended to offer an optimistic approach. For example, Chapter 8 will argue that, for the first time in its history, humanity has the potential to cultivate planet Earth as a ‘synergy of synergies’. In advocating a more joined up, inclusive and holistic approach to design and ecology (Chapter 9) the book will outline a new form of imaginative organisation to be called ‘metadesign’. In achieving both aims we have a long way to go. Unfortunately, many well-intentioned projects fail because they are conducted against a backdrop of disconnection, alienation, and confusion about politics and money. This sense of contradiction is clear from the way newspapers juxtapose stories about the environment and the economy. On the business page, a headline will dramatise our anguish at falling share prices, job losses and a given corporation’s failure to meet its sales targets. On the following page an environment story will lament the pollution of rivers, loss of ancient woodlands, or the extinction of another few hundred species. We have grown accustomed to state-sanctioned surprises of all types, from illegal wars, the unleashing of untested bio-technologies into the eco-system, global systems of mutual self-destruction, the profligate use of non-renewables, pesticides, and dangerous pharmaceutical products in all regions of our daily lives. Ultimately, it is ordinary voters and citizens who will pick up the tab.
