UNITY through DIVERSITY might be also applicable to INFORMATION (5)

During the last twentieth century some of the advances attained by
social dissidents who managed to lead successfully certain local and
national movements for the public recognition of women's, workers',
students, peasants,Š rights comprised those of some minorities and
the prohibition and even suppression of social and ethnical
segregation have become new possibilities for pushing ahead
consciously the development of humankind. An increasing number of
politicians, based on the information = knowledge available about the
changes accomplished but also about other needs and even necessarily
fair prerogatives, have organized their performance continuously
arguing that they will improve whatever might be necessary for
improving the way of life of the people involved, in case they were
elected for playing a significant role in every new government.

So far most people comprised the politicians everywhere believe de
facto that the progress of humankind is real because it is based on
the undeniable advancement of scientific work in every discipline
constituted, also because the number and features of many
technological and methodological innovations continuously increases
and because many more people is receiving a basic education every
year. It is even argued that the explosive proliferation of human
beings during the last twentieth is the best evidence of the progress
of humankind

Nine years ago, Stafford Beer as President of the World Organization
of Systems and Cybernetics in the its Congress that took place in New
Delhi described briefly [Beer, 1993] what he thought were the
components of contemporary change, at the end of the 20th century,
were. "At the top is the spectacular advance in human misery. I
estimate that more human beings are enduring agony today than ever
before; the number could be greater than the sum of sufferers
throughout history. I speak of starvation and epidemic; war and
terrorism; deprivation, exploitation, and physical torture" - and,
after stressing once more the word "agony", he considered it
necessary to remark that he was not talking about "hard times".

Second in his list was: "...the collapse of the civilization we have
known in our lifetime. We are looking at the rubble that remains of
two competing empires. Soviet communism has accepted its own demise;
Western capitalism has not accepted it yet" Anyhow he asserted: "I
am not making a forecast but examining the facts that are under our
noses".

Furthermore, he said: "...no-one talks about the exploitation of
either nature or indigenous peoples any more. They talk instead
about 'sustainable development' - but there is no such thing." And
for the sake of argument he said: "Not only can development not be
sustained; even the existing fabric cannot be sustained any longer."
"These two spectacular transitions, of human agony and societary
collapse are connected" and "we are governed by an oligarchy - of
power, greed and terror" but "In the most extraordinary way, we are
blind to this". Apart from criticizing the presence in the human
world of powerful modern armaments which amplify and aggravate all
kinds of problems everywhere, he went on to ask: "What are we to say
about the management that procreates this disastrous mess?" then he
answered himself: "Without jumping to conspiracy theories, or citing
the illegal activities which now constitute the world's biggest
industry, we can at the least say that humankind now manages its own
affairs with breathtaking incompetence."

This judgement was evidently derived from information available of
real facts and actions that have been the outcome of intelligent
reasoning exerted by decision makers who are continuously improving
their knowledge based on genuine, false or distorted and incomplete
information

-- 
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