The Resilience Imperative This Week's Book Prize for Win a #BookaDay for the Month of May

Congratulations to the winners over the long weekend - @tcmdoc, @nightowlpress and @TanyaSasser.

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Today marks the 100th day of student protests over tuition hikes in Quebec and protestors are gathering across Canada and in New York to mark the anniversary as well as to protest the newly introduced Bill 78.  The new Quebec bill imposes steep fines for anyone who tries blocking access to a school; and limits where, how, and for how long people can protest in Quebec.  The General Association of Students of the University of Quebec in Gatineau is encouraging students to be peaceful and cautious after violent protests over the weekend resulted in injuries and arrests.   At the #NATO protest in Chicago, also on Sunday, 90 people were arrested and eight officers were injured. Authorities said many of those arrested were released without charges being filed.

Mike Lewis, co-author of The Resilience Imperative: Cooperative Transitions to a Steady-State Economy, reflects on our present economic and cultural state.  How is it we can't afford to fund our children's education and yet, can achieve some many other great feats.   

We in America built more and more stores, to sell more and more stuff, made in more and more Chinese factories, powered by more and more coal and all those sales produced more and more dollars, which China used to buy more and more Treasury bills, which allowed the Federal Reserve to extend more and more easy credit to more and more banks, consumers and businesses, so that more and more Americans could purchase more and more homes, and all those sales drove home prices higher and higher, which made more and more money to buy more and more stuff made in more and more Chinese factories powered by more and more coal which...

Makes one dizzy…..   More and more, faster and faster, 15,000 mile supply chains, just in time inventory – Oh….we are incredible, aren’t we, all this, in less than 200 years.

But we got a problem, big time. Whether we can bend the curve of history in time for our kind to survive remains to be seen.

The writing of The Resilience Imperative over a period of three and a half years clearly demonstrated to me that it is possible.  Whether it is probable, that is another question.  The tension between the two is at the heart of this book and our purpose ‘to make hope more concrete and despair less convincing’.