Sixteen Related Crises and the Limits of Civilization in the 21st Century

BackgroundCivilization is a whole greater than the sum of its parts. The added value for civilization is generated by relations amongst its parts, the elements of civilization. As these elements function, they influence other elements bilaterally. Thus, a growing population increases the pollution of the environment. This speeds the exhaustion of strategic resources. Devastated environments then increase yet further the depletion of strategic resources. Sixteen crises of the 21st century are explored and their multilateral influences and relations considered in an attempt to enhance our understanding of the direction civilization is now taking.The Centrality of Crises in the Early 21st CenturyOne central and founding crisis is the crisis of science; it's the level of this crisis that sways the future of civilization. Science is a measure of the current power of the human mind, the motor of civilization. The great acceleration of current civilization took place in the 16th century when theoretical science began to develop in physics and chemistry. Today, the sciences of economics and the other social sciences overall cannot or do not want to explain the effects of what is called "globalization. " Without this research, actions undertaken by politicians, business people, and professionals must be based upon common sense. But common sense is incapable of explaining what is going on in civilization, a complex phenomenon.The crisis of science leads to the crisis of education, which is "blind"; it is not based on any up-to-date scientific foundations. Badly educated graduates cannot be wise politicians, business people or journalists (hence, a media crisis). The crisis of the media misinforms the general public and thus lapses into a cultural crisis. The cultural crisis exacerbates all the remaining crises. The crisis of religion erupts by ignoring the population crisis, a serious, dangerous crisis-making factor of civilization. These crises constitute the recognizable core of the overall current crisis of civilization.The crises of the Civilization Death Triangle (caused by the interaction of the population, ecological and resources bombs, all connected) are long-term ones. Everybody talks about these but nothing is ever done about them; life goes on. Even so, these crises will determine the coming collapse of what we can call automated civilization.In addition, there are also mid-term crises. These follow from the core of the current crisis of civilization. Such crises include:* The crisis of technology (now overwhelming culture),* The crisis of super-capacity (it is not true that the sky is the limit),* The over-communication crisis (too frequent empty talk),* The crisis of wars (terrorism), and* The crisis of administration (ineffectual and too expensive). Finally, the crisis in food production is ubiquitous: current, mid-term, and long-term.How These Inter-related Sixteen Crises May be EliminatedWhere do we start? In order to minimize these inter-related crises, unfortunately one needs to tackle all of the problems at the same time. This is obviously a very difficult task and it is not really known whether it lies within human powers. To put it in plain terms, we propose to enhance the intellectual capacity of man. People can do away with the complex crisis processes.To enhance knowledge and wisdom is a mission to be undertaken by science and education. Unfortunately, it is evident that neither science nor education takes responsibility for the plight of civilization. Even the term "wisdom" very seldom features in academic terminology; the very topic is treated as something light-hearted at all levels of education, including graduate education.From 2009 to 2012, I was professor and director of the Center for the Sustainable Business Practices at a major American college. We had 5,000 students and were a part of one of the biggest American business colleges (25,000 students), with a few dozen doctoral programs. …