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Excellence in Scholarship and Learning
The Chrysalis Effect
The Metamorphosis of Global Culture
Philip Slater is the author of the bestseller, The Pursuit of Loneliness, and nine other nonfiction books, including Wealth Addiction and A Dream Deferred, as well as a novel, How I Saved the World. He has also written twenty plays, and has taught writing and playwriting at UCSC and in private workshops since 1989. His blogs appear frequently in The Huffington Post
The Chrysalis
Effect shows that the
chaos and conflict experienced worldwide today are the result of
a global cultural metamorphosis, one which has accelerated
so rapidly
in recent decades as to provoke fierce resistance. Many of the
changes that have taken place in the last fifty years – the feminist
movement, the rapid spread of democracy, the global economy, quantum
physics, minority movements, the peace movement, the sexual
revolution
– are part of this cultural transformation. Contrary to accepted
opinion, the conflict it engenders is not a struggle between Left
and Right, or between the West and Islam, but one taking place within
the Left, within the Right, within the West, within
Islam, within everyone and every institution.
Currently,
the world is in the middle of an adaptive process, moving toward
a cultural ethos more appropriate to a species living in a shrinking
world and in danger of destroying its habitat –a world that
increasingly demands for its survival integrative thinking, unlimited
communication, and global cooperation.
Award-winning
author Philip Slater explains the metamorphosis of global culture
through the analogy of the transition from caterpillar to butterfly
– the Chrysalis Effect – whereby by old cultural assumptions
are challenged and innovations are seen as a social ill, a critical
moral infection, and attacked as such by the upholders of tradition.
And when the budding culture replaces the previous one, it doesn’t
create a new way of being out of nothing, but merely rearranges
old patterns to make the new ones.
Today our world is caught in the middle of this disturbing transformative
process –a process that creates confusion over values, loss
of ethical certainty, and a bewildering lack of consensus about
almost everything. The Chrysalis Effect provides an answer
to the question: Why is the world in such a mess?
| Paperback ISBN: | 978-184519-311-9 |
| Paperback Price: | £17.95 / $29.95 |
| Release Date: | December 2008 |
| Page Extent / Format: | 224 pp. / 229 x 152 mm |
| Illustrated: | No |
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part I The Way It Works
1 In the Middle of the Bridge
2 The Way of Change: Purity Destroys
Part II The Effects
3 On Gender Concepts: Is Stupidity Masculine?
4 On Thinking: Becoming a Verb
5 On Authority: Getting Out From Under
6 On Our Psyches: The Illusion of Control
7 On Warfare: The Decaying Glory
8 On Religion: Back to Nature
Part III Where We’re Heading
9 Is America’s Decline Reversible?
Index
“He brilliantly demonstrates the principles of Integrative
Culture in action – that all things are indeed connected in
the network age.” Rosabeth Kanter, author of America the
Principled “This book ought to launch a thousand necessary
discussions.” Todd Gitlin, author of The Intellectuals
and the Flag “Driving the political debates that dominate
the daily news are deeper cultural choices that must be considered.” Jerold Starr, author of Air Wars: The Fight to Reclaim Public
Broadcasting “Let this engrossing book cast its spell
on you and you’ll see the world anew.” Frances Moore
Lappé, author of Getting a Grip: Clarity, Creativity
and Courage in a World Gone Mad
“PHILIP
SLATER’S BOOK The Chrysalis Effect: The Metamorphosis
of Global Culture was published in 2008 by the smallish
Sussex Academic
Press. It appeared without any noticeable publicity in the United
States
and so far has flown under the radar. Yet it may stand as his
magnum opus; it’s a thought-provoking study that turns a long lens
on
human history, culture, economy, and social structures. Always
adept at spotting patterns before others notice them, Slater
here describes cultural styles that play out on a macroscopic, Toynbee-like
level, while stitching these massive systems closely to the facts
of daily life.
... Many
of today’s jarring dislocations, he asserts, stem from
the clash between the ancient system
of control culture and a newer pattern: integrative culture.
“Incivility and chaos arise when an old system is breaking
down and a new one hasn’t yet fully taken hold,” he writes.
The “chrysalis” of the title refers to the transitional
state between one life form and the successor that grows
out of it.”
Harvard
Magazine
“There’s no other way to put it: ‘The
Chrysalis Effect’ is the most brilliant tour de force of this decade.
It is, and will continue to be, the most powerful and original
analysis of this century's planetary vertigo. Without exaggeration, Slater’s
path-breaking illumination of our global ‘state of mind’
can be compared only with the work of a Gibbon, or Toynbee or Plutarch.
It’s that profound and should be the most widely read book for
years to come.” Professor Warren Bennis, University of Southern
California, author of Transparency and Judgment
“ Beautifully written, this wide-ranging book is full
of fascinating information and trenchant insights. The Chrysalis Effect is an
important
contribution to the cultural transformation urgently needed today.”
Riane Eisler, author of The Chalice and The Blade and
The Real Wealth of Nations
“Taking the metaphor
from evolutionary biologist Elisabet Sahtouris, American sociologist
Slater (The Pursuit of Loneliness)
compares Western culture to a caterpillar dissolving itself
and being dissolved at the same time, so it can remake itself
as a butterfly.
His goal is to help readers understand the metamorphosis taking
place, ease the discomfort during the time of transition,
and adapt
to changes that are both inevitable and necessary.” Reference
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